Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia said that it is ready to jointly develop private networks with Indian enterprises even as it continues to sell its technology through telecom operator partners.
“We have a strong relationship with the service providers, and we look to sell through our service providers to enable them to sell connectivity and private wireless type solutions. But equally, if there are customers out there who want to develop that directly, will also engage directly where it makes sense,” Ricky Corker, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Nokia told in an interview.
Corker said that private networks are popping up globally both through the telco and enterprise routes. “The reality is globally we see a mix. So it’s really up to the regulators to decide how they want to allocate the spectrum. What I would say is, we see both models working quite well,” he added.
Corker, however, believes that telcos will use their existing relationship with enterprises to provide private connectivity along with other services to them.
The senior executive, who was in India recently, said that Nokia has made the decision to increase investments in private wireless as it sees a “big opportunity” in the space.
Nokia said that manufacturing, ports, and mining are going to be the big verticals that will demand private networks.
The executive said that Nokia is already working with a number of global systems integrators including Indian companies like Tech Mahindra. The company is also looking to partner with system integrators with “vertical expertise” and induct them into its ecosystem.
India, as per the Nokia executive, sees a large percentage of the current private network deployments on 4G LTE due to the fully-developed connectivity ecosystem around the technology. “From a latency perspective, in a lot of cases, LTE works fine. So we shouldn’t think this is just a 5-G play. LTE will work for many applications. Corker said that Nokia is starting to see the first signs of demand for 5G private networks due to certain new enterprise use cases. He, however, added that there’s a device and ecosystem that needs to be developed along with Internet of Things (IoT) applications.