Verizon deploys Ericsson private 5G edge networks worldwide

Verizon has expanded its private 5G alliance with Ericsson to deliver localised edge computing and cloud orchestration to global enterprises.

Hannes Ekström, SVP and Head of Customer Unit, Verizon at Ericsson Americas, said: “Enterprises are rapidly embracing digital transformation, leveraging secure and high-performing private 5G networks as a key driver of innovation and efficiency. Our multinational customers in the US have already unlocked significant growth through 5G-enabled private networks, and now they seek to replicate this success globally.

“Through our collaboration with Verizon, we are expanding the reach of our Ericsson Private 5G solution to support Verizon Business’s international deployments, enabling seamless global operations. By simplifying 5G adoption and enhancing reliability, low latency, and security, we are empowering industries to harness next-generation connectivity and drive innovation on a global scale.”

The international deployment model relies on Ericsson’s Private 5G platform, which installs a dual-mode 4G and 5G core directly on enterprise premises. This on-site infrastructure functions as a dedicated edge compute node, processing data locally to eliminate the latency introduced by routing traffic through public carrier networks.

Verizon provides the overarching cloud orchestration layer, allowing corporate IT departments to monitor network performance, manage device policies, and deploy software updates across global facilities from a centralised dashboard.

Industrial enterprises are actively replacing legacy Wi-Fi networks with private 5G architectures to support automation. In environments with plenty of metal infrastructure (e.g. automotive assembly plants and shipping ports) Wi-Fi signals degrade, causing excessive packet loss.

Cellular connectivity can provide superior signal penetration and predictable performance, but relying on public cellular networks introduces external routing delays. Positioning the 5G core directly on the factory floor resolves this latency issue by keeping data packets within the physical facility.

Manufacturing and logistics implementations

Supply chain operators and manufacturing companies actively deploy automated guided vehicles (AGVs), computer vision systems, and autonomous robotics. These industrial assets require connectivity with single-digit millisecond latency to operate safely. Routing high-bandwidth telemetry data from an automated forklift to a centralised public cloud introduces excessive delay, frequently triggering automatic safety shut-offs and halting production lines.

Processing this data at the local radio edge allows these high-bandwidth applications to operate without interruption. A local User Plane Function (UPF) handles local packet breakout, routing video feeds and LiDAR data directly to on-site Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) servers. The local MEC hardware runs the actual computer vision and navigational algorithms. The edge core only sends aggregated health logs and metadata back to the Verizon cloud management platform.

This localised architecture ensures high availability. A European manufacturing facility can maintain continuous production and localised network survival even if the wide-area connection to the central enterprise cloud fails. Data localisation also satisfies strict regional data residency regulations by ensuring sensitive intellectual property and operational telemetry remain within the physical boundaries of the facility.

Navigating global spectrum licensing

Rolling out private cellular infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions introduces heavy regulatory obstacles. Spectrum allocation governs private cellular operations, and frequency availability varies drastically by country.

Operations in the US often deploy the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. Operations in Germany may operate on dedicated industrial spectrum allocations, while deployments in the UK or Japan require completely different licensing frameworks.

Verizon navigates these local spectrum requirements, securing the necessary operational licenses before deploying the Ericsson hardware. This allows multinational corporations to standardise their operational technology networks on one centralised architecture, rather than cobbling together systems from different regional telecom providers.

In practice, this means that an IT director based in Chicago can deploy identical network policies to a warehouse in Tokyo and a factory in Berlin—regardless of the underlying radio frequencies operating at each site.

Control plane and user plane separation

The user plane remains strictly at the facility edge, handling the heavy computing tasks regarding industrial internet of things (IIoT) hardware. The control plane connects back to Verizon’s cloud infrastructure via secured IPsec tunnels. Split architecture reduces the physical hardware footprint required on-site down to one standard server rack.

Ericsson’s platform conforms to standard 3GPP specifications, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of industrial sensors and modems. Network administrators can provision new subscriber identity module (SIM) profiles or adjust quality of service parameters via the cloud portal. The cloud orchestration platform then pushes those configurations down to the local edge nodes.

This centralised control enables dynamic network slicing. Administrators can configure the edge core to guarantee bandwidth to safety-dependent autonomous cranes, while simultaneously throttling less urgent traffic like scheduled firmware downloads. The cloud platform provides the interface to define these parameters, and the edge hardware executes the resource allocation locally.

Containerised edge microservices

Ericsson’s private 5G server uses containerised software components running on standard commercial off-the-shelf hardware. This containerisation ensures the 5G core can receive software updates via the cloud without requiring network engineers to execute total system reboots. The microservices architecture allows Verizon’s cloud platform to push targeted security patches and feature updates directly to specific edge nodes without interrupting local production traffic.

Telemetry synchronisation between the edge hardware and the central cloud dictates the monitoring process. The on-site edge node continuously tracks radio interference, device attachment rates, and packet delivery metrics—batching these data points and synchronising them with the cloud orchestration layer at precise intervals.

This data flow allows network operations centres in industrial enterprises to run predictive maintenance algorithms on the network infrastructure itself, identifying degrading radio modules before they cause production failures.

IT and OT convergence

Integrating cellular core hardware into existing enterprise local area networks requires strict IP addressing coordination, virtual local area network (VLAN) segmentation, and firewall configuration to prevent routing loops and security vulnerabilities.

The Verizon and Ericsson joint offering standardises this integration process. IT departments gain precise visibility into the factory floor network without compromising the low-latency performance required by the OT equipment.

Security protocols benefit from this architecture. With raw operational data kept on-premises, the external attack surface shrinks. Authentication and role-based access control policies are managed in the cloud, syncing with existing enterprise identity providers to authorise devices requesting network access.

The expansion of this partnership between Verizon and Ericsson gives multinational operators the technical framework to deploy advanced robotics and AI workloads globally with consistent governance.

Robb Juliano, VP of 5G Acceleration at Verizon Business, commented: “Verizon Business is proud of our expanding private wireless portfolio, and we’re committed to providing the best possible private wireless experience to our customers around the world.

“By extending the availability of Ericsson Private 5G outside of the US, we’re offering enterprises more flexibility in driving innovation, enhancing security, and optimising operations with private wireless networks on a global scale.”

See also: Ericsson adds AI in RAN software for 5G network optimisation

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