Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
Telecom Infra Project (TIP) was set up by Facebook (now Meta) to bring lower-cost equipment and a broader ecosystem to the telco network, in the same way that Meta’s Open Compute Project had done for data centers. However, enabling commoditized kit to support demanding urban 5G workloads, and integrating products from multiple vendors in one deployment, is harder in the RAN world than in IT, something that Open RAN enthusiasts increasingly acknowledge. This was clear in slides from a recent TIP board meeting, which were obtained by Light Reading. These point to some of the challenges of building multivendor RANs, and by implication, the important role of cross-industry organizations such as TIP to ease these problems by supporting deployment blueprints…
Established operators are facing a perfect storm of pressures including supply chain and economic disruption, and key decisions about how far and fast to adopt new architectures such as virtualized RAN. These storms often create internal tensions, or at least provoke strategic redirections that may, in turn, lead to executive reorganizations. The latest company to announce changes to its networks leadership is UK incumbent BT, whose high profile chief architect Neil McRae is set to leave. The shake-up of BT’s internal Networks unit reflects the increasingly convergence of the networks themselves with other technologies such as security and cloud. CTO Howard Watson will extend his responsibilities to include security, for instance, and takes a new title, chief security and networks…
New regulatory filings from Dish Network indicate that the company may divest its Boost Mobile assets. Boost is the largest of Dish’s four retail wireless MVNOs, which will be migrated to its own network as that is built out and as subscribers upgrade to 5G (they currently run on AT&T and T-Mobile networks). Dish chair Charlie Ergen, and treasurer Jason Kiser, have set up a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), currently a popular M&A instrument in the US hi-tech business, called CONX, which would acquire Boost. Some analysts speculated that this was a sign of what skeptics have believed since Dish first invested in 4G spectrum – that Ergen has no real interest in building a long-term mobile operator business,…
One of the hottest areas of debate about Open RAN is whether it really will usher new suppliers into the mainstream of the MNO supply chain, and whether that new competition and diversity will deliver significant 5G cost savings. But to achieve real transformation of the cost base, it is worth looking beyond the build-outs of the mature mobile markets, and consider how Open RAN ideas are being pursued by emerging market operators, whose TCO challenges are often extremely urgent, even if 5G is years away. An example is that of African regional giant MTN, which has extended its partnership with NuRAN Wireless of Canada, a company that has been in the forefront of Open RAN and Telecom Infra Project…
Nokia was later than some rivals to put much weight behind the software-as-a-service) model for both fixed and mobile communications services, but has made up for lost time over the past year. The company has been hyperactive since announcing its effective entry into the SaaS field almost a year ago in November 2021, when it launched multiple components aimed at telcos, although Nokia described this then as a natural evolution of its existing everything-as-a-service (XaaS) approach to provision. The company had begun by reshaping its applications software for a cloud-native environment, making it deployable at the network edge as well as in public or private clouds. Nokia had decided that with improvements in software development methods around microservices and continuous…
Special Report: Making 5G cost-effective We write a great deal in Wireless Watch about the new services and business models that could be enabled by 5G, once they are deployed in a ‘true 5G’ manner, with the cloud-based core and the advanced connectivity and management capabilities of the most recent, and emerging, 3GPP standards releases. However, it will take time for most operators to develop brand new revenue streams, especially in enterprise sectors where they may have a limited existing role in the value chain, or where demand for 5G services is only just materializing. In the meantime, examples round the world show that any premium from consumer and mobile broadband 5G services is small or shortlived, and the…
Five years ago this week… Roku was picking up the pieces following its exile from Mexico in the summer of 2017, after local courts found the firm’s streaming devices to be a content pirate’s best friend (i.e. too easily hacked). The recently public OEM was broadening its horizons, however, announcing the launch of its streaming players and platform in 10 new Latin American countries. — Akamai has scored a 4K HDR homerun with NESN, the broadcast home of the Boston Red Sox (MLB) and Boston Bruins (NHL), to deliver all 2022 to 2023 home games via the NESN 360 app. NESN is paying for Akamai’s Adaptive Media Delivery services to deliver 4K HDR live streams, held up by…
With the aviation industry wheezing back into life in the wake of Covid turbulence, one might think that in-flight connectivity for passengers is way down the pecking order of priorities for airlines. Well, 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. OTT 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 for…
The open source blockchain Ethereum has finally enacted The Merge, which will see the cryptocurrency move from a proof of work model to a proof of stake approach – aimed at slashing usage costs and its environmental impact. A few weeks on from pulling the trigger, uncertainty remains, which is not great news for the ecosystem of applications built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Bitcoin is the most infamous cryptocurrency, and while it appears to have failed in its attempts to become a legitimate alternative currency, its popularity opened the floodgates. From all the cryptocurrencies that exploded onto the scene, only Ethereum has persisted to any great extent, besides the ongoing yet excellent joke that is Dogecoin. Ethereum’s persistence…
Headlines like ‘How to leverage 5G to unleash the power of video streaming’ are a daily occurrence. But do mobile network operators, which are years ahead of the TV industry in understanding the versatility of 5G networks, actually click through to these articles and whitepapers from video technology vendors vaguely eyeing a slice of the 5G pie? Normally, such clickbait would be expelled from the Faultline inbox within seconds, but in the case of Ateme, we gave the French video compression firm the benefit of the doubt based on its growing credibility in the 5G space. In a new whitepaper, Ateme makes the case for how 5G slicing, media streaming architecture, and data analytics can help MNOs thrive by extending…
Google has announced a flagship win for its new Media CDN offering, with Major League Baseball (MLB) confirming its use for the direct-to-consumer (D2C) MLB.TV app. In 2022, the app has accounted for 11.5 billion minutes watched, suggesting that this could well be the biggest deal so far for the new CDN disruptor. There is still a caveat, however. MLB has been a Google Cloud Platform customer since 2020, so it is a little surprising to see that the announcement stresses that this is still a pilot deployment. The bulk of Faultline’s interest lies in the CDN elements of the wider announcement, but MLB will also be trialing AI-based data analytics. These will be used in real-time production workflows, using…
Pay TV operators outside of the US must look longingly at the National Content and Technology Cooperative (NCTC) – formerly The National Cable Television Cooperative up until July 2022. The industry body is a moving lighthouse for lost ships, now providing its 700 TV and broadband service provider members with routes to streaming safety away from the choppy waters of traditional pay TV. The NCTC is coming good on its promise following the refreshed identity to unlock new revenue streams and cost-saving strategies for members. Its first significant move post-rebrand is to recruit cord cutting customizer MyBundle.TV, to supply its member base with tools to cultivate streaming packages based on consumers’ viewing interests and – importantly in today’s economic climate…
US Nickel Hydrogen battery maker EnerVenue said this week it will offer the industry’s longest extended warranty for stationary batteries – essentially 20 years and 20,000 cycles. Now that knocks the hell out of lithium ion warranties, usually 3,000 cycles and 10 to 12 years. EnerVenue also promises that its batteries will work at 88% capacity or better. Lithium ion batteries lose 1% to 2% every year in capacity. This will cover any project throughout its payback phase and is offered with no hidden exclusions and simple operating terms. This is nothing short of revolutionary and it will not be lost on anyone on the lookout for a new battery technology, especially when you add the fact that this battery…
The grand move this week by General Motors into the home networking market, with partnerships announced with PG&E and SunPower, will trigger like for like announcements throughout the entire energy world. It also put all of these eggs carefully into a newly made corporate basket called GM Energy. General Motors has already thrown in its lot with lithium-ion batteries with its Ultium design for batteries for its cars – now it will push its software credentials to offer apps and cloud services which will manage each person’s electricity – both at home, and for its EV car re-charges. It will exclusively work with Sunpower as a solar provider to install solar when its car customers want it to charge their…
Cellnex buys Herbert In-Building Wireless to strengthen DAS line The UK division of Spain-based tower company Cellnex has acquired indoor cellular connectivity provider Herbert in-Building Wireless (HiBW) to strengthen its line of distributed antenna systems (DAS). HiBW has a range of DAS products for the banking, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and commercial sectors, and the acquisition for an undisclosed fee is helping Cellnex expand its sector coverage for wireless infrastructure. It will also help Cellnext reach new potential customers for private networks, where through its Edzcom business unit its strategy is to expand also across the horizontal connectivity stack, with the inclusion of high-performance cellular and low-power IoT sensor communications, exploiting its ownership of the Sigfox ultra-narrowband IoT network in Belgium. KDDI…
One of operators’ key motivations to move to new, software-centric network architectures is to improve their ability to implement AI/ML for network automation and optimization. This is often cited as a reason to embrace Open RAN (see below), but is also increasingly a selling point for traditional vendors. Ericsson said that a private 5G network, deployed with Vodafone for Foxconn’s factory in Hungary, would deliver higher uptime than a traditional network because of the use of the vendor’s AI service – and this could be scaled up to public macro networks in time too. Nello Califano, head of strategy and portfolio management for Ericsson Networks, said the algorithms used in the private network perform regular checks on network health including…
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is driving a project called 5G-Emerge, which it describes as a “distribution revolution”, that rallies around 5G once and for all, as a convergence technology for broadcast video. Conceived in summer this year, a consortium of 20 technology companies with deep experience in the satellite industry are supporting the project, targeting superior speeds, lower latencies and broader availability through blending satellite and terrestrial IP-based network infrastructures. This will also involve improving end user experiences by caching content closer to mobile devices and TVs. Initially, the idea is to cache content at 5G base stations, with Varnish Software playing an integral role here. In the future, content will be cached on smart gateways for access by…
There may be very few concrete definitions of 6G as yet, but it is increasingly clear what the next generation of cellular network standards will need to enable. 6G may prove to be just a natural evolution of 5G, or something quite different – potentially defined by the Internet industry as much as the 3GPP. Either way, its existence will only be justified if it can support cost-effective, sustainable and rich connectivity, that will turn the latest emerging concepts of the Internet world into reality. Increasingly, then, we are seeing academic institutions, large hi-tech companies, and even whole national programs driving R&D in several related areas in a joined-up way, rather than in siloes. Japan is a good example. It…
Slowly but surely millimeter wave is making its way into fixed wireless access (FWA) services in certain regions, driven by advances in both transmission and CPE technology, making this option cost-effective for operators in a growing range of deployment scenarios. Among recent developments was launch of Verizon’s latest 5G FWA CPE at Mobile World Congress Las Vegas, spanning mmWave, midrange and 4G, designed for operators to combine different connectivity options cost effectively for a robust FWA service, capable of switching transparently between the three bands. Called the Verizon Receiver, this is based on the latest Qualcomm 5G Fixed Wireless Access Platform and can be combined with the operator’s router to provide WiFi-based broadband access in the home just like a traditional…
India’s two leading operators, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, have lost no time in launching their first commercial 5G services, just weeks after the conclusion of the much-delayed 5G spectrum auction. While the third MNO, Vodafone Idea (Vi) is proceeding more slowly amid continuing financial uncertainties, the big two will spearhead not just new services for Indian users, but potentially a new ecosystem with a heavy focus on local partners. The government, and particularly the ruling BJP party, are also throwing a lot of weight behind making 5G a success, announcing loosening of infrastructure regulations for small cells, while also talking up the prospects of locally specific standards and supply chains, in line with the well-established Make in India program.…