US-based enterprise connectivity integrator-reseller Velaspan has introduced a managed private LTE/5G service for large enterprise customers. The new product uses Celona’s core and radio network solution initially, and leverages the 3.55-3.7 GHz CBRS band; it is targeted at enterprises in the construction, education, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, gas and oil, ports, and retail sectors. It is being sold with the firm’s existing managed Wi-Fi offer.
A press statement suggested Velaspan’s vendor partners will expand, to serve different vertical niches. It said: “[Velaspan] will also leverage its long-standing relationships with leading private cellular hardware suppliers and take a vendor neutral position, recommending the equipment that is the best for each customer environment.” The firm suggested telecoms marketing about private 5G is hackneyed, and has ended up confusing most enterprises.
David Bond, co-founder at Velaspan, said: “We have clients with long-standing connectivity challenges that are difficult or impossible to solve with Wi-Fi, but that are readily solved with private cellular. Unfortunately, the industry has complicated the technology messaging to the point that many customers don’t know they can use private cellular to both solve practical use cases today and lay the foundation for more transformative use cases in the future.
“Decades of experience have given us an understanding of the demands of wireless networks so we can work with customers to choose the right network technology, and then build and manage the network to deliver that coverage cost effectively.”
Velaspan, in business 19 years, with pedigree as an enterprise network design and integration provider, said private cellular offers “up to 20 times” the coverage of Wi-Fi, plus higher reliability and security, affording “savings on costs of cabling, installation, and mounting hardware”. Its managed offer is available now; pricing, it said, depends on “network size and complexity”.
The new deal with Celona establishes the Pennsylvania firm as one of the first to join its so-called Fanatics IT channel scheme for integrators, distributors, and resellers. Velaspan called its Managed Private Cellular (MPC) offer an “all-inclusive and fully managed LTE/5G service that includes high-touch network design, integration with existing Wi-Fi-based enterprise L2/L3 networks, deployment, and ongoing monitoring and updating”.
It said the driver for enterprises to deploy private LTE and 5G infrastructure is to serve “emerging use cases that need pervasive coverage, seamless mobility for users or devices with high reliability”. Celona’s product is “the first… to tightly integrate network and radio functions – full stack core software and cloud-based orchestration – into a unified solution… for direct integration within any existing enterprise network… by enterprise IT staff”, it claimed.
Bond said: “Celona’s technology is a great fit for our use-case-based customer focus for MPC as we strive to educate customers that private cellular networks can be deployed to solve specific use cases quickly and cost-effectively. Celona shares this goal which is why I am looking forward to this partnership.”
Rob Mustarde, vice president of global sales at Celona, said: “Velaspan brings a unique set of skills and subject matter expertise to enterprises that require the highest level of design, deployment and management of this new technology. The company’s demonstrated expertise in delivering high value managed services is ideally suited for helping customers easily integrate private wireless technology within existing IT workflows.”
