T-Mobile US talks up its 5G SA network, 5G data usage, AR and robotics applications
T-Mobile US Vice President of Technology Neville Ray provided an overview of the carrier’s 5G network during his “Building 5G for All” keynote presentation at the Wireless Infrastructure Associations (WIA) Connect X event. The association represents the nation’s cell tower owners and others in the wireless industry.
Ray said T-Mobile’s 5G standalone (5G SA) network, deployed nationwide using its 600 MHz spectrum, is “the future of wireless.” He said applications like connected vehicles, industrial robotics, mixed reality, and “supercharged IoT…can all be built on this foundation. It gives us a massive opportunity to work with partners on developing advanced 5G services.”
“We are seeing incredible growth in 5G data usage,” Ray said, referring to the average data usage among customers on T-Mobile’s new Magenta Max unlimited data plan, the operator’s most expensive unlimited data plan. Ray also reiterated many of the data points on Magenta Max that T-Mobile published last month. He said that T-Mobile’s Magenta Max customers typically stream 39% more video, use 36% more data for social media and use twice as much mobile hotspot data than other T-Mobile customers. “Our customers love this plan,” Ray said.
T-Mobile’s five-year, $60 billion investment into its 5G network seems to be paying off for the telco. The effort involves building thousands of new cell towers around the country in part to allow T-Mobile to broadcast speedy 5G signals on the 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum it acquired from Sprint. T-Mobile says that over 50% of its Magenta Max customers use a 5G smartphone.
T-Mo is planning to use 5G to offer fixed wireless access (FWA) to homes and offices. T-Mobile this week said it would reduce the price of its fixed wireless service by $10 per month in a direct challenge to wired broadband ISPs.
Furthermore, Ray said T-Mobile is also working to develop new 5G businesses around augmented reality (AR) services and other advanced offerings directed at 5G-based enterprise applications and use cases. To progress that initiative, T-Mo has partnered with companies working on video-streaming drones, with Sarcos Robotics on industrial robots, and with Fisk University. The latter project involves pre-med and biology students using a 5G-enabled headset to study human cadavers.
T-Mo is also working with Taqtile and Timberline Communications Inc., giving Timberline’s field technician headsets that can support instructional AR-overlays and other relevant content, and remote support from experts. The techs, in turn, use the headsets, connected to T-Mobile’s 5G network, to perform maintenance and other work on T-Mobile’s 5G network.
“AR and VR applications are going to transform virtually every industry,” according to Senior Director of Network Technology Erin Raney. “We are so excited to see how T-Mobile’s 5G network with that low latency and high bandwidth is going to fuel these great innovations.”
In a March 2021 blog post, T-Mo’s John Saw, EVP of Advanced & Emerging Technologies wrote:
Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology is a key area of focus at T-Mobile for 5G use case development and it is applicable to so many industries from healthcare to manufacturing, agriculture and more. Enterprises today have complex machinery, a shortage of skilled workers, and customers with no patience for downtime, making sophisticated training and technical support capabilities more important than ever. With T-Mobile’s low-latency, Ultra Capacity 5G network, we are seeing businesses boost productivity and speed as technicians use augmented reality for immersive training, and then to collaborate and fix problems fast.
Taqtile, a recent graduate of the 5G Open Innovation Lab co-founded by T-Mobile, is a company doing fascinating work building AR solutions for frontline workers. Timberline Communications Inc. (TCI), a communications infrastructure company, is using Taqtile’s AR solution running on T-Mobile 5G to perform cell site upgrades and maintenance on our network. With Taqtile, TCI’s technicians use AR headsets to view virtual service checklists and troubleshoot using remote assistance. AR solutions such as this enable frontline workers to improve their skills and perform complex tasks from anywhere exploring objects such as machinery in 3D from all angles.
T-Mobile quarterly all-hands team meeting using holographic telepresence
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
WIA recently joined the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) to increase industry collaboration on the research and development of 5G and 5G-based technologies.
“In order to effectively address our country’s most pressing needs for wireless infrastructure, we must deliver unified solutions. WIA is looking forward to working with the Consortium to transform communications and bring next generation technology to our defense sector and communities across the U.S.,” said WIA CTO Dr. Rikin Thakker.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
References:
Frontier Communications and Ziply Fiber to raise funds for fiber optic network buildouts
Frontier Communications and Ziply Fiber have secured more funding for their respective fiber optic network building projects and network upgrades.
On October 4th, Frontier announced that it intends to offer, subject to market conditions and other factors, $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of second lien secured notes due 2030 (the “Notes”) in a private transaction. This offering comes approximately five months after Frontier emerged from bankruptcy armed with a multi-year plan to upgrade millions of residential and business locations in its footprint. Frontier plans to deploy FTTP to about 600,000 homes this year and, more broadly, to extend FTTP to about 10 million homes by 2025.
According to Jeff Baumgartner of Light Reading, Frontier will deploy XGS-PON and is debating what to do with a remainder of its fiber and copper network. Its footprint includes rural areas that aren’t as economically attractive as the original portions of its upgrade plan. The company has discussed multiple ideas for a so-called “Wave 3” buildout that might include exploring joint ventures, securing private equity or pursuing asset swaps.
About Frontier:
Frontier offers a variety of services to residential and business customers over its fiber-optic and copper networks in 25 states, including video, high-speed Internet, advanced voice, and Frontier Secure® digital protection solutions. Frontier Business™ offers communications solutions to small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Ziply Fiber, a company formed last year via the acquisition of Frontier’s operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, has raised $350 million in fresh funding from bond buyers.
In a prepared statement, Ziply says the new funding will support its ongoing fiber expansion. “It will ensure that we have the resources on hand to keep up the strong pace of construction we’ve set for ourselves as we head into the new year, and to continue to deliver on our goal to providing the best connected experience possible for people in the Northwest.”
