On 11 July, Latvia’s mobile communications and technology company LMT, in partnership with SIA “LVR Flote”, the technical services provider for the Freeport of Riga Authority, conducted a maritime 5G demonstration in the Latvian port.
This event showcased a full-scale maritime 5G solution, developed after extensive tests and measurements, featuring applications using both aerial and aquatic drones. The demonstration highlighted real-time, high-volume data transfer, seamless 5G connectivity at sea, and robust communication capacity.
Attendees included representatives from LMT, the Freeport of Riga Authority, LVR Flote, and delegations from the German ports of Lübeck and Hamburg, all aboard the icebreaker VARMA.
Juris Binde, president of LMT and doctor of Economics, commented, “The sea is a challenge for high-quality fast communications that can be addressed with maritime 5G technologies. All the work that LMT has done so far in testing maritime 5G technologies has developed into a solution that is unrivalled in our region and the wider global context. The deployment of maritime 5G networking and the solutions based on it is becoming increasingly important and will be invaluable support in circumstances where huge amounts of data need to be transmitted from ship to ship or from ship to port in a short time, but this is not possible with traditional data transmission methods. The export potential of the new solution is also confirmed by the very strong interest from maritime logistics companies and major European ports in the further joint development of such a solution.”
The demonstration on the VARMA offered a firsthand look at the 5G multi-hop principle in real time, facilitating communication between the icebreaker VARMA, the hydrographic measurement drone OTTER, the pilot ship DORE, and the LMT 5G aerial drone.
As the pilot ship sailed, monitors displayed communication indicators and the 5G equipment on board the VARMA. Concurrently, the OTTER drone transmitted bottom measurements and video footage of the water’s surface, while the LMT 5G aerial drone provided continuous video coverage even when the ship moved out of sight.
LMT technologies ensured uninterrupted 5G mobile data transmission, allowing simultaneous data exchange between ships and drones both on the water and in the air.
This event was built on successful tests from November 2023, where a 5G connection to a ship was established via a terrestrial network, and connectivity was effectively provided from the ship to the end user.
