Huawei launches “5G Power Solution” for global wireless telcos
Huawei has launched what it says is the industry’s first full-range 5G power solutions for wireless network operators which will address an expected 100% increase in 5G energy consumption when compared to 4G power dissipation.
The 5G Power series of products are designed to deliver an end-to-end, scalable energy solution for both newly built and upgradeable cell sites.
It has been designed utilizing technology including peak shaving, linked voltage boosting and energy slicing to provide a ‘one site one cabinet’ design.
Huawei said its research suggests that more than 70% of cell sites will face challenges such as insufficient power, battery and distribution capacity, and more than 30% of sites need grid modernization to match the power demands of 5G. Its solution has been designed to help network operators reduce capex and opex while improving energy reliability to meet the high reliability and low latency requirements of future mobile applications.
Huawei launched 5G Power series solutions to ensure that energy evolution is simpler, more reliable and more efficient in the 5G network process. Huawei believes that site synergy, network synergy, business synergy will be the direction for telecom energy in the future.
From its press release (reference below):
With the design concept of ‘one site, one cabinet’ and ‘one band, one blade power,’ Huawei’s new Power Solution adopts innovative technology of peak shaving, linked voltage boosting and energy slicing, and fully considers the capacity expansion of cooling and battery backup. Facing the capacity expansion requirement in the future, Huawei Power Solution enables carriers to avoid energy modernization and get 5G network overlaid quickly.
“Based on our deep understanding of pain points carriers are facing in the progress of network evolving, Huawei 5G Power Solution achieve end-to-end synergy from wireless network to telecom energy, which will further enable carriers to build networks quickly, reduce site energy consumption, and maximize their investment value,” Huawei president of telecom energy Tao Hongming said.
“As a telecom energy supplier who is able to provide end-to-end ICT solutions, Huawei is willing to work with carriers and industry partners on continuous innovation and exploration, and jointly solve the energy challenges in 5G era,” Tao added.
https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2018/10/huawei-first-5g-power-solution
WSJ: 5G Race, Airwave Auctions Are the Next Rivalry for Global Telcos
— by Stu Woo and Daphne Zhang with Eric Sylvers contributing to this article.
Governments start selling access to spectrum for new mobile networks that would be much faster than those of today.
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A new battle for cellular airwaves (frequency spectrum) is under way as governments around the world start to auction off spectrum for mobile coverage that could power near-instant video downloads and help run factories, control gadgets and navigate driver-less cars.
Countries have long sold airwave rights for cellular service within their borders but places like Britain and Spain this year held their first major auctions for radio frequencies needed to make so-called 5G cellular networks, which could be much faster than today’s mobile networks, a reality. Italy made a splash earlier this month with a blockbuster sale—spinning off $7.6 billion of frequencies to several big European carriers, including Telecom Italia SpA and Vodafone Group PLC.
In June, South Korean mobile operators snapped up $3.3 billion of spectrum there. Next month, the Federal Communications Commission plans to hold the first major U.S. auction for 5G-friendly airwaves.
Editor’s Note:
Other countries 5G auctions and amount received for same:
UK $1.8B, Spain 0.51B, Ireland 0.09B, and Finland 0.09B. Note that some governments sell spectrum in phases, rather than all at once.
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The frequencies sold at these auctions are the ones that governments and carriers think will be crucial for a broad rollout of 5G, which promises to eventually replace today’s fastest 4G networks.
The broad contours of how 5G will work, once it is fully operational, is only now starting to emerge, and some industry executives and analyst are skeptical of its potential, saying the technology might not be much different than today’s 4G. U.S. carriers plan to roll out their first iterations of 5G networks in a few cities in the next three months.
Cellular airwaves are a public resource akin to a lake that provides water to businesses and homes. Governments reserve chunks of spectrum for everything that requires wireless connectivity: radio and TV broadcasts, satellites, military communications, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even remote controls and garage-door openers.
Only a limited amount of airwaves are suitable for cellular service, so wireless providers such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. compete fiercely for them. In general, a wireless carrier with more spectrum can provide faster service and serve more people compared with a competitor with less spectrum. It also can base advertising campaigns around that fact.
Demand for 5G airwaves, or spectrum, even in this early stage, is heating up. Auctions—including for 3G and 4G and potentially in a decade for 6G—typically sell 10- or 20-year leases to airwaves, so if a carrier misses out now, it may have to wait a decade or two for its next chance.
“If you don’t have spectrum, you can’t provide wireless service,” said Steve Blythe, who heads spectrum strategy for Orange, a French carrier that operates throughout Europe and Africa.
Carriers say 5G networks will be made up of loads of small antennas much more densely packed into populated areas. Those antennas will need to operate over different frequencies than those used in today’s networks. Generally, sought-after bandwidth will be capable of transmitting more data, but over shorter distances.
Governments in each country typically hold auctions to lease channels of airwaves to wireless carriers, and proceeds go into government coffers.
Cellular providers are closely watching auctions even in countries where they don’t have a presence. In addition to trying to lock in rights to the spectrum, carriers also can learn bidding strategies and lobby regulators on what they consider to be the best auction rules.
Wireless auctions already vary widely in terms of how they work around the world, and the heightened interest in 5G has drawn extra scrutiny to some. In the Italian auction that ended Tuesday, the government reaped more than double the revenue it had forecast, drawing criticism from one prominent carrier.
Four wireless carriers essentially bought 200 chunks of airwaves that they coveted for 5G networks. But instead of auctioning off individual packages, the Italian government said wireless carriers had to buy one of four big bundles. Two bundles featured 80 chunks of airwaves each, and two packages had 20 chunks each.
