New Accedian Research Finds Transport and Logistics ready to move for 5G

Accedian, a leader in performance analytics, cybersecurity threat detection and end user experience solutions, today released a new research study on the future of 5G in the transportation industry. Conducted in partnership with Analysys Mason, a leading management consultancy focused on telecoms, media and technology (TMT), the research found that an overwhelming number of transport and logistics enterprises (92%) plan to deploy private 5G by 2024.

Private 5G networks offer greater capacity, a more robust signal and lower latency. For transportation based enterprises, this means optimized processes, such as scaled warehouse automation, enabled augmented reality and 4K drone inspections for improved quality of service.

But barriers still remain: transport enterprises are concerned about the management and deployment complexity of private 5G networks. Despite these challenges, almost half of respondents (46%) noted they prefer to manage their own private 5G network in-house, rather than through an external partner. This means that mobile network operators need to act now to educate the market on the benefits of tapping an outside expert to manage a smooth transition to private 5G networks. The research shows high awareness of 5G which is positive, however, as an emerging market that many enterprises are just starting to fully grasp - we are keeping a close eye on trends as the early adopters pave the way. Accedian recently participated in a webinar discussing research where the differences between early CSP adopters and those that are planning for MEC implementations are highlighted.

The transport industry will benefit from private 5G adoption with increased security, high reliability, and the support of cloud applications and advanced use cases. But planning to deploy and manage the advanced network in-house will make the challenges difficult to overcome, Our research helps service providers become strategic partners to enterprises, guiding them through the complexity of management so the intended benefits can become fully realized. It also helps us better prepare to accelerate and assist the adoption of 5G by our valuable Transport and Logistics customers."

Accedian and Analysys Mason surveyed just over 200 respondents from large enterprises in the U.S.A, Germany, UK and Japan across six verticals to gain insight into private 5G adoption. Respondents from the transport sector (n=13, useful as an indicator of general trends) include those within railways, airports and ports, land and water transport, warehousing and postal and courier companies. Key highlights from the transport research include:

• The vast majority are motivated by security and the hope that 5G will be more secure with enhanced authentication and encryption features.            
• A flexible architecture to support cloud applications is a top need.          
• Other important 5G attributes for the transport sector, for 3 out of 4 respondents, include high reliability, support for high mobility use cases, and flexibility of deployment and technology ecosystem maturity.         
• Network security is vital for the transport vertical's high mobility requirements.         
• More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents in the transport industry prefer a hybrid network model; 15% prefer a network slicing model while 8% are undecided.        
• When it comes to challenges, respondents believe cost is the highest barrier to adoption across all types of network models; others include deployment difficulty for hybrid networks, limited ability to customize the network for network slicing and management complexity for dedicated private 5G.