China must develop a more supportive policy environment to capitalize on the full potential of 5G, according to a new report by the GSMA and the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI).  The report advocates for a policy environment that empowers mobile operators to work with other sectors to innovate and launch new 5G services faster. China is expected to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025, accounting for around 430 million 5G connections, representing a third of the global total. Industry verticals where 5G are expected to play a key role include: automotive, drones and ..read more

Net neutrality advocates are declaring June 26 another day of action in support of Democrats’ resolution to restore the 2015 Obama-era net neutrality rules. Public Knowledge, Common Cause, Consumers Union and other groups want to bring pro-net neutrality Americans directly to the offices of their representatives in the House to lobby for passage of the measure, drawn up under the Congressional Review Act. The Senate passed it 52-47 last month, and so far 124 House lawmakers have signed the paperwork to force a floor vote (they need 218, so they’ve got some work cut out for them). Tec ..read more

Ericsson is one of the top three wireless network equipment companies in the world (they were #1 until Huawei took that coveted spot).  Approximately 40% of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks.  The company has customers in 182 countries and offers comprehensive industry solutions ranging from Cloud services and Mobile Broadband to Network Design and Optimization.  Ericcson also has one of the most compelling IoT platforms in their IoT Accelerator, which we described earlier this year. Image above courtesy of Ericsson ..read more

AT&T says it will use small cells for its mobile “5G” service planned for 12 U.S. cities this year. The company’s first of these roll outs will use millimeter wave [1] spectrum, which offers higher capacity rates than low-band spectrum but does not propagate over large distances. That requires transmit/receive radios need to closer together than they are in LTE deployments. Note 1.  Millimeter wave (also millimeter band) is the band of spectrum between 30 gigahertz (Ghz) and 300 Ghz. “Millimeter wave is more associated with small cell-like ranges and heights,” said ..read more

New ITU-T standards related to “5G”: ITU-T has reached first-stage approval (‘consent’ level) of three new international standards defining the requirements for IMT-2020 (“5G”) network systems as they relate to network operation, softwarization and fixed-mobile convergence. The standards were developed by ITU-T’s standardization expert group for future networks, ITU-T Study Group 13. Note: The first-stage approvals come in parallel with ITU-T Study Group 13’s establishment of a new ITU Focus Group to study machine learning in 5G systems. End-to-end flexibility will be one of the defi ..read more

The Fog World Congress (FWC), to be held October 30th to November 1st in Santa Clara, CA, provides an innovative forum for industry and academia in the field of fog computing and networking to define terms, discuss critical issues, formulate strategies and organize collaborative efforts to address the challenges.  Also, to share and showcase research results and industry developments. FWC is co-sponsored by IEEE ComSoc and the OpenFog Consortium. It is  is the first conference that brings industry and research together to explore the technologies, challenges, industry deplo ..read more

Licensing of 5G Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) [1.] promises to become a highly lucrative market, making the 5G patent race more competitive than ever before – although the latest 5G patent data shows the question of who is currently winning it remains unclear. Although it may be difficult to answer the question about who wins the 5G race, the report shows a shift in the cellular industry. While 4G technology development was mostly dominated by US and European companies, Chinese and South Korean companies have led in 5G development with the highest number of active and granted (US or Europe ..read more

T-Mobile has deployed commercial Voice over 5G (VoNR, or Voice Over (5G) New Radio) service in limited areas of Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Un-carrier plans to expand VoNR to many more areas this year.  Now that Standalone 5G (5G SA) is beginning to carry voice traffic with the launch of VoNR, other real 5G services, such as network slicing and security are likely to be deployed.  T-Mobile customers with Samsung Galaxy S21 5G smartphones  can take advantage of VoNR today in select areas. “We don’t just have the leading 5G network in the country. T-Mobile is se ..read more

Excerpts from LightShed Partners report – The Wireless Industry’s 5G Growth Problem, MAY 31, 2022 ~ by WALTER PIECYK AND JOE GALONE (Registration required): Wireless operators in the United States committed to invest over $200 billion into 5G (spectrum licenses, network equipment and build out costs), but does anyone care? Consumers have shown little interest in switching between service providers because of 5G. They have also been slow to upgrade to higher-priced 5G rate plans with their existing provider. 5G has not been enough to attract wireless consumers to higher priced rate plans. The m ..read more

BT and Ericsson have entered a new multi-million-pound joint partnership to provide commercial 5G private networks for the UK market – the first agreement of its kind.  The multi-year contract will enable BT to sell 5G services to businesses and organizations in industries like manufacturing, defense, education, retail, healthcare, transport and logistics.  It’s critically important to note that to be effective, a 5G private network requires a 5G Core which facilitates all the 5G features and essentials, e.g. network slicing, automation, MEC, security, etc. T ..read more