Electricity company EDF Energy has ramped up its private LTE rollout at nuclear power plants in France with Ericsson and Thales.

As reported by RCR Wireless, the company told its Private Networks Global Forum this week that it has so far deployed nine private LTE networks, and plans to deploy six per year.

Back in 2021, EDF, Thales, and Ericsson partnered on a project called Connect to bring secure cellular connectivity to all of EDF’s nuclear energy sites in France.

The company was expected to roll out the LTE network at a rate of two to four plants per year.

“It is the first time in my 30 years at EDF that a telecoms project has finished ahead of deadline," Vincent Audebert, handling 5G and IoT in EDF Lab, the firm’s R&D department, told the publication.

"There is such interest in this project, [and] EDF has decided to accelerate the deployment. So we are going to gain two years on our schedule – [and move to a schedule of] six networks… per year. We already have nine networks – out of 21 sites with 57 reactors. [The plan is] we will have 21 [private] networks.”

EDF began its LTE rollout at a nuclear plant in Blayais in 2021, a plant that has four pressurized water reactors.

RCR Wireless adds that Audebert said EDF will 'install private LTE at other wind farms and thermal power plants in France.'

EDF has a 10-year license for 20 MHz of spectrum in the 2.6 GHz TDD band (band #38, 2570-2620 MHz) at its sites in France.

Ericsson is providing its 4G and 5G private network solutions to support EDF's project, while Thales is deploying its communications services to support the overall system integration and secure networking.