Verizon remains bullish on its 5G-based mobile edge compute (MEC) and private 5G network opportunities, though slower than expected uptake could limit the carrier’s ability to hit $2 billion in MEC and enterprise-related revenues by 2025.

CEO Hans Vestberg told an investor conference this week that “we’ve seen a little bit slower in the beginning,” adding that this has been partly due to network radio availability challenges that have in turn impacted service and deployment pricing options.

“We need certain radio base stations for private networks, different price ranges. We need modems for certain things. You need more than the handset and the macro sites that is now in there,” Vestberg said at Citi's 2023 Communications, Media, and Entertainment Conference. “We would now have offerings for cheaper private 5G networks with certain suppliers and more high level, high quality. We didn't have this optionality, and that's why we're now sort of seeing that we’re actually meeting the customer demands of building private 5G networks.”

Vestberg added that the carrier now has “the ecosystem for radios so we are fully committed. We strongly believe in private 5G networks, and that’s a revenue stream we don’t have today because we're not into Wi-Fi networks and optimization of a manufacturing site. We're not into that today.”

Verizon Business CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath during an investor conference in November said it had dozens of private networks already deployed, with accelerating momentum.

“On the private networks, we are very bullish on that opportunity and I think things have gotten a little faster in the last 90 days than they’ve gotten in the last year or so,” Sampath said, adding most of Verizon’s initial private network deals have resulted in incremental spending by customers.

“For example, if we are providing wireline network services – I’ll call it more broadly network services – to 10,000 stores, and if the realtor wants 100 sites or 200 sites of private network, they’re going to come to us because we are already integrated into their service stack, we are integrated into their day-two operating model, we are integrated into their operating system, so when a ticket happens they know what to do and vice versa,” Sampath said. “It’s a very logical extension to our business when you’re managing large portions of the infrastructure to manage their private network piece to it.”

Verizon has also hit a milestone in utilizing its deep millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum assets. Kyle Malady, EVP and president of global networks and technology at Verizon, said the carrier has now deployed more than 40,000 nodes beaming out mmWave spectrum.

“Now that millimeter-wave technology turns into a tool for RF engineers to use in hot spots that they have,” Malady said.

Verizon’s mmWave support for its 5G service is targeted at dense, urban environments where it can take advantage of that spectrum’s limited propagation characteristics. The carrier has repeatedly stated that where deployed, its mmWave spectrum carriers a good share of network traffic.

Those deployments also boosted by Verizon’s ongoing C-band spectrum build to support more localized fixed-wireless access (FWA) broadband services that continue to gain customer traction. Vestberg said the carrier has a goal of serving up to 5 million FWA customers “and the network will be able to handle that.”

“There might be, many, many years out, a conversation, ‘hey, do we split cells,’” Vestberg added in guiding the potential need to add more capacity for FWA service growth. “That’s not in the plans for the next four or five years, but after that it might be that we come back and say it’s a great opportunity. We split 10 cells here because we can get more subscribers. I think that’s a great conversation, and it’s going to be sort of success-based fixed-wireless access.”