Celona is entering China through a partnership with CBN and Xingtera
The startup is already in America, Europe, South East Asia and the Middle East
Analysts note that China could be a massive market for Celona
Startup Celona is starting to deliver private networks into China, the company’s founder and CEO Rajeev Shah told Fierce recently.
The company started operations in February 2019 delivering 4G LTE and 5G private networks using the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) mid-band 3.5 GHz spectrum in the United States. Shah told us that the company has moved into the rest of the world over the last couple of years. The CEO said that Celona has engagements in Latin America, the Middle East — “especially Saudi," — South East Asia and Europe. The company is also launching in Japan with proof-of-concept (POC) deployments and more.
“China is really the last frontier for us,” Shah said.
If you’re a regular Fierce Network reader you’ll know that vendors that deliver private networks in China need to work with a domestic operator in order to get access to 5G spectrum that the vendor and enterprise customers can use. Celona is working with state-backed 5G operator China Broadcasting Network (CBN) in order to get access to mid-band spectrum in China, the CEO said.
“It’s pretty significant, not just for us, but for the whole industry,” Shah said. He added that CBN will also act as a local professional services involved in deploying Celona’s private networks in China. Celona is also working with Xingtera as a local distribution channel in China.
Shah explained that Celona will start by serving its American and European customers who have manufacturing facilities in China. The CEO said that many of its existing customers wanted to use Celona gear across deployments in America, Europe and China.
“There is a well recognized global pharma brand that wanted us...in China, that is one of the requests that drove us here,” Shah said, as well as several discrete manufacturing operations.
A cloud presence
The CEO also noted the Celona will need to have a local Chinese cloud presence in order to meet domestic rules. Many countries and regions these days have cloud data residency rules, from the European Union to Saudi Arabia, so China is by no means alone in this.
“Following its earlier market entries in the United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia and South East Asia, Celona's expansion into China – currently the largest national market for private 5G networks – will undoubtedly open up significant opportunities for revenue growth and solidify its standing as a major global player in private 5G solutions,” said Asad Khan, analyst at SNS Telecom & IT.
Khan noted that Celona’s carrier partner CBN — despite being the smallest public operator — has already had spectrum used for private networks. “The new player's 700 MHz and 4.9 GHz spectrum assets have been utilized in a number of private 5G network installations, sometimes in collaboration with other operators,” Khan said.
Mining for private 5G use cases
“For example, the Dahaize coal mine's private 5G network in Yulin, Shaanxi, uses a combination of CBN’s 700 MHz and China Mobile's 2.6 GHz frequencies to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency and reliable wireless connectivity for underground mining operations,” the analyst noted in an email to Fierce.
Both Khan and AvidThink principal analyst Roy Chua noted that Celona that had initially grown because of the CBRS shared spectrum access in the U.S. and how that has been utilized for private networks. “In China, with very few exceptions, only carriers have spectrum licenses. Hence most of the private networks there are tied to carriers, whereas US companies can use CBRS and run networks independent of carriers,” Chua said.
He noted that the China move “should bring Celona additional revenue opportunities” as the country has the largest number of private networks today at least according to Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) estimates.