Unlock the hidden potential of private 5G networks with Sean Horan from GXC, as he guides us through the cutting-edge cellular solutions revolutionizing the enterprise landscape. Venture beyond the limitations of traditional Wi-Fi with us, as we reveal the power and simplicity of GXC’s setup for both 4G and 5G connectivity—complete with a trailblazing cellular mesh option that's redefining coverage in vast outdoor spaces. Our discussion illuminates the critical balance between Wi-Fi and private cellular, particularly in environments where connectivity is key, such as expansive agricultural lands and bustling industrial sites. Sean's expertise shines as he delves into the intricacies of GXC's mesh technology, which has proven its mettle on an impressive 2100-acre research farm, demonstrating the expansive reach and robust security that government and critical infrastructures demand.
Prepare to have your understanding of global private cellular adoption transformed as we dissect the reasons behind its gradual rise on the world stage. Despite offering competitive performance, the complexities of cost, familiarity, and education still pose significant barriers. Together with Sean, we examine the unmatched benefits of private cellular networks in RF-heavy industrial environments and the urgent need for upgraded communication systems in healthcare. We also discuss GXC's strategic expansion into Latin America and the agricultural sector. As we wrap up, we cast an eye towards the future, pondering the effects of diverse regional frequency bands on 5G deployment and the promise of a more unified landscape in regions like Europe—heralding a new era of growth and innovation for private cellular technology.
Unlock the hidden potential of private 5G networks with Sean Horan from GXC, as he guides us through the cutting-edge cellular solutions revolutionizing the enterprise landscape. Venture beyond the limitations of traditional Wi-Fi with us, as we reveal the power and simplicity of GXC’s setup for both 4G and 5G connectivity—complete with a trailblazing cellular mesh option that's redefining coverage in vast outdoor spaces. Our discussion illuminates the critical balance between Wi-Fi and private cellular, particularly in environments where connectivity is key, such as expansive agricultural lands and bustling industrial sites. Sean's expertise shines as he delves into the intricacies of GXC's mesh technology, which has proven its mettle on an impressive 2100-acre research farm, demonstrating the expansive reach and robust security that government and critical infrastructures demand.
Prepare to have your understanding of global private cellular adoption transformed as we dissect the reasons behind its gradual rise on the world stage. Despite offering competitive performance, the complexities of cost, familiarity, and education still pose significant barriers. Together with Sean, we examine the unmatched benefits of private cellular networks in RF-heavy industrial environments and the urgent need for upgraded communication systems in healthcare. We also discuss GXC's strategic expansion into Latin America and the agricultural sector. As we wrap up, we cast an eye towards the future, pondering the effects of diverse regional frequency bands on 5G deployment and the promise of a more unified landscape in regions like Europe—heralding a new era of growth and innovation for private cellular technology.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Speaker 1:
Hey everybody. Super intriguing chat into the world of private 5G today with the leader, gxc Sean. How are you? I'm doing well.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, Evan.
Speaker 1:
Well, thanks for being here. Gxc is a company that's been making waves electronic magnetic waves, for some time in the 5G space. But for those who aren't aware, maybe introduce yourself. And then a quick intro to GXC.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I'm the global EVP of enterprise sales, so I think direct to enterprise for GXC, and GXC offers a all-in-one private cellular solution, and what I mean by that it's everything out of the box the radio, the SIMs, the software to manage it. You can pull that right out of the box and within five minutes I'm a sales guy I can set up a 4G or a 5G network available for the enterprise. One of the other claims to fame is we are the only ones that provide an option for a cellular mesh as well in the 4G or 5G space. So that's kind of our two large differentiators for GXC and why we're being so successful in the market today.
Speaker 1:
Well, it's a fascinating area. So much opportunity, so much growth. One big question that comes up again and again is Wi-Fi versus private cellular technology. It's a pretty nuanced topic. Technology it's a pretty nuanced topic, it's not black and white. But give us your point of view on how your technology, you know, complements, enhances, sometimes replaces Wi-Fi.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So we don't advocate for a customer to completely, you know, remove Wi-Fi. We believe that private cellular actually complements it. What we mean by that is you use private cellular where Wi-Fi, in some respects, has had some of its limitations, and we talk about carpeted areas and non-carpeted areas. And what we mean by non-carpeted it's anywhere that's outside of the office, think a warehouse or a factory or an industrialized location in the floor, or agriculture that's outdoor, because Wi-Fi has had its limitations with regards to outdoor connectivity.
