17 June 2024

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.

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 realised 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 organisations 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 organisational 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 digitalisation 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%.

“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 Digitalisation 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,” said David de Lancellotti, vice president of enterprise campus edge business at Nokia.