Year: 2022
Rogers Telecommunications restores service after 19 hour outage disrupting life in Canada
Rogers Communications Inc. said its network was beginning to recover late on Friday after a 19-hour service outage at one of Canada’s biggest telecom operators shut banking, transport and government access for millions, drawing outrage from customers and adding to criticism over its industry dominance.
The outage shut down internet access, cell phone and landline phone connections. Some callers could not reach emergency services via 911 calls, police across Canada said. The disruption also prompted a health-care network in Toronto to ask physicians who were on call Friday to “physically come into the hospital for the shift.”
The total communications blackout was Rogers’ second in 15 months. It began around 4:30 a.m. ET (0830 GMT) and knocked out a quarter of Canada’s observable internet connectivity, said the NetBlocks monitoring group.
Canadians crowded into cafes and public libraries that still had internet access and hovered outside hotels to catch a signal. Canada’s border services agency said the outage affected its mobile app for incoming travelers. Retailers’ cashless pay systems went down; banks reported issues with ATM services.
Rogers (RCIb.TO) said in a statement on Twitter that “our wireless services are starting to recover” and workers are trying to get people back online as quickly as possible.
In a separate statement on its website, Rogers President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Staffieri apologized for the outage, saying: “Today we let you down. We can and will do better.”
We know you count on Rogers to connect you to emergency services, make payments, serve your customers, connect with work and keep in touch with friends and family. We take that responsibility very seriously and today we let you down. We can and will do better.
As you know, we experienced a network outage across both wireless and wireline service that began early this morning.
We have made meaningful progress towards bringing our networks back online and many of our wireless customers are starting to see services return. We don’t yet have an ETA on when our networks will be fully restored but we will continue to share information with our customers as we restore full service.
We know going a full day without connectivity has real impacts on our customers, and all Canadians. On behalf of all of us here at Rogers, Rogers for Business, Fido, chatr and cityfone, I want to sincerely apologize for this service interruption and the impact it is having on people from coast to coast to coast.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/2022/01/10/rogers-appoints-staffieri-as-permanent-president-and-chief-executive/20220110170136-61dcb5032f80394f86a7b837jpeg.jpg)
Staffieri explained that the company doesn’t have a timeline on when the networks will be fully restored, “but we will continue to share information with our customers as we restore full services.” He said a credit would be applied to affected customers.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday evening that the outage was not the result of a cyber attack.
Cloudflare Inc., a global cloud-services provider, said Friday its analysis indicated the outage was due to an internal error at Rogers as the telecommunications company apparently tried to upgrade certain equipment that helps internet data flow through networks. A similar mistake hit Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in the fall of last year, triggering an outage that lasted about six hours.
The disruption also made transport and flight bookings more difficult at the height of the summer travel season. Transport Canada has not received reports of direct safety or security impacts to any flights, marine or rail services as part of this outage, according to spokesperson Sau Liu.
With about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million retail internet subscribers, Rogers is the top provider in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and home to its biggest city, Toronto. Rogers, BCE Inc (BCE.TO) and Telus Corp (T.TO) control 90% of the market share in Canada.
Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne in a tweet called the situation “unacceptable” and said he was in communication with telecom CEOs, including those from Rogers, Bell and Telus, to find a solution.
Canadian financial institutions and banks, including Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Bank Of Montreal (BMO.TO), said the outage disrupted services. Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) said its ATMs and online banking services were affected.
A spokesperson for Vancouver International airport, among Canada’s busiest, said travelers could not pay for parking, use terminal ATMs or purchase items at airport retailers.
Air Canada (AC.TO), the country’s largest airline, said its call center had been affected. Airlines in Canada, like those in Europe and the United States, have been experiencing high call volume amid flight cancellations and delays due to pandemic staffing shortages.
Critics said the outage demonstrated a need for more competition in telecom for Canada.
Earlier this year, Canada’s competition bureau blocked Rogers’ attempt to take over rival Shaw Communications (SJRb.TO) in a C$20 billion deal, saying it would hamper competition in a country where telecom rates are some of the world’s highest. The merger still awaits a final verdict. read more
“Today’s outage illustrates the need for more independent competition that will drive more network investment so outages are far less likely,” said Anthony Lacavera, managing director of Globealive, an investment firm that had bid for a wireless provider involved in the Rogers/Shaw deal.
On Friday, some government agencies canceled services after losing internet access, including Canada’s passport offices and the telecoms regulator. The Canada Revenue Agency, the country’s tax collection body, lost telephone service.
