Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 111

Welcome to the 111th edition of this newsletter. I am a big believer in transparency, especially when it comes to stats and numbers. If you follow my blog, you might have noticed that I always show pageview numbers from the last 30 days, updated in real-time thanks to Google’s Blogger platform, so readers can see the reach and impact.

On The 3G4G Blog, I’ve also added a ‘Live Traffic Feed’ widget, which lets anyone see where visitors are coming from and what they're reading. It’s fascinating to watch people from all over the world stumble upon the site, and sometimes, these trends spark surprising reflections.

Recently, a friend pointed out that there are quite a lot of visitors from China and India. And he was right; after the U.S., the next largest audiences come from those two countries. It made me wonder: what draws so many readers from these regions? Then it hit me - together, China and India account for more than a third of the global population. You may have seen that popular map highlighting Southeast and East Asia, showing that there are actually more people living within that circle than outside it, roughly 55% of the world’s population in one region.

This led me to think more about how the world’s centre of gravity is shifting. From the 16th to the 20th century, global affairs were dominated by Europe and the U.S., but the 21st century is telling a different story. China, India, and other growing economies are stepping forward, and organizations like BRICS are amplifying this shift. With new members joining, BRICS now represents around 45% of the world’s population and 30% of its landmass. That's a lot of people, and a lot of potential.

This multi-polar world is already shaping how companies approach their websites, services, software, and even user interfaces. It’s a wise move to adapt for this diverse, global audience; those who do will be better prepared for a world where no single region holds all the influence.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a technologist with over 25 years’ experience in mobile wireless technology, currently working as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and a trainer. This newsletter is a summary of my posts and other news that caught my attention since the last newsletter.

⦿ 6G

• Free 6G Training: Presentations from 6G Symposium Fall 2024 (link)

⦿ 5G

• TMN: German mobile operators target train windows in 5G mainline upgrade (link)
• The Siasat Daily, India: 5G speeds drop sharply in last two years; Airtel, Jio networks face issues: Report (link)
• Ericsson and Telstra achieve world-first 447 Mbps uplink speed in a 5G Standalone network, exceeding the previous record by over 100 Mbps (PR)
• Light Reading: T-Mobile uses AI to guide 5G expansion (link)
• Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "In my research on hashtag#5GAdvanced, I'm noticing some interesting "cellular mashups" where 4G / 5G technology is used and combined in unexpected ways…" (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• The 3G4G Blog: 4G/LTE, 5G and Private Networks in Africa (link)
• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Friday Thoughts: What’s in a Name? (link)

⦿ 2G/3G

• Deutsche Telekom - More speed on old frequencies: 2G switch-off ensures better network (PR)

⦿ Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)

• TIP - The Accelerating RAN Intelligence in 5G (ARI-5G) Consortium: Key Achievements and Impact (link)
• Mohamed Abbas on LinkedIn: What are dApps in #ORAN Architecture (link)
• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "Swisscom may only use one vendor in its RAN but it still likes the ORAN Alliance architecture especially Service Management & Orchestration, according to a presentation by Michael Berger , product manager for network observability. rApps are great and Swisscom may even sell rApps it designs to other operators." (link)

⦿ Spectrum

• Light Reading: T-Mobile relinquishes mmWave spectrum 'not feasible' to deploy (link)
• CEPT: Spectrum Regulation in 5G and beyond (link)
• Broadband Breakfast – Dean Bubley on Shared Spectrum in Education: Back-to-School for Policymakers (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Nice use case detailing Private 5G Network Supporting the Broadcast of the Coronation of HM King Charles III (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: A Strong Value Proposition of "Open AI-RAN" for Non-Public Networks (NPNs) (link)
• Private Networks Technology Blog: Thames Freeport 5G Innovation Programme (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Hidden in Plain Light! (link)

⦿ Virtualization, Cloud & Edge

• Jinsung Choi on LinkedIn - AI-and-RAN: A Comparison with MEC (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: What is Telco Edge AI Infra? Why Telco Edge AI? Concerns on AI-RAN? (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Silke Holtmanns on LinkedIn: "tracking of phones through the advertisement ID used by phone. maybe we all should switch off our phones more or leave them more often at home…" (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: A Focus on Multi-Access (AI-RAN) Computing, AI-and-RAN Security and Resource Orchestration (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Operator Watch Blog: SK Telecom on 'Applying AI to Transform Customer Experience' (link)
• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "At the Ericsson OSS/BSS Summit this morning, Elisabeth Py explained how Orange is using GenAI…" (link)
• Jinsung Choi on LinkedIn: The Powerhouse of Autonomous NOC for AI RAN Operations (link)
• McKinsey - Responsible AI: A business imperative for telcos (link)
• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "Javier Garcia Jiminez, Head of IT at Telefónica , explains that his company is targeting level 4 automation per TM Forum framework, by next year…" (link)
• Light Reading: AT&T and Verizon cut 5,100 more jobs as AI fears grow (link)
• Jinsung Choi on LinkedIn: Unlocking Synergies between AI-RAN and O-RAN (link)
• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "I thought I understood NWDAF but Joseph Dahan presentation shows it is more complex than I thought…" (link)

• Interesting Keynote and Insights from Durga Malladi at Qualcomm's AI Analyst & Media Workshop, July 2024 (link)
• Jinsung Choi on LinkedIn: How Network APIs Bridge AI Applications and AI-RAN (link)
• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "Orange CTO, Laurent Leboucher , gave a very wide ranging presentation at the Ericsson B/OSS Summit from which I picked out this slide which provides some good detail on how they are using AI (not just GenAI) in field and network operations…" (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• RCR Wireless: What is the future role of NTNs in 6G? (link)
• Light Reading: Australia puts LEO satellite-based fixed voice calls to the test (link)
• AST SpaceMobile Successfully Completes Unfolding of First Five Commercial Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (PR)

⦿ Wi-Fi

• Eva Santos on LinkedIn: "I recently came home from 2 weeks relaxing in Japan. However, I've observed interesting things about Wi-Fi use in Japan either there or working with networks in Japan…" (link)
• Mohamed Abbas on LinkedIn: What is the difference between WiFi6 and WiFi7 (link)

⦿ Sustainability

• BT Group switches on first self-powered mobile site energised by solar and wind (PR)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• 3G4G tutorial 'A Quick Introduction to 3GPP', explaining 3GPP, its working, structure and providing useful pointers to explore this topic further now has 10k+ views (link)

• Kim Kyllesbech Larsen on LinkedIn: "The recent (minor) decline in Telco Capex between 2022 & 2023 has led industry followers to believe that this is a sign of a persistent future decline in Capex and an End to Big spending in our Industry…" (link)
• 650 Group - MWC Las Vegas Themes: Indoor Cellular, Satellite and Data Center (link)
• Sebastian Barros on LinkedIn: Is Mobile Data Consumption Hitting a Local Maximum? (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: Back in the 90s there were green novelty Ireland Telephones in the shape of Ireland are launched with the American market in mind. You can see a picture below courtesy of David Maguire on X and OldPhoneWorks. As you can see, it was made for Nortel. There is a short video on RTE Archives here.

Happy to hear your thoughts. Feel free let me know what worked, what didn’t, how I can make this better, etc. Get in touch over LinkedIn!

PDF version of this and previous newsletters are available here.