More from US private 5G specialist Future Technologies, following from the long interview with the firm last week: the system integrator, on a stateside tear-up in the 5G-connected Industry 4.0 game, said it won over $20 million in industrial-grade private 4G and 5G deals during the last 12 months. These contracts have mostly been secured with Nokia, it stated in a press note – almost like it wants to rebalance its late PR offensive, which has put focus on a new deal with the Finnish firm’s great rival in the telecoms market, Sweden-based Ericsson.
The Georgia outfit listed its top-10 (actually nine) wins in 2024, effectively formalising in writing some of the discussion last week. These include Fortune 100-through-5000 manufacturing companies, port operators, and oil and gas producers. The list is copied into the bottom of this article for reference; more detail and discussion about them can be found in the RCR Wireless interview with the company’s chief executive, Peter Cappiello, last week. The notice also made reference to the company’s new partnerships with Dell and Intel – but excluded any mention of Ericsson.
The sub-header stated: “Future Technologies leverages Nokia’s private cellular solution for growth in [the] transportation, energy, and manufacturing markets.” It listed standard applications and capabilities to swing such deals: “connected workers, enhanced industrial automation, operational efficiency, and improved scalability”. It also pointed to the impact of its so-called Living Lab, at its headquarters in Atlanta, led by former Georgia-Pacific chief tech officer Gary Hill, now in charge of innovation and advisory services for the company.
The success of the facility, which also goes on the road in a smaller version on the back of a truck, has underpinned its developed ‘day-zero’ consultancy offer, as explained in the article. The firm is also offering post-build ‘day-two’ infrastructure management and customer support, it said again – which potentially sets it on a collision course with big global system integrators and even large mobile operators, seeking to make repeatable income on private-5G installs from enterprises. It re-stated, formally, that its ‘sales pipeline’ has grown 500 percent to $270 million.
This is also discussed in last week’s piece. But the Nokia focus is notably different. Future Technologies has been a ‘Nokia-house’ for several years; it may remain so, at least in hard-nosed Industry 4.0 climes – suggests the new missive. The deal with Ericsson is, officially, geared towards neutral host network sales, as an adjunct of private 5G sales. Verizon Business is closely engaged with Ericsson on the same, and is a familiar with Future Technologies, as well. But the company’s new PR message mainlines its Nokia’s heritage, and includes a quote from the Finnish firm.
Willie Kopp, head of Nokia’s enterprise campus edge business in North America, said: “Industrial markets are accelerating in the adoption of private cellular networks because of their ability to provide a competitive advantage through reliable, low-latency, seamless and robust connectivity. Future Technologies is one of Nokia’s leading partners in North America. It has a top-notch team, an impressive resume, and unique capabilities. It is distinctively positioned to help our joint clients scale up their production network deployments and execute on their connectivity transformation journeys.”
Cappiello said: “We have been delivering private cellular networks for over 15 years, but just in the last 12 months we have seen the industrial markets shift their focus to production networks and, in many cases, scaling to larger multi-site production deployments. With our clients moving out of the blueprint phase and into the production and scale phase, the market is accelerating with larger contract values due to our expansion in the value chain through private network connectivity, edge/AI solutions, devices, and use-case solutions”
He added: “We’re fortunate to collaborate with like-minded leaders like Nokia, Intel and Dell. These organisations are continually innovating to produce the technology solutions necessary for Future Technologies to do what we do best – deliver connectivity transformation and edge/AI solutions that drive operational efficiency for our industrial market clients.”
– Manufacturing – Fortune 100 – Automotive – AMR/Robotics Use Cases
– Manufacturing – Fortune 1000 – Discrete Manufacturing Project
– Manufacturing – Fortune 5000 – Discrete Manufacturing Projects
– Transportation – Large East Coast Maritime Port – Port Modernization Project
– Transportation – Large West Coast Maritime Port – Port Modernization Project
– Transportation – Top 10 US Airport – Airport 2.0 Modernization Project
– Energy – Fortune 200 – Digital Oil Fields Modernization Projects
– Energy – Fortune 500 – Petro-Chemical Site Modernization Projects
– Energy – Fortune 500 – Carbon Capture / Renewables Project
