Private Wireless 2020, the year everything changed

2020 was a pivotal year in the evolution of the #privatewirelessnetwork sector. In this podcast, we discuss how the environment around private #wireless took some significant steps forward. For one thing, traditional #CSPs realized it was important for them to create a strategy and an offering in the private wireless space.

Nokia has partnered with AT&T and Verizon, large CSPs in the US, and others in Europe. Many companies that rely on a CSP for nationwide #connectivity would prefer to source a private wireless #network through their trusted CSP. #Industry4.0 projects tend to be substantial in scale and, for them to be executed well, an enterprise’s IT and OT teams need to come together. We are seeing increasing evidence that the IT/OT divide is being bridged. Previously, the OT needs of asset-heavy industry were driven by the OT team. But following the transformation from analogue to #digital that came with the end of Industry 3.0, the involvement of IT became essential. 2020 was the first year in which we saw this happening. Increasing numbers of company-wide Industry 4.0 #projects are now taking place where the OT and IT teams come to the table together to define a project and work towards a common goal. This is a very important trend that will help to accelerate the adoption of private wireless in today’s market.

However, it would not be accurate to say that private wireless has become a mass market yet. This is despite the fact that Nokia estimates that the potential market could benefit up to 15 million #commercial venues, and that increasing numbers of enterprises are making new private #LTE and #5G deployments. It is clear that private wireless is a concept that people in our industry now understand. It is also clear that many stakeholders are starting to pay close attention to the potential that mobile technology has for transforming the industry – in the same way that #mobile phones have transformed consumers’ lives in the last 30 years. But it will take many years before this is a mass market, even though there are obvious signs of acceleration in #adoption. Between 2015 and the end of 2019, Nokia secured about 120 customers in this space. In 2020 alone, that number almost doubled. Now tune into our podcast to hear more.