Nokia Report: Enterprises Are Scaling Private Wireless for Additional Use Cases and Industrial Sites

Summary

ESPOO, Finland - June 12, 2024 - Nokia has announced the results of the 2024 Industrial Digitalization Report, which highlights that all 100 interviewed early adopters are using private wireless networks in additional locations or have expanded their use by launching more use cases in existing locations. 

The Nokia report and related survey was conducted by GlobalData to gauge industry progress and return on investment (ROI) among private wireless early adopters in the manufacturing, transportation and energy industries in countries including Australia, France, Japan, UK and US.

The Report revealed that the top benefits for enterprises deploying private wireless networks include:

Increase in private wireless uses and locations: In 2022, many enterprises who had deployed private wireless technology were still at the proof of concept (PoC) or pilot stage, usually in a single location or single use case. In 2024, almost half of the enterprises interviewed (45%) are already taking advantage of private wireless networks with plans to do more than initially expected. 100% of the 100 enterprises interviewed have started to roll out private wireless networks to more locations or expanded their use at the original locations for driving wider industrial transformation.

Quickly achieving ROI: 93% of the respondents achieved ROI within 12 months. In fact, 78% reported that they achieved a positive outcome within six months, and 23% hit their ROI target in just one month. Private wireless solutions have helped businesses achieve such returns by fixing broken processes and reducing the overall cost of doing business.

Improved worker safety and sustainability: The research found that worker safety is a common challenge private wireless technology is helping to overcome, with 65% stating they realized more than 10% improvement in top use cases to improve worker safety, such as implementing geofencing technology, connected worker and robotics to carry out dangerous work.

Furthermore, 79% of organizations experienced a significant improvement in their sustainability efforts reporting a 10%, or more, reduction in their emissions after deploying private wireless networks. The enhanced connectivity increased the ability of those surveyed to connect industrial IoT devices and sensors to better track and monitor their carbon emissions. The use of drone technology reduced the number of truck rolls. This shows how private wireless technology is leading organizational transformation, not simply digital transformation, enabling tracking and analytics to meet global sustainability objectives.

Edge technology underpinning advance use cases: Edge technology is playing a foundational role in enabling new and more advanced low latency use cases that stretch beyond connectivity. 39% of the enterprises that deployed private wireless have since implemented an on-premise edge technology or a new selection of industrial devices to power digitalization and support complimentary technologies such as AI and analytics, with a further 52% planning to do so. 

For instance, the introduction of video analytics to a private wireless network alongside edge-compute resources enabled 75% of businesses to improve efficiency by 10%.

Lufthansa Technik deployed private wireless networks for a detailed table inspection of aircraft components, supporting remote maintenance via quick upload of high-quality video from multiple cameras. It has since expanded to a range of use cases such as using edge capabilities to eliminate the need of physically moving server stacks supporting AI analytics near to aircraft engines.

Dr. Claudius Noak, IT Consultant, Lufthansa Industry Solutions, said: “The deployment of private wireless networks improved our connectivity from the outset. It gives us a stable, reliable and secure connection across an extensive area with only a small number of access points, essential for virtual table inspection. The additional value came from the expansion and integration of new use cases. Since the deployment, we have extended the number of radio locations at the site, with private wireless networks connecting over 50 devices, a number that will soon grow into the hundreds, with the ability to ultimately support over 1,000 connected devices.”

Gary Barton, research director, Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, said: “Private wireless technology has clear benefits for connectivity and great return of investment. But more is to come with the deployment of AI, new analytics tools and edge platforms. These technologies will help enterprises prepare for the future challenges, as they keep driving industrial transformation.”

David de Lancellotti, vice president of Enterprise Campus Edge Business at Nokia, said: “The ROI of private wireless and industrial edge is proven. We help our customers improve worker safety, productivity and reduce emissions while reducing operational costs by bundling private wireless and Wi-Fi connectivity, applications and devices in one central on- premise edge platform. This will certainly drive the fast deployment of more use cases and lower the total cost of ownership. The Nokia Industrial Digitalization Report reinforces that private wireless networks and edge technology, combined in one platform provide enterprises with the best foundation for the AI-powered use cases into their operations.”
 

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