5G private networks have started to enter a rapid growth phase, but cloud providers that entered the market with high - profile strategies back then are now quietly withdrawing.
The latest report "5G Private Network Market: 2025 - 2030" released by market research firm SNS Telecom & IT shows that from 2025 to 2028, the investment of vertical industries in 5G private networks is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 41%, exceeding $5 billion by the end of 2028. Since the commercialization of the world's first 5G network in 2018, it has taken 10 years until 2028. The highly - concerned 5G private network business has achieved a global market space of $5 billion per year, indicating that its development has not been very smooth. Since this year, affected by various factors, the supplier structure of 5G private networks has changed significantly, and some major players have withdrawn from the field. However, in the wave of digital development, 5G private networks still have obvious value. As the reshuffle of the supplier group continues, suppliers are expected to become more focused, and the advantages of scale will gradually emerge.
Although the base is still relatively low, the revenue of 5G private networks has entered the fast - growth channel
In China, after six years of development, 5G industry applications have made significant progress, and 5G private networks have begun to develop rapidly. China Mobile disclosed its revenue related to 5G private networks in its financial report. The 2024 annual report showed that its 5G private network business revenue reached 8.7 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 61%. The semi - annual report of 2025 showed that the revenue of 5G private networks was 6.1 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 57.8%. China Unicom disclosed in its 2025 semi - annual report that the revenue of 5G private networks increased by 60% year - on - year, but did not disclose the total revenue. China Telecom's financial report did not disclose the revenue and growth rate data of 5G private networks.
Of course, although the 5G private network has achieved rapid growth in the past two years, it cannot currently become an important revenue engine. For example, in the first half of 2025, China Mobile's 5G private network revenue accounted for 5.16% of its government and enterprise market revenue and 1.12% of its main business revenue. China Telecom and China Unicom have not announced the total revenue data, but it is expected that the proportion in the government and enterprise and overall revenue is not high. However, driven by a growth rate of over 50%, the 5G private network has indeed become a highlight. If this growth rate can be maintained, it will become an important revenue growth point in the near future.
According to public data, in June this year, there were more than 18,500 national construction projects of "5G + Industrial Internet" in China, and 58,000 5G virtual private networks, widely covering key application scenarios such as industry, ports, medical care, and energy. Currently, domestic 5G private networks are basically provided in the form of virtual private networks. Driven by the demonstration effect formed in the early stage, the application will continue to spread to other fields.
Internet giants quietly withdraw, accelerating the reshuffle of the 5G private network market
In the first few years of 5G commercialization, 5G private networks were regarded as an important business model in the 5G era, attracting various manufacturers to enter the market, providing 5G private network products and solutions, and achieving a certain scale of deployment. Telecommunication operators, communication equipment manufacturers, IT manufacturers, Internet giants, manufacturing giants, Open Ran and other enterprises all placed high hopes on it. The author once mentioned that compared with the public network market, the current private network market space is limited, but there are many existing players, and there will be a process of survival of the fittest in the future. Now it seems that the reshuffle of this market has started, and Internet giants have begun to quietly withdraw.
Previously, AWS, the cloud - computing giant under Amazon, Azure, the cloud - computing giant under Microsoft, and Google Cloud under Google, the three global cloud providers, all high - profile entered the 5G private network market, but now the situation is quite different.
In May this year, AWS confirmed that it had stopped selling its 5G private network service launched in 2021. The company said that spectrum resource limitations and dependence on third - party hardware hindered the service development, and customers were turning to alternative solutions that better met their needs. However, AWS still retains the "Integrated AWS Private Wireless" program launched in 2023 and continues to provide enterprise private network services through operator partners such as Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, and Orange.
In contrast to AWS's optimism when launching 5G private network products: AWS Private 5G is a new managed service of AWS, aiming to enable enterprises to easily build their own 5G private networks. It is an end - to - end 5G private network solution covering network planning, integration, deployment, management, expansion, etc. The biggest feature of this solution is pre - integration, which integrates the small - cell radio units, servers, core networks, and access network software required for 5G private networks in advance. Customers do not need to spend time on configuration, and the network can be deployed after the equipment is powered on. The whole process is mostly self - deployed by customers and self - configured through the AWS cloud platform, similar to a DIY deployment model. AWS announced that AWS Private 5G allows enterprises to purchase, deploy, and expand 5G private networks in just a few days instead of months, greatly reducing the threshold for 5G private network deployment.
Coincidentally, Microsoft Azure also issued an announcement at the beginning of this year, stating that its 5G private network core service will be discontinued on September 30, 2025. To prevent any service interruption, customers are requested to migrate to Microsoft's partner solutions, such as the 5G private network services of Nokia and Ericsson, or choose other private network solutions before September 30, 2025.
Although Google has not publicly announced its future attitude towards 5G private network services, it seems that this giant does not recommend its 5G private network services too much on various occasions.
