Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
Nokia deals like the one with BMW are indicative of its strategy to restart growth in its revenue in two ways – by reaching out to industrial customers, with or without the help of MNOs; and by developing all the elements of a 5G-driven and cloud-based platform for the enterprise markets, from chips to software to services. Its ‘Future X for Industries’ architecture, unveiled earlier this month, is part of the attempt to be an end-to-end and top-to-bottom supplier in several key verticals, beyond the telecoms one itself. Houman Modarres, director of enterprise marketing, said the new architecture was designed to accelerate Nokia’s recent efforts to grow its enterprise business, building on an architecture developed at its Bell Labs R&D…
The current wave of US-Chinese trade wars may push the latter’s government to try to keep 5G contracts for homegrown suppliers, especially if western administrations continue to exclude Huawei and ZTE from network deals. However, operators in all regions are keen to avoid any reduction of their current, already restricted vendor choices as they start to issue significant tenders. So, the three Chinese carriers have been stressing their partnerships with all the major OEMs, and Nokia currently looks to be the biggest beneficiary. Of course, other vendors are probably lining up new deals too, which have not yet been made public, but so far the Finnish firm is scoring strong points in the very early stages of the 5G contracts…
It took a few weeks but we eventually managed to nail down some time with WiFi Alliance(WFA) CEO Edgar Figueroa. Given the current climate, it’s no wonder his schedule is jam-packed. There is a real sense of excitement about the role WiFi will play in the 5G era. Rather than becoming a dusty old delivery mechanism, as some top figures have recently suggested (namely the CTO at UK regulator Ofcom), in fact WiFi expects to play a complementary role in 5G, to an even greater extent than it has in the later days of 4G. That was the theme of the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s (WBA’s) recent conference in London, and it is echoed by the WFA. “We are happy to…
Towards the end of last month, low power WAN specialist Sigfox held its annual Sigfox Connect event, in which a number of announcements were made which clarify the future direction of the company. Some of the French firm’s grander claims have proved overblown in the past, but if it succeeds this time it could be on the way to finally breaking the 10m device barrier. At the show, Sigfox announced that 53 countries now had active Sigfox networks, thanks to the recent addition of Austria, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Lichtenstein, Norway, Peru, and Romania. In total, Sigfox claims that its network, which is installed and run by Sigfox Network Operators (SNOs) under exclusive licenses, covers 1bn people. SqwidNet, the South African…
Industrial and utility equipment and automation specialist Schneider Electric is one of the first companies to come out swinging for the OPC Foundation’s new unified communications specification. Designed to ensure that Industrial IoT (IIoT) equipment can work in close cooperation, the new architecture is looking to better integrate operational technology (OT) and IT – two worlds have historically remained quite separate. The IT-OT divide is closing, as more companies adopt IoT technologies in their operations, which require integrations with their own IT systems, and likely those of customers and partners. The OPCF is focused on standardizing the ways that different vendors’ IT and OT systems can communicate, in an interoperable fashion, with a particular focus on automation and control systems.…
It is not just in the early 5G markets like the USA that telcos are agonizing over the business case. Digicel, which operates in the Caribbean and other emerging economies, says telcos are not even getting enough return on investment from 4G, let alone being ready to capitalize on 5G. Telcos need to transform their business models if they are to take advantage of the opportunities enabled by 5G, Jean Yves Charlier, member of the board at Digicel, told the recent Total Telecom Congress in London. “When we look at what investors think of our industry at the moment, they are clearly voting with their feet. The telecoms sector over the last three, five or even 10 years has been…
One critical success factor for 5G will be a transformation of its cost base. One important contribution to this would come from a more open, commoditized, WiFi-like ecosystem for 5G devices and components. The move towards such products, from home WiFi equipment to low cost, white box routers, has often been driven by non-traditional cellular players – Intel, trying to push its technologies into the closed mobile market; suppliers moving across from the WiFi industry; start-ups. But now there are signs that, for all the conflicts of interest that a low cost hardware ecosystem would pose for the big cellular vendors, they are being forced by price pressures to go down that path too. Nokia, for instance, has begun early…
The UK’s mobile operators are starting to emulate their counterparts across the pond and engage in 5G one-upmanship, although on a far smaller scale in reach and investment. BT/EE is expected to launch its first services, probably for fixed wireless, in 16 cities around the third quarter of 2019, and Three UK and Vodafone could go live in a similar timeframe. EE says it will be the first MNO to launch 5G in all four UK capital cities – London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – plus 12 others (Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol). In September, Vodafone said it also aimed to launch commercial services next year, switching its trial cities to full…
The process of virtualizing the telco network has proved longer and tougher than many had hoped, and is still in a very embryonic state for more operators – apart from a few Asian frontrunners which have invested in very hand-crafted systems like SK Telecom’s. Other operators have been waiting for full standards and open interfaces to reduce the cost, risk and complexity of running their core, transport and RAN network functions in software on commoditized hardware. That longer-than-hoped wait will delay some of the hoped-for cost benefits of 5G, since most early 5G deployers will start rolling out their systems using conventional architecture, especially in the RAN. Verizon, however, claims to be making significant progress towards a virtualized RAN (vRAN).…
A couple of years ago, Verizon was widely expected to seek a cable acquisition, to extend its wireline and quad play reach, and to neutralize at least one rival threatening to challenge it across 5G and fixed-line services. However, in autumn 2017, then-CEO Lowell McAdam said he had “moved on” from the idea of a merger with a company like Comcast, and would instead focus M&A strategy on media, content, and building its own fiber and spectrum reserves. This may yet be a decision Verizon comes to regret. The cablecos are manoeuvring themselves for a major assault on the connectivity, content and media markets, including wireless services, in the USA. Charter and Comcast, the two largest, may have launched their…
Five months ago, we ran the headline ‘Aging Anga Com fails to inspire’ and clearly the team behind the Cologne-based TV technology show has acted upon our advice, revealing a new addition to the June 2019 event called the Small Enterprise Park – to entice budding technology companies. The privilege comes with a price tag of €1,950 plus VAT, which seems reasonable given the exorbitant floorspace fees at larger shows. The Small Enterprise Park hopes to attract service providers, software suppliers and content producers, as well as research and consulting firms, educational enterprises and other municipalities or authorities. South Korean operator LG U+ is launching Netflix on its U+tv set tops, the IPTV service it launched in late 2012 in…
OTT has emerged quickly in Africa as a disruptive force bringing TV to parts and people it never reached before. The situation has moved so quickly that even the disruptors have sometimes found it hard to keep up as when Kwese TV owned by Johannesburg-based telco Econet Wireless exited the DTH market much sooner than anticipated, to concentrate on mobile delivery. This left South Africa’s Multichoice as virtually the monopoly provider of premium satellite-based TV services across Sub Saharan Africa. But this comes at a time when OTT is ripping across the greater part of the continent. This is primarily cellular based, exploiting the near ubiquitous presence of mobile phones even in more deprived regions, while fixed broadband and cable…
We still think the understanding of multi-AP WiFi is in the dark ages, so we are going to try to sum up the articles we have written in the past few months, and then we promise to leave the subject alone for a while. The only reason that we spend so much time on it is because it will eventually be the main weak point in the delivery of the entire visual entertainment industry. Ask an ISP what keeps it awake at night and it is likely you will get two separate answers – low Net Promoter Scores and WiFi – and these can often be part and parcel of the same problem. If all video is to go over…
