Logicalis is getting into the red-hot private network business with a managed service that rides on Cisco's underlying platform.

The Logicalis Private Network Services includes the full deployment and management of a private wireless offering. Logicalis will oversee the on-site engineering, including site preparation, ordering of solution components, organization of the spectrum, SIM management, staging, creation of customer profiles, core and radio access network (RAN) installation.

Chris Calvert, VP of private wireless services for Logicalis US, explained that Cisco is providing its Private 5G platform, which includes the core that Logicalis’ 4G LTE and 5G service ride on. That core is available as a single standalone (SA) core or a high-availability three-server cluster.

Calvert added that his company is one of the first to launch commercial services using the Cisco platform. He explained that Logicalis’ history of working with service providers and enterprises in Europe helped convince Cisco that the company was worthy of that distinction.

“Cisco really wanted this to be a managed services-only solution,” Calvert said. “Basically, Logicalis is Cisco's customer. The combination of the industry expertise and the fact that we have a large managed services practice were really the driving forces behind Cisco selecting Logicalis as one of only two manufacturers that can actually provide this solution currently.”

Cisco launched its Private 5G platform at MWC Barcelona in 2022. It’s an as-a-service platform that can integrate with existing enterprise systems and Wi-Fi, is billed on a pay-per-use basis, and supports open radio access network (RAN) principles. It also supports multi-tenancy capabilities that in this instance means multiple local 5G service providers can share core network assets.

“The technology, in combination and integrated with the rest of the technology stack, can really solve significant customer problems,” Michael Beesley, CTO for service provider networking at Cisco, previously told SDxCentral. “So we’re bullish on the space and we continue to invest or even accelerate our investments.”

Logicalis also works with several RAN vendors, including Airspan Networks and JMA Wireless. Calvert added that they also have “paperwork signed” with other large players in the RAN space.

Most of Logicalis’ initial work has been with 4G LTE private networks, which Calvert said is mainly due to the maturity of that market compared to 5G.

“When you start looking at 5G, there's over 400 4G devices that are certified and there's not near as many 5G,” Calvert said. “Really the interoperability that we're seeing today and kind of what’s slowing 5G down is the number of [user equipment] that have been brought out there, that have been tested and certified.”

He also noted that 5G is challenged by RAN and core integration, “but it’s something that we are working through right now.”

“As a matter of fact, we have 5G up and running in our lab and we're feeling very confident,” Calvert said. “We've been working with our main services team to be able to support that and I'm very confident that once we get customers that are going to be utilizing the industry standard 5G devices, that we will be able to support that. So, interoperability wise it’s real good just on 4G, but 5G will happen this year, it'll happen in the next 12 months.”

Once that happens, Logicalis expects it will just need to replace some of its RAN equipment to upgrade a customer from 4G LTE to 5G.

The vendor mostly relies on the quasi-licensed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum band. This includes the use of the more strictly licensed priority access licenses (PAL) for one customer that was located close to the coast and an airport. Those are two geographic areas that have the highest restriction on CBRS license use due to legacy Department of Defense (DoD) needs.

Calvert noted that Logicalis is working with some operators in those instances that paid for exclusive access to those PAL licenses. Verizon, for instance, paid $1.9 billion for 557 CBRS licenses that it’s using to boost its 5G network in some markets.

“[Carriers are] two years into a tiered 10-year contract and so they're trying to get a return on their investment, so they're open to allowing enterprises to leverage those priority access licenses,” Calvert said of that arrangement.

That CBRS spectrum support also allows Logicalis to provide broader coverage than a traditional Wi-Fi network. The CBRS spectrum runs in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band, with the licensed nature of that spectrum allowing for more power transmission in those channels. In contrast, Wi-Fi networks can operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz bands, but the shared nature of those bands limit the power transmission of access points using Wi-Fi technology.

“You can deploy one cellular access point for every five indoor Wi-Fi access points that you would normally see for indoor deployments,” Calvert explained.

Customers can initially access that access point through with some flexibility. Most customers are coming into the program through a prepaid agreement for the first year that is based on the number of radios or devices needed for the service. Those customers can then move to a month-to-month program after that first year.

“And remember, we're dealing with legacy Cisco enterprise customers. They're used to buying that hardware and everything upfront. So most of them are wanting to do that even though we have an offering that will allow us to bundle all the hardware and everything in,” Calvert said. “But most customers are purchasing hardware upfront and then just paying for the main services and the subscriptions on a monthly basis.”

ABI Research ranked Logicalis in the “followers” category as part of the analyst firm’s ranking of SI provider of 5G services for enterprises. It was in that category alongside rivals Infosys, Wipro and WorldWide Technology (WWT). Logicalis was  below “market leaders” Tech Mahindra, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), NTT, Atos, and Capgemini Engineering as well as  “mainstream” vendors Accenture, TCS, and Kyndryl.

Many of these firms are also in the growing private network space competing against established communication service providers that are aggressively targeting the space.

Analysts have noted that despite the steep competition, traditional IT players are in a good position for the battle.

“True, the major [mobile network operators] have programs underway to offer private networks, either using their own spectrum or CBRS (in the U.S.),” Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR, wrote in a recent blog post. "But we believe that the MNOs will not drive the private network ecosystem and growth in the coming years, although they will be part of the solution in some cases. … But the names in private networks today … these are traditional IT names that many IT execs will be familiar with or are buying solutions from today. They have IT relationships and IT experience.”

Calvert concurred, noting that Logicalis stands out from that crowd due to its embedded experience in working with enterprises on their current network needs and its financial commitment to the endeavor.

“We're growing this team as we speak to be able to support our wireless practice, which is the team that I lead, the solutions architects, which are the ones that do all the preparation; the preparatory work, the final bill of materials, a statement of work; our professional services team, we were adding people to that team that are focused specifically on wireless, private wireless; and then also the managed services team have been very happy with the commitment that all the leaders from those individual business units inside Logicalis have committed to,” Calvert said.

“What we bring to the table is we already understand your enterprise network and we're just adding private wireless as an extension to that, and it'll be a very seamless deployment. If you've got some of that backend stuff already set up, Logicalis will be able to take care of that and roll anything, any work that you've done for your network switching and your Wi-Fi rollout, running into a private wireless solution.”