Welcome to the 84th edition of this newsletter. I had a young person recently who was complaining how things were simple back in our days and how things have become so complex now. There are many things that I could say to this young man but I thought let me show him the picture below:
Some of you may surely remember how complex our computers used to be. There were so many different types of ports which meant you have to check which ports your computer supports and get a peripheral accordingly. The problem didn’t end there. You had to get a compatible driver which depended on the OS or version of OS your computer supported, etc. I wouldn’t call this simple by any yardstick as compared to using the USB nowadays.
While reminiscing and cherishing memories is natural, it’s essential to balance it with an appreciation for the present. Sometimes people get stuck in this nostalgic trap and can’t enjoy their life. Be it technology, personal, social, religious, cultural or anything else. Life is a continuous journey, and each moment contributes to our growth and resilience.
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.
Free 6G Training: Presentations and Videos from Beyond 5G International Conference 2024 in Japan (link)
Emil Björnson on LinkedIn: "Here is a short video about our new textbook: "Introduction to Multiple Antenna Communications and Reconfigurable Surfaces". The PDF is available for free…" (link)
⦿ 5G
Ookla: 5G in Malaysia – Single Wholesale Network Driving Regional Leadership (link)
Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: "If it rings a bell - "#5G-enabled robotic / remote-surgery / tele-surgery" - this post is for you! A 5G-enabled telesurgery "demo" from Orlando to Dubai and Orlando to Shanghai…" (link)
Indoor Positioning in 5G-Advanced: Challenges and Solution towards Centimeter-level Accuracy with Carrier Phase Enhancements (link)
Steven Tracey on LinkedIn: "…We look forward to deployable #5G network capability extending the range of telemedical interventions that can be exploited around the military medical services of the Alliance…" (link)
Light Reading: China Mobile to cut depreciation bill by $2.5 billion by extending life of 5G equipment (link)
Operator Watch Blog: 5G in Liechtenstein Gains Ground (link)
⦿ 2G/3G
Ookla: Weighing the Pros and Cons of Legacy Network Sunsetting in MENA (link)
Light Reading: Australia could delay 3G shutdown if emergency call problem not addressed (link)
Ookla: Sunsetting Networks in Africa will be Gradual and More Selective Than in Other Regions (link)
⦿ 4G/LTE
Nick vs Networking: Best Practices for SGW & PGW Deployment Architectures for Roaming (link)
⦿ Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn - NVIDIA NIM: A Key Enabler for O-RAN NetGPT (link)
Heikki Almay on LinkedIn: RAN business - shrinking and increasingly fragmented (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn: Applying NVIDIA GR00T & Omniverse to Autonomous O-RAN: Automating RIC AI Agents xApps, rApps Development (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn: The Emergence of Agentic xApps and rApps in O-RAN RIC (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn - Janus Project: Programmable O-RAN and E2 Agents (link)
⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others
Virgin Media O2 successfully trials smart poles powered by its fixed network to boost mobile coverage across the UK (link)
Peter Clarke on Twitter: "High on the hills above Derry/Londonderry lies a rare live Vodafone UK Omnidirectional 2G only macro site. The unusual specimen provides "umbrella" 2G coverage for the city, with urban sectored solutions underneath it, while also delivering service to some rural outlying areas." (Tweet with photos)
Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "I attended the #FTTH24 FTTH Council Europe event in Berlin. It was new for me, aligning with my increasing emphasis on fixed as well as mobile strategy, policy and technology issues. It had c3500 attendees. I learned a lot more than I can fit into a 1300chr-maximum LI post…" (link)
⦿ Spectrum
Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "It's now been 3 months since the end of #WRC23 in Dubai. Now that the dust has settled, I've written two pieces about what happened, and what's next…" (link)
Dean Bubley on LinkedIn - The 6GHz band: what's next? (link)
New Zealand's 3.3 GHz Managed Spectrum Park for local and regional providers (link)
Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School : One CaaS to Rule Them All! (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn - GenAI and Cloud Native: Generating Synergy (link)
⦿ Security & Privacy
Michal Wachowiak on LinkedIn: “GSMA has just released videos from the Security Summit at #MWC24. I especially recommend a relatively short session related to Threat Intelligence…” (link) – some more thoughts on this by Silke Holtmanns.
⦿ AI, ML & Automation
MWL: Apple in talks to bring Google AI to iPhones (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn - Revolutionizing Telecom: Network Softwarization through AI-Driven Infrastructure as Code (link)
Jessica Chuang on LinkedIn: "#R19 workshop took place in RAN#100 meeting. And the RAN1/2/3 work package in R19 was decided and approved in RAN#102 meeting in December 2023. 3 topics are relevant to AI/#ML in Release 19…" (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn: AI Data Interpreter for O-RAN Service Assurance (link)
IEEE Spectrum: Nvidia Unveils Blackwell, Its Next GPU A big boost in AI training performance, an even bigger one for AI inference (link)
Jinsung (Alex) Choi on LinkedIn: Challenges of AI Model Training and Deploying for AI-Native O-RAN (link)
Shruti Mishra on Twitter: “NVIDIA just released FREE online courses in AI. Here are 9 courses you can't afford to miss…” (Twitter thread)
⦿ Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)
The 3G4G Blog: Research Challenges for the Advancement of Vehicular Networking (link)
⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets
IEEE Spectrum: Researchers Turn Electronic Garbage Into Gold (link)
Vision Pro is an over-engineered “devkit” by Hugo Barra (former Head of Oculus at Meta) (link)
MWL: Orange Belgium opens digital store for refurbished phones (link)
⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space
Polar Journal: Elon Musk’s Starlink is disrupting Greenland’s expensive internet market (link)
Dr. Kim (Kyllesbech Larsen) on LinkedIn: "Recently, the FCC published a new, imo a really forward-thinking regulatory framework that provides supplementary space coverage (SCS)…" (link)
⦿ Wi-Fi
Telecom TV: Wi-Fi is about to enter another dimension (link)
⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff
ABI Research Whitepaper: 82 Technology Trends That Will—And Will Not—Shape 2024 (link)
MWL: Singtel targets enterprises with GPUaaS offering (link)
Mobile Europe: Developers keen to use 5G APIs, operators aren’t ready (link)
Ryan Jeffery on LinkedIn: The OSS/BSS-led playbook for Private Equity-based improvement of the telco industry (link)
⦿ Picture of the week: “Evolution of click farm fraud” by Douglas Mun on Twitter caught my attention. Not only because it’s easier to run the bot army but also because this is another example of removing humans from the loop 😁.
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.
Each of those many connectors will have gone through a standardisation process. Wireless also does that but it is less visible. Cables can be messy but how do the environmental footprints compare?
Founder & CEO, Group 8 Security Solutions Inc. DBA Machine Learning Intelligence
9moMuch thanks for your post!
Good!
Bristol University Visiting Industrial Fellow, Meteracom THz comms (DFG Project), PTB Guestworker
9moEach of those many connectors will have gone through a standardisation process. Wireless also does that but it is less visible. Cables can be messy but how do the environmental footprints compare?
Principal Analyst & Consultant at 3G4G
9moThis newsletter has been compiled with contributions from Emil Björnson, Jinsung Choi, Alok Tripathi, Steven Tracey, Peter Clarke, Dean Bubley, Michal Wachowiak, Silke Holtmanns, Jessica Chuang, Shruti Mishra, Dr. Kim (Kyllesbech Larsen), Ryan Jeffery and Paul Rhodes. Thanks as always for sharing stuff on LinkedIn & Twitter 😊!