Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
The challenges that operators face when trying to densify their outdoor networks are well documented. It is tough to gain access to the right sites without a time-consuming process of individually negotiating for each one, but even the best efforts to achieve a standardized template – let alone a common scale of pricing – have run into many problems (see separate item). The latest opposition from US cities to proposals by the FCC shows the significance of the problem – and the USA has progressed a lot further than most countries in seeking to address the issue, as its operators gear up for major densification programs, which will only intensify with 5G. Even if the MNO succeeds in negotiating the…
It will be interesting to see how far Affirmed engages with open source platforms and starts to contribute elements of its disruptive technology. Its vEPC is part of AT&T’s Domain 2.0 next generation platform, and that operator is increasingly pushing its definitions of the new network into open source initiatives. Another prominent innovator in virtualized mobile networks, Mavenir, is certainly going down the open route. It contributed a vEPC design to the CORD project and it is basing parts of its CloudRange offering on the management and orchestration (MANO) capabilities defined by the Open Networking Automation Protocol (ONAP) group – one of the open source efforts kicked off by AT&T. Mavenir is a member of ONAP and also of the…
Despite the bright spotlight that falls on the 5G RAN, it is the 5G Core which will fulfil the true disruptive potential of the new network. Fully virtualized, and capable of slicing the network into a hundred specialized, virtual slices, the new core will give MNOs many options to allocate network resources flexibly and on-demand, so they can support very large numbers of services and industries in an agile way. However, the virtualized packet core, even before it gets to its 5G iteration, can also be a weapon for non-MNOs who want to steal a march in some of those high value vertical markets or services. The large operators have generally been slow to penetrate new industries, partly because of…
AT&T has set the gold standard for how operators can take leadership in setting standards for next generation network platforms. This is increasingly being done by bypassing the traditional standards bodies – which remain heavily driven by a small group of vendors – and taking command of open (and even open source) initiatives. But AT&T is not the only large telco to be taking this approach, and in the strategic area of edge compute, Deutsche Telekom is giving the US giant a run for its money by expanding its MobiledgeX platform. The traditional telecoms industry has its own would-be standards for defining where the access network intersects with edge-based compute and storage (micro data centers). This is ETSI’s Multi-access Edge…
Source{d} has announced the public beta of its machine-learning powered source code analysis system, a technology that could allow enterprises to perform complete code overhauls economically. Riot spoke to CEO Eiso Kant, about the potential to use such systems to actually get to grips with all the code that a business is actually using. The gist of the proposition is an automated code review system, which can piece together the entirety of the code that a company is currently using. Then, the systems can help modernize outdated or insecure code, in a manner that is not possible until you can understand the code itself. In nearly every business, the developers don’t have time to try and trawl back through code,…
As telcos mull their strategies for integrating edge compute into their sites and networks, a US start-up, Vapor IO, is in the vanguard. The company has a roadmap to build large numbers of small data centers to deploy edge compute resources on mobile operators’ cell sites. This approach would help MNOs to take a key role in the edge services value chain, providing sites and data services as well as just connectivity. Vapor IO has raised a large Series C round of financing to accelerate its deployments, which are backed by US towerco Crown Castle, among others. It did not reveal the exact size of the funding round, but hinted it was more than $100mn. It did reveal that it…
MapR and Jupiter Chain have caught the eye of Deloitte, as the global consultancy and auditing firm expands its IoT ambitions. MapR has been popping up with regularity in news feeds, and Jupiter Chain adds its name to the pool of transactional data platforms – an area which could prove transformative. With MapR, Deloitte has announced a joint alliance, which will let Deloitte customers use MapR’s AI and analytics platform, to reduce costs and take advantage of new technologies. The current targets are Big Data Modernization, Cloud Analytics, and IoT Distributed Analytics. For Jupiter Chain, Deloitte seems to be taking a more advisory role, with a strategic collaboration to provide consumers with a data exchange that provides a “fully transparent…
BlackBerry is continuing its transition to a services business, launching the Spark security platform that it is pitching at any enterprise looking for a way to connect and manage devices in a single pane of glass. Integrations to support the likes of Azure and AWS are prominent, and BlackBerry is stressing the security benefits that its expertise can bring to the table. It took the wraps off Spark in London, at the BlackBerry Security Summit, prefacing the launch by noting that there would be around 75bn connected devices in the world by 2021. That’s a lot of potential devices that BlackBerry can target with Spark, in a regulatory climate that seems increasingly frustrated with data breaches. These stakes are high,…
Two prominent standards have surfaced this week, with oneM2M getting Release 3.0 of its IoT interoperability standard released, and DECT publishing a paper that outlines how the telco protocol plans to coexist with 5G – calling for the ITU-R to adopt its plan for an interoperability layer to bridge DECT with 5G. It’s not as strange an idea as it sounds, but it does have quite a hill to climb. First, oneM2M has been wise to focus on the licensed spectrum LPWAN ecosystem (L-LPWAN). By our measure, it is on track to be worth far more than the unlicensed options (U-LPWAN) such as LoRa and Sigfox, and given its membership, there’s much more crossover in L-LPWAN, and currently a lot…
Nielsen has upgraded its July decision to do a strategic view of its Buy Segment to one which puts all options on the table – including a sales of all or any part of the business. It has asked JP Morgan and Guggenheim Securities to offer a view, which means doing some valuations work on how much they might get for all or part of the business. It says that Total Audience and the Connected System are all steam ahead, while data on what people buy is doing less well, as are emerging markets data and GDPR regulation is creating problems for the business. Rival Kantar Media, owned by WPP, night provide an answer – it has a buy side…
At a Nagra event during IBC, a handful of analysts invited along were so transfixed on the nuances of the Swiss security specialist’s AI algorithms that they inadvertently pulled a veil over the bigger picture. Nagra launched a cloud-based version of TVkey this week, the smart TV security technology developed in partnership with Samsung – thereby further unleashing its hardware-based root of trust technology throughout the smart TV sector. The Kudelski Group subsidiary first launched TVkey at CES 2017 and we know the plan has always been to support additional TV brands and CAS vendors but Nagra had been quiet on this front until IBC. This new direction from Nagra was initially about opening up its hardware root of trust…
MediaKind, Synamedia and Velocix were the three buzzword winners in Amsterdam this year and with good reason. The success or failure of these three new – but not really new – companies will define the winners and losers in the wider OTT video ecosystem. Faultline Online Reporter sat down with MediaKind CTO Mark Russell and CMO Arun Bhikshesvaran – hoping but not expecting to be convinced the new entity can defy the odds and remain relevant rather than feeding off scraps. “Cisco has suffered harder times than Ericsson, while Nokia’s Velocix is more of a CDN product,” was the opening gambit from the two ex-Ericsson executives at IBC, reluctant to box Synamedia (NDS 2.0) and Velocix (the Alcatel part of…
The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) has released v2.0 of its OCF Specification, the device interoperability standard that it hopes will bring unity to the smart home. With some major device vendors promising devices using the standard next year, this could be the push that is needed to get the ball rolling. Or, conversely, the market might carry on with the same apparent apathy that has gripped it for the past four years. Electrolux, Haier, LG, and Samsung are promising to use IoTivity (the open source part that is based on the OCF Specs) in 2019 products, and given their collective weight in domestic and white goods appliance markets globally, this could be a big step forward. There has always been a distinction…
The latest 5G-focused auction to get underway in Europe is in Italy, where the market is being shaken up by the merger of two MNOs – 3 Italia and Wind, now Wind Tre – and the entry of disruptive newcomer Iliad. These two, and incumbents TIM and Vodafone, are bidding, along with Fastweb. Initial bids were worth a total of €2.47bn, close to the government’s revenue target, and the start of the process coincided with TIM officially switching on its first 5G New Radio antenna. The Italian government aims to raise €2.5bn ($2.9bn) from the sale of 75 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band, 200 MHz in 3.6-3.8 GHz and 1 GHz in 26.5-27.5 GHz range. This makes…
As telcos mull their strategies for integrating edge compute into their sites and networks, a US start-up, Vapor IO, is in the vanguard. The company has a roadmap to build large numbers of small data centers to deploy edge compute resources on mobile operators’ cell sites. This approach would help MNOs to take a key role in the edge services value chain, providing sites and data services as well as just connectivity. Vapor IO has raised a large Series C round of financing to accelerate its deployments, which are backed by US towerco Crown Castle, among others. It did not reveal the exact size of the funding round, but hinted it was more than $100m. It did reveal that it…
As they seek approval for their proposed merger, T-Mobile USA and Sprint have been presenting the deal as essential for the USA’s leadership in 5G – a particularly sensitive issue for the current administration, amidst its trade wars with the other 5G superpower, China. However, the FCC is not rushing to approve the merger, and this week is suspended its informal, 180-day review process (stopping the ‘shot clock’), to give itself more time to evaluate all the information, including new submissions from the operators regarding the complex issue of how they would consolidate and extend their very different networks. Sprint and TMO have different spectrum, some different suppliers, and have expressed very different approaches to 5G preparations. Sprint was –…
Beyond the domain of fixed wireless, the timescales to make mainstream commercial devices supporting millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum are still uncertain. Even in countries like the USA, where there are plans to auction these high frequency airwaves soon, the radios are likely to be confined to broadband CPE rather than handsets for some time. But that is not deterring the more bluesky element of the wireless industry from looking even higher up the spectrum, as far as terahertz frequencies, for their next source of airwaves to support massive capacity and new applications. Companies and academics in several countries have been talking about terahertz R&D for the past year, but the latest discussions are particularly noteworthy because they come from New…
Many of the discussions about 5G economics bring a strong sense of déjà vu. There’s the one about introducing a new system of patent licensing, to drive down the cost of devices – pretty much a re-run of a conversation that came with the advent of LTE. Then there’s the one where operators insist they want to break away from large OEM lock-in and adopt open, multivendor networks with far more price competition. So far, just as all the good intentions came to little a decade ago, so there has been small progress in the 5G era either. Where network costs are concerned, however, the urgency to break free of the major vendors’ stranglehold is growing. The manufacturers have consolidated…
Consumers are getting more comfortable using voice assistants in their homes, and linking smart home devices to these hubs, according to a survey from Adobe. It’s a sign of a changing marketplace, and companies like Sonnen are planning to use this growing acceptance as a vehicle on which to slide on into a home with their core product offerings. The survey polled a thousand US adults, and concluded that 76% of smart speaker owners reckoned their usage of these devices had grown in the past year. For those that didn’t own one, 38% said their use of voice assistants had grown anyway, thanks to their presence in phones and computers. It’s pretty reasonable to conclude then that, among US adults…
Huawei and China Mobile have announced the expansion of the Connectivity Enablement Platform (CEP), opening it up to other MNOs after a year-long development and deployment cycle. China Mobile, the largest MNO in the world, claims that the CEP has over 300mn IoT connections, up 100mn in the past year, with 50,000 enterprise IoT customers. That’s quite the benchmark, and a big win for Huawei – whose OceanConnect portfolio is powering the CEP. Strangely, the CEP is sometimes called the CM IoT Platform, so watch out for that, but China Mobile says it has consolidated 31 provincial systems into the CEP. Huawei says this has reduced time-to-market by 5-7%, as well as providing savings for enterprise users from only having…