Deutsche Telekom unveiled the commercial availability of a full-stack private 5G network service that rides on Microsoft’s Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC) platform. The service, which Deutsche Telecom dubbed Campus Network Smart, is designed to focus on campus environments and complements the carrier’s already-established private network work targeted at industrial applications.

The new service runs on Microsoft’s Azure private MEC, which includes the cloud giant’s Azure Private 5G Core deployed on its Azure Stack Edge. This cloud-based platform is designed to allow Deutsche Telekom to provide a scalable service using a pay-as-you-grow model.

Deutsche Telekom will provide the planning and build out of the private 5G campus network using Azure service with radio access network (RAN) components and managed services prevalidated to run on the Microsoft platform. The operator noted that users could also tap into its TeamViewer Frontline xAssist augmented reality (AR) support service that allows support technicians to view and interact with technical questions using AR glasses.

Microsoft unveiled its Azure private MEC platform in mid-2021, and launched commercial availability of its Private 5G Core at this year’s MWC Barcelona 2023 event. The hyperscaler at that event also unveiled its initial campus-focused private 5G work with Deutsche Telekom.

Deutsche Telekom also partners with Microsoft’s hyperscale rivals. For example, it’s working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a number of fronts, including as one of the initial carrier partners for its Integrated Private Wireless on AWS platform that was unveiled earlier this year. That platform functions as an infrastructure bridge for operators that want to offer a private network service tapping into AWS’ infrastructure to end users.

The carrier is also working with Google Cloud on features like a (5G) standalone service, testing Google Cloud’s Distributed Cloud Edge (GDC Edge) platform to support infrastructure and services closer to the end user, and trialing Google’s data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) features to try and improve actionable insights into customer needs and to service offerings.

Despite that breadth of work, analysts are curtailing the impact hyperscalers are likely to have near term on the market.

Dell’Oro Group recently predicted hyperscalers will hold less than 10% of the 5G SA workload market by 2027.

“The forecast has been reduced due to the slow migration to 5G SA by mobile network operators for their [enhanced mobile broadband] networks and by enterprises for their 5G SA private wireless networks,” Dave Bolan, research director at Dell’Oro Group, wrote. “Some enterprise networks are commercially deployed, but most are long-term proofs-of-concept or field trials, lasting as long as a few years. As a result, we forecast that [hyperscale cloud providers] such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure will capture a cumulative 6% of the market revenues over the next five years by hosting 5G workloads on their respective public clouds.”

The Deutsche Telekom commercial private 5G launch comes as analyst firms continue to predict robust enterprise traction for private networks, but also note ongoing integration challenges.

SNS Telecom & IT recently predicted global spending on private LTE and 5G network infrastructure for vertical industries will grow at am 18% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between this year and 2026, and account for more than $6.4 billion in revenues by the end of that timeline. It added that it expects 40% of that spend will be for standalone private 5G networks “that will become the predominant wireless communications medium to support the ongoing Industry 4.0 revolution for the digitization and automation of manufacturing and process industries.”

“This unprecedented level of growth is likely to transform private LTE and 5G networks into an almost parallel equipment ecosystem to public mobile operator infrastructure in terms of market size by the late 2020s,” the firm added.

Iyad Tarazi, president and CEO of private network provider Federated Wireless, is also optimistic about market opportunities, but told SDxCentral in a recent interview that deployment realities remain a challenge.

“A year-and-a-half ago, the belief was that private wireless was going to be driven primarily by the creation of these new types of desegregated or open wireless system, ecosystems, cloud solutions that we’re going to drive it and that were going to be one of the biggest accelerators in the market on the tail-end of announcements from several cloud companies about what they can do, AWS being one of them,” Tarazi said. “That developed for some time and then it started reaching some limitations, and the limitation that we’re learning is that this is not a product business, this really is an integration business.”

Tarazi’s sentiment was echoed by a recent Analysys Mason report that cited that integration challenges continue to stifle growth, with system integrators (SIs) finding issues in getting equipment from different vendors to work seamlessly. Deutsche Telekom’s reliance on prevalidated components from Microsoft is one way to tackle this challenge.

“Having multiple vendors in a single network requires complex testing and optimization and significantly expands the role of the integrator, creating opportunities for vendor-neutral SIs but new challenges for operators,” Analysys Mason Senior Analyst James Kirby wrote. “These challenges relate to technical scope, but also vendor/operator communication, problem resolution and after-service support.”