11523 search results for Open RAN

BrainChip has announced what it claims is the lowest-power AI acceleration co-processor. Called the Akida Pico, the second generation design represents something of a pivot for BrainChip, where the focus is now on adding these IP cores to chips designed by other firms. Wireless Watch spoke to BrainChip CMO Steve Brightfield, to learn more about the rejig. Brightfield recently joined BrainChip and spent time at Qualcomm when the firm was designing 3G and 4G baseband silicon – a business that Qualcomm eventually exited, despite enjoying something like a 90% gross margin. “The neuromorphic (brain-like) messaging can put engineers off, and it does require a different look at AI. Most engineers are used to the classical AI approach, so, you explain…

Open RAN evangelists are keen to extoll the benefits of their favored network architecture, typically this evolves around the geopolitical and economic opportunities created by a larger pool of equipment vendors, but the energy saving properties of Open RAN systems is not far behind as a secondary benefit. A recent paper by a group of such preachers examines the energy-savings capabilities with regards to traffic steering. The study, by researchers from Juniper Networks, Vodafone, Keysight Technologies, AirHop Communications, and Rimedo Labs used Rimedo Labs’ Traffic Steering xApp (TS-App) and AirHop’s Energy Saving rApp (ES-rApp), which were deployed in the Juniper Networks’ Ran Intelligent Controller (RIC). It also used Keysight’s RICtest equipment and anonymized data from Vodafone. The RIC removes the…

Neutral host specialist Boldyn Networks has been an increasingly dominant force in the European private network space, especially since the firm bought and integrated Cellnex’s private networks unit this year. This week, Wireless Watch sat down with Boldyn’s Director and Country Manager for UK Private Networks, Fionnuala Furmston, to discuss the current 5G projects in the UK and the path to a resilient market for private networks in the UK. Furmston joined Boldyn in March when the neutral host provider bought Cellnex’s private networks business, known as Edzcom. The acquisition bought a larger footprint of businesses in the UK and Ireland, and added a presence in Finland, Spain, Germany, Sweden and France. Many of the current UK 5G private network…

Developments on the AI front are combining with capabilities that have emerged under 5G to make plain old voice exciting again, after years of being the poor relation to data and streaming. Mobile operators were themselves partly to blame, being slow to innovate and reluctant to give up excessive tariffs, while third party messaging apps such as WhatsApp and services that began as voice over IP (VoIP) like Skype, came in over the top to cream off much of the voice business. Being subject only to marginal data costs these became popular for voice communication and conferencing both among friends and for business. Another factor was that while mobile services were initially just about circuit switched voice for their first…

AT&T has issued an update of its progress converting its radio access infrastructure to Open RAN just 10 months after announcing its $14 billion five-year deal with Ericsson for that purpose. The operator claims to be on target with its ambition of 70% of its network traffic running across the open platforms by 2026. Much was made at the time of the announcement in December 2023 that the deal appeared to flout the original Open RAN ambition of widening the supply chain to more than a handful of big vendors, with just Fujitsu also in the mix for supply of some 5G radios. Yet, while the latter was small beer compared with Ericsson’s involvement, it represented significant progress for Fujitsu…

M&A, IP, Patents­­­­ Romanian telco group Digi Communications has been approved to acquire Portugal’s fourth-largest operator, Nowo Communications for €150 million by the country’s regulator, Anacom. This is part of a deal announced in August where Digi would acquire Nowo’s parent company Cabonitel which has 270,000 mobile customers and 130,000 pay TV and broadband subscribers combined. AT&T is shaking off is pay TV assets and focusing on core products. The US operator will receive a huge windfall in selling its 70% stake in satellite TV service DirecTV to private equity firm TPG for $7.6 billion. This will be a clean cut for AT&T out of the satellite TV market so that it can focus on wireless and fiber operations. Meanwhile,…

New semiconductor technologies have great promise, silicon shot to its dominant position for a reason – chiefly the ease with which it can used. But other materials are always of interest due to their different potential properties. Now, Infineon Technologies is talking up the ‘game changing’ potential for gallium nitride (GaN) in AI and 5G applications, and it is worth checking in on the sector. A ’compound’ semiconductor is the combination of two or more elements. The most common compound semiconductor materials are gallium nitride (GaN), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), silicon carbide (SiC), silicon germanium (SiGe), zinc sulphide (ZnS), and zinc selenide (ZnSe). GaN has shown promise in high-power and fast charging applications, in the mobile space, but…

Google has been hoovering up major automotive makers as customers of its GenAI products and services for real time navigation, in-car infotainment and intuitive access to manuals for maintenance and operational functions. However, the OEMs are tending to confine critical competitive applications of AI inhouse, to restrict competitors’ access to core technologies. These include autonomous driving and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). Volkswagen, the world’s largest car maker by revenue and second to Toyota by volume, is a case in point. The company has just partnered with Google Cloud to introduce GenAI features to its mobile app, which it claims will give drivers more “intuitive access to critical vehicle information and services” specific to each car model. Rather curiously, Volkswagen…

The IBC tradeshow takes place in Amsterdam and pulls a crowd of over 50,000 people. Focused on broadcasting, pay TV, and now OTT video services, it plays host to a raft of technology demonstrations. For Wireless Watch, a trio of mobile-centric video compression demos caught our eye, after the dust had settled. As so much mobile traffic is video-based, and as 5G networks create new sources of upstream traffic, from devices being used to live stream, or participate in new video services and user experiences, MNOs need to be up to speed on the future trends. More importantly, they need to be able to sniff out when a vendor is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Typically, each…

Vietnam’s updated telecoms laws, and a sense that the country is welcoming more foreign investment in its technology sector, has led to a burst of deals in the Southeast Asian nation. The Communist-ruled country, with a population of 100 million, large labor force, and rising middle class, makes an attractive investment for global firms looking to reach new markets. The most high-profile deal of late has been from satellite company SpaceX, which has been trying to establish a base in Vietnam since at least last year. In February, news spread that SpaceX’s plans to provide satellite communication services to Vietnam via its Starlink satellites had been put on hold. The issue was Vietnam’s rules on foreign ownership of companies operating in…

The ‘fair share’ debate has come to a turbulent head, as negotiations about a peering agreement between Meta and Deutsche Telekom (DT) fell apart very publicly last week. Unfortunately for DT, it won’t be able to come out of this one the victor. If DT refuses to provide high quality access to Meta’s apps, its customers will move to another operator that does have a better relationship with Meta. Meanwhile in the UK, BT Group says that the situation is different to the EU, although the firm’s arguments sound eerily similar to those heard across the channel. DT’s persistence on this issue points to the fact that it is the largest operator in Europe and its actions could set the…

The EU looks like coming under sustained pressure to modify its contentious AI Act, just as a new bunch of commissioners take up position. Meta has succeeded in recruiting several major European tech firms, including Ericsson and German enterprise software giant SAP, as signatories to a letter condemning the Act as anti-competitive and likely to weaken further scope for GenAI innovation in Europe. In this case, the tech firms have a point when they argue that EU commissioners have lost touch with reality. There is nothing new about the EU being at loggerheads with American big tech over regulatory affairs. This has spilled over into numerous antitrust cases against Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta particularly. There is a sense of…