Author: Domenico Aliperto
Reducing the cost of innovation, increasing productivity, security and resilience, building shared digital ecosystems: this is the challenge that 5G StandAlone private networks pose to industrial districts. We talk about it with Luke Pearce, senior analyst at GSA, and Andrea Spaccapietra, head of cloud, software and services at Ericsson South Europe & Eurasia
Industrial districts could serve as the engine for a new digital revolution—one fuelled by cutting-edge technologies applied to manufacturing and enabled by private 5G Standalone networks. This is the view held by Luke Pearce (Senior Analyst at GSA) and Andrea Spaccapietra (Head of Cloud, Software, and Services for Ericsson South Europe & Eurasia). They believe that fostering a collaborative ecosystem—integrating entire value chains at a regional level through shared infrastructure projects—would yield two key benefits: easing the investment burden on individual companies for new automation projects, and promoting the creation of future-proof collaborative digital platforms and vertical data spaces. All of this relies on a technology that meets far higher performance standards—regarding throughput, latency, reliability, availability, and energy consumption—than any other existing connectivity solution.
These are essential prerequisites for harnessing the potential of AI and realizing the full benefits of advanced automation: production flexibility, worker safety, real-time monitoring of inventory and logistics processes, and operational resilience underpinned by advanced cybersecurity. These were, in fact, the promises—unfortunately largely unfulfilled—of the “Industry 4.0” strategies from the previous decade.
A cutting-edge topic for Italy. However, abroad, it is already an established reality for many large industrial conglomerates that have begun to experience the benefits firsthand.
Investments in private 5G networks for vertical sectors are set to skyrocket—with a compound annual growth rate of 34% between 2026 and 2029—surpassing $6.6 billion by the end of that five-year period.
Private 5G Standalone networks are often still viewed as a cutting-edge, emerging frontier. In reality, however, the technology has already gained significant momentum in markets where large industrial conglomerates thrive—specifically, according to the latest survey by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, and Japan.
Indeed, according to research firm SNS Telecom & IT, investments in private 5G networks for vertical sectors are poised for explosive growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 34% between 2026 and 2029, exceeding $6.6 billion by the end of the five-year period.
In particular, in its report “Private 5G Market: 2026-2030 Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts,” SNS Telecom & IT highlights that the rapid rollout of private 5G installations is largely driven by investments in Industry 4.0 use cases: specifically, wirelessly connected machinery for the rapid reconfiguration of production lines, distributed PLC environments, and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) dedicated to intralogistics. Then there is the near-future horizon: semi-humanoid robots for complex workloads, operators and maintenance staff managing tasks remotely (including with the aid of Augmented Reality), quality control processes based on Vision AI, and the wireless programming and control of unmanned vehicles for hazardous operations. This extends all the way to digital twins of entire industrial systems.
Without looking quite that far ahead, suffice it to say that, based on implementations already carried out, organizations surveyed by SNS Telecom & IT report productivity and efficiency gains—ranging from 10% to 90%—in specific areas such as production processes, quality control, and intralogistics. Added to this is an improvement in worker safety of up to 80%.
The beauty of this is that such results were achieved while reducing the wireless infrastructure footprint by up to 20 times compared to traditional Wi-Fi access points, which also require cabling. In industrial environments, as industry professionals well know, such cabling work is time-consuming, complex, and costly.
What is 5G Standalone and how does it differ from 5G?
5G Standalone is a mobile network architecture that operates exclusively using 5G core infrastructure and antennas—unlike what is commonly referred to as “5G.” The fifth-generation network currently marketed for consumer services is actually a hybrid standard that relies on both the 5G radio network and the core network of the previous 4G/LTE generation.
Private mobile networks are moving beyond the pioneering phase. The number of organizations with announced projects has risen from 13 in 2014 to 2,003 in the first quarter of 2026, showing a sharp acceleration from 2020 onwards. This figure covers implementations valued at over €100,000 and is current as of May 22, 2026 (Source: GSA). 5G Standalone offers drastically reduced latency and is the only system capable of enabling “network slicing”—the ability to create virtual network “slices” with predefined performance levels that can be dedicated to specific use cases (such as the Industrial Internet of Things or autonomous driving). Furthermore, because the device connects to a single network rather than two, 5G Standalone ensures lower battery consumption.
A major opportunity for our industrial districts. Yet, more than a “killer app,” what is needed is awareness: business owners still know nothing about it.
In a survey published in June, GSA confirmed that there are currently 2,003 organizations worldwide—spread across 88 countries—that have implemented at least one private 4G or 5G mobile network with a contract value exceeding €100,000. “A dozen of these are in Italy, though they involve non-public cases shared with us by the association’s members,” Luke Pearce explains confidentially to Industria Italiana. Things are starting to move here as well, and the expert confirms: “Private 5G networks represent a major opportunity, especially for industrial clusters. Although there isn’t yet a ‘killer app’ to act as a catalyst for adoption, this technology allows companies—even those with less complex organizational structures—to immediately address many of the challenges they face in remaining internationally competitive,” says Pearce. “People often cite the benefits IoT brings to predictive maintenance and real-time diagnostics, as well as workplace safety advantages and the potential of computer vision—capabilities that require ultra-low latency connectivity. However, in the specific context of Italy, we believe the key advantages lie in the ability to make this transition even in remote areas—where public networks lack the necessary performance capabilities—and in enhanced security, another crucial issue for the manufacturing sector.”
Of course, the issue of high startup costs remains. While Pearce is confident that these costs will drop in the coming years as the systems become more widespread—and notes that “we are talking about solutions that guarantee a rapid return on investment”—they still represent a financial burden that Italian industry currently struggles to shoulder.
