11578 search results for Open RAN

Nokia is searching for a new owner for its Here mapping division, and continues to add to the attractions for a potential buyer. This week, it published a set of specifications for integrating data from a wide range of in-car sensors via the cloud, aiming to set a standard way to address this challenge. Here – richly functional and independent of any one mobile platform – has a real chance to challenge Google and become a de facto standard to power location-aware services. This is particularly true in the automotive sector, where Android and iOS are less established than they are in smartphones, and where the carmakers are keen to build in-car service platforms which they – not the mobile…

The Weightless SIG, which controls the would-be standard for low power wide area (LPWA) connectivity, has announced the first network using its Weightless-N protocol. This has been established in London and deployed in partnership with the UK’s Digital Catapult program. Weightless-N, released in May, had to be developed somewhat hurriedly after the group switched its attentions from its original target spectrum in the TV white spaces, to the ISM licence-exempt bands also occupied by rival LPWA offerings like LoRa and Sigfox Weightless-N is based almost entirely on technology from Nwave, whereas the initial platform was devised by Neul, which is now part of Huawei and the Chinese giant’s bid to push a hybrid LPWA/cellular solution through the 3GPP under the…

In each generation of mobile networks, roaming has been a critical challenge, and in 4G, it involves carrier WiFi as well as LTE itself. More and more service providers offer combined WiFi/cellular packages, and with the introduction of standards like Passpoint and Next Generation Hotspot, there will be seamless authentication and hand-off between the two. Along with the shift to IP, particularly the introduction of voice services (VoLTE and WiFi Calling), the challenges are severe, but they will create new opportunities for roaming services. LTE roaming has already boosted business for IPX service providers, whether independents like BICS and Syniverse or carrier divisions. VoLTE, with the huge volumes of SIP signalling it generates, will add to the complexities, and now…

The shock waves sent out by the launch of Free Mobile services in 2012 continue to reshape the French telecoms industry. Two groups, Altice and Free’s owner Iliad, are battling to dominate the emerging quad play market and disrupt incumbent Orange, and the by-product has been a vicious mobile price war. Altice has already acquired the country’s second MNO, SFR, and has now made an offer for the third one, Bouygues Telecom. However, on Tuesday, Bouygues’ board unanimously rejected Altice’s unsolicited offer to acquire its telecoms subsidiary and insisted this was well placed to continue to compete on its own. This looks like an attempt to provoke a better offer, or a rival bidder (perhaps a revival of old merger…

M&A, Strategies, Alliances Renesas has launched its Synergy platform, to connect its chips to apps and services in the IoT. The Industrial Internet Consortium has released its Industrial Internet Reference Architecture, as a guide for developers to use in designing systems using the IIC’s “common language” of interoperable standards and frameworks. Alcatel-Lucent and Sequans have combined to provide Orange with a 4G Kit for IoT, which Orange will use to speed up development and generate interest in the IoT. Sierra Wireless wraps up its acquisition of Accel Networks. Thinfilm has won an additional $22m investment from private investors, for its printed label electronics. The investing group now owns 6.1% of the company. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is calling for…

The Industrial Internet Consortium has announced the release of its Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) – a document it says “provides a common language for the elements of industrial systems and the relationships between them.” This is a guide on how to build industrial IoT (IIoT) systems, with the backing of some very notable industry names. Unveiled at the Industrial Internet Berlin Forum, the IIRA is a framework that places both existing and emerging standards and protocols into a common structure, so that a business or organization can use it to spot the gaps in their systems or offerings. The IIRA outlines the key characteristics of a range of IIoT systems, as well as offering different viewpoints that should be…

Cellular module specialist Sierra Wireless has unveiled its latest attempt at promoting IoT hardware interoperability, with support from Freescale, Texas Instruments and Linear Technologies. The open hardware reference design is supported by another open interface standard developed by Sierra, and the support of three prominent chip makers bodes well for adoption. The target is to develop an IoT equivalent of the Mini PCIe connector, which allows components from multiple vendors found in laptops and desktops to be swapped by developers and customers alike. With the new hardware interface, different IoT modules can be combined to create new designs and implementations. The first mangOH (Open Hardware, presumably) connector will be found in the open hardware reference design that has already been…

The Weightless SIG has announced this week that the first Weightless-N low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) has been established in London. The new Weightless-N protocol, the first version of which was released in May, based almost wholly on technology from Nwave, now powers a network deployed in partnership with the UK’s Digital Catapult program. The government-backed Catapult has provided the roof infrastructure that secures the single Weightless-N base station. While initially very small, this deployment is more a test bed rather than a commercial venture, but the involvement of the Digital Catapult organization should open up this new platform to lots of the smaller startups that are involved in the program – which is backed by funding from the Innovate UK…

With Weightless (see separate piece), LoRa and Sigfox announcing a number of wins between them this week, it seems that the central theme for 2015 will be the rise of these low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), and the businesses they power. While 2016 may be the year that WiFi and cellular catch up, with 802.11ah and LTE Category 1 and 0 respectively, for now, the LPWANs are charging on with multiple announcements this week. First off the bat; The LoRa Alliance has announced the launch of v1.0 of LoRaWAN, available to download from its website with public release status. Previous literature had made mention of LoRaMAC, a spec for end-devices, and LoRaWAN, the version for gateways, but Ståle Pettersen from Semtech…

