Subscribe
Home Blog Page 284

Private networks ‘exploding’ in factories – GSMA report

Nick Booth
-
0
Private networks ‘exploding’ in factories – GSMA report

A 5G-scored surge in productivity across the globe

The popularity of private networks is booming across the world, according to trade body the GSM Association (GSMA) which reports there are now 794 of them orchestrating industry over LTE or 5G technologies in 68 countries across the globe.Manufacturing is far and and away the most popular sector. The ‘acting 5G’ cum fourth generation bridge builder LTE (long term evolution) is still the technology of choice in most factories, but pure 5G is being used by ‘around’ 37% of the customers tracked in its study, said GSMA. The association has also identified at least 71 telecom network operators involved with private mobile network projects.

Go private

Disenchantment with public services means there’s many operators and companies going private. The Manufacturing sector is the largest adopter with 140 identified companies involved in known pilots or deployments, up from 111 at the end of 2021. The Education sector is next, with 80 networks, followed by Mining companies (69) and Power/utility companies (68). There are 71 ‘discrete’ manufacturing networks, compared with 42 networks used for process manufacturing. The use cases of the other 27 have yet to be announced. Car makers like Porsche and BMW are the biggest users of private networks, followed by manufacturers of electrical equipment, appliances and components and then makers of computers and electronic and optical products.

Hyperscalers

A new trend is that hyperscale cloud service providers are offering private mobile networks, sometimes in partnership with mobile operators or network suppliers. The partnership of Telenor and AWS is a prime example. Everyone in the industry is at it, according to Joe Barrett, president of the Global mobile Suppliers Association. “Organisations of all types, whether they are in the manufacturing, education or automotive sector are investing and deploying networks that will drive automation and productivity,” said Barrett, “We are tracking over 50 equipment vendors that have been involved in the supply of equipment for Private Mobile Networks based on LTE or 5G.” 
With the ecosystem in place and regulators planning to make spectrum available for LTE and 5G private usage, expect significant market developments over the next couple of years, Barrett said.

Wavelo says good bye to bad BSS

Nick Booth
-
0
Wavelo says good bye to bad BSS

Verizon veteran has plan to coach 5G to peak performance

Wavelo has launched a software service that promises to refresh the tired OSS/BSS model and give it a new lease of life. The upshot is a more accommodating range of business and operational support options that conjure the best possible performance out of 5G. Its CEO Justin Reilly, a veteran of Verizon, has explained to Mobile Europe how Wavelo aims to cut the BSS and help network operators give their customers value for their money.

Interview Q&A

In effect, Wavelo is like the new manager of a team that has underperforming stars. Its job is to get under the skin of the players in each position, break down their performance and get them all working for each other again. The modern game is more fluent and each position needs to be analysed and redefined, according to the fulsome statistics that are available to modern coaches now. Every team comprises fluent versatile players and a specialist functionaries dedicated who, collectively, can cope with every type of challenge.

Wavelo provides two full-service platforms, ISOS (Internet Service Operating System) for ISPs and MONOS (Mobile Network Operating System) for mobile network operators (MNOs). Additional a la carte services are also offered, which range from subscription and billing management, through network orchestration and provisioning to individual developer tools.

What’s wrong with traditional OSS/BSS?

“Traditional telecom software was developed for a 3G and analogue world; it is rigid and complex, making it extremely difficult for operators to upgrade one singular piece without a complete systems of record overhaul,” said Reilly. Operators need their networks to act more like software, which hinges on flexibility. Faster, modular and scalable solutions allow operators to focus their efforts and resources on the things that matter most in today’s market, namely the customer experience and rapid expansion. 

The lack of flexibility in traditional software creates rigid tech silos, meaning that every network or business system improvement, big or small, requires a complete stack overhaul. These full-system upgrades take an enormous amount of time, investment and resources, all of which would be better spent on expediting time to market or improving the end customer experience.

How has Wavelo helped them save time and money?

“Our first customer, DISH Wireless, has been using Wavelo’s MONOS software since early 2021 to optimize value within its Digital Operator Platform,” said Reilly. The introduction of flexible and scalable software has been critical in supporting DISH’s MVNO ecosystem, anchored by Boost Mobile and their 5G rollout across the United States. Ting Internet is also integrating Wavelo’s ISOS software, which will enable faster subscriber growth and footprint expansion. 