At the time of its acquisition from Frontier, Ziply reported that 31% of its homes passed were fiber capable. Ziply fiber expansion goals targeted reaching 80% by 2024. The company reported passing 1.6 million locations when it was formed.
Washington state is the company’s largest market, and Montana is its smallest. Ziply employs more than 1,400 people, according to the statement about the additional funding.
The company says on its website that it is “investing $500 million to bring the best, fastest internet to our neighbors across the region.” And that was before the new $300 million funding offer.
Ziply Fiber currently serves about 500K customers across its four state footprint and has been pushing fiber deeper into its network. The company has been steadily announcing new fiber markets, adding 14 to its growing list in August 2021.
Earlier this year, Ziply Fiber announced it was moving ahead with an FTTP network upgrade that will deliver 1-Gig services to another 14 markets in Washington state and Oregon later this year. That ties into a broader commitment to deploy FTTP to 52 markets in its regions.
Like Frontier, Ziply Fiber is also starting to gear its efforts toward XGS-PON, a standard that paves the way for symmetrical 10Gbit/s services and beyond.
Ziply Fiber uses GPON today but is “fast approaching where everything will be XGS-PON,” Ziply Fiber CEO Harold Zeitz told Light Reading in a recent interview. “We are preparing all of our network for XGS. The only difference will be the ONT [optical network terminal] that goes on the home. Everything else will be XGS-ready.”
References:
VMware Cloud with Tanzu services delivers enterprise-grade kubernetes services
VMware has announced new advancements for VMware Cloud on AWS [1.], a multi-cloud computing infrastructure. The new innovations include a new portfolio of managed Kubernetes services to modernize apps on VMware Cloud. The new functions will make it simpler and safer to run enterprise apps in VMware Cloud. This new VMware initiative supports the need for customers to run their IT software in sovereign clouds, as well as technology previews that showcase the future of VMware Cloud.
Note 1. VMware Cloud on AWS is the preferred service for AWS for all vSphere-based workloads [2.]. VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware’s enterprise-class SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) [3.] software to the AWS Cloud with optimized access to native AWS services. Powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud on AWS integrates VMware’s compute, storage, and network virtualization products (VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, and VMware NSX [4.]) along with VMware vCenter Server management, optimized to run on dedicated, elastic, bare-metal AWS infrastructure.
VMware Cloud on AWS uses NSX-T to create and manage internal SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) networks and provide endpoints for VPN connections from the customer’s on-premises network infrastructure. This subnet is used by the vCenter, NSX, and HCX appliances in the SDDC.
Note 2. vSphere is a server virtualization software application from VMware. It debuted in 2009 as the successor to the company’s flagship VMware Infrastructure solution and serves as a complete platform for implementing and managing virtual machine (VM) infrastructure on a large scale.
Note 3. A SDDC network has two notional tiers:
- Tier 0 handles north-south traffic (traffic leaving or entering the SDDC, or between the
Management and Compute gateways). - Tier 1 handles east-west traffic (traffic between routed network segments within the SDDC).
Note 4. NSX is a network virtualization and security platform that enables the virtual cloud network, a software-defined approach to networking that extends across data centers, clouds and application frameworks.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The company said that together, the innovations will give VMware Cloud customers more tools to accelerate modernization of their enterprise apps, increase business agility and resiliency, and significantly reduce costs compared to existing approaches.
VMware Cloud on AWS is an integrated cloud offering jointly developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
VMware Cloud with Tanzu services (see illustration below) is a new portfolio of managed Kubernetes services that will be available at no additional charge as part of VMware Cloud on AWS (see illustration above), for enterprise-grade Kubernetes on a fully managed, hybrid-cloud ready Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for all enterprise applications.
IT admins will be able to use the VMware vCenter interface to unify VM and container management on a common platform and provision Kubernetes clusters within minutes. Platform operators or SREs will be able to manage Kubernetes clusters consistently across clouds using Tanzu services as a multi-cloud Kubernetes management plane.
VMware Cloud with Tanzu services
Tanzu services include the following capabilities:
- Managed Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service: ision Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within a few minutes using a simple, fast, and self-service experience in the VMware Cloud console. The underlying SDDC infrastructure and capacity required for Kubernetes workloads is fully managed by VMware. Use vCenter Server for managing Kubernetes workloads by deploying Kubernetes clusters, provisioning role-based access and allocating capacity for Developer teams. Manage multiple TKG clusters as namespaces with observability, troubleshooting and resiliency in vCenter Server.
- Built in support for Tanzu Mission Control Essentials: Attach upstream compliant Kubernetes clusters including Amazon EKS and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters. Manage lifecycle for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters and centralize platform operations for Kubernetes clusters using the Kubernetes management plane offered by Tanzu Mission Control. Tanzu Mission Control provides a global visibility across clusters and clouds and increases security and governance by automating operational tasks such as access and security management at scale.
Tanzu services on the VMware Cloud on AWS platform brings together the three personas working on modern applications. vSphere Administrators manage virtual machines on-premises and in the cloud and allocate resources for platform operators to deploy workloads. The operators use Tanzu Mission Control to manage and maintain clusters across environments. Developers can create code using a flexible platform for container and virtual machine-based workloads.
The managed Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service, which is one of the Tanzu services, will enable admins to provision Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within a few minutes using a simple, fast, and self-service experience in the VMware Cloud console.
- The underlying SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) infrastructure and capacity required for Kubernetes workloads is fully managed by VMware. Use vCenter Server for managing containerized workloads by deploying Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters, provisioning role-based access and allocating capacity for Developer teams.
