Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
New use cases for NFC (Near Field Communication), based on pairing with WiFi and Bluetooth, will be opened up by the first specification to support full two-way communication between smartphones and IoT devices. The venerable NFC protocol, first standardized by ISO/IEC in 2003, has already been exploited to the hilt for direct communication at distances up to four centimeters for smart payment and ticketing applications, as well as machine-readable documents including passports. But this great strength of being confined in distance also lends itself to a range of pairing applications where security is still required, but alongside the ability to transfer far larger amounts of data at distance. The NFC component can be used to establish temporary communications for a…
There are winners and losers among individual technologies, as well as enterprises and industry sectors, during the ongoing global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, and that is the case for IoT protocols. The 5G community may be delighted that Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) is emphatically among the winners since that protocol is one of their own, standardized by 3GPP and operating over cellular spectrum, possibly reducing the number they will have to support or interoperate with. A recent surge in NB-IoT was noted by Rich Cockle, global head of IoT and big data at the GSMA, in a recent blog, radiating out from China almost like the virus itself. Cockle noted that NB-IoT passed 100m connections in January worldwide and although deployments of IoT…
Verizon has been on the back foot throughout the first phase of 5G roll-out in the USA. Although it was first to deploy, even going to the lengths of using a pre-standard technology to ensure it beat AT&T by a nose, it has grappled with a shortage of the midband spectrum in which most of the world’s operators are rolling out first-stage 5G – because it provides significant new capacity, and so can deliver a visibly different user experience in selected locations, while broad coverage can be delivered, for now, by 4G. With the 3.5 GHz band occupied in the USA, and only set to be freed up federal and satellite incumbents after auctions later this year, Verizon and AT&T…
Densification is integral to 5G for meeting the key objectives of high data rates, greatly increased capacity and to some extent ultra-low latency. Higher frequency radiation provides the capacity and bit rate, but in turn suffers more rapid degradation and requires near line of sight. Low latency requires edge computing and also close proximity to devices for some of the more extreme use cases. So while 4G RANs were about 10 times denser than their 3G predecessors, 5G will require a similar increase in density. This will involve a mix of small and macro cells, along with in-building developments and also integration with other wireless technologies, especially WiFi. Indeed, as we have argued before, presentation of WiFi and cellular as…
As more of the GSMA’s powerful MNO members get behind open RAN architectures, their trade body will find itself working far more closely with organizations like the O-RAN Alliance. The two groups have announced a cooperation seeking to “harmonize the open networking ecosystem and agree on an industry roadmap for network solutions”. There are no firm details yet about how the cooperation will work, but the GSMA said it would “make access networks as open and flexible as possible for new market entrants”. The support of the GSMA is important for any group hoping to attract large mobile operators to deploy their technologies at scale. It has come well beyond its roots in roaming, and is responsible for its own…
Telecom Italia (TIM) has been through turbulent times in recent years but is putting considerable faith in telco cloud services to help it turn itself around. With its mobile business under increasing pressure, it is eyeing a break-up, with carve-outs of its tower operations (into a partnership with Vodafone) and of its cloud and data center business, via a strategic alliance with Google. It is also in talks with private equity firm KKR about potentially selling its fixed-line division and merging it with state-backed OpenFiber to form a single national FTTx infrastructure. The divestment program, along with stringent cost-cutting including layoffs, has reduced TIM’s debt mountain from €23.3bn ($25.5bn) in 2018 to €21.7bn ($23.7bn) at the end of March 2020.…
Of the major RAN vendors, Nokia and Samsung have been most active in embracing the open RAN movement, while Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE have stayed aloof. Now, Nokia is clearly gearing up for the big gamble – help break down the traditional locked-down supply chain on which it has made its fortune, in the hope of emerging as the dominant mobile vendor in a more open environment, at the expense both of its traditional competitors, and its new start-up challengers. Ericsson has joined the O-RAN Alliance but not otherwise shown much public support. The Chinese vendors are not given to open initiatives, although they do contribute significantly to standards and even some open source developments. Their absence has made it…
India is the third largest mobile market in the world, and one of the fastest growing. But it is threatening to implode, with disastrous consequences for consumer and business services and the government’s 5G ambitions. Will the webscalers, sensing an opportunity to shape a key market, save the day? Facebook has taken a big stake in Reliance Jio, Microsoft is reportedly mulling a similar move, and Google is reported to be investing in Vodafone Idea. This could bring much-needed new financing into the market, and the cloud giants would no doubt waste no time in showing show how telecoms can be provided in an entirely new way, if cloud platforms take the lead in the service model, not just in…
As the telecom networks and the cloud converge in the 5G era, the structure of the market could change radically for vendors and service providers. In theory, we could see traditional telcos morphing into infrastructure operators – investing in wholesale networks, but also in the cloud and edge platforms to support those networks, plus other services. A hint of this is seen in Telecom Italia’s plan to set up a division to provide cloud services, amid a deepening partnership with Google. That would leave room for a greater diversity of service providers on top of the networks, catering for the huge variety of applications that enterprises and consumers could demand from 5G/FTTx. In that scenario, the webscale giants have the…
A Danish consortium is ready to finance an artificial island energy hub in the North Sea called Vindo (written as VindØ), with $59 million available initially. Vindo will act as the nexus for 10 GW of far offshore wind power, and will be built using submersible concrete boxes 100 kilometers out to sea. The project has Danish government support, but might not need its funding. The intention from the consortium is to have the island running by 2030. On May 20 this year, Denmark went further on the previously-mooted idea of an energy island – proposing a second one of 2 GW for the Baltic Sea, in addition to the 2 GW – 10 GW project in the North Sea.…
Italy is set to be home to a landmark vehicle-to-grid (V2G) project, courtesy of French utility Engie and domestic automotive company Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). By capitalizing on the growing battery capacity in the country, through its residents electric vehicles (EVs), this will be an early test of how efficiently distributed resources can be used to balance a regional grid. Early work has started on the 25 MW V2G project in Turin, Italy, with the first 50 kW phase underway at Fiat-Chrysler’s logistics center in Mirafiori. This initial phase aims to house 64 two-way fast charging points for EVs from July this year, with an ambition to scale the regions V2G infrastructure to support 700 vehicles by the end of 2021,…
Orsted has teamed up with five fellow Danish companies to develop 1.3 GW of offshore wind to produce green hydrogen for the heavy transport sector. Appropriate fuels within these industries cannot be made with green hydrogen alone, and decarbonizing these ‘hard-to-decarbonize’ sectors demands a full carbon cycle approach. With pilot projects underway, this Danish consortium could be well placed to be the first large-scale adopters of SkyClean’s carbon negative process. The consortium brings together Orsted, Copenhagen Airports, AP Moller – Maersk, DSV Panalpina, DFDS and SAS, with the purpose of bringing electrolyzer capacity online in stages between 2023 and 2030 in the Greater Copenhagen area. The initial focus for the produced hydrogen will be on providing fuel for Movia’s buses,…
This week a new 207 page report from the IEA entitled the World Energy Investment 2020, points at a massive shortfall in energy investment in 2020 and begins to raise questions about how the energy community might recover. If you actually go to the trouble of reading the report all the way through, these headlines are hugely overplayed, and this is partly because of the introduction which continually goes on about the oil crisis and asks when the energy recession will end. We don’t like to be overly critical, but this is the longest piece we have ever seen written which could be summed up in three simple words – “We don’t know.” The write up seems to glorify the…
China’s solar installations in Q1 2020 totaled only 3950 MW – only 74% of the value for Q1 2019 according to as translation of data from the National Energy Administration of China, published this week. This is also a significant dip compared to 2019 overall, during which the country installed 30 GW. Even so, solar made up 29% of the overall 13.5 GW of capacity installed from all sources in the quarter. Chinese solar has been in decline in 2019, almost entirely due the phasing out of subsidies and a new auction setup in which wind and solar must compete against the other generation types. From a high point of 56 GW in 2017, solar installs fell to 44 GW…
The French government has unveiled an €8 billion plan to save its automotive industry from the downturn brought about by Covid-19. It plans to use the cash to boost car sales and EV manufacture. Under the thumb of the state, it appears that this funding will see a rapid acceleration towards lower emissions across the country’s transport sector, especially for Renault, which is set to benefit most from the scheme. The stimulus package was announced on Tuesday, with finances allocated to boost the domestic manufacture of electric and hybrid cars as well as provide incentives for consumers to shift to low-emission models. This comes as part of a target to produce 1 million clean energy cars by 2025. These incentives…
It wasn’t long ago DAZN was widely tipped as the next big disruptor for the live sports sector. The UK-based venture has since had its livelihood destroyed by the pandemic, as the company desperately seeks a financial lifeline with reports of an equity stake being put up for sale, or even a full takeover of the business. In the meantime, DAZN has at least been productive, this week inking a technology and intellectual property license with Swiss security specialist The Kudelski Group. Details on the deal are virtually non-existent, other than for access to “cutting edge streaming video technologies” and “certain key intellectual property rights”. It appears the announcement was timed to add a sweetener for investors to keep DAZN…
When RDK and Europe are mentioned in the same sentence, Altice is generally the first name to spring to mind, having recently developed broadband gateways based on the open source software platform through its Altice Labs division. Joining Altice and Liberty Global, Orange could be the next major service provider in the continent to develop a taste for RDK, if the latest developments from its vendor subsidiary SoftAtHome are anything to go by. SoftAtHome has just added RDK support to its ImpressioTV UI, providing a white-label platform promoting a balance between enhanced personalization, data privacy and a strong emphasis on voice. SoftAtHome’s AI-based voice control functionality comes hand in hand with the new RDK platform – connecting various devices in…
During our time spent exploring most of what NAB Show Express had to offer, Faultline got the impression that security was something of an afterthought. That is a conflicting message from the tales of prolific cases of video piracy and cybersecurity attacks occurring opportunistically during the pandemic. Our first taste of a security session at the recent virtual event naturally came from Verimatrix, which delivered a basic overview of easy authentication for a seamless TV Everywhere experience, followed by a more high-level presentation from rival Friend MTS. Consuming TV anywhere other than in the home may seem a distant memory for many, but soon travel restrictions will ease and live sports will resume – reopening the door for TV Everywhere…
It would not be NAB without some sort of standardization roundtable. A pair of virtual talks found consensus on the importance of standardizing metadata within ad tech. But as each panelist came out in support, both panels uncovered the long list of obstacles that stand in their way. At the heart of both discussions was metadata. Metadata is essential for tracking the specifications and movements of an ad as it travels through every stage of the ad tech ecosystem. A standardized format is therefore essential for rolling out addressable advertising across all forms of video delivery. Across the two half-hour discussions, not one of the seven panelists challenged the importance of standardizing the technology and yet this consensus did…
So here we are, still tapping the NAB well for stories, in the drought conditions that the video industry always seems to regress to after a good tradeshow. The subject of a talk that caught our eye was delivering 8K content to consumer homes, with a focus on the codecs required. Of course, for many homes, 4K resolutions (not even full UHD signal quality) is laughably out of reach, due to the quality of the networks and last-mile infrastructure deployed by their ISPs. For others, it’s more a question of price point. Sure, they could pay for the broadband package a couple of tiers higher than they currently have, in order to have the bandwidth needed for 8K, but practically,…