Germany is latest country to fund 6G research
The German government has earmarked up to €700m ($833m) for research into 6G technologies running up to 2025.
The country’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is starting the first German research initiative on 6G technology this week, with the initial priority to establish a foundation for an innovation ecosystem around the emerging technologies.
“We have to think about the day after tomorrow and help shape new key technologies and standards in communication technologies right from the start,” said federal research minister Anja Karliczek. “5G is already setting important standards here and will take digital networking to the next level. 6G, however, will be the mobile data technology of the future and will determine and even revolutionize our communication in the next decade.”
Vodafone deploys 5G Standalone in Germany
Also in Germany, Vodafone has partnered with Ericsson, Chinese mobile consumer electronics group Oppo, and Qualcomm to deploy a 5G Standalone (SA) network, starting with major cities including Frankfurt.
The network will offer lower latency than the operator’s current 4G-based offering and will support network slicing for independent allocation to specific use cases or enterprises. Vodafone also claims it will reduce energy consumption of mobile phones by almost 20%, because in SA mode, handsets no longer have to access 5G and LTE network at the same time as they do in Non-Standalone.
Huawei decries Open RAN
Huawei has poured more cold water on Open RAN in a press briefing following the vendor’s recent annual analyst day event.
Paul Scanlan, CTO of the Chinese vendor’s carrier business group, argued that Open RAN was not yet mature enough to meet operators’ demands and would struggle to keep pace with the rate of innovation. He also suggested that most operators were very conservative and were reluctant to commit a significant proportion of their infrastructure to an emerging technology.
Ironically, the expulsion of Huawei from some countries’ 5G projects has added impetus to Open RAN as operators in such areas are faced with a dwindling choice of macro RAN suppliers.
Bharti Airtel launches enterprise IoT platform
India’s second largest telco, Bharti Airtel, has launched an integrated IoT platform for local enterprises. Dubbed Airtel IoT, the platform uses the operator’s 5G-ready network with the option to deploy NB-IoT, 4G or 2G connectivity using the operator’s e-SIM technology.
The platform meets the three key requirements of enterprise IoT, according to Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO of Airtel Business. “First, connectivity solutions that future proof their device and application investments. Second, the security of their data. And third, seamless integration with existing IT systems to make the IoT data actionable,” he said.
South Korean operators agree to rural 5G network sharing
The three South Korean operators have agreed to a network sharing deal in remote coastal and rural areas. SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus will share networks in 131 towns and vilalges.
This follows the establishment of a government taskforce last year to look at solutions to poor rural mobile coverage. This identified areas with a population density of 92 people per square kilometer or less as suitable to sharing – this density contrasts with 3,500 people per square kilometre on average in the rest of South Korea.
The three operators will trial network sharing before the end of this year, with full commercialisation of the process expected to take place gradually between then and 2024.