Specialist integrator Future Tech has scored impressive private 5G wins with US defense, energy, transport customers. Nokia leads deals, Ericsson fuels growth. US and EU telcos are knocking on its door for help. AI is driving broader enterprise demand.
In sum – what to know:
Industry 4.0 wins – Future Technologies has landed major US contracts across defense, energy, transport – showing, anecdotally, that private 5G has good traction.
Nokia vs Ericsson – biggest deals are with long-time partner Nokia, but the firm has a booming neutral-host pipe with Ericsson that has gone from zero to $27m in months.
AI and MNOs – new collaboration with carriers shows telcos value private 5G (and private 5G specialists) to unlock enterprise opportunities; AI cross-sales are a boon, too.
There remains a degree of suspicion about the real size and speed of the private 5G opportunity – even despite decent cheer from the vendor set, new optimism from global carriers, and feisty forecasts from astute analysts about how the market is building a head of steam. But if you want some kind of anecdotal proof, then this is a good account.
US system integrator Future Technologies has signed major multi-million dollar deals with the Department of Defense (DOD), two top-tier energy firms, a “top-10” airport, and a “top-two” maritime port – all in the last couple of months, all in the US, all with Nokia, all on five-year terms. The DOD deal, for the army and air force, is worth £50 million, and follows a $30 million win a year ago.
It is the single biggest contract Future Technologies has ever signed. None of the other customers can be named – as tends to be the way with paranoid industrialists in charge of new tech, looking for a competitive edge. But the two energy deals are with Fortune 10 and Fortune 200 companies, apparently – operating in the Permian Basin, crossing Texas and New Mexico.
It is one of the largest sedimentary oil and gas producing regions in the country, and the double deal has forced Future Technologies to double its office in Midland, Texas. “We literally ran out of space,” says Peter Cappiello, the firm’s chief executive. “First-world problems,” he reflects, with a wry chuckle. Hard not to concede the point; and he races through the rest.
(The company secured $14 million, at least, from the energy sector last year.)
The airport deal, which has Future Technologies in a sub-contracting role, will be worth between $5 million and $15 million, he reckons – depending on the final “design criteria”. It will cover both indoor and outdoor comms, terminal to tarmac, and be the “largest airport private network in the US”, he says. The maritime port, also unnamed, has handed Cappiello’s crew a $5 million contract.
There is more, all signed through March and April – the story goes. Future Technologies, a long-time Nokia shop, has picked up a couple wins with Ericsson, too – one with a Fortune 500 food manufacturer (“for distribution center connectivity”, and a Fortune 500 cement manufacturer (“for indoor/outdoor industrial connectivity”). “All of that is since our last chat [in February].”
Besides, Cappielli claims his firm has seen unsigned ‘sales-pipe’ orders (where it has reached verbal agreements with enterprises, effectively) for new neutral host solutions go from zero to $27 million – also, in just months. “We kicked that off, and it has been rapid. We have a couple early design wins. It’s been good for us,” he says. All of its neutral host activity is with Ericsson.
Capiello comments: We’ve been with Nokia for five years, and we are good partners; everyone knows that. Whereas we have only started with Ericsson this year. It has been good – and important to be able to offer our customers different solutions. Both companies respect what we’re doing, and that we are doing it in a fair and orderly manner.”
He adds: “A lot of companies dilute their value prop because they partner with too many. For us, single-threaded is maybe not right, but having five products isn’t right either. We’re good with these two.” All of which sounds explosive and exponential on one hand, in terms of new sales wins, and reasonable and measured on the other, in terms of managing new staff and partners.
But more interesting, actually, is Cappiello’s review of new market trends – as experienced at the Industry 4.0 coal-face, as enterprises show rising interest in private 5G networks, likely spurred by all the AI brouhaha. He sets them out as follows: private/public 5G interoperability is a thing; carriers want in, and are ready to collaborate; and enterprises IT/OT functions are asking for AI.
RCR is handing the story over to Cappiello at this point, to describe these trends himself – as below. There is something else brewing, though, at Future Technologies, which we will discuss in these pages in due course. In the meantime, the team will be at Dell Tech World in Las Vegas next week, showing computer vision on a private 5G-connected XR8000 platform. Catch them there.
All the quotes below are from Cappielo; and so is this one, which gives a sense of the firm’s ambition: “We are an antagonist in this market. We are like David, running around with a slingshot. But we are hitting good targets, and we have a plan to be more. We want to be the biggest private network provider in North America.” The story will play out, it seems. But here are those trends…
1 | PRIVATE GATEWAY TO HYBRID ENTERPRISE 5G
“We’re seeing the hybrid public / private 5G network starting to materialize, and the US carriers approaching us to partnering on that – on the grounds we have a portfolio of large accounts, and they want to enable their spectrum assets and capabilities with those customers. So that’s a trend, which is positive. The MNOs will take business where they can, but they recognise what we do and what we bring, and want to engage. And that cuts across both private and neutral host solutions.”
2 | MNO CONDUIT FOR MULTI-NATIONAL SERVICE
“Related, we are working with a carrier in Canada to enable certain large-scale cross-border industrial projects. We are also engaged with a European operator that wants help with its multinational clients in the US – where we are positioned to handle the US delivery. Which is a new thing for us this year. But it makes sense because their customers, not headquartered in the US, are in the same industrial markets as us – and want to support operations this side of the pond. It is funny because we don’t like to date a whole lot with the carriers, and our response is: partner with us, or we’ll just see you out there. But this time it could be a match.”
3 | TRUSTED SUPPORT FOR NEW IT/OT AI REMIT
“The other big trend is that our customers, in IT and OT, are suddenly coming to us for cameras – for camera vision. They wanted a $100,000 camera; they now want $500,000 cameras. It is a shift because cameras used to be for security [purchased by security teams]. But now enterprises want cameras for AI, and they want the IT/OT network teams to be in charge of them. And they are coming to us because we have trust with them via transformation of their network infrastructure.
“So they ask: ‘Can you do this? Can you give us the edge and analytics, as well. And we are not a digital transformation business. But we are doing the connectivity, and we’ll do what customers want, and there is a pull-through for us. ‘Sure, we’ll sell a camera and a server.’ And then it’s like: ‘Can you test it in your lab?’ So it is a natural adjacency; the right place at the right time. It also ties in very well with the work we have with Dell and Intel.
“And our customers like it because we are not just trying to talk-up and sell AI. We’re not part of that AI hype machine. They come to us for practical things – for the private network, not for the 5G, if you see what I mean. Because some will connect on 5G, and some will connect on the wired circuit, and some will connect on 60 gigahertz. For us, it is about the broader private network transformation. The airport wants a bunch of cameras, for example.
“But we’re not walking around with 5G or AI on our chests; and so it might make sense to segment the camera traffic, and put some of it over another network. It’s just like with our partners; we are not single-threaded about any of this stuff. It is just about what is practical, and what makes a difference. And so we’re getting into this AI trend that way. But not because we care what the hype says, or what anyone else thinks we should sell.”
