Verizon Business made a certification move to add Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) platform to the list of private network systems supported by the carrier’s licensed spectrum-based private 5G business.

The carrier completed first-phase certification of Nokia’s DAC to run on the Verizon Business Private 5G Network offering. This includes the important distinction for the platform’s ability to tap into Verizon’s extensive licensed spectrum.

If Nokia gains full certification, Verizon will add the vendor’s platform commercial lineup where it can be used in the carrier’s innovation labs for enterprise customer trials.

Nokia’s DAC is designed to address private wireless connectivity and operational technology needs in industrial sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, ports, airports, utilities, mining and agriculture. The vendor last year added its private 5G platform to its lab-as-a-service, allowing device vendors and enterprises to test interconnectivity on top of Nokia’s DAC and modular private wireless networks.

David de Lancellotti, VP of Nokia’s Enterprise Campus Edge Business, explained in a statement that Verizon’s use of Nokia’s DAC platform to date has been focused on “dedicated and unlicensed spectrum implementations in Europe and the U.S.” This includes use of the quasi-licensed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum.

“We are excited to expand our partnership to include licensed spectrum implementations in North America and leverage our Nokia DAC private wireless and digitalization platform to accelerate the proliferation of 5G and industry 4.0’s transformation,” de Lancellotti stated. “This is a strategic growth area for Nokia and having a go to market partner like Verizon is pivotal to our success.”

The Nokia move adds a new option for Verizon’s private network plans, which have predominately relied on equipment and services from Nokia’s rival Ericsson. This was highlighted by a deal announced just days ago that has Ericsson providing its private network platform to Verizon as part of a neutral host and private 5G deal at a Cummins engine plant in Lakewood, New York.

That deployment includes the first use of Verizon’s newly launched Neutral Host Network platform, which will act as an on-premises centralized host supporting cellular connections for Verizon and other cellular operators, and a Verizon Private 5G Network that will use Verizon’s licensed spectrum to support business-critical applications. These include autonomous mobile robots; augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) training and troubleshooting; sensor monitoring; and onsite proprietary applications.

The network will cover the site’s 1 million square feet of industrial space and 1 million square feet of outdoor space that support 1,500 onsite employees that produce approximately 500 heavy-duty truck engines per day.

Verizon Business executives have repeatedly cited the carrier’s licensed spectrum position as being key to it differentiating itself in the expansive private network space.

“I think you’re seeing that pivot with more customers moving away from CBRS into licensed spectrum. That’s where I believe we can truly bring a unique, differentiated experience to our customer because we can carry that beyond the borders or their enterprise footprint into the macro network and beyond,” Scott Lawrence, SVP for global solutions at Verizon Business,  told SDxCentral. “And then you start layering capabilities like standalone core and slicing that gives you even more ability to drive unique use cases through edge compute and the slicing capability. CBRS will have certain limitations into really unlocking the true value of what Verizon can bring, and that’s leveraging our licensed spectrum.”

Despite market adoption challenges, Verizon continues to tout headway in that space and how it will help grow other use cases.

“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,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told investors during the carrier’s most recent earnings call. “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.”

Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO for Verizon’s Consumer Unit, recently told an audience at Deutsche Bank’s 32nd Annual Media, Internet and Telecom Conference that the carrier is indeed seeing private network traction boosted by the carrier’s ongoing 5G network updates.

“We used to do one or two deals a month,” Sampath said of the carrier’s private network business. “Now, we are doing significantly more deals a month, some high-profile deals in that space. There’s continued growth in wireless in the space.”

The move is also significant for Nokia, which is viewed as a leading equipment and services provider in the private network space. The vendor counts more than 730 private wireless customers globally, including 167 in North America, and CEO Pekka Lundmark recently told investors as part of the vendor’s latest earnings call that private networks have “been consistently delivering double-digit growth.”

Nokia recently updated that push by adding its enterprise connection-focused MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) platform to run on top of the DAC platform. MXIE includes compute, storage, networking and application management functions and basically acts as an on-premises edge platform for the management of operational technology services, including private networks.

“What we want to be able to do is to make sure that instead of having multiple edges in the campuses, how do you bring these edges together and drive new types of use cases,” Raghav Sahgal, president of Nokia’s Cloud and Network Services (CNS) division, told SDxCentral in a recent interview about Nokia’s MXIE platform. “Then further, how do you actually go to the far edge of these devices because there is compute that could be done at the far edge, at the edge and how do you establish that. We do that through what is called the grid architecture of the edge that we've established.”

A recent report from Dell’Oro Group named Nokia as one of the dominant players in the private radio access network (RAN) space, which it said surged 40% last year, and is expected to grow at a 21% compound annual growth rate over the next five years to as much as $2 billion in total sales by 2028.