One of my first thoughts about CBRS and Private LTE back in 2020 was about indoor coverage gaps. I quickly learned that Private Cellular was inhibited from carrier roaming onto Private networks because of red tape agreements with the Carriers. It wasn’t a technical problem.. although there are some technical issues to be solved.
This was what most people thought of as the first solution when they first hear about Private LTE and Private 5G. Finally a few years ago, those barriers started to come down. The actual agreements keep bouncing around with the changes at T-Mobile to using licensed spectrum if you want Private 5G, but there are vendors out there doing successful installations of Neutral Host on Private 5G. Celona continued to talk about their Neutral Host.. but only in passing.
Neutral Host
For those who are not following Private Cellular, Neutral Host is a solution to use a Private Cellular radio to broadcast Public Carrier PLMNs (think Wi-Fi SSIDs) and allowing Carrier SIMs to authenticate to your network. It makes the Private 5G network an extension of the Carrier’s network.
Supplementing indoor cellular coverage is usually the place most people think about when they think of Neutral Host. There are other solutions solved by CBRS, but this is the main one.
Celona’s Neutral Host
My fellow MFD14 delegates focused on the fact that Celona kind of brushed over Neutral Host. I agree with them. Neutral host needs to be what is pushing CBRS and Private 5G forward. Start with Neutral Host, then you have an opportunity to showcase other use cases for Private 5G. One of Celona’s competitors is only focused on Neutral Host (without Private 5G) is doing just that. Celona should be shouting from the roof tops about their Neutral Host solution.
Previously, everyone was getting agreements with two of the big three carriers in the United States, T-Mobile and AT&T. The missing vendor was Verizon. In the image above, there is a Red “Other MNO”.. That is slowly changing and Verizon is finally beginning to see the light. Wi-Fi Passpoint is a useful solution but doesn’t actually keep all the benefits of cellular. Neutral Host is a full solution that better solves to problem. Neutral Host continues to be the killer app for CBRS.
Celona’s MFD Focus, AMRs
Celona chose instead to focus on Physical AI. Mainly AMRs and Robotics. Which is a valid use case.
What does Private 5G bring to the Robot industry?
Guaranteed delivery of traffic when it is needed. I have often talked about how Private 5G helps with ensuring traffic can be delivered when expected through QoS marking and the Cellular Schedulers either TDD or FDD. I have talked to many large companies doing Private 5G for their Autonomous Mobiler Robot (AMR) devices in factories.
A year ago at a Private LTE Professionals event in Dallas, I chatted with a guy from LG that is using Private 5G and AMRs in their Laundry Machine manufacturing plants.
This is a huge use case. My new friend said that when putting AMRs on Wi-Fi, he was getting lost packets all the time and a ton of retries. As soon as they switched to Private 5G, lost packets and retries went to almost zero!!
This is big time news when you are looking at robots that if they malfunction could cause catastrophic damage to a manufacturing process or even risk human health and life. Robotics and AMRs need guaranteed delivery of traffic.
The Private 5G Market is growing. It hasn’t been the massive scale that was promised six years ago, but it is growing. There are definitely places where Private 5G fits. Most enterprises could utilize their Neutral Host offerings, while large manufacturing plants should be putting their AMRs on Private 5G. Celona is right there continuing to build where Private Cellular is working best.