Vodafone Germany launched 5G network slicing capabilities targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large organizations.

The telecom giant unveiled two offerings in its Campus business portfolio: Campus Flex Exclusive and Campus Flex Starter.

The former uses Vodafone Germany's 5G standalone (SA) network to provide enterprises with a network slice sporting downlink network speeds of up to 80 Mbps and uplink speeds of up to 20 Mbps. This can support use cases like private networks.

Campus Flex Starter, meanwhile, offers network speeds of approximately 1 Mbps and is tailored for SMEs using wireless payment terminals at large-scale public events, alongside critical communication services.

Vodafone reported pricing options as customized per customer, with the slices available as add-ons to existing business mobile plans.

Industry 4.0 use case

Vodafone also reported certain plan types are excluded from the services, such as those concerning IoT, a major tenet in AI and robotics-driven Industry 4.0 use cases.

In Vodafone’s press release regarding Campus Flex Exclusive, the solution is highlighted with an Industry 4.0 environment featuring robotic arms and smart tablet use by workers.

Slicing capabilities for smartphones and tablets are expected to be added in the future by Vodafone, which could provide a low-latency recourse for resource-heavy augmented reality (AR) opportunities within industrial settings.

Network slice of the pie

Network slicing allows an operator to set up siloed virtual networks that act as independent, scalable networks, able to handle the extra traffic from resource-heavy examples such as video streaming.

ABI Research has forecast network slicing to become a $19.5 billion market by 2028 – but current technical and use case issues have slowed market adoption. ABI in 2018 had predicted the market would hit $66bn by 2026.

The tech also offers advantages in AI-driven services such as artificial intelligence radio access network (AI-RAN).

The Campus Flex solution – claimed by Vodafone to be the first standardized network slice tariff option for Germany – follows on from T-Mobile US' release of its SuperMobile solution in August.

That offering similarly offers network slicing to enterprise customers, building upon the carrier's 5G-Advanced network, which went nationwide in April.