India omits Huawei and ZTE from 5G trials
Huawei and ZTE have been left out of India’s 5G trials, leaving Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung leading the charge of 12 firms involved in a six-month evaluation. The trials will be conducted by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, alongside state-run MTNL. This comes ahead of new procurement rules expected to be announced in June that will almost certainly formalize the ban, restricting Indian telcos to specified equipment from a list of trusted suppliers.
T-Mobile USA upgrades subscriber forecast on back of strong Q1
T-Mobile USA has upgraded its estimate of subscriber additions for the year from 4.7m to 4.9m on the back of strong revenue growth of 78% to $19.8bn for the first quarter of 2021. This beat expectations and pushed stock slightly higher despite net income being held back by costs associated with roll out and the merger with Sprint. CEO Mike Sievert attributed the growth in part to the operator’s 600 MHz 5G Standalone network, whose services are branded ‘Extended Range 5G’, covering 295m people, and its 2.5 GHz network, ‘Ultra Capacity 5G’, reaching 140m.
TIP adopts OpenRoaming standard for OpenWiFi initiative
The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has adopted the OpenRoaming standard for its OpenWiFi initiative launching this month. Developed by Cisco but now controlled by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), OpenRoaming allows handover to WiFi as users move between hotspots without logins or passwords.
OpenWiFi then allows WiFi service providers to deploy access points, cloud controllers and smart analytics from different vendors. The combination of the two unifies WiFi and cellular to a greater extent than has been possible before, according to TIP.
Telus set for 70% Canadian 5G coverage by 2022
Canadian telco Telus plans to expand its 5G network with 529 new urban and rural communities across the country by the end of the 2021, all using existing spectrum holdings. This will extend the operator’s 5G network to 70% of the Canadian population.
The 5G expansion is part of a CAD54bn ($44.2bn) investment in infrastructure and operations across the country over the period ending 2024.
Telus is also partnering with the University of Windsor and St Clair College in Ontario to make each institution a 5G Connected Campus, offering free access to students, faculty and researchers.
Airspan is the latest to open UK Open RAN lab
Airspan is the latest company to set up an open networks lab in the UK, following recent announcements by Vodafone and Mavenir. The small cell vendor’s 5G Innovation Lab will be located in its European headquarters in Slough, just west of London, and will focus on Open RAN as applied to various 5G use cases.
The lab will provide Airspan’s partners with a facility to test vrious Open RAN solutions, as well as sub-6 GHz millimeter wave indoor/outdoor technology, and private network 5G applications, said the firm. It will significantly increase the number of software engineers based in the UK to support the lab and to raise Airspan’s profile in a country where the government is actively encouraging the operators to diversify their supply chains.
Vodafone UK and Telefónica O2 UK have both made commitments to deploy Open RAN solutions and have been conducting tests and trials with multiple partners. The other UK MNOs, BT/EE and Three UK, are more cautious about the new platform.