Summary Bullets:
• GSA customer numbers for Q4 2025 show private 5G network traction continuing, driven by repeatable, vertical-specific use cases in manufacturing, mining, and campuses.
• 2026 momentum hinges on pragmatic LTE-to-5G evolution, spectrum clarity, and ROI-focused rollouts amid supply-chain and macro risks.
The Global mobile Supplier Association (GSA)’s Q4 2025 snapshot on private 4G/5G, published in February 2026, suggests it is a market that remains relevant only to certain enterprise segments, while also being more firmly established. With over 2,000 customers of GSA member companies tracked by year-end 2025, one can infer the increasing normalcy of cellular as an enterprise connectivity platform for operations, safety, and automation. Most organizations have more than one private network deployed, (almost) each of which generated revenues exceeding EUR100,000.
An initial takeaway is that demand remains vertical-driven. Manufacturing is still the largest segment in terms of number of deployments, with education and mining also prominent. Manufacturing continues to justify private wireless networks through uptime, deterministic performance, and support for industrial automation. Mining’s continued adoption underscores how coverage, resilience, and mobility in harsh environments remain strong native-cellular use cases. Meanwhile, education’s presence suggests it’s a segment where ownership, security, and service quality are increasingly valued alongside cost, and that it has moved beyond small test bed-style projects into campus-style implementations.
Second, the split between cellular technology generations shows that while 5G is now leading 4G LTE in new private network deployments, LTE still accounts for 51% of the installed base. For 2026, that implies two parallel market trends: (1) continued scaling of LTE-based systems where economics and maturity help make the decision, and (2) a rising share of 5G-driven expansions where capacity, latency, or device roadmap requirements demand it. The near-term trend is likely to be “5G as an upgrade path” rather than “5G as a replacement.”
Third, the report’s footprint – deployments across 84 countries, with notable growth in markets such as Canada and Brazil – highlights how private networks are no longer limited to a handful of early-adopter regions. As adoption broadens geographically, procurement models, integrator ecosystems, and spectrum frameworks will become competitive differentiators. Enterprises will increasingly compare not just technology options but also regulatory certainty and solution availability across markets.
Regulation and spectrum policy changes continue to make the market more attractive, at least incrementally. GSA’s observation of increased dedicated spectrum allocations in high-income countries reinforces a key point for 2026: Where spectrum access is clear and enterprise-friendly, deployments tend to move from experimentation to industrial scale. Conversely, where spectrum remains complex or fragmented, adoption may continue to skew toward managed or hybrid models.
Finally, the report’s cautionary notes – tariffs, component supply chain risks, and macro uncertainty – suggest that 2026 momentum may be uneven. The market can still grow strongly, but buyers may prioritize projects with fast ROI, reuse of proven architectures, and phased rollouts over big-bang transformations. In that sense, 2026 looks set to benefit vendors and enterprises that treat private cellular as an operational platform – one that scales by vertical use cases (and associated KPIs), spectrum readiness, and a realistic LTE-to-5G evolution path.