Private 5G is gaining traction globally, with deployments from Tesla to Sinopec showing measurable productivity, safety, and efficiency gains, reinforcing forecasts of rapid market growth and momentum toward mainstream industrial adoption. Here are 23 of the best.
As is its way, analyst house SNS Telecom & IT included a long list of notable private 5G deployments in its latest press missive to hawk a new report about the state of the private 5G market. We covered its top-line forecasts yesterday (August 19) – that spending on private 5G networks will grow at a compound annual rate of 41 percent over the next few years to reach $5 billion per annum by 2028. They are “on the verge of mainstream adoption”, it said, citing “accelerated investments” by “household names and industrial giants”.
Which sounds great; but such forecasts are ten-a-penny, of course, and the numbers get so big that they lose meaning. The same RCR Wireless writeup also included some separate Industry 4.0 guesswork from another research firm, suggesting the global spend on big data analytics, cloud computing, industrial IoT, augmented and virtual reality will reach $1.6 trillion by 2030. So you know – a lot of cash; hard to compute. But the press discourse from SNS Telecom & IT also includes these lists, which are somehow more tangible.
They are worth memorialising in full, just for the record. Most have been written about (some were broken as news; some have been expanded upon at length) in these pages, but that means trawling the archives. So here they are in full, quoted verbatim. They represent a list of private 5G installations that have “progressed to a stage where practical and tangible benefits are becoming increasingly evident”, writes SNS Telecom & IT. They also suggest (except for the six China deployments at the tail-end of the list) that spectrum liberalization initiatives have had a “pivotal role”.
As well, they show a genuinely global picture of the momentum in the private 5G market.
1 | Tesla, US
Tesla’s deployment of a private 5G network at its Gigafactory Texas facility in Austin has eliminated AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) stoppages, previously caused by unstable Wi-Fi connections, within the 12 million square foot facility. Another private 5G implementation on the shop floor of its Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg plant in Germany has helped in overcoming up to 90% of the overcycle issues for a particular process in the factory’s GA (General Assembly) shop. The electric automaker is integrating private 5G network infrastructure to address high-impact use cases in production, intralogistics, and quality operations across its global manufacturing facilities.
2 | Jaguar Land Rover, UK
Rival luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover’s installation of a private 5G network at its Solihull plant in England, United Kingdom, has established connectivity for sensors and data within the plant’s five-story paint shop, which had previously been left unconnected due to the cost and complexity of wired Ethernet links. The network has also resolved Wi-Fi-related challenges, including limited device connections, poor signal penetration in the metal-heavy environment, and unstable handovers between access points along the production line.
3 | Lufthansa, US
Lufthansa’s private 5G network at its LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) cargo facility has resulted in a 60% reduction in processing time per item by eliminating latency spikes and dropped connections from Wi-Fi and public cellular networks, which had previously delayed logistics operations and forced an occasional return to manual pen-and-paper processes. Another 5G campus network at the Lufthansa Technik facility in Hamburg, Germany, has removed the need for civil aviation customers to physically attend servicing by providing reliable, high-resolution video access for virtual parts inspections, and borescope examinations at both of its engine overhaul workshops. Previous attempts to implement virtual inspections using unlicensed Wi-Fi technology proved ineffective due to the presence of large metal structures.
4 | Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France
At VINCI Airports’ Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport in the southeast of France, Stanley Robotics is using a standalone private 5G network to provide reliable and low-latency connectivity for autonomous valet parking robots, which have increased parking efficiency by 50%. Efforts are also underway to leverage 5G’s precise positioning capabilities to further enhance the localization accuracy of the robots’ control system.
5 | City of Istres, France
Since adopting a private 5G network for public safety and smart city applications, the southern French city of Istres has reduced video surveillance camera installation costs from $34,000 to less than $6,000 per unit by eliminating the need for ducts, civil works, and other infrastructure-related overhead costs typically associated with fiber-based connections in urban environments.
6 | HavelPort, Germany
HavelPort Berlin has increased its annual weighing capacity by up to 60% through automated weighing processes managed via tablets in lorry cabs using an Open RAN-compliant private 5G network. The network also supports drone-based inventory control for bulk goods monitoring and autonomous transportation within the inland port in Wustermark (Brandenburg), Germany.
7 | John Deere, US
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 5G networks at its industrial facilities in the United States, South America, and Europe. Two of the most recent deployments are at the heavy machinery giant’s 2.2 million square foot Davenport Works manufacturing complex in Iowa and its Horizontina factory in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which is in the midst of continued expansion. In a similar effort, automotive aluminum die-castings supplier IKD has replaced 6 miles of cables connecting 600 pieces of machinery with a private 5G network, thereby reducing cable maintenance costs to near zero and increasing the product yield rate by 10%.
8 | Newmont, Australia
Newmont’s implementation of one of Australia’s first production-grade private 5G networks at its Cadia gold-copper underground mine in New South Wales has enabled remote-controlled operation of its entire dozer fleet across the full 2.5 kilometer width of the mine’s tailings works construction area. Previously, the mining company was unable to connect more than two machines at distances of no more than 100 meters over Wi-Fi, with unstable connectivity causing up to six hours of downtime per shift. Newmont plans to leverage private 5G connectivity to roll out more teleremote and autonomous machines in its tier-one underground and surface mines worldwide.
