Ghent fire brigade tests 5G for critical communications

For many years, the fire service has used pagers and radios for mission-critical communication. Smartphones and tablets on broadband networks such as 4G and 5G have also become standard. Sam Gydé, ICT Director at Ghent fire brigade: “4G or 5G on a 4G core usually works well for us, but it means we’re still sharing bandwidth with other users on the same network. That’s why we wanted to explore how we could use the benefits of mobile connectivity while ensuring the network remains reliable in critical situations.”

Two years ago, Gydé began exploring the possibilities of 5G Standalone. “What makes it interesting for us is that slicing allows you to reserve your own dedicated part of the network. The low latency for specific applications is also a major advantage,” he explains. “We had a few brainstorming sessions with Orange, and on their initiative, we jointly submitted a subsidy application to the federal government, which was approved.”

5G Standalone gives us an extra safety buffer in critical situations. Sam Gydé, ICT Director at Ghent fire brigade

Every second counts

The low latency of 5G Standalone is crucial for the fire brigade for two reasons: mission-critical communication and vehicle tracking.

Radio communication via walkie-talkies offers low latency because it is typically a direct radio link between two devices. “With an IP-based network like 5G, there’s always a slight delay,” explains Gydé. “With one-on-one conversations, that’s not an issue, but in the fire brigade we typically use group communication. Even the smallest differences in delays between devices can make conversations unintelligible. So we were keen to switch to broadband, but group communication had to be at least as good as with walkie-talkies.”

The Ghent fire station is also taking part in a project using smart traffic lights that turn green for emergency services. This requires fire engines to send out a message every second with their location and destination. “That system must be highly reliable because you don’t want to disrupt traffic,” says Gydé. “In our experience, this works reasonably well over 4G but obviously we cannot simulate a real emergency just to test it. However, Orange were able to do that in their lab. They found that message reliability remains guaranteed with 5G Standalone, giving us an extra safety buffer in critical situations.”

Indoor coverage

The safety committee of ASTRID, the specialised telecom operator for emergency and security services, is setting new requirements for property developers to ensure sufficient indoor coverage for emergency responders. At present, those requirements are still based on ASTRID’s TETRA network, which will eventually be replaced by a broadband network.

“We don’t know yet what the technology will look like,” says Gydé, who sits on the ASTRID safety committee, “but it will definitely be 4G or 5G. To share our experience as a fire service with the committee, we asked Orange to provide indoor coverage at our main fire station in Ghent via a dedicated 5G base station. Orange handled the full design and we carried out all the necessary preparations to be ready for whatever replaces TETRA.”

The Ghent fire brigade also wants to turn its vehicles into connectivity hubs, he adds: “A fire engine can easily contain five or six devices with SIM cards. Managing connectivity for all of them is a challenge. Orange is now exploring whether we can install an access point in our fire engines and whether it’s possible to reserve 5G spectrum there as well.”

Co-creation and innovation

The shift from traditional radio technology to a 5G Standalone network is still pioneering work, and it brings a variety of questions and challenges, Gydé explains. “Radio, network and device are no longer a single package, meaning every combination needs to be tested. We now want to purchase 5G Standalone-compatible devices and have Orange evaluate them in their lab. That’s essential, as not all devices support the full range of frequency bands we require, for instance.”

Gydé has gained significant technological knowledge through his collaboration with Orange. “I get the sense that our hands-on experience was also valuable to them,” he says. “This has truly been a co-creation story where both partners have learned from each other. What’s more, the funding enabled us to tackle issues within the wider community that otherwise would have gone unresolved.”

The innovative project was the runner-up in the Project of the Year in Government Market category at the 2025 Computable Awards.