Q&A: Private 5G networks will soon see a meteoric rise in Canada, says industry leader

The federal government’s recent decision to offer up non-competitive spectrum has the potential to be a defining moment in Canadian telecommunications, according to industry veteran Adrian Mah. This new spectrum, made available last year, gave businesses and smaller organizations the potential to build out their own mobile systems that operate independently of public networks at a much more affordable rate. For Mah, managing director at the French multinational Capgemini*, Canada has been slow to get the ball rolling, but they’ve finally embraced private networks, which he said could become a $3 billion industry by the end of the decade. Mah spoke with The Wire Report about what makes private networks unique, how they can become optimal for organizations operating in rural and remote settings, and why he expects the rise of private networks to mimic a hockey stick in the coming years. *It should be noted that Capgemini is a private company that, among other things, deploys private networks for clients. Before we dig in, can you explain the difference between private networks and traditional wireless networks? The most simplistic way to look at it is when you think of a private network, it’s the exact same thing as a public network. It’s similar equipment. There’s a radio. There’s a core network. There’s a very similar level of infrastructure, except, instead of an operator running it, a company runs it. So, the company will go to the same players, like the Ericssons or Nokias of the world, and they’ll ask for the equipment, but they’ll manage it themselves. The only difference is access to spectrum. Whereas operators have spent billions on spectrum in the past, enterprises will have a more limited availability. They’ll have to go to Bell or Telus or Rogers and ask for spectrum, or they can use what ISED released last year, which is non-carrier licence (NCL) spectrum. So, basically, it’s the same thing. I’m an enterprise, I want to run a cellular network, but I don’t want to pay the operators to do this and I’m going to close loop it for capacity issues, connectivity issues, or for security issues. How long have private networks been available in Canada? What’s the history behind this? Private networks have been around for four or five years in Canada, or at least they’ve started to be marketable. In the U.S., it’s been around for 10 years. So, there’s already hundreds, if not thousands of organizations that have deployed private networks in the U.S. because they released free spectrum years ago. When that happened, lots of companies decided to run their own networks and build it out. Canada has been a little bit slow to adopt, mainly because the only companies who could really invest in deploying a private network were very large organizations in mining or oil and gas. For them, because of the remote nature of the work, they really needed that connectivity, so they invested and they would licence spectrum from the operators to make things work. Now, after ISED released test NCL spectrum last year and they also released 80 megahertz back in November, you have enough spectrum capacity to actually utilize private networks at a cost-affordable way. So, we’re seeing lots of inquiries and a lot of interest. There’s a lot of demand from industries like energy, utilities, manufacturing, as well as the public sector. They’re kind of investigating it now because we’re at a stage where the economies of scale actually make sense. Can you unpack that for me? Why would these companies or utilities be interested in a private network? Every company has their own reasons for doing it. Take a mining company, for example. They’re in the middle of nowhere, they’ve got 50 square kilometres of space, autonomous vehicles running, workers in mud pits, and people sometimes disappear. It actually happened to me one time. I got stuck in the mud, I was five miles away from the mine site, there was no cellular connection, and I just stood there for three hours until somebody came. So, these are mission critical use cases for access to the internet. For the energy sector or utilities, you can think about smart metering, they’re already using a version of private networks. When you have wireless smart meters, they have low-power wireless networks that are already collecting data for billing purposes. As they start thinking about more advanced use cases like video and voice, or if they want to connect IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, especially in their generation areas, it becomes more and more important. Then, the question becomes whether you should go to a public network and work with an operator, or if it might make more sense to have their own private network. They have to work out the cost of infrastructure, maintenance, as well as what additional value they get from moving to a Bell or a Rogers or a Telus. It sounds like you’re expecting interest in private networks to keep increasing? Exactly. If you look at the numbers, there was about $100 million in revenue in 2025. They’re expecting it to grow at around 55 per cent every year, hitting about $3 billion by around 2030. So, the hockey stick is already happening, and it’s mainly because you’ve got NCL spectrum now. That’s a game changer. With that, it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, I’d have to lease spectrum from an operator, but the thing with operators is they don’t want to lease spectrum because it’s very, very expensive and they want to recoup their money. So, when you add the licensing costs, spectrum costs, infrastructure and maintenance, it just becomes completely unaffordable, especially if you don’t need it because there are competitive technologies. You can go into an automotive plant and they have Wi-Fi, so you have to think about mission critical use cases. But now, the price of equipment has gone down a lot, you have cheaper spectrum, and this is getting quite established as a service among a lot of telco operators. Suddenly, you have an ecosystem built out so that it makes sense from an investment perspective for enterprise organizations. Do you think this trend could worry companies like Bell and Telus? As you’ve mentioned, they spend lots of money on spectrum, but now certain organizations don’t need their help because they can use NCL spectrum. Or, is that not a concern for them? To be honest, it’s very complementary because telcos are one of the predominant providers of this type of infrastructure. It’s kind of the same thing as Wi-Fi because it’s wireless connectivity on a free spectrum, but there are other services like the aspect of an operator’s B2B (business-to-business) business. This becomes things like managed services, so they have other additional services they can sell on top. Secondly, clients will also need roaming capability because private networks, like Wi-Fi, only work within your network. Well, what happens if I have my iPhone, I want to leave my facility, but I want my phone to continue working? That requires integration to the public network, so it’s complementary in the end. It’s a no-lose situation in many cases because, especially in supply chain industries, a truck is going to have to move from a public network into your private network, and you’ll need that seamless transition to happen. Telcos can do that. You can buy your own network, but if you need that roaming capability, you’re going to have to work with a telco operator. dlegree@thewirereport.ca Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A: Private 5G networks will soon see a meteoric rise in Canada, says industry leader

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By Davis Legree
|May 29, 2026

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