Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
Canonical, which controls the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is using carrier interest in OpenStack as a powerful route into a new market, and into the heart of telco SDN. Its Ubuntu Server dominates the OpenStack operating system sector (it powers 65% of large deployments) and that is taking it into the mobile world as more and more MNOs see OpenStack as the simplest and most well-supported framework for managing their virtual network functions (VNFs). It is essential to interoperability and operator confidence that the management and orchestration (MANO) of virtual networks, with their huge numbers of dynamic moving software parts, are standardized. There are two major open source efforts in this area which incorporate several former inhouse operator projects – Open…
Network virtualization in its first implementations may be all about reducing cost, but most operators are also evaluating ways to harness their newly flexible networks to generate new services and revenues. They are also starting to look towards 5G and its concept of network slicing – creating virtualized slices of network capacity, dynamically and on-demand, with the characteristics and capabilities requested by a particular service, enterprise or MVNO. Amid all the unknowns and improbables about 5G, slicing is one of the ideas which could really define it – indeed, without it, many of the promises of 5G will be unfulfillable. This highlights how new architectures, based around NFV and SDN, are far more important to next generation networks than a…
Network virtualization is a lot less real than it appears. Rather like 5G, it seems to be making extremely rapid progress (by telco standards). Almost every week, more operators announce projects and trials. But in most cases, these are just that – trials. Even in areas like virtualized CPE and evolved packet core (EPC), where virtualization is being applied first, only a few operators so far have allowed a software-based platform anywhere near their core networks and customers. The mighty NTT Docomo, which has implemented the first multivendor NFV-enabled packet core, is using it to back up the traditional EPC during traffic spikes. Many other early adopters are deploying vEPCs to support a new and discrete activity like a machine-to-machine…
A curious press release came ours and everybody’s way this week, with Intertrust claiming a major victory with a new service in Italy, called Tivùon. Technically this has been in place for about two and a half years, but since most news on it was written in Italian, it took us a few moments to sort out precisely what has happened. Tivùon was created to give OTT access to the broadcast TV companies which put together TiVu Sat, the free satellite in Italy, a bit like Freesat and other European offerings. But initially Tivùon was mostly paid premium content and is suddenly more like YouView or HbbTV in the UK, Germany and France. Specifically, it did not have free to…
This week the European Commission has given its blessing to a slightly altered virtual unbundling agreement to go ahead in Germany to support the rollout of fiber and G.fast. For at least the past 2 decades, despite European Commission directives to the contrary, Deutsche Telekom has virtually ignored the rules for local loop unbundling and has worked a margin squeeze, between its own broadband price and its unbundled line rental, which has slowed up broadband in Germany. Eventually the European Commission fined Deutsche Telekom in 2003, but there has been continued dragging of heels and pricing adjustments which keep rivals either at bay or impoverished. The UK has been better, although not much better, and constant vigilance by regulator Ofcom…
ARM, Intercede, Solacia and Symantec have announced the Open Trust Protocol (OTrP), to bring banking and e-commerce security techniques to the IoT and its billions of end-points. The group collectively assessed the security challenges facing the IoT, including the Industrial IoT (IIoT), smart home, healthcare, and transportation, and have concluded that any system could be compromised unless it can establish a system-level root of trust. Consequently, OTrP is the answer – and is now available for download from the IETF as an informational, with a view to having a standards body drive it forward as an interoperable standard. The group says that OTrP combines a ‘secure architecture with trusted code management, using technologies proven in large scale banking and sensitive…
Bouygues Telecom is the latest mobile operator to be caught in the ongoing wave of tower sales, as MNOs seek to drive down operating costs and shift infrastructure spending to future platforms, such as the impending 5G. The third French mobile operator is selling 230 of its mobile towers to European towerco Cellnex Telecom for €80m in the initial phase of the deal, but this could potentially increase to 500 sites during the next stage of negotiations. The tower sites are located largely in rural areas of France, with a select few in more urban areas. This is not a significant dent in Bouygues’ total of 15,000 sites across France, but the deal is significant because it represents Cellnex’s first…
The WiFi-first MVNOs of the US are storming Europe now, creating yet another headache for incumbent operators which are already under siege from cablecos and quad play telcos. FreedomPop already operates in the UK and has this week announced expansion into Spain. And now Google has come closer to becoming a European MVNO with its data-centric Project Fi service. So far, Google is only promising connectivity for US customers when they travel in Europe, via an agreement with Hutchison Whampoa’s MVNE business, Hue. But ever since Fi launched in the US in April 2015, there have been reports that Google was talking to Hutchison about a deal which would extend beyond roaming to support service launches for customers in non-US…
Ownership of wholesale fiber networks is becoming increasingly strategic for operators and their infrastructure partners. Not only are these valuable for expanding broadband services into new areas, but they are in rising demand to backhaul small cell, WiFi and smart city networks (see separate item). If they come combined with some spectrum in the fashionable high frequency bands, such as LMDS, the excitement is even higher. Hence the strong reaction to reports that US fiber provider, Level 3 Communications – which also owns LMDS spectrum licences via its 2006 acquisition of Telcove – is up for sale. This would follow Verizon’s proposed purchase of the fiber unit of XO Communications, another wholesale infrastructure player with LMDS spectrum, both of which…
After being acquired by Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and fending off interest from China, former Nokia mapping unit HERE has committed itself to an internal restructuring, as its new owners look to embrace the opportunities presented by the wider IoT market. The company hosted Wireless Watch’s sister service, Rethink IoT (RIoT – www.rethink-iot.com) in its Berlin offices, where RIoT editor Alex Davies dived into the organization’s plans and strategies to cope with the looming turbulence in the connected car and IoT markets. HERE’s new owners clearly see it as an asset to help keep Google and Apple at bay in the battle for control of the connected and driverless vehicle. The reorganization looks beyond just the car, looking to address a…
A group comprising cellular and automotive stakeholders has announced a new set of tests that aim to prove that LTE has a key role to play in the adoption of autonomous vehicles and the improvement their integration with smart cities. Audi, Toyota, Deutsche Telekom and Huawei are planning on convincing the 3GPP that LTE-V is the solution to the problem of connectivity. Collectively, the group is trying to answer the question of what performance levels can be expected of LTE-V, with a view to using the technology in road safety and traffic efficiency applications. The testing is taking place on the A9 Motorway Test Bed, at Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, with the results of the tests set to be presented to…
On Thursday, the FCC voted unanimously to open up high frequency spectrum bands for 5G networks, as proposed earlier in the year. This certainly sees the US taking a lead in pushing millimeter wave wireless networks forward, rather than just talking about them. But while Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are racing ahead, for most operators round the world, millimeter wave is a distant prospect. Senior MNO executives continue to issue warning statements, calling on the industry to slow down and ensure that LTE continues to be enhanced for a decade or more to come. And even for those operators which believe they know what 5G will be, and aim to deploy it in the early 2020s, the first focus –…
Hard on the heels of the FCC vote to open up high frequency spectrum for 5G (see separate item), Verizon said it had finished its initial 5G radio specification, which is geared to the 28 GHz band. Verizon’s design will be the basis of equipment for a fixed wireless pilot in 28 GHz next year. The spec was created by the operator’s 5G Technology Forum, which it formed in late 2015 with Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung. Verizon said this has come up with “a common and extendable platform for Verizon’s 28/39 GHz fixed wireless access trials and deployments”. It stressed that this would enable fixed wireless trials, but it would be revised in line with standards…
Every year since 2007 has been dubbed ‘the year of the small cell’, with varying degrees of justification. Significant penetration of the residential market was followed by disappointment with limited expansion in the most heavily scrutinized sector, the urban hotzone. But like most hyped wireless platforms, just when the market watchers start to lose interest, the technology is suddenly there – established in the mainstream when nobody was looking. Densification is now a common and important element of many operators’ LTE-Advanced plans. It applies to indoor and enterprise locations – often the biggest driver of data traffic and of premium services – as well as the classic network-on-a-lamppost. As attention moves from LTE coverage to capacity, and MNOs start to…
Softbank is to acquire ARM, a deal which breaks all kinds of records – the biggest ever acquisition of a European hi-tech business; the biggest ever Asian investment in the UK; the biggest shock to the mobile status quo since the iPhone launch. The motivations for Softbank to pay £24.3bn ($32.17bn) for the UK processor IP provider are clear, though beset with risk and uncertainty. The Japanese MNO and internet operator needs to diversify rapidly from the dying mobile data model. Thanks to about 140 acquisitions and investments, mainly web-related, in the past decade, the firm has many weapons in place for a major acceleration of its internet and IoT services activities, and a bid to take this global. Investments…
M&A, Strategies, Alliances GE and Microsoft have announced a partnership that will see GE’s Predix platform made available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, with the pair saying that this is the first step in a broad strategic collaboration. SoftBank and Aeris have launched a joint venture in Japan, called Aeris Japan, which will provide IoT and telematics services using Aeris’ IoT platform. AT&T and IBM have announced a new partnership to build IoT developer tools on the IBM Watson IoT cloud, based on open standards, and globally connected. Infineon is acquiring Wolfspeed for $850m, boosting its semiconductor portfolio. Cypress Semiconductor might be up for sale, with rumors of interest from three private equity firms. Toyota has joined the Open…
US owned, Europe based cableco Liberty Global has acquired the free to air broadcaster UTV Ireland, via its Virgin Media subsidiary in the UK, paying €10 million. Last year Liberty acquired commercial channel owner TV3 Group. UTV has a single channel which is available on Virgin Media, eir Vision, Vodafone, Sky and Saorview. Nokia and Samsung this week agreed to expand and extend their IPR cross license which will open up additional patent portfolios, particularly those inherited from Alcatel Lucent. This deal is in addition to one arbitrated between the two companies in February, this year. We imagine that Nokia was already pretty strong in IPR, but when you add Alcatel Lucent, it should have a huge net swing in…
The sale of NexGuard Labs to Kudelski last week almost certainly signals the beginning of a “muscling up” process to enter a patent war around watermarking. Kudelski’s Nagra is just one of a handful of companies which now controls a watermarking system and already this year one patent troll in the guise of US player Blue Spike, has raised an issue around patents relating to watermarks. Cisco has quietly tried to build its own patent base in watermarking, triggered by the certain knowledge that MovieLabs is requiring some form of forensic watermarking to protect 4K content. In the past MovieLabs requirements have been treated as a “suggested guideline” by a variety of studios and partners, but increasingly deals are really…
US real-time analytics firm Neustar has marked its entry into the addressable advertising market this week by teaming up with Dish Media Sales, the advertising sales arm of Dish Network. Targeted advertising is no longer as simple as tapping into a user’s search history on a PC, DVR, or mobile device and firing back any ads that seem remotely relevant; the ad game has evolved into one of a huge number of variables and countless data sets – location, demographics, and even to the extent of building a chillingly accurate profile of a consumer’s personality. Essentially, addressable advertising reduces the wasted reach of targeted ads as seen in programmatic advertising, and therefore only delivers these ads to specific viewers or…
It is likely that somehow the FCC’s aim of saving viewers $19 billion of unnecessary cost per year, when it set out to unlock the set top box, will get lost in the reworking of the order. US consumers pay a ridiculous amount of money each year for their set top rentals, but it is all part of the rich tapestry of costs that a cable customer pays. Had the FCC managed to open up set tops, the bills would have migrated elsewhere, to another part of the billing system. But a Congressional House Subcommittee called to investigate the matter had Jessica Rosenworcel confess to her belief, widely echoed in the US press – that there were better ways to…