Speaker 2:
For sure, how often have you been able to connect to an outdoor Wi-Fi access point, a public access point, that you know it just doesn't work. Mobility is a big one. Handovers on Wi-Fi does not. It's not as optimized as what it is on cellular. And then there's a lot of security aspects around the use of private cellular versus Wi-Fi that you can use in an enterprise. So you know there's a lot of things that you can see where you, you know cellular is not for everything, it's not for every application, but where you can use it. That is how you complement your overall enterprise networking stack, right? So in a way, to provide a connectivity solution for your, for your enterprise or for your customers.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, such a such a powerful opportunity and you're known for your own proprietary cellular mesh technology that you've developed and enhanced over the years. For those who aren't familiar, I mean at home I have a little mesh network of sorts, but it really gets interesting when you talk about large campuses and giant warehouses and open outdoor spaces and farms and other places. So for those who aren't familiar, maybe describe the approach to your mesh technology and how you deploy it, some of the benefits.
Speaker 2:
Mesh technology and how you deploy it. Some of the benefits yeah, so, if you think about it, one of the biggest differentiators for the cellular private cellular is for outdoor. For every 10 Wi-Fi access points you might have to deploy outdoor, you only need one access point and it's a four to one ratio indoor. Uh, so, less access points, less, less, uh, less, uh, less, less things to manage and less things to break Right. With respects to mesh, um, you know, think about it as uh, deploying a mesh node where you don't have internet, deploying a mesh node where you don't have Internet, you might have power.
Speaker 2:
I always like to use an agricultural in the agriculture industry. Maybe you know a production. One example is we're deployed at a Demolicaren Ohio State Research Farm. It's 2100 acres research farm. It's 2,100 acres. They needed to be able to connect both soil sensors, weather sensors including also just their tablets and things that they use for research and also connecting autonomous or connected vehicles to that location.
Speaker 2:
So we were able to deploy 2,100 acres, one mesh node at a grain silo. That was 105 feet, that didn't have internet and you know, but they had power and so that was able to connect the 2100 acres from one access point to the mesh node at about a 1.5 miles away and you're able to deploy, you know, a network that you can get 20 to 40 megabits per second, which is sufficient for their needs. And we did that within you know, four or five hours. And that's something that you know is really really you can't do with Wi-Fi, right, and it really highlights kind of where the mesh highlights its use case. There's a few others, but you know that that have really stood out. But it's really about hey, I can't get an Internet here. But it's really about hey, I can't get an internet here. I don't want to pay it for trenching and I don't want to pay for Starlink or something else. That's a wireless backhaul and you can deploy these nodes and fill in the gaps.
Speaker 1:
Wow, such an important use case, and it extends well beyond agriculture, critical infrastructure as well. I can imagine water treatment plants and building sites and also places that have really strict requirements for network security. You know where we have a critical reliance on this technology and the supply chain around it, and you know know a thing or two about that. I think you're working with different agencies and the government maybe the DOD or other aspects of the military. Maybe talk about that and how you can secure these networks in a way that maybe other kinds of technology isn't as secure in a way that maybe other kinds of technology isn't as secure.
Speaker 2:
Well, first of all, security and encryption is inherent to the cellular network itself. Think about you have a physical SIM or a physical key right that resides on the actual device that will be connecting to the network. You're also authenticating that device, that end device, and you have full operational control of the connectivity, of way that it does connect to the network. It's also you know you can't connect to the network. It's also you know you can't. You know you don't see a bunch of broadcasted cellular signals out there or cellular networks, unlike Wi-Fi, that you can, you know, typically open up and look and browse and see everybody's Wi-Fi networks there, and so there's a lot of security protocols that are inherent to cellular.
