- Celona claims a first with its AP-only private 5G networking solution
- Not so fast, say Ataya and Moso, claiming they were first to market in January 2024
- Analyst Roy Chua noted that AP-only products bring Wi-Fi-like simplicity to private networks
Meow! There’s a catfight ongoing between several 5G private network solution start-ups over which was the first to deliver an access point (AP)-only, cloud-controlled private 5G platform.
Celona claimed this week to be the first company to deliver such a platform with its AerFlex product. A few days later, Ataya and Moso Networks, two startups in the sector, disputed Celona's claims, saying they were first to market with a joint AP-only solution back in January 2024.
"While AerFlex is indeed a noteworthy architectural evolution for Celona, it is not the first such solution to market," said a statement from Ataya and Moso. "Launched in January 2024, Ataya Chorus is a standalone private 5G access point with integrated 5G SA core, fully cloud‑managed, plug‑and‑play, zero‑touch provisioned and requiring no on‑premises servers or controllers."
Ataya and Moso Networks (then called MosoLabs) partnered in April 2024 to take the Chorus AP global, the statement added.
What is an AP-only private networking solution?
An AP-only private network refers to a network architecture that uses access points to provide secure connections that don’t run on on-premise servers.
In enterprise setups, APs often connect back to a switch and a network controller or to the internet. In an AP-only network environment, the network is just a cluster of APs providing wireless connectivity. It doesn’t necessarily include things like routers to external networks, LTE/5G integration, or complex backbone infrastructure.
An AP-only private network could be used for things like a local-only Wi-Fi in a factory where devices need to talk to each other but not the internet; temporary or pop-up networks where only APs are deployed to connect handheld scanners or point-of-sale terminals to a local server; and testing environments where developers or engineers need wireless access but no outside connectivity. The “AP-only” part is key — it’s basically a flat wireless LAN without routing to outside networks.
Devil's in the private network details
The Ataya Chorus, a private 5G access point with integrated 5G SA core, is “cloud‑managed” and requires “no on‑premises servers or controllers," according to the Ataya/Moso statement, while Celona's AerFlex product uses Celona’s Edge OS, which it said is the only operating system specifically designed for private wireless use.
The Celona AerFlex — like the Ataya/Moso system — offers “local breakout capability” with the private wireless APs, AvidThink Principal Roy Chua noted. “It's possible that the full feature sets aren't entirely comparable but the most important is the local breakout capability and Ataya/Moso has that as well."
While it's fair to acknowledge that Ataya/Moso have challenged Celona's claim to fame, the devil will be in the details of the respective implementations, Chua said.
Does 'first' matter?
"We welcome new entrants validating this approach—but let’s be clear: this architecture isn’t new," Moso said in a LinkedIn post this week.
Celona hadn't responded to Fierce's questions about their AerFlex claims by press time.
Regardless of which company was first, enterprises will benefit from having a choice of deployment topologies and the local breakout model will mean that private networks will be more Wi-Fi-like and enterprise-friendly.
Asad Khan, 5G research director at SNS Telecom & IT believes that the Wi-Fi technology could be applicable to all types of industries from agriculture to warehousing. “We feel its adoption will more likely be driven by the type of physical locations and the preferred operational/cost model. The technology's value is most apparent in smaller or space-constrained facilities and in end user organizations – primarily SMEs, but also larger enterprises."