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BARCELONA, Spain — Cisco is introducing its private 5G for enterprises with the help of partners.
Cisco Private 5G is an as-a-service offering to foster a “new wave of productivity” for enterprises with mass-scale Internet of Things (IoT) adoption, according to the company last month.
The service is being offered under usage-based subscription pricing and can be private labeled by Cisco partners.
Cisco believes the combination of 5G, Wi-Fi, and IoT can allow enterprises to “connect more and do more,” in terms of people and devices, through analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation.
Cisco considers private 5G as “a complement” to the investments companies have made in Wi-Fi, Ethernet transport, and corresponding management systems.
The company sees private 5G enabling improved connectivity for a range of use cases, such as factory floors, supply chains, and enterprise campuses.
Cisco and its partners are working on private 5G offerings for customers in various industries, such as Network Rail, Toshiba, and Virgin Media O2.
Cisco Private 5G is built on the company’s mobile core technology and IoT portfolio, spanning IoT sensors and gateways, device management software, and monitoring dashboards.
Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) technology is a key component of the solution. As such, Cisco is collaborating on the offering with a pair of ORAN companies, JMA and Airspan.
Cisco has an “unbiased wireless strategy for the future of hybrid work,” said Jonathan Davidson, EVP and GM of the mass-scale infrastructure group at Cisco.
“5G must work with Wi-Fi and existing IT environments to make digital transformation easy,” Davidson said. “Businesses continuing their digitization strategies using IoT, analytics, and automation will create significant competitive advantages in value, sustainability, efficiency, and agility.”
Eric Stonestrom, chairman and CEO of Airspan, said developing innovative and customized 5G private network solutions for the enterprise market is “a major opportunity to monetize the many advantages of 5G technology.”
Joe Constantine, chief technology and strategy officer at JMA, said the partnership “opens a world of new possibilities for enterprises.”
