Siemens is extending its private 5G activities beyond its home market, turning a Germany-centered industrial networking business into a global offering for factory operators and infrastructure customers.

The industrial automation giant, better known for programmable logic controllers than radio access equipment, has positioned private 5G as a natural extension of its factory-floor portfolio. The company's go-global move signals that enterprise buyers — not consumers — are now the growth engine vendors are chasing in the 5G era.

Nokia, for its part, remains an active competitor in the same private-networks segment. The Finnish vendor continues to pursue deals in motorsport and other venue-based deployments, underlining how sports and event infrastructure have become a showcase category for private cellular. Whether these high-visibility projects translate into volume industrial contracts is a separate question, and one the vendor's public messaging does not answer.

In the UK, open RAN developments add a policy dimension to the commercial picture. British operators and policymakers have promoted open and interoperable radio networks partly to widen the vendor ecosystem, and private 5G deployments are an early testing ground for that ambition.

What is driving Siemens abroad?

Siemens built its private 5G business on the back of German industrial demand, where private spectrum licenses gave manufacturers a route to campus networks independent of public operators. Scaling that model internationally requires navigating spectrum regimes that differ market by market — a regulatory patchwork the company will have to work through country by country. Siemens has not publicly detailed which markets come first or on what timeline.

For enterprises, the appeal is control: dedicated capacity, predictable latency and the ability to run industrial automation traffic without competing with public network load. That proposition has so far found its strongest traction in manufacturing, logistics and ports.

Where does Nokia fit?

Nokia's continued presence in motorsport-linked deployments keeps the vendor visible in a segment where reliability under extreme conditions is the selling point. The company competes directly with Siemens in some industrial accounts while also supplying public operators — a dual position that gives it scale but also exposes it to operator capex cycles, which remain under pressure across Europe.

The competitive frame matters. Nokia sells radio infrastructure; Siemens sells automation systems with connectivity attached. Enterprises choosing between them are effectively choosing between a telecom vendor's network-first pitch and an industrial vendor's application-first pitch. Neither camp publishes win rates, so claims of momentum rest largely on announced contracts.

Why does UK open RAN matter here?

The UK has pushed open RAN as a way to diversify its telecom supply chain after high-profile restrictions on certain vendors. If open interfaces mature in private deployments, enterprises gain more freedom to mix components from different suppliers — potentially loosening the grip of the incumbent radio vendors in the very segment Siemens and Nokia are contesting.

What comes next?

The story to watch is conversion: how many of the announced private 5G projects move from trial to production-scale rollout. Siemens has committed to a global footprint; the market will judge that promise on named deployments, spectrum access and shipped installations rather than on strategy statements. Nokia, meanwhile, faces the same test from the other direction — proving its venue wins can scale into industrial volume.