Staging and logistics centers along the I-35 corridor, sprawling manufacturing plants on the city's South Side, and the flightline at Port San Antonio all share a wireless headache: WiFi drops as soon as workers or vehicles leave the building, and public LTE often cannot penetrate the metal sheds and stacked containers that dominate these facilities. High-density, fast-moving operations need a better tool.

Why San Antonio Enterprises Are Turning To Private 5G

San Antonio's economic engine is remarkably diverse. Boeing and Toyota build and overhaul aircraft and vehicles. Data centers cluster around CPS Energy's reliable power grid. Mission-critical healthcare campuses serve South Texas, while oilfield service firms coordinate fleets that stretch from the Eagle Ford Shale to West Texas. Each of these verticals depends on mobility, low latency, and predictable throughput that WiFi 6E simply cannot guarantee once you step outdoors.

Private 5G, delivered over Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the 3.5 GHz band, solves three local challenges. First, it pushes clean spectrum across large outdoor yards without trenching fiber for every access point. Second, it offers Quality of Service (QoS) controls so robotic tugs or autonomous drones never fight with guest phones for airtime. Finally, it keeps sensitive machine data on-prem rather than routing it through a carrier's core.

Facilities teams in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston are asking for the same capabilities, and you can see how we serve them at the links below:

• Austin Private Networks
• Dallas Private Networks
• Fort Worth Private Networks
• Houston Private Networks
• Statewide Texas Overview

How Private 5G Beats WiFi And Public Cellular

CBRS small cells transmit at up to 47 dBm EIRP, roughly 50 times the power of a WiFi access point. That extra horsepower, paired with lower noise on the band, lets a single radio cover several acres with consistent downlink and uplink speeds. WiFi needs dozens of APs to match that footprint, which drives up cabling, switch ports, and maintenance.

Comparing private 5G to commercial LTE or 5G from AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile is just as stark. Public carriers charge by the SIM, so equipping thousands of scanners or augmented-reality headsets quickly blows past your IT budget. Throughput can also tank when spectators pack the Alamodome or when tourists flood the River Walk. A private network isolates your traffic from the public grid, delivers single-digit millisecond latency, and lets you integrate the RAN (radio access network) directly with your OT or IT VLANs.

If you want a deeper dive into spectrum options, device compatibility, and EPC design, explore our Private Networks Guide.

Our Proven Design To Deployment Process

1. Rapid Site Snapshot
   Send us a floorplan, a KMZ, or just a Google Earth pin with the area that needs coverage plus a list of devices you plan to connect. Within three business days you will receive a budgetary range and a draft heat map.

2. Detailed RF Engineering
   When you are ready to proceed, our engineers create a full 3D propagation model, pick the right vendor mix (Celona, Baicells, Airspan, or others), and produce a bill of materials, an installation schedule, and a guaranteed coverage plan.

3. Turnkey Build
   We coordinate lifts, fiber runs, power taps, and backhaul, then install and commission the core and radios. Your network arrives fully integrated, so users get day-one coverage without wrestling with SIM provisioning or VLAN tagging.

4. Ongoing SLA And Monitoring
   Our cloud dashboard monitors KPIs like SINR and throughput around the clock. If a small cell or gateway goes offline, we open a trouble ticket before your team notices the blip.

Need something faster for a pop-up site or a pilot program? Ask about our pallet-sized "network in a box" that ships with radios, core, backhaul, and SIMs already configured.

Local Experience You Can Trust

While private 5G is new, Waveform has deployed robust wireless solutions across Texas for years. A recent project for Finisar in Sherman (a semiconductor optics manufacturer) demonstrates our ability to deliver predictable coverage in RF-challenging industrial environments. The same field engineers who optimized that facility's throughput are ready to apply their knowledge to your San Antonio campus.

Transparent Pricing That Scales With Your Site

Indoor turnkey deployments typically range from 1 to 2.50 dollars per square foot, depending on ceiling heights, cable paths, and redundancy requirements. Outdoor projects, where private networks really shine, can be even more cost-effective. Covering a 1.5-mile radius yard or plant can start around 100 thousand dollars, a fraction of what a comparable outdoor WiFi mesh or DAS would cost. Because we are vendor-agnostic, you only pay for the hardware and features you actually need.

Next Steps

Private 5G delivers the coverage, control, and capacity that WiFi and public LTE cannot match. Waveform makes the journey simple, from the first RF model to the last SIM card. Call us at (800) 637-4049 or get a custom private 5g design and quote today.