China threatens to ban Ericsson from 5G
Sweden has been given one last chance by China to reverse its ban on Huawei before retaliation is taken against Ericsson.
The Swedish company had been selected as a 5G RAN supplier by both China Telecom and China Unicom but will be shut out of further work except in the unlikely event of Sweden bowing to China’s pressure.
Ironically, arch-rival Nokia may benefit from this exclusion, having failed to win contracts previously for technical shortcomings the company says are now fixed. While Finland has passed legislation that could be used to ban Huawei, it has cannily found a formula that leaves wriggle room for direct negotiations with China to allow some quid pro quo.
5G already displacing WiFi indoors, finds Ericsson consumer survey
About 20% of 5G subscribers have reduced their usage of WiFi, according to the latest Ericsson Consumer Lab survey. Furthermore, 5G is triggering changes in user behavior and indoor coverage is now rated as very important by early adopters, who are often more satisfied with their experience than LTE users are. Yet at the same time, overall 5G adoption is still quite low, with the average proportion of consumers who own both 5G smartphone and possess a 5G subscription only 4% in the 26 markets covered by the survey.
Ericsson claims this is the largest global 5G consumer study to date, based on nearly 31,000 online interviews with smartphone users between the ages of 15 and 69 years old.
Zigbee Alliance rebrands as Connectivity Standards Alliance
In a sign of the IoT times, the Zigbee Alliance has rebranded as the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) to manage its portfolio of protocols based on the short range Zigbee standard.
It has also announced a new brand, Matter, for its royalty-free connectivity standard for smart home products, developed as part of the Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) project, led by Swedish flatpack furniture maker IKEA.
Zigbee was once proclaimed by internet pioneer and Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe as having a key role to play as a wireless protocol for connected things, but it has more recently lost ground against newer protocols for smart home and IoT communications.
Ericsson expands indoor 5G portfolio
Ericsson has expanded its indoor 5G portfolio, initially targeting the US market only with its Indoor Air 1279 and Ericsson Radio Dot 4459 small cell radio. It has also launched Ericsson Indoor Connect, a support package for multi-operator and multivendor scenarios.
“The quality of 5G service indoors is equally important to Ericsson as the user experience outdoors,” said Jessey Huang, head of Ericsson’s indoor product line. “We know what a differentiator great indoor 5G experiences are to subscribers, enterprise and industry.”
The Indoor AIR 1279 brings millimeter wave 5G to small, medium, and large venues with double the performance of any other such products currently on the market, Ericsson claimed.