Blog | nearby computing

If so, you’re exposing your production lines to avoidable delays, blind spots, and rising operational risk. When connectivity fails, AGVs stop, safety systems go blind, and output drops. In today’s environment, that’s not just inefficient — it’s unacceptable.

 In the race toward automation and smart manufacturing, many factories are upgrading machinery, deploying robotics, and digitising their operations — yet still relying on outdated or fragmented connectivity to tie it all together.

This disconnect is more than inconvenient — it’s dangerous.
Unreliable connectivity leads to halted production, invisible faults, safety risks, and missed targets. In a competitive market, that’s a margin you can’t afford to lose.

The real problem: networks that weren’t designed for industry

Wi-Fi, public 4G, and siloed SIM setups were never built to support the real-time demands of today’s factory environments. Manufacturers are now facing common — and increasingly critical — pain points:

R Unstable connections interrupting AGVs, AMRs, and robotic arms

R Delayed fault detection, where issues aren’t visible until they become costly downtime

R No central SIM visibility, making management and security a nightmare

R Lack of multivendor coordination, where different cores, radios, and tools don’t talk to each other

R Limited alignment with factory KPIs, leaving IT and OT teams disconnected from business goals

As STL Partners notes, these challenges are part of why manufacturing — according to them (May 2025), private network investment will surge from $1.2B in 2024 to $21B by 2030 — and manufacturing will lead, capturing over 40% of that spend.

The shift: from connectivity to control

What manufacturers truly need isn’t just “better internet”.
They need a private mobile network designed and managed like a factory asset — with full lifecycle control, observability, and alignment with production targets.

That means:

R Centralising SIM, slicing, and network policies across all users and devices

R Unifying visibility across multiple 5G cores, even from different vendors (e.g. Nokia, Athonet, Ericsson)

R Detecting and resolving faults before they impact production

R Automating deployment, monitoring and lifecycle events, freeing up engineers to focus on high-value tasks

R Giving IT and OT a shared view, via one intuitive, role-based platform

Why this matters now

STL Partners’ 2025 report forecasts the private network market will grow from $1.2 billion in 2024 to $21 billion in 2030, with manufacturing alone accounting for over 40% of that value.

Why? Because the ROI is measurable:

R 30% more effective asset monitoring through computer vision and sensor telemetry

R Latency under 10ms, enabling real-time control of mobile robots and automation

R 20% of network application revenue tied directly to safety, compliance, and operational assurance

R Up to 11% of value coming from workflow and asset tracking, improving efficiency and traceability

Manufacturers who get this right aren’t just digitising — they’re redefining how their factories operate.

The solution: NearbyOne +Beam Module

NearbyOne + Beam is the operational intelligence layer for private 5G.

Beam is a powerful OSS module that gives manufacturers a single, centralised platform to deploy, monitor, and manage their entire network lifecycle — across multiple cores, slices, SIMs and use cases.

Key capabilities include:

R Unified SIM lifecycle management, policy controls and usage analytics

R Real-time fault detection and root-cause analysis, before issues impact operations

R Support for multivendor environments, without being locked into one infrastructure stack

R Visual self-service dashboards, tailored for IT and OT roles

R Automated service orchestration, accelerating deployment and reducing operational overhead

Whether you’re running a single smart factory or a network of distributed industrial sites, Beam turns your private network into a visible, reliable and intelligent layer of your operations.

No more guesswork. No more silos. Just a network that works — at industrial scale.