- One can manage multiple TKG clusters as namespaces with observability, troubleshooting and resiliency in vCenter Server.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
References:
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud/2021/10/05/introducing-vmware-cloud-with-tanzu-services/
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud/2021/10/05/vmware-cloud-tanzu-services-a-technical-introduction/
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-on-aws-networking-security.pdf
The Sorry State of 5G SA Core Networks- Smart Communications in Phillipines
Very few 5G SA core networks of any size have been launched to date. According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), just 13 network operators had launched commercial public 5G SA networks as of the middle of August 2021. Some 45 other operators are planning on deploying 5G SA for public networks, and 23 operators are involved in tests or trials. That’s out of a total of 176 commercial 5G networks launched worldwide (163 of them are 5G NSA networks)!
Note that there is NO 5G core network in 5G NSA as per middle of this chart:
In the U.S., T-Mobile’s 5G SA has not provided the much touted benefits such as network slicing, automation, service chaining, network management, etc. “The light version of 5G standalone,” summed up analyst Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics.
For T-Mobile, the immediate incentive and upside to deploy SA 5G was making its midband 2.5GHz 5G more relevant, Entner said. As in, keeping its low band 600MHz 5G non-standalone as the pilot signal would lead to fewer phone screens lighting up with its mid band 5G, especially indoors.
“Now that 2.5GHz signal can piggyback on the 600 pilot,” he said. “With that, they get better penetration in the building with 2.5.”
Karri Kuoppamaki, SVP of radio network technology and strategy at T-Mobile, said that “the vast majority” of the carrier’s 5G customers had SA-ready SIMs, but he didn’t offer more specifics about the state of its standalone deployment. Those customers may not necessarily realize they’ve gotten anything special from SA 5G at T-Mobile, but that may not matter either, given the superiority of the carrier’s mid-band 5G.
“Standalone 5G is a means to an end,” said Craig Moffett, analyst with MoffettNathanson. “Ultimately, what matters is network capability. Being first gives T-Mobile just one more edge in network performance.” Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst at Techsponential, concurred.
“For now, smartphone buyers should focus on finding the best combination of speed and coverage that is available in their area,” he said in an email. “That is often T-Mobile’s 5G network, but the technical underpinnings are somewhat less important to average consumers than the amount and frequency of the spectrum that T-Mobile has to deploy thanks to its acquisition of Sprint.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Smart Communications is one of the few wireless network operators in the world to have launched a 5G standalone (SA) network. The Philippines-based telco is using a separate 5G core and operating a network that is no longer anchored to 4G LTE (5G NSA). The new infrastructure supports network slicing and opens up industrial and enterprise opportunities, for example.
Smart’s 5G SA network is not yet widely available. In fact, it has been launched only in Makati – a city in the Metro Manila region and the country’s financial hub. PLDT-owned Smart said its “first batch” of 5G SA sites is fully operational. Smart noted that it has now deployed more than 4,000 non-standalone 5G sites nationwide, supported by PLDT’s 524,000 kilometer fiber network. Smart first launched 5G services in 2020.
Smart has collaborated with Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia on 5G, although it only name-checked the Swedish vendor in today’s release. For example, Smart said it has teamed up with Ericsson to develop 5G use cases at the PLDT-Smart Technolab, which currently hosts one of the 5G SA sites.
“Through the years, PLDT and Smart have been at the forefront of breakthrough innovations in the telco industry, including 5G. With the first batch of our 5G SA sites now fully operational, we are starting to see the true capabilities of 5G which will play a critical role in the advancement of massive IoT, health care and smart cities, delivering customer experience that is truly world-class” said Alfredo Panlilio, PLDT and Smart Communications president and CEO.
“Technology plays an important role in today’s society as evidently seen during the pandemic. 5G SA, as an innovation platform, will create new opportunities for enterprises and consumers that will maximize its ultra-reliable and low latency capabilities. This enables industrial automation, autonomous mobile robotics deployment, safe remote crane operations, fast response in gaming and interactive video streaming, among others. We are creating opportunities for the Filipino Enterprises to compete in the global arena,” said Mario Tamayo, head of technology at PLDT and Smart.
With the activation of the first 5G SA sites at the PLDT and Smart headquarters in Makati, Smart has upgraded its 5G facilities, enabling them to connect with the 5G core network.
With 5G SA in place, Smart said it will be able to offer Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and network slicing capabilities in the short term, as well as support new industrial and enterprise opportunities. Smart made its first successful VoNR call in July this year at the Technolab in Smart Tower in Makati City.
Smart is certainly the first to launch 5G SA in the Philippines, while rival Globe Telecom is testing the technology. Globe had 81.7 million mobile subscribers and Smart 71.7 million at the end of the second quarter. Smart and Globe still dominate the Philippines mobile market, despite a challenge from China Telecom-backed newcomer Dito Telecom.
About Smart Communications:
More than 650 global brands—including those in the most highly regulated industries and all the G15 investment banks, rely on Smart Communications to deliver meaningful customer communications across the entire lifecycle—empowering them to succeed in today’s digital-focused, customer-driven world while also simplifying processes and operating more efficiently. This is what it means to scale the conversation.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/asia/smart-trumpets-standalone-milestone-with-5g/d/d-id/772511?
https://www.smartcommunications.com/resources/press-releases/
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211004/5g/smart-activates-5g-sa-network-headquarters-philippines
Telcos Loss: Private 5G & MEC/5G SA Core Network – Cloud Giants Take Market Share
IDC: European smart home device shipments up 23.8% in Q2-2021
“This was the second quarter in a row in which the smart home market in Europe grew more than 20%, which is a sign of the recovery from the worst performance in the first half of 2020,” said Antonio Arantes, senior research analyst for smart home devices in Western Europe. “Amazon and Google regained the top two places in the market due to the good performance of the smart speaker and digital media adapter products.”
“In the second quarter of 2021, the total smart home device market grew by 29.1% in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Jan Prenosil, senior research analyst for smart home devices in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). “The lighting product category recorded the largest growth in the quarter, and there were good results for the home monitoring and security category. But video entertainment is still in first place in terms of units in CEE.”
The smart home market is expected to reach more than 203 million units in 2025 in Europe — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% from 2021 to 2025.
Category Highlights:
Video entertainment devices shipped 11.9 million units to Europe in the second quarter of 2021, accounting for 49.2% market share. Smart TVs had another stellar quarter, growing 18.7% year over year and reaching 70.4% of the video entertainment category.
Smart speakers grew 22.8% year over year, reaching more than 5.6 million units. Smart displays continue to see stronger growth than standard smart speakers.
Home monitoring/security, lighting, and thermostats grew 39.5% year over year. The three categories combined are expected to account for 65 million shipments in 2025.
About IDC Trackers:
IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC’s Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly Excel deliverables and online query tools.
Canalys 2Q-2021 smartphone rankings show big gains for Xiaomi and OPPO
Telecom, IT and cloud market research firm Canalys, said that global smartphone shipments increased by 12% in the second quarter of 2021. Samsung still maintains its position as the world’s number one with a market share of 19%. Xiaomi’s mobile phone sales surpassed Apple’s and rose to the second place in the world for the first time, with a share of 17%. Apple ranked third with 14%. OPPO and Vivo ranked fourth and fifth in the world, with a market share of 10%.
Xiaomi’s growth rate is as high as 83%, making it the top five mobile phone brand with the fastest growth rate in market share. Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, sent three consecutive Weibo messages to express his congratulations to Xiaomi, and at the same time released the “Open Letter to Xiaomi Students.” Lei Jun said that Xiaomi’s becoming the second ranked global smartphone vendor is a major milestone in the history of Xiaomi’s development.
In the third quarter of 2014, Xiaomi entered the top three in the world for the first time, and then encountered huge difficulties, and soon fell out of the top five in the world. In 2020, the launch of Xiaomi Mi 10 series will fully launch the development of Xiaomi mobile phones. In the high-end journey, in the third quarter of the same year, Xiaomi returned to the third place in the world. Only two quarters later, Xiaomi was promoted to the second place in the world.
Lei Jun also said that “the second in the world” is a major victory for Xiaomi’s strategy. In August last year, Xiaomi established its core strategy for the next ten years-mobile phone X AIoT, once again clarifying the core position of the smartphone business, progressing to promote intelligent interconnection, and the AIoT business will build a smart life around the core business of mobile phones. At the same time, it has established the “three iron laws” that will never change: technology-oriented, cost-effectiveness-oriented, and making the coolest products.
About Xiaomi:
Xiaomi is an electronics company based in Beijing, China. It was founded by Lei Jun in April 2010, and in 2014, Xiaomi was the largest smartphone company in China. Today, Xiaomi is one of the top five smartphone vendors in the world.
The “MI” in their logo stands for “Mobile Internet.” It also has other meanings, including “Mission Impossible”, because Xiaomi faced many challenges that had seemed impossible to defy in our early days.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Meanwhile, Canalys said that OPPO ranked first among Android smartphone manufacturers. In addition to launching 5G phones in the full price range to meet the different needs of consumers, OPPO has been actively taking the lead in applying new technologies to its latest models.
Canalys wrote that in Middle East and Africa, OPPO has climbed to fourth place in market share with a 106% year-on-year growth. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been at the forefront of this rise, witnessing a 196% and a 218% year-on-year growth respectively which was attributed to OPPO’s innovative product offering and strong customer service. In addition, OPPO saw a year-on-year growth of 79% in Egypt.
Ethan Xue, President of OPPO MEA said, “We are proud to see our innovative products and customer-centric approach being well received and reflected in these promising figures. Our growth in the MENA region is phenomenal and illustrates the strong customer base we have that support us and understand our brand mission, technology for mankind, kindness for the world. At OPPO, we continue to push the boundaries and our growth only serves to motivate us even more to offer our customers the best possible products at competitive prices.”
The main proponent of the brands growth is strong product launches that closely align with the evolving demands of smartphone users. Earlier this month, OPPO launched the anticipated Reno6 series, comprising of three variations, the Reno6 Pro 5G, Reno6 5G, and the Reno6 Z 5G that have all been masterfully designed for trendsetting individuals, game enthusiasts and the young at heart. From stunning design details to powerful features, the Reno6 series is already proving to be popular in the region, with a 300% pre-order increase compared to its predecessor, solidifying the demand for the technology brand in MENA.
About OPPO:
OPPO is headquartered in Dongguan, China an has been a leading global technology brand since 2004, dedicated to providing products that seamlessly combines art and innovative technology.
OPPO says they’re on a mission to building a multiple-access smart device ecosystem for the era of intelligent connectivity. The smartphone devices have simply been a gateway for OPPO to deliver a diverse portfolio of smart and frontier technologies in hardware, software and system. In 2019, OPPO launched a $7 Billion US Dollar three-year investment plan in R&D to develop core technologies furthering design through technology.
For the last 10 years, OPPO has focused on manufacturing smartphones with camera capabilities that are second to none. OPPO launched the first mobile phone, the Smile Phone, in 2008, which marked the launch of the brand’s epic journey in exploring and pioneering extraordinary technology. Over the years, OPPO has built a tradition of being number one, which became a reality through inventing the world’s first rotating camera smartphone way back in 2013, launching the world’s then thinnest smartphone in 2014, being the first to introduce 5X Zoom ‘Periscope’ camera technology and developing the first 5G commercial smartphone in Europe.
OPPO is currently ranked as the number four smartphone brand globally. OPPO brings the aesthetics of technology of global consumers through the ColorOS system Experience, and Internet service like OPPO Cloud and OPPO+.
OPPO’s business covers 40 countries with over six research institutes and five R&D centers across the world, from San Francisco to Shenzhen. OPPO also opened an International Design Centre headquartered in London, driving cutting edge technology that will shape the future not only for smartphones but for intelligent connectivity.