Speaker 2:
One of the big things is that the cellular network actually is deployed with an on-prem server. That server it can be and typically that's the way the enterprises do that that server can reside behind the firewalls and the existing security aspects that the enterprise has deployed. And so the network itself and the way that we've architected the network is enterprise ready. If you're familiar with how you can, you know, manage and operate a wifi cellular network, you can put in a sorry, a wifi network you can put in a cellular network and it really looks very similar with all the existing and new security protocols around it. So yeah, you know we're seeing some good success in how that is deployed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and let's talk about deployment, because you know, a lot of times you might not have an IT person on a site at a power plant, you know, or a farm, necessarily that has familiarity with cellular technologies. But I've heard some stories that it's kind of plug and play in some cases, deploying minutes, hours. What does a deployment typically look like?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, if you want to deploy a localized private cellular network. We have all the way down to mobile kits or starter kits.
Speaker 2:
The collecting case. It's an all-in-one plug and play. You just plug it into a power receptacle, you will open, you know, provide maybe a backhaul and you have something within five minutes that you can deploy an indoor and even a limited outdoor network. Now it gets a little more complicated when you're dealing with an enterprise and you want it to have fully redundant, you want it on the infrastructure that they have in place, like a building or a tower or a light pole or whatever else that they want.
Speaker 2:
But typically the installation and doing pulling cable and things like that is, you know, 3 or 4x the time that it takes to really turn up the network. Let's say, explosive locations, radioactive locations, high environmental, on one factory floor, the network sorry, with, I think it was like 30 buildings, just to give you an idea, it took about a week to install that's pulling power and everything on about 25 nodes but only took about a day to turn it up and optimized. So a day, that's at the end. We come in, turn it up, optimize it, complete the full networking, making sure that it's optimized and ready to go. So yeah, the effort to get that network up and running, depending on the enterprise and the use case it can be very quick.
Speaker 1:
That's huge and that's what a great opportunity in these days of labor shortages. And finding people with expertise to deploy these things is not straightforward, to say the least. You're a sales guy but we're not going to get into pricing that would be too much for a short chat. But I mean a lot of the private 5G solutions that I've seen out. There are really sort of telco-centric, you know they're extremely robust and reliable, but they're big. You know they're kind of rack-mountable solutions and they can be expensive again, without getting into absolute numbers, but you really designed this for the enterprise at enterprise price points. Is that right? I mean, imagine that's part of the value. Prop as well is CapEx. So how do you see yourselves in that world versus you know a traditional, you know telco rollout?
Speaker 2:
I mean, you kind of outlined it directly. A lot of those that have been in the telco world have taken that equipment, stripped it down, or you know it's the same stuff, but they've lowered the feature sets. And it's still high, high end equipment to do this. And we did the exact opposite. We built it from the ground up specifically for the enterprise. The features that you need or what you get, the features that you don't need. Well, you know you're never going to use them anyway, so why buy Right? And so we've really looked at the market itself.
Speaker 2:
We've looked at what traditional Wi-Fi, managed Wi-Fi services are and fit the model of private cellular into that into that model as well, so that you know a buyer or procurement person within a enterprise can can say well, I can do Wi-Fi or I can do cellular, and it's almost the same effort and the same price points.
Speaker 2:
Very simple, you know and in the economics it's, you know you can use as much data as you want, just like Wi-Fi, right, you can use as many SIMs as you want, just exactly like. That's the encryption side of it, where you secure that thing, and really what you're doing is you're paying by the node or the AP that's deployed and then there is a management that's on that, so a subscription base, and it's very similar to how it's purchased today in the networking space and when people are looking at deploying and operating a mobile network.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, such a such a great value proposition. Seems like a no brainer on my end, but and yet globally the private 5G market is slower to take off than we'd anticipated or hoped industry-wide. Do you think that's because of what reasons Some countries don't have private 5G licensed? I guess Pricing there might be another one. You see a lot of heavy telco-grade products that are quite expensive compared to Wi-Fi, but what else you know is kind of, you know, slowing the adoption or slowed the adoption. How can we remove some of those roadblocks out there?
Speaker 2:
We spend a lot of time in education. Even though everybody understands what I've heard of 4g or they've heard of 5g, they don't understand yet the difference. And it's coming around, I think, over the last year or so, that what is private cellular? I asked that question and I have to. We have to start out with that. Do you understand what the differences are between public, as we would say, as traditional cellular services, and private cellular? And so, yeah, another one is it's really around that education. Another one is they're so used to Wi-Fi and the limitations of Wi-Fi that they really have to see it to understand. Hey, this is really a benefit versus just believing it. Another chemical factory walking around with a wifi person who is a managed services that does wifi and we're in we're in areas that are heavily RF.
