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Tag: telco

  • Samsung ships nearly 7 million Galaxy 5G devices in 2019

    Samsung ships nearly 7 million Galaxy 5G devices in 2019

    Even though 5G services are still in the early stages of development, consumers have already started to invest in 5G devices. Samsung is one of the biggest providers of 5G smartphones, at least according to the numbers revealed today by the South Korean company.

    During 2019, Samsung has shipped no less than 6.7 million Galaxy 5G devices, which accounts for nearly 54% of the global smartphone market. Currently, Samsung offers five 5G-enabled smartphones, including the Galaxy S10 5G, Note 10 5G, Note 10+ 5G, Galaxy A90 5G, and Galaxy Fold 5G.

    Also, Samsung will launch the Galaxy Tab S6 5G, the world’s first tablet to feature 5G support, in the first quarter of 2020. The slate should be initially released in South Korea, but customers in the United States will be able to buy it soon afterward.

    Samsung Electronics’ president TM Roh promised that 2020 will be the year of Galaxy 5G and that his company will slowly bring the technology to more device categories, so expect even more 5G Galaxy devices to arrive in the coming months.

    On a side note, Samsung confirmed that it is now providing network equipment for the 5G commercial service in South Korea and that it’s been selected to offer 5G network equipment for three major US carriers.

  • Apple reportedly has plans to bypass carriers and deliver data itself to the iPhone

    Apple reportedly has plans to bypass carriers and deliver data itself to the iPhone

    In five years, Apple iPhone and iPad users might be able to receive online content on their phone directly via satellite and bypass their wireless carrier. According to Bloomberg, the company has a secret team involving 12 engineers currently working on such a project. Sources cited by Bloomberg caution that the project is in its early stages and could still be dropped. But with company CEO Tim Cook taking an interest in the project, it is clear that satellite delivery of online content is high on Apple’s to-do list.

    Besides using satellites to beam the internet directly to iPhone units, Apple could be looking into the use of satellite technology to provide iPhone owners with improved navigation and mapping capabilities. It is unclear whether the company plans on developing its own satellites, which would be a rather costly endeavor, or will use the equipment on the ground to send data obtained by a satellite and send it to iPhones and iPads.

    The project might not be limited to Apple’s mobile devices and could actually be a workaround allowing Apple to become a wireless operator. This would allow the company to take on the carriers worldwide. While this was something that the late Steve Jobs was hoping to accomplish, back in 2016 Tim Cook said that the company didn’t have the expertise on a network level. But using satellites might be a different story. However, this won’t be easy. “The lessons of prior failures like Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic are that it’s really hard to find a viable business plan for multibillion-dollar satellite communications projects,” said satellite expert Tim Farrar, a principal at TMF associates. But Apple must feel confident that it can turn a buck with this technology. Apple isn’t the only tech company looking at the sky; Amazon plans on deploying more than 3,000 satellites that will first be sent into space in 2021. In a regulatory filing, Amazon said that it hoped to connect “tens of millions of unserved and underserved consumers and businesses in the United States and around the globe.”

    Some have noticed that Apple is looking for software and hardware engineers that have worked on designing components for communications equipment. Pair that with recent hires made by Apple of people with experience in the aerospace and wireless data delivery industries and it all starts to become a little clearer. The team working on the project is led by aerospace engineers Michael Trela and John Fenwick. The pair worked on a satellite imaging firm that was eventually sold to Google five years ago and they ended up running Google’s satellite and spacecraft operations before leaving for Apple in 2017. After spending 18 months examining whether Apple could benefit from satellite technology, the team has started work on making this a reality. Both Trela and Fenwick report to Apple’s iPhone engineering group.

    Apple’s work on the use of satellites to deliver content to mobile devices is one of several special projects that the company is reportedly working on. Virtual reality and augmented reality headsets are said to be in the works with launches expected in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Bloomberg also mentions that Apple continues to work on technology for the Apple Watch that will allow the timepiece to provide non-invasive blood glucose readings for diabetics. This is a project that we have mentioned from time-to-time. And the company is also planning to design its own modem chips which will allow it to replace Qualcomm. Even though Apple spent $1 billion to purchase Intel’s smartphone modem business earlier this year, it will still be several years before an Apple-designed modem chip is found inside the iPhone.

  • 5G tops list of top 10 technology trends for 2020

    5G tops list of top 10 technology trends for 2020

    Juniper Research has revealed its top 10 technology trends for 2020, with 5G data network the standout.

