Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
Global supply chain disruption is wipingbns of dollars off the revenues and valuations of many major telecoms vendors, with few predicting any let-up until well into 2022. This has some influence, indirect at least, on the fortunes of Open RAN. On one hand, an architecture that makes it easier for operators to introduce new suppliers and swap out old ones may seem like an additional nightmare for large vendors. On the other, they may also see the benefits of adopting an architecture that relies on relatively commoditized, common elements, which can be obtained from a variety of partners. An open RAN may not be up to the demands of a fully-fledged 5G macro RAN for many years to come, but…
Statements from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week have made it evidently clear that he is “very worried” that his country’s hosting of COP26 in Glasgow over the coming weeks will not be deemed a success. With many warning signs stacked against it, the conference will likely be defined by its ability to ‘consign coal to history,’ while global carbon taxation and methane accounting continue to remain out of the spotlight. Broadly, success for the COP26 conference negotiations – which will run between October 31 and November 12 – can be defined by the commitment to limiting the average global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius above ore-industrial levels, largely through an effort to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions…
To date Rethink Energy has not bothered itself with plastics, although expecting to have to address the complex industry sooner or later, but a report out this week, means it has to become a new focus. The report comes from Bennington College in Vermont, USA and it gives one of the best single-document educations on how the oil and gas industry supports plastics and how the market is growing unchecked, on track to overtake coal as the industry most likely to ruin IPCC targets for greenhouse gasses. The report starts off claiming that by 2030 the US led industry will contribute more to climate change emissions than coal plants – but in a way, that’s not very surprising – coal…
AEMO, the Australian grid regulator, has launched the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism (WDRM) this week. The Mechanism will enable commercial and industrial players to receive payment for scheduled consumption reductions, under a bidding process. The purpose is to reduce demand at peak times especially during summer, thus reducing the need for reserve capacity. The first customer to sign up is Enel X, which was also the first entrant to Australia’s Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) market. Enel X is the world’s leading demand response provider and was acquired by Italian electricity and gas provider Enel in 2017, the same year FCAS opened. Enel’s generation assets in Australia are on par with the scale of consumer demand which Enel X has…
Five years ago this week… Faultline gave the European Commission (EC) a hard time as it shed some light on its planned 120 million Euros project to extending the reach of WiFi across the EU. Clearly aware of the cynicism surrounding Muni-WiFi projects, all of which had tanked up until that point in time, the funds were to be allocated via vouchers, to ensure that municipalities did not spend the funds elsewhere. The EC was also pushing hard to convert operators by promising that the project would not compete with them by duplicating any of their existing services or networks. Of course, Faultline had many bones to pick, one of which was a proposed unified authentication system spanning the 1,000…
One of the ironies of the current Open RAN platform is that, while seeking to break the dominance of a few large equipment vendors, it risks delivering a monopoly position to Intel. It is conceivable that Open RAN could be a repeat of the PC and server markets, with diversity in the vendors that could make the boxes, but a near-monopoly in the processors. The Arm community is determined to avoid that, and to rise to the demands of many operators for diversity and openness in the silicon layer. Individual Arm-based chipmakers like Marvell have already developed products for vRAN and Open RAN, in a bid to narrow the lead that Intel has achieved via its vRAN cooperations with…
Netflix has come out swinging, in its dispute with SK Broadband, saying that the next Squid Game depends on a free and open internet. However, the latest dispute feels very 2014, and resurfaces complaints that we thought had been dealt with. From the outside, it seems that something murky is happening under the surface. The news itself is that SK Broadband is accusing Netflix of causing it legitimate harm, and is suing to recoup those costs. This is the latest round in a dispute that goes back to 2018, which has intensified due to the launch of Squid Game and D.P., two very popular South Korean series that caused a spike in traffic that SK Broadband could not handle. In…
There are a few things to follow-up on from last week’s joint announcement between French vendors Ateme and Viaccess-Orca, producing a contribution watermarking system which embeds VO’s software-based forensic watermarking technology into Ateme’s encoders and IRDs (integrated receiver decoders). The first thing we questioned is the pricing model. How does VO make any money from this collaboration if the watermarking license is being given away completely free? In removing the value from a technology – particularly software like forensic watermarking which typically costs a premium – comes all the usual concerning connotations of market commoditization. The answer lies behind the pay-per-use model, which reflects the general trend of shifting to more of a service approach that is preferred by operators,…
ARM unveils cloud-based IoT software design system ARM has announced a package facilitating IoT software development without the need for physical silicon. Called ARM Total Solutions for IoT, this combines the software and hardware design stages into a single virtual co-innovation process, which the company claims can accelerate product design by up to two years. Built on ARM’s Corstone subsystem package for system-on-chip (SoC) design, this includes references for processors, system IP, memory system, and various debug and security IP. This cloud-based model brings modern agile software development methodologies like continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD and DevOps, along with machine learning operations (MLOps), to IoT and embedded platforms, ARM says. It dispenses with the need for software developers, equipment manufacturers and…
Last week’s Broadband World Forum event, which returned to Amsterdam’s RAI conference center, included two interesting developments involving Norwegian WiFi start-up Domos. The first is part of a containerized revolution being driven by Nokia, which has just introduced a way for service providers to embrace application containers in CPE. While an emerging technology for broadband operators, application containers are already widely used in cloud and enterprise domains, as a method of opening up new monetization opportunities by bypassing firmware releases to deploy applications straight on the CPE. The role of Domos here is as the performance optimization guru, contributing its advanced machine learning algorithms to a community of third party developers that also includes Broadpeak for multicast adaptive bit-rate (ABR),…
The US House of Representatives last week passed four cross-party bills related to communications and technology, including Open RAN, and they will now move to the Senate for consideration. The ‘Open RAN Outreach Act’ (HR 4032) would require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to conduct outreach and provide technical assistance to small operators, to raise awareness about Open RAN technology. The Assistant Secretary would also be required to raise awareness about, and participation in, the Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Grant Program. The ‘Secure Equipment Act of 2021’ (HR3919) would prohibit the FCC from reviewing or approving any authorization for wireless equipment from a vendor that is on the USA’s list of companies that “pose an unacceptable…
The early operator activities around Open RAN may have been led by the USA and east Asia, but recent momentum has come from the European majors, especially the so-called Gang of Five (Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, TIM and Vodafone). Last week, Telefónica CTO Enrique Blanco increased his target for Open RAN deployment by 2025, from the previously announced 50% of radio sites, to 70%. “We cannot be sitting and waiting. This is not an option. We need to move very fast in trying to change the architecture because it is simpler, faster, better and finally – though this is not our main target – cheaper,” he told journalists. Before the Spain-based company signed January’s memorandum of understanding with the other…
Samsung has its best chance ever of becoming a significant RAN supplier in the 5G era. It is tapping into two trends that work in its favor. One is the deployment of 5G in millimeter wave spectrum, which gave it an initial foothold in the US market that it successfully converted to a more general presence with Verizon and AT&T. The other is the bid by some operators to open up their supply chains using Open RAN, which Samsung has embraced. Outside north America and its native South Korea, Samsung still remains a minor player for now, though it is a key partner in Vodafone’s Open RAN roster. Now the vendor has announced that it is in trials with the…
Norway’s Nordic Semiconductor has added embedded machine learning (ML) software to its cellular-based IoT chipset portfolio, aiming to capitalize on the fast-gathering groundswell around IoT edge analytics and other functionality where remote execution in the cloud is unfeasible or undesirable for various reasons. This has come about through Nordic Semi’s partnership with US-based Edge Impulse, which makes miniaturized ML tools for chips in resource-constrained IoT modules, under the banner of ‘TinyML’. The pair had prepared the ground by launching TinyML support for the Norwegian firm’s nRF52 and nRF53 series of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chips at the start of 2021. It is now offering the same with its nRF9160 development kit and Thingy:91 prototyping platform, which both combine the firm’s cellular-based low…
One of the ironies of the current Open RAN platform is that, while seeking to break the dominance of a few large equipment vendors, it risks delivering a monopoly position to Intel. It is conceivable that Open RAN could be a repeat of the PC and server markets, with diversity in the vendors that could make the boxes, but a near-monopoly in the processors. The ARM community is determined to avoid that, and to rise to the demands of many operators for diversity and openness in the silicon layer. Individual ARM-based chipmakers like Marvell have already developed products for vRAN and Open RAN, in a bid to narrow the lead that Intel has achieved via its vRAN cooperations with giants…
Vodafone Group plans to add 7,000 software engineers to its existing pan-European team of 9,000 by 2025, which will make them at least 50% of the total Vodafone Technology R&D operation by that date. The aim is to boost the operator’s self-sufficiency, and its ability to differentiate itself, in developing digital services. While some operators are increasingly relying on software integrators such as TechMahindra or CapGemini to ease the load of developing digital services, or of implementing software-based networks such as vRAN, Vodafone appears to be bucking that trend. It is also swimming against the tide in indicating that it also aims to keep a high measure of control over its cloud platform. Many operators are outsourcing data center, and…
The past week saw developments that pointed to new momentum behind Open RAN, including Telefónica upping its targets for deploying the platform in the coming years, a new set of O-RAN Alliance specs, and the latest Open RAN lab, this one from ARM in the UK (see below). There were also plenty of advances in devices and equipment to support enterprise 5G use cases, including new private 5G Standalone offerings from Nokia (see below). All this might suggest that two great hopes for 5G are making strong progress – one, that it would usher in a new diversity of enterprise-driven revenue streams; and two, that it would enable a brand new take on operator costs and supply chains via cloud-based…
Advances in 3D printing could be a key driver in the future cost reduction of wind turbine technology, according to General Electric. Last month signed a partnership agreement with Fraunhofer IGCV and Voxeliet to develop one the world’s largest 3D printers to serve the offshore wind market. The Advanced Casting Cell (ACC) 3D printer will be used to produce print molds for castings of up to 9.5 meters in diameter, with a weight of over 60 tons. These ‘sand molds’ can then be used to produce the wide range of intricate parts that are required within the nacelle of General Electric’s Haliade X offshore wind turbine, with capacities of up to 14 MW. Such turbines were recently selected as the…
GDP per capita: $2,138.80 (2021) last year $1,969 (+8.63%) Population: 166,813,425 (2021) last year up 1.275% Total Electricity: 80,410 GWh Electricity per capita: 488 kWh (2020) Government Debt to GDP: 35.69% (2020) Bangladesh is a society which is constantly changing, optimistic of economic growth, but not yet an advanced industrialized nation – so its import export balance swings wildly. It exports finished garments and imports the raw materials to make them, including footwear and exports agricultural foodstuffs such as leather, fish, and animal and vegetable fats. It exports a fair amount of jute. Bangladesh needs to build a stable energy infrastructure so that it can begin to take part higher up the industrial food chain, such as in consumer electronics,…
A few firsts came out of Broadband World Forum which returned to Amsterdam’s RAI last week, with Norwegian WiFi start-up Domos involved in two of those. The first is part of a containerized revolution being driven by Nokia, which has just introduced a way for ISPs to embrace application containers in CPE. While an emerging technology for broadband operators, application containers are already widely used in cloud and enterprise domains, as a method of opening up new monetization opportunities by bypassing firmware releases to deploy applications straight on the CPE. The role of Domos here is as the performance optimization guru, contributing its advanced machine learning algorithms to a community of third-party developers that also includes Broadpeak for multicast ABR,…