Ultra reliable connectivity is now in place to underpin automation and future digital systems across Hutchison Ports’ UK estate, following the completion of a major private network project.
Three Group Solutions has finished rolling out a private 5G network across the Port of Felixstowe, Harwich International Port and London Thamesport. Together, the three sites now operate on a single industrial connectivity platform, described as one of the most advanced of its kind in the UK.
The private 5G network at Hutchison Ports delivers high capacity, low latency and consistent performance to support demanding digital operations. These include autonomous trucks, remote crane control and data intensive applications that form a central part of the ports’ long term digital transformation.
Felixstowe is the country’s largest container port, while Harwich International and London Thamesport operate as part of the same wider hub. By extending one private 5G network across all three locations, the project is intended to improve resilience and operational performance while supporting efficiency, safety and sustainability goals across critical national infrastructure.
Replacing mission critical connectivity in a live port environment required careful planning. Rather than removing the existing system, Three Group Solutions built the new 5G network alongside the established 4G infrastructure. Different spectrum blocks were used so both networks could run at the same time without interference, allowing equipment and vehicles to be migrated in stages and performance refined throughout the process.
Graham Wilde, Head of Private Networks at Three Group Solutions, said:
“When you are dealing with the connectivity that keeps the country’s largest container port moving, you cannot simply turn one network off and another on. By running the 4G and 5G systems in parallel and moving assets in stages, we were able to deliver a smooth transition with no disruption to daily operations.”
A major reason for investing in the private 5G network at Hutchison Ports is the planned introduction of autonomous, electric trucks at Felixstowe. These vehicles require constant, reliable connections, extremely low latency to allow safe remote intervention, and sufficient bandwidth to transmit multiple live video feeds when close inspection is required.
While the existing 4G system reliably delivered work instructions to in cab tablets, it was not designed to support these levels of automation at scale. The new private 5G network provides predictable performance that enables the next phase of autonomous operations.
“Automation in ports is not about putting people out of work. It is about changing the jobs people do,” Wilde said. “Roles become safer, more varied and more attractive, which makes it easier to recruit and retain the talent ports need for the future.”
The network has been designed as a long term platform rather than a single purpose solution. Delivered with a small group of specialist partners, the architecture includes dual cores, overlapping radio coverage and diverse links between the three ports. It sits entirely within Hutchison Ports’ existing cybersecurity perimeter and is designed to remain operational even if individual towers or sites are taken offline for maintenance or fault resolution.
Beyond autonomous transport, the private 5G network at Hutchison Ports is expected to support further innovation. Potential applications include wider use of remote controlled machinery, sensor based predictive maintenance, drone inspection and environmental monitoring, and the integration of real time data into digital twins of port operations. As Wilde noted: “The capability of the new network means that possibilities for the future are only really limited by the imagination of what could be done.”
“Felixstowe, Harwich and Thamesport now have a dedicated 5G foundation for the next decade of innovation,” he added. “This project shows how private 5G, delivered and managed by Three Group Solutions, can combine resilience, performance and flexibility at industrial scale, and we look forward to helping Hutchison Ports build on this success in the UK and beyond.”
Three Group Solutions is part of CKH Innovations Opportunities Development. It provides wholesale, enterprise and IoT services using CK Hutchison’s global mobile networks and partner infrastructure. CK Hutchison operates mobile networks in eleven markets and supports more than 175 million connections worldwide.
