Jennifer Artley, in charge of private 5G at Verizon Business has left. The news compounds unease in the market following Nokia’s decision to quit. Verizon Business remains focused, it says; interest in Nokia is considerable.
In sum – what to know:
Changes at top – Jennifer Artley, in charge of private 5G at Verizon Business, has left; she is replaced by Robb Juliano as head of the carrier’s 5G Acceleration team.
General unease – Verizon is arguably the top mobile operator for private 5G; the news comes while Nokia, the top vendor, seeks a buyer for its private 5G business.
AI supercycle – Verizon and Nokia are both talking about the combination of mobile and fibre for AI; but the former sees private 5G as integral to its edge proposition.
RCR does not cover personnel changes as a rule, but, given the unease in the market and the chatter at MWC (plus its historical coverage of the scene), it seems like a timely news item: Jennifer Artley, who steered Verizon Business to the top of the operator league for private 5G suppliers, has gone. Verizon Business confirmed her exit, as well as her replacement: Robb Juliano, part of Artley’s team for some years, and now in charge of it.
Artley left in December, it seems. Juliano has taken the role of senior vice president of the 5G Acceleration unit within Verizon Business; he was previously vice president of sales for private 5G and edge solutions. He reports to Massimo Peselli, chief revenue (sales) officer for global enterprise and public sector at Verizon Business. A spokesperson said the company’s private 5G strategy (and “leadership”) remains the same.
The company is putting “growing emphasis” on “solution convergence” related to private and neutral-host networks for enterprises, the spokesperson said. There was no further comment; but the sense from the company is that the changes within its 5G Acceleration team should not be dramatised as part of a different strategy.
Verizon said in November it would cut 15,000 jobs, as the largest single-round headcount reduction in its history. Sweeping job cuts have hit the telecoms (and wider tech) industry, of course.
The private 5G sector has been perceived in some quarters to be in some jeopardy – or to find itself in a moment of pause and review, at least. This follows Nokia’s decision, also in November, to sell its private-networks campus business (Enterprise Campus Edge) to focus on conventional big-box mobile and fibre sales, macro-scale regional and national private 5G deployments for railways, utilities, defence, and emergency services.
(It might be noted that, at writing, RCR has just exited an interview at MWC with Ericsson, which tells a very different story about the state of the private 5G market; coverage to follow.)
Nokia is the market leader among vendor brands; it works closely with Verizon Business, among other operators and integrators. The pair worked through 2024/24 on a major private 5G installation at Thames Freeport in the UK, which remains a major international statement for Verizon Business, and a feather in Artley’s cap. The US-based carrier also works closely with Ericsson and Celona for the supply of private and neutral-host networks.
The sale of Nokia’s private networks business is pending, but there is understood to be considerable interest. Nokia has refused to comment. Meanwhile, among mobile operators, Verizon Business has started to articulate a broader strategy around dense metro fibre and private 5G for enterprise AI workloads, tied also to its US-based backhaul and international WAN services – which chimes with Nokia’s supply narrative (minus private 5G) for the ‘AI supercycle’, as restated at MWC this week.
Separately, Nokia said at MWC it is working with Eurofiber to add reduced-capability (RedCap) 5G to its existing private 5G “ecosystem” – which Eurofiber has “built together” with Nokia, plus NTT DATA, Greenet, and Netways. Said ecosystem is “based on secure, scalable, and sector-specific 5G solutions on top of Eurofiber’s fibre infrastructure,” said a statement. It went on: “5G RedCap fits seamlessly into this strategy.”
A press note references “large-scale IoT applications” such as sensors, wearables, and cameras – which require “reliability and low latency, but not the full 5G bandwidth”. It went on: “By making 5G RedCap available within the private network, a crucial missing link in modern IoT connectivity is filled. No Dutch operator has commercially rolled out 5G RedCap yet, making this private 5G ecosystem once again a frontrunner.”
Eurofiber is targeting “opportunities” in industry, healthcare, logistics, and construction – sectors that are typically served by campus systems, it might be noted. Nokia’s quote is from Prakash Sadagopan, head of its ‘mission-critical enterprise’ operation, which comprises macro (rather than campus) private 5G systems for railways, utilities, defence, and emergency services.
He said: “Reliable networks are the foundation of digital transformation for today’s enterprises. With 5G RedCap, we are advancing connectivity by enabling scalable, energy-efficient IoT deployments within Eurofiber’s Private 5G ecosystem. Together, we empower mission-critical enterprises with secure, high-performance wireless solutions that support real-time operations and future growth.”