In downtown Ottawa, Canada’s capital, cafes including Tim Hortons were not accepting debit and credit cards and were turning away customers who did not have cash.
Michelle Wasylyshen, spokeswoman for the Retail Council of Canada, said outages would vary from one retailer to the next: “Cash will most certainly be king at many stores today.”
While the disruptions were widespread, several companies and transport points said their services were unaffected. The Port of Montreal reported no disruptions. The Calgary Airport Authority said it had “no major operational impacts.”
References:
Adani Group planning to enter India’s long delayed 5G spectrum auction
Indian conglomerate Adani Group [1.] is believed to be one of the four companies that (on Friday July 8th) has showed interest in the Indian government’s long delayed 5G spectrum auction. The move would expand the conglomerate’s presence to a sector dominated by established wireless telcos – Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Ltd.
India’s telecom department’s upcoming auction includes the coveted 5G band needed for high-speed wireless internet connectivity.
Note 1. Adani Group is a diversified organization in India with market cap of over $182.02 billion (as of July 8, 2022) composed of 7 publicly traded companies. It has created a world class transport and utility infrastructure portfolio that has a pan-India presence. Adani Group is headquartered in Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, India. Over the years, Adani Group has positioned itself to be the market leader in its transport logistics and energy utility portfolio businesses focusing on large scale infrastructure development in India with O & M practices benchmarked to global standards. With four IG rated businesses, it is the only Infrastructure Investment Grade issuer in India.
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Four independent sources told Business Standard that the Adani Group was interested in getting into telecom where it has no experience whatsoever.
Under India’s telecom regulations, the Adani entity would require a unified access service (UAS) permit from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to participate in the 5G airwaves auction.
The four telecom bidders would first have to provide ownership details by July 12th and later a bidder-ownership compliance certificate. After that, there will be a pre-qualification of bidders. Companies will have the right to withdraw auction applications by July 19 and bidders will be announced the next day. The auction is expected to begin on July 27.
Experts are divided about the possible strategy of the Gautam Adani-led Adani group. Some say it is investing heavily in data centres, with a view to making it an enterprise business. It has tied up with international company EdgeConnex for a 50-50 joint venture to build and operate large data centres in Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Vizag, and Hyderabad.
Adani’s enterprise data business will compete with Indian telecom companies and international tech giants like Amazon and Google. It would be a smart move to buy a limited quantity of millimetre band spectrum — it offers high speed and is relatively cheap – and support it by a small amount of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band.
Other experts believe the Adani group might be planning to enter into 5G services and compete with established companies before likely acquiring or collaborating with an existing player.
News agency PTI, while quoting unnamed sources, reported that Adani was the fourth applicant in the telecom auction and had obtained National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licences.
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Image Credit: Adani Group
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References:
India’s 5G auction delayed again to April-May 2022 – Credibility Gap?
South Korea has 24 million 5G subscribers and over 200K 5G base stations
South Korea was the first country to launch commercial 5G networks in April 2019 and currently has 5G coverage across its 85 cities. 5G subscribers in South Korea are now nearly 24 million as of May 2022, Korean press reported, citing data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
According to previous reports, the number of 5G users in the country has been increasing in recent months due to the launch of new smartphones including Apple’s new iPhone 13 series.
SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator by subscriptions, ended May with 11.4 million 5G subscribers, followed by KT with 7.3 million and LG Uplus with 5.2 million, according to the report. South Korean telcos expect 5G subscriptions will grow even faster when cheaper data plans are launched, possibly in the third quarter, per the government’s drive to ease the phone bill payment burden for households.
The number of 4G subscribers in South Korea reached 47 million as of the end of May. Also, mobile virtual network operators in the Asian nation had a combined 83,256 users as of the end of the month.
South Korean telecom operators currently provide 5G services via Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G networks, which depend on previous 4G LTE networks.
Korean mobile operators have deployed a total of 202,903 5G base stations as of the end of February, according to previous reports. This figure is equivalent to 23% of total 4G LTE base stations installed in South Korea.
In June 2018, the ICT ministry completed an auction for 5G frequencies in which local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus secured spectrum to launch 5G services in the Asian nation.
SK Telecom and KT each won 100 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band while LG Uplus had obtained a bloc of 80 megahertz of spectrum.
In February, the government of South Korea has postponed an auction to award additional 5G spectrum as local mobile operators SK Telecom and KT have complained about the process.