A prime example is the Modena ceramics cluster, a hallmark of “Made in Italy” excellence: with total revenue standing at €6 billion in 2025 (down 0.4%), the sector’s investments amounted to just €321 million (5.3% of revenue)—a 16% drop compared to 2024 (Source: Confindustria Ceramica). The primary drag is the energy bill, which stifles spending on innovation. “Larger companies might consider moving production to India. “The smallest ones risk shutting down,” declared Augusto Ciarrocchi, President of Confindustria Ceramica, as recently as last May.
This is where joining forces is essential. While it may be difficult—if not impossible—for a single small or medium-sized enterprise to build its own private 5G network independently, “pooling resources creates an advantage that is not merely economic but also industrial,” notes Pearce. “Beyond the ability to build and manage a single technology platform based on a shared model, working on the same shared infrastructure encourages companies within the same industrial cluster or supply chain to design workflows and applications capable of seamless interoperability. This means moving beyond the concept of integrated networks to create an ecosystem designed from the ground up to accommodate new applications and features over time—each capable of carving out its own slice of the network to maximize performance and security.”
So, the shift is from industrial districts to digital districts. But how do you revolutionize such an entrenched paradigm? “First and foremost, we need to build a culture around it,” Pearce points out. “In the mobile sector—and even more so in the realm of the Industrial IoT—we are accustomed to speaking with specialists and technologists. Here, however, the issue is strictly a business matter, representing a completely new horizon for entrepreneurs. We therefore need to bridge the knowledge gap and help the market mature. We must also bear in mind,” Pearce adds, “that Italy faces an additional hurdle. Unlike other countries, where 5G frequencies are accessible to private entities, here the spectrum is reserved for telecom operators; consequently, one must necessarily go through a licensed provider.”
Private 5G networks should be viewed as adaptable platforms. Ericsson’s experiences with Wind Tre and Vodafone: why the Milan-Cortina Olympics marked a turning point.
All major Italian mobile operators offer this opportunity, but the first commercial launch of a national 5G Standalone service came from WindTre—which, tellingly, is currently targeting only businesses. Ericsson is the telco’s technology partner for this initiative; together with Infratel Italia, they deployed Italy’s first native 5G Standalone network for the healthcare sector during the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Conceptually, at least, this project is not far removed from the scenarios we are currently examining.
“The infrastructure, which covers six major hospitals using dedicated spatial radio solutions, connected 18 temporary medical facilities that were active during the event.” “Thanks to private network technology and network slicing, the solution—which is now permanently operational—enables real-time telemedicine, clinical coordination, and the exchange of medical information, even in geographically challenging areas like those where the Games took place,” says Andrea Spaccapietra, Head of Cloud, Software and Services at Ericsson South Europe & Eurasia.
“If we apply this case study to the context of industrial districts, it is easy to see how a private 5G network can enable and support the coexistence of services that are not only highly demanding in terms of latency and reliability requirements but also accessible to different stakeholders located in separate, geographically distant facilities.”
Manufacturing is leading the adoption of private mobile networks. With 374 organizations identified, the industrial sector is well ahead of research and education, mining, defense, testing, and energy utilities. (Source: GSA). The platform’s flexibility is ensured by a software-defined architecture, making it adaptable to the needs of various production sectors without requiring changes to the physical infrastructure. In Portugal, for example, Ericsson recently collaborated with Vodafone to develop a multi-site private 5G industrial network at Cimpor’s cement plants in Alhandra, Loulé, and Souselas. “From drone control for inspections and smart glasses for augmented reality training to sensors for predictive maintenance, security cameras, tablets, and data storage and analysis systems—everything runs on a single platform that efficiently and precisely addresses the specific application needs of the various sites,” explains Spaccapietra. “And it is not just a matter of better operations: in terms of return on investment, the implementation of the new network has enabled Cimpor to generate savings of up to one million dollars per year per plant, unlocking new efficiencies worth approximately 10 million dollars and reducing CO₂ emissions by 140,000 tons.”
Zero trust: a completely different approach to cybersecurity. And what about scalability? One can leverage the on-demand network developed with Google Cloud.
Today, however, economic and competitive advantages also stem from the ability to ensure the logical security of operations. In this regard, too, private 5G networks offer significant strengths for industrial districts. “Unlike architectures based on Wi-Fi, for example, 5G Standalone integrates network security as a fundamental requirement,” says Spaccapietra. “The principle is zero trust: any entity connecting to the network must verify its identity before initiating a data transaction. Data is encrypted end-to-end, whereas Wi-Fi typically offers security features only for the wireless segment of the connection.”
Furthermore, Spaccapietra adds, encryption is applied to both data and network functions. “Identity and device information, for instance, are also protected by robust algorithms. This means that nothing would be visible to hackers attempting to eavesdrop on traffic moving along the value chain.”
Spaccapietra is well aware, however, that this is not a simple transformation to undertake, even when working collaboratively. “After all, even communications operators—who can certainly leverage significant synergies—face an extremely complex challenge. That is why we launched Ericsson On-Demand, a 5G Core Network-as-a-Service (CNaaS) platform that enables connectivity providers to run mobile core network services directly on the public cloud.”
Developed in partnership with Google Cloud, the solution is managed by Ericsson and features the well-established characteristics of the on-demand model: consumption-based billing, where operators pay only for the resources used; flexibility and scalability, with the ability to automatically adapt to traffic spikes and periods of low demand; and native security, offering the option to use Google Cloud Security Command Center for integrated, real-time visibility into vulnerabilities and threat mitigation.
In this context, the cloud further amplifies the potential of private 5G networks to act as true platforms and helps lower barriers to entry for a market that—only seemingly, as we have seen—remains a frontier territory. This applies both to telecom operators and, above all, to organizations operating within industrial clusters.
This article was originally published in Italian by Industria Italiana here.
