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The Smart Ports Value Calculator

Adopting private 4G and 5G cellular technology in your port will boost productivity and propel you into Ports 4.0. The five use cases below that help do this will pay for themselves in two to three years. If all five are working together, expect payback within two years.


The benefits of a private cellular network add up

Use our calculator to figure out the return on investment if you choose to make your port smarter. It factors in aspects such as reductions in costs of labor, maintenance, downtime, and improved productivity from system benefits. 

Our baseline port

The pre-entered numbers you see are based on our baseline port. This represents a container terminal that is around the 50th largest in the world. It has a throughput of approximately 4 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) per year, generating roughly $400 million USD in revenue, with a profit margin of ~30%.

How to use the calculator

The calculator is based on a joint 2020 study between Ericsson, ifm and Arthur D Little.

  • Select one or more use cases by checking the boxes. Remember, deploying all five together will bring greater gains.
  • Enter your port’s revenue (kUSD), network coverage area (m2), and throughput (TEU) per year.
  • Watch it update to show the return on investment.
  • Hover over each color in the Value Build-up circular chart to see a breakdown of that use case. *

* The system productivity benefits are only valid when the STS, RTG and AGV use cases are active simultaneously. 

Transforming your port is plain sailing with our new report

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