Private network deployments continued to see growth during the third quarter of 2022, with the Global mobile Suppliers Association’s (GSA) latest report on the space saying that the group has identified 955 different organizations in 72 countries around the world which are deploying private cellular networks.
That 955 figure comes from the GSA’s count of companies or government organizations which are known to be deploying at least one 3GPP-based LTE or 5G network in a given country, with the network estimated at being worth more than 100,000 Euros. The figure is up 66 from the second-quarter number of 889.
GSA’s report pinpoints a 60-40 split between LTE and 5G as the deployment technologies, with LTE the more favored one at this point.
The growth in private networks, the organization said, is “being driven by the spiralling data, security, digitization and enterprise mobility requirements of modern business and government entities. Organizations of all types are combining connected systems with big data and analytics to transform operations, increase automation and efficiency or deliver new services.”
Spectrum regulatory frameworks also have an impact on private network deployments. The report finds that “there is typically a strong, positive correlation between the number of private mobile network references and countries with dedicated spectrum … .” The most known private network deployments are in countries including the US, Germany, China, the U.K. and Japan.
The GSA report found that the three fastest-growing industry sectors for private networks during the third quarter were mining (15), defense and peacekeeping (13) and manufacturing (9).