Why aren’t we getting the benefits from 5G?

Telecom software didn’t keep pace with evolution, said Reilly. Networks and websites developed rapidly and service providers made a priority of the systems and experiences that were closest to the customer. As a result, these systems developed faster than the operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS). But these are the systems of record and they have significant value. If they can be invigorated and enlivened, they could be bear great gifts to today’s networks – especially 5G. “Once OSS/BSS is flexible enough to catch up with the rest of the stack, the end customer experience will be entirely different from the one we have today,” said Reilly.  

Wavelo’s software was designed to help operators tackle the last 30% of digital transformation. Neither consumers nor vendor has enjoyed the full power and potential of 5G because there’s been negligible evolution in telecom software. Today operators are delivering revolutionary 5G experiences but they are built from an under-performing infrastructure. “This is why we are only seeing a fraction of the experience that 5G will eventually deliver,” said Reilly, “to fix this, there needs to be a fundamental transformation of OSS/BSS.”

Telecom Italia wins €725 million tender for 5G 

Nick Booth
-
0
Telecom Italia wins €725 million tender for 5G 

Part of €2 billion EU-funded Italian scheme to push 5G

Telecom Italia (TIM) has won contracts worth €725 million ($755.67 million) in a government tender to build 5G networks, the Italian ministry for technological innovation and digital transition announced on Monday. Earlier this year, noted Reuters, the EU Commission approved a €2 billion Italian scheme to support the roll out of 5G mobile networks to underserved areas through its Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

Direct grants

Under the scheme, that will run until 30 June 2026, the aid will take the form of direct grants to electronic communications services providers. “This will enable consumers and business to access high-quality 5G services, contributing to the economic growth of the country and to the EU’s strategic objectives relating to the digital transition,” said EU Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager.

Plan close to completion

The awarded tender included six geographical lots, with financing covering up to 90% of the total cost of the works, the ministry said, adding that all other interested operators would get wholesale access to the financed infrastructure. “With the award of the first tender for the development of 5G we are even closer to complete the government’s plan to connect the whole of Italy with ultra-high-capacity networks,” said Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao.

How Hyperbat staged journeys end in virtual reality

Nick Booth
-
0
How Hyperbat staged journeys end in virtual reality

Shakespearian environment for world’s first 5G VR meeting

Hyperbat a technology creator based in Shakespeare Country has answered the bard’s paean for ‘journeys end’ – by creating a virtual workshop where engineers meet in cyberspace. It saves these efficiency lovers a fortune in time and money by cutting the 70-mile commute between their offices. The battery maker, a joint venture between Williams Advanced Engineering and Unipart Manufacturing Group to make better batteries, created the Virtual Workspace in partnership with a cast of IT luminaries. 

Meet in cyberspace

BT, Ericsson, the GRID Factory, Masters of Pie, Qualcomm and Nvidia all helped to prove the virtual reality (VR) theory that engineers can meet in the metaverse. The project used edge computing and the world’s first 5G-enabled VR technology meeting to bring engineers from Wantage and Coventry together in cyberspace. According to Nvidia, the engineers work simultaneously on a 1:1-scale digital twin of an EV battery. Graphical Renders, powered by chip maker Nvidia’s graphics processors, RTX Virtual Workstation software and NVIDIA CloudXR technology, allow the engineers to immerse themselves in virtual tasks that recreate their real life challenge. Using a digital twin with VR actually clarifies the vehicle battery design process, they say. This has reduced errors, saved time and presumably cut-down on speeding fines and parking tickets.

Virtual workshop

“This is the future of manufacturing,” said Marc Overton, managing director of Division X, part of BT’s Enterprise business. “It shows how a 5G private network can provide the foundation for a whole host of new technologies.” There is a significant role played by Masters of Pie’s collaboration engine, Radical, which creates a real-time extended reality (XR) experience that allows design and manufacturing teams to freely interact with a 3D, life-size model of an electric vehicle battery. This gives the Hyperbat team a single source of truth for each project, obviating the need for multiple iterations.

No data delay

The 5G-enabled VR headset is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 platform, which is launched with one click and doesn’t need to import and export any data. Designers can put on their headsets and get straight to work, according to Hyperbat. There are huge amounts of data involved, but it’s rapidly processed on remote computers before being streamed to VR headsets with ultra-low latency, said Hyperbat. This complex task has been simplified by Project Aurora, NVIDIA’s CloudXR and RTX Virtual Workstation software platform for XR streaming at the edge of the 5G network.

How 5G works

The potential for 5G’s ultra-low latency is realised with an Ericsson radio and private 5G network, which, Hyperbat said, gives it faster speeds, reliable connections and instant responses.  “Hyperbat’s use case shows how 5G and digitisation can help boost the UK’s economy and industry,” said Katherine Ainley, CEO of Ericsson UK and Ireland. 

AI is the criminal’s friend – ETSI

Nick Booth
-
0
AI is the criminal’s friend – ETSI

Reality check needed to harden AI security for telcos

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is old, conservative and can be conned with terrible consequences for telcos, according to Alec Brusilovsky, the Rapporteur for the European IT standards body ETSI’s industry Specific Group Securing AI (ISG SAI). As a consequence of haste and hyperbole, telcos could be deluded into thinking their services are both smart and secure, when they are more akin to an insecurity of things, ETSI warned.

Don’t be so historical

ETSI is studying AI hardware security investigations, AI privacy and taking a more in-depth look at the explicability of AI. Report on Deep Fakes, algorithmic intelligence, collaborative learning and the impact on AI security will be released later this year. Meanwhile, Brusilovsky has shared his insights on how AI needs to be held to account. It is looking too insecure to be trusted by telcos, Brusilovsky said. Surprisingly, AI’s problem is that it’s nothing new and a bit slow to move with the times, Brusilovsky told Mobile Europe. “AI is based on past data, like training, testing, and validation datasets.

Black Swan

By design that makes it conservative,” said Brusilovsky. If a telco’s AI Security encounters something new that it was’t trained to recognise, like the Black Swan attacks, it cannot cope with the new. If the model is trained on the old data it might not recognise the new and will therefore try to solve a new problem based on how it solved the old problem. This, in turn, may transform AI systems from being enablers of solutions to becoming an enabling technology and/or a facilitator to criminals. As the telecoms industry hypes its artificial intelligence, it ignore many other problems – which won’t have gone unnoticed by hacker organised crime and state sponsored attackers. These are that: AI in its current form is nothing new, criminals will have had plenty of time to study it’s weaknesses, AI system flying under a false flag, the technology industry has a track record of launching insecure systems, the hype and the blind faith of telcos could cause further problems.

Algorithmic intelligence

Telcos are deluding themselves that their systems are ‘smart’, as if they have the power of rastionale. This leads them to put too much faith in systems that are artificially intransigent according to Brusilovsky. “AI is using, manipulating, and leaning into existing vulnerabilities, sometimes amplifying their importance or mutating them to create problems and distrust. This raises the question of whether we should really be using the term Artificial Intelligence for the current AI environment. It’s more like Algorithmic Intelligence,” said Brusilovsky,

Blind faith

We are at the stage of AI development where, in many cases, it is given a set of instructions by a human, provided training and other datasets, and it is acting upon those instructions only by creating flexible policies or new instructions. It isn’t capable of anything beyond that, yet. Brusilovsky called for AI to be held more accountable. “Humans blindly trust the decision made by AI system without understanding how it has come to that decision there is a massive opportunity for criminals to take advantage of that trust to undertake various forms of fraud or theft. This is the key weakness ETSI is aiming to deal with through AI explicability,” said Brusilovsky, Rapporteur in the ETSI Securing AI group (ISG SAI). 

The metaverse: who will bring it all together?

David McGlew
-
0
The metaverse: who will bring it all together?

Sponsored: The metaverse is a universe of immersive, shared virtual landscapes, navigable by user-controlled avatars in cyberspace. 

