- Nokia is leading in the port private network game
- The vendor's latest deal is with a Maher Terminals port in New Jersey, which handles over 2 million containers annually
- SNS Telecom & IT noted that the Maher Terminals port may be deploying private 4G rather than 5G, at least initially
Nokia has added another name to the burgeoning roster of ports using its private network technology, announcing this week that the massive Maher Terminals container port in New Jersey will “ehance [sic] its operations” with the Nordic vendor’s edge platform and private wireless technology.
“Nokia is presently the largest private network infrastructure supplier in the ports sector with more than 70 customers, some with multi-site deployments (e.g., Carrix, Thames Freeport, etc.),” noted SNS Telecom & IT’s 5G research director Asad Khan said in an email to Fierce, referencing his firm’s latest private network report.
That means that Nokia is bigger on the waterfront than its two key rivals in the private network space, Huawei and Ericsson. Although Ericsson has been making a lot of noise about ports recently.
Any container port in a storm
The Maher Terminals facility is based in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. The port operates a 450-acre container terminal, part of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. One of the busiest terminals in North America, it loads and unloads 2 million containers annually and serves as the major container ship facility for cargoes entering and leaving the New York metropolitan area.
Through private wireless connectivity, the port is supporting devices and applications that enable real-time data and analytics. Maher is boosting the efficiency of terminal operations while strengthening yard management, crane management and gate operations, Nokia said in a statement on the deal.
Maher is also working with systems integrator Future Technologies Venture on the port. The integrator has worked with Ericsson (Cradlepoint), OneLayer and others, as well as working with Nokia.
Port size matters
James Bennett, director at SNS Telecom & IT, noted the size of the Maher deal in an email to Fierce. “The size is perhaps the most significant aspect. Applications appear to be standard for the ports sector,” Bennett noted. “It also features a so-called ‘network digital twin’ solution for network performance monitoring, optimization, and preemptive-fault management.”
The SNS man, however, noted that the deployment may not be private 5G, at least to start with. “Generally, Nokia tends to use the terminology ‘private wireless’ instead of ‘private 5G’ for their 4G LTE deployments so we would assume the Maher Terminals network is initially based on LTE,” he said.
However the analyst said, “We cannot confirm though as we are yet to receive Nokia's full update of Q3 projects,” adding that Nokia won’t release that to them until near the end of October.
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