Amazon Web Services Inc. today announced the preview of AWS Private 5G, a new managed service that allows enterprises to set up their own private mobile networks and scale them up.

Private 5G is a full-service feature, announced at the Amazon.com Inc. cloud unit’s annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, that’s capable of spinning up a 5G private network with just a few clicks by a client. Customers need only specify the location and the capacity needed. From there, AWS will deliver all the hardware needed including radio units, servers, 5G core and radio access network software and the subscriber identity modules required to run a private network.

Once deployed, the Private 5G deployment can also fully automate scaling capacity and demand to support additional devices and network traffic. It will also integrate with AWS Identity and Access Management to allow network administrators to directly control which resources mobile devices can access on the private network.

Amazon said that there are no upfront fees or per-device costs with the service and customers need only pay for the network capacity and throughput they request. Customers can start small, with few devices, and use pay-as-you-go pricing to scale up as they add more devices.

“With AWS Private 5G, we’re extending hybrid infrastructure to customers’ 5G networks to make it simple, quick and inexpensive to set up a private 5G network,” said David Brown, vice president of EC2 at AWS. “Customers can start small and scale on-demand, pay as they go and monitor and manage their network from the AWS console.”

With mounting needs to address mobile devices, many enterprise network information technology infrastructure teams find themselves facing increased demands in growth in users, devices and applications. That’s driven by higher bandwidth needs for “internet of things” devices, the need for extended coverage across large campuses, or tall buildings, more employees with mobile phones and increased security needs.

Potential use cases for this technology include bringing increased connectivity to devices, sensors, machines and legacy equipment within manufacturing facilities. It will allow large industrial complexes to track assembly line production more easily in real-time with reliable linkage data across numerous connected machines, according to Amazon.

Having a high-bandwidth private 5G network would also be able to securely connect numerous employees for low-latency application use cases such as augmented and virtual reality. That’s useful for design engineering or for medical procedures where milliseconds count – but at the same time, privacy and security remain paramount.

“AWS’s Private 5G offering enables customers to implement 5G connectivity in their own environment and to manage their private 5G services alongside their other AWS services,” Ed Anderson, Gartner distinguished research vice president, told SiliconANGLE. “This will give customers an expedited means to deploying 5G solutions where needed and provide another option to carrier-delivered 5G services.”

Amazon said it built Private 5G to provide an out-of-the-box solution to customers that want to build their own private networks but don’t have considerable time or money to invest in designing their own networks.

The AWS Private 5G preview is available now in the United States. Access can be requested by visiting the sign-up page.

Image: Amazon