Dell Technologies kicked off a private 5G charm offensive with the operator set last week, in time for MWC, offering pre-tested and validated edge compute and networking solutions, plus system integration and support, for operators to sell private 5G to enterprises. At the outset, its new private wireless scheme, called Dell Private Wireless Program, counts core networking specialist Athonet, just acquired by Dell rival HPE, among its members; RAN provider Airspan Networks and network management software firm Expeto are also on board.
Dell said its new private 5G club is home to a “diverse ecosystem of partners”, and is geared to offer both operators and enterprises “more choice” when it comes to integrating private cellular and edge compute componentry. A statement said: “Jointly developed with technology partners, the private wireless solutions, based on open architectures, are pre-tested and validated by Dell and include self-service operations capabilities. Dell professionals remove complexity through solution integration, end-to-end management and support.
Dell suggested it has combined solutions from Airspan and Expeto into a “fully integrated solution for medium and large enterprises”, called Private Wireless with Airspan and Expeto, which is positioned to “extend on-site and remote application support across private and public 4G and 5G networks”. Meanwhile, a separate proposition with Athonet, called Dell Private Wireless with Athonet, is for small and medium businesses, to “quickly deploy their choice of network architecture, radio vendor or spectrum band for an affordable, easy-to-use” setup.
Meanwhile, Airspan has announced the launch of its own private 5G members’ club, which focuses nominally on cloud providers, system integrators, and managed service providers, and is designed to offer a “structured path” towards a ‘partner-of-choice’ accreditation from Airspan. Certain firms have already been signed up, including Alsatis, AWTG, Bai Communications, Betacom, Cocus, Logicalis, Mitsui Knowledge Industries, NTT (Germany), Siticom, and Telpass.
A statement said: “These companies are promoting Airspan for solutions that are easy to buy, easy to install and easy to run, helping them to accelerate private network deployments for different industry verticals, from ports to automotive test tracks, offshore platforms to enterprise offices.”
Henrik Smith-Petersen, chief strategy and marketing officer at Airspan, commented: “Our Partner Program is designed to reach the next level in terms of sales reach and support. Industry Verticals are well-known for being widely diverse in terms of network requirements and expectations. We are ready to engage with existing or new Partner willing to accelerate the adoption of Private Networks around the world, with a structured and phased approach that will guarantee robust 4G, CBRS or 5G deployments at any scale.”