Disney executives finally agreed on a name for the company’s unborn streaming service, canning Disney Play in favor of Disney+ late last week. Shortly afterwards, details on T-Mobile’s uninspiring TV plans to launch by the end of this year were leaked in an FCC filing, while its mobile-first successor will launch around the same time as Disney+. Is there any wiggle room for a collaboration here or are the two destined to be at loggerheads? CEO Bob Iger also said Disney could buy the extra 40% in Hulu it does not already own (30% from Comcast and 10% from WarnerMedia), while it will inherit 21st Century Fox’s 30%, giving Disney a current 60% controlling stake in the streaming firm. First…
Over the past two months, we have been hearing murmurs about Broadcom going about its business in a previously unheard of manner, squeezing out parallel chip providers either with promises of higher discounts for pure Broadcom devices or threatening with higher prices if equipment vendors do not do as they are told. We advised one or two of these companies to get in touch with the European Commission DG4 and it looks like one or more of them have. While we have heard this story multiple times, we have not been able to gather sufficient evidence to run with it as a story – it seems the era of CEO Hock Tan is all about the money and not at…
Bluetooth beacon advocate Kontakt.io, a Polish firm that has grown steadily in the past few years, announced three new beacon designs last week, as well as opening its platform up to third-parties. It’s a big bit of news for the company, but the beacons market has gone notably quiet in the past year, despite the entrance of Bluetooth 5. After six years, Kontakt.io is releasing its first bracelet-based beacon. Called the Bracelet Tag (BT18-3), the unit has a panic button, motion sensor, and temperature sensor. The company says this makes it ideal for patient monitoring in elderly care facilities and hospitals, as well as for other monitoring systems such as schools and workplaces. With enough beacon units installed in a…
Imagination Technologies has launched its latest automotive GPU design, the PowerVR Series8XT-A, a new IP design that it is pitching at next-gen automotive designs. A key part of the offering is the supporting software, tools, and support, which Imagination is saying will provide a ten-year lifespan. The GPU design, which automotive OEMs can then license from Imagination and commission someone to build for them, makes the expected performance claims, but a big part of the launch marketing concerns its safety features. Automotive buyers are extremely sensitive to such issues, and the ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 compliance is apparently laid out in the extensive documentation. Of course, the company is one of the automotive old-guard. Imagination claims that it has…
// M&A, Strategies, Alliances // GE is offloading its Current energy efficiency business, selling it for an undisclosed sum to American Industrial Partners, a private equity firm. ForeScout has acquired SecurityMatters, for $113mn, as ForeScout looks to add more Operational Technology (OT) capabilities to its IoT security portfolio. GE has also offloaded 63% of its stake in Pivotal Software, gaining $173mn as it drops from a 20.8% stake to 7%, as the company tries to right the boat. // Hardware // u-blox, Iskraemeco and EMH have unveiled a PoC for a smart meter that connects to a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth. This is very interesting, as it could bypass the need for an in-home-display (IHD), which conventionally use Zigbee. Murata…
Towards the end of last month, Sigfox held its Sigfox Connect annual event, in which a number of announcements outlining the future of the unlicensed spectrum LPWAN (U-LPWAN) operator were made. After the great climbdown, we’re treating Sigfox claims with a lot more skepticism than previously, but if accurate, the company might be on a bath to finally breaking the double-digit millions barrier. At the show, Sigfox announced that 53 countries now had active Sigfox networks, thanks to the recent addition of Austria, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Lichtenstein, Norway, Peru, and Romania. In total, Sigfox claims that its network, which is installed an run by Sigfox Network Operators (SNOs) under exclusive licenses, covers 1bn people. We do disagree with that latter…
Industrial and utility equipment and automation specialist Schneider Electric is one of the first companies to come out swinging for the OPC Foundation’s new unified communications specification. Designed to ensure that Industrial IoT (IIoT) equipment can work in close cooperation, the new architecture is looking to better integrate Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) – two worlds have historically remained quite separate. The IT-OT divide is closing, as more companies adopt IoT technologies in their operations, which require integrations with their own IT systems, and likely those of customers and partners. The OPCF is focused on standardizing the ways that different vendors’ IT and OT systems can communicate, in an interoperable fashion, with a particular focus on automation and…