Hyperscalers get serious about private 5G

Enterprises from across different sectors are increasingly attracted to using customised private wireless networks rather than relying on public networks. Private networks using LTE technology have existed for some time but on a relatively small scale. Private 5G, though, represents a significant market opportunity; a range of ecosystem players, not just telecoms operators, are aiming to take advantage. Leading cloud infrastructure and application providers (the so-called hyperscalers) are launching private 5G enterprise solutions, reflecting their appetite to take a growing share of this expanding market.

We provide an update on the involvement of hyperscalers in private 5G and examine their strengths and weaknesses versus telecoms operators, paying particular attention to Alphabet (Google Cloud), Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure).