Campus Networks: From Idea to Impact (Part 2)
Connectivity is the new cloud. Ten years ago, the cloud wasn’t about servers; it was about packaging infrastructure into a service customers could actually consume. Private 5G and campus networks are at the same inflection point. Part 1 showed how giants like SailGP, Newmont, and Aker BP proved the technology in extreme conditions, on racing seas, in deep mines, and across offshore rigs. But for startups, the question isn’t whether private networks work. The question is how to turn them into something customers will pay for, month after month.
That’s what this post delivers: a Monetization Blueprint for private wireless with three practical models that show how to transform connectivity from an engineering achievement into a sustainable business.
Networks-as-Easy-as-Netflix: The NaaS Model
Not every customer wants to buy and operate a private network outright. For many, the appeal lies in consuming connectivity like a service, in the same way companies shifted from owning servers to renting cloud capacity. That’s the logic of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS): predictable costs, simplified management, and scalability on demand.
Across Europe, a new generation of startups is lowering the barrier to private 5G adoption by packaging networks as subscription services. Hardware, core software, SIM management, and orchestration are bundled into turnkey offerings that can be deployed quickly and paid for monthly rather than upfront. The promise is private 5G that feels closer to Wi-Fi than to a traditional telco rollout.
But as enterprises move beyond pilots, expectations begin to change. Simplicity remains important, yet many customers, especially in industrial, public-sector, and research environments, also demand transparency and control. They want to understand how the network behaves, how it can be adapted, and how it will evolve as requirements change.
This has led to a more modular interpretation of NaaS. Instead of locking customers into a single vendor’s stack, some providers deliver private networks as a service while building them on open, O-RAN-based components. Planning, deployment, and operation are still handled end to end, but the underlying architecture remains open and replaceable. Networks can be consumed like a service without becoming a black box.
Takeaway for founders: NaaS is not just about subscriptions. It’s about reducing friction while preserving flexibility. The strongest offerings simplify adoption without sacrificing long-term control.
Connectivity lays the foundation, VAS builds the house
Selling connectivity alone is a tough business. The real margins come when you layer services on top of the network, such as monitoring, analytics or automation. This is the Value-Added Services (VAS) play: turning private 5G from raw bandwidth into business outcomes.
The analogy to cloud computing holds. Enterprises don’t pay hyperscalers for servers; they pay for monitoring, analytics, AI tools, and managed services that sit on top of infrastructure. Private wireless follows the same trajectory. Once a reliable network is in place, customers begin asking different questions: How is performance evolving? Where are bottlenecks? What happens if machines move or production layouts change?
To answer these questions, leading providers embed intelligence directly into their platforms. Monitoring dashboards, orchestration layers, and AI-assisted optimization transform static networks into adaptive systems. Increasingly, this intelligence is paired with a digital twin of the network, allowing operators to simulate changes, predict performance, and validate configurations before touching the live environment.
Rather than selling bandwidth, these providers sell confidence: the ability to plan accurately, deploy predictably, and operate with continuous visibility. When built on open interfaces such as O-RAN, these services also allow deeper integration with enterprise IT and OT systems.
Takeaway for founders: The value of private 5G multiplies when customers can see, understand, and optimize it. VAS turns connectivity into an operational tool rather than a sunk cost.
From Connectivity to Coverage: Adding Value on Top of Vertical Use Cases
Selling a network as a blank canvas is tough but selling it as a ready-to-go solution for a sector is far easier. That’s the Vertical Solutions model: instead of pitching generic private 5G, you bundle it directly into workflows for industries such as broadcasting, logistics, or healthcare.
Verticalization works because it reframes the conversation. Customers don’t buy radios or spectrum; they buy outcomes. In factories, that may mean reliable connectivity for mobile robots. In research environments, it may mean a configurable testbed for experimentation. In large campuses, it often means predictable coverage across complex indoor spaces.
Delivering these outcomes requires tight integration between planning, deployment, and operation. Accurate radio planning and indoor modeling become as important as the network itself. Once deployed, the network must adapt as environments change and applications evolve. Here again, digital twins and continuous optimization play a central role, allowing coverage and performance to be treated as dynamic variables rather than fixed assumptions.
The most promising vertical solutions are not closed systems. They are built on open foundations that allow specialization without sacrificing interoperability or long-term flexibility.
Takeaway for founders: Vertical focus wins when it solves a concrete problem immediately. But openness and adaptability determine whether a solution remains viable beyond its first deployment.
Choosing Your Play—or Combining Them
Private 5G and campus networks aren’t a one-size-fits-all business. Some startups will win by lowering barriers with subscription models, others by enabling shared access, and others by layering intelligence or targeting a single vertical.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that many of the most compelling offerings combine all three. End-to-end delivery lowers friction. Open architectures avoid lock-in. Value-added services turn networks into living systems rather than static infrastructure.
One practical example of how these models converge can be found in emerging open, modular private-5G stacks. In Germany, several startups are building interoperable components that can be combined into a full campus-network solution: an open 5G core from Campus Genius, O-RAN–based CU/DU/RU systems and end-to-end planning and operation from airpuls, and open radio hardware from Massive Beams. Together, these components illustrate how private networks can be delivered as a service, enriched with operational intelligence and digital twins, and still remain free of vendor lock-in. The relevance of such stacks lies less in individual companies than in the architectural pattern they represent: composable, transparent, and future-ready.
For founders, the real challenge is not choosing a single model, but deciding how much openness, control, and intelligence customers will need as they scale. The technology is ready, and the demand is real. The next move is to turn connectivity into something customers don’t just deploy—but rely on.