NTT And Cisco said they will jointly build and market technology and managed services that enable business customers to deploy 5G privately.
The collaboration will accelerate edge connectivity through NTT’s Managed Private 5G solution, combined with Intel hardware. This allows Cisco and NTT customers to easily integrate private 5G into their existing LAN/WAN/cloud infrastructure.
These mega players are trying to meet the needs of the increasing number of companies investing in network modernization for security, productivity, sustainability and other business objectives. Many are turning to private 5G.
According to Masum Mir, senior vice president and general manager of provider mobility at Cisco Networking, Cisco and NTT are working together to help enterprise customers accelerate digital transformation with 5G and Wi-Fi for IT and OT operations.
Cloud-managed private 5G will enable easy integration with customers’ corporate network structures and provide “a common policy and zero trust security architecture,” Mir said in a statement accompanying the joint announcement. The goal is to minimize technical, financial and operational risks associated with managing 5G networks, he said.
Private 5G: report for action
“Private 5G is emerging as a solution for enterprises looking for granular deployment, higher speed and better security capabilities than Wi-Fi and 4G LTE can provide,” Parmesan cheese, vice president, enterprise 5G products and services, NTT, told VentureBeat. “The reduced latency would better enable data-intensive Industry 4.0 and other applications such as push-to-talk ‘walkie-talkie’ communications, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), always-connected PCs (for digital frontline workers), machine vision ( e.g. predictive maintenance, PPE detection) and more.” Despite an initial slow adoption, 5G of the private variety is gaining momentum.
According to IDCthe global residential 5G market is expected to exceed $8 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.7% from 2022. A further indication of this demand is NTT’s Global Network Report, which found that 70% of C-level executives say their current network is negatively impacting their business, and 86% plan to use private 5G to drive network modernization. Such data is of interest to NTT, Cisco and others.
Computer vision, predictive analytics under the targets
Cisco and NTT have already started coordinating several customer implementations. The two companies plan to power computer vision for product quality analysis, predictive analytics for manufacturing equipment functionality and maintenance, and autonomous vehicles for moving products around the factory floor, using NTT’s IoT-connected solutions.
NTT claims to have the world’s first fully managed enterprise private 5G platform. The company has multi-year agreements with innovative brands such as Celona, VMware, Albemarle, ServiceNow, Schneider Electric and BMW Innovation Hub.
NTT has also helped Frankfurt Airport build Europe’s largest private 5G network, and the City of Las Vegas deploy the largest private 5G network in the US.
“We are confident that we will be well positioned to expand our ecosystem, enabling enterprise private 5G networks to scale and ultimately help companies achieve better business outcomes across industries,” said Sandhu.
Cisco, meanwhile, was active in 5G news beyond its agreement with NTT. Much of that news coincided with this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The company launched Meraki 5G gateways with T-Mobile; signed a deal with Vtal to build a multi-tenant 5G network in Brazil; and said it is working with Intel to build “global 5G innovation centers” to test 5G applications and use cases.
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