We have watched new growth opportunities in the wireless industry change over decades, from analog to digital, and from 2G, to 3G, 4G and now 5G. However, another slice of the wireless pie is showing strong growth and that will continue through 2023 and beyond. This is the 5G Private Wireless Network space.
In recent decades, wireless voice and data have transformed economies and societies around the world. Now, 5G is making wireless faster and more immediate, fueling industry growth in new sectors like automated driving, medical health tech and more.
Private wireless networks are continuing to show strong growth as more companies, government sectors, hospitals, universities and more are moving in this direction for a variety of reasons.
I expect this transformation wave to continue. In fact, I also believe private wireless will be one of the growth engines that will continue to propel the wireless industry as a whole.
Public wireless networks like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile
There are three kinds of wireless networks, public, private and hybrid.
Public wireless networks are those provided to the general public by wireless carriers and networks like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. You’ve seen this with all the advertising and marketing they do.
In addition, there are also countless MVNO resellers of these three core networks like Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Optimum, Cricket, Tracfone, PureTalk, Kore Wireless and others.
MVNO resellers like Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Optimum, Cricket
The problem with public networks is security, capacity and control. Common problems include having no control over who gets blocked when the network is busy, corporate security and more.
You see, every wireless network uses towers to connect users. Once the caller is connected, the signal goes over a wire line network. So, wireless actually uses the wire line network as well.
The problems occur in a variety of areas. One of these is every wireless tower has a limited amount of availability. That means the network may be capable of handling more traffic, but each tower can only serve a limited number of users at a time. That means if it only can serve 100 users, the next users get blocked.
Private wireless networks let’s companies manage access and security
On a public network, there is no prioritization of users. So, the CEO, senior executives, researchers or others with important work to do, can get blocked when the network is full of people just chatting.
Even worse, MVNO resellers take second stage to the primary carrier customers for tower access. So, MVNO customers can often get their data sessions blocked more than direct customers.
Security is another problem with public networks. It is not as high or as flexible as with a private network.
Bottom line, corporate, political, medical governmental and other users have little or no control over access or security on public networks.
Public wireless, hybrid wireless and private wireless networks
This created a growing need for private wireless networks and services. These give control back to the user organization. These private services are very attractive to businesses, governments, universities, hospitals, research facilities and so many others.
We are seeing companies providing private wireless network solutions showing solid growth levels in what is becoming a very important sector of the wireless and telecommunications industry.
There are several different levels of private wireless systems that companies, and executives need to be aware of.
Companies can get private network-like services from public networks like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. This gives the user more control and security.
Some MVNO resellers often have their own private network operations. There are many resellers like Xfinity Mobile, Charter Spectrum, Optimum, Kore Wireless and others.
Private wireless networks; Qualcomm, Betacom, Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson
Companies, governments, education, hospitals and more, often prefer more control so they build their own private wireless networks.
They turn to experts at companies like Qualcomm, Betacom, Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson, Celona, VMware and a growing number of other competitors. This is a growing market segment.
Existing players in this space will continue to expand and improve. Companies will also start to partner to offer more, like one-plus-one equals three.
Qualcomm, Betacom partner in private 5G wireless networks
In fact, there was a recently announced partnership is Betacom and Qualcomm. They are working together to provide an even higher level of private wireless network services.
Hybrid private wireless networks are a third avenue which lets companies blend different public and private wireless networks to create their own.
I see this kind of movement toward private networks continuing to accelerate going forward.
This private wireless network space is a relatively new growth opportunity. That means as it grows, there will also be more intense competition and confusion in the space.
That being said, this is an important area that will remain a growth sector as the wireless industry continues to advance and grow with 5G and beyond connecting not only people, but everything like the smart city, automated driving, health tech and beyond.
