Mobile & Wireless Roundup #92
Welcome to the 92nd edition of this newsletter. It is easier to look back and say, “I told you so” with regards to the past hype cycle, but the real challenge is to ensure that this doesn't happen again. While we may rationally think that the lessons have been learnt and there is no reason to go down the same route, for many others this hyping-up of the next generation may be the only option.
There are many wannabe tech-bro’s who are keen to emphasise 10 ways in which 6G will change the world. Then there are newsletter creators who have decided to sensationalise any news with a DALL-E generated image to provide sophistication to news. Then there are these recycle-bro’s who will keep recycling the news like “Surgeon in London performing remote operation on a banana in California using 5G!!” that I debunked back in 2021.
There is also shameless copying of materials going on without crediting the creators. I am guessing most people assume that they will never be caught but even if they are, their excuse will be we forgot to credit the original source. A good number of LinkedIn influencers are actually copying other’s content with no credit to the authors.
In addition to these, there are these poor researchers who have ideas that can be useful in future but the lack of funding means that they have to hype it to be able to afford working on it. And of course the vendors who will have to keep coming up with something exciting to be able to sell their wares. If they can’t, it is in a way bad for the whole industry. As I have said multiple times, several colleagues have left the industry in frustration, while others are working on getting out.
This week while in a conference, I noticed the speakers were willing to admit mistakes were made in the past that are still affecting things today. I hope we can all try to ensure that while rolling out 6G, we don’t compromise on an interim solution and ensure that the standards are properly baked.
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
⦿ 5G
⦿ 2G/3G
⦿ Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)
⦿ Spectrum
Recommended by LinkedIn
⦿ Private Networks
⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others
⦿ Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)
⦿ AI, ML & Automation
⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space
⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff
⦿ Picture of the week: I first mentioned about BBU hostelling in a blog post over 10 years ago. Since then you have seen a lot more of the infrastructure on my blogs, especially the tutorial on C-RAN/D-RAN. Recently I came across this LinkedIn post that shared Base Station Hotels/Hostels (BSH). The post has a lot more pictures but I have shared the BSH pics below.
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.
Solutioning
7moZahid Ghadialy Great article, love the insights at the beginning and at the end. I'll work backwards if that's OK. As for the BBU hotels, I remember when this was taking off and how Verizon embraced it. I remember them specifically because at the time I was with ALU and this was fairly new back then. Of course, when Nokia took over things changed and I no longer got to work with Verizon. All the same, I loved the idea. It was great how it caught on. I think as OpenRAN models take over and the server model takes off, OpenRAN evolution, then a datacenter will be a better solution. The BBU will, (in time) become obsolete. Back to the beginning and your notes about the AI reference is interesting. Everyone tries to make the new thing the only thing. As you also mention about 6G and how people pushed agendas. People were constantly asking me about it and I would sound like a broken record stating, "There are no standards yet!". It got frustrating because everyone wants something useful, not necessarily honest.
Builder and Consultant on Open vRAN, Small Cell and EdgeAI Networks
7moIt's interesting to contrast our infrastructure selves with our telco colleagues on devices. They know that they have a circa 12 month cycle and have now found the beat of pre-hype, release hype, post hype and then brand image before the cycle starts again. In infrastructure we have 3-5 year HW product roadmaps and 18-24m SW roadmaps with 9-11 year generational cycle. It's the "new big thing" followed by the next big thing". We defend the current release/product/generation because we cannot afford to have customers waiting for the "next big thing" and if our rivals have already released it a year before us, we say that it's OK but it's not important. When ours is GA, suddenly it's great and the most vital thing in the world. And so to 6G. Architecturally, we all know that it will be cloud (near/far/on-prem) based. We know it will have higher spectrum, and therefore smaller cells. Why don't we do these now? Then we can hit 6G with less internal challenge, and can decide how much (or little) we want to hype in public!
Principal Analyst & Consultant at 3G4G
7moThis newsletter has been compiled with contributions from Alok Tripathi, Rahim Navaei, Dean Bubley, Rudolf van der Berg, Tim Miller, Peter Clarke, Paul Rhodes, Jessica Chuang and Jinsung Choi. Thanks as always for sharing stuff on LinkedIn & Twitter 😊!