A new study from Juniper Research has found that enterprise spending on private networks will near $10 billion globally by 2028; rising from $1 billion in 2023.
Juniper said that there were three areas which were growing:
1. Manufacturing – 35 per cent
2. Energy – 20 per cent
3. Public Services – 16 per cent
An important factor is the need for private networks that can support high device densities and operate over large geographical areas, the report said.
Private networks use mobile technologies to provide a closed network than can be fully managed by enterprises. Private networks cannot be accessed by any cellular connection, only those authorised by the network itself.
The report said that the manufacturing market demands more frictionless coordination of automated processes and devices, thus requiring high-levels of orchestration via software-defined networks. This complexity means that manufacturing will be a key use case for the more rapid adoption of 5G private networks, due to its infrastructure supporting high-device density operations and ultra-low latency properties.
As network complexity increases, the report urges private network vendors to offer an ongoing managed service approach to enterprises. This will enable private network vendors to maintain a continuous relationship with their customers and benefit from recurring revenue. Ongoing technical support and other value-added services will be necessary to maximise the value proposition to customers.
Additionally, the research predicts that spectrum resource management will be the key determining factor in the quality of service provision to minimise network interference. As a result, network slicing will emerge as a key technology for vendors to ensure that high throughput to private network connections is guaranteed for end users.