Another aspect of understanding the metaverse lies in the likelihood of multiple metaverses co-existing, each hosting a virtual world developed by separate service providers. More specifically, at the beginning of the metaverse journey, there is a high chance of multiple players looking to gain first advantage with their respective versions of the metaverse. As such, the metaverse is understandably a concept in its infancy that will shift-shape to serve different value creation opportunities.

For this reason, it is even more likely that there will be varying preferences in the ways different stakeholders develop offerings within the space. However, the key to its success is vested in the ease with which users can move between the different metaverses – better known as the technical interoperability to facilitate it. This interoperability between different metaverses is expected to be one of the biggest challenges to its proliferation. 

Myriad metaverses

It is highly likely there will be a myriad of different metaverses to join, depending on specific interests or membership opportunities. In fact, one may have to join several metaverses to interact with different groups of friends. It is still unclear if interconnectivity between the different meta-spaces is even possible to ensure movement from one to the other with ease, which is why interoperability between metaverses is key.

Interoperability suggests a level of standardization, similar to the 3GPP-type approach to 5G or TM Forum’s promotion of open APIs. This is necessary to guarantee consumers a seamless experience in their digital journeys and begs the question who will take responsibility for it?

Zuckerberg’s vision

Some commentators suggest Meta (Facebook) could play a major role here. Recently Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘connect’ videos explaining his vision for the Metaverse. He describes Meta’s ‘Horizon’ – a virtual reality home to which friends can be invited to share a virtual home experience. Meta has made significant investments in its Metaverse play, with some estimating that the company will spend up to $180 billion over the next 10 years in research and development.

Today, Meta offers users the Quest 2 Meta’s VR headset and Presence platform, focused on enabling AR/VR for the developer community to allow for app and service creation within the metaverse to encourage a ‘creator economy’.

To some, like myself, the approach mimics Apple’s App Store and IOS development platform. Apple enables a plethora of app developers who helped drive smartphone adoption and the digital transformation seen over the last decade. Meta is at the beginning of that journey, enabling an ecosystem of developers for its Metaverse. 

 Microsoft and the metaverse

Meta cannot have it all: Other big players recognize the countless opportunities in this space, with Microsoft acknowledging that closest thing to making consumers’ metaverse experience profitable is gaming. Immersive VR games are well established, such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft and Second Lives which generate immense revenue.

In 2014, Microsoft bought Minecraft for $2.5 billion and its monthly users now top 140 million. In 2020, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax media for $7 billion, which developed games like Fallout and Doom. In 2022, Microsoft is buying Activision for $68 billion, to bring games like Call of Duty into its growing portfolio.

The most interesting factor here is that while Microsoft is in hardware, with its X-Box gaming console, its long-term strategy has been to make games available on multiple platforms so that gamers can easily access them on competitors’ consoles like PlayStation.

Two fronts

The prediction is that the metaverse will take off on two fronts – gaming and workplace collaboration. In 2016, Facebook introduced Workplace, a tool which enables business collaboration in a virtual environment although businesses do not commonly consider Facebook as an enterprise player. On the other hand, Microsoft has been in the enterprise space for decades, which facilitated the upsurge in use of tools like Teams as a software solution to enable virtual workspace collaboration.

When it comes to the metaverse, Microsoft will be competing with Meta on the two afore mentioned fronts with an open platform strategy common to both. There does not seem to be any interest in locking users into specific hardware or operating systems to as they pursue an open platform-type strategy that underlines interoperability. 

There will be keen interest from the telecoms industry as the race for early advantage in the metaverse kicks off. One can only guess who will come out on top. The imperative is to understand where telcos can add value in enabling these platforms and working with different players to ensure they have ubiquitous connectivity and can monetize services. This will be as fascinating to watch as it will be transformational. 

To read more on the metaverse, download the eBook 

This article was originally published on the Amdocs Openet blog

Do UK MNOs stifle innovation?

Nick Booth
-
0
Do UK MNOs stifle innovation?

Aiding the censorious effect of Big Tech

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is considering an investigation into the effects of Apple and Google’s dominance of the mobile browser market. One deadly side effect is that UK technology companies are stifled and UK mobile operators could be collaborating to stifle competition and invention in the UK technology sector. The dominance of the two Big Tech companies holds back the UK tech sector and restricts consumer choice, according to Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of the CMA.

