If you like lists – and who doesn’t? – and you also like private 5G, Industry 4.0, IoT, and all of that jazz (who doesn’t?), then the new report from SNS Telecom & IT might just be for you. It has lists coming out of its ears, including 7,300 private 4G/5G engagements, named and unnamed, in 130 countries on an Excel spreadsheet. In a slightly mad PR offensive, it has also written 2,000 words in list-form to name a bunch of public private 5G references variously in the agriculture, broadcasting, construction, education, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, ports and maritime, railways, utilities, and warehousing and logistics sectors. It’s good stuff, but it is mostly just a list of enterprises, industries, and countries.
More immediately useful, perhaps, is another (annotated) list of a dozen big private 5G projects, delivered in the last 12 months (or so). Lots of these have been covered in these pages. The categorisations and descriptions are a little inconsistent, and some information is probably missing (and easily available; like the identity of vendor partners). But some is also dynamite stuff; and the message is good. It says each can be “classified as large-scale depending on the type of network environment (localised campus [or] wide-area networks)”. It calls them “interesting examples in terms of [their monetary] value and network size”, and we cannot disagree. Here they are, as provided bt SNS to RCR.
And, while we have you, check out the new report below from RCR Wireless about private 5G in Industry 4.0.
Local and campus-wide networks
1 | Cummins JEP (Jamestown Engine Plant)
Engine manufacturer Cummins’ private 5G network at its JEP (Jamestown Engine Plant) in Lakewood, New York, spans six outdoor cells and approximately 120 indoor radio nodes to deliver cellular coverage across the industrial site’s 2 million square feet of indoor and outdoor space.
Integrator type: mobile operator (Verizon)
2 | Hamburger Containerboard Spremberg Paper Mill
Hamburger Containerboard’s standalone private 5G at its Spremberg paper mill in Brandenburg, Germany, spans 120 indoor and outdoor radio nodes to provide coverage across an area of 350,000 square meters (3.7 million square feet), which is roughly equivalent to 50 football fields. The paper manufacturer’s installation at its Spremberg site follows an earlier private 5G network deployment at one of its other paper mills in Pitten, Austria.
Integrator type: mobile operator (Deutsche Telekom in collaboration with BAYFU)
3 | Airbus Multi-Campus Network
Aviation giant Airbus is deploying a multi-campus private 5G network across its global aircraft manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and China. Already operational at production hubs in France and Germany, the network is being progressively expanded to all of the aircraft manufacturer’s sites in Europe – including factories in the United Kingdom and Spain. The group’s assembly line in Tianjin, China, and manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, will soon follow.
Integrator type: independent (internal)
4 | John Deere Multi-Campus Network
John Deere is steadily progressing with its goal of reducing dependency on wired Ethernet connections from 70% to 10% over the next five years by deploying private LTE and 5G networks at its industrial facilities in the United States, Europe and Brazil. As of Q4’2024, 12 of the heavy machinery manufacturer’s facilities have already been equipped with private cellular network equipment.
Integrator type: independent (internal)
5 | Spanish Military
The Spanish Army and Navy have awarded multiple contracts – collectively worth $15 Million – to mobile operator Telefónica to supply standalone private 5G networks for army brigades on the move, armoured systems and helicopter maintenance parks, naval bases, ships and marine infantry units.
Integrator type: mobile operator (Telefónica)
Metro and wide-area networks
6 | City of Brownsville
The City of Brownsville, Texas, has awarded a multi-year $4 Million contract to NTT DATA to install, manage and operate a private 5G network for smart city applications such as public safety monitoring in city parks.
Integrator type: non-operator (NTT DATA)
7 | ESB Networks
ESB Networks, in collaboration with systems integrator Sigma Wireless, is initially building a 90-macro site 450 MHz LTE network with a geo-redundant core for smart grid communications. The next phase of the project will significantly expand the total number of cell sites to reach nationwide coverage across Ireland.
Integrator type: non-operator (Sigma Wireless)
8 | PTA (Public Transport Authority of Western Australia)
As part of the multi-year $100 Million RSR (Radio Systems Replacement) program, the PTA is adopting a purpose-built 3GPP network, which includes approximately 160 cell sites, to replace its existing 400 MHz voice-only analog radio system for railway communications. Under implementation since 2023, the network is expected to enter service in phases from 2025.
Integrator type: separate contracts for equipment vendor (Nokia) and integrator (UGL)
9 | Vale Carajás Railroad Project
As part of its wider private cellular connectivity initiative for mining and transport operations, Brazilian mining giant Vale is investing approximately $50 Million over a period of two years to deploy a 76-site private LTE network along the tracks of the Carajás Railway, which connects the Brazilian states of Maranhão and Pará. The network will be fully operational in 2025.
Integrator type: mobile operator (Vivo / Telefônica Brasil)
10 | ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company)
ADNOC has contracted national mobile operator Etisalat Group (e&) and Finnish 5G equipment supplier Nokia to design, install and commission the private 5G network that will provide dedicated wireless coverage across an area spanning 11,000 square kilometres (4,250 square miles). (For comparative purposes, iNET’s (Infrastructure Networks) LTE network for the oil and gas industry covers 130,000 square miles across four major shale basins in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and North Dakota.)
Integrator type: mobile operator (Etisalat Group)
11 | Aramco (Saudi Arabian Oil Company)
Saudi oil giant Aramco is preparing to deploy one of the industry’s largest 450 MHz 3GPP-based private wireless networks, which will provide secure and reliable connectivity for increasing productivity and enhancing safety at oil and gas wells. The terrestrial wide area network will be supplemented by LEO satellite-based NB-IoT coverage for the most remote IoT assets.
Integrator type: independent (internal, via Aramco Digital)
12 | Gogo Business Aviation
Gogo Business Aviation’s A2G (Air-to-Ground) network is one the largest geographical Open RAN networks in the world, according to RAN supplier Airspan Networks. 5G services over the A2G network – which includes over 150 ground-based cell sites and 5K air cards – are due to be launched in 2025, following a series of technical delays.
Integrator type: separate contracts for equipment vendors (Airspan, Cisco Systems)
