It’s going to be massive scale. And this has huge implications for all - Chuk Robbins CISCO CEO

When We, Fundarc-Comm (xgnlab), put our whitepaper on 5G, and centered it around two notion, large scale and convergence. We were convinced and thought 5G as a large scale convergence technology. 

5G is about scaling and providing required flexibility to address the humongous uses cases around industry. That's not by its exclusive approach but inclusive approaches to take variety of technological advancements  with a converged solution. This convergence is already taking shapes like in various open source frameworks for cloud and computing and also in connectivity and networking like through multiple access etc.

In MWC 19, Cisco CEO Mr Chuk Robbins given some interesting comments, like 

"We are truly embarking on incredible times," he said. "As we think about this next phase that we're getting ready to enter into, it is going to be like no other phase we've ever seen." 

"It's going to be massive scale. And this has huge implications for all, making possible the creation of new applications and bringing new opportunities for a broad range of industries, from mining through to autonomous driving."

Get details HERE 

Huawei landed a host of new 5G deals in Europe.

Huawei landed a host of new 5G deals at the global wireless industry's top trade show this week despite the U.S. government's appeals for allies to ban the Chinese tech giant's hardware.

The telecom equipment and device maker announced at Mobile World Congress that it would sell the gear needed to build the next generation of wireless service to 10 more carriers in Switzerland, Iceland, South Africa and several other countries as it pushed back against the U.S. government's claims that doing so could open the door to Chinese espionage.

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Sigfox open IoT specification for all.

Sigfox has publicly released the specifications of its radio protocol for connected objects. The company said it expects a "boom" in the number of objects, including consumer devices, connecting to its network as a result.

The release of its radio specifications means any manufacturer, developer, and engineer can now build and register products on the Sigfox network.

Until now, the specification was only shared under NDA upon request, in order for the French IoT firm to control the number of objects applying to connect to its network. 

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Intel confirmed that it will provide technology to Japanese firm Rakuten for a new cloud-native network.

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"Rakuten … has now built a mobile network from the ground up that runs on Intel Xeon Scalable processors and uses Intel FPGAs for acceleration. This end-to-end cloud-native, automated network is innovative in its approach, and will allow Rakuten to rapidly scale mobile services on an agile, software-defined network," said Sandra Rivera, Intel senior vice president, Network Platforms Group, in a statement.  

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T-mobile & Sprint Merger under scrutiny from House subcommitte

Members of the House's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology grilled T-Mobile US CEO John Legere and Sprint Chairman Marcelo Claure on everything from the commitment of a merged Sprint/T-Mo to the Lifeline program and covering rural America, to trying to discern what the long-term impacts of the merger will be on U.S. jobs and consumer prices. 

Get Full Story HERE 

Rakuten to invest on Altiostar, for enhancing its capability on virtual RAN

Altiostar will utilize this new round of financing to expand its virtual Radio Access Network solutions for 4G and 5G to accelerate the industry paradigm shift to web-scale cloud-native mobile networks.

Rakuten is currently on track to achieve an industry first with the deployment of a fully virtualized mobile network in Japan in October 2019, including radio access, and the investment in Altiostar demonstrates Rakuten's commitment to taking a leadership role in driving RAN virtualization. To build its 5G-ready mobile network infrastructure, Rakuten is nurturing an open ecosystem by actively participating in crafting solutions through engagement with industry leaders like Intel and Qualcomm, as well as ODMs and innovative Virtual RAN disruptors like Altiostar.

"Our vision for Rakuten Mobile Network is to build the world's first end-to-end, fully virtualized, software-defined mobile network: A network that innovates at the Speed-of-Software and scales at the Speed-of-Cloud. Altiostar technology is key to realizing this vision within the year," said Tareq Amin, CTO of Rakuten Mobile Network. "The whole Rakuten team is looking forward to working closely with Altiostar to take a leadership role in driving RAN virtualization and to bring disruptive innovation to the mobile industry."

"Open RAN architecture and virtualization are key to building software-centric networks that can scale and adapt to meet an explosion of devices and applications driving service velocity and profits," said Ashraf Dahod, CEO of Altiostar Networks. "This funding is going to help us expand our technology innovation to help operators like Rakuten to push new business models and bring affordable broadband to the masses through web-scale mobile networks."

In addition to the investment, Rakuten Mobile Network President Yoshihisa Yamada and Chief Technology Officer Tareq Amin will join the board of Altiostar upon completion of the transaction.

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Nokia got WING, offering IoT aaS

Nokia Press Release

12 February 2019

Espoo, Finland - In advance of Mobile World Congress, Nokia today launched off-the-shelf Internet of Things (IoT) packages to help operators win new business in vertical IoT markets. In addition to enabling operators to achieve a fast time to market, the packages simplify the set-up and operations of enterprise IoT services.

Built on the Nokia Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) infrastructure that provides the necessary global IoT connectivity and services support, the applications include IoT sensors, user applications and business models suited to specific sectors. Nokia WING's managed service approach also offers a pay-as-you-grow business model, giving operators the flexibility to quickly scale up IoT services as required.

The new market-ready solutions for WING eliminate the challenges facing operators developing their own IoT services. These include the need for specialized expertise, the complexities of combining fragmented IoT connectivity infrastructure and the risk and effort of setting up and working with multiple service providers globally. Nokia works with best-in-class partners on Nokia WING vertical applications portfolio and continues to develop the IoT ecosystem.

The four new solutions announced today by Nokia include:

• Smart Agriculture as-a-Service: Sensors capture environmental, soil and crop data that is then analyzed to provide insights that help farmers manage crops more effectively, potentially saving costs on irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers.
• Livestock Management as-a-Service: Tracking devices and biosensors monitor animal health and welfare to provide ranchers with early alerts if abnormalities are detected, protecting valuable livestock and improving yields.
• Logistics as-a-Service: IoT sensors enable tracking of the global movement and condition of goods through the complete supply chain to help enterprises instantly identify incidents and even predict future events to optimize delivery and logistics process efficiency.
• Asset Management as-a-Service: Connecting products anywhere in the world enables their status and performance to be monitored centrally, helping enterprises provide a better service to their business and consumer customers.

Nokia is trialing Agriculture as-a-Service with an African operator and working with a leading services and consulting firm on Asset Management as-a-Service to help them offer more advanced services.

Brian Partridge, Vice President, 451 Research, said: "Nokia addresses a wide spectrum of challenges through its WING IoT infrastructure-as-a-service so its early traction with customers isn't a surprise. Most telecom operators desire a more prominent role in the IoT value chain that builds upon secure and reliable domestic or global connectivity. Nokia's announced plans to offer end-to-end vertical applications on top of the WING global infrastructure is a logical next step. We believe that this approach benefits Nokia's WING telecom customers and the enterprises they serve in addition to vertical application partners who can benefit from WING's market scale and go-to market channels."

Ankur Bhan, Global Head of WING Business at Nokia, said: "The IoT is a growing opportunity for operators to win new enterprise customers and significant additional revenue in a diverse range of vertical markets. With minimal upfront investment, an operator can now quickly get a service to market and generate IoT revenues. We expect these vertical solutions to encourage more operators to connect to Nokia WING, expanding its global footprint and broadening the range of capabilities and services that will become available. We already have several more vertically-focused as-a-Service packages in the development pipeline."

To learn more about Nokia's product and services portfolio, visit the Nokia Experience Center in Hall 3, stand 3A10 at Mobile World Congress, Fira Gran Via, in Barcelona, Spain from 25 to 28 February 2018. https://www.nokia.com/mwc. 

Apple sidelining Qualcomm and Intel

Apple is reportedly ramping up its efforts to design its own radio chip, which would free it from the need to buy these from either Qualcomm or Intel.

The latest report builds on two earlier ones, and suggests that the project now has a much higher profile within the company.

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AT&T, Verizon and now T-Mobile US all exploring 5G fixed wireless opportunity

Verizon's initial go-to-market for 5G is residential broadband offering. AT&T made clear on an earnings call last week 5G as a viable alternative to fixed-line broadband. And now T-Mobile US is planning to test home broadband in the first-half of this year. 

Get Full Story HERE

Sprint filing suit against its rival, calling AT&T out for “false advertising” and misleading customers

The complaint, filed Feb. 7 with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges: "AT&T has employed numerous deceptive tactics to mislead consumers into believing that it currently offers a coveted and highly anticipated fifth generation wireless network, known as 5G. What AT&T touts as 5G, however, is nothing more than an enhanced fourth generation Long Term Evolution wireless service, known as 4G LTE Advanced, which is offered by all other major wireless carriers."

"AT&T, meanwhile, has sought to gain an unfair advantage in the race to 5G by embarking on a nationwide advertising campaign to deceive consumers into believing that its existing 4G LTE Advanced network is now a 5G network. AT&T calls this 'new' network, '5GE.'"

Swiss 5G auction, ComCom Raised $379 M

Switzerland's Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) has raised CHF380 million ($379 million) after it awarded 5G frequencies to local mobile operators Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom, the regulator said in a statement.

The auction took place between January 29 and February 7.

Salt secured 20 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, 80 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band and 10 megahertz in the 1.4 GHz range. For this spectrum, the operator will have to pay CHF94.5 million.

Sunrise purchased 10 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, 100 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz range and 15 megahertz in the 1.4 GHz band. The carrier also secured an additional 10 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, which are  "supplemental downlink" frequencies that can be used to increase data download capacity in the future. Sunrise will pay a total of CHF89.23 million for the spectrum.

Meanwhile, Swisscom will pay CHF195.55 million for 30 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, 120 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band and 50 megahertz in the 1.4 GHz band.

ComCom also said that Dense Air, a small carrier which had launched mobile operations last year, abandoned the process and failed to secure spectrum.

Five frequency blocks of 5 megahertz in the 2600 MHz band and in the 700 and 1400 MHz ranges were not sold. The frequencies that have not been awarded will be put out for tender again at a later date, the regulator said.

"The frequencies will be assigned for 15 years, giving the operators long-term planning security to develop their networks. The outcome of the auction has been recorded in a decision that is contestable before the Federal Administrative Court," ComCom said. "The awarding of frequencies is of key importance for the digitalization of Switzerland, and is in line with the Federal Council's 'Digital Switzerland' strategy. In addition to powerful mobile communications, 5G will enable many new uses in future, including the internet of things, medical applications (eHealth), image processing applications (virtual reality, augmented reality) or self-driving vehicles. Switzerland is one of the first countries in Europe to already provide the 5G frequencies to network operators."

Get full Story here 

AT&T is building on a foundation of Kubernetes and OpenStack for its ambitious 5G rollout plans. As part of that deployment, it's signed an "eight-figure," multi-year deal with Mirantis to provide Kubernetes and OpenStack,

AT&T is building on a foundation of Kubernetes and OpenStack for its ambitious 5G rollout plans. As part of that deployment, it's signed an "eight-figure," multi-year deal with Mirantis to provide Kubernetes and OpenStack.

AT&T needs Kubernetes and OpenStack to provide the flexibility and agility required for a cutting edge, continent-spanning 5G network. "There really isn't much of an alternative," AT&T associate VP network cloud software engineering, Van Wyk says. "Your alternative is VMware. We've done the assessments, and VMware doesn't check boxes we need."

He adds, "We're progressive, we're on the bleeding edge. The 5G core and architecture we're implementing -- we're doing it for the first time in the world. When you're pushing the capabilities of the available software and you're in the front end of that, you need to innovate fast. We believe the communities around open source projects are the way to do that."

AT&T had deployed 5G to early adopters in 12 US cities as of December 2018, with seven more coming by June 2019. To support that network, AT&T is deploying OpenStack on Kubernetes in more than 20 regions to date, with more to come, Ryan Van Wyk, tells Light Reading. 

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T-mobile & Sprint merger preparing all kind of dishes to gets various approvals

The combined T-Mobile/Sprint's commitment to bridging the digital divide is further illustrated by its pledge to continue supporting Sprint's signature corporate philanthropy -- the 1Million Project," T-Mobile wrote in a January filing with the state agency,   

T-Mobile said it will support Sprint's 1Million Project if the two companies are allowed to merge. The pledge, contained in one of T-Mobile's lengthy filings with the Public Service Commission for the state of New York, represents another lever that T-Mobile is pulling in its efforts to convince regulators and others that its proposed transaction with Sprint is in the public interest. 

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Verizon's Nicki Palmer : Initially, 5G needs to be different than 4G. And that's why Ultra Wideband is our path of choice

What Verizon's Palmer is saying is that Verizon plans to implement the same spectrum and technology for its mobile 5G service that it's currently using for its fixed 5G Home service.  

The network deployment scenario for 5G in bands above 20GHz -- dubbed the millimeter-wave bands -- is quite different. Transmissions in millimeter-wave bands can only travel a few thousand feet at best, due to the propagation characteristics of that spectrum, and they generally can't penetrate into buildings and other structures. Thus, if a carrier wanted to cover an entire city with millimeter-wave 5G, they might need to install hundreds or even thousands of new 5G transmitters in order to provide coverage throughout that whole city. Meaning, they couldn't simply reuse their existing towers -- instead, they would have to build lots and lots of new transmission sites in between the towers they're already using for 4G.

And this is why Verizon's pledge to double down on mobile 5G in millimeter-wave spectrum is so surprising.

Palmer continued: "Because if you don't have 800, 900 almost 1GHz of capacity in those wavelengths, if you don't have that, then you're not really getting the speed and throughput. Now, can you do different things with that? Sure. But, initially, 5G needs to be different than 4G. And that's why Ultra Wideband is our path of choice. And that's why our spectrum is in the millimeter-wave range. Because it will provide an absolutely different experience. Not just for the home -- where we're getting 300 Mbit/s and above, close to 1 Gig -- but also for mobility and smartphones and unique applications for consumers. So that's where we're starting, and we feel really good about it. And no comments further than that."

It's that last part of Palmer's statement -- about millimeter wave not only for the home but also for mobility -- that's really important here. Verizon in October of last year launched its 5G Home fixed wireless Internet service in four cities, using roughly 400MHz of its 28GHz spectrum holdings. The offering beams 5G signals from a nearby tower (usually 500-1,000 feet away) to a receiver on the outside or inside of a user's home or office, and that receiver then connects to a WiFi router. The WiFi router then broadcasts a WiFi connection that provides speeds of at least 300 Mbit/s but in some cases up to 1Gbit/s.

Source lightreading

Increasing horizon of O-RAN as Ericsson enters into it.

Ericsson has joined the O-RAN Alliance, which focuses on evolving the radio access network (RAN) architecture and orchestration toward open-source, rather than proprietary, implementations.

Ericsson said that joining the O-RAN Alliance "reinforces [its]commitment to network evolution, openness, and industry collaboration" and that it will "focus on the open interworking between RAN and network orchestration and automation, with emphasis on AI-enabled closed-loop automation and end-to-end optimization, with the aim of lowering operating cost and improve end-user performance."

Its engagement with the O-RAN Alliance "is based on the future needs of mobile network service providers, and how networks must evolve to enable broad range of services with strong focus on quality, performance and security," the equipment vendor added.

Ericsson said that it plans to focus on the upper-layer function, as specified in 3GPP, to provide interoperable multivendor profiles for specified interfaces between central RAN functions, which it said would result in faster deployment of 5G networks on a global scale.

The O-RAN Alliance believes that it will be "impossible to bring service agility and cloud scale economics to the RAN without openness." 

O-RAN Alliance was founded in February of last year by mobile operators AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo and Orange. The management structure consists of an operating board made up of 15 operators and a Technical Steering Committee, and it currently has six technical workgroups, a TSC workgroup and an operator workgroup.

O-RAN members include AT&T, China Mobile, Orange, NTT DoCoMo, T-Mobile, China Telecom, Airtel, Jio, KT Corp, Singtel, SK Telecom, TIM, Telefonica, Telstra, Verizon, Dish, KDDI, SoftBank and Sprint. Its contributors include Amdocs, Aricent, Broadcom, Ciena, Cisco, Commscope, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Intel, JMA Wireless, Keysight Technologies, NEC, Nokia, Red Hat, Samsung, Viavi and ZTE.

In December 2018, O-RAN said it had started collaboration arrangements with the Linux Foundation to establish an open source software community for the creation of open source RAN software. Collaboration with the Linux Foundation would enable the creation of open source software supporting the O-RAN architecture and interfaces, the entity said.

Source  

Get AT&T 5G E on Apple devices

Some AT&T customers with Android handsets have begun seeing a "5Ge" indicator when connected to the operator's LTE-Advanced network. Now, with its most recent operating system update, Apple users will begin seeing the same thing, according to news reports and Twitter posts.

To be clear: AT&T offers standards-based mobile 5G in parts of 12 markets with support from a mobile hot spot and plans to offer a millimeter wave-compatible handset from OEM Samsung in the first-half of this year. However, AT&T's so-called "5G Evolution" network uses LTE-A features, including 4×4 MIMO, 256 QAM and multi-channel carrier aggregation.

Throughout 2019, expect to see numerous Android OEMs bring to market 5G smartphones based on Qualcomm's X50 modem. While Apple hasn't articulated its plans for a 5G phone, most industry watchers don't expect a 5G iPhone until sometime in 2020 which, to some extent, is attributed to ongoing disputes between Apple and Qualcomm.

Get more HERE

400 MHz of Mid-band Spectrum for 5G will add $274B to America’s Economy, Create 1.3M Jobs

As per CTIA new analysis report, 

Making 400 MHz of mid-band spectrum available for commercial 5G networks will add $274 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.3 million new jobs, according to new research from Analysis Group. Mid-band spectrum is critical to 5G but the United States trails other countries in mid-band availability. A 2018 Analysys Mason study shows other countries plan to make over four times more licensed mid-band spectrum available than the United States by 2020. 

"Thanks to the investment of America's wireless industry, and the leadership of the Federal Communications Commission, we lead the world in 5G deployment and the first commercial 5G networks are live in cities across the country," said Meredith Attwell Baker, CTIA President and CEO. "Making more mid-band spectrum available will secure our long-term wireless leadership and boost our economy. The FCC is already making great progress freeing up mid-band and we're confident that under the leadership of Chairman Pai, we can quickly close the gap."

Next-generation 5G networks rely on a mix of high-, mid- and low-band spectrum. Low-band spectrum carries signals over long distances and was the foundation for the first four generations of wireless networks. High-band spectrum travels much shorter distances, but offers the greater capacity required for data-intensive applications. Mid-band spectrum blends the attributes of both, delivering high capacity across larger geographic areas.

To determine the potential economic impact of mid-band spectrum on America's economy, Analysis Group modeled the investments wireless providers will need to make in order to deploy networks using 400 MHz of mid-band spectrum over a seven year period, the jobs created in the building of those networks, and the resulting economic benefits. 

Key findings include:

• Wireless providers will invest greater than $150 billion in infrastructure to deliver 5G services over mid-band spectrum
  
• The wireless industry will create 1.3 million new jobs—on a direct and spillover effect basis—to deploy mid-band infrastructure
  
• The economic activity resulting from this investment and job creation will add $274 billion to America's GDP
  

"Newly allocated mid-band spectrum will complement the spectrum wireless providers are currently using, allowing the blend of coverage and capacity necessary to bring revolutionary 5G services to the U.S.," said David Sosa, Principal at Analysis Group. "The investment required to build out 5G networks to use this spectrum will generate substantial economic benefits in the form of higher GDP and job creation in communities large and small."

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The Korean carrier expects to fully launch 5G commercial services next month

South Korea network operator KT has announced a new 5G offering, ahead of the full launch of the technology next month. 

KT says it is supporting the world's first robot cafe using its 5G mobile network in Seoul. The B;eat cafe — which has been using robots to serve customers — now has a 5G-powered robot barista. The robots at B;eat take mobile orders from customers, brew the coffee and deliver it to a pick-up point, according to published reports. Korea Times reported that after installing a 5G mobile hotspot at the cafe, the robot barista can offer faster service than it could with wired internet service.

KT deployed the first phase of its 5G network in late November. The new service has been launched in the greater Seoul metropolitan area, in the country's most populated, major metropolitan cities outside Seoul and in isolated areas including Jeju, Ulleung and Dok islands. The carrier also said it plans to expand its nationwide 5G network to 24 major cities, key transport routes such as expressways, subways, high-speed railways, large universities and neighbourhood shopping areas.

KT also said that it will focus on the development of five key areas in the 5G field: smart cities, smart factories, connected cars, 5G media and the 5G cloud. The Korean carrier also said that it is working with partners in Korea and around the world, such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Mobis, Posco, Intel, Ericsson, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Last month, KT showcased the capabilities of 5G technology through a special bus service in central Seoul. The bus allowed passengers to experience next-generation technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, through KT's 5G network. The bus was equipped with VR headsets that provided live multi-channels in real-time, with a 360-degree viewing angle.

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Verizon tested MEC ( proprietary element out of its intelligent edge network solution) to reduce latency on its 5G networks

Verizon engineers used Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC) equipment and MEC platform software on a live 5G network that slashed network latency in half. Latency remains one of the most challenging aspects of 5G networkdeployments that are looking to power latency-sensitive use cases like autonomous vehicles and telemedicine.

The test took place at Verizon's 5G test bed in Houston. Company engineers installed the equipment and software at a network facility closer to the network edge, which reduced the physical distance data needed to travel between a wireless device and the compute infrastructure. It also relied on the carrier's Intelligent Edge Network architecture.

Adam Koeppe, senior vice president of network planning for Verizon, explained that the MEC equipment and software was internally derived and not specific to any of the dozens of "MEC"-related edge computing platforms in the market.

"This is an element of our Intelligent Edge Network and not just software defined or virtual network functions out to the cloud," Koeppe said. "It's really a capability that allows us to go after 5G use cases but also use cases outside of 5G."

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The other side stories are emerging fast out of Huawei Woes.

Security concerns about Huawei's products could boost Extreme Networks' data center business, according to Extreme President and CEO Ed Meyercord.

"Our story and our product portfolio are resonating well with European customers," Meyercord said on the company's fiscal second quarter of 2019 earnings call. "European governments are also placing greater scrutiny on the security concerns around Huawei products, which is creating an opportunity for us in the marketplace," he added, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Most of the news about Huawei's woes has been 5G-related, pointing to a financial boost for U.S. and Western European telecom equipment providers like Cisco, Ericsson, and Nokia. But these same security concerns and potential product bans also create a market opportunity for data center networking vendors.

Meyercord noted one such customer win against Huawei with a "large European auto manufacturer." The carmaker needed a secure networking solution in its assembly plants, he said. "The customer implemented our Fabric Connect solutions based on features, security, support, and differentiated technology despite a much lower competitive bid from Huawei."

Get full Story here 

Vodafone diplomatic pause on Huawei equipments

Speaking on the earnings call last week, CEO Nick Read stated the following:

"Specifically on Huawei, what I was really trying to make clear is, I think we need to move to more a fact-based conversation, I think at the moment is a simplistic political level and there is a big distinction between radio and core. We are predominately using Huawei in radio. We are continuing to use them in radio for 5G. However, in the core, we have put them on pause. They are not significant in the scale of our operations in the core and therefore it's not a big financial implication."

With 275 million customers around the world, plus another 250-odd million through joint-ventures, this is one of the biggest telcos in the world. With networks spreading across Europe, Africa and Asia, the buying power and influence of Vodafone is considerable. This could a massive blow to the prospects of Huawei, both financially and in terms of credibility.  

Get Full Story HERE

Huawei Launches World's Most Advance Chip for Simplified 5G

Huawei today launched world's first core chip specifically designed for 5G base stations, Huawei TIANGANG. At a 5G launch event in Beijing that doubled up as a pre-briefing for the MWC Barcelona 2019, Huawei announced the innovative chip that will support simplified 5G networks and large-scale 5G network deployment all over the world. To date, the company has won 30 commercial 5G contracts and shipped over 25,000 5G base stations globally.

Huawei is committed to taking complexity itself and creating simplicity for its customers. To this end, the company has invested heavily and continues to innovate. Its end-to-end 5G chips support networks of all standards and all bands (C band, 3.5G, and 2.6G), helping customers access the best wireless and microwave services. "Huawei has long been committed to investing in basic science and technology. We were the first to make breakthroughs in key technologies for large-scale 5G commercial use," said Ryan Ding, Huawei Executive Director of the Board and Carrier BG CEO. "Huawei now has industry-leading capabilities to deliver end-to-end 5G, with simplified 5G networks and simplified operations & maintenance (O&M). We are leading the commercial rollout of 5G, and building a mature industry ecosystem."

Huawei launched the industry's first 5G core chip, Huawei TIANGANG, with breakthroughs in integration, computing power, and spectral bandwidth. This chip is highly integrated, which means it can support large-scale integration of active power amplifiers (PAs) and passive antenna arrays into very small antennas. It also boasts super high computing capacity, with a 2.5-fold increase over previous chips. Using the latest algorithms and beamforming technology, a single chip can control up to 64 channels, which is the industry's highest standard. This chip also supports the 200 MHz high spectral bandwidth, getting ready for future network deployment.

This chip also brings revolutionary improvements in active antenna units (AAUs), with 50% smaller, 23% lighter. 5G base stations can be deployed in just half the time it took to install a 4G base station. These features will help address issues such as site acquisition and network deployment costs.

source 

US ally feeling the heat over Huawei issue

US ally feeling the heat over Huawei issue, as  British foreign minister, arrived in Washington this past week for a whirlwind of meetings dominated by a critical question: Should Britain risk its relationship with Beijing and agree to the Trump administration's request to ban Huawei.

In Poland, officials are also under pressure from the United States to bar Huawei from building its fifth generation, or 5G, network. Trump officials suggested that future deployments of US troops — including the prospect of a permanent base labeled "Fort Trump" — could hinge on Poland's decision.

And a delegation of US officials showed up this spring in Germany, where most of Europe's giant fiber-optic lines connect and Huawei wants to build the switches that make the system hum. Their message: Any economic benefit of using cheaper Chinese telecom equipment is outweighed by the security threat to the NATO alliance.

During the past year, the United States has embarked on a stealthy, occasionally threatening, global campaign to prevent Huawei and other Chinese firms from participating in the most dramatic remaking of the plumbing that controls the internet since it sputtered into being, in pieces, 35 years ago.  

Source 

5G - Could it be a platform of dominance for years and change the strategic games?

5G is most buzzing term in telecom industry since a couple of years now. As an technologies its going to be a enabler of many things that's going to affect the economies to far larger extent.

I think while defining objective for IMT2020, even ITU-T was not prudent in sensing the power of 5G abilities that it can bring to world and impact at large.

5G seemed so far being taken as technology next to 4G, which would enhance the communication systems for more better and fast service provisioning and delivery. 

But the real power of 5G capability was reckoned, probably late, and that became the point of conflict for the dominance into 5G. 

As 5G, for many in ecosystem, is still on test bed and trails, vendors like Nokia is in phase of acquiring grant to do research on 5G. On the other hand Chinese vendors are far ahead and Specifically Huawei has not only taken leading position, far ahead of other, but having in the spree of dominance across the globe. 

We should also be noted that 5G is not a confined technology but a notion of many advancement constructed well for delivering connectivity services of all scale. 

We provided our whitepaper for that with a notion of "5G as large scale convergence", hopefully few could have understood. you may here with it (its for beginners too in 5G). 

http://community.xgnlab.com/2019/01/5g-rationales-and-strategic-insights.html

Also most interesting part of 5G is that once it settle its gonna settle for next industry evolution or revolution, like it is there for industry 4.0 and will remain at least till industry 5.0. And that's a worry some for many who reckoned 5G abilities a little bit late. So the dominance into 5G should be distributed, not from particular vendors or from a specific land or part of world. 

That's all late rising community want a margin of time for many others to come forward in 5G field, and their intent is being reflected earlier through politicized game plan, but now even voices to restrain on 5G is appearing on major telecom service providers.  As recently Verizon CTO spoken about to keep the 5G term reserved for future.

Among all these matter, 5G is becoming highly politicized. As per the recent news Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign minister, arrived in Washington this past week for a whirlwind of meetings dominated by a critical question: Should Britain risk its relationship with Beijing and agree to the Trump administration's request to ban Huawei.

In Poland, officials are also under pressure from the United States to bar Huawei from building its fifth generation, or 5G, network. Trump officials suggested that future deployments of US troops — including the prospect of a permanent base labeled "Fort Trump" — could hinge on Poland's decision. And a delegation of US officials showed up this spring in Germany, where most of Europe's giant fiber-optic lines connect and Huawei wants to build the switches that make the system hum. 

Their message: Any economic benefit of using cheaper Chinese telecom equipment is outweighed by the security threat to the NATO alliance.  

The administration contends that the world is engaged in a new arms race — one that involves technology, rather than conventional weaponry, but poses just as much danger to US national security. In an age when the most powerful weapons, short of nuclear arms, are cyber-controlled, whichever country dominates 5G will gain an economic, intelligence and military edge for much of this century. 

The views are from observations and perception, expressed by Saurabh Verma, Chief Technology Consultant, fundarc Communication (xgnlab).

Some of news has been taken from HERE

BT going to lure Chinese Customers

BT has become the first international telecoms firm to be granted a domestic telecoms licence in China, according to a company release. 

BT received two domestic Chinese licences from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology this week, in a move that will allow BT to bill its Chinese customers in their local currency and forge direct business relationships with them. 

"We are delighted with this major benefit for our customers. Thanks to cooperation between the governments of the PRC and the UK, we are now able to offer a nationwide service in China that can be scaled up to match the ambitions and needs of our customers.  Being able to service and bill locally significantly simplifies the process of delivering connectivity and other communication services. It is what our customers expect from us and we are very grateful for the opportunity to do this as of today," said Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services at BT. 

The allocation of the 'China Nationwide Domestic IP-VPN' licence and the 'China nationwide Internet Service Provider (ISP)' licence will allow BT to expand its offering in China and will open up lucrative revenue opportunities in the world's second biggest economy. 

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