Advancements in private cellular will continue to help enterprises connect valuable assets on a large scale
In November at re: Invent, AWS announced the preview of a turn-key private 5G solution with the focus of streamlining the time to deployment. The announcement from AWS is a huge leap forward for Private LTE and 5G. Complexity has been a challenge to adoption of Private Cellular Networks (PCNs) in the enterprise. To date, deciding on the right technology vendors for the different components of a PCN has been a headache. Establishing relationships with each of the vendors (i.e., RAN, EPC, SAS, etc.), testing the Private Cellular Networks products for interoperability and performance, and going through trainings can all be very time consuming. AWS is positioning itself as the aggregator — pulling the solution together, packaging it, and pricing it without a significant upfront capital expenditure required.
This turn-key end-to-end approach is the nirvana that much of the private cellular ecosystem has been searching for. However, as many industry experts have noted, there are still a lot of unknowns around the AWS 5G solution:
- What does this mean for communications service providers and value-added resellers?
- Who exactly are they going to be selling to and through?
- What hardware is AWS leveraging, and are there any limitations addressing size and scale of use cases?
- How does the design process work? Is AWS helping the customers with added services?
- What about deploying the hardware, specific requirements, or certifications?
- What does training and support after deployment look like?
- What are the compatibility limitations with existing applications and hardware?
- How much does it really cost?
While many factors remain unknown, it is great to see Hyperscalers take a more simplified approach to Private LTE and 5G. Cradlepoint’s user equipment (UE) routers delivered through Cradlepoint NetCloud Service take a similar simplified approach — at the enterprise edge connecting assets to support the business- and mission-critical applications that are perfect for private cellular. Zero-touch deployment capabilities, secure and scalable management, extensive product offerings, and interoperability testing with ecosystem partners have made Cradlepoint the preferred UE for many enterprise customers adopting private cellular.
We are excited to see the Private LTE and 5G world continue to evolve, and we welcome the innovation AWS brings to the table! This reaffirms Cradlepoint’s decision to invest in private cellular early on while bringing the same simple “it just works” philosophy to the edge of the network via NetCloud Service.