- STL Partners said manufacturing, mining and transport sectors are leading adoption of private networks
- The number of private network deployments will be the biggest driver of growth
- Current top use cases include push-to-X video, data and voice communications
STL Partners reports that the manufacturing, mining and transport sectors are leading the adoption of private networks. The research firm predicts that private network market value will reach $21 billion by 2030, growing at 61% CAGR (compond annual growth rate) from 2024.
STL Partners envisions that the biggest driver for growth will be the number of private network deployments. While penetration is currently low, it is expected to increase significantly over the rest of the decade, the firm said.
“Over time, enterprises will be getting more and more value from their private network investments, as they use them to enable more use cases that benefit their operations. It is the use cases that run on the private network that drive value for enterprises and create the business impact – and demonstrating this is key to triggering investment,” said Rosalind Craven, principal analyst and co-author of the forecast.
Top private wireless use cases
The research firm said that some of the top current use cases for private networks include video analytics for process monitoring, training for maintenance, repair and operations and push-to-X cellular and video communications. STL said that by 2030, 38% of private networks will be based on 4G technology, while 62% of the private networks will be based on 5G.
Dell'Oro Group has previously reported that Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson are the top private network vendors. Outside of China, Nokia remains the premier vendor.
STL also noted that computer vision will overtake push-to-X communications as the top use case for private networks by 2030. Computer vision is an AI field that uses machine learning and neural networks to teach computers and systems to derive meaningful information from digital images, videos and other visual inputs.