9 | US Marine Corps, US
The U.S. Marine Corps’ private 5G network at MCLB (Marine Corps Logistics Base) in Southwest Georgia has significantly improved warehouse management and logistics operations, including 98% accuracy in inventory reordering, a 65% increase in goods velocity, and a 55% reduction in labor costs. Currently under a $6 million sustainment contract for the next three years, the purpose-built 5G network was deployed to enhance automation and overcome the challenges posed by complex fiber optic installations and unreliable Wi-Fi systems in the logistics hub’s demanding physical environment.
10 | Liverpool 5G Create, UK
The Liverpool 5G Create network in the inner city area of Kensington has demonstrated substantial cost savings potential for digital health, education and social care services, including an astonishing $10,000 drop in yearly expenditure per care home resident through a 5G-connected fall prevention system and a $2,600 reduction in WAN (Wide Area Network) connectivity charges per GP (General Practitioner) surgery – which represents $220,000 in annual savings for the United Kingdom’s NHS (National Health Service) when applied to 86 surgeries in Liverpool.
11 | EWG Intermodal Terminal, Hungary / Ukraine
The EWG (East-West Gate) Intermodal Terminal’s private 5G network has increased productivity from 23-25 containers per hour to 32-35 per hour and reduced the facility’s personnel-related operating expenses by 40% while eliminating the possibility of crane operator injury due to remote-controlled operation with a latency of less than 20 milliseconds.
12 | NEC Corporation, Japan
NEC Corporation has improved production efficiency by 30% through the introduction of a local 5G-enabled autonomous transport system for intralogistics at its new factory in Kakegawa (Shizuoka Prefecture), Japan. The manufacturing facility’s on-premise 5G network has also resulted in an elevated degree of freedom in terms of the factory floor layout, thereby allowing NEC to flexibly respond to changing customer needs, market demand fluctuations, and production adjustments.
13 | Ushino Nakayama, Japan
A local 5G installation at Ushino Nakayama’s Osumi farm in Kanoya (Kagoshima Prefecture), Japan, has enabled the Wagyu beef producer to achieve labor cost savings of more than 10% through reductions in accident rates, feed loss, and administrative costs. The 5G network provides wireless connectivity for AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based image analytics and autonomous patrol robots.
14 | CJ Logistics, South Korea
CJ Logistics has achieved a 20% productivity increase at its Ichiri center in Icheon (Gyeonggi), South Korea, following the adoption of a private 5G network to replace the 40,000 square meter warehouse facility’s 300 Wi-Fi access points for Industry 4.0 applications, which experienced repeated outages and coverage issues.
15 | Delta Electronics, Taiwan / Thailand
Delta Electronics – which has installed private 5G networks for industrial wireless communications at its plants in Taiwan and Thailand – estimates that productivity per direct labor and output per square meter have increased by 69% and 75% respectively following the implementation of 5G-connected smart production lines.
16 | Yawata Electrode, Thailand
Yawata Electrode has improved the efficiency of its goods transportation processes – involving the movement of raw materials, semi-completed goods, and finished products between production floors – by approximately 24% since adopting a private 5G network for autonomous mobile robots at its electrode manufacturing plant in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
17 | Pingtung County, Taiwan
An Open RAN-compliant standalone private 5G network in Taiwan’s Pingtung County has facilitated a 30% reduction in pest-related agricultural losses and a 15% boost in the overall revenue of local farms through the use of 5G-equipped UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), mobile robots, smart glasses and AI-enabled image recognition.
18 | JD Logistics, China
JD Logistics – the supply chain and logistics arm of online retailer JD.com – has achieved near-zero packet loss and reduced the likelihood of connection timeouts by an impressive 70% since migrating AGV communications from unlicensed Wi-Fi systems to private 5G networks at its logistics parks in Beijing and Changsha (Hunan), China.
19 | Risun Group, China
Risun Group has deployed a private 5G network at its Risun Zhongran Park facility in Hohhot (Inner Mongolia), China, to provide industrial-grade wireless connectivity for both wheeled and rail-mounted transport machinery, typically measuring tens of meters in height and length. Since transitioning from Wi-Fi to private 5G, the coke producer has increased production efficiency by nearly 20% and reduced labor costs by approximately 30%.
20 | Baosteel, China
Baosteel – a business unit of the world’s largest steelmaker China Baowu Steel Group – credits its 43-site private 5G deployment at two neighboring factories with reducing manual quality inspections by 50% and achieving a steel defect detection rate of more than 90%, which equates to $7 million in annual cost savings by reducing lost production capacity from 9,000 tons to 700 tons.
21 | Dongyi Group Coal Gasification Company, China
Dongyi Group Coal Gasification Company ascribes a 50% reduction in manpower requirements and a 10% increase in production efficiency – which translates to more than $1 million in annual cost savings – at its Xinyan coal mine in Lvliang (Shanxi), China, to private 5G-enabled digitization and automation of underground mining operations.
22 | Sinopec, China
Sinopec’s (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) explosion-proof 5G network at its Guangzhou oil refinery in Guangdong, China, has reduced accidents and harmful gas emissions by 20% and 30% respectively, resulting in an annual economic benefit of more than $4 million. The solution is being replicated across more than 30 refineries of the energy giant.
23 | Guangzhou Metro, China
Since adopting a hybrid public-private 5G network to enhance the safety and efficiency of urban rail transit operations, the Guangzhou Metro rapid transit system has reduced its maintenance costs by approximately 20% using 5G-enabled digital perception applications for the real-time identification of water logging and other hazards along railway tracks.
