Mobile Experts has unveiled two new reports this week, highlighting the significant increase in investment in Private Cellular networks and the gradual investments in Edge Computing. Notably, the forecasts indicate a tenfold surge in 5G investment by enterprises within sectors such as energy, mining, utilities, transportation, the public sector, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, and construction, alongside the necessary Edge Computing infrastructure.
The first report, ‘Industrial Private Cellular 2024’, explores the potential for even faster market growth. Mobile Experts employs a tool known as the “Readiness Wheel” to demonstrate that private cellular networks require elements such as IT/OT integration, compatible business models, and integrated network management software to scale efficiently.
Major enterprises like Deere, BMW, Volkswagen, and Siemens are contributing to the development of “do-it-yourself” mobile networks with advanced IT/OT integration. The new report illustrates how these initial deployments will transition towards “Private Wireless as a Service” (PWaaS) and Network Slicing business models, catering to smaller companies and others favouring an OPEX model.
The report also provides a detailed breakdown of radio shipments and the number of physical network nodes to be deployed, including specifics on radio formats, regional deployments, and unit deployment in each vertical market. Besides radio infrastructure, the report addresses IoT and other user devices, as well as the anticipated revenue from network services.
“We’ve seen the Cloud players back away from the connectivity side of private networks somewhat,” said Kyung Mun, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. “This leaves a ‘hole’ in the market that can be filled by the communications service providers, by OEM suppliers, or by neutral hosts. The hyperscalers are distracted by AI/ML, so this is an opportunity for others to step into a more prominent role in developing Private Cellular and Edge Computing.”
This report was published alongside Mobile Experts’ latest report on Edge Computing data centres. The analysts identified a considerable number of on-premises data centres and a robust deployment of commercial Edge Data Centres by cloud players, telcos, and neutral hosts.
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