NTT takes aim at Europe with private 5G platform

INTERVIEW: Shahid Ahmed, EVP of new ventures and innovation at NTT, told Mobile World Live it focused on enterprises in Europe with a recently-launched 5G private network-as-a-service platform, because many markets in the region have been the first to release appropriate spectrum.

The executive explained NTT is prioritising markets including Germany, France, the UK and parts of Scandinavia which allocated private spectrum directly to enterprises. He noted the US is also a top target, as the Federal Communications Commission already provided Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum to any company interested in building a network.

Ahmed expects the global private network market to be massive.

The differentiator, he believes, is going to be around the economics, with the pricing structure to be aligned with how CIOs buy software. “It’s all about SaS, it’s about subscription models, it’s about network-as-a-service,” he explained, adding there will be clients which want to spend capital dollars upfront, but many enterprises are going to be looking into a subscription-based model similar to how they buy cloud services.