11569 search results for Open RAN

Hard on the heels of Orange’s Telecom Track, which will support network infrastructure start-ups in association with Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project (TIP), BT is evaluating start-ups for a similar scheme. The UK telco has been one of the operators supporting TIP, as a potential way to disrupt the network equipment space ahead of 5G, forcing major vendors to adjust to a radically different pricing model and supply chain structure – or be sidelined over time by a new ecosystem focused on open, low cost hardware. Orange has already hinted, as it introduced the four choices for Telecom Track, that it could see them replacing the likes of Ericsson over time. Its first four companies are Amarisoft, which specializes in virtualized…

As mobile stakeholders continue to lobby the FCC either to speed up progress on opening up the 3.5 GHz CBRS band, or to change the rules, there is significant progress in making the shared spectrum system commercially workable. However, while stakeholders like Google press the FCC to speed up its efforts, the CTIA is concerned that the US is, once again, adopting a band plan which does not align with the global norm, and that may create a disadvantage in 5G. Federated Wireless is one of two companies which are trialling spectrum access systems (SAS) to manage the sharing of airwaves and prevent interference (the other being Google). It says it has now racked up about 40 trials, including technology…

Imagination Technologies, UK-based designer of processor cores, has put itself up for sale, weeks after its investor and largest customer, Apple, said it would stop using Imagination’s GPU cores and create its own for future iDevices. This opened up the potential for a significant revenue hole – and possible future legal battles – for Imagination, which had already lost its long-time CEO, Sir Hossein Yossaie, as it struggled to diversify its product offerings. The company’s depressed shares leapt on the news that, as expected, it was seeking a buyer. It had already put its two non-GPU business units – MIPS, the venerable CPU core designer, and connectivity firm Ensigma – on the block and said there is interest in them.…

As the European Union-backed 5G PPP program enters its second phase of R&D projects, there is a very different mood among operators in relation to 5G deployment, compared to that in 2015, when Phase 1 was launched. Then, real world 5G was still far enough away that MNOs could either be blithely optimistic, or largely ignore the issue. Two years later, a few of their number – though mainly in the US or south-east Asia – are planning deployments or large-scale trials next year. The MNOs are still divided, but they are split over real commercial issues. A few European operators want to be in the first wave of 5G roll-out – before 2022 – but a larger number are…

Cisco launched itself into the latest area of hot networking hype, intent-based networks, claiming it was “redefining the network for the next 30 years”, as CEO Chuck Robbins put it. Cisco’s announcements, and indeed most emerging intent-based networking concepts, are firmly geared to the data center. But as telco networks evolve into IT and cloud platforms, and even the mobile RAN can be run as a set of virtual network functions (VNFs) in a data centre, intent-based systems – once stripped of their hype – will certainly be closely watched by mobile operators too. Intent-based networking has been buzzing around in the conversation about next generation enterprise and carrier networks for at least a year and a few start-ups have…

Make sure to subscribe to get ATW in your inbox, for free, each Monday. // M&A, Strategies, Alliances // Porsche has bought PTV (Planung Transport Verkehr), a transport logistics and traffic software specialist, acquiring 97% of shares for “more than” €300m. Imagination Technologies has put itself up for sale, expanding on previous plans to sell two of its low-power processor divisions – in the wake of the Apple deal fallout. Globetouch has acquired Teramatrix, planning to use the xFusion software platform to create high-value IoT applications aimed at connected and autonomous cars, and edge-intelligence. Enel is buying EnerNOC for $250m, snapping up the largest US provider of demand-response software and adding to the Italian energy provider’s expansive portfolio. // Laws,…

Vision Metering says that it is conducting trials with utility Northeast Nebraska Public Power District, for LoRa enabled Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI). The news comes after Senet announced a LoRa water AMI deal with Meuller Systems – more evidence that LoRa is gaining some strong interest from metering vendors. Vision Metering is claiming that its two LoRa AMI pilots, operating in the US, have hit ranges of 13 miles in their communications, and that the pilots are achieving excellent results and robust performance. These kinds of ranges are necessary for the partnership with Northeast Nebraska, as it is one of the largest utilities in the area, with some 8,500 electricity customers – a very rural utility that requires long-range communication…

The Zigbee Alliance has unveiled its latest Zigbee Pro 2017 specification, which now supports dual-mode devices that use the 2.4GHz band and the sub-GHz band. Zigbee has supported both bands for some time, but the dual-mode spec opens the door for a new breed of devices – as the Alliance looks to expand into new markets like smart cities. Notably, the spec unites the two separate approaches to Zigbee. The 2.4GHz band is used by the overwhelming majority of Zigbee devices, which in turn are mostly used inside households. The sub-GHz support has been used by some devices, but 2.4GHz was much more common – with sub-GHz Zigbee most commonly found in smart meters, acting as the link to the…

Evrythng has announced the integration of its cloud-based identity management platform for the ubiquitous GS1 labeling standard, opening the door for any product manufacturer, distributor, or retailer to embrace the operational efficiency improvements made available by the IoT technology. Whether it’s increased sales, reduced waste, or valuable analytics, the first step is getting the ‘things’ online – and Evrythng is hoping it’s tapping a rich new well with the integration. This is a glowing example of a shiny new IoT offering making the transition to ingratiate itself with a current business paradigm – sliding in nicely, instead of trying to force the norm to reinvent the wheel. Industries can move at glacial paces when it comes to adopting a new…

Imagination has announced that its new I6500-F MIPS processor will be used in the Mobileye EyeQ4, the silicon at the heart of many upcoming self-driving vehicles. Initially, the deal with the new Intel subsidiary looked like a win for Imagination, but the announcement was soon followed by Imagination declaring that it was putting itself up for sale – in the wake of the impending loss of its lucrative Apple business. The Apple news was devastating for Imagination, and saw its share price collapse by some 60% – following the news that Apple wouldn’t be using its PowerVR GPUs in upcoming designs, instead moving to develop the GPU internally, much like it does with its A-Series SoCs. Apple will have stopped…

A court in Cologne, Germany has raised a serious concern about the use of homespots across Europe, and certainly the rest of Germany, deciding that Liberty Global’s Unitymedia has to get an opt-in for each of its homespot owners. So far it has relied on an opt-out process and prior opt-in attempts led to service penetration of only 5% to 10%. It has been well understood for some years now, ever since FON invented the idea of putting a second SSID on a home gateway, that if you have to get each user to agree to open that SSID for public use, it makes the provision of homespot services virtually impossible across a large country like Germany. Deutsche Telekom has…

Voice-activated digital assistants have been at the forefront of the battle for the consumer web experience, between Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. But is it possible that a broader ecosystem of these devices will emerge, as it did in handsets? Qualcomm may be taking a step to enable that, with a system-on-chip targeted at voice-controlled devices, and having the potential to usher new vendors into the space. The existing offerings are designed to work within the individual vendors’ garden walls. Apple, predictably, keeps Siri for its iPhones and new HomeHub. The AI-enabled software from its rivals – Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa – can be deployed on other companies’ hardware (Amazon recently got Alexa onto Huawei smartphones for…

Deutsche Telekom may be one of the proponents of 5G network slicing, but a senior executive has warned of the backlash if the industry does not agree on standard definitions and interfaces. Uwe Janssen, VP of research and innovation at the German telco, told last week’s 5G World conference in London: “Automotive customers will not be satisfied to get one slice from Deutsche Telekom and then a different experience in the US and China. They want global solutions and that goes for every industry.” Network slicing promises to be one of the primary justifications for 5G deployment, allowing virtualized slices to be allocated to a particular customer or service, on-demand, and optimized for the target application. But while the demonstrations…

Far from being pushed aside by the advent of the cellular NB-IoT, LoRa – one of the alternative low power wide area networks (LPWANs) – is moving towards one of the prerequisites for wireless scale, roaming. Orange is spearheading this activity. The French operator is taking a multi-technology approach to LPWANs, planning to deliver machine-to-machine services over an expanding LoRa network as well as deploying NB-IoT on its LTE networks where applicable. It already covers 4,000 towns and industrial sites with LoRa connectivity, it says, and will achieve nationwide coverage by the end of this year. The company said testing on interconnect and roaming between different operators’ LoRa networks will begin by the end of this year, involving several European…

The smartphone chip market it dominates is nevertheless an increasingly challenging one for Qualcomm. Slowing growth, litigation and rising Chinese competition are among its problems, but also the trend for the largest, richest handset makers to design their own chips. Apple has its own processors, and given its current legal battle with Qualcomm, is likely to accelerate the process of switching to Intel for some modems. Samsung splits its favors between its own SoCs and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, but the more its silicon drives its profits, the more its handset arm is likely to feel the corporate pressure to stay inhouse. Huawei, which now claims to be the second largest smartphone vendor, is increasing its reliance on its HiSilicon subsidiary. And…

As the 5G standardization process moves on, the question is clear – is 3GPP really fit for purpose? The vision for 5G – and its only real commercial justification – is that it will not just be a fifth generation radio, but a complete architecture. Yet most of 3GPP’s work remains focused on the radio, and it has been slow to include organizations addressing standards in other parts of the network. Yet 5G will need open standards at each layer of the network, and between physical and virtual, wireless and wireline technologies. For many operators, 5G will go hand-in-hand with virtualization of the network, and the introduction of SDN controllers to achieve full resource flexibility, plus orchestrators to tie all…

Make sure to subscribe to get ATW in your inbox, for free, each Monday. // M&A, Strategies, Alliances // Synaptics has acquired Conexant and Marvell’s multimedia business in two deals, worth $300m and $95m respectively, in a move that will “immediately jumpstart” its smart home plans, using the Conexant voice and audio processing software and Marvell’s silicon. Honeywell is acquiring Nextnine, an industrial cybersecurity software provider that Honeywell plans to boost its Connected Plant customer base, using the ICS Shield software. Orbcomm has acquired inthinc, a fleet management and driver safety solutions provider, and longtime customer, that Orbcomm plans to integrate into its satellite offerings. Microsoft is buying Hexadite, and Israeli cybersecurity software and service provider that specializes in automated…

North American LoRa operator Senet has announced a partnership to target water utilities with LoRa-enabled metering infrastructure, in the same week that Senet launched a cloud-based Managed Network Services (MNS)offering for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) – who are looking to add LoRa to their existing communications networks. The two deals are pretty big wins for Senet, a company that began life as EnerTrac, a business monitoring fuel-tank fill-levels for heating fuel dealers in 2009, before transitioning from its proprietary protocol and network to LoRa in 2014 – with EnerTrac continuing as a primary customer. After the switch to LoRa, and the rebrand to Senet, the company has gone about becoming the largest LoRa operator in North America, with strong coverage…