Huawei has announced partnership with Sunrise, a Swedish telco, and Agroscope, Swiss Confederation’s center of excellence for agricultural research, to develop a smart farm powered by 5G.

In the framework of this partnership, 5G applications are being tested at the Swiss Future Farm in Tänikon (TG), Huawei said.

5G can play key role in the optimal utilization of natural resources and implementing environment-friendly measures.

The Swiss Future Farm will make smart farming tangible in the field and in the stable, and serve as a unique platform in Europe when it comes to new technologies, said Nadja El Benni, head of Competitiveness and System Evaluation of Agroscope.

“As we know, 5G is the foundation of digital transformation, and it allows us to reduce the digital gap between rural and urban areas, especially in regions that do not have fiber optic connections, such as farms,” said Haitao Wang, CEO of Huawei Switzerland.

Huawei, in association with Sunrise and Agroscope, will develop innovative applications that use the 5G network to enable efficient working as well as a reduction in energy consumption, Wang added.

Sunrise is investing in its 5G network with the aim of offering the maximum speed of up to 2 Gbit/s. The telco boasts the largest 5G network in the country, covering at least 80 percent of the local population in more than 262 towns and cities.