Bidding for the two larger packages was fierce. In the end, the carriers spent €6.55 billion ($7.55 billion) in the auction—more than double the €2.8 billion the Italian government had written into its budget.
Vodafone, which operates in more than 20 countries and is the world’s No. 2 wireless carrier by subscribers, won one of the 80-chunk packages, spending €2.4 billion in the overall auction. But the high price it forked over caused grumbling at the London headquarters.
“Auctions should be designed to balance fiscal requirements with the need for investment,” said Vodafone Chief Executive Nick Read, in a statement. He warned against future “artificial auction constructs.”
A spokesman for Italy’s ministry of economic development, which conducted the auction, declined to comment. European wireless executives said they believed the auction’s cost was an outlier compared with other countries because both Italy’s government and wireless industry face unique circumstances.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-5g-race-airwave-auctions-are-the-next-rivalry-1538910016
BT’s EE Launches 5G Test Network in London using Huawei Equipment
BT-owned mobile operator EE has launched a 5G test network in Canary Wharf, London ahead of a full commercial rollout next year. As the cUK’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, the launch by EE is a landmark moment in the UK’s path to 5G.
Fotis Karonis, 5G Technology Lead at BT Group, said:
“This is the latest milestone in our 5G rollout – a live test of our 5G network, in a hugely busy ‘hotspot’, where we know there’s going to be demand from customers for increased mobile capacity.
With constant upgrades to 4G, and laying the foundations for 5G, we’re working to always be able to deliver what our customers need – both consumers and the vertical industries that will make the greatest use of 5G.
We were UK pioneers with 4G and today we saw the UK’s first live connections on 5G – this is a huge step forward for our digital infrastructure.”
EE announced it would be launching the 5G network back in June, promising it to be the UK’s first proper test. Some expected mobile operator O2 to beat it after plans to launch its own test bed at the O2 Arena, but EE was first to market.
The current network covers Montgomery Square in Canary Wharf and was selected by EE for its high footfall and data usage. Some 150,000 people visit the square each day, providing a better test of how the network will perform in high traffic areas.
Mark Nallen, Head of Technology and Innovation at Canary Wharf Group, commented:
“Staying at the forefront of connectivity and new technologies is critical to our community, and that’s why we’re partnering with BT Group to support delivery of 5G.
The consumers who live and work here will benefit from being better connected, and the enterprises based here will have the chance to partner with BT Group to understand the full capabilities of 5G.”
The equipment at the site will also be hooked up to a lab core network, which functions as a replica of EE’s commercial core network, and will link up to other test sites as and when they come online. Walling it off also means that it’s possible to test 5G in whatever ways are necessary without having any impact on existing services.
Another testbed is set to launch in Shoreditch later this year, which will present different challenges to the Montgomery Square tests. Mainly because it isn’t as ‘clean’ an area. Exactly when it will happen isn’t clear yet.
EE is using network equipment by Huawei for its test; along with 3.4 GHz spectrum it won in regulator Ofcom’s auction earlier this year. The use of Huawei’s equipment continues to be a controversial subject.
In Europe, Huawei is relatively welcome and its highly-regarded equipment used by many operators. Australia, however, recently took the decision to follow the U.S. in banning the Chinese vendor’s equipment over national security concerns.
The U.S. and Australia are part of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing partnership which also includes the UK, Canada, and New Zealand. The US is said to be pressuring its partners to follow suit.
Last month, Canadian security officials went on record to say the country has the necessary safeguards in place not to follow the bans of the US and Australia. Canada is attempting to make the case to its partners that excluding telecoms equipment manufacturers leads to an increased security risk. If a specific vendor’s equipment is compromised, it would represent a larger proportion of the network.
Rather than ban Huawei, the UK and Canada have both established labs where security officials test equipment for potential vulnerabilities.
Testing equipment rather than banning seems to be a more sensible approach. This week, India announced it would be testing Huawei 5G gear. Competition is good for prices and innovation, while bans would prevent companies such as EE from accessing potentially class-leading equipment.
References:
https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/2018/oct/05/ee-uk-5g-network-test-launch/
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2018/10/ees-turned-on-its-5g-trial-in-the-canary-warf-area/
3 Network Equipment Vendors Spin Off Video Units
Decisions by Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia to spin off video technology units represent an attempt to better compete with nimble startups, analysts say.
It’s indicative of transition in a competitive, confusing sector that provides myriad services to the consumer video market – from encryption to caching to streaming to storage.
“There are so many companies out there chasing too few dollars,” said London-based media and technology analyst Paolo Pescatore, noting “hundreds” of them at the latest NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) meeting occupying the entire upper South Hall. Many are small. To stand out, they advertise, but don’t always deliver on the hottest trends, from Artificial Intelligence to Blockchain.
“Now, everyone does Blockchain. But are they genuinely doing it? Are they genuinely doing Big Data? For many [customers], trying to work with them is tough,” he said. “There needs to be a reality check across the board.”
There is, and it started at the top for three big players whose corporate parents have not seen adequate returns. Executives at the new standalone companies—Synamedia (spun up from Cisco’s Service Provider Video Solutions business), Mediakind (the new Ericsson media solutions) and Velocix (the result of Nokia selling off its IP Video business)—insist that operating independently is key to performing better.
“As a private, independent company, Synamedia will live and breathe video and that single focus will benefit us and our customers,” said Yves Padrines, incoming CEO of Synamedia.
Cisco agreed to sell its Service Provider Video Software Solutions unit to U.K. private equity firm Permira in May for a reported $1 billion in a deal expected to close by early next year. Rebranded as Synamedia, it includes Cisco’s Infinite Video Platform, cloud digital video recording, video processing, video security, video middleware and other services. Many of the businesses were originally part of NDS, a video and security specialist Cisco acquired in 2012 for $5 billion.
