The Rise of the Private 5G Empire
- By CDOTrends editors
- January 18, 2025

The demand for private 5G-as-a-service market is surging ahead, even as the trend battles cost and regulatory hurdles.
A research report from U.S. firm Allied Market Research says that demand for secure and reliable connectivity and the rise in adoption of IoT devices is drivinga CAGR of 36.2%, with the market set to hit USD34.1 billion by 2031.
Despite the regulatory and cost challenges, the report sees a combination of service innovation and the sheer increase in internet users as offering “remunerative opportunities for the expansion of private 5G.”
“Private 5G-as-a-service is likely to be integrated with public 5G networks to provide seamless connectivity for organizations,” the report says.
“This will enable organizations to have access to both private and public networks, depending on their specific needs. In addition, as private 5G-as-a-service trends become more widely adopted, there is likely to be a push toward developing open standards that allow different vendors to interoperate with each other.”
The analysts also see an increased focus on edge computing, enabled by the low latency and high bandwidth offered by private 5G.
Applications increasingly rely on real-time data, and edge computing will allow faster data processing closer to the devices that generate the data.
In that context there have already been several recent initiatives with announcements in the private 5G market.
Chinese provider ZTE announced in November 2024 that it was teaming up with China Unicom and mining and energy operator HuiNeng Group to build the first group-level Metropolitan Area Network in Inner Mongolia.
This network includes independent 5G private networks deployed across regions and branches, providing 5G coverage on the surface and underground for production. It enables the application of 5G+AI to support various intelligent use cases in sales and security for HuiNeng, advancing 5G adoption in the coal, chemical, and power sectors.
Integrating 5G private networks into the mining sector is driving the development of smarter mines and enhancing the industry's operational efficiency.
With 5G, Huineng Group has reduced manpower costs by 80%, improved vehicle efficiency by 95%, and increased single-mine sales by 230%.
Deutsche Telecom global subsidiary T-Mobile has unveiled a portable 5G private network-in-a-box device that can be deployed in less than 48 hours.
According to the carrier, the product, dubbed '5G On Demand,' includes the setup, teardown, and network management of a 5G private network.
T-Mobile claims that the product provides all the necessary infrastructure to support data-intensive applications while making 5G private network deployment more efficient.
The product is supported by Ericsson’s private 5G network in a box that weighs around 90 kilograms.
Image credit: iStockphoto/Visual Art Agency