In December of 2021, South Korea’s Science and ICT ministry had said it would open bidding for additional 5G networks in the 3.4-3.42 GHz spectrum, as requested by LG Uplus, the country’s smallest mobile operator.
However, SK Telecom and KT have complained about the ministry’s decision, as they claim that LG Uplus is at a relative advantage as the spectrum it had requested is closest to its current frequencies and will cost considerably less for LG Uplus to utilize it.
According to a recent report by the GSMA, 5G connections accounted for 33% of total mobile connections in South Korea last year, while this technology will represent 73% of total connections in 2025.
References:
https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?sc=30800028&year=2022&no=587517
Ericsson and Orange Spain in 5G VR trial at Madrid’s Mad Cool festival
Orange Spain is the official sponsor of the Madrid’s Mad Cool festival (July 6-10 ), which will see 60,000 daily fans enjoying performances from dozens of rock, pop and Indie stars, including headline acts such as Metallica, Imagine Dragons, Muse, the Killers, Florence + the Machine, the Pixies, and Jack White.
To make the unique immersive reality experience possible, Ericsson and Orange Spain are using 5G connectivity with virtual reality (VR) glasses that collect real-time images captured by three panoramic cameras strategically located on the stage.
The images are projected on a video wall at an Orange Spain company stand at the festival site. Stand visitors can use VR glasses to interact with the projections, allowing fans to enjoy the festival as if they are actually on stage with the artists.
Photo courtesy of Orange Spain
Ericsson’s indoor solution, the Ericsson Radio Dot System, is providing dedicated 5G coverage during the Mad Cool Festival. The solution, which is based on multi-band small cell technology, ensures seamless connectivity to the VR glasses despite high volumes of data traffic on site.
In addition, all fans with Orange 5G subscriptions attending the festival can benefit from improved connectivity across the venue. Four mid-band TDD (Time Division Duplex) 5G macro cells, using Ericsson Antenna-Integrated Radio (AIR) technology, are providing seamless mobility user experiences for all attendees who connect to Orange’s mobile network during the event.
Sonia Rico, Director of Brand, Communication and Sponsorships, Orange Spain, says:” This is the first musical event sponsored by Orange. Following a hiatus due to COVID-19, we want to celebrate the return of Mad Cool by guaranteeing the best connectivity, for both the public and the organizers, through our state-of-the-art 5G and fiber networks. In addition, thanks to virtual reality, we can offer a unique experience to attendees – the union of digital and human – which we hope will be unforgettable.”
Iván Rejón, Director of Marketing and Communication, Ericsson Iberia, says:” Technology is reimagining the future of the culture and entertainment industry. The use of 5G and the technologies it enables, such as virtual or mixed reality, opens the doors to inexhaustible possibilities. Thanks to Orange’s 5G network and Ericsson’s 5G technology, connectivity enabling festival goers to enjoy a more immersive experience – placing them at the center of the action.”
https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2022/7/ericsson-and-orange-spain-5g-put-festival-fans-on-stage
FBI and MI5 Chiefs Issue Joint Warning: Chinese Cyber Espionage on Tech & Telecom Firms
Chinese government-backed hackers have attacked major telecom businesses throughout the world in a cyber-espionage effort that has lasted at least two years and has successfully compromised at least 13 telecommunications groups.
In a recent advisory, the FBI, NSA and CISA stated that hackers linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had targeted and hacked major telecommunications businesses by exploiting simple and well-known network and system vulnerabilities.
According to the report, Chinese espionage is often initiated with hackers surveying target networks and exploring the manufacturers, models, versions, and known vulnerabilities of routers and networking equipment using open-source scanning tools such as RouterSploit and RouterScan. The Chinese government consistently disputes charges of hacking.
The heads of the FBI and Britain’s domestic security service have just issued sharply worded warnings to business leaders about the threats posed by Chinese espionage, especially spying aimed at stealing Western technology companies’ intellectual property.
In a rare joint appearance on Wednesday July 6th at the headquarters of MI5 in the UK, Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Ken McCallum, director-general of MI5, urged executives not to underestimate the scale and sophistication of Beijing’s campaign.
“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology—whatever it is that makes your industry tick—and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” Mr. Wray told the audience of business people.
“They’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it.” China uses state-sponsored hacking on a large scale, along with a global network of intelligence operatives in its quest to gain access to technology it considers important, Messrs. Wray and McCallum said.