Crush competitors

“When it comes to how people use mobile phones, Apple and Google hold all the cards,” said Coscelli. “Their strong grip on mobile ecosystems allows them to shut out competitors, holding back the British tech sector and limiting choice.” Action is needed before both companies strengthen their grip on the sector and further restrict rivals and dissuade innovators, according to the The Mobile Ecosystems market report. The CMA said it is consulting on the launch of a market investigation into Apple and Google’s market power in mobile browsers after a year-long study of the companies’ mobile ecosystems, published on June 10th.

Duplicitious

The study found that Apple and Google have an “effective duopoly” on mobile ecosystems that give them a stranglehold over areas including operating systems, app stores and web browsers on mobile devices. Mobile operators and handset makers have colluded in this to the extent that smartphones typically have either Google’s Chrome or Apple’s Safari pre-installed as their default browsers, which gives them a combined market share of about 90% in the UK. “Without interventions, both companies are likely to maintain, and even strengthen, their grip over the sector, further restricting competition and limiting incentives for innovators,” the watchdog said.

Cloud game

The CMA report also accused Apple of blocking the emergence of cloud gaming on its app store and said it would consult on launching an investigation into that as well. In response Apple said it believed in “thriving and competitive markets” and disagreed with a number of conclusions in the report that accompanied the CMA statement. Its statement gave a hint at how it might kick this can down the road. “We will continue to engage constructively with the Competition and Markets Authority to explain how our approach promotes competition and choice, while ensuring consumers’ privacy and security are always protected.”
Google, which came under scrutiny in an Investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct said it offered “more choice than any other mobile platform” and that it was “helping developers create global businesses.”

Middle East pact creates IntelligentRAN

Nick Booth
-
0
Middle East pact creates IntelligentRAN

Etisalat UAE, du, STC, Zain and Huawei team effort

A collaboration between Huawei and some of the Middle East’s top telcos have invented IntelligentRAN in the race to create self-starting networks, reports Khaleesh Times. The chinese state sponsored equipment maker plans to work with Etisalat UAE, the telco division of e& in the United Arab Emirates, du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), stc and Zain to speed up processes like identification, fault detection, prediction and prevention. AI can then help to give systems autonomy and intelligence through modelling databases.

Do it Huawei

According to Huawei, it is achieving this by putting AI into Huawei’s SingleRAN. An MIE (Mobile Intelligence Engine) is introduced in IntelligentRAN, which is divided into two functional nodes. In the Site layer, the MIE meets immediate requirements. In the Network layer, the MIE provides post data analysis, training on the data gathered and training of more precise models. The use of algorithmic reasoning will also be applied to networks and base stations, MIE coordinate data, models and decision making. Ultimately, Huawei and partners are creating a mobile network to think for itself and react within milliseconds, according to Marwan Bin Shaker, Etisalat UAE’s SVP of Access Network Development. “The IntelligentRAN brings intelligence in the wireless domain to intelligently predict events based on data correlation analysis, make intelligent decisions based on future prediction and to achieve network intelligence and optimum evolution to the future,” said Bin Shaker.

Self starting networks

The quality of AI will make all the difference as vendors negotiate the ‘trial and error’ ordeal of building systems for the Metaverse and Internet of Vehicles, according. Ahmed Al Shal, Acting Head of Technology Planning at du. “IntelligentRAN will expedite our 5G network through quick service provisioning and service assurance. Our partnership with Huawei will generate a higher level of network automation and optimal performance to ensure heightened customer excellence, provision and experience,” said Al Shal.
“We will continue to explore on innovation of IntelligentRAN and we expect to cooperate more with operators and industry partners,” said Aaron Jiang, President of Huawei’s SingleRAN Product Line.

Speculation about BT’s future is rife as Drahi’s promise expires

Annie Turner
-
0
Speculation about BT’s future is rife as Drahi’s promise expires

Altice Group, which Patrick Drahi controls, owns 18% of the British operator and his undertaking not to mount a takeover bid ends tomorrow.

The ownership of the UK’s incumbent operator, