Germany-based Industry 4.0 system integrator Smart Mobile Labs (SML), acquired by Boldyn Networks in January (2025), has signed a ‘framework’ deal with national rail operator Deutsche Bahn for the planning, delivery, construction and operation of private 5G ‘campus’ networks in the country. The deal is valued at something-less than €10 million (“almost in the double-digit million-euro range”, says a press notice).
It makes Smart Mobile Labs the “designated partner” for all affiliated Deutsche Bahn group companies, as well – for the design, build, and management of their private 5G networks. All deployments will use the national 3.7-3.8 GHz spectrum band, licensed in local tranches to enterprises by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur; BNetzA) for a “nominal license fee” – for “creation of secure, non-public 5G campus networks tailored to industrial use”..
Deutsche Bahn wants private 5G connectivity at its maintenance depots, production sites, and transshipment facilities. Smart Mobile Labs has developed two tailored system solutions, apparently; no further information on these is available, as yet. A statement said: “These solutions are built exclusively on 5G SA architecture and support advanced features such as eSIM profiles, network slicing, and 5G RedCap.”
Selected services will be provided in collaboration with German engineering company STF Group. Smart Mobile Labs is billed as the “market leader in bespoke private networks and turnkey applications” in Germany. The deal with Deutsche Bahn was signed prior to the company’s acquisition by Boldyn Networks. Smart Mobile Labs is a long-time Nokia favourite in Germany; it helped to deploy the Finnish firm’s first private 5G SA system in Germany, at the University of Kaiserslautern.
It is also engaged with Verizon Business, as the ‘prime’, on a major private 5G project with Audi in Germany – which also leverages equipment and services from Nokia and AWS. Smart Mobile Labs has ties with operators in Germany to organise inter-public/private 5G roaming, and to dovetail with wider Industry 4.0 projects. It has a specialism, alongside, in the “transmission and distribution of video signals”, with its own proprietary live streaming software (EVO).
Fiercely acquisitive Boldyn Networks has its own supplier preferences, besides. Its acquisition of Smart Mobile Labs follows deals for Finnish private network pioneer Edzcom and US higher-education specialist Apogee Telecom in March last year. Previous to rebranding as Boldyn Networks in 2023, BAI Group acquired Mobilitie in 2021, Vilicom in 2021, and ZenFi Networks in 2022, as well as Transit Wireless some time before.
