Cisco might be de-emphasizing its networking business, but a recent 5G-based private network partnership showed it’s not abandoning that market, which some analysts predict could be finally getting its legs.

Cisco’s latest work is with NEC to provide a private 5G network package using Cisco’s 5G standalone (SA) core and Cloud Control Center product with NEC’s validated network radio and systems integration services. This work is initially being targeted at Europe and the Middle East.

The two firms do have a history of working together, including a long-standing integrator partnership for 5G IP transport network equipment, 4G LTE equipment that combined NEC’s radio access network (RAN) and backhaul assets with Cisco’s network equipment, and network security efforts.

The latest work also builds on Cisco’s past 5G SA core work. This includes work with T-Mobile US in helping to power that carrier’s 5G SA core with various hardware and cloud-native software systems.

However, it also comes on the heels of Cisco dimming the spotlight on its legacy networking business in favor of a greater focus on growth segments in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and cybersecurity. That decision included a corporate restructuring that saw long-time networking chief Jonathan Davidson leave the vendor and plans to cut up to 7% of Cisco’s workforce.

Cisco’s private 5G moves come as the market finally seems to be gaining traction.

ABI Research in a new report found that private networks are finding a willing audience among manufacturing firms, “which are overwhelmingly integrating private cellular solutions into their operations.”

“Private cellular networks are rapidly becoming the backbone of manufacturers' digitization strategies, offering unparalleled control, reliability, and scalability,” ABI Research Principal Analyst Leo Gergs noted. “As manufacturers across industries increasingly look to modernize, 4G and 5G networks are at the forefront of this transformation, shaping the future of operational efficiency and connectivity.”

Gergs did explain that 4G LTE remains the “more mature and widely deployed” technology platform, but “5G is on the horizon, poised to revolutionize the sector with its promise of lower latency, higher speeds, and greater network capacity.”

SNS Telecom & IT found a similar 5G-focused surge, predicting that close to 60% of the forecast $6 billion in private network investments by the end of 2027 will be “directed toward the building out standalone private 5G networks.”

“This unprecedented level of growth is likely to transform private cellular networks into an almost parallel equipment ecosystem to public mobile operator infrastructure in terms of market size by the late 2020s,” the research firm stated.

Telecom operators are also bracing for this opportunity.

T-Mobile US recently unveiled a portable private 5G connectivity platform based around a small refrigerator-sized box that weighs around 200 pounds. It houses an Ericsson EP 5G box that runs as a private 5G core that can self-provision and attach itself to the T-Mobile macro-network in less than 48 hours.

Mishka Dehghan, SVP for strategy, product, and solutions engineering at T-Mobile US’ Business Group, explained in an interview that the product’s small stature is “about giving optionality to customers.”

“It’s going to enable businesses that have a need for a private network, but only on a temporary basis, to have access to a private network without the deployment costs, the deployment resources and the planning, the very long planning cycles that are typically required for a permanent private network deployment,” Dehghan said.

The product has already seen use in the media space, having been used at a pair of golf tournaments. The carrier has also used its network slicing capabilities to support broadcast media efforts.

Dehghan did add that the portable system is complimentary to the carrier’s broader private 5G efforts, noting that the latter is a fixed-location product that typically has a longer-deployment cycle and higher costs.

Verizon is also seeing growing momentum.

“We were doing a couple of private networks a month, we are doing a lot more than that,” Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO for Verizon’s Consumer Unit, recently told an audience at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet and Communications Conference 2024.
This echoed comments from Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg who told investors during the carrier’s second-quarter earnings call that progress was indeed at hand and helping to bolster other opportunities.

“On the 5G use cases, now we start talking more and more about private networks because the number of them are many, then the value of them are still fairly small,” Vestberg said. “But when we build that base of private network, managed spectrum for enterprises, that, over time, is going to be a great opportunity for our enterprise sales force to add in, do the mobile edge compute.”