“The Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated business people realize,” Mr. Wray added.
PHOTO CREDIT: DOMINIC LIPINSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“We want to send the clearest signal we can on a massive shared challenge—China,” Mr. Wray said in his appearance with his U.K. counterpart. Tackling the threat is essential, he said, “if we are to protect our economies, our institutions and our democratic values.”
“The most game-changing challenge we face comes from the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. McCallum said. “It’s covertly applying pressure across the globe. This might feel abstract, but it is real and it is pressing.”
China is engaged in “a coordinated campaign on a grand scale” that represents “a strategic contest across decades,” Mr. McCallum said. “We need to act.”
While American law enforcement and intelligence officials have been warning about the problem for years, it is a far more recent phenomenon for British security officials, who until last year made few public comments about the Chinese threat.
MI5 is running seven times more investigations involving Chinese espionage than it did in 2018, and plans to double the current number in the coming years, Mr. McCallum said.
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The statement from the American security agencies did not name the victims of the hacking, nor did it specify the extent of the damage. However, US authorities did list specific networking equipment, such as routers and switches, that Chinese hackers are suspected of routinely targeting, exploiting serious and well-known flaws that basically gave the attackers full control over their targets.
Cisco, Citrix, Fortinet and Netgear equipment were among the most often attacked devices. Cisco and Netgear, according to the warning, have already published software updates for the majority of the identified vulnerabilities. The organizations recommended that operators take certain actions to minimize possible threats in addition to applying available patches and system upgrades. These include removing or isolating suspected compromised devices as soon as possible, segmenting the network to limit or prevent lateral movement, disabling unused or unnecessary network services, ports, protocols, and devices, and requiring multi-factor authentication for all users, including those connected via a VPN.
For intelligence organizations, telecommunications companies are particularly valuable targets. These service providers develop and operate the majority of the Internet’s infrastructure, as well as numerous private networks throughout the world. Successfully hacking of these networks can open the door to an even larger universe of valuable surveillance opportunities.
References:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/heads-of-fbi-mi5-issue-joint-warning-on-chinese-spying-11657123280
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/world/asia/fbi-china-taiwan-sanctions.html
ABI Research: Network-as-a-Service market to be over $150 billion by 2030
Global technology market intelligence firm ABI Research expects the Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) [1.] market to expand significantly, reaching over $150 billion by 2030.
Note 1. NaaS is a secure, cost-effective subscription-based model that lets businesses of all sizes consume network infrastructure on-demand and as needed. It offers scale-up or scale-down flexibility that many businesses require to stay competitive in today’s unpredictable data traffic environment.
Networks have been commoditized over the last few years and the cost of connectivity has fallen. Value has shifted from network infrastructure to the services built on top of the network. Enterprises need scalable solutions that offer cloud-native agility, multi-cloud accessibility, and services that can dynamically fluctuate to support digital transformation. This has led to significant interest in the NaaS market, according to ABI Research.
Image Credit: Verizon
The firm’s blog promoting their NaaS report notes that telecom operators currently lack business models that allow them to build on their physical connectivity advantages to gain control of the NaaS market.
“Telcos must seize the opportunity to dominate the NaaS market, as revenue generated from connectivity provision will continue to decline. However, their investment strategy, business, operational, and ‘go-to-market’ models are not ready to deliver a competitive NaaS solution, explains Reece Hayden, Distributed & Edge Computing Analyst at ABI Research. “The market is immature and highly fragmented, but telco market revenue will exceed US$75 billion by 2030 if they act now and transform technology, culture, and structure to better align with the requirements of the NaaS market.”
Currently, telcos face NaaS competition from two key players. Interconnection providers (e.g., Megaport and Packet Fabric) have built their agile solutions from the ground up, focusing energy on virtualization and software specialization. At the same time, cloud infrastructure providers (e.g., Amazon AWS, Google GCP, and Microsoft Azure) continue to offer cloud-specific NaaS solutions.
“Telecom operators remain in the best position to lead the market as long as they recognize their service/innovation limitations, invest/restructure successfully, and focus their messaging appropriately,” according to Hayden.
Telcos must look to transform three areas. First, telcos must virtualize network infrastructure to deliver cloud-native services and continue to invest heavily to integrate automation (AIOps) throughout network services, including paying attention to 5G slice-as-a-service and other ‘value-add services’ which are critical to monetization.
Second, telecom operators must restructure business and operating models with a look toward openness and partnerships across the industry and reduce internal fragmentation to drive cross-business service continuity.
Third, telcos must look to develop a problem-solving culture and realign their ‘go-to-market’ strategy to better position themselves within the NaaS market. This involves developing vertical and enterprise size-specific sales strategies and establishing consultative processes that educate enterprises to bridge the ever-present gap between awareness and understanding. Telco executives should focus more on service provision and up/reskilling their workforce.
NaaS adoption will rapidly grow over the next eight years. ABI Research expects that by 2030, just under 90% of enterprises will have migrated at least 25% of their global network infrastructure to be consumed within a NaaS model. However, this process will not be organic, suppliers will have to drive education and consultative practices, as significant skepticism within SMEs and MNCs pervades the market. “To drive short-run sales, suppliers must educate and tailor their sales strategy to focus on first adopters (startups and SMEs) and specific verticals,” Hayden recommends.
The outlook in the NaaS market is hugely positive for telcos, especially given the rising demand from startups and SMEs. “But a lot still needs to be done to bridge technological, cultural, and structural gaps,” Hayden concludes. “Although it seems like an expensive and risky uphill battle, developing NaaS will be crucial to the long-term upside. But, if telcos miss this opportunity and drop the ball, interconnection providers and hyperscalers will be waiting and willing to catch it.”
These findings are from ABI Research’s Network-as-a Service: Business, Operational, and Technological Strategies for Telco Digital Service Transformation application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Distributed and Edge Computing research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Application Analysis reports present an in-depth analysis of key market trends and factors for a specific application, which could focus on an individual market or geography.
ABI’s NaaS report does not include IT equipment and software vendors like Cisco, Dell Technologies, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which have been bolstering their own NaaS hardware and software stacks while established sales channels into most enterprises.
About ABI Research:
ABI Research is a global technology intelligence firm delivering actionable research and strategic guidance to technology leaders, innovators, and decision makers around the world. Our research focuses on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces today.
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References:
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/network-service-explained
Russian government to allocate 24.25-27.5 GHz band for 5G services (Russian made base stations)
The Russian Ministry of Digitization has proposed the allocation of the 24.25-27.5 GHz band [1.] for 5G services. The band is currently used by radio-relay stations. The 4 GHz band is also planned to be used by public networks, for 5G services.
Note 1. While WRC19 allocated the frequency bands of 24.25-27.5 GHz, 37-43.5 GHz, 45.5-47 GHz, 47.2-48.2 and 66-71 GHz for the deployment of 5G networks, ITU-R WP5D has not yet agreed on the revision of M.1036 – the Frequency Arrangements for Terrestrial IMT (including 5G).
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The Russian Ministry also proposed the conversion of the 4 GHz band to “civilian,” which will help Russian network operators simplify the necessary expertise for 5G networks and obtain guarantees of the use of the band. Part of the initiative is expected to go into effect in 2023. It will help improve Internet speed and facilitate the introduction of 5G in Russia.
In late June 2022, the Ministry of Digital Science reported that the 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency range [2.] will not be used for 5G networks. Instead, a frequency band of 4.8-4.9 GHz was chosen for Russia’s 5G networks.
Note 2. The Ministry noted that the 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency range is a priority for 5G, but in Russia it is occupied by other services, including power services. After the end of the ten-year licensing period in 2021, operators asked the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (GKRCH) to extend the licenses for another year so as not to abruptly disconnect customers. The SCRF extended the operators’ permission to use the frequencies until July 1, 2022. Rostelecom, MegaFon and VimpelCom filed a petition to extend the permit for frequencies of 3.4-3.8 GHz, used to provide wireless Internet access services using WiMAX technology, but were refused.
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The ministry also expects that the implementation of 5G networks will be carried out with network equipment of local origin. That edict was promulgated BEFORE sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. In September 2021, the Ministry of Finance of Russia decided that by 2023 only Russian made base stations could be installed on the communication network. It is assumed that within 2-3 years mass production of such LTE standard stations will be organized, then it is planned to switch to 5G standard base stations.
References:
https://tadviser.com/index.php/Article:Frequencies_for_5G_in_Russia
WRC 19 Wrap-up: Additional spectrum allocations agreed for IMT-2020 (5G mobile)
China’s telecom sector had steady growth during January-May 2022 (Updated)
China’s telecommunication industry registered steady growth in the first five months of the year, with strong expansion in emerging businesses and 5G services, official data shows.
The telecom sector had 665 billion yuan (99.46 billion U.S. dollars) in total revenue during the period, up 8.5 percent year on year, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Emerging businesses, including those in the big data, cloud computing, internet data center and Internet of Things sectors, continued to expand notably in the period.
The combined revenue of the emerging businesses of China’s three telecom giants — China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom — surged 34.3 percent year on year to 128.3 billion yuan, accounting for 19.3 percent of the sector’s total revenue, the ministry said.
At the end of May, China had 1.7 million 5G base stations, accounting for 16.7 percent of the country’s mobile network base stations. Some 275,000 5G base stations were built in the first five months of the year.
The data also shows that 5G mobile phone users of the three telecom giants reached 428 million at the end of May, representing 25.8 percent of China’s total mobile phone users.
–>Much more telecom data in the Addendum below.
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Image by ADMC from Pixabay
At the end of May, China had a total of 1.7 million 5G base stations, accounting for 16.7% of the country’s mobile network base stations. According to the official data, a total of 275,000 5G base stations were built in the first five months of 2023.
China ended May 2022 with a total of 899.3 million subscribers classified as having 5G plans (even though many only had 4G endpoint devices), according to the carriers’ latest available figures. China network operators recorded a net gain of 30.18 million 5G subscribers in May.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18.21 million 5G subscribers during last month. The operator said it ended May with 495.13 million 5G subscribers, compared to 221.95 million 5G customers in May 2021.
China Mobile had added a total of 108.32 million subscribers in the 5G segment during the first five months of the year.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 4.93 million 5G subscribers during May. The carrier ended the month with 179.70 million 5G subscribers.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.04 million 5G subscribers last month to take its total 5G subscribers base to 224.47 million. During the first five months of the year, the telco had added a total of 36.67 million 5G subscribers.
China expects to end this year with nearly 2 million 5G base stations, according to previous reports. Chinese carriers reportedly deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide during last year.
The country’s 5G networks now covers all prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of county-level urban areas and 80% of township-level urban areas across the country..
Earlier this year, the Chinese government had unveiled plans to more than triple the number of 5G base stations over the next four years, targeting a total of 3.64 million by end-2025.
Under this plan, China aims to have 26 5G base stations for every 10,000 people by the end of 2025. In comparison, in 2020, there were five 5G base stations for every 10,000 people in China.
China is expected to reach 892 million connections in the 5G segment in 2025, according to a report recently published by the GSMA.
According to the ‘The Mobile Economy China” report, GSMA expects 5G connections in the country to represent 52% of total mobile lines in 2025, compared to 29% in 2021.
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| Indicator name | unit | end of the month
arrive |
than the end of last year
net increase (+), reduce(-) |
year-on-year
increase(%) |
| Total landline subscribers | million households | 18170 | 100 | 0.2 |
| Total mobile phone users | million households | 166249 | 1966 | 3.4 |
| Of which: 5G mobile phone users | million households | 42819 | 7334 | 109.2 |
| Of which: Mobile Internet users | million households | 143568 | 2003 | 4.3 |
| Internet broadband access users | million households | 55868 | 2289 | 10.6 |
| Of which: FTTH/O users | million households | 52976 | 2426 | 11.5 |
| Among them: users with a rate of 100M or more | million households | 52291 | 2443 | 13.4 |
| Among them: users with a rate above 1000M | million households | 5591 | 2135 | 358.6 |
| Of which: urban broadband access users | million households | 39415 | 1606 | 10.8 |
| rural broadband access users | million households | 16453 | 683 | 10.1 |
| Number of IPTV (Internet TV) users | million households | 36392 | 1540 | 10.2 |
| Number of Cellular IoT End Users | million households | 159 498 | 19 576 | 26.8 _ |
| Fixed telephone penetration | Department/100 people | 12.9 | 0.1 | – |
| Mobile phone penetration | Department/100 people | 117.9 | 1.5 | – |
http://english.news.cn/20220703/41a9776edd9d44c0ad055252c4e35818/c.html
https://www.miit.gov.cn/gxsj/tjfx/txy/art/2022/art_b8491abea6324484a19b5438b08761a4.html
China’s telecom sector revenues reach almost $100bn in Jan-May
FCC allows SpaceX to connect Starlink to boats, planes, moving vehicles
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday authorized Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet network with moving vehicles, green-lighting the company’s plan to expand broadband offerings to commercial airlines, shipping vessels and trucks.
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Starlink, a fast-growing constellation of internet-beaming satellites in orbit, has long sought to grow its customer base from individual broadband users in rural, internet-poor locations to enterprise customers in the potentially lucrative automotive, shipping and airline sectors.
“Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move,” the FCC said in its authorization published Thursday, echoing plans outlined in SpaceX’s request for the approval early last year.
SpaceX has steadily launched some 2,700 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2019 and has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers, including many who pay $110 a month for broadband internet using $599 self-install terminal kits.
The Hawthorne, California-based space company has focused heavily in recent years on courting airlines for in-flight WiFi via Starlink backhaul, having inked its first such deals in recent months with Hawaiian Airlines and semi-private jet service JSX. Delta Airlines has reportedly run some tests with SpaceX/Starlink.
“We’re obsessive about the passenger experience,” Jonathan Hofeller, Starlink’s commercial sales chief, said at an aviation conference earlier this month. “We’re going to be on planes here very shortly, so hopefully passengers are wowed by the experience.”
SpaceX’s proposal for ESIMs includes spectrum in the range of 12.2-12.7GHz – a slice of spectrum generally known as the 12GHz band. RS Access (a company funded by Michael Dell’s investment firm) and Dish Network opposed SpaceX’s proposed use of the 12GHz band based on interference concerns, but the FCC is still analyzing it and has yet to make a final ruling.
However, the FCC has concluded that authority of operations in the 12GHz band serves the public interest, as it will expand broadband into unserved and underserved areas. As a condition of the FCC’s approval, ESIM operations of SpaceX “must accept any interference received from both current and future services authorized” in the 12GHz band “and must not cause harmful interference to any authorized service, whether licensed or not,” the FCC’s Sullivan explained.
The FCC’s CONCLUSION (from the order):
We conclude that grant of SpaceX’s requests for ESIM authorizations and Kepler’s request for ESV authority, including for operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, as conditioned and set forth herein, will serve the public interest by enabling SpaceX and Kepler to offer expanded broadband capabilities and serve unserved and underserved areas.
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“Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move, whether driving an RV across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a US port, or while on a domestic or international flight,” the FCC’s international bureau chief, Tom Sullivan, wrote in the order (PDF).
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SpaceX, under an earlier experimental FCC license, has been testing aircraft-tailored Starlink terminals on Gulfstream jets and U.S. military aircraft.
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has previously said that the types of vehicles Starlink was expected to be used with pursuant to Thursday’s authorization were aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs. Musk, also the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc, had said he didn’t see “connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, as our terminal is much too big.”
Photo credit: Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
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FCC clearance will enable Starlink to pursue connectivity agreements more aggressively in markets such as aviation, which is already covered by competitors such as Viasat and Hughes Network Systems. Those companies rely on a much smaller number of geosynchronous (GEO) satellites sitting at higher orbits than Starlink’s LEO constellation. However, Hughes Network Systems is also in the LEO business through its partnership with and investment in OneWeb.
Competition in the low-Earth orbiting satellite internet sector is fierce between SpaceX, satellite operator OneWeb, and Jeff Bezos’s Kuiper project, a unit of e-commerce giant Amazon.com which is planning to launch the first prototype satellites of its own broadband network later this year.
References:
ITU-R Reports in Progress: International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) including IMT 2020
Working documents toward preliminary draft new ITU-R reports from WP5D:
M.[IMT.MULTIMEDIA] – Capabilities of the terrestrial component of IMT-2020 for multimedia communications
M.[IMT.INDUSTRY] – Addresses the usage, technical and operational aspects and capabilities of IMT for meeting specific needs of societal, industrial and enterprise usages.
M.[IMT.AAS] – Measurements and mathematical modelling of Advanced Antenna Systems (AAS) in IMT-2020 systems
M.[HIBS-CHARACTERISTICS] – Related to WRC-23 agenda item 1.4 – Spectrum needs, usage and deployment scenarios, and technical and operational characteristics for the use of high-altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS) in the mobile service in certain frequency bands below 2.7 GHz
New draft Recommendations:
M.[FSS_ES_IMT_26GHz] – Guidelines to assist administrations to mitigate interference from FSS earth stations into IMT stations operating in the frequency bands 24.65-25.25 GHz and 27-27.5 GHz
References:
https://www.itu.int/md/R19-WP5D-C-1361/en
ITU-R Future Report: high altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS)
ITU-R Future Report: high altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS)