Fun With Data - Private Mobile Networks
Private Mobile Networks are just like public mobile networks but they are not accessible to individuals unless you are part of the organization that owns them. Inherently they would be smaller and in many cases company specific, but they have characteristics similar to large public mobile networks, without many of the regulatory issues and requirements that public networks are burdened with. There are lots of potential investors in private mobile networks, and by that we mean potential customers that could build such networks for themselves or others.
Industry organization GSA (Global Mobile Suppliers Association) has identified 626 organizations in 55 countries or territories where private network deployments (4G or 5G) have been made or licenses granted for same have been issued, including 71 network operators. As part of the same database there have been 187 active private mobile network projects identified and at least 50 vendors who are providing equipment for such networks and projects, so we see the segment as one that not only has its own cost/return characteristics but is not growth limited by competition.
Industry organization GSA (Global Mobile Suppliers Association) has identified 626 organizations in 55 countries or territories where private network deployments (4G or 5G) have been made or licenses granted for same have been issued, including 71 network operators. As part of the same database there have been 187 active private mobile network projects identified and at least 50 vendors who are providing equipment for such networks and projects, so we see the segment as one that not only has its own cost/return characteristics but is not growth limited by competition.
In most cases such private mobile networks are local, meaning single sites or campus locations, with 33% of those identified and an additional 21% assumed to be LANS, while city-wide or National private networks make up ~13% (33% unidentified), which is not surprising as these are in many cases, specific use networks, meaning attached to a particular company or type of organization, but when viewing the breakdown of industry segments (Fig. 2) that are deploying private mobile networks, there are some such as rail or O&G that would be candidates for WAN networks to maintain control over assets that are widely dispersed. LTE (4G) is still the most common private mobile network technology but while we expect the share of WAN networks to remain relatively constant, we expect the share of 5G networks to continue to grow as new deployments would likely be 5G based or a combination of both.
Private Network Deployments - Technology - Source: GSAcom
Manufacturing is by far the sector with the most private network deployments, and factory or campus networks that allow personnel, autonomous vehicles, or stationary devices to utilize location data, IoT, and individual communications networks that are factory bound, are relatively commonplace, but there are many other industry sectors that have need, either for security reasons or for logistics, that need to be ensured that they will be able to communicate with critical infrastructure, be it local or otherwise. Some can be critical, such as mining, where local nodes are in flux as locations change, or logistics, where a waste number of assets must be tracked, while others less so, such as government networks, which can be used for specialized announcements or notifications for a select group of members or constituents.
Breaking down the manufacturing segment further, the automotive sector has been a strong proponent of private mobile networks, given what can be a vast facility such as the Volkswagen (VOW.GR) plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, that covers 6.5 square miles (3x the size of Monoco) and has ~60,000 employees (48% of the entire population of Wolfsburg), or the Hyundai (005380.KS) Motor plant in Ulsan, South Korea that covers ~5 square miles, employs ~34,000, and has its own fire station, hospital, sewage treatment plant, and roads. However we see few limitations and progressively more opportunities for same as data networks evolve and the need to build out concurrent mobile networks increases proportionally. Collecting lots of data is a good thing but the objective is to use that data to make meaningful improvements in operations. Those improvements are made by management, engineers, and line works who must be informed as to how those changes are being manifested, and getting all interested parties in one place for a meeting can be quite difficult. Getting information to the proper parties makes private mobile networks an obvious option.
Breaking down the manufacturing segment further, the automotive sector has been a strong proponent of private mobile networks, given what can be a vast facility such as the Volkswagen (VOW.GR) plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, that covers 6.5 square miles (3x the size of Monoco) and has ~60,000 employees (48% of the entire population of Wolfsburg), or the Hyundai (005380.KS) Motor plant in Ulsan, South Korea that covers ~5 square miles, employs ~34,000, and has its own fire station, hospital, sewage treatment plant, and roads. However we see few limitations and progressively more opportunities for same as data networks evolve and the need to build out concurrent mobile networks increases proportionally. Collecting lots of data is a good thing but the objective is to use that data to make meaningful improvements in operations. Those improvements are made by management, engineers, and line works who must be informed as to how those changes are being manifested, and getting all interested parties in one place for a meeting can be quite difficult. Getting information to the proper parties makes private mobile networks an obvious option.
Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant - Source: VW
Identified Private Mobile Networks By Sector - Source: GSAcom
Private Mobile Network - Manufacturing Detail By Investor Group - Source: SCMR LLC, GDAcom
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