Increasing 5G capabilities will bring the annual spending of private cellular networks on hardware and services to almost $12 billion by 2023, a report by Juniper Research has revealed.

This would represent a growth of 116% from $5.5 billion – which is the figure expected for this year.

The report, titled Private Cellular Networks: Spectrum Assessment, Business Models & Forecasts 2021-2026 states that 5G deployments are a key factor with over 60% of base stations using 5G technology thanks to its low latency and signal propagation properties.

It also indicated that traditional operators risk missing out on much of the private network market.

“With private networks frequently entirely separate from public networks, the role of traditional mobile network operators can be minimal in many cases,” research author James Moar said.

“This means that hardware providers and systems integrators will play more dominant roles, given the right regulatory framework.”

Juniper Research says it believes that telecoms network vendors like Ericsson and Nokia are in the best position to capitalise on private networks as both offer hardware and services directly to a business without looking to use private networks.

Additionally, the report notes that networks will be almost entirely business-driven. The most prominent sectors, it says, will be manufacturing, mining and the energy industry: accounting for 59% of spending in 2023.

It also highlights the importance of spectrum and regulation stating that the largest markets have the most open or flexible spectrum allocation.

Germany and the USA are among the most advanced, offering localised leasing and general spectrum availability and as a result, those two countries will account for 30% of global network spend in 2023.

Although, the report says that this will decline as other countries release spectrum for private network usage.

https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/5g-to-accelerate-private-networks-spend-to-12-billion-by-2023-juniper-research/87134056