Private 5G networks have emerged as one of the most compelling opportunities for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to monetize their 5G investments. Enterprises across industries — including manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, utilities, education, and more — are turning to private 5G to support mission-critical applications, enable real-time automation, enhance security, and drive digital transformation.
A recent report by Juniper Research projects that global private cellular network revenue will reach $12.2 billion by 2028, up from $5.7 billion in 2025 — representing a growth rate of 114%.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution in private 5G. Business needs are as diverse as the verticals they belong to. However, some needs are common: simplicity, security, and visibility are paramount for any company planning to run all or part of its operations on a private 5G network. For CSPs, this means that deploying private 5G networks goes beyond building a dedicated core, provisioning spectrum, and deploying radios. The challenge lies in orchestrating an intricate — and often fragmented — ecosystem of devices, vendors, clouds, and enterprise applications, all while meeting stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and ensuring end-to-end security.
A few years into the private networks journey, some trends are becoming clear. On one hand, the market is gaining momentum, as seen in the Verizon and Nokia partnership to deploy six private 5G networks across Thames Freeport’s logistics and manufacturing hubs in the UK. On the other hand, AWS recently announced it is no longer offering its private 5G solution, citing limited spectrum and equipment options. These two announcements represent opposite ends of the private 5G spectrum. After more than five years of activity, designing, deploying, and operating private networks still requires extensive domain expertise. By nature, private networks remain bespoke, complex, and labor-intensive. Building the network is just the beginning. These networks must be continuously optimized to meet the performance needs of a wide range of business applications.
Many enterprise IT teams — while not necessarily cellular experts — are used to tools that offer real-time traffic visibility within their enterprise networks. They rely on this visibility not only for operational performance purposes but also for security. Private 5G must deliver the same level of visibility and security without adding complexity.
Private networks are also often expected to interoperate with public networks. Consider a scenario in which a delivery company builds a private 5G network for its distribution center. Large data uploads — such as vehicle telemetry — can be delayed until trucks return to the center. However, real-time asset tracking requires continuous connectivity between the vehicle and the enterprise application. These scenarios demand advanced connectivity solutions that integrate private 5G, roaming, and/or multi-SIM or eSIM technologies.
As private 5G gains momentum, CSPs face both a significant opportunity and major challenges. Delivering private networks at scale requires more than just technical expertise. It demands a smart, repeatable framework that ensures assurance, risk management, security, and seamless integration with public networks.
We believe there are five essential pillars for success:
1. AI-Powered Testing for Smarter Deployments
Traditional testing methods aren't built for the complexity or speed of modern enterprise 5G deployments. These networks are dynamic, with evolving configurations, diverse device ecosystems, and intricate network slicing requirements. Legacy testing approaches can’t keep up.
CSPs need a new paradigm that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning. By simulating real-world scenarios and validating interoperability across multi-vendor environments, AI-powered testing can identify faults in the network stack before they impact mission-critical services. Crucially, testing must be continuous — not limited to the pre-deployment phase — adapting to changing configurations and workloads to maintain performance throughout the network lifecycle. With this shift, CSPs can evolve from static validation to dynamic, intelligent deployment practices.
2. Continuous Assurance for Enterprise-Grade Reliability
Once deployed, private 5G networks must deliver enterprise-grade reliability. Unlike public networks, private networks often support time-sensitive, mission-critical applications with strict SLAs. Downtime or performance degradation is simply unacceptable.
CSPs must embed continuous assurance into private network operations. This includes real-time monitoring across voice, data, and IoT traffic, enabling full visibility into service performance and early detection of anomalies. A robust assurance framework must be cloud-native and multi-vendor compatible to ensure agility and resilience as deployments evolve.
3. Advanced Risk Management for Operational Resilience
As private networks become more programmable and decentralized, new risks emerge—misconfigured network slices, traffic overloads at the edge, or latency that disrupts critical applications.
CSPs need advanced analytics to perform dynamic risk scoring and enforce real-time policies. Early detection of anomalies allows operators to take preemptive action, ensuring business continuity and meeting enterprise expectations.
4. End-to-End Security Designed for Private 5G Networks
Securing private 5G networks requires a fundamental shift in thinking. As these networks grow more distributed and customized, their attack surface increases significantly.
CSPs must adopt an adaptive security framework deeply integrated into the network fabric. AI-driven threat detection can provide visibility across signaling, messaging, and access layers, dynamically adjusting to evolving topologies and use cases. End-to-end security — from core to edge — must be proactive and continuous to prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited.
5. Intelligent Roaming Across Private and Public Domains
As enterprise operations become more mobile and distributed, roaming between private and public 5G networks becomes essential for certain use cases. Whether it’s a technician transitioning from a factory’s private network to a public one outdoors, or an autonomous vehicle requiring uninterrupted coverage, seamless handovers are vital.
These transitions require more than basic connectivity. They demand intelligent policy enforcement, identity management, traffic steering, and continuous assurance across network boundaries. Telcos must ensure that these handovers are secure, performant, and seamless to end users.
With integrated solutions spanning testing, assurance, security, and intelligent analytics, Mobileum empowers CSPs to deliver frictionless interoperability between private and public domains. This unlocks new business models while providing enterprise-grade experiences with full visibility and control.
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