Cisco will retain some video technology for networking like WebEx, which facilitates video and web conferencing, webinars, and screen sharing.
Padrines has three priorities: integrating broadband and broadcast so pay-TV operators can embrace IP and OTT; helping customers secure revenue through piracy prevention, rapid detection and response; and using data on viewer behavior and content to help clients generate fresh revenue through targeted advertising.
He said Synamedia’s “thousands” of employees worldwide will prioritize R&D and developing local solutions for local markets. London is the headquarters with staff in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Belgium, Israel, India and China.
Cisco’s move followed Ericsson’s decision last January to sell a majority stake in its Media Solutions division to private equity firm One Equity Partners. The unit also got a snappier name, MediaKind, in July and a coming-out party at IBC last month. The deal hasn’t closed yet either as MediaKind carefully decouples from its parent company, market by market, said Arun Bhikshesvaran, chief marketing officer.
He said MediaKind staffers were in 120 of the 140 countries where Ericsson has “legal entities,” which the spinoff couldn’t replicate. In a complex process, the group narrowed the number of its legal entities to about 30 worldwide, with staffers reporting in from other areas.
“We had to figure out how to work in an agile manner, like a startup, but not [being] a startup,” Bhikshesvaran said. “What we consciously decided to do is to do this right from the beginning instead of creating an entity and fixing it later.” MediaKind will launch with 1,700 employees.
Bhikshesvaran said the relationship with Ericsson—which is retaining a hefty 49% interest in the business—will preserve the companies’ “combined heritage of video and mobility.”
Nokia is keeping an unspecified but smaller minority stake in Velocix. Cisco is selling Synamedia outright.
MediaKind, based in Plano, Texas, will be melding its businesses and focusing on R&D to address shifts in the media sector. Over the years, it has invested heavily in a collection of media properties, including Apex, Azuki Systems, Envivio, Fabrix, HyCGroup, Microsoft Mediaroom and Tandberg Television, but has acknowledged it did a poor job integrating them.
Bhikshesvaran described the current transition in the industry in part as moving to standalone software that can run on different kinds of commercial hardware, and helping clients migrate to the Cloud. MediaKind recently unveiled MediaKind Universe and announced a handful of global contracts with CogecoConnexion, Digicel, TotalPlay and TangerineGlobal.
Nokia’s IP video business, Velocix, the smallest of the three with about 300 employees, was sold in September to Volaris in a deal that will close by year end. It was the first media acquisition by the Toronto-based software company.
Nokia remains a Global Channel Partner for Velocix, which is focused on video and IP delivery and on storage technology. Velocix chief, Paul Larbey, said a core mission is to continue its work to make streaming video as smooth as broadcast.
He’s upbeat about shifts in the media industry, which he said have boosted business over the past six months. The group has added 12 new customers and increased traffic.
“Operators are starting to invest in new services—moving from analysis into the implementation phase,” he said. “There’s a nice head of steam in the development of product devices and services.”
As a standalone entity, Velocix can better hone its operations and sales. “Video is very specialized. It has a very technically oriented sales cycle. So being part of a big company” is not ideal, he said.
Larbey called Volaris “a nice, stable home,” noting that private equity firms like the ones that acquired Velocix’ larger rivals generally seek an exit in 3 to 5 years through an IPO or sale. Volaris is looking to expand and will be a buyer of assets, he predicted. The industry is still in flux, said Pescatore, but it could be worse.
“You would be worried if they [parent companies] had written them off and closed these businesses. But private investors have come in and believe they can make a success where the giants have failed,” he said.
https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/big-spinoffs-by-cisco-ericsson-and-nokia-redraw-media-tech-sector
Vodafone and Telecom Italia Reveal 5G network plans for Italy
1. Vodafone Italy, which competes with Telecom Italia (TIM), has acquired spectrum to enable the deployment of 5G technology for €2.4 billion during the 5G spectrum auction that fetched $7.6 billion for the Government.
The Italian Government will collect 1,250 million euros from all mobile operators during the current year, 50 million in 2019, 300 million in 2020, 150 million in 2021, and the remaining in 2022 from the 5G auction.
Though telecom operators will be releasing the spectrum auction money in the next five years, it will pose challenges to the telecom industry in Italy. Bloomberg reports that 5G spectrum auction in Italy was a record as compared with the auction in South Korea.
“Spectrum auctions should be designed to balance fiscal requirements with the need for investment to enable economic development. It is critical that European governments avoid artificial auction constructs which fail to strike a healthy balance for the industry,” Nick Read said in a statement.
Vodafone Italy, the second largest telecom operator, posted €1.231 billion revenue registering 6.5 percent drop in the first quarter ended 30 June 2018 against 0.7 percent increase in Q4 of previous fiscal.
Vodafone Italy and other operators are facing competition following the launch of a new entrant in late May. Vodafone Italy launched a new secondary brand to specifically address the needs of customers in the value segment of the market.
Vodafone Italy said the 5G spectrum will deliver network operating cost efficiency to meet the expected future growth in data traffic.
Vodafone Italy is buying 3700 MHz – 80 MHz for €1,685 million, 700 MHz – 2 x 10 MHz FDD for €683 million and 26 GHz – 200 MHz for €33 million.
Vodafone Italy will be using the 3700 MHz spectrum to enhance coverage, improve capacity, and for rapid development of 5G services. Vodafone Italy did not reveal the timing of its planned 5G launch in Italy.
Vodafone Italy will also utilize the 700 MHz spectrum, when it is available from 2022, to deploy 5G services, providing nationwide coverage at very high speed and very low latency for including IoT, virtual and augmented reality, connected vehicles and robotics. This indicates that Vodafone Italy will be playing in both the business and consumer markets of 5G to improve ARPU.
