Cellnex has inked another deal to roll out a private 5G network for an enterprise customer, this one marking its entry into the automotive sector.
The fast-growing neutral host company will deploy a private 5G network for engineering group Segula Technologies at its test centre in Rodgau-Dudenhofen, Germany. The pair are talking up the usual advantages of private 5G, namely low latency, dedicated spectrum, enhanced security and so forth. These attributes will help Segula serve its car manufacturing customers and tier one suppliers, they said.
This is a valuable deal for Cellnex. Naturally, we can’t put an actual figure on it, but it forms part of a broader push by the firm, which was once thought of as exclusively a towers company, into the neutral host market, where – to be blunt about it – it is essentially eating the mobile operators’ lunch.
We have heard so much from mobile operators about the opportunities 5G affords, beyond the provision of ever-increasing data packages to smartphone users. The enterprise space in particular could be a money-spinner, but when it comes to private 5G networks, the telcos are not taking the impetus, leaving the market to others, including the big equipment makers and alternative service providers.
Cellnex’s Edzcom business, which will deliver the Segula contract, falls into the latter category, as a specialist provider of private networks and edge connectivity.