References:
https://min.news/en/tech/5f2410bda155bbec25c819b98c454623.html
NEW for 3Q2021 Rankings:
Rakuten Symphony Inc. to provide 4G and 5G infrastructure and platform solutions to the global market
Japan’s Rakuten Group today announced that they have resolved to incorporate Rakuten Symphony, a business organization of the Company, and start considering a capital and business alliance (in other words, investments).
As announced on August 4, 2021 in “Rakuten launches Rakuten Symphony to accelerate adoption of cloud-native, open RAN-based mobile networks worldwide,” alongside Rakuten Communications Platform (hereafter “RCP“), Rakuten Symphony, a new business organization, was newly launched by consolidating the products and services to be implemented.
Rakuten Symphony aims to provide a future-proof, cost-effective, communication cloud platform for carriers, businesses and government agencies around the world.
Rakuten Symphony is a global business organization that develops solution businesses in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, Europe, and the Middle East / Africa. Through this incorporation, accountability (duties) will be clarified, flexible decision-making and business execution will be possible, and products, services, and solutions for telecommunications carriers will be consolidated across the board.
“We will be ready to provide 4G and 5G infrastructure and platform solutions to the global market.”
In addition, as announced in “1&1 and Rakuten agree far-reaching partnership to build Europe’s first fully virtualized mobile network based on new Open RAN technology” also on August 4, 1&1 has agreed to comprehensively adopt RCP. This business has been steadily accumulating its achievements. In order to further accelerate the global expansion of innovative mobile network solutions, Rakuten Symphony, Inc., a newly established corporation, will consider accepting capital, etc. in addition to business partnerships with strategic partners.
The Company will establish its position as a global leader in cloud-centric and virtualized Open RAN-based mobile networks, by expanding its communication platform business overseas, as well as its track record of expanding its mobile carrier business in Japan.
Mike Dano of Light Reading wrote:
It’s no surprise that Rakuten is pulling out all the stops to make Symphony a success. The operation’s Symphony contract with flagship customer 1&1 in Germany is worth between $2.3 billion and $2.7 billion over a ten-year period, reports Nikkei Asia. By contrast, Rakuten made about $1.8 billion in revenues at its Japanese mobile business in the last year.
“This business has been steadily accumulating its achievements,” Rakuten wrote this week, pointing specifically to its 1&1 deal.
Light Reading reported in March 2020 of Rakuten’s plans to sell a networking platform internationally. The offering was initially dubbed Rakuten Mobile Platform (RMP), and then Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), but the company in August named it Symphony and said the operation targeted an addressable market of up to $100 billion.
Symphony is essentially the portfolio of technologies Rakuten uses in its Japanese mobile network – alongside other offerings from its partners – that it is now pitching to other service providers and networking hopefuls worldwide. According to Rakuten, companies can purchase all or parts of Symphony in order to quickly and easily roll out their own open RAN 5G networks.
Thus, Symphony is now on a collision course with a wide range of other players selling similar offerings. Ericsson, Amazon, Google and Mavenir are among the many providers hoping to assemble a product portfolio stretching across core networking, radio hardware and associated software and services, and then to rope in deals with customers ranging from enterprises to government agencies.
References:
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2021/0930_03.html
https://www.lightreading.com/the-core/rakuten-rearranges-symphony-for-investments/d/d-id/772501?
Phantom Space to build/launch 72 LEO satellites to deliver Ingenu’s RPMA IIoT payloads anywhere on earth
Earlier this week, IoT LP-WAN vendor Ingenu [1.] announced that it had signed an agreement with space transportation development and manufacturing company Phantom Space Corporation to build and launch 72 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites). This new satellite constellation, named AFNIO, will allow Ingenu to offer satellite Internet connectivity anywhere on earth, focusing primarily on low power wide area network (LP-WAN) applications using Ingenu’s random phase multiple access (RPMA) [2.] technology. This LP-WAN uses the 2.4 GHz band, universally available as a continuous frequency around the world, and is already active in 50 terrestrial networks around the world.
Ingenu explained that the constellation’s initial focus will be on delivering connectivity for various large-scale public and enterprise customers, including smart grids; factories; agriculture; oil, gas, and mining; and asset tracking and logistics. “We’ll be able to build and operate a system of satellites that makes it possible for us to offer people full end-to-end solutions anywhere on earth and complement existing customers’ terrestrial networks. Nothing of the sort has ever been done up until now,” explained Ingenu CEO Alvaro Gazzolo.
Note 1. Ingenu was founded in 2008 to sell its inexpensive RPMA IoT network equipment running in the unlicensed 2.4GHz band. The company has suffered several setbacks over the years. In 2020 it installed a new CEO who declared the era of “Ingenu 2.0.” At the time, he touted new business opportunities all over the world, plans to launch RPMA-capable low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and a “pipeline of contract value” worth $2 billion.
Note 2. RPMA has been deployed in more than 50 terrestrial networks over the past ten years, on 5 continents. Ingenu will bring its technology and expertise to develop the world’s largest space IIoT network dedicated to connectivity for machines. However, Mike Dano of Light Reading states, ” the scale and scope of Ingenu’s operations are difficult to determine. The RPMA coverage map on the company’s website shows services in just a few dozen US cities and no international coverage locations, though Ingenu has touted operations using its technology in cities ranging from Santiago, Chile to Irene, South Africa. Further, several attempts to download white papers from the company’s website were unsuccessful.” (This author had the same experience).
“Nonetheless, Ingenu CEO Alvaro Gazzolo said the company’s new LEO effort would allow it to provide services “anywhere on earth and complement existing customers’ terrestrial networks.” He said Ingenue counts 50 RPMA terrestrial networks across five continents.”
