Jio Focuses on Private 5G Networks to Meet Industry 5.0 Demands

Reliance Jio's enterprise business arm is putting significant stress on solutions that relate to the private 5G networks, which are evolving to meet the sector's needs in manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare in preparation for their transition to Industry 5.0. Commenting at the recently concluded ETTelecom 5G Congress 2025, Ajay Sehgal, the Chief Revenue Officer of Jio Business, explained that the adoption of automation and IoT in factories is rising too fast for traditional public 5G networks, leading to an increasing demand for dedicated private connectivity.

“As factories increasingly adopt automation and IoT technologies, the need for reliable, high-speed and secure connectivity has outgrown the capabilities of standard public 5G networks, creating the need for dedicated private networks,” Sehgal explained during a fireside chat at the event.

He revealed that these private networks are expected to begin rolling out in the next 3-4 months. Drawing a comparison with the industry’s earlier shift from public to private cloud infrastructure, Sehgal noted that a similar evolution is now taking place in network architecture.

Jio is offering dedicated private networks, carved out to meet the needs of a modern industrial environment, through 5G network slicing-enhanced control, lower latency, and better data security.

By merging private 5G with IoT and edge computing, these networks are doing more than just connecting factories; they're transforming them entirely. 

“It’s empowering manufacturers to work smarter, respond faster and innovate. Industry 5.0 is all about creating harmony between advanced technology and human intelligence. In a factory setting, machines may handle precision and scale, but people bring context, creativity and decision-making to the table,” Sehgal said.

He emphasized that the core of Industry 5.0 is the smooth coordination between humans and technology. “It’s a shift toward a more human-centric approach, where people are not just part of the process but at the very heart of it,” he added.

Private networks, designed for use within a specific geographic area, offer secure and dedicated connectivity to support internal operations or mission-critical applications. Sehgal noted that Jio is actively building this capability to meet industry demands. 

As he said, new factories would require every machine to be IoT-enabled for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, a situation that private 5G networks will enable. Edge computing is also becoming more critical-adopting 'stupider' operation using the data and closer to the source rather than having it all flow to centralized data centers.

“The days of relying solely on centralized data centers for compute processing are over, now processing must happen at the edge. These are the critical areas where Jio is investing, helping our manufacturing units embrace Industry 5.0 and meet its evolving demand,” Sehgal concluded.