Note, this article is taken from an upcoming report on operator-run private 5G enterprise NOCs. Look out for the report next week; sign up here (last chance!) for the webinar on private 5G enterprise NOCs on August 11, featuring ABI Research, Radisys, Vodafone and others.
Spain-based Telefónica has confirmed it will establish regional network operations centres (NOCs) in Spain, Brazil, the UK, and Germany to manage private 5G networks on behalf of local enterprises.
Asked directly, as part of a new Enterprise IoT Insights investigation into how (and where) mobile operators will manage private 5G networks for key industrial enclaves, the firm said it has positioned private 5G within its enterprise toolset and manufacturing among its enterprise target markets as priorities. It said it will develop edge-based NOCs to provide specialist support for private users in manufacturing, alongside other key sectors.
Carlos Carazo, chief technology officer for IoT and big data at Telefónica Tech, the firm’s digital-change unit, said: “Telefónica is developing specific NOCs… for the end-to-end technical operation of customers’ private networks… There are private network solutions based on public networks that can be managed from general purpose NOCs. But when solutions are private and customised, dedicated and specific operations teams are required.”
Responding to a question about how to make the ‘economics’ work for operators to distribute NOCs into the countryside to serve industrial heartlands, Carazo responded: “It will depend on the number of networks deployed in a geography. Initially we will consider the deployment of regional hubs until demand increases.” The logic, then, goes that economies-of-scale will come as enterprises in industrial heartlands go mob-handed to plug into private 5G.
The discussion – for the upcoming webinar and report on private 5G enterprise NOCs – asked about whether and how operators will staff customer premises with networking specialists, as the rollout of private 5G accelerates. Will Telefónica put an engineer on-site to troubleshoot enterprise networks? “Yes,” the response came, again. “Customers with specific security requirements with isolated solutions demand these services to assure SLA compliance.”
Telefónica Tech claims to offer an “end-to-end” private LTE/5G proposition that includes “all the components and services of a private network, and additionally value-added services over and above connectivity”. The firm is targeting factories, ports, mines, and farms where it has major operations – in Spain, Brazil, the UK, and Germany – with an initial focus on large corporations and a developing proposition for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Speaking of the company’s broader SI-style offer to the business market, Carazo remarked: “Private networks are our main value proposition.”
Note, this article is taken from an upcoming report on operator-run private 5G enterprise NOCs. Look out for the report next week; sign up here (last chance!) for the webinar on private 5G enterprise NOCs on August 11, featuring ABI Research, Radisys, Vodafone and others.
