Matthew BoyleVerizon Business stands out as a leading player in the private 5G market, showcasing its prowess in deploying tailored solutions across diverse industries and global markets. Collaborations with prominent organizations like Cummins, Audi, and the Port of Virginia demonstrate Verizon’s ability to deliver robust Industry 4.0 connectivity, leveraging advanced technologies such as IoT sensors and machine learning.
Verizon Business’s Global Impact: Driving Innovation through Private 5G and Industry 4.0 Partnerships
In the automotive sector, Verizon’s partnership with Audi in Germany showcases extensive Industry 4.0 consulting and integration, facilitating streamlined R&D test cycles and regional connected driving scenarios. Similarly, deployments at the Port of Virginia highlight Verizon’s blueprint for success, replicating its achievements across adjacent interests and global markets.
Entertainment venues like Rocklahoma in the US also benefit from Verizon’s expertise, demonstrating the versatility of private 5G deployments beyond traditional industrial settings. Furthermore, Verizon’s pioneering agreement with Associated British Ports (ABP) in the UK marked a significant milestone in spectrum liberalization, enabling Verizon Business to operate effectively in new markets and compete with local incumbents.
Verizon Business’s strategic approach to private 5G deployment underscores its commitment to driving innovation and transforming connectivity solutions on a global scale.
1 | Cummins, US ( distinct manufacturing )
the one that claims Verizon Business can fulfill both a critical-grade and a general-purpose purpose at once. This dual deployment for US engine manufacturer Cummins includes both an all-edge private 5G network for hard-nosed Industry 4.0 connectivity and a natural host system for regular broadband connectivity. It covers a two-million square foot factory in New York state. Both systems use local tranches of its own C-band spectrum ( as opposed to shared CBRS spectrum ), with around 160 MHz available for 5G and about 40 MHz for 4G/LTE traffic, making this the first neutral host network Verizon Business has put in place in the US.
Ericsson is supplying the radio and core networks, which will see about 125 hardware radio “resources”, including six outside radios, bring coverage to the entire site. Verizon has cited different use cases for the private 5G network, including commercial vehicles and robots ( AGVs, AMRs, MIRs ) for handling and transporting materials, plus AR/VR for remote worker assistance and collaboration, production- line machine vision for defect detection, various sensors for machine health monitoring, and other specialized applications for” secure site operations”. The neutral host system was created because there is n’t enough public 5G coverage at the site, so it was chosen for laptops, phones, and other devices.
2 | Audi, Germany ( automotive testing )
The one that suggests Verizon Business can do extensive Industry 4.0 consulting and integration. Multiple cores, radio frequencies, and network technologies are used in this “highly customised” private 5G “environment” at an Audi test track in Germany to recreate the kinds of connectivity scenarios the automaker encounters when distributing cars to global markets. It features” custom replicas” of Verizon’s public network in the US, plus of various unnamed local European telcos, as well as the roaming network of an unnamed MVNO partner in Asia Pacific. On the current private 5G circuit, the project seems to stand out as a real standout.
It makes use of various equipment and services, including those from system integrator Smart Mobile Labs, edge/cloud vendor AWS, and network vendor Nokia. The theory is that because of its geographic flexibility, Audi can” streamline” its multi-territorial R&, D test cycle by reviving regional connected- driving conditions as the industry transitions to” software-defined vehicles.” The track and network, located 300 kilometres west of Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, are available to other brands from the Volkswagen Group. These include Škoda, SEAT, CUPRA, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, and Ducati, as well as Volkswagen itself. The network uses the 3.7- 3.8GHz private- 5G band in Germany.
3 | Port of Virginia, US ( port logistics )
The one that says Verizon Business has the blueprint, and can repeat the trick. Here, the US carrier strung together three wins, effectively, in neighbouring Virginia port operations: at the Norfolk International Terminal ( NIT ), the next- door Virginia International Terminal (VIT ), plus at another Port of Virginia property. But its real success was in the repetition, not just across adjacent interests, but across port operators, and also across global markets – its 2021 deal with Nokia to supply the Port of Southampton in the UK ( see below ), in the backyard of rival UK operators, sent shockwaves through the market, and presumably formed the template for its 2022/23 follow- ups in Virginia.
The NIT deployment ( 2023 ) covers 270 acres with localised tranches of its own ( non- CBRS ) spectrum, and is geared to replace a failing outdoor Wi- Fi architecture. The primary application is coverage for robust broadband communications with ruggedized industrial devices, as well as push-to-talk/video services. The VIT project ( 2022 ) is located at a primary container terminal in the port and is intended to be a more trustworthy alternative to Wi-Fi. It covers 275 acres. One of the most cutting-edge terminal operators in the world is referred to as VIT as “one of the most technologically advanced terminal operators in the world.” Logic says it is a coverage exercise, too, but the scope is for IoT, AI/ML, AR/VR to support various port whizz- bangery. In both deals, Ericsson is the supplier.
4 | Rocklahoma, US ( entertainment venues )
The one where the penny fell is that private 5G is not just about Industry 4.0’s nosey snobbery. ( And the one who provided the illustration and analogy for this article. ) Verizon Business has a bunch of similar 4G/5G gigs in entertainment venues of various sorts in the US – with the National Hockey League and the Miami Grand Prix, for instance– but this one, at a three- day rock festival in Oklahoma ( Rocklahoma ) is a fun one, and also a temporary fixture, which must surely have informed its late- 2023 drive into the US mid- market, which has seen it pick up multiple work with smaller factories, and flower farms, and other (unnamed ) “mom- and- pop” firms. The Rocklahoma stint, on Labor Day last year, involved a drag- and- drop 5G system from Celona.
The portable 5G system, running in CBRS spectrum, connected the 975, 000 square- foot event space with dedicated connectivity for back- of- house apps for staff, sponsors, and vendors. It covered car parks and admission gates, as well as stage and backstage areas – so point- of- sale devices, ticket/barcode scanners, and laptops worked smoothly. It was a straightforward connectivity exercise: it was first set up, then switched on, and then removed. But the reception was good, in all ways – the signal, the scanner, the transaction, the satisfaction. Similar to how Verizon has since pursued higher-hanging 5G fruit with the likes of Audi and Cummins ( see above ), Verizon has since harvested low-hanging 5G fruit in the same way.
5 | Port of Southampton, UK ( port logistics )
The one that started it all, which is now a bit of a fluke given how Verizon Business has since retooled its private- 5G ( ‘acceleration’) team to work smarter. The key to it all is, however, that this agreement with Associated British Ports ( ABP ) in the UK, which demonstrated how spectrum liberalization can be done in international markets, allowing a network operator’s parochial business arm to operate effectively in a new market and defeat local incumbents to the punch. In the wake of the likes of BT and Vodafone scratching their chins, Verizon Business did this at the Port of Southampton in the UK back in 2020/21. This time, Nokia was the vendor partner.
ABP chose US-based Verizon Business to demonstrate how after receiving an airtime license from UK regulator Ofcom to create a private 4G/5G network in band n77 ( 3300–3800 MHz ) at the “number one port for cars and cruise” in the country. As part of a non-US 5G supply agreement, Verizon Business selected Nokia to connect businesses in Europe and the Asia Pacific. The ABP deal, which Verizon Business described as the first of its kind, set off its campaign to “take private 5G global.” Like the NIT/VIT setups ( see above ), the remit was to replace ineffective Wi- Fi connectivity in the first instance, just to get stuff working that should be working, and then to expand with other Industry 4.0 pyrotechnics.
