Search Results for: Open RAN
Who will be the big bidders at upcoming FCC C-band and AWS auctions?
Under new chairman Brendan Carr, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to open up more C-band (3.98-4.2 GHz) spectrum for 5G, recalling a golden age of spectrum awards that brought in tens of billions of dollars. The first C-band auction, which drew to a close in early 2021, brought in a staggering US$94 billion. Verizon… Read more
AT&T and Verizon cut jobs another 6% last year; AI investments continue to increase
In 2018, after AT&T acquired Time Warner, the enlarged AT&T had approximately 230,000 employees and annual revenues of about $172 billion. Both figures have declined subsequently, but headcount has been reduced at a much sharper rate. Data published this week, after AT&T reported full-year sales of $122.3 billion, shows another 9,500 jobs were cut in… Read more
Gartner: Gen AI nearing trough of disillusionment; GSMA survey of network operator use of AI
Global IT spending is expected to total $5.61 trillion in 2025, an increase of 9.8% from 2024, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. “While budgets for CIOs are increasing, a significant portion will merely offset price increases within their recurrent spending,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “This means that, in 2025,… Read more
Dell’Oro: 4G and 5G FWA revenue grew 7% in 2024; MRFR: FWA worth $182.27B by 2032
According to Dell’Oro Group, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has surged in recent years to support both residential and enterprise connectivity due to its ease of deployment along with the more widespread availability of 4G LTE and 5G Sub-6GHz networks. Preliminary findings suggest total FWA revenues, including RAN equipment, residential CPE, and enterprise router and gateway… Read more
WiFi 7: Backgrounder and CES 2025 Announcements
Backgrounder: Wi-Fi 7, also known as the IEEE 802.11be-2024 [1.], is the latest generation of Wi-Fi technology, offering significantly faster speeds, increased network capacity, and lower latency compared to previous versions like Wi-Fi 6, by utilizing features like wider 320MHz channels, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and 4K-QAM modulation across all frequency bands (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz). … Read more
CES 2025: Intel announces edge compute processors with AI inferencing capabilities
At CES 2025 today, Intel unveiled the new Intel® Core™ Ultra (Series 2) processors, designed to revolutionize mobile computing for businesses, creators and enthusiast gamers. Intel said “the new processors feature cutting-edge AI enhancements, increased efficiency and performance improvements.” “Intel Core Ultra processors are setting new benchmarks for mobile AI and graphics, once again demonstrating… Read more
Networking chips and modules for AI data centers: Infiniband, Ultra Ethernet, Optical Connections
A growing portion of the billions of dollars being spent on AI data centers will go to the suppliers of networking chips, lasers, and switches that integrate thousands of GPUs and conventional micro-processors into a single AI computer cluster. AI can’t advance without advanced networks, says Nvidia’s networking chief Gilad Shainer. “The network is the… Read more
FT: Nvidia invested $1bn in AI start-ups in 2024
Nvidia invested $1bn in artificial intelligence companies in 2024, as it emerged as a crucial backer of start-ups using the company’s graphics processing units (GPUs). The king of AI semiconductors, which surpassed a $3tn market capitalization in June due to huge demand for its high-performing GPUs, has significantly invested into some of its own customers…. Read more
Vision of 5G SA core on public cloud fails; replaced by private or hybrid cloud?
For several years, many telecom analysts said it was inevitable that network operators would move telco workloads, especially their 5G SA core network software, into the giant data centers operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. For example: In June 2021, AT&T made an agreement with Microsoft to run its 5G… Read more
Are cloud AI startups a serious threat to hyperscalers?
Introduction: Cloud AI startups include Elon Musk’s xAI, OpenAI, Vultr, Prosimo, Alcion, Run:ai, among others. They all are now or planning to build their own AI compute servers and data center infrastructure. Are they a serious threat to legacy cloud service providers who are also building their own AI compute servers? xAI built a supercomputer… Read more