Vodafone Portugal brings 5G Standalone Mobile Private Network to world’s oldest cement plant

Vodafone has added to its existing 5G SA MPN portfolio through a collaboration with leading cement manufacturer CIMPOR.

Vodafone Portugal has installed a 5G Standalone mobile private network (5G SA MPN) in the oldest cement plant in the world, in partnership with CIMPOR, a leading cement manufacturing company, Ericsson and SAP.

The cement plant is CIMPOR's production center in Alhandra, having been in continued operation for 130 years on the same site.

Efficient, secure operation

The MPN will make the company’s processes more efficient, helping to mitigate risks and reduce both its environmental footprint and costs.

The new exclusive network facilitates the wireless connection of numerous devices on factory premises, providing lower latency, a larger capacity for data traffic, and supporting more secure and reliable operations.

It will also enable the use of:

Continued involvement in 5G SA-powered MPN installation

This is not the first time Vodafone has brought new MPNs to vast industrial sites in the country.

In April, we equipped EDP's Castelo do Bode dam with 5G. We also installed, as a proof of concept (POC), a 5G SA MPN at the Port of Aveiro to enable its employees to use digital replication and Virtual and Augmented Reality for real-time cargo management. Similarly, at Symington our MPN POC allowed for factory equipment maintenance through AR.

CIMPOR and Vodafone plan to extend this digital transformation of the industry, through installing two similar 5G SA MPNs at CIMPOR’s plants in Souselas and Loulé soon.