Verizon Business has snatched a major private 5G deal across three UK ports from local telco rivals, in conjunction with Nokia. The deal with Thames Freeport represents a coup for both companies, but particularly for Verizon Business as the project lead, since it re-energizes the company’s campaign to become a significant player in private 5G networks outside its home US market. No other US telco has made much impact among European enterprises, unless we count T-Mobile, by dint of being majority owned by Deutsche Telekom. These port networks, spanning six sites totaling 1,700 acres (688 hectares), will use 3.8-4.2 GHz spectrum and 5G edge systems with full geo-redundancy to support AI and IoT applications. The three sites are all near…