Private wireless networks in the US start going public

A wide range of companies in the global wireless industry have been talking up the potential of the private wireless networking market for years. Indeed, Nokia has speculated that the number of basestations for private wireless networks could eventually double the number dedicated to standard, public mobile networks.

However, most discussions on the topic to date have been filled with vague hopes and unspecified deployments. After all, the space is still in its infancy, real-world commercial deployments are sparse and many customers want to keep their private wireless networks private for reasons of security or competitive advantage.

But all of that is slowly starting to change.

“This is a unique opportunity to apply the latest 5G technologies to a traditional but mission critical support area for our warfighters,” explained John Larson of the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic in a release from the US Department of Defense (DoD). Larson is overseeing the construction of a private 5G network at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia, that is using technology from all US-based companies, including Federated Wireless, Cisco, JMA Wireless, Vectrus Systems, Perspecta Labs, GE Research, KPMG and Scientific Research Corp.

Larson said the $90 million prototype smart warehouse supports 1.5 Gbit/s downloads and latency of 15 milliseconds using 380MHz of spectrum across the midband and millimeter wave bands.

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