In the author's view, in addition to the spectrum resource limitations and dependence on third - party hardware factors mentioned by AWS, the evolution of the overall market has also led Internet giants to abandon the 5G private network field. The main reasons include: First, the market scale of 5G private networks has not met expectations. These Internet giants launched 5G private network services several years ago, but after several years of development, the market scale of 5G private networks is still limited, and no profits can be generated within a few years. For example, last year, Azure's cloud business laid off employees, and the operator team was the hardest - hit area, directly affecting the provision of 5G services. Second, AI has become the core focus, greatly squeezing the resources related to 5G. Currently, large models are the hottest direction in the technology field, and manufacturers are investing more energy, making the previously developed 5G business seem rather neglected.
Forecasts of 5G private networks by various research institutions need to be adjusted
In previous years, with the entry of public cloud providers, 5G private networks were considered to have broad market space. Based on the development of cellular wireless private networks, many well - known global market research institutions were optimistic about the prospects of cellular wireless private networks and issued various research reports predicting their rapid development.
For example, market research institution Berg Insight released a report stating that as of 2021, there were more than 1,000 private LTE/5G networks globally, and this figure would reach over 13,500 by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 57%. Among them, 5G private networks would dominate, approaching 10,000, while there would be less than 4,000 LTE private networks.
IDC research predicts that by 2026, the global revenue of private LTE/5G infrastructure will reach $8.3 billion, a significant increase compared to $1.7 billion in 2021. During the forecast period from 2022 - 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 35.7% is expected.
A report previously released by ABI Research showed that by 2036, global spending on 5G private networks would exceed that on 5G public networks, which seems to be a more radical prediction. According to ABI Research's forecast, the capital expenditure on cellular wireless private networks will exceed $200 billion by 2026.
Of course, the development of 5G private networks is a dynamic process, and enabling all industries with 5G is also a "long - distance race" that cannot be achieved overnight. Forecasts in this field need to be continuously updated according to market progress.
5G private networks still matter a lot
The research report of SNS Telecom & IT points out that as end - user organizations intensify their digitalization and automation initiatives, some 5G private network deployments have entered a stage where practical and significant benefits are increasingly evident. It is worth noting that 5G private networks have brought significant results in some fields: the production efficiency of specific manufacturing, quality control, and internal logistics processes has increased by 20% - 90%; warehousing facilities have saved 55% of labor costs; the operating expenses of intermodal railway hubs have been reduced by up to 40%; work - related accidents and harmful gas emissions in refineries have decreased by 20% and 30% respectively; and the manpower demand in underground mining operations has been reduced by 50%.
In terms of private network spectrum, SNS Telecom & IT points out that spectrum opening policies - especially the sharing and local spectrum licensing frameworks for mid - band 5G NR frequencies, such as n40 (2.3 GHz), n38 (2.6 GHz), n48 (3.5 GHz), n78 (3.3 - 3.8 GHz), n77 (3.8 - 4.2 GHz), and n79 (4.6 - 4.9 GHz) - are playing a key role in accelerating the adoption of 5G private networks. Telecommunications regulatory authorities in many countries/regions, including the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Moldova, Bahrain, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (China), Hong Kong (China), Australia, and Brazil, have issued or are promoting the granting of access rights to shared and locally licensed spectrum. At the industrial and information technology conference held at the end of last year in China, when deploying key tasks for 2025, the conference proposed to "promote the construction of industrial 5G independent private networks", sending a signal for the release of 5G private network spectrum.
SNS Telecom & IT mentioned that telecommunication operators continue to play an important role in the 5G private network market due to their extensive licensed spectrum holdings, infrastructure assets, and cellular network expertise. As they focus more on vertical B2B opportunities in the 5G era, mobile operators are actively participating in diversified projects, integrating local 5G infrastructure with dedicated public mobile network resource slices for wide - area coverage in sliced hybrid public - private networks. In addition to operators, wireless communication equipment manufacturers such as Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE are also important suppliers of 5G private networks. In addition, industrial giants such as Siemens have also entered this field, directly providing private network services to users.
In the future, it is expected that the survival of the fittest in the 5G private network field will continue. With the development of 5G - A, the implementation of spectrum policies, and the increasing digitalization needs of the industry, the value of 5G private networks will be further reflected. Although enterprises' investment in AI will squeeze the investment in 5G private networks to a certain extent, in the long run, 5G private networks and AI have the advantage of collaborative work. Just as Verizon and NVIDIA emphasized the synergy between 5G private networks and AI in a cooperation: We are leveraging the advantages of 5G private networks and dedicated edge nodes, combined with NVIDIA's AI computing power, to achieve real - time AI applications that require security, ultra - low latency, and high bandwidth, which are the remarkable features of these dedicated 5G networks.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Internet of Things Think Tank" (ID: iot101), author: Zhao Xiaofei, published by 36Kr with permission.