According to GlobalData, Europe is gaining early traction in Industry 4.0 "smart factory" deployments and is leading the way in 5G and private networks. The manufacturing sector accounts for almost a third of 5G and private network deployments, according to the company's new Connected Enterprise Tracker. The majority of this activity is concentrated in Europe (56 percent of deployments up to this point). However, given that North America and other regions are also expected to expand, this ought to change.

The tracker is currently used in approximately 300 private 4G/5G network deployments and a few dozen IOT Market deployments that make use of public 5G networks. The majority of these deployments have not been made public, so they are not included in the tracker, despite the fact that market leader Nokia claims to have supplied over 450 private networks. Other suppliers, such as system integrators, telecom service providers, and leading network infrastructure manufacturers, as well as specialists in wireless technology, are subject to the same restrictions.

Private 5G networks Connected and automated operations enabled by highly secure networks can create new process efficiencies in industrial verticals like manufacturing, transportation, mining, and logistics, where private 4G and 5G networks have largely been deployed. Private networks are also being used by other industries. So far, 8% of them are government organizations that support smart city use cases like connected street lighting or "smart poles" for monitoring the environment and charging electric vehicles.
The fact that service providers appear to be a part of a lot of deals in Europe suggests that the spectrum assets used for these deployments are not always based on bands for industrial use that regulators recently provided, like those in Germany and the UK. Instead, licensed operators frequently provide network slices or dedicated bands to accommodate these customers. Numerous deployments feature Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, BT, Orange, Swisscom, Tele2, and Telia, frequently collaborating with Nokia, Ericsson, or Huawei.

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In the United States, education organizations account for more 5G and private network deployments than any other vertical (17%), but adoption is not dominated by any one vertical. There is also traction in manufacturing, mining, transportation, utilities, and energy. One-third of these networks use CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) spectrum from the United States. Key suppliers include system integrators, network vendors, ATT and Verizon, and CBRS specialists Boingo Wireless and Federated Wireless. GlobalData's tracker does not differentiate between private 4G and 5G because many businesses use both or are migrating to 4G LTE. However, approximately three-quarters of all private network deployments in the tracker at least mention 5G in public announcements.