Vodafone’s Operator-Led Approach to Private 5G Networks

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Private 5G has been discussed for several years as an important part of enterprise digital transformation, but the market has not grown as quickly as many early forecasts suggested. At the UPTIME 2026 conference, speakers from Vodafone Business and Vodafone Idea, or Vi, offered a refreshingly practical explanation of both the opportunity and the obstacles.

Massimiliano Mesenasco, Head of Private 5G at Vodafone Business, presented the mobile network operator advantage in private 5G. In a separate Asia-Pacific panel, R. Gopalkrishnan, who leads enterprise technology and the IoT business at Vi India, discussed the difficulties enterprises face when moving private 5G from a proof of concept into production.

Vodafone Business and Vi operate in very different markets and corporate contexts, so their comments should not necessarily be interpreted as a single formal global strategy. Nevertheless, the messages were remarkably consistent. Private 5G needs to move away from expensive, highly customised showcase projects towards right-sized, managed services that combine connectivity, devices, applications, integration and measurable business outcomes.

Vodafone’s private network footprint

Vodafone Business reported 173 commercial private 5G deployments associated with 119 contracts and 96 customers across approximately 20 countries. Its activities extend beyond the countries where Vodafone operates its own public mobile networks, including projects in markets such as France and the United States. Around 60 per cent of the deployments are understood to be fully dedicated private networks, with the remainder using hybrid or more closely integrated public-private architectures.

Although this makes Vodafone one of the more established mobile operator participants in the private networks market, Mesenasco was careful not to overstate the achievement. Hundreds of commercial deployments may demonstrate experience, but they remain far from the hundreds of thousands of private networks that the industry once imagined.

Vodafone’s proposition is not based on a single private network architecture. Instead, it views public and private mobile networks as a continuum, with increasing levels of isolation, localisation and enterprise control.

At one end is a segregated MPN, which may use radio partitioning or a localised network slice combined with a private configuration in the core network. A hybrid MPN can place functions such as the User Plane Function locally at the customer site while retaining greater integration with the operator network. At the other end is a fully dedicated network, with infrastructure installed specifically for the enterprise.

This allows Vodafone to challenge the assumption that every customer needs a completely standalone private network. A hybrid or segregated architecture may provide the required performance, security and control at a lower cost. Conversely, organisations with demanding operational or data-sovereignty requirements may still need a fully isolated deployment.

This architectural flexibility is one of the clearest MNO advantages. An operator can use its licensed spectrum, combine public and industrial spectrum where permitted, reuse existing coverage, provide a shared RAN or install a separate RAN. It can also connect the private environment to wider public mobile services when workers, vehicles or devices leave the enterprise site.

Standardised services and repeatable bespoke solutions

Vodafone divides its delivery model into two broad categories.

The first is Vodafone Business Managed MPN, its standard managed private network proposition. Vodafone provides the service management, a Vodafone-branded management interface and centralised operational support from its European facilities in Málaga. At the time of the UPTIME presentation, the main technology partners for this offer were HPE, incorporating the Athonet platform, and Nokia. Vodafone also said it planned to add two more vendors during 2026.

The second category is what Vodafone calls “repeatable bespoke”. These are more customised solutions for larger or more complex customers, but the aim is still to reuse architectures, processes and operational components rather than engineer every deployment entirely from scratch.

Vodafone works with several infrastructure providers across these projects, including Ericsson, HPE and Nokia, as well as Huawei in certain geographies. Mesenasco emphasised that Vodafone has deliberately maintained a multi-vendor position rather than becoming dependent on one private network platform. He also stated that the planned expansion of its managed MPN vendor ecosystem had been on the roadmap before Nokia announced plans concerning its campus edge business.

One example is Vodafone Portugal’s work with CIMPOR. Vodafone, Ericsson and SAP deployed a 5G Standalone MPN to support industrial applications including asset tracking and predictive maintenance. The deployment started at CIMPOR’s Alhandra cement plant and was subsequently extended across its main Portuguese production sites. The project also received an International Critical Communications Award in 2025.

Such projects show that Vodafone can assemble an end-to-end industrial ecosystem. The more important question, however, is whether the same approach can be made affordable and repeatable for organisations that cannot justify a major bespoke transformation programme.

Moving beyond shiny Industry 4.0 projects

The most interesting part of Mesenasco’s presentation was his assessment of why the private 5G market has developed slowly.

He argued that the industry, including Vodafone, had “wasted at least a couple of years” by concentrating too heavily on sophisticated Industry 4.0 scenarios. Private 5G propositions frequently started with autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, virtual reality, advanced robotics and predictive maintenance, normally aimed at a small group of very large industrial companies.

The problem is that even well-funded enterprises often remain at an early stage of operational automation. Asking them to buy an expensive private network to support applications they have not yet deployed creates a circular business case.

Mesenasco suggested that the next market opportunity lies between extremely high-end industrial networks and very small, low-cost private 5G systems. A logistics company may simply need reliable connectivity for handheld Zebra devices. A warehouse may need more predictable mobility and coverage than Wi-Fi can provide, but it is unlikely to pay several times the cost of its existing wireless network.

In many situations, enterprises can obtain a “good enough” result by combining Wi-Fi with public mobile subscriptions. Private 5G must therefore be priced and designed around the value of the connectivity improvement rather than around an ambitious vision of the customer’s future factory.

