Private 5G is fast emerging as the next big thing as it encompasses a wide range of sectors from farms to hospitals to hotels and has been under the radar of enterprises across the industry. The public carrier networks and IT enterprises have never converged onto a single path; however, private networks are changing things up as they require technology from both disciplines. On the other hand, factors such as the fast-paced and ongoing digital transformation of the industry, the convergence of telco and IT, migration of cloud applications to the edge, and the increasing availability of spectrum are all coming together to construct an environment where the demand for private 5G will blow-off.
The Future of Private 5G Networks
For those wondering, a private 5G network is an enterprise-dedicated network that provides communication connections to people or things belonging to a specific enterprise and provides specific services necessary for the business of the enterprise. When it comes to LTE, Wi-Fi or Ethernet, private 5G networks have a few advantages over them. Not only do private 5G networks provide support for strict security, privacy and data isolation requirements but also have the ability to implement network slicing, which can be applied within a private 5G network to create SLAs for specific devices and/or applications. A report from an analyst team at IDC suggests that the market for private cellular network infrastructure will be worth $ 5.7 billion by 2024. The report also hints towards the fact that the private 5G network will witness a major boost due to the commercialisation of 5G. It is being speculated that MNOs and enterprises will witness private 5G becoming the base for their businesses. The glimpses of the future can already be seen as the private 5G networks are already turning out to be useful for enterprises in terms of cutting costs, reducing energy use and analysing business-critical data in real-time. Although it is still quite a while when we witness more enterprise use cases for private 5G with the expansion of the IoT device ecosystem. Private 5G networks are all set to provide public and private enterprises with opportunities to unlock efficiencies, leverage data in real-time, and generate new revenue in the coming times.
