Private 5G has certainly built momentum. Many service providers, including telcos, across globe are piloting numerous use cases, across industries, including media, retail, manufacturing, and sports.
As telcos are upgrading their networks from 5G NSA (non-standalone) to SA (standalone), it’s imperative that they will also be looking to build more revenue driven services, in-line with 5G SA capabilities. According to some estimates, 5G B2B services could potentially bring around 40% of total telco revenue in coming years. Nevertheless, telcos as well other ecosystem players, including public cloud providers, are looking to grab the pie of that revenue.
Private 5G or P5G networks, deployed in either Standalone Non-public (SA-NPN) or Public integrated Non-public networks (PI-NPN). The choice depends on numerous factors, including business models, network operations and management, costs, and licenses (regulatory) among others. Many enterprises, large/medium size, have already partnered with P5G ecosystem partners, telcos, and edge providers to support in rolling out P5G networks across their enterprise locations. Some of them have deployed SA-NPN, others are evaluating PI-NPN, where telcos play pivotal role.
Many of these deployments have integrated MEC framework in their architecture, which could include AI/ML applications, Edge/MEC Platforms, 5G Core modules, either on-prem or hybrid way, targeting specific business problems, beyond connectivity services. It includes video analytics, AR/VR, gaming, and other types of applications, deployed at Edge. The entire solution includes P5G Radio, MEC and 5G Core components, providing end to end solutions to enterprises.
We came across a few interesting P5G and MEC use cases and listed them below for reference.
As Commonwealth Games 2022 are already underway in UK, BBC, the leading broadcaster is already using Public P5G Network to broadcast games lives. According to the article, BBC is using 5G SA non-public network to broadcast images from Birmingham.
In Hungary, Vodafone and Ericsson are working with Foxconn to drive operational efficiency use cases with AI/ML with 5G Network. The network, built by Ericsson P5G, where Foxconn team uses 5G non-fixed cars within the given area, where newly built PCs are tested before moving to packaging.
Next use case is from Education vertical, where Telefonica has built 5G SA Campus network for University of Munich. The university will use superfast on-campus connectivity to drive research around autonomous transport.
Vodafone, Germany has built an app for DFL Supercup, which will drive the in-stadium sports experience of 1000+ mobile users, powered by 5G and MEC. The app will provide users with interesting insights from live matches in real-time.
In the end, discussion of P5G won’t be complete without mentioning China, who has more than 3000+ 5G Enterprise Connectivity projects underway across. Termed as ‘5G Industrial Internet‘, it focuses on Smart Manufacturing Use Cases including automation, digitization, and intelligence.
It’s evident that the race is already on to grab pie of B2B digital services with launch of P5G, MEC services by telcos and other service providers. India, with recently concluded 5G Spectrum auctions, is also aggressively looking to rollout 5G and P5G services at select cities and many enterprises are keenly watching the space.