“Over the past couple of years we have been very busy developing our market strategy, that being a cloud-based platform which supports full end to end solutions in a wide variety of business verticals versus a connectivity model whereby the end users are required to take the responsibility of the end point devices and enabling them with our RPMA technology,” Ingenu’s William Schmidt wrote this week in response to questions from Light Reading. “Today Ingenu has a clean balance sheet and owns the most robust IoT technology currently deployed in the market, the RPMA technology. The AFNIO satellite system will dramatically add to the RPMA equation.” Schmidt boasted that Ingenu now counts over 2.5 million RPMA-enabled devices around the world, and that the company has $5.5 billion of “pipeline revenues” over the next ten years.
Phantom will be responsible for developing the spacecraft buses, system integration and launch of all 72 spacecraft. The majority of the satellites are expected to launch on Phantom’s Daytona launch vehicle set to first launch in 2023.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Comment and Analysis:
LEO satellite constellations are becoming an increasingly prominent part of the telecoms ecosystem. But while a large part of this is due to the high-profile nature of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, which is by far the largest project of this type, numerous other players have also been growing.
Ingenu’s journey somewhat mirrors that of UK-based LEO player OneWeb, which is currently in the process of expanding its own constellation to provide global coverage. OneWeb filed for bankruptcy in March 2020, but since then has recovered through a slew of rapid investment, initially from the UK government and Bharti Airtel, before adding additional funds from SoftBank and Hughes Network System among others. OneWeb’s total investment now stands at over $2.4 billion, with the company expecting to have launched 648 satellites by the end of 2022.
Ingenu, while decidedly a terrestrial IoT player, was facing similar financial troubles back in 2017 as it struggled to expand its network in the US. By the summer of 2019, however, things were looking up, with Ingenu relaunching with a ‘2.0’ message about the suitability of its LPWAN tech for the industrial sector. At the time, the company said it had a $2 billion pipeline of contract value, with Gazzolo claiming they offered “the best IoT technology in the market today for the non-licensed spectrum”.
Now, with this satellite deal, Ingenu’s scope will be larger than ever. A recent study released by Research and Markets found that the global LP-WAN market is expected to grow by 84.3% between 2021 and 2029, owing largely to the increasing adoption of IoT and M2M applications. Smart buildings currently account for around 28% of this market, but it is actually the utility sector that is likely to see the most rapid growth, expected to account for 23.3% of all LP-WAN applications by 2029.
References:
https://www.totaltele.com/511178/IoT-player-Ingenu-launching-72-LEO-satellites-for-global-coverage
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Phantom_Space_announces_agreement_to_build_and_launch_72_satellite_constellation_for_Ingenu_999.html
https://www.lightreading.com/iot/ingenu-kore-tout-movement-in-iot-industry/d/d-id/772497
MediaTek Announces Filogic Connectivity Family for WiFi 6/6E
Taiwan based MediaTek (one of only two 5G merchant silicon vendors) unveiled its new Filogic connectivity chip sets with the introduction of the Filogic 830 Wi-Fi 6/6E system-on-chip (SoC) and Filogic 630 Wi-Fi 6E network interface card (NIC) products. MediaTek said its new Filogic series of Wi-Fi 6/6E chipsets provide reliable connectivity, high computation functionalities and a rich set of features in highly integrated, power-efficient designs.
MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi 6/6E products are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance and deliver unbeatable performance in a wide range of applications.
- Home, business or enterprise router and repeater devices
- Service provider broadband equipment or retail devices
- Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMeshTM certified
- Home automation bridges and IoT
- Consumer devices and applications such as laptops, TVs, IP cameras, wireless storage, audio and more
MediaTek Filogic 830
Filogic 830 packs a wide variety of features into a compact, ultra-low power 12nm SoC, allowing customers to design differentiated solutions for routers, access points and mesh systems. The SoC integrates four Arm Cortex-A53 processors operating at up to 2GHz per core for up to +18,000 DMIPs processing power, dual 4×4 Wi-Fi 6/6E for up to 6Gbps connectivity, two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and a host of peripheral interfaces. Filogic 830’s built-in hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking enable faster and more reliable connectivity. In addition, the chipset also supports MediaTek FastPath™ technology for low latency applications such as gaming and AR/VR.
MediaTek Filogic 630
Filogic 630 is a Wi-Fi 6/6E NIC solution that supports dual-band, dual-concurrent 2×2 2.4GHz and 3×3 5GHz or 6GHz for up to 3Gbps. The chipset supports a unique 3T3R 5/6GHz system with internal front-end modules (FEMs) which provide equivalent or better range than competing 2T2R solutions with external FEMs. This highly integrated design helps lower bill of materials (BOM) cost, while allowing for sleeker designs with its small RF frontend area. Filogic’s 630’s third antenna enables superior transmit beamforming capability as well as diversity gains. Filogic 630 supports interfaces such as PCIe, which allows it to be combined with Filogic 830 for tri-band connectivity solutions for broadband gateways, enterprise access points and retail routers with even higher speeds and bandwidth capacity.
“The MediaTek Filogic series ushers in a new era of smart Wi-Fi solutions with extreme speeds, low latency and superb power efficiency for seamless, always connected experiences,” said Alan Hsu, Corporate Vice President & General Manager, Intelligent Connectivity at MediaTek. “These new chipsets provide best-in-class features with highly integrated designs for the next generation of premium broadband, enterprise and retail Wi-Fi solutions.”
MediaTek has the broadest Wi-Fi portfolio and is the No. 1 Wi-Fi supplier across broadband, retail routers, consumer electronics devices and gaming. MediaTek’s Wi-Fi portfolio powers hundreds of millions of devices every year. Over the years, MediaTek has worked closely with the Wi-Fi Alliance to ensure MediaTek’s connectivity portfolio supports the latest Wi-Fi features. In January 2021, MediaTek was selected to be on the test bed for Wi-Fi 6E, the latest certification from Wi-Fi Alliance® for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ devices with 6GHz support.
Wi-Fi 6E offers a number of advantages over previous Wi-Fi generations, including lower latency and additional capacity and speed. Devices using Wi-Fi 6 connections in 6GHz are designed to make use of wide 160 MHz channels and uncongested bandwidth in 6GHz to deliver multi-gigabit, low latency Wi-
About MediaTek Inc.
MediaTek Incorporated (TWSE: 2454) is a global fabless semiconductor company that enables nearly 2 billion connected devices a year. We are a market leader in developing innovative systems-on-chip (SoC) for mobile device, home entertainment, connectivity and IoT products. Our dedication to innovation has positioned us as a driving market force in several key technology areas, including highly power-efficient mobile technologies, automotive solutions and a broad range of advanced multimedia products such as smartphones, tablets, digital televisions, 5G, Voice Assistant Devices (VAD) and wearables. MediaTek empowers and inspires people to expand their horizons and achieve their goals through smart technology, more easily and efficiently than ever before. We work with the brands you love to make great technology accessible to everyone, and it drives everything we do. Visit www.mediatek.com for more information.
References:
https://www.mediatek.com/products/connectivity-and-networking/mediatek-filogic-wifi-6
FT: Huawei tries to re-invent Itself: Pivot from smart phones/telecom gear to cloud services, 6G, EV’s and HiSilicon
Condensed and edited Financial Times article by Kathrin Hille in Taipei, Eleanor Olcott in London and James Kynge in Hong Kong
In the first half of this year, revenues at Huawei fell by almost 30 per cent compared with the same period last year, the largest ever drop. As U.S. restrictions have begun to derail Huawei’s traditional business, the group is now in a scramble to try to reinvent itself. The company is turning away from the development and sale of telecommunications network gear and smartphones into areas less dependent on foreign chip supplies — such as cloud services and software for smart cars. Huawei is also doubling down on its own research and development in an effort to escape the stranglehold of American sanctions. It is investing heavily to be a leader in the emerging 6G technology so that other companies are dependent on its patents — rather than Huawei relying on technology imports from the US. “In the current climate, the best way to describe the atmosphere within Huawei and the way we go about things, is like a huge collection of start-ups,” says Henk Koopmans, the company’s head of research and development in the UK.
At stake is not just the fate of one of China’s most prominent and successful companies, but the broader technological competition between Beijing and Washington. Chinese officials are clear that Huawei has been a vital part of the country’s network of innovation.
“Many have viewed Huawei as the only possibility for China to make a breakthrough in semiconductors and telecoms,” says a local government official in Shenzhen, the technology industry hub in southern China that is Huawei’s home. “So Huawei must survive. It is a national mission.”
The company’s smartphone sales dropped by more than 47 per cent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. Last week, rotating chairman Eric Xu predicted that in the full year, the company will lose up to $40bn of its $50bn smartphone business, a slide that analysts estimate will drive the share of the consumer business in Huawei’s total revenues from 42 per cent earlier this year to just over 30 per cent. “Huawei’s component bottlenecks are now starting to bite,” says Ben Stanton, a smartphone analyst at market research group Canalys. “Stockpiles are running low, and its volume will almost certainly continue to fall each quarter.” Noting that Huawei’s smartphone arm has retreated to its Chinese home market, he adds that its strength in previous overseas strongholds such as Europe “has completely evaporated.”
In the network equipment business, the decline is happening more slowly, partly because product cycles are longer. Although Huawei can no longer procure custom application-specific chips for its telecom products, it was assuring analysts that it had enough inventory to keep the infrastructure business running in the near term. In response to these losses, the first big push has been to strengthen Huawei’s software capabilities so that it is less dependent on producing hardware that it will struggle more and more to deliver without access to chip supplies.
The main software-driven business Huawei is rushing to build is cloud services. Some of the functions in a telecoms network traditionally performed by base stations can be transferred to software processes in the cloud with newer technology. Moreover, Huawei is rapidly developing new cloud services, which it offers to companies and government departments. Last week, the company announced plans to invest $100m in the next three years for small and medium-sized businesses to develop on Huawei Cloud. The company’s cloud business grew by 116% in the first quarter of this year to take a 20% share of the Chinese market (second only to Alibaba Cloud).
According to Canalys, Huawei’s cloud business grew by 116 per cent in the first quarter of this year to take a 20 per cent share of a $6bn market in China, behind Alibaba Cloud but ahead of Tencent. “Huawei Cloud’s results have been boosted by internet customers and government projects, as well as key wins in the automotive sector. It is a growing part of Huawei’s overall business,” says Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys. He says that while about 90 per cent of this business is in China, Huawei Cloud has a stronger presence in Latin America and Europe, Middle East and Africa compared with Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud. There are limits on Huawei’s cloud business, however.
In July, Chinese media reported that the company was considering selling a part of its server business that runs on x86 central processing units after Intel’s export license for providing Huawei with that component expired. Servers are indispensable for cloud companies because they are where the hardware data is stored and much of the computing needed for cloud services is performed. Huawei and Intel both declined to comment, but industry experts say processor supplies are a headache for Huawei.
“Selling the server business is highly likely,” says Ben Sheen, semiconductor research director for network and communication infrastructure at research firm IDC. “The CPU is a central component, and if Intel cannot ship, Huawei is in big trouble.” As in the network gear business, providers of cloud services such as Amazon Web Services or Google try to boost performance by improving their software. If Huawei can achieve the same, it will be in less urgent need to get new processor supplies. “In smartphones, your revenue share goes down very quickly if you don’t have the latest chips. In cloud, you can keep running a decent business for much longer, and maybe even expand your revenue if you invest in software differentiation,” says Jue Wang, an associate partner in the technology practice of Bain, a consulting company.
Although companies such as Intel and AMD release new CPUs every year, the majority of cloud service providers’ servers run on processors two to five years old. The cloud companies increasingly generate new revenues by investing in new AI services and tools — even if their servers run on older chips. “But eventually you will need new ones — you cannot offer cloud services without CPUs,” Wang says.
One of the fields where Huawei finds it relatively easy to pick up new business is helping to digitize industries that have been laggards in the adoption of information technology. It is offering telecom, IT and software tools to Chinese companies in sectors such as coal mining and port operations, enabling them to lower costs and enhance security. Driven by these operations, Huawei’s enterprise business revenues grew by 23 per cent last year and 18 per cent in the first half of this year.
“The enterprise business will likely continue to be a growth point for Huawei,” says Ethan Qi, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, who forecasts revenues in that segment to increase by up to 15 per cent a year in the next few years. Still, Huawei frets that this is not enough to offset the death blow the US sanctions are dealing to the smartphone business. The new industry verticals “may not even be able to compensate for those lost revenues in 10 years,” Huawei rotating Chairman Xu told reporters last week.
Huawei is making some striking bets on new areas. One of the biggest is in electric and autonomous vehicles (EV’s). Huawei made its first R&D foray into vehicles in 2014, but now the company is drastically cranking up commitment, with plans to form a 5,000-strong R&D team and investment of $1bn in the segment this year. The company says it will not build cars itself, but its engineers are clearly looking into everything short of that. “Initially, we just thought we would help the car connect, but after a while we realized that we can also help make it more intelligent,” says a Huawei official.
A vehicle released by Chinese automaker Beiqi at the Shanghai Auto Show this year featured an entire in-car electronics solution developed by Huawei. For this shift, the company is harnessing strengths built over years in its telecoms hardware business — executives say experience in designing base stations that can withstand extreme weather conditions comes in handy because temperature controls are a key requirement in electric vehicles. “They have refocused their teams in the research centers they run in Europe: In the past, those were 3G and 4G-facing, and now they are focused on [advanced driver-assistance systems],” says Jean-Christophe Eloy, chief executive and president of Yole, a French technology research and consultancy firm.
A large portion of the chips required in automotive electronics are manufactured with more mature processing technology, which does not need to be imported. “Much of that technology is available in China,” Eloy says. “Focusing on automotive therefore can also help them get away from their chip supply problem.”
But Huawei has its sights set far beyond keeping the business running in the near term: If anything, its ambition to be a tech pioneer has grown even stronger. Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive and Meng’s father, is letting some of Huawei’s researchers off the leash to focus on basic science and explore technology breakthroughs even without a clear understanding of its potential business applications.
“We will not demand you to put down your quill and join the troops,” Ren told R&D staff at a meeting in August. He added that the research team at HiSilicon, Huawei’s chip design unit, would be kept even though the US sanctions have robbed the Shenzhen-based operation of the chance to manufacture its advanced chips. “We allow HiSilicon to continue to scale the Himalayas,” Ren said. “The majority of us others will stay down here to grow potatoes, herd livestock and keep sending provisions to the climbers, because you can’t grow rice on Mount Everest,” Ren added.
Last year, Huawei invested Rmb141.9bn ($22bn) in R&D, almost 16 per cent of its revenue. The driver behind this focus on high-end research is the urge to become less dependent on foreign technology — while also laying the groundwork for growing intellectual property royalties.
In 5G, Huawei is one of the most significant owners of patents, forcing rival network gear makers such as Ericsson or Nokia to make certain payments to Huawei even if the Chinese company is excluded from 5G contracts in many western countries. Exhorting research staff to seek global technology leadership at the August meeting, Ren said: “We research 6G as a precaution, to seize the patent front, to make sure that when 6G one day really comes into use, we will not depend on others.” Elaborating on the potential uses of 6G for the first time, Ren said the technology might, beyond telecom’s traditional realm of connectivity, be used for sensing and detection — functions with potential for use from healthcare to surveillance. That expectation has grown out of the results of the “collection of start-ups” approach touted by Huawei’s UK research director Henk Koopmans. Ren’s encouragement for Huawei to pursue basic science is instilling what he hopes will be a start-up mentality in many of the company’s own R&D staff.
In addition, it is also tapping into a growing number of start-ups in which it invested in recent years. Engineers at the Centre for Integrated Photonics, a start-up based in Ipswich, eastern England, which Huawei acquired in 2012, recently developed a laser on a chip that can direct light into a fiber-optic cable — an alternative to established telecoms technology that sends pulses of infrared light through the cable. The researchers built the chip themselves, using Indium Phosphide technology instead of mainstream silicon-based semiconductors where US-owned tool technology gives Washington a stranglehold and which Huawei is struggling to obtain.
A circuit board on display at Huawei’s HQ. Image Credit: Bloomberg
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Koopmans says one future use of the technology could be transferring data from sensors on the skin measuring blood oxygen content in remote healthcare services. “And all this photonics activity came from a really research background where we never knew if a product would ever see the light of day. But this is how we are doing things now — reutilize our R&D capabilities in a non-monolithic way.” Ren is not short on ambition for the group’s R&D operations, but acknowledges that they might not provide short-term results.
“Some theories and papers may not be put to use until one or two hundred years after they were first published,” he told R&D staff, reminding them that the significance of Gregor Mendel’s genetics discoveries was not understood until decades later. “Your paper may even have a fate like van Gogh’s paintings — nobody showed interest in them for more than 100 years, but now they are priceless. Van Gogh starved.”
Additional reporting by Nian Liu in Beijing and Qianer Liu in Shenzhen
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
References:
https://www.ft.com/content/9e98a0db-8d0a-4f78-90d3-25bfebcf3ac9
Huawei announces seven innovations in digital infrastructure for next decade