11528 search results for Open RAN

Broadband World Forum has rebranded as Network X, merging with 5G World and Telco Cloud to appeal as a network-agnostic or converged showcase. At the show, the Broadband Forum standards body was highlighting multivendor momentum with demonstrations including implementations of specifications enabling greater automation, reduced network congestion, improved interoperability, and broadband slicing. This last was backed by 14 companies, and is not as new as it sounds. Broadband Forum members have taken a leaf or two from the 5G book of network slicing, which in broadband is better known as dynamic subscriber session steering. ISPs can reallocate resources between isolated slices in a network, effectively increasing a subscriber’s bandwidth on-demand. This in turn allows ISPs to ensure lower latency. After…

Turkcell is using new technology from the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) that allows the operator to upgrade its data center capacity. TIP – which is holding its annual summit this year as part of the FYUZ event in Madrid, Spain – said that the Turkish operator has deployed the first commercial distributed disaggregated backbone router (DDBR)as an Internet gateway solution. Turkcell’s CTO Gediz Sezgin said in a statement: “The deployment of the TIP DDBR solution is the first of its kind in the world and will deliver cost-effective and reliable connectivity for all our customers by its unique distributed model.” The DDBR is based on network operating system software from disruptive software-defined networking vendor DriveNets, together with hardware from UfiSpace…

The proposed $7.3bn merger between satellite operators Viasat and Inmarsat has been suspended by the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) over concerns the move would undermine free market competition in the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market. The CMA is now conducting a full investigation into the merger, fueled by concerns over available of in-flight connectivity services for airlines, which, following the merger, could see customers negatively affected by reduced quality, increased cost, and a lack of alternative offers. In a decision published on October 8, the CMA stated it had examined the impact on the IFC market, finding Viasat and Inmarsat were both leading providers of IFC services. Viasat and Inmarsat differ from other major IFC service providers such as…

The tide of fixed/mobile convergence continues to flow as the UK’s Vodafone joins with telco and media group Altice (Amsterdam-headquartered but French-owned) to build a €7bn ($6.8bn) fiber network in Germany. The 50/50 joint venture, FibreCo, will focus mainly on making fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) available to around 7m German homes currently served by Vodafone’s existing hybrid fiber/coax cable network amassed through acquisitions over the last decade. That will account for 80% of the roll-out focused on housing associations served by the cable network, but the other 20% will extend to homes beyond, although still close to, the operator’s existing footprint. Although a 50/50 venture, Vodafone was the prime mover in the venture given its existing base to build on, with Altice’s…

Convergence and collaboration emerged as key themes at the recent Mobile World Congress Las Vegas 2022 as attendance recovered some, but not all, of the decline from pre-pandemic levels when the event was held in Los Angeles. Under the show’s theme of ‘Connectivity Unleashed’, major industry players were seen to be joining forces to address challenges faced by operators as they embrace virtualization and cloud computing principles in search of elusive efficiency savings and greater agility in deployment of new services. At the same time, there was growing appreciation that mobile networks cannot by themselves achieve global coverage without assistance from satellite constellations over the oceans and remote land areas. Such ubiquity is becoming essential as mobile networks are relied…

The Nordic network equipment providers (NEPs), Ericsson and Nokia, may have some cause for complacency, despite the encroachment of Samsung on their RAN turf – but with an estimated global RAN market share below 5%, the Korean vendor is easier to deal with than Huawei. However, they are showing increasing awareness, at least in public statements, that they need to continue to stay well ahead of the challengers that may be enabled by Open RAN in future. That may mean embracing some open interfaces, as Nokia and Samsung have done to a certain extent. But more importantly, it means continuing to lead in performance and in support for emerging capabilities – which will help them to retain their market share…

  The open networks community had its eyes hopefully on India’s upcoming, and highly accelerated, 5G roll-out, but has been sadly disappointed by the first wave of contracts from the largest operators, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Despite these MNOs’ open credentials, they have awarded the bulk of their 5G deals to Ericsson and Nokia. The two largest operators have both been very active in open 5G initiatives and in building distinctive platforms that would favor local partners and work closely with smaller vendors. Reliance Jio had been somewhat radical in using Samsung as its only 4G RAN supplier, at a time when the Korean vendor had very few contracts outside its homeland. The new entrant also codeveloped many elements…

Special Report: Next steps for NEPs   Despite all the excited speculation about Open RAN and its impact on the supply chain – in Wireless Watch as much as anywhere else – it remains unclear how far it will shake up the operators’ vendor choices. In small cells and private networks, and in low-cost rural build-outs, we can see new ecosystems emerging, from chip to equipment and software layers. These are sometimes building on existing players in small cells or enterprise WiFi, and there is no reason why in these environments – which have such different economics, performance requirements and use cases to those of urban macro networks – a parallel and fairly separate supply chain should not evolve. Of…

BT granted Huawei reprieve BT’s deadline to expunge Huawei from its 5G network have been put back 11 months to avoid disruption to services under its EE brand. The operator’s infrastructure arm Openreach, along with networks of other broadband providers, had originally been required to remove Huawei hardware from their 5G core by January 2023, at threat of fines if the deadline was not met. They now have until December 2023, as notified in legal notices sent out by the government. BT had become particularly dependent on Huawei’s mobile technology for both 5G and fiber deployments.   Samsung sets up 6G research group in UK Samsung has unveiled plans for a research group in the UK, focused on developing technologies under…

Orange had grand plans for its Orange Bank but is now rumored to be looking to sell the business. According to the French media, the operator is working with investment bank Lazard on a possible sale or new partnership the bank. “In a very strong competitive environment in the banking market, Orange is considering all opportunities to develop Orange Bank’s activities and to support its growth,” the company said in a statement. French newspaper Les Echos speculated that French online bank Boursorama would be a likely candidate to buy Orange Bank or engage in a joint venture. Its unnamed sources also suggested that Orange might have to pay a buyer as much as €500m to take the bank off its hands.…

With the aviation industry wheezing back into life in the wake of Covid turbulence, one might think that in-flight connectivity for passengers would be way down the pecking order of priorities for airlines. However, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) wants to rekindle the lust for improved in-flight WiFi connectivity that was widely expressed pre-pandemic. A new report from the industry collective wants to help industry stakeholders – primarily airlines but also network operators, over-the-top services and infrastructure suppliers – to understand how to develop a holistic connectivity experience. What the WBA views as holistic connectivity starts on the ground with easy connection to in-flight services or Internet (at a fee) via personal devices, while maintaining access to the airline portal…

In a new white paper, French video compression firm Ateme makes the case for how 5G slicing, media streaming architecture, and data analytics can help MNOs thrive by extending any streaming video service via 5G with improved quality of experience, at optimized cost. Ateme is not the first to emphasize that 5G is not simply another dumb pipe to clog up with data – primarily video data – and nor will it be the last. The bottom line is that too few people in the video sector know enough about 5G to optimize the business case, and not enough people in 5G know enough about video. An important element is the 3GPP 5G Media Streaming open specification, which was published…