Further evidence showing sustained market momentum for the private mobile network arena has emerged from research by SNS Telecom and IT, showing annual spending on private 5G networks is projected to surpass $6.6bn by 2029 as industrial giants scale multi-site, multi-national private 5G deployments across existing and new greenfield facilities to support physical artificial intelligence (AI), automation and workforce connectivity.
Furthermore, as indicated in the Private 5G market: 2026–2030 study, the industry is set to witness continued growth in enterprise LTE and 5G customer deployment, as well as reported customer references growing at a compound annual growth rate of 37% since 2019. This is being driven alongside an expansion of mission-critical 5G networks for defence forces, public safety agencies, railways and utilities.
The report projects that annual investments in private 5G networks for vertical industries will grow at a CAGR of approximately 34% between 2026 and 2029, eventually surpassing $6.6bn by the end of 2029. A substantial proportion of this growth will likely be led by highly localised networks – including multi-site, multi-national deployments – for physical AI, automation and workforce connectivity in enterprise campuses and industrial facilities.
Technologically, the study noted that the early 2010s saw the first installations of private LTE networks, marking the beginning of what the analyst said has since grown into a well-established but niche segment of the wider wireless infrastructure sector. However, it added that private 5G networks or non-public networks based on 3GPP-defined 5G specifications are increasingly replacing LTE across many verticals, with a market potential far exceeding that of previous technology generations.
The analyst observed that compared with LTE technology, private 5G networks can address far more demanding performance requirements in terms of throughput, latency, reliability, availability and connection density.
In particular, it said, 5G’s ultra-reliable, low-latency communications (URLLC) and massive machine-type communications (mMTC) capabilities, along with a future-proof transition path to 6G networks in the 2030s, have positioned it as a viable alternative to physically wired connections for industrial-grade communications between machines, robots and control systems.
SNS Telecom and IT furthermore sees 5G’s wider coverage radius per radio node, scalability, determinism, security features and mobility support as having stirred strong interest in its potential as a replacement for interference-prone unlicensed wireless technologies in industrial IoT (IIoT) environments, where it expects the number of connected sensors and other endpoints to increase significantly over the coming years.
The research points out that as user organisations in the US, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and other countries ramp up their industrial intelligence, automation, physical AI and mission-critical communications initiatives, a growing number of private 5G installations have progressed to a stage where practical and tangible benefits – particularly efficiency gains, cost savings and safety – are becoming increasingly evident.
To that end, the study observed that industrial organisations such as Tesla, Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, LG Electronics, NEC Corporation, Foxconn, Whirlpool, Salzgitter, BASF, Midea, Gree and JD Logistics have all eliminated connection-related stoppages since migrating automated guided vehicle and autonomous mobile robot communications from Wi-Fi to private 5G networks at their manufacturing and logistics facilities.
Alternatively, it showed that Jaguar Land Rover, BD Sensors and others have extended connectivity to parts of their plants that were previously left unconnected due to the cost and complexity of wired Ethernet links.
Among other impactful industrial examples cited in the report, automotive engine parts supplier Fulin Precision has freed workers from repetitive box-moving tasks by adopting 100 semi-humanoid robots coordinated by a private 5G-Advanced network.
In the public sector, the study revealed that Las Vegas’s municipal private 5G network has contributed to a 90% drop in wrong-way driving incidents, while Mexico City Police has extended immersive virtual reality training sessions from 25 minutes to 1.5 hours and eliminated the need for officers to carry bulky backpacks through a standalone private 5G network.
