Private networks were a major focus of Open RAN interest at MWC 2024. Firecell’s Olivier Dhotel, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer explained that the company was set up in 2021, with its founders sharing a common heritage in Expway – a multicast specialist acquired by Enensys. “An old customer got in touch, asking about private networks. We interviewed 40 companies and saw there was a big gap in the market – with one interviewee even promising to be our first customer if we could bring this to market,” said Dhotel. This product was a complete, turn-key 5G software stack, including the core RAN and network management service, designed to run on COTS hardware. “Manufacturing and logistics are the target customers,”…