    Other trends involve brands Huawei, Google and Netflix with the list rounded out by a strong warning for consumers.

    Juniper Research’s top 10 technology trends for 2020 are:

    1. 5G – Last-mile fibre rollouts will be replaced by 5G connectivity.
    2. OTT TV – Over-the-top television services will prompt advertising services to develop a functional attribution ecosystem to preserve marketing message channels for brand clients.
    3. Mobility as a Service – Open data in transportation will start to drive MaaS beyond Europe.
    4. Games – Subscription models will flourish in the games market, but ‘live’ elements will diminish in popularity.
    5. Netflix will have to seek out new sources of revenue growth as competition increases.
    6. Google will expand its Rich Communications Services in Europe.
    7. Google will leverage its newly acquired Fitbit division’s health credentials to mount a challenge to Apple Watch.
    8. Huawei’s ban will expand, resulting in uneven growth of the 5G network internationally.
    9. Robotics – Consumer robots will launch via subscription models.
    10. Voice Assistants – Security concerns will come to a head bringing trouble for smart-homes devices.

    Juniper says with the first commercial launches of 5G networks occurring this year, next year –  2020 – will be the one in which 5G connectivity starts to replace costly rollouts of fibre networks in remote areas.

    “We anticipate that the high bandwidth and throughput of 5G networks will provide a highly appealing and cost-effective alternative to the rollout of fibre,” said a Juniper spokesperson.

    Meanwhile, number two in Juniper’s top 10 technology trends for 2020 – the launch of new OTT (Over-the-Top) TV services will experience launches of functional advertising attribution systems that will align advertising closer to the wider digital advertising ecosystem.

    Juniper also believes that open-data initiatives will provide the perfect platform to expand the presence of MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) deployments outside of Europe.

    “We predict that increasing transparency between stakeholders will create new levels of efficiency for services launches in regions such as North America and Asia Pacific over 2020.”

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  • China forces new mobile network subscribers to provide facial scans

    China forces new mobile network subscribers to provide facial scans

    A controversial law which forces new mobile subscribers in China to first provide scans of their face has now been implemented.

    To sign up for a new plan, Chinese consumers will still need their national ID card but will now also be forced to supply facial scans. First announced in September, Beijing says it’s taking the step to “protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace.”

    The measure is designed to reduce fraud. However, privacy campaigners believe it’s also part of Beijing’s desire to ensure no-one is truly anonymous online.

    Being able to link digital identities to real-world individuals helps to silence dissenters. At a time when protestors in Hong Kong are facing brutality for expressing their view that Beijing has infringed on the country’s autonomy, the new measures have naturally raised further concerns.

    Another fear is how the collected facial scans are being used after verification. Strict data laws in many Western countries require explicit consent as to how data is stored and used, but such laws are practically nonexistent in China.

    Facial scans may be used to further train national facial recognition algorithms that have already been used for oppressive purposes.

    China uses a robust facial recognition system in Xinjiang, a Muslim-dominated region. Geofencing is used in tandem with facial recognition to alert the authorities if targets venture beyond a 300-meter safe zone.

    Beijing maintains the system in Xinjiang is vital to tackle numerous incidents of violence and unrest, which it links to Islamic extremists. However, Human Rights Watch has condemned the policies as a “violation of international human rights norms.”

    China boasts the world’s largest surveillance network with around 170 million security cameras and plans to install a further 400 million over the next three years.

    In a bid to quickly understand this massive resource and provide actionable insights, Beijing is turning to AI.

    The world’s most valuable AI startup, SenseTime, is a Chinese firm that provides technology for the government’s surveillance network.

    SenseTime’s Viper system aims to process and analyze over 100,000 simultaneous real-time streams from traffic cameras, ATMs, and more, to automatically tag and keep track of individuals.

    It’s unclear whether SenseTime will have direct access to facial scans collected by the Chinese government, but it seems likely scans will be used by the authorities to find those it deems a threat.

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  • South Korea boasts of hitting almost four million 5G subscribers

    South Korea boasts of hitting almost four million 5G subscribers

    The Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea reports the country is close to hitting the milestone of four million 5G subscribers.

    While it’s often debated whether South Korea or the US was first to launch a commercially available 5G network, both countries were among the first.

    This leadership makes South Korea closely watched by industry observers for how their 5G rollout is progressing, including the pace of adoption.

    5G adoption is happening fast in South Korea. As of October, the ministry reports that 5G networks across the country had 3.98 million subscribers.

    In September, the ministry says 516,000 more people subscribed to 5G services. In fact, a minimum of half a million new 5G subscribers have been added every month since networks launched in April.

    If that pace continued throughout October and November, it’s likely the four million 5G subscribers milestone has already been exceeded. While Christmas in South Korea isn’t as present-oriented as in the West, the holiday may also provide some further uptick in adoption in December.

    To date, the highest rise in subscribers was in August when Samsung launched its Galaxy Note 10 5G smartphone.

    SK Telecom has the most 5G subscribers with 1.77 million, followed by KT’s 1.21 million and LG Uplus’ 1 million.

    Traffic growth has also been substantial. In October, the ministry notes a total of 105,000 terabytes of traffic was recorded on 5G networks. Users consumed an average of 28 gigabytes of data that month.

    In a bid to handle the exploding amount of traffic, South Korea plans to double 5G spectrum allocation by 2026.

    While 5G networks in South Korea are currently not standalone and use 3.5GHz spectrum, the country plans to develop standalone 2.8GHz spectrums early next year.

  • Optus claims making world’s first 5G data call using 2300MHz spectrum

    Optus claims making world’s first 5G data call using 2300MHz spectrum

    Australian telecommunication company Optus is claiming that it has made the world’s first 5G data call by making use of a 2300MHz spectrum.

    Optus conducted the test in Sydney with Ericsson kit. According to the company, it is the only Australian telecommunications firm with shares in the 2300MHz and 3500MHz spectrum bands.

    Optus network managing director Dennis Wong said: “With its lowest frequency, the 2300MHz spectrum band, in the future, will finally offer our customers even higher speeds, as well as provide greater depth of coverage that will allow even more customers to benefit from 5G services.” Optus was looking to activate its 2300MHz spectrum “sometime” in 2020, Wong added.

    In its latest Mobility Report, published last month, Ericsson predicted that global 5G subscriptions will exceed 2.6 billion within the next six years. By this time, 5G will cover 65% of the world. The firm also believes that total mobile subscriptions, including to previous generation networks, will reach 8.9bn from 8bn over the next six years. The current average monthly data-traffic-per-smartphone is expected to increase from around 7.2GB today to 24GB in the same timeframe. Over a quarter of the worldwide subscriptions will be 5G by 2025 and will account for around 45% of global mobile data traffic.

    A Deloitte survey published last week argued that two in three consumers are more likely to buy a new phone once 5G-compatible devices are available. The survey also found that 16% of consumers who are using smartphones said that 5G capabilities will be the most crucial factor when they choose their next phone. While 26% chose display quality as their top preference, 22% opted for brand.

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  • Nokia will reveal its plans for 5G phones

    Nokia will reveal its plans for 5G phones

    A little more than a week ago, Nokia first teased that it will be launching its next smartphone on the 5th of December. Of course, no details were given — whether it would be a flagship or not is left to speculation. Luckily, we have a new leak that lets us speculate at will!

    Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas has tweeted out that he will be getting up on stage at the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit — the event where Qualcomm will talk about its future chips. According to Mr. Sarvikas, we will also get to learn about Nokia’s plans for 5G phones. The exact date when this would happen is Tuesday, December 3rd.

    So, Nokia is talking about its 5G plans on the 3rd and launching a new phone almost immediately, on the 5th of December. Could the latter actually be Nokia’s first 5G-equipped flagship?

    We’d wager chances are thin. Earlier rumors suggest that Nokia is, indeed, planning to release a value-priced 5G top-tier phone, but that’ll happen at MWC 2020. Heads up, though — that’s actually happening in late February, so it won’t be a long wait. The Qualcomm conference on the 3rd of December might at least reveal if this is really happening.

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  • Telenor, Carousell merger will elevate the marketplace to the next level

    Telenor, Carousell merger will elevate the marketplace to the next level

    701Search owns leading general classifieds sites Mudah in Malaysia, Chotot in Vietnam and OneKyat in Myanmar. Johan Rostoft, Head of Online Classifieds at Telenor Group, said “We have built a profitable and high-growth marketplace business serving millions of users every single day. This transaction presents an attractive opportunity for us to take the next step in our marketplace journey, and it also simplifies Telenor’s portfolio. We believe that Carousell is the best partner for our online classifieds business in Southeast Asia.”

    “We are thrilled to partner with Telenor Group to cement our classifieds leadership across eight markets in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan,” shared Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell, and continued, “With Telenor Group’s extensive experience in each local market, coupled with Carousell’s relentless focus to use technology to make selling and buying easy and frictionless, we are confident that together we will create an even more vibrant marketplace for the community across Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. In the next few months, we look forward to working with our new teammates to learn about the dynamics of these local markets, create opportunities that are mutually beneficial for our community of users, and inspire even more people to start selling and buying.”

    Carousell is one of the most prominent start-ups in Southeast Asia, with dominant positions in Singapore and Hong Kong. The majority of its employees are based in Singapore. Following the merger, 701Search’s Singapore-based regional team will be fully integrated into Carousell. Mudah, Chotot and OneKyat will retain their individual brands and platforms, continuing operations in Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar respectively. The businesses will report into Carousell’s Group CEO Quek Siu Rui.

    The deal does not require regulatory approval and is closed immediately.

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  • Viettel, VinSmart get approval for factories in Hanoi

    Viettel, VinSmart get approval for factories in Hanoi

    The government has approved the construction of two new factories in Hanoi by state telecom giant Viettel and private smartphone producer VinSmart.

    Viettel will build a 9.1-hectare plant at the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park on the city’s outskirts to test and manufacture high-tech equipment and a 13.2-hectare research center for defense products, electronic and telecom equipment, network infrastructure, and 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

    Viettel will also coordinate with the park’s management board to trial applications for smart cities related to issues like environmental management, urban lighting and smart parking.

    VinSmart, the electronics arm of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate, Vingroup, will build a 4.8-ha smart electronics plant which is likely to have a capacity of 125 million devices a year in its first phase.

    Their completion dates are not known.

    Viettel and VinSmart’s plants are two of four new projects worth VND7.46 trillion ($320.42 million) that have been approved at the park, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

    The others are by two private companies to produce drugs and radiation-resistant plastics.

    Military-run Viettel in January became the first company in the country to receive permission to trial 5G services followed by MobiFone. It plans to launch in 2020, installed the first 5G station in Hanoi early this year and made the first 5G phone call in May.

    VinSmart was established by Vingroup in June, and produced its first smartphones within just six months. It has produced a total of eight models so far.

  • Qualcomm’s anti-competitive business practices get support from the Trump administration

    Qualcomm’s anti-competitive business practices get support from the Trump administration

    Back in May, Judge Lucy Koh (of Apple v. Samsung fame) made a ruling that still might change the way Qualcomm sells its chips to phone manufacturers. The judge ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission and against the chipmaker after a 10-day non-jury trial was held at the beginning of the year. The FTC argued that Qualcomm’s “no license, no chips” policy is anti-competitive.
    Other Qualcomm policies attacked in court included the way royalty payments are calculated based on the entire price of a phone instead of the chip being used. And Qualcomm was also cited for not licensing its standards-essential patents (SEP). These are patents that must be licensed by rivals to guarantee that their products meet technical standards; as a result, they are supposed to be licensed on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory fashion (FRAND). In its defense, Qualcomm says that the argument of royalties is an issue of contract law that should not be heard in a forum designed for antitrust cases. And it also says that there is nothing wrong with getting compensated for the money it spends on R&D.
    In her decision, Koh said that Qualcomm needs to renegotiate its current contracts with phone manufacturers. In her written decision, Judge Koh said, “Qualcomm’s licensing practices have strangled competition in the CDMA and the premium LTE modem chip markets for years, and harmed rivals, OEMs, and end consumers in the process.” As you might expect, Qualcomm has appealed the decision and even managed to get the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a stay. This prevents Qualcomm from having to follow Koh’s orders until all of its legal options have been exhausted. The firm did have a compelling reason to request a stay; it would be a waste of time and energy to renegotiate all of its contracts only to win on appeal and reverse all of the changes made.
    And speaking of the appeal, the FTC is actually on the opposite side of the Trump administration. Before Judge Koh released her decision, Trump officials asked her to limit any penalties that she was planning to impose on the chipmaker. And now that the case is being heard in appeals court, the administration is concerned that a Qualcomm loss will negatively impact America’s global leadership in technology and national security. And the Justice Department, under the leadership of U.S. Attorney General William Barr, has contradicted the FTC by stating that there is nothing anti-competitive about Qualcomm’s business practices. That is unusual because the FTC and the DOJ both handle antitrust cases. The Justice Department is joined by the Defense Department and Energy Department which told the appeals court that a ruling against Qualcomm could affect the country’s military and its energy and nuclear infrastructure.
    But perhaps even more important to the Trump administration is the possibility that should Qualcomm lose on appeal, it will negatively impact the rollout of 5G in the states. The next generation of wireless connectivity will initially deliver download data speeds 10 times faster than 4G LTE and will lead to the creation of new businesses and industries. The nations that harness 5G first will have a big advantage in the global economy. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 and X55 modem chips allow smartphones to connect to 5G networks. The former is compatible with the super zippy ultra-high mmWave spectrum while the latter works with both mmWave and sub-6GHz  airwaves.
    But as far as the FTC is concerned, Qualcomm and the Justice Department have not shown how Judge Koh’s ruling “threatens national security in any way — or how those considerations could justify allowing Qualcomm to continue to violate” U.S. antitrust law. The 9th circuit appeals court, located in San Francisco, could start hearing arguments in February and issue a ruling sometime in 2020. For Qualcomm, there is plenty at stake.
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  • Softbank, Line merger foretells the birth of a new tech powerhouse

    Softbank, Line merger foretells the birth of a new tech powerhouse

    The alliance between the two Japanese companies is estimated to be worth $30 billion and is expected to be concluded by October next year. The merger’s combined revenue could see it totalling $11 billion, easily surpassing its domestic competitor Rakuten.

    Tech analysts have lauded the merger, stating that this agreement would give Z Holdings and Line the opportunity to extend their reach towards a larger consumer base and increased negotiating power with its advertisers. Softbank and Naver, which owns Line, will each control 50% of the share in Z holdings.

    “We were driven by a sense of crisis about global competition and the pace of change in AI,” said Takeshi Idezawa, co-Chief Executive at Line. “The timing arrived for us to move on to the next phase [with this merger].”

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  • Nokia, Hitachi union will support local enterprises through 5G and private LTE solutions

    Nokia, Hitachi union will support local enterprises through 5G and private LTE solutions

    As part of the collaboration, the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud platform with its secure, reliable and low-latency connectivity will be used for applications including video analytics, AI, machine learning and IoT, as well as drones, group communication, and AR/VR. It will also enable autonomous transport vehicles, such as trucks, trains, forklifts and straddle carriers, to increase productivity at factories, utilities, airports and ports.

    The Japanese government is releasing 5G spectrum designated for individual companies and local governments (known in Japan as local 5G) at the end of 2019. This will enable enterprises, regional authorities and other organizations in Japan to deploy the next-generation of industrial-strength wireless connectivity based on LTE and 5G technologies to create local private, reliable networks.

    Nokia and Hitachi Kokusai Electric will collaborate to provide an eco-system of solutions to support the deployment of new digital automation services. Hitachi Kokusai Electric will share its expertise as a leader in driving the adoption of private LTE networks for industry use and disaster prevention in Japan. Nokia will lend its private LTE/4.9G and 5G wireless connectivity solutions, which have established a global marketplace footprint across energy, transportation, public sector, manufacturing and logistics.

    Kaichiro Sakuma, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hitachi Kokusai Electric, commented, “Industrial grade private wireless networks will be very important for our industry customers, helping them to become more efficient, automating dangerous operations, and improving worker safety. Our collaboration with Nokia is helping to speed the delivery of these innovative capabilities to the Japanese market.”

    John Harrington, Head of Nokia Japan, said, “Partnerships such as this help us to better serve the increasing needs of local 5G and digitalization technology in Japan. Collaborating with partners with in-depth knowledge and expertise across industry segments is critical to the widespread adoption of digital automation and private wireless solutions in industrial settings. Thanks to our comprehensive end-to-end-portfolio, we are ideally placed to support Hitachi Kokusai Electric and its customers to benefit from secure, highly reliable, ultra-broadband wireless networking.”

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  • China’s 3 mobile carriers kickstart commercial 5G rollout to the public

    China’s 3 mobile carriers kickstart commercial 5G rollout to the public

    Recently, China Mobile released the results of centralized procurement of Phase I NFV network equipment in 2019. This broad range of procurement involves 31 provincial companies in eight regions of China, which undoubtedly indicates that the full commercial deployment of 5G led by China Mobile has begun.

    NFV network is the only way leading to 5G era

    As we know, the 5G core network defined by 3GPP is a comprehensive cloud-based network architecture in order to meet the deployment requirements of edge diversified services in the 5G usage scenario of uRLLC (Ultra-reliable low latency communication), eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband), and network slicing. 4G will coexist with 5G in foreseeable future. The smooth evolution of 4G core network to 5G requires moving 4G EPC to the cloud, which call for a new technology: Network Function Virtualization (NFV).

    NFV is an important enabling technology in 5G core network era, which can decouple the network functions of traditional vertically integrated dedicated NEs into software and deploy them on COTS servers and switching devices, so that services can be rapidly deployed and launched. Besides, with NFV, 5G networks become more flexible, so as to better support access to different vertical business and meet differentiated service quality requirements of users in different industries.

    At present, SDN/NFV-based network cloudification and network reconstruction have become the common idea of the industry. With the issuance of 5G commercial licenses in various countries, NFV has indeed ushered in large-scale commercial deployment worldwide. China’s three mobile carriers have successively released their network reconstruction plans focusing on SDN/NFV, which include NovoNet 2020 in China Mobile, CTNet 2025 in China Telecom and CUBE-Net 2.0 in China Unicom. In February 2019, Smart Communications, Inc., the Philippines’ leading wireless provider, officially announced the successful commercial use of the world’s first NFV/SDN collaboration all-cloud core network. The US Media reported that the commercial deployment of NFV by AT&T International, Inc., an US mobile carrier, is also entering the turning point.

    The arrival of 5G will undoubtedly accelerate the network virtualization process, and NFV is the only way leading to that Era.

    5G brings huge market opportunities to NFV

    According to the disclosed information, this procurement covers PS domain NEs (vMME, vSAE GW, vPCRF, and vDNS) and IMS domain NEs (vCSCF, vVoLTE AS, vSBC, and vENUM/DNS) from 31 provincial companies in eight regions of China, which almost involves all NEs in the core network. It not only means that China Mobile NFV network project will officially enter the stage of large-scale construction, but also be regarded as the beginning of the full deployment of China Mobile’s 5GC, which will certainly further accelerate the maturity and commercialization of the domestic NFV industry chain.

    At the “China SDN/NFV/AI Conference 2019,” Wei Leping, Executive Deputy Director of Communication Technologies Commission of MIIT, said, “Now the industrial process of NFV in our country is relatively slow. The three mobile carriers should use NFV without hesitation, especially by taking advantage of the opportunity of 5G.” According to the NFV industry report released by Global Market Insights, the NFV market will exceed $70 billion by 2024. About 79% professionals in telecom industry view NFV as a key strategic focus for the next five years’ development.

    NFV becomes the “New Promising Technology”, virtualization services providers embrace bright future

    As we know, all cloud-based telecom networks must be realized the decoupling of hardware and software, which poses challenges and higher requirements for traditional telecom equipment manufacturers. According to the centralized procurement results of China Mobile, traditional equipment manufacturers such as Huawei, Ericsson, and ZTE still occupy the favorable position, providing China Mobile with virtualized NEs, virtualization layers, distributed storage, MANO, and integration services. Take ZTE for example, it is reported that ZTE will construct Virtualized Network Elements (VNF) for 12 provinces, including regional control plane NEs and provincial user plane NEs (GW-U, SBC-U). The telecom cloud resource pool that bears the NFV network is built with servers provided by Inspur and ZTE. Therefore, domestic telecom equipment manufacturers already have the capability to build large-scale NFV networks, and their NFV solutions and products have also been widely used in both global operators’ and government/enterprises’ networks. In this tender, ZTE demonstrated its comprehensive strength in providing end-to-end NFV solutions and a full range of NFV products.

    China is racing ahead in 5G with the largest 5G market. According to a report, total spending on 5G in China will account for about one-fourth in the world. This procurement from China Mobile alone can provide services for hundred millions of users. This not only reflects the technical and service strength of the bid-winning enterprises, but also indicates that virtualization service providers will embrace bright future in the NFV field of 5G era.

    With NFV, 5G can realize low-cost, open, and flexible, and 5G commercial use promotes the maturity and development of NFV industry chain. So, the common progress of 5G and NFV provides broad space for telecom equipment manufacturers.

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  • Nokia is trying to recover from a really bad decision it made about 5G chipsets

    Nokia is trying to recover from a really bad decision it made about 5G chipsets

    Last year when Nokia started planning its 5G networking equipment, it made a decision that came back to bite the company in the, uh, chipset. For Nokia’s line of “ReefShark” chips, used for its 5G radio, baseband and massive MIMO antennas, it decided to go with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) silicon. This type of chip can be programmed by the customer, thus giving Nokia an advantage in getting its 5G gear into the marketplace before the competition. But Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri had to admit that producing FPGA chips cost Nokia more money which reduced its profit margin for the component. As reported by FierceWireless, after reporting its Q3 numbers last week, Nokia lowered its full-year guidance

    Nokia wants to resume production of custom chipsets for its 5G products and to this end, it has hired 350 new employees in Finland to help it develop custom chips. Such development can take two years to complete. Nokia’s global head of Mobile Networks Marketing, Sandro Tavares, said that the company has been working on these SoCs for some time and has started shipping products with the SoCs replacing the FPGAs.

    Tavaras notes that the reasons that Nokia chose the programmable chip is because it can “put together the efficiency characteristics of an SoC but with the flexibility of being able to program via firmware. But it has the flip side of cost and power consumption. FPGAs do cost more in unit price, and they do use more power.” Additionally, Nokia at the time was working to integrate Alcatel Lucent and using FPGA, as previously noted, seemed like the best way to get to market quickly. Tavaras also points out that one supplier let them down. Nokia CEO Suri said that the company is not only designing its own custom SoCs, it also is working with a number of chipmakers including Intel. But the executive says that all of these actions won’t lower Nokia’s cost of building its 5G products until 2021.

    One analyst says that Nokia’s problems run deeper than just having to migrate from FPGA. Stefan Pongratz, senior director at Dell’Oro Group, says that 5G build-out is happening faster than expected and that competition is fierce. Pongratz says that “Nokia also has to deal with the consolidation of multiple platforms following the Alcatel Lucent merger.”

    Nokia has contracts with all four major U.S. carriers to deliver 5G networking equipment and the company was said to be responsible for Sprint’s delay in rolling out 5G service to four cities back in August. But this has been typical of the reputation that Nokia has when it comes to 5G. The company has been accused of lacking steady leadership and during a four-year period, it had three different people running the mobile networks division. That unit is now run by Tommi Uitto who earns nothing but praise from CEO Suri. “Tommi and his team have developed a comprehensive plan to ensure Nokia is competitive in 5G, and they are relentlessly executing against that plan,” Suri says. “Tommi is a strong leader, and he has my full support.” As for the 350 new employees being hired, Suri states, “We are repositioning our workforce to work on topics that are more critical for 5G development. We are hiring people in Finland and in other parts of the world and moving people from different programs to our 5G radio products.”

    Earlier this month, there was talk that the Trump administration had considered offering huge lines of credits to Nokia and its rival Ericsson. This would be done to help the two compete with the global leader in networking equipment, Huawei. The latter is considered a national security threat in the states and with funding from state-run Chinese banks, Huawei can offer generous financing terms to customers. Trump officials hoped to counter this advantage by arranging financing for Nokia and Ericsson, but outside of the initial rumors, there has been no word on whether the U.S. is still considering this option.

  • Viettel Global posts $67 mln profit

    Viettel Global posts $67 mln profit

    Viettel Global has posted pre-tax profits of VND1.55 trillion ($67.1 million) this year, after seeing losses in Jan-Sept last year.

    The turnaround has happened thanks to strong revenues in Southeast Asia. Half of the telecom giant’s VND12.4 trillion ($537.3 million) revenue in the first nine months came from Southeast Asia, which went up 24 percent year on year, followed by Africa and Latin America, according to the company’s Q3 financial report.

    Its Metfone network in Cambodia saw after-tax profits go up 91 percent to VND672 billion ($29.1 million), while that of its Natcom network in Haiti rose 28 percent to VND261 billion ($11.3 million).

    The company’s VGI stock, listed on Vietnam’s Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM), had risen 140 percent to VND32,400 ($1.4) from the beginning of the year as of Thursday, marking a market cap of over VND98.6 trillion ($4.27 billion).

    Viettel Global was established in 2006 to spread military-run Viettel Group’s presence in foreign markets. It currently operates in ten markets, namely Cambodia, Laos, Timor Leste, Mozambique, Burundi, Haiti, Peru, Cameroon, Tanzania and Myanmar.

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