Cisco and NTT launch private 5G for enterprise digital transformation

Tech firm Cisco and IT infrastructure company NTT have announced joint plans to work on private 5G services across automotive, logistics, healthcare, retail, and public sectors.

The pair aim to offer the services to enterprise customers in order to “rapidly enable critical Industry 4.0 capabilities”.

Intended use cases of the private 5G will include push-to-talk ‘walkie talkie’ communications, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), always-connected PCs for frontline workers, and more.

Cisco and NTT have already begun coordination on several customer deployments, enabled by integrating the private 5G on their pre-existing network and cloud infrastructures.

The collaboration also includes plans to power computer vision for product quality analysis, predictive analytics for manufacturing equipment functionality and maintenance, and autonomous vehicles for moving products on the factory floor by using NTT’s IoT-connected solutions.

“Together with NTT, we aim to help our enterprise customers accelerate digital transformation with the power of 5G and Wi-Fi across IT and OT operations,” said Masum Mir, senior vice president and general manager, provider mobility, Cisco Networking.

“Our cloud management private 5G offers customers seamless integration with their enterprise network fabric along with common policy and zero trust security architecture, helping to reduce technical, financial, and operational risks associated with managing 5G networks, so they can focus on driving business agility and efficiency.”

Shahid Ahmed, executive vice president, New Ventures and Innovation at NTT said: “This is a natural expansion of the cutting-edge capabilities and services NTT brings to market to help our global clients modernise their businesses.”

“As a premier systems integrator partner to Cisco, the two companies are well positioned to deliver a secure, reliable, and future-proof private 5G network for our joint enterprise customers with global footprints,” Ahmed added.

Private 5G partnerships have been taking off over the past year, with Nokia and Kyndryl announcing the extension of their private 5G and Industry 4.0 partnership last month, and Intel unveiling its acquisition of private 5G network provider Anaki last year, too.