This also changes how return on investment should be calculated. Vodafone wants its teams to focus more clearly on the ROI of the network itself. Once a connectivity provider tries to justify the network through assumed improvements in production output, predictive maintenance or worker productivity, the calculation becomes complicated and dependent on systems outside the operator’s direct control.

Private 5G needs to become enterprise-friendly and repeatable, rather than resembling a individually tailored technology project on every occasion. Mesenasco argued that it would be healthier for Vodafone, Telefónica, Verizon and other operators to win hundreds of appropriately sized deployments than to compete repeatedly for the same small number of trophy projects.

The view from Vi India

The Vi India panel discussion showed why simplifying the network product is necessary but not sufficient.

Gopalkrishnan identified interoperability between new private 5G infrastructure and existing enterprise IT and operational technology as one of the most significant barriers. Many production environments have been engineered over many years around Wi-Fi, legacy programmable logic controllers, specialist industrial devices and proprietary applications.

Introducing private 5G can affect the devices, network architecture, security model, applications and operational processes simultaneously. An enterprise may successfully demonstrate radio coverage and performance during a pilot, but still struggle to integrate the network into its production environment.

Gopalkrishnan warned that private 5G does not succeed when it is treated simply as a replacement technology. Pilots can lose momentum when the enterprise has not identified applications that genuinely benefit from characteristics such as mobility, deterministic performance, security or low latency. Integration, capital expenditure, spectrum and poorly defined use cases can therefore combine to prevent a pilot from becoming a commercial deployment.

India presents additional complications. Spectrum for private networks remains closely tied to the mobile operators, while dense urban environments can make it difficult to create sufficient separation between public and private cellular systems. According to Gopalkrishnan, this helps explain why production deployments can progress more easily at mines, factories and other relatively isolated locations.

He mentioned an example of a shipping company that conducted a private 5G proof of concept for six months before deciding that a public mobile network could meet its requirements. That should not necessarily be viewed as a failure. A successful enterprise connectivity strategy should select the simplest architecture capable of delivering the required outcome, whether that is a dedicated network, a hybrid MPN, a public network service or a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity.

Private 5G as part of an IoT service

The strongest connection between the Vodafone Business and Vi India discussions was the move towards an operator-led managed service.

Gopalkrishnan argued that “private 5G and IoT go hand in hand”. From the enterprise perspective, the network is only one part of a larger system that includes devices, applications, security, integration, user experience and operational KPIs.

Vi is therefore looking at private 5G as a holistic service opportunity rather than as a standalone network installation. Enterprises may not want to make a large upfront capital investment or coordinate separate suppliers for spectrum, radio infrastructure, devices, applications and IT/OT integration. Instead, they increasingly want one organisation to accept end-to-end responsibility.

This is encouraging a move towards private 5G as a service, with solutions right-sized for the customer and paid for through a recurring service model. Vi believes operators are well placed to perform this role because they already manage licensed spectrum, national connectivity, SIMs, IoT services, security and large-scale network operations.

Vodafone Business’s managed MPN model reflects the same logic. Standard platforms, centralised management, a multi-vendor ecosystem and a choice of dedicated, hybrid or segregated architectures allow the operator to start from the customer’s requirements rather than automatically recommending a standalone network.

What is the real MNO advantage?

Taken together, the two UPTIME sessions suggest that the operator advantage in private networks consists of several connected capabilities:

  • Access to licensed spectrum and experience managing radio interference
  • A choice between public, hybrid, sliced and dedicated architectures
  • Integration between private coverage and the wider public mobile network
  • Established network operations, security, SIM management and service assurance
  • Existing IoT platforms, devices and enterprise connectivity services
  • The ability to provide managed services across multiple sites and countries
  • Commercial models that reduce upfront capital expenditure
  • A single point of responsibility for the end-to-end service

None of these capabilities removes the need for infrastructure vendors, device suppliers, application developers, systems integrators or industrial specialists. In fact, the complexity of IT/OT transformation means that the ecosystem remains essential.

The operator advantage is not that an MNO can deliver every component itself. It is that the operator can potentially coordinate the components, select an appropriate network architecture and remain accountable for the service over its operational lifetime.

The challenge is to do this without recreating the complexity and cost that has restricted private 5G to a relatively small number of large enterprises.

The next phase of private networks

Vodafone’s UPTIME message was less about proving that private 5G works and more about changing how it is sold and delivered.

The first phase of the market was dominated by trials, government-funded projects and impressive Industry 4.0 demonstrations. The next phase will depend on repeatable solutions for warehouses, ports, factories, utilities, mines, campuses and other enterprises with practical connectivity problems.

Some will require fully dedicated 5G Standalone networks. Others will be better served by a hybrid network, radio partitioning, a public network service or a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular technologies.

The winning approach will not be the one that deploys the most technically elaborate private network. It will be the one that matches cost, complexity and performance to the enterprise’s real business requirements, integrates successfully with existing systems and provides a clear path from pilot to production.

Vodafone appears to be positioning itself for this market through architectural flexibility, multi-vendor platforms, centralised managed services and closer integration between private 5G and IoT. The opportunity is significant, but reaching it will require the industry to replace the pursuit of showcase projects with scalable, affordable and operationally useful enterprise connectivity.

The two UPTIME 2026 sessions discussed in this post can be watched below.

Vodafone Business: The MNO Advantage in Private 5G

Vi India: Private 5G in the Asia-Pacific Market

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