The mobile industry has been targeting private networks with an eye especially on the emerging Industrial IoT (IIoT) since the arrival of LTE, but has been held back by several key factors. These are chiefly lack of available unlicensed spectrum, unproven robustness or performance, and poor integration with existing enterprise IT systems for effective control. Spectrum is now being made available for private LTE/5G networks by various governments, while techniques such as cooperative multipoint transmission (CoMP) have addressed robustness, reliability, and performance. Most recently have come along initiatives to facilitate the integration, such as the partnership just announced in the US between Pod Group, which provides platforms and services for the IoT and Expeto, a cloud and edge IoT connectivity…