Private LTE and 5G network adoption by enterprises is accelerating, as utilities, manufacturers, energy firms, port operators, and other industries with specialized needs see their digital transformation held back by both technical and economic limitations of traditional networking approaches. But as these organizations build momentum with private LTE/5G, many find that the traditional enterprise management and security tools cannot extend to their cellular footprint. Meanwhile, many of the tools designed to scale and secure cellular networks were built to address the needs of mobile network operators (MNOs) and lack essential capabilities that enterprises require.
This gap is creating an innovation opportunity for startups that can act as a bridge between these two converging–but very different–network environments. One of the firms mentioned frequently in press notices over the last year is OneLayer. Its zero-trust platform adds advanced device connectivity management and security in Nokia’s MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) offering, which combines private networking, edge computing, and industrial apps. OneLayer also integrates with Nokia’s widely used Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) product to give Nokia customers access to additional security capabilities and enterprise integration capabilities. Meanwhile, OneLayer has a go-to-market deal with Ericsson in the US utilities market, securing wide-area private networks in CBRS and other spectrum.
These partnerships are already producing joint customer wins. One notable example is a multi-year deal with investor-owned energy provider Evergy, based in Kentucky in the US, to manage and secure IoT and OT assets on its Ericsson-based private LTE network. According to OneLayer, Evergy expects to grow its footprint to tens of thousands of sensor devices in the next few years. Ericsson is using OneLayer to secure a private LTE network at its ‘Utilities Innovation Center’ in Texas. OneLayer, only founded in 2021, was recognized as a “Cool Vendor” in cyber-physical systems by Gartner in 2024 and has also received mentions in several of Gartner’s “hype cycle” reports. Suddenly, everything has changed, the company says – for the market, and for OneLayer itself.
Dave Mor, CEO and Co-founder of OneLayer, comments: “Three years ago, the forecast for private 5G and LTE was unclear. There was all this debate – about which use cases were a good fit and whether enterprises would really embrace private networks at all. The debate has ended, and certain verticals now see private LTE and 5G as a must-have. Gartner originally said adoption would take five or 10 years; but its latest ‘hype cycle’ has reduced that to two.” He also references the work of the Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA) in the US, in which OneLayer is engaged on the vendor side with Ericsson, as further evidence that key industries are accelerating their efforts with private LTE and 5G. “All the discussion is about how to leverage private cellular for utilities, which is amazing,” he notes.
According to Mor, OneLayer has “multiplied its footprint more than five times in the market” in the last 12 months. “And by multiple, I mean not just in terms of number of customers but also in terms of each customer network maturity and the number of use cases and challenges they ask us to solve,” he adds. Its largest “deployment” covers more than 1.5 million devices in a utility network.
Its sales are split between verticals, he says, with about half in the utilities market, mostly (but not exclusively) in the US, and half in… well, in every other 5G-OT sector, but notably in manufacturing, seaports and airports, logistics, oil and gas, and mining – and mostly (but not exclusively) in North America, Europe and the Middle East.
“Everything is growing tremendously,” he comments.
The firm’s angle on operations and security fills a critical gap as enterprises embrace technology that was initially designed around the needs of telecommunications firms, he argues. “The biggest pain-point right now is just to add devices, which requires several key stakeholders to collaborate for a joint successful process that will take care of the actual cellular enablement, the networking implementation and the security access management,” explains Mor. “We provide end-to-end solutions that bridge all the parts and create a centralized management and control process. The majority of devices on these networks are OT devices, sensors, and other specialized devices – which exist already, and don’t have SIM slots. For example, utilities don’t want to change all of their grid devices, so they retrofit cellular via an adapter, which dramatically opens up security concerns and the need for a ZTNA solution.”
Mor is using utility networks as an example; but the principle applies across the Industry 4.0 game, he says. “It is the same with Automated Guided Vehicles in factories and warehouses. Enterprises connect non-cellular assets like vehicles and smart meters to cellular routers and then onboard them to the private network. While this works well, it creates a huge challenge from a visibility perspective. The cellular side only sees up to the SIM in the adapter; none of the downstream systems or machinery are visible. This is both an operational limitation and a security risk, since the enterprise can’t see whether critical business processes are functioning or bad actors are present behind the scenes.”
This is the specific problem that OneLayer is focused on. Standard cellular MDM platforms, as offered in even the most advanced private LTE/5G management platforms from big network vendors, will not cut it, he says. This is why Nokia has embedded the OneLayer platform in MXIE and why Ericsson is featuring it as part of its own Industry 4.0 offer. “Enterprises need a way to remotely control and manage all devices connecting to the cellular network – whether they have SIM or use a router or adapter to connect indirectly. The impact is felt very early in the SIM and device provisioning process. When hundreds of SIMs are sent to the grid or the factory to be manually inserted into devices, one small error is all it takes to cause negative business impacts,” he says.
The introduction of eSIMs and iSIMs, enabling remote provisioning and visibility, will simplify the process, he notes, but even eSIMs will pose operational challenges”, he remarks. By the time eSIMs will be widely adopted, private LTE/5G networks will be scaling faster, and the amount of devices that need to receive the correct profiles will be even broader.
OneLayer takes an ecosystem-focused approach, integrating with existing enterprise security platforms from vendors like Cisco and Palo Alto Networks for capabilities like security policy enforcement. This gives enterprises a unified approach that extends from IT networks to OT, IoT, and cellular, says Mor. “We provide visibility, governance, and orchestration, but we don’t force enterprises to create an entirely new enforcement model. Instead, OneLayer gives existing security tools the context needed to be effective. Enterprises already have major investments in security tools and processes, and our goal is to extend them into the private 5G and LTE world.”
“OneLayer is at the intersection of security and operations. Our role starts with onboarding assets in a secure manner. We then give enterprises the ability to see and control what’s on the network – so it can be governed, authenticated, and authorized in a way that is both secure and resilient operationally.” Right; and so what’s next? Mor does not miss a beat “The sky is the limit. But the plan is this: as these networks scale, their needs will shape, and we will be there to support them on their journey.”
He explains: “The challenge today is to onboard and manage devices securely in private networks; the challenge in the future is how to do that at scale. We see it already in these bigger deployments, including for one customer with 1.5 million devices. So we have a glimpse of that, and our offer evolves with our customer needs. The five-year horizon is about managing devices in and out of private networks at scale, in a way that adheres to security across enterprise networks. Ten years down the road, these networks are part of the enterprise stack, integrated with Wi-Fi and IoT. They won’t be treated in silos anymore. We will likely evolve beyond cellular as well, to cover Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, and other technologies used in the enterprise setting.”
