- CIMOR has completed its private 5G deployment in Portugal with Ericsson and Vodafone
- CIMOR said it will save $1 million dollars per site with the private networks installed
- The company plans to deploy private 5G globally
Ericsson is still gung-ho on private 5G, despite private network (PNW) leader Nokia's perceived pulling back from part of the market late last year.
The Swedish vendor has just announced that it has deployed private 5G with Vodafone Portugal in multinational cement company Cimentos de Portugal's (CIMPOR) three plants in its home country. CIMPOR said that it is also planning to deploy private 5G in its other plants around the world where it operates, including: Spain, Morocco, Brazil, Tunisia, Turkey, China, Egypt, Cape Verde, Mozambique and South Africa.
Ericsson said it has activated private 5G deployment at the three plants in Alhandra, Loulé and Souselas in Portugal. The multi-site deployment delivers private 5G coverage with high reliability and extremely low latency — less than 10 milliseconds. The networks support simultaneous operation of sensors, autonomous vehicles and other connected systems, enabling precise asset monitoring and improved operational efficiency, even when challenging conditions such as dust and vibrations are happening at the site.
With the private 5G network in place, CIMPOR is using the network to operate drones to inspect hard-to-reach places, as well as smart glasses for remote assistance and video cameras for safety monitoring. CIMOR has also installed sensors for predictive maintenance across the sites.
Predictive maintenance enabled by the private 5G deployment is expected to deliver financial impact by helping to prevent unplanned failures and production disruptions. Based on CIMPOR’s internal assessments, they believe that improved inventory and maintenance optimization could translate into up to $1 million in annual savings per plant through avoided downtime and asset failures.
CIMOR hasn't yet said how long it will take to deploy private 5G in the 10 other countries it operates in. CIMOR started deploying standalone private 5G in Alhandra in October 2024 and has now completed the private 5G across its Portugal sites.
Fierce asked Ericsson about their private network plans with CIMOR and we'll update the story when they reply.
Ericsson still hot on private networks
Ericsson seems more keen on campus-based private networks, albeit mostly multi-site deployments, than Nokia has been recently. Nokia has said it is focused on mission-critical private networks, which can be multi-million contracts rather than million dollar contracts.
Huawei is the leading private network provider in the world, with Nokia being the leading Western vendor, followed by Ericsson, according to Dell'Oro Group. Ericsson is very much trying to up its private network share against its rivals.
"[A] narrower focus likely portends a more measured growth rate for Nokia's private wireless business,” AvidThink principal Roy Chua has stated. So, possibly Ericsson could grab some more PNW market share from Nokia in 2026.
Both Nokia and Ericsson are using system integrators and operators to sell 5G radios and core equipment for private networks to enterprises. For instance, Ericsson noted that Vodafone Portugal’s role in the CIMOR deployment included the installation, parameterization, configuration and deployment of all radio equipment; defining core parameters together with the customer; integrating the various industrial applications supported on the network; and conducting full-service validation for both the private network deployment and the associated use cases. Basically, Ericsson sold the equipment and Vodafone pretty much did the rest.