NTT Data and Nokia team up for global private 5G push

Fruits of this partnership have already arrived – the first North American deployment is an enterprise-ready, carrier-grade private 5G RAN for the City of Brownsville in Texas.  The release claims Brownsville was viewed as the worst-connected city’ according to NTIA in 2016, and that the new infrastructure has transformed it ‘into one of the best-connected municipalities’ and a ‘leader in smart city innovation.’

Private 5G network will ‘revolutionise’ the city’s public safety, operational scalability, and business-critical processes, claims the release.

“As Brownsville continues to grow as a prominent tech hub, the deployment of a Private 5G network is essential,” said Jorge Cardenas, Chief Information Officer at Brownsville. “This cutting-edge network will provide faster connectivity and foster the adoption of emerging technologies. By prioritizing Private 5G, we're positioning Brownsville to stay ahead in technological innovation and economic progress.”

The collaboration ‘will lay the foundation for more connected and efficient urban environments across the globe,’ boasts the release. The pitch seems to be the combination of Nokia’s experience in deploying global, large-scale networks and NTT Data’s partner ecosystem and experience of IT and OT application integration are a winning formula for those in the market for AI, IoT, edge computing, and real-time analytics use cases.

“We are proud to collaborate with NTT DATA to deliver best-in-class network solutions that enhance public services and accelerate the digital transformation of key sectors such as smart cities and airports,” said Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia. “Nokia’s Private 5G RAN, combined with NTT DATA’s technology services, creates the ideal platform for a wide range of use cases and we look forward to partnering on further innovations together.”

 Shahid Ahmed, Executive Vice President of Edge Services at NTT DATA added: “We’re seeing an unprecedented demand for flexible, high-performance private networks. With NTT DATA’s globally available Private 5G platform, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver solutions that meet the needs of today’s industries while ensuring long-term operational resilience. Our partnership with Nokia’s Private 5G RAN allows us to bring our combined strengths to airports, cities, and beyond - delivering scalable, secure, and high-speed connectivity that accelerates digital transformation.”

Essentially, the Brownsville connectivity upgrade is the first project of its type the firms have worked on together in North America (following private 5G deployments at Fraport AG and Cologne Bonn airport), and as such it’s being presented as a tech showcase and to signal their ambitions of digging further into the global private 5G market.

Earlier this year Dell’Oro Group claimed full-year private wireless RAN revenues jumped by around 40% in 2023, and the release itself cites IDC figures which say the market will exceed $8 billion by 2026. With wider telecom equipment revenues still in a slump, Nokia and NTT won’t be the only ones looking to carve out a chunk of the growing market.