Cisco remains confident that the private network space will grow to its long-heralded potential, but that growth will come with challenges tied to 5G deployment models and the need for continued patience.

“We’re definitely still seeing interest in the private network space, but the movement and actual adoption and getting productive has not been as fast as we thought it would be,” Masum Mir, SVP and GM for Cisco Networking and its Provider Mobility business, told SDxCentral.

Mir said that paced adoption is due to several factors, including the inherent complexity of private 5G networks and 5G device integration challenges.

“Our observation working with enterprises has been this: Wherever you go for that solution, it needs to be actually simpler and enterprise grade and enterprise friendly,” Mir said. “You're taking a very carrier-centric, cellular technology to an enterprise environment, but we have to pay attention to removing the friction of enterprise operation and one of the key areas on that front is coexistence with what they have in Wi-Fi that is so pervasive in an enterprise. That seamless coexistence with their Wi-Fi infrastructure and private cellular is a friction point that we see.”

Mir also noted that the device ecosystem is still evolving in terms of support for newer 5G standards, which means many enterprises are very reliant on Wi-Fi enabled devices to run on their private networks.

These challenges require vendors to provide enterprises with the necessary software stack that can seamlessly deal with technology integration while at the same time maintaining an enterprise’s security posture.

“Don't break the zero-trust architecture that they have been on the journey,” Mir said. “So, common identity, tying into the same segmentation strategy regardless of your access stack is resonating really, really well.”

Another challenge that continues to haunt the private 5G space is how the service is often marketed to enterprises. There are currently several avenues enterprises can take toward installing a private network, which are often tied to a technology or spectrum decision.

Most current deployments use Wi-Fi technology and unlicensed spectrum, which has reached a certain level of operational comfort for all involved. More advanced systems are starting to use cellular technology – either 4G LTE or 5G – and licensed or quasi-licensed spectrum. This latter model can provide a higher level of performance than legacy models.

Mir noted that the challenge with newer models tied to cellular technology and licensed spectrum is an added layer of complexity for an enterprise and how operators are attempting to market those models.

“In our view there are two camps on mobile operators,” Mir said. “One camp is the mobile operators who also happen to have very robust enterprise businesses. They often can look at technology from an enterprise point of view. And there are other camps who are operators that are extremely mobile savvy, but they have only served consumers for a long time. For them, it is an outside-in effort that is all about coverage.”

Mir said operators in the first camp are the ones that Cisco will typically partner with to construct a more complete package for enterprises.

“They bring their deep mobile expertise, not only for private but for expanding from private to nationwide networks, and we bring our platform and enterprise integration,” Mir said. “We strongly believe that this that type of ecosystem is going to help us accelerate adoption. The outside-in model with similar coverage is going to cause a lot of friction because it will create shadow networks within enterprises.”

Private 5G was a hot topic at the recent MWC Barcelona 2024 event, though mostly for potential rather than reality.

“Private networks are still largely a technology searching for a value proposition,” Dan Hays, a partner at consulting firm PwC, said during a press briefing from the event.

Hays said that there continues to be a large amount of interest and trials of private networks, “but private wireless largely is still not seeing a huge uptick and adoption at the enterprise level just yet.”

That sentiment has been echoed by operators that continue to see limited traction in the space. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg noted during an earnings call late last year that while the operator is seeing increased interest, he does not expect private networks to start contributing “any significant revenues that have an impact on Verizon overall in 2024. We’re going to see that in 2025.”

Verizon has scored some recent deals on large-scale private network deployments, which Hays calls “wide area or pseudo-wide area type of environments.”

“Things like large ports or large manufacturing facilities that have a combination of indoor and outdoor capabilities,” Hays explained. “Those are very much in the crosshairs for private networks and the topic of a lot of conversation here.”

Analysts have noted that journey could see total spend on private networks surpass $9 billion by 2028.

Cisco’s Mir added that Cisco is seeing “amazing growth” in the private network market, but it will take time.

“I strongly believe that we have to have patience because it is a complete ecosystem rebuild. We underestimate that,” Mir said of what he calls a “mega shift” for enterprises. “We're seeing an amazing amount of growth that's already happening on the public network side of things so it's how we leverage that technology but for enterprises. We don't want to compromise simplicity and we need to make sure we don't take enterprises backward on their cybersecurity and identity posture management as we introduce this technology.”