Vodafone Italy said it can also use the 26 GHz spectrum to deliver high capacity services in densely populated locations such as city centres, sports stadiums or industrial plants.
Vodafone said it is leading 5G trials promoted by the Ministry for Economic Development in Milan and its metropolitan area. Vodafone 5G network has already achieved coverage of 80 percent of Milan and targeting 80 percent 5G coverage in its metropolitan area by December 2018.
https://www.telecomlead.com/5g/vodafone-ceo-nick-read-on-5g-network-plans-in-italy-86682
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2. Telecom Italia (TIM) has obtained 5G frequencies for an 80MHz block of 3700 MHz for 1,694 million euros and a 200MHz block of 26 GHz for 33 million euros.
In addition to the two blocks of 700 MHz, TIM’s total investment in the 5G spectrum auction will be 2,407 million euros.
“The switch on of the antenna in Bari certifies TIM’s technological primacy in 5G space in Italy,” Amos Genish said.
Investment in 5G network is an important part of the TIM strategy for sprucing up revenue in Italy. TIM’s telecom business in Italy has posted 7.454 billion euros in revenue in the first half of 2018 against 7.494 billion euros in the same period 2017.
TIM 5G will be focusing on both consumer and business customers. Consumer business of TIM’s telecom business in Italy has reported 3.753 billion euros in revenue, while 2.333 billion euros came from business customers and 860 million euros from wholesale business in Italy.
TIM will use 3700 MHz and 26 GHz to leverage the testing already underway in Turin, Bari and Matera and in the Republic of San Marino.
TIM has started to implement services for the Smart City targeting public security, transport, environmental monitoring, healthcare, tourism and culture, in San Marino.
The 3700 MHz band, already used for the tests launched at the start of the year, is available immediately.
TIM will use 26 GHz millimetre wave band, which will be available from 2019, to conduct road test for the first 5G services. TIM will use the 700 MHz frequencies, available from 2022, to strengthen UBB coverage, including in indoor areas, with the implementation of 5G technology.
TIM said its 4G mobile broadband coverage reached over 98 percent of the population in Italy and fixed broadband reached 80 percent of homes via FTTC and FTTH technology.
https://www.telecomlead.com/5g/tim-ceo-amos-genish-reveals-5g-network-plans-in-italy-86680
SVIEF Kai-Fu Lee Keynote: Era of AI, Rise of China, U.S. vs China, etc & All Star Panel Session (?)
Well respected technologist, entrepreneur, writer and AI researcher Kai-Fu Lee, PhD presented a powerful and very incisive keynote speech on September 29th at the SVIEF conference in Santa Clara, CA. The title of his talk was all encompassing and compelling: “Era of AI, the Rise of China, and the Future of Work.”
Author’s Note: I was so impressed with Kai-Fu’s talk, I’ve ordered his latest book, AI Superpowers, which is already on Amazon’s best selling book list.
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Here are several important highlights of Dr. Lee’s SVIEF keynote:
1. Deep Learning (DL) is the biggest technological improvement in the 60+ year history of artificial intelligence (AI). DL is a network of highly connected neurons in thousands of layers that can, in a single domain, take a huge amount of data and train to recognize, predict and decide and synthesize at a much higher accuracy than humans.
2. DL is not human intelligence, it cannot think or cross domains. It has no strategic or creative thinking capabilities. But in a single domain, with a huge amount of data, it is beating humans in almost every task imaginable. For example, AlphaGo (a computer program that plays the board game Go) has beaten Go champions. In addition, we’ve seen DL used effectively for speech recognition (e.g. Amazon Alexa, Google voice search, Microsoft Cortana, etc.) and facial recognition. There are new beginnings of DL diagnosis of how to read MRIs and doing a better job of that than radiologists.
3. This amount of improvement is leading to what are four waves of artificial intelligence:
- Wave 1: Internet AI started in 1998. The Internet has more data than any other domain. With so much data, it enables Amazon to predict what you might want to buy. It powers Facebook to predict what you might want to read on-line. Similarly, all the American and Chinese companies (Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, etc) , all the great AI companies of today are all Internet companies, because they have the most labeled data.
- Wave 2: Business AI started in 2004. Take banks, insurance companies, hospitals –they have amassed a lot of data in the past, they viewed data as a call center, as a legal requirement to archive. But now data has become a goldmine for them in various ways.
- Wave 3: Perception AI started in 2011- the ability to see and hear. Examples include: computer vision, speech recognition, speech synthesis, understanding all combined together. It also can be viewed as digitizing the physical world.
- Wave 4: Autonomous AI (self driving cars, autonomous robots, etc) started in 2015. In this wave 4, AI becomes autonomous in its ability to move around and manipulate sort of like having hands and feet. That will usher in an era of autonomous vehicles and robotics. Autonomous vehicles will bring about a huge transformation, especially the dis-incentive to own a car. With safer autonomous vehicles, the natural next step is humans won’t be allowed to drive anymore.
4. To make AI work, we need the following things: a lot of data that is tagged within a single domain, a lot of compute power, and some AI experts to work on it.
AI is not perfect — you can’t make it do perfectly unsupervised learning. You can’t make it learn on very little data. You can’t do AI with very little compute power.
But once you have those in place, AI can be effectively applied.
5. U.S. Leads China in Top Researchers, Patents, and AI Talent (and will likely continue to lead in AI research in the near future).
6. Chinese Miracle of Last 10 Years with fast product/service iteration, intense competition, user acquisition, accelerated growth, high return on investment in a huge market.
7. In 2018: U.S. and China Have Become Parallel Universes:
US Model: Breakthrough Technologies, Vision-driven, Light, Globalized.
China Model: Fusion + speed, Applications, Result-driven, Heavy, Localized.
8. Investment in China: A lot of money and capital investment went into China with smart VCs helping smart entrepreneurs build products and companies. And those products actually are so attractive they brought more Chinese users on the internet. And this loop kept going and going for the last 10 years taking China from 150 million users to about 800 million users by far the largest user base in the world. And this loop has created something that we never thought possible — a system that parallels the Silicon Valley.
9. The only way to succeed in China is to find a business model that is impregnable. In other words, build a business that’s uncomfortable. Chinese companies kept improving going from copying from the U.S. to inspired by us and then leapfrogging the U.S. For example, WeChat (messaging app) is better than WhatsApp and way better than Twitter. But even more exciting is the third ladder where Chinese companies are brand new innovation, this Chinese model of building impregnable businesses have reached new heights, so that these brand new companies are being built.
10. China Advantages over U.S. in AI:
Advantage 1: Chinese Product Innovation has Caught up with U.S. Pure Chinese Innovations Have Arrived
Advantage 2: Tough Market Begets Tough Entrepreneurs
Advantage 3: China’s AI Capital Leads the World. 48% of global AI investments were made in China; 38% in U.S., 13% other countries. SOURCE: CB Insights 2017 Global Artificial Intelligence Investment
Advantage 4: AI Moves into Era of Implementation
Advantage 5: China is the world leader in amount of Data (like Saudi Arabia is the country with the most oil for export). Massive Data is Critical for AI Product Success– even more important than algorithms. AI algorithms are generally shared, and it is up to the speed, execution, and size of the data that determines how companies will benefit from AI implementations.
11. U.S. Advantage over China in AI: Early Adopters, Expert is King (vs China which is Application Driven and Data is King)
12. Who’s ahead in AI, mobile and Internet: Dr. Lee thinks that generally U.S. is a little bit ahead today. But China will probably be ahead in four or five years. This is not about research. This is about implementation.
U.S. will continue to be ahead in research for the next 10 or 15 years, because that lead is very difficult to overcome.
But this is not a zero sum game. U.S. VCs fund U.S. companies that develop products for us customers, whereas Chinese VCs fund Chinese companies who develop products for Chinese customers (domestic market). The two countries are not going after the same market.
“When a Chinese company wins, a U.S. company does not lose. When a U.S. company wins, a Chinese company does not lose. So I think the sentiment behind the current some of the current rhetoric is not correct. This is truly not a zero sum game. This is merely a keeping score of how far ahead each technology might get. So with China and us both pushing forward AI, I think AI will make a lot more progress than internet and mobile because those only had one engine the U.S. pushing forward. And there are a bunch of other reasons such as the seven cloud giants (Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, Baidu, Tenent) hiring people, and training people with large amounts of data VCs being devoted to AI.”
Concluding take-aways:
- Embrace AI – it saves us from repetitive work and pushes us to do what human is called for.
- AI cannot create ideas or thoughts. We are the masters and should be responsible of how to use AI.
- (via Twitter) How U.S. can stay ahead in AI: 1) double AI funding, 2) increase AI professors pay, 3)offer green cards to all AI PhD’s.
Closing Quotes:
“So going forward, I think AI is electricity in the next 20 years, there will be huge opportunities and challenges. But I want to take us a moment into (the next) 50 years. When we look back ignore for the moment all these job displacement opportunities, I like to leave you with two thoughts. The first thought is that AI is serendipity. It is here to take away the routine jobs so we can really spend time on what we love and what human beings are on this earth for. And secondly, for those worry about AI causing problems. Just keep in mind AI is just a tool. It possesses no creativity. We (humans) are the Masters. We are the ones that have free will. And it’s going to be up to us humans to write the ending to the story of artificial intelligence. Thank you.”
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In a post SVIEF conference email exchange related to AI’s use in telecommunications applications, Kai-Fu wrote this author:
“Thanks — this is not my major area of expertise. But clearly communications in autonomous vehicles, IoT, and 5G, when combined with AI, will be a great combination.”
“On China catching up, it will be in technology related to the Internet, Mobile, and AI.”
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SVIEF All Star Panel:
Kai-Fu Lee: “I feel a sense of social responsibility to tell people that as AI advances, job displacement is a serious issue. And I think I thought very hard about various solutions. I looked at universal basic income, I don’t think that’s going to work. I don’t really know what will work. But I do think generally, it’s in the direction of creating more empathetic jobs, because there should be a large enough pool of them, if only we would care about them, pay more for them. And that can hopefully lead us to a good ending.”
SVIEF All-star panel with VC Tim Draper, AI Rock Star Kai-Fu Lee, and Stanford Physics Prof. Shoucheng Zhang
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Author’s Note:
Due to time and space constraints the above panel session may be summarized in a follow on article, provided there is sufficient reader interest.
Please email me at: [email protected] if you’d like me to write such an article.
References:
Transcript of Kai Fu Lee’s keynote (via speech recognition):
https://otter.ai/shared/conversation/5342b3f76e67477c958742982795ffec
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/opinion/sunday/ai-china-united-states.html
“America-first, 5G-first”- U.S. 5G leadership is a national imperative
After a meeting with key telecom executives, the Trump administration said it wants to help the wireless industry deploy “5G” quickly. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said that 5G support aligns with lower-tax and deregulation policies that encourage private sector growth, adding the U.S. supports an “America-first, 5G-first” approach.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai called the development of 5G technology “a national imperative for economic growth and competitiveness.”
Pai said 5G networks could effectively remove speed and capacity as meaningful constraints on wireless innovation and could be 100 times faster than current networks.
“The lag time between a device’s request for data and the network’s response will be less than one-tenth of what it is today,” he said. “Wireless networks that today support 1,000 connected devices per square kilometer could instead support 1 million” and could eventually lead to capabilities such as remote surgical procedures, he said.
Administration officials said they have high hopes for the technology that has the potential to help create 3 million new jobs, $275 billion in private investment, and $500 billion in new economic growth.
Although other U.S. government agencies like the FCC and the NTIA have long dealt in spectrum and network deployment issues, the White House summit last Friday was the first major signal by the Trump administration that it also wants to play an active role in smoothing regulations for 5G rollouts. The summit collected executives from the wireless industry with officials from the Trump administration—including Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Michael Kratsios, deputy U.S. CTO and deputy assistant to the President at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the agency that held the event—along with top House and Senate lawmakers and officials from the FCC and the NTIA.
Officials described the event as an opportunity for White House representatives to listen to wireless industry executives and to learn ways the Trump administration can play a role in 5G.
5G networks will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and the cloud to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks and serve as critical infrastructure for a range of industries.
Congress and regulators are also working to free up more wireless spectrum for use by 5G networks and improve other regulations to make it easier to deploy fiber lines, which are critical for 5G traffic from small cells.
In addition to providing vastly greater speed, 5G will allow transportation networks to link connected and self-driving cars, while new wireless sensors will provide real-time health monitoring and other advanced applications.
White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on Friday the 5G race will be won “principally through the free enterprise, free market economy.”
CTIA, a wireless industry trade group representing Sprint Corp, AT&T Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Intel Corp, said in a statement after the summit, “We completely agree with the administration, the FCC … and congressional leaders that free market American leadership in 5G is vital for our economy, private investment and future innovation.”
The FCC on Wednesday voted to eliminate regulatory barriers to 5G deployment. Pai said the measure would cap fees that cities could charge to install small cells and requires local governments to promptly review applications. According to Pai, 5G networks will need 800,000 cell sites, mostly small cells no bigger than a backpack, or about four times the existing number of sites.
Kudlow said federal law allows the FCC to override localities on this issue. “We’re not here to be completely heavy-handed but sometimes you have to do what you got to do,” he said at the summit.
Rep. Walden noted that the U.S. needs to protect and encourage the supply chain for 5G. Although he did not discuss any specific policies or positions, he did say that “there are some who think we can simply ban vendors from American markets, but the marketplace for hardware and software is global.”
Those comments are particularly noteworthy given that the FCCembarked on a proposal to tacitly block any network operator—big and small—from using Universal Service Funds to purchase equipment from companies that pose a security threat. That proceeding at the FCC is widely seen as an attempt by the U.S. government to block Chinese network equipment vendors Huawei from competing in the market.
Walden did not name Huawei and also did not go into specifics of his position on the topic. No other speakers at the event discussed supply chain issues in their public remarks.
Separately, mid-band spectrum received a notable amount of attention from the likes of Rep. Walden and NTIA’s Redl. Speakers generally argued that a robust 5G marketplace will use a wide range of spectrum, from low-band spectrum to high-band spectrum. Officials and lawmakers acknowledged that the FCC is working to auction high-band spectrum starting in November, but several speakers called on regulators to release more mid-band spectrum for wireless network operators and others.
And Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., also noted that both licensed and unlicensed spectrum should be made available in the marketplace.
After the meeting, CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker said in a statement that “it was especially noteworthy that today’s event focused so much on the need to free up more mid-band spectrum for commercial wireless use to help meet this goal and to keep up with skyrocketing consumer demand for mobile data. We look forward to continuing this important dialogue with the Administration and policymakers to make 5G a reality.”
However, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, sounded a note of caution on Friday. “As a result of our escalating trade war with China, by the end of this year we will have a 25 percent duty on antennas, switches, and routers – the essential network facilities needed for 5G deployment,” she said.
Table 1: Top patent owner of 5G declarations as to the number of patent families as to office of application and grant status
SOURCE: IPlytics, November 2019
| Company name | Declared 5G families | Filed at USPTO, EPO or PCT | Granted in one office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huawei Technologies (CN) | 3,325 | 2,379 | 1,337 |
| Samsung Electronics (KR) | 2,846 | 2,542 | 1,746 |
| LG Electronics (KR) | 2,463 | 2,296 | 1,548 |
| Nokia (including Alcatel-Lucent) (FI) | 2,308 | 2,098 | 1,683 |
| ZTE Corporation (CN) | 2,204 | 1,654 | 596 |
| Ericsson (SE) | 1,423 | 1,295 | 765 |
| QUALCOMM (US) | 1,330 | 1,121 | 866 |
| Intel Corporation (US) | 934 | 885 | 171 |
| Sharp Corporation (JP) | 808 | 677 | 444 |
| NTT Docomo (JP) | 754 | 646 | 351 |
| CATT (CN) | 588 | 360 | 72 |
| InterDigital Technology (US) | 428 | 346 | 226 |
| Guangdong Oppo M Telecommunications (CN) | 378 | 363 | 36 |
| Vivo Mobile (CN) | 193 | 168 | 0 |
| ASUSTeK Computer (TW) | 117 | 103 | 35 |
| NEC Corporation (JP) | 114 | 102 | 84 |
| Apple (US) | 79 | 73 | 52 |
| KT Corporation (KR) | 75 | 53 | 15 |
| ETRI (KR) | 71 | 50 | 20 |
| Fujitsu (JP) | 68 | 18 | 66 |
| Mororola Mobility (US) | 56 | 54 | 50 |
| Lenovo Group Limited (CN) | 51 | 48 | 19 |
| HTC Corporation (TW) | 46 | 44 | 40 |
| MediaTek (TW) | 42 | 38 | 30 |
| WILUS Group (KR) | 41 | 20 | 2 |
| Panasonic (JP) | 33 | 30 | 9 |
| FG Innovation (CN) | 33 | 33 | 4 |
| Sony Corporation (JP) | 22 | 17 | 23 |
| ITRI (TW) | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| SK Telecom (KR) | 12 | 8 | 0 |
| Spreadtrum Communications (CN) | 11 | 8 | 6 |
Note that Qualcomm (7), Intel (8), InterDigital (12) are only U.S. companies listed in the table above.
Highlights and Quotes from India’s 5G Congress 2018
India’s 5G Congress 2018, held September 19th and 20th in New Delhi, witnessed top policy makers, industry leaders, experts and observers deliberating on the future roadmap for the 5G rollout in India. The theme of the conference was ‘Developing a Roadmap for the Next Wireless Revolution.’ The first edition of the conference was held in 2017.
According to the 2018 conference brochure:
5G will be the key driver for Digital India initiatives. 5G is set to overtake 4G in India by 2020, and the backhaul equipment makers and network carriers are already developing the next-generation of mobile communication. The increase in the number of smart phone subscribers in India has led to a huge demand for data traffic, prompting network operators to upgrade their infrastructure. Currently, several 5G trials are being conducted in India by network operators and equipment providers in collaboration. The 5G-enabled digitization revenue is likely to be around $25.9 billion by 2026 while the 5G-enabled industry revenue is expected to add around $13 billion to operator revenue.
As per the industry predictions, India will be 5G enable by 2020 and this will further push the government’s digital delivery of services through the Digital India. 5G will not only improve the internet speed and QoS in the country but will also enable the digital transformation of services such as healthcare, education, entertainment, agriculture and manufacturing. The Make in India initiative will help in providing low-cost and high quality 5G mobile devices and telecom equipment in the market.
5G India Congress aims to become India’s best platform for all stakeholders including network operators, Government & technology providers to come together to discuss about the 5G development for next generation communications in India.
–>You can watch video highlights of the 5G Congress here.
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Manoj Sinha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Communications and Minister of State for Railways, Government of India, was the chief speaker at the conference. Addressing the delegates he said, “We cannot afford to miss the 5G bus for India. The significance of 5G for India cannot be overlooked. 5G will help us leapfrog infrastructure challenges and bridge the digital divide.” The India minister added, “5G is not an incremental technology but an integration of systems. Its economic impact alone will have about $1 trillion by 2035.”
Gopal Vittal, CEO, Bharti Airtel, said, “5G is going to be a game changer and will have massive impact but to get this happen we will have to come together.” He further said that the Indian government needs to get the spectrum price right for investments to continue. The government must relook at the prices set for the upcoming 5G spectrum auction. Vittal added that the return on capital in the industry is lower than 1%, while the price is significantly high.
Gopal continued, “We need at least 100 MHz of contiguous blocks of spectrum per operator and the pricing needs to be relooked. The government should further empower 5G high-level forum and allocate E and V bands. The fifth-generation, or 5G technology, will fulfill India’s larger socio-economic aspirations and create new job opportunities.”
Balesh Sharma, CEO of Vodafone-Idea, added, “5G is going to be an evolution but not a revolution.” He further said, “Smart City and Digital India will ride on 5G.” “5G, which is going to impact all industries, will need massive amount of spectrum at low cost and massive amount of fibre at site level,” said Mr. Vittal.
R S Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said, “We need to promote huge investment to ensure there is required infrastructure in place to make 5G a success.” He added, “Regulations need to be there not to throttle 5G but to facilitate it.”
The experts speaking at the conference generally felt that the country may see the initial rollout of 5G in late 2019 or early 2020. Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, said, “We are looking at 2020 as the timeline for 5G deployment in India.” “India will keep its date with 5G in 2020,” added Sanjay Malik, Head of India Market, Nokia.
Speaking about the union government’s efforts to drive 5G, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Govt of India, said, “We are working with states to remove constraints from ‘right of way’ to fibre optics.”
Marie Hogan, Head of Broadband & IoT, Business Area Networks, Ericsson, said, “5G will generate additional revenue opportunities of about $13 billion for India.”
Smart City and Digital India initiatives will ride on 5G, said Balesh Sharma. He added, “Enhanced mobile broadband, mission critical communication and Massive IoT are prime use cases of 5G.”
Speaking about the current broadband penetration in India and the future potential, Ryan Perera, Country Manager, Ciena, said, “Twenty-seven percent is the current broadband penetration in India.
Israel Seeks 5G Investment from U.S. Telcos via Incentives/Rebates; Intel’s 5G Role
Israel Ministry of Communications director general Netanel (Nati) Cohen will try to interest overseas telecommunications companies in taking part in fifth generation cellular trials in Israel. Cohen will also try to introduce American investors into the Israeli telecommunications market. Cohen is accompanying Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara, who is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s entourage for his visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
The ministry’s idea is to try to restore interest in the Israeli telecommunications market on the part of international companies, which have refrained from investment in Israel in recent years. The plan is to provide incentives in the form of rebates in exchange for acquiring frequencies and rolling out the network.
During his visit to New York, Mr. Cohen will reportedly meet with representatives of US telecoms giant Verizon and propose that the company should participate in 5G trials to be held at Bar Ilan University in conjunction with Israeli mobile carriers. Meetings will also be held with representatives of Lockheed Martin, with the aim of persuading the company to expand its investment in Israel.
The idea is also to conduct trials in IoT (Internet of Things), and to take advantage of the fact that there are many technology companies in Israel in areas of interest to the US companies, and to bring them into the initiative as well.
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Mobile carriers throughout the world have been cutting back on investment in new wireless infrastructure, because of the fierce competition in the industry and the erosion of revenue. At the same time, no solution has been found for the high fees that the carriers pay the state for frequencies, which result in them foregoing frequency allocations simply because they cannot meet the fee payments.
Israel government ministries have hired the services of InfoSight Consulting, which is working together with Beta Finance to formulate for the state a new frequency fee structure, as the high payments that the companies make for frequencies, around New Israeli Shekel (currency in Israel) 300 million annually, diminish their incentive to invest and represent a heavy tax on them.
The state will probably try to find a formula whereby carriers will pay more for “quality” frequencies, and much less for lower-quality high frequencies. In any event, the model will be determined before the fifth generation auction slated to take place this December. The new generation of networks will allow considerably faster data transfer.
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Intel Israel and 5G:
Elkana Ben Sinai, VP, Intel Israel said: “Intel wants to serve this market. Its vision is to be a data-centric company, dealing best with data through all its stages: collection, transmission, processing storage. It wants to make use of huge computing, storage, and its artificial intelligence and communication capabilities – very few companies have these combinations. And 5G is the leading technology to implement the ‘transmission’ part of this vision.”
For Intel, this means that its innovative products, already ubiquitous, will be even more so.
“New hardware will basically be in all aspects: data collection by new sensors (e.g. Mobileye), communication (e.g 5G), computing (e.g artificial intelligence),” Ben Sinai says. An ambitious move into the mobile phone market is also in the offing, as it is “certainly an ingredient” in Intel’s wider vision.
And Intel Israel, he says, is a “very important design center of Intel Corporation, leading some of its strategic developments in the area of computing, communication, security and more.”
Automotive and cybersecurity
Intel also has another edge. Last year, the company acquired the Jerusalem-based Mobileye, a developer of cutting-edge autonomous driving technologies, for a whopping $15.3 billion. Mobileye is considered a leader in advanced driver assistance systems – including pedestrian detection, collision warning – aimed to prevent road collisions.
The acquisition marked Intel’s entry into the vibrant automotive market, and the industry plays a central role in Intel’s vision for the future.
References:
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-courts-5g-investment-from-us-telcos-1001254633
http://nocamels.com/2018/07/intel-israel-5g-tech/
Video clip: 5G Technology Being Born In Israel – Jul. 12, 2018
Huawei, Intel complete stand alone call in China’s 3rd-phase 5G R&D test as per China’s IMT-2020 promotion group
Huawei and Intel announced they have completed a standalone 5G call test based on 3GPP Release 15 spec for the third phase of China’s 5G technology R&D trials.
The trial, organized by China’s IMT-2020 promotion group, was conducted at the group’s laboratory using a Huawei 5G base station and core network and Intel’s 3rd generation “5G Mobile Trial Platform.” (It’s astonishing that it’s the 3rd generation of 5G when the IMT 2020 5G standard won’t be completed for over two years!)
Utilizing the 3.5-GHz frequency band, Huawei and Intel tested full stack initial access, registration and radio bearer establishment with the 5G new radio resource control (NR RCC) and non-access stratum (NR NAS) protocol stack.
Intel and Huawei completed non-standalone 5G interoperability and development testing in June in collaboration with China Mobile, and the two vendors commenced field trials for China’s third-phase 5G R&D test in August.
“Huawei will continue focus on system commercialization in the Third-Phase 5G R&D test, and together with industry partners will promote 5G business success,” Yang added.
“The completion of the SA (stand alone) test, based on the R15 protocol, is another important milestone for Huawei in China’s third-phase 5G R&D test. Huawei will continue focus on system commercialization in the 5G R&D test, and together with industry partners will promote 5G business success,” said Yang Chaobin, president of Huawei’s 5G product line.
“Intel’s 5G Mobile Trial Platform has been a key technology in enabling global 5G testing and will help to define the future use cases for 5G. Now that the interoperability test for the Standalone architecture in the third-phase 5G R&D test has been completed, we are a step closer to the commercialization of 5G and to delivering the powerful user experiences that it will bring,” said Asha Keddy, VP and GM of next generation and standards at Intel.
China’s national 5G tests:
China’s 5G R&D tests, which are being carried out by the IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group, started in 2016 and are expected to be concluded by the end of this year. These tests involve three phases: key technologies testing, the verification of technology and solution and 5G system verification.
The IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group was jointly established in 2013 by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, based on the original IMT-Advanced Promotion Group. In China, it is the primary platform through which 5G research and international exchange and cooperation is conducted.
Operators participating in the IMT-2020 Promotion Group include: China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and Japanese telecoms operator NTT DoCoMo. Vendors which are part of the initiative are Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, Datang and Samsung. A number of chipset and test measurement vendors, including Qualcomm, Intel, Mediatek, Ctec, Keysight Technologies and Rohde & Schwartz are also part of the initiative.
The IMT-2020 Promotion Group completed the initial phase of its trial program in 2016. That phase included testing wireless technologies including massive multiple-input-multiple-output, novel multiple access, new waveforms, advance coding, ultra-dense network implementations and high-frequency communications. The trial phase also included network slicing, edge computing and network function reconstruction. The second phase of the national 5G tests were fully completed during last year.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government had authorized carriers to test 5G technology in major cities across the country. Under this initiative, state-run telcos are the process of deploying 5G networks in 16 cities to trial the technology.
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Intel and Ericsson meanwhile completed the first end-to-end nonstandalone 5G data call in July during a trial at Ericsson’s lab in Sweden.
References:
Huawei, Intel complete SA first call in China’s third-phase 5G R&D test