Industry 4.0

Physical AI for robot automation in factories and plants requires lightweight maths models, not token-hungry language models, says NTT Data. It does not have to wait on expensive GPUs, when CPUs work fine. But it does need private 5G for …

Industrial humanoid robots and physical AI are moving from pilot to production – as Siemens, Nvidia, and lots of private 5G providers (including Nokia) roll up to Hannover Messe. In summary – what to know: Siemens et al – demonstrate …

Bain & Company warns that traditional industrial control systems are losing their central role as AI and smart devices redefine the economic landscape. By 2030, software, AI workflows, and intelligent field devices will capture the bulk of industry profit. In …

Ericsson has new tie-ups with system integrators Future Technologies and NTT Data to combine private 5G and physical AI in Industry 4.0. Ericsson appears to be picking up where Nokia has dropped off; Future Technologies is growing 35% per year.  …

Partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, AWS, and industrial IoT specialist Geoforce show how AT&T is positioning fibre, edge infrastructure, and enterprise connectivity to support AI workloads from data centre to factory floor. In sum – what to know: Smart factories – …

Debate at the UPTIME forum today highlighted Asia Pacific’s fragmented regulatory and structural barriers for private 5G – in India, in particular, where Vodafone Idea argues IT/OT integration and use-case planning failures have hit take-up (but where telcos are ready …

As industrial AI and automation grow, reliable connectivity will matter as much as the machines themselves As the adoption of automation, robotics, and industrial AI accelerates, the network has now become the factor that determines how reliably these systems operate. …

Private 5G is outpacing Wi-Fi for its early growth, and its trajectory is diverging as well. Just as Nokia checks-out, Ericsson argues that a rising tide of high-value industrial use cases is making the case for private 5G very clear …

Ericsson won’t be drawn on Nokia’s retreat, but it’s happy to talk about its own momentum in the private 5G market: rising deployments, surging traffic, and sales that are outrunning the early years of Wi-Fi. Far from stalling, it suggests …

At Industrial Wireless Forum, industry leaders explored how agentic AI running on private 5G is transforming factories and plants. The discussion highlighted not just the technology, but the architectural, connectivity, and data governance foundations that are essential to turn AI …

Private 5G is often dismissed as a niche – slow, complex, and commercially uncertain – but this view misses the point. As analysts argue, its real value lies in transforming mission-critical industries, aligning with emerging AI-driven automation, and delivering genuine …

Nokia’s latest strategic reboot – splitting its business in two and sidelining private networks – looks like a bold bet on an AI-fuelled future. But in shedding the unit where it is market leader, the company risks abandoning an innovative …

Private 5G is becoming a key pillar of industrial digitalisation, and yet it still presents problems for global enterprises in terms of spectrum regulation, radio design, and ecosystem partners. Deployment blueprints are hard to come by, but not out of …

China Mobile International is positioning itself as an enabler of cross-border private 5G deployments, helping Chinese enterprises build advanced industrial networks overseas while supporting global manufacturers entering China. The firm explains how China’s operator-led model, vast ecosystem, and turnkey delivery …

Private 5G and generative AI are redefining industrial connectivity and intelligence – but do they truly depend on one another? This discussion explores how these enabling technologies overlap, complement, and diverge in the enterprise stack – as manufacturers and operators …

Private equity firm TPG is to buy Kepware and ThingWorx from PTC for up to $725 million. It marks a final shift in PTC’s Industry 4.0 strategy, and a tightening of focus on its industrial PLM portfolio. The deal also …

As enterprises rush to deploy AI across their factories and logistics sites, the less glamorous work of radio design has never mattered more. US network design firm iBwave argues that escalating AI workloads depend first on getting the private 5G …

AI is reshaping industrial operations – from real-time quality control to predictive maintenance and digital copilots on the factory floor. As these AI workloads become more mobile, data-intensive, and time-sensitive, private cellular networks are emerging as the critical infrastructure to …

There is a sense, increasingly, that all Industry 4.0 roads lead to here; that all the new remote-worker and production-line applications that private 5G has brought into view in recent times will gain absolute focus with generative AI – to …

Beyond high-profile global consumer and consumer-enterprise disruptions, the AWS and Vodafone outages this month show how Industry 4.0 can fail without proper cloud and network redundancy. Fallible cloud – even highly redundant hyperscalers like AWS can fail, revealing hidden single …

US industrial integrator Future Technologies has completed a strategic recapitalization with local private equity firm Battle Investment Group to become North America’s largest private 5G provider within 12 months, using its new equity for acquisitions and expansion amid surging demand …

T-Mobile is upping its enterprise game with a new private-like 5G connectivity play. The US carrier, long chasing AT&T and Verizon in the business market, has launched a pseudo-private 5G service, Edge Control, that leverages its advanced 5G infrastructure to …

Industrial AI has moved from experimental pilots to boardroom strategy. The global market was worth $43.6 billion in 2024, and is growing at 23 percent per year. While most of the real value still lies in proven, production-grade use cases …

IoT has always been more concept than category – like a loose collection of private device networks. And it makes increasingly good sense to enterprises alongside industrial 5G networks and industrial AI systems. New research from Verizon Business says IoT …

Three sides of Industry 4.0 – industrial 5G in numbers (part 1) Private 5G continues to outpace the broader telecoms market, with enterprise deployments expanding and industrial use cases taking shape. New data from Dell’Oro Group shows sustained almost-double-digit growth …