The Yucatan Peninsula’s Puerto Progreso is a port for both cruise and cargo ships, and traffic is growing since the 2020 passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Recently, APM Terminals, which operates shipping terminals worldwide and has the only container terminal at Puerto Progreso, decided to invest in a private LTE network.
“The signal strength has really exceeded our expectations so far,” said Nathalie Rush, MD of APM Terminals Yucatan, in a press release. “We can cover the entire port with the solution, reaching a radius of about 6 kilometers. This platform is already considered a reference for the rest of the terminals in the group.”
APM Terminals worked with Nokia and AT&T Mexico to deploy the network. Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud platform provides a complete onsite wireless network, including a redundant core, as well as edge compute capabilities.
“With this project, APM Terminals confirms its leadership in the digitalization of port operations in Latin America,” claimed Marcelo Entreconti, Nokia's head of enterprise for Latin America, in a press release.
The network is used to connect not only workers at the port, but also sensors, equipment and vehicles. APM has deployed a cloud-based terminal operation system, and the private network facilitates interaction with this software.
LTE-Advanced (4.9G) is sufficient for the network's current use cases, the companies said. “All use cases for container terminals worldwide so far are feasible over private LTE networks and Nokia DAC,” said Alfredo González Herrero, transportation Latin America head of sales at Nokia. "Even remote cranes and autonomous cranes have already been successfully implemented and are currently in operation over Nokia DAC.” He added that the 5G-ready solution can be “easily migrated to 5G when an APM Terminal use case will recommend us to do it.”
Shipping ports are often seen as ideal use cases for private wireless networks for several reasons. First, they are well-defined geographically, and traffic typically moves along predictable routes, making ports good candidates for autonomous vehicles. Second, networks at shipping ports often need to transmit over longer distances than Wi-Fi can cover economically. Third, high-value goods pass through ports, justifying investment in a very secure, reliable network that maintains mission critical data onsite.
AT&T’s private network win in Mexico follows similar announcements from Verizon, which has helped deploy private networks at the UK’s Port of Southampton and The Port of Virginia. The Southampton network, which also uses Nokia’s DAC, relies on shared spectrum made available by British regulatory body Ofcom.
For AT&T, Puerto Progreso represents the business group's first private network deployment In Mexico, where it is one of the top three wireless carriers.
“This has been the first private cellular network for AT&T Mexico business unit,” said Gabriel Fernández, innovation and IoT director at AT&T Mexico, in a press release. “The needs and demands of our customers are always evolving, though, and we're upgrading with them. Private networks are increasingly important for businesses – especially in Industry 4.0 environments with a lot of connected devices, where privacy, data control and performance are all crucial.”
The companies declined to answer questions about whether workers at the port can roam from the private network to AT&T's public network, if they are AT&T customers.