T-Mobile will make 5G On Demand — a private network service that includes setup, teardown and network management — available by the end of the year.
The carrier specifically mentions media and entertainment, oil and gas, and construction as industries with likely use cases for the service.
The key is being able to provide high bandwidth, low latency services without the cost and deployment time of wired networks. Early implementations of the T-Mobile private network service were the PGA Championship with CBS Sports and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with NBC Sports. Those events also utilized Sony’s PDT-FP1 portable data transmitters, ultra-low latency encoders/decoders and Sony’s FX6 cameras.
Featuring sports programming in the run-up to the launch of the service is no accident. The announcements makes reference to the data capacity necessary to support multiple 4K cameras running at 60 frames per second (FPS).
The announcement cited several reasons that T-Mobile expects the private 5G network service to thrive. It says that 5G On Demand has the potential to:
- Cut costs by reducing fiber dependency, while still providing essential bandwidth and low latency.
- Offer a lower cost alternative to permanent custom-built private networks, which can cost more to implement and maintain.
- Support remote production, minimizing the need for costly onsite personnel and equipment.
- Enhance operational efficiency, streamlining the capture, transmission and production of media.
- Boost deployment speed and flexibility, enabling seamless remote production.
In addition to the private network news, earlier this week J.D. Power reported that small and large businesses rank T-Mobile as the wireless carrier with the best price for the services it offers. “The J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Business Wireless Satisfaction Study” found that Verizon was tops for medium-size businesses.
