UK-headquartered neutral host provider Boldyn Networks Boldyn Networks has completed its acquisition of private network specialist Edzcom from Spanish tower company Cellnex Telecom. The deal is for Cellnex’s entire private networks business, which mostly equates to Finland-based Edzcom. Cellnex has owned Edzcom since July 2020; the deal was announced in November last year. The fee has not been disclosed.
It restated the strategic profile of the Edzcom purchase, as a “pioneer and European market leader” in private LTE and 5G for the manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas, energy, and mining sectors. Edzcom has deployed around 50 private networks in Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the UK; many in tandem with Nokia and Athonet (HPE). It said: “This bold move positions the neutral host leader as a key player in the growing private networks market.”
Boldyn has good-looking private and neutral-host deals of its own, including a 20-year deal with Transport for London, and multi-carrier 5G setups at the First Direct Arena in Leeds and Olympia Exhibition Centre in London. It is also engaged with the City of Sunderland for its neutral-host 5G smart city network, and has Industry 4.0 deals of its own at the Moray East wind farm in the North Sea, and claims ongoing deployments at the Cowtown Coliseum and at the Dignity Health Sports Park in the US.
The Edzcom team will become part of Boldyn’s strategy team – “as a strategic part of the company’s future growth”.
Igor Leprince, group chief executive at Boldyn Networks, said: “By bringing Cellnex’s private networks business under the Boldyn umbrella, not only are we acquiring additional expertise, but [we are] growing our capability to interconnect the most complex environments. From heavy industry facilities, transport systems, city-wide networks and large venues to ports and nuclear power plants, we continue to be the neutral host partner of choice for our customers.”
Mikko Uusitalo, chief executive at Edzcom, said: “Boldyn is disrupting the industry with an impressive portfolio of neutral host solutions, which gives us the opportunity to continue in our innovation journey. And with the private networks market opportunity growing at an accelerated pace, we’ll grow stronger [and] and continue [to] enter new markets.”
Justin Berger, group chief strategy officer at Boldyn, said: “Bespoke private networks enable 5G use cases… like enterprise automation, advanced robotics, video surveillance, smart IoT devices, employee safety, and many others. Private 5G provides secure connectivity to unlock new services and the ability for customers to control and monitor the network in real time.”
