There was a period, a couple of years ago, when the telecoms ecosystem talked about ‘priming’ the supply of private 5G networks into enterprises. It was presented as a winner-takes-all game, to an extent, and mobile operators, in particular, said they expected to command the customer relationship – even as they did very little at the time in the way of commercial deployments. In most cases, two years ago, the real supply of private 5G (actually LTE, at the time, and LTE mostly, still) was led by a small band of specialist integrators, plus certain equipment manufacturers.
But that has all changed; the idea of ‘priming’ the private 5G pump, as the solo supplier across the negotiating table, is dismissed as bunkum. It’s a team sport; it takes a village; it is an ecosystem play – is the message. But even so, most enterprises want to look across the table into a single pair of eyes, and trust that all the various ecosystem parts will be aligned in support, behind a single deal-maker. But old-school telecoms operatives – in the form of traditional network operators and legacy network vendors – are not them.
Where the former once talked about ‘priming’, they have largely conceded that their reach and knowhow is limited in the enterprise space. Where the latter once went direct, essentially just to learn about the market, they have since accepted that specialist resellers in each vertical sector have more intimate knowledge of their quarry, and have largely defaulted to indirect sales. Which is not to say they have given up; they are energised and focused, and sure of their positions within the team. But, in both cases, they appear happier now to let system integrators do the talking.
Certainly, this seems to be the way. And it always has been this way, really – since way before mid-band spectrum was liberalised for enterprise usage, cellular systems were shrunk for campus and indoor usage, and 5G appeared on the horizon (along with IoT and AI, and all the rest of it) as an over-hyped cure-all for the troubles of Industry 4.0. Which is why, justified and unjustified, everyone is talking about private networks again, even though they’ve existed for 20 years already as a wide-area solution for enterprise comms.
But who’s who in this champion team of 5G vendors? Well, US-based system integrator (SI) Future Technologies has a (system-integrator) view of how it goes-to-market, mob-handed and in harmony. Peter Cappiello, chief executive at the firm, chatting around the topic for a new RCR Wireless report on private 5G in Industry 4.0 (free to download here), offers to the unpick the whole alphabet soup of private telecoms supply. “We see the market as having a few layers that overlap from time-to-time,” he says.
“Each layer has a role in the market. As we see it, we are a lead system integrator and solution provider, and we partner with the customer to solve problems with the best solutions. But we are flexible in terms of our delivery model. At the end of the day, private 5G is either connecting things that are not already connected – so new coverage – or else connecting things that are not getting what they need from existing network infrastructure. The projects are often challenging because the enterprises are often in industrial markets with lots of barriers and requirements.”
Future Technologies pulls together a mob of specialists to break down the barriers and meet the requirements. This is Cappiello’s roll-call of comrades in the trenches; all the commentary below is his. It might not be definitive – there are no hyperscalers, no software vendors; not much about the new economy of enterprise apps and services – but it gives a sense of how a lead SI, the boots-on-the-ground, gets the base-level infrastructure work done.
Here is the 5G/4.0 team sheet, and all of the players and positions, acronymized and explained. It starts with the Nokias of this world, and finishes with the Future Techs.
1 | OEM (original equipment manufacturer)
We believe the OEMs should be primarily focused on product development (R&D) and generating valuable market-making product contributions. We do not believe they should be supporting end users directly, as we feel it is not beneficial for the ecosystem.
2 | MNO (mobile network operator)
The MNOs are logical players in this market based on their primary network business and spectrum assets. There is an advantage, as well, to ensure that private networks are built in a complementary way to public networks – or, in some cases, in a hybrid fashion. We see the MNOs introducing new models in the marketplace, and not just focused on “priming” the deals. As an aside, with COVID-19, they were all required to modify their plans to build-out 5G in suburban and rural areas to address their traditional consumer and business clients. This created more opportunities in the private 5G space. As the market matures, the MNOs have their primary managed go-to-market service, but will need to find other direct and indirect ways to scale their participation. This is happening. We are collaborating with several of the tier-one MNOs in the US and Canada to help our clients from their carriers as well.
3 | MSO (multiple systems operator)
We have worked with two of the three largest MSOs (cable operators) over the past couple years in the private networks space. It is a growing market for them, and the other cable companies, to expand their respective business offering to their clients. For us, as a wireless-first company, it has been interesting to be a teammate in their markets.
4 | GSI (global system integrator)
The GSIs are players in this space, especially with multi-national companies. The GSIs are really focused on adding additional managed services to their existing business lines. Private 5G is a good add-on for them and, in some cases, a good match for large enterprises. Big consultancy firms (consultants) might be grouped with GSIs; it is a very similar play for them – a natural add-on to their traditional consultancy services with existing clients.
5 | Telecom Infrastructure Vendors
Telecom infrastructure players (and shared infrastructure vendors) are in this space to add private 5G as a fourth leg of the stool in some markets – like in hospitality and venues, notably. They are already offering fiber, DAS (public cellular), and public Wi-Fi, and they are adding private 5G to support additional use cases. They provide another angle in the marketplace – as companies focused on partnerships, where capital and managed services are the focus.
6 | LSI (lead system integrator)
Lead system integrators – like us – are more focused, and are typically geared to serve a single vertical, or a handful of verticals, often in a single geography. They typically have some legacy practices that they are good at – safety, IoT, industrial automation – and are trying to expand into this space. The results can vary between integrators, as these industrial private 5G projects are not easy.
