NTT and Cisco said they will jointly build and market technology and managed services that will enable enterprise customers to deploy private 5G.
The partnership will accelerate edge connectivity through NTT’s Managed Private 5G solution, combined with Intel hardware. This will allow Cisco and NTT customers to easily integrate private 5G into their pre-existing LAN/WAN/cloud infrastructure.
These mega-players seek to meet the needs of the growing number of enterprises investing in network modernization for security, productivity, sustainability and other corporate goals. Many are turning to private 5G.
Cisco and NTT are working together to help enterprise customers accelerate digital transformation with 5G and Wi-Fi in IT and OT operations, according to Masum Mir, senior vice president and general manager for carrier mobility at Cisco Networking.
The cloud-managed private 5G will enable easy integration with customers’ enterprise networks and “provides a common policy and zero-trust security architecture,” Mir said in a statement accompanying the joint announcement. The goal is to minimize the technical, financial and operational risks associated with managing 5G networks, he said.
Private 5G: Report for Action
“Private 5G is emerging as a solution for enterprises looking for granular deployment, higher speed and better security capabilities than Wi-Fi and 4G LTE can offer,” Parm Sandhu, vice president, enterprise products and services, told VentureBeat 5G, NTT. “Reduced latency is believed to better enable data-intensive Industry 4.0 and other applications such as push-to-talk walkie-talkie communications, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), always-connected computing (for digital-first workers line), machine vision (eg predictive maintenance, PPE detection) and more,” Despite initial slow uptake, 5G of the private variety is gathering momentum.
According to IDC, the global private 5G market is expected to exceed $8 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.7% from 2022. Further indicative of this demand is NTT’s Global Network Report, which revealed that 70% of C-level executives say their current network is negatively impacting their business and that 86% plan to adopt private 5G to drive network modernization. Such data piques the interest of NTT, Cisco and others.
Computational vision, predictive analysis between targets
Cisco and NTT have already begun to coordinate on various customer deployments. The two companies plan to power computer vision for product quality analysis, predictive analytics for manufacturing equipment functionality and maintenance, and autonomous vehicles to move products around the factory floor using NTT’s IoT-connected solutions.
NTT claims to have the world’s first fully managed private 5G platform. The company has multi-year agreements with innovative brands such as Celona, VMware, Albemarle, ServiceNow, Schneider Electric and BMW Innovation Hub.
NTT also helped Frankfurt Airport build Europe’s largest private 5G network and the city of Las Vegas deploy the largest private 5G network in the US
“We are confident that we will be well-positioned to expand our ecosystem that will enable private enterprise 5G networks to scale and ultimately help companies achieve better business outcomes across industries,” said Sandhu.
Cisco, meanwhile, has been active in 5G news beyond its deal with NTT. Much of this news coincided with this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The company launched Meraki 5G gateways with T-Mobile. secured an agreement with Vtal to build a multi-tenant 5G network in Brazil. and said it is working with Intel to create “global 5G innovation centers” to test 5G applications and use cases.
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