The fall-out from smartphone price wars continues, with the pressure mounting on former leaders, now relegated to the second tier. BlackBerry may finally abandon its own platform and join the Android crowd with its next devices, according to reports. And although HTC has vehemently denied them, reports persist that the firm could be an acquisition target for PC maker Asustek. Reuters, citing anonymous sources, says an Android-powered BlackBerry is on the cards for this fall. It would offer touchscreen or pull-out keyboard options, and would be the logical culmination of years of moving from a closed ecosystem to a multivendor platform. Its mobility management and messaging systems still have loyal enterprise users and have been steadily opening up to support…

Nokia has signed its first major patent licensing agreement since selling off its handset division, with LG, though the companies have failed to agree on royalty rates. The Korean handset maker will pay royalties to Nokia for use of its mobile communications IPR, but the firms will have to seek arbitration to determine the appropriate fees. Nokia and Samsung went through the same process when the larger Korean company renewed a licensing agreement with its then-rival in 2013. Nokia and LG said the process could take 1-2 years, but in the meantime, LG will have the right to use Nokia’s technologies. This two-step process may become increasingly common in the mobile industry, where the issue of royalty levels has become…

SK Telecom has launched ThingPlug, an IoT platform it is billing as “an attractive one-stop development environment with diverse application-enabling features for developers”. The platform is based on standards established by oneM2M, a global organization established in 2012 to develop interoperable tech specs like ThingPlug. SK Telecom, the dominant mobile provider in South Korea, is also a member of the Bridge M2M Alliance – an APAC-focused association it cofounded along with 10 other MNOs from the region back in January 2014, as a branch-off from the regular Bridge Alliance. The M2M division was intended to support one-stop-shop M2M deployments in the region, with the usual promises of promoting interoperability. While SK Telecom hasn’t announced any ThingPlug customers yet, its connections…

Premium smartphones have expensive screens, and the sight of a cracked or shattered screen is not uncommon. For those users unfortunate enough to drop their device and break the screen, an expensive repair bill will almost certainly be incurred unless their warranty saves them. But modular designs like the new Fairphone 2 (and, of course, Google’s Project Ara) aim to avoid that, as well as offer a more affordable upgrade path than buying a whole new handset. Dutch company Fairphone this week released the first images of the second generation of its namesake modular smartphone, marking its European launch. And while Google’s support may make modular designs all the rage soon, Fairphone has another differentiator – it started out with…

Qualcomm’s detractors like to portray the chip giant as a religious fanatic around 3GPP, but sometimes it behaves more like the Vicar of Bray, who pragmatically changed his religious affiliations in order to hang on to his parish. After years of sniffing at WiFi and WiMAX, the company acquired Airgo and Flarion (both pioneers of IEEE technologies) in 2006, followed by Atheros in 2011 and Wilocity in 2014, becoming a major powerhouse in WiFi. Even if, in its dream world, 3GPP platforms – and indeed, CDMA – would have remained unchallenged, in reality Qualcomm knows when to accept that another technology has turned into an opportunity too big to be missed. Its latest apparent volte-face comes in the controversial area…

M&A, Strategies, Alliances SK Telecom has launched ThingPlug, an open IoT platform based on oneM2M standards, aimed at allowing anyone to develop and use IoT services. Dell is launching an IoT lab in Limerick, Ireland, and France has set up a similar lab in Angers. Alcatel-Lucent and Sequans are providing a ‘4G Kit for IoT,’ for Orange, launching a prototyping platform using Sequans’ LTE chipset and an implementation from Alcatel-subsidiary Bell Labs. Sigfox’s software stack will now be integrated with Samsung’s new Artik development platform, and Samsung Ventures has made an undisclosed investment in Sigfox. Orange, Foxconn, Swisscom, and KPN are the more prominent names involved in a €22.5m investment in Actility – aimed at accelerating the deployment of its…

SK Telecom has launched ThingPlug, an IoT platform it is billing as “an attractive one-stop development environment with diverse application-enabling features for developers.” The platform is based on standards established by oneM2M, a global organization established in 2012 to develop interoperable tech specs like ThingPlug. SK Telecom, the dominant mobile provider in South Korea, is also a member of the Bridge M2M Alliance – an APAC-focused association it cofounded along with 10 other MNOs from the region back in January 2014, as a branch-off from the regular Bridge Alliance. The M2M division was intended to support one-stop-shop M2M deployments in the region, with the usual promises of promoting interoperability. While SK Telecom hasn’t announced any ThingPlug customers yet, its connections…

When plotting IoT device number forecasts, most of the big firms don’t pay much (if any) attention to RFID tags for consumer goods. But if they did, we would be seeing much larger forecasts (in terms of volume), at least in our definition of the IoT: “connecting a device to the internet, either directly or indirectly, and deriving some sort of value from this connection.” Smart labelling, by way of cheap RFID tagging, fits that bill and allows companies to quickly and affordably track products or processes in their supply chains. In a granular fashion, and as the devices get cheaper, the value derived from gaining that insight will make RFID tagging a pretty easy decision. In a granular fashion,…