NTT and CISCO have partnered to drive private 5G adoption across industries. They are targeting automotive, logistics, healthcare, retail and the public sector. NTT launched the first globally available 5G Private Network in 2021. This announcement means the P5G services, which use Intel hardware, will combine with Cisco LAN/WAN/Cloud infrastructure to create a more holistic network solution.
NTT will bring its experience in network infrastructure design, deployment, operations, use case development, device sourcing, compatibility, and end-to-end testing to the Cisco solutions.
This is not a completely new relationship between the two companies. NTT was named Cisco’s Global Managed Services Partner of the Year in 2022 last November. NTT has worked with Cisco on several projects, including Frucor Suntory, to deploy a software-defined wireless network.
The two companies will also co-innovate, accelerating the edge connectivity and improving management across the solution.
The companies aim to develop solutions enabling industry 4.0 capabilities, including:
- Push-to-talk walkie-talkie communications
- Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)
- Always connected PCs (for digital frontline workers)
- Machine vision (e.g. predictive maintenance, PPE detection, product quality analysis)
- Predictive analytics for manufacturing equipment functionality and maintenance
Masum Mir, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Provider Mobility, Cisco Networking, commented, “Together with NTT, we aim to help our enterprise customers accelerate digital transformation with the power of 5G and Wi-Fi across IT and OT operations.
“Our cloud-managed private 5G offers customers seamless integration with their Enterprise network fabric along with common policy and zero trust security architecture, helping to reduce technical, financial, and operational risks associated with managing 5G networks, so they can focus on driving business agility and efficiency.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This announcement brings the two global companies together to push forward in a rapidly growing market sector. Last year, NTT announced the most extensive 5G deployment in the US within the City of Las Vegas. The combination of NTT and Cisco will help deliver value-based 5G deployments across the chosen industry sectors.
Shahid Ahmed, Executive Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation at NTT, commented, “This is a natural expansion of the cutting-edge capabilities and services NTT brings to market to help our global clients modernize their businesses.
“NTT and Cisco are building on our mutual commitment to build a simple to manage pure private network solution. As a premier systems integrator partner to Cisco, the two companies are well positioned to deliver a secure, reliable and future-proof private 5G network for our joint enterprise customers with global footprints.”
While the Las Vegas announcement did not mention Cisco, it will be interesting to see whether future 5G announcements mention them more strongly as the companies continue to work together.
