HPE, Kyndryl partner for private LTE/5G services

HPE and Kyndryl have allied to bring private LTE and 5G wireless services to enterprise customers. Under the agreement, Kyndryl will work with HPE’s Aruba and Athonet divisions to offer customers integrated wired, WiFi and private 5G services.

HPE acquired Athonet in 2023 and gained its range of 5G services, which include 5G Core technology for network slicing and advanced voice services. It offers CBRS and 5G starter kits that include Athonet mobile packet core, SIM cards, a choice of radio, and other components needed to set up private cellular networks. In addition, HPE offers Athonet private 5G as part of its wide-ranging GreenLake edge-to-cloud services platform. The offering bundles Wi-Fi and private 5G into a monthly subscription plan that requires no capital outlay by customers.

For Kyndryl, the private 5G Athonet service builds on packages that the IT infrastructure services provider already offers from HPE, including multi-cloud mobility, networking, compute as a service (CaaS), ransomware and disaster recovery.

Kyndryl said its Athonet service customers will be able to use its Bridge open-integration technology services platform to manage network conditions. Bridge features AIOps support that aims to help customers automate IT infrastructure deployment, reduce the risk of network downtime, and improve the mean time to repair (MTTR), Kyndryl states.

The companies are trying to tap into what many expect to be a growing market. The use of private 5G networks will continue to grow exponentially as companies look to accelerate digital transformation and new technological capabilities, HPE stated in a recent blog about private 5G. According to management consultancy Analysys Mason, the number of private LTE/5G networks worldwide will grow from 4,000 in 2022 to more than 60,000 in 2028. In addition, spending on private networks will increase to $9 billion in 2028, up from $1 billion in 2022, HPE stated.

HPE Athonet is not Kyndryl’s only 5G offering. It also partners with Nokia to offer LTE and 5G private wireless networking technologies for enterprises. Kyndryl also has a wide-ranging partnership with Cisco that includes private 5G offerings.

In addition to the HPE partnership, Kyndryl announced support for Multiple International Mobile Subscriber Identity (Multi-IMSI) SIM card technology that will let its 5G and LTE service customers more easily connect to multiple networks as needed. Each IMSI card, for example, can connect to a different network. The idea is that Multi-IMSI-based devices can switch networks automatically in response to various roaming fluctuations and network issues such as outages, Kyndryl stated.

“For enterprises that rely on private LTE/5G networks to manage mission-critical infrastructure, Kyndryl’s unified SIM will provide security-rich, reliable private IP network access to integral services and applications, including IoT devices, machinery tracking and automated digital procedures on mobile devices outside of the manufacturing plants,” Kyndryl stated. “With performance and uptime being of utmost importance, Kyndryl’s unified SIM will automatically switch between private and public wireless networks in the event of network failure.”