Speaker 2:
You know troubled locations vats and pipes and metal and everything, and three, four stories, no open areas, and you know the. The traditional wifi is like I wouldn't touch this. Uh, you know it would be too expensive, it would be too e, too hard, and we can walk in and, uh, you know one node at a pretty decent gain antenna and, uh, strategically placed and do a huge uh, you know one access point versus who knows how many with wi-fi. And again, it's about that that it doesn't understand. They don't see the scale until they see it right. Once they see it and experience it and they can be in a location like that that was traditionally never able to have coverage, both on public or wi-fi, public cellular or wi-Fi, and then see how easy it is to deploy, then the light clicks right. They're like, ok, I get it.
Speaker 2:
And then also, I think it also has to do with pricing. You've got people trying to get out there. They're used to traditional pricing from telcos. They try to price it the same way. Enterprise looks at it and go you're crazy, I'm not going to do that, or maybe they will, but they'll do it at a very small locations. They're not scaled correctly, and so I think we're starting to see that open up a bit and GXC is kind of at the forefront of making sure that we get a good product, secure product and something that the enterprise can consume at scale. And that's really the issue that we've seen in the past and we're trying to correct that.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful mission, of course. Of course I do a lot of work in the healthcare IT space and one of my constant disappointments is Wi-Fi in hospitals and healthcare settings, whether you're visiting or you're a patient or you're visiting family. Just a constant struggle, and I hope the industry adopts more technology like yours to really upgrade that provider experience, the patient experience, and even you know the facilitators, the administrators, doctors, nurses need better communications infrastructure and tools and let's hope you know you're going to make some headway there as well. What's next? I know you guys have a lot on the agenda Any travel or trips or events coming up.
Speaker 2:
Well, we are getting pulled for me, we are getting pulled by US-based companies to and Latin America, and so, um, you know, I have some travel uh moving around and and again it's trying to figure out the best way to deploy uh the each technology at, uh at in a region. Um, one example is, uh, you know, we're seeing 5g, uh, the benefits of 5g and the consolidation of the bands in Europe to to really enable 5G in 78. Whereas here in the US we're still kind of in that CBRS band, 48 lower megahertz, and so so availability for 5G, and so when we start seeing that, we'll start seeing the scale 5G, and so when we start seeing that we'll start seeing the scale. So, in that case, we're moving outside of the US a bit and we're getting pulled to do that, which is good.
Speaker 2:
As far as trade shows, I am in the ag space and so I look at, really, and when we say agriculture, we're not talking about small farms, we're talking about food processing, uh, food processors, food production, uh, so think manufacturing of food, um, and so I'll be at uh. I think the next one is pork live. Uh, not pork live, excuse me, it's a World Pork Expo in June in Des Moines, iowa. We'll also be at Connect X, I think in about in two weeks in Atlanta, you know, and so really it's about getting the word out in each industry vertical that you know where the enterprise buyers are and the consumers are, and that's where we're trying to get in those particular verticals.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful mission. World Pork Expo Wow, that was not on my radar list but as a pork consumer and lover, that would be an interesting one to visit.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think a lot of it. You know it's great, I love going to these shows in the in a lot of you know it's great, I love going to these shows was in february. Um, uh, and again that's the international uh poultry producers, but really it's it's around protein production, uh, you know, and so we're learning about um and they need it. They need this kind of cellular connectivity because they're in areas that uh, the uh traditional suppliers don't supply and they're in areas that the traditional suppliers don't supply and they're in areas that they're in their RF intense areas that they need to be able to cover. And so, you know, private cellular is a really good fit.
Speaker 1:
So we go where we can sample. As long as you can sample the products maybe some fried chicken or some pulled pork I'm all in favor of going to these shows. Oh, the food is incredible food is incredible, yeah awesome. Well, so fun, so interesting, informative and, uh, you and the team put out some very educational content. I encourage everyone to follow GXC on GXCio, on Twitter, linkedin and more. Thanks, sean.
Speaker 2:
Hey, thanks so much for the time. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
And thanks everyone for watching. Take care, bye-bye.