- The Olympics will likely be a showcase for 5G private networking in-a-box
- Analysts note there are already many players in the field
- Private NIB may also be a bit of a niche compared to large enterprise 5G private networking, the analysts said
With the summer Olympics just around the corner, Fierce thought this would be the right time to delve further into which operators and vendors are delivering 5G private networking in-a-box (NIB) systems.
Basically, a 5G private network in a box consists of a radio access network (RAN) component and a 5G core crammed into a moveable box. This box can be speedily linked to existing infrastructure, allowing a 5G network to be established quickly and easily.
NIB users “predominantly include broadcasters, sports leagues, event organizers, public safety agencies and armed forces,” Asad Khan, research director, 5G & Wireless Networks at SNS Telecom & IT, told us in an email. We’ve already written about Obvios, a French startup that has supplied broadcaster France Télévisions with a 5G private network in-a-box - or car, in this case - to support live video streams of the Olympic Torch Relay across France. “Firecell is another noteworthy French provider of 5G NIB systems,” Khan noted.
“A diverse array of suppliers is targeting the United States market, including Celona, Ataya, Acromove, EUCAST, G REIGNS (HTC), HPE, and Lockheed Martin, among others,” Khan said. In fact, in a recent conversation with HPE, the company highlighted its NIB offerings.
Fierce also recently covered Verizon’s multi-radio private 4G and 5G NIB. Verizon said that multiple vendors had supplied components for the product. AvidThink principal analyst Roy Chua believes the box could be “Nokia-powered” along with the other components.
Perhaps another sign of Nokia’s current dominance over Ericsson in the private networking field, if we ignore Huawei, that is.
Outside of the states, there is active interest in private NIB for certain tasks. In the United Kingdom, University of Strathclyde spinout Neutral Wireless has found success with its standalone 5G-based NIB solution, which operates in the country's designated Band n40 (2.3 GHz) and n77 (3.8-4.2 GHz) spectrum for private 5G networks.
The startup's customer base includes BBC, TV 2 (Denmark), RTÉ (Ireland), TNT Sports (formerly BT Sports), BT Media & Broadcast, and QTV (Quipu TV Limited), SNS analyst Khan noted in his email. In Germany, Media Broadcast, Smart Mobile Labs, CampusGenius, MECSware, and several other specialist integrators of 5G campus networks have gained traction with their compact NIB and larger network-on-a-trailer offerings using the country's designated Band n78 (3.7-3.8 GHz) spectrum for campus networks.
A NIB niche?
The analysts, however, note the 4G and 5G private networks in-a-box may be a shut-in niche. I'm not sure we should be focusing on the "network-in-a-box" use case as a proxy for private 5G uptake or even as the leading edge use case,” AvidThink’s Chua said. “The much larger market are industrial deployments for manufacturing, transportation, retail etc. The larger players are focused on those scale deployments and likely will be for the immediate future,” he noted.
Khan from SNS Telecom said he believes the major private network players — Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson — see private networking in box as “too niche” for them to focus on. “Consequently, they have primarily chosen to collaborate with mobile operators, specialist system integrators and other channel partners to offer NIB systems,” he said.
“For example, Ericsson is the primary supplier for Vodafone Germany's Red Box NIB solution, while Virgin Media O2 is using Nokia's equipment as part of its portable standalone private 5G offering, which is reportedly only slightly larger than a carry-on airline bag," said Khan.
It is worth noting that both Ericsson and Nokia also offer portable 5G solutions for tactical communications to defense customers through their newly created Federal Solutions groups in the United States,” the analyst concluded.