Qualcomm, Capgemini collaborate to boost 5G private network implementations for industries

Furthering its promise earlier in the year to hit the accelerator in developing solutions for next-generation networks, Qualcomm Technologies has entered into a collaboration with Capgemini that will aim to unlock the benefits of 5G private networks to support their clients’ digital transformation towards Intelligent Industry.

These benefits could prove to be very substantial. In January 2021, research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted a boom for the private comms architectures for enterprises, lasting until 2024.

It calculated that revenue attributable to the sales of private LTE/5G infrastructure will grow from $945m (£695m) in 2019 to an estimated $5.7bn (£4.2bn) in 2024, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.4%. This includes aggregated spending on RAN, core and transport infrastructure.

The Qualcomm and Capgemini collaboration is intended to give clients access to an off-the-shelf private network system which is fully tested and validated. Working with Qualcomm Technologies, Capgemini is expected to provide quicker, easier access to the benefits of private networks in industrial and enterprise settings, including for digital enterprise, smart warehouses and industrial IoT.

Noting in May 2021 that the promised impact and growth of 5G is beginning to emerge, and as the potential of the internet of things (IoT) in commercial use cases becomes more apparent, 5G technology provider Qualcomm announced its first IoT modem solution equipped for 5G connectivity and optimised for industrial IoT (IIoT) applications.

The new collaboration foresees Capgemini in the role of systems integrator, using a Qualcomm Technologies 5G private network system to enable clients’ business transformation and to expand the benefits of 5G.

Capgemini also expects to support clients with their enterprise systems, edge compute capabilities, use cases, cloud and data/AI, interface with management systems and other bespoke elements to create end-to-end solutions that leverage powerful and efficient 5G private networks at scale.

“The industry is fully embracing the 5G private network proposition and our collaboration with Capgemini can help them to deliver private networks based on Qualcomm Technologies solutions, such as the Qualcomm 5G RAN platform, to many more customers globally across a broad range of industries and sectors,” said Enrico Salvatori, senior vice-president and president for Qualcomm Europe/MEA.

In leveraging Capgemini’s scale and implementation expertise, he said the firm is confident that many more companies globally will start to look at what private networks can do for their businesses.

“We believe there are powerful benefits and some really exciting use cases already available in private networks today, especially when you integrate 5G functionality, enhanced privacy and all the other features which arrive with 5G standalone,” said Salvatori.

Fotis Karonis, group leader of 5G and edge computing at Capgemini, added: “This collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies aims to help us provide a simplified yet powerful end-to-end private network solution for clients in all industries. We expect clients to leverage this to implement solutions across a large variety of potential sites and use cases.

“By utilising Qualcomm Technologies’ expertise in cellular connectivity, with Capgemini’s industry-leading business transformation services and systems integration capabilities, we envision that more and more companies will be able to benefit from cellular private networks to increase efficiency and speed of innovation. We look forward to collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies and our clients in order to design and implement many more private networks in the months and years ahead.”

The collaboration between the two organisations builds further on an existing working relationship. It is intended to provide organisations with increased end-to-end carrier grade interoperability in a wireless 5G industry ecosystem environment of connected devices, equipment and 5G private network infrastructure.