The global market for private LTE (4G) and 5G wireless infrastructure revenue is poised to hit $8.3 billion by 2026, up from $1.7 billion last year, according to research by IDC.

IDC forecast that the market was expected to reach a five-year CAGR of 36.7 per cent from 2022 to 2026. While the worldwide market for LTE/5G wireless infrastructure ramped up in 2021, IDC noted that private LTE was the dominant revenue generator.

Most of the private 5G private networking projects to date have largely been trials or pre-commercial deployments, although there have been several notable 5G rollouts. During its investor day conference on Friday (11 March), AT&T execs touted a private 5G factory deployment with Ford Motor Co. that also included edge compute from Microsoft Azure.

While LTE private network launches are in full-swing, IDC noted manufacturers and enterprises have a keen interest in 5G private networks going forward with more investments expected to be made once future 5G standards are completed.

Dell’Oro Group previously predicted 5G would surpass LTE as the dominant technology for private networks within the next four years, generating $1 billion in annual revenue for suppliers of RAN equipment by 2026.

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