Aurelius Takes Nokia’s Private Wireless Unit and Its 900 Industrial Customers

Nokia has agreed to sell Enterprise Campus Edge, the unit that supplies its private wireless systems to factories, mines and logistics operators, to the private equity firm Aurelius. The price was not disclosed and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. About 900 customers move with the business, and employees are expected to transfer under local employment rules.

Konstanty Owczarek, Nokia’s chief corporate development officer, said the sale supports Nokia’s strategy of sharpening its portfolio and directing capital to areas where it sees the greatest long-term value. The unit had been grouped with assets the company treats as non-core, and this agreement settles a question that grouping opened.

Industry counts show why private network assets still attract buyers even as the pace of new announcements cools. GSA’s September 2026 private mobile networks report lists 2,031 organisations in 88 countries running networks worth more than EUR 100,000 each, a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent since 2019. New additions have thinned to 76 customer announcements in the first half of 2026, against 241 across the whole of 2025, with manufacturing and education the two largest adopting sectors.

For a buyer, the appeal is a customer base that pays for coverage and reliability instead of headline speed, and one whose contracts sit close to the industrial processes they support.

Supply note: Campus and private networks consume the same radio and core hardware as commercial sites, in smaller quantities and with more spares per site. Stock covers indoor and outdoor small cells on 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz, CBRS-ready radio units, and the baseband and core boxes that pair with them, with cross-reference options when one OEM model sits on a long lead time. In-stock units carry a two to four working day lead time from Hong Kong, and deliveries can be staged across a multi-site rollout. Field experience with refurbished private network equipment concentrates the failures in two places: PoE injectors that run hot under load and outdoor enclosures sealed once and never reopened, so power draw is tested and enclosure gaskets documented on every unit. Mining and port operators buying for several sites usually take spares per site.