In private wireless 5G, reality is strangling hype

The hype around private wireless started around five years ago, in the early days of 5G, when vendors like Nokia suggested the market opportunity could span up to 14 million sites worldwide. That would be double the 7 million macro basestations devoted to commercial wireless networks.

That outlook sparked a race among vendors. Startups like Celona, networking giants like Ericsson, hyperscalers like Amazon, operators like Verizon, technology firms like Dell and Cisco – and plenty of other companies – all jumped into the private wireless industry with high hopes.

But actual sales have been tough to find. Analyst Roger Entner with Recon Analytics jokes that there are more analyst reports about private wireless than actual deployments.

The failure of the market to develop has come as a slap in the face to some. “I was too early,” admitted Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg earlier this year.

“Nobody is happy with the acceleration of private networks,” Casa Systems CEO Michael Glickman told Light Reading recently. Verizon’s 2022 agreement with Casa positions Casa to offer core networking services for Verizon’s private wireless enterprise customers.

However, the market did move forward during 2023, according to Omdia analyst Pablo Tomasi (Omdia and Light Reading are owned by the same parent company, Informa). “The private networks market continued to grow in 2023, yet it did not significantly accelerate,” he wrote in response to questions from Light Reading.

According to Omdia’s estimates, the US remains the primary market for private wireless networking. It reached $590 million in 2023. It’s expected to grow to $1.6 billion in 2028.

Plugging away

The slow burn in private wireless hasn’t stopped vendors from pushing forward. Rajesh Pazhyannur, CEO and co-founder of Ataya, told Light Reading that his startup recently released a new product designed to make it easier and quicker for enterprises and others to deploy a private wireless 5G network. Founded in 2021 with roughly $5 million in seed funding, Ataya has been slowly fleshing out its private wireless networking product lineup.

Pazhyannur acknowledged that many private wireless networking deployments haven’t yet shifted from the trial phase to the commercial deployment phase. But he said Ataya exceeded its financial goals in 2023: “That gives us comfort that this market is picking up,” he said. He declined to provide the company’s financial details.

To read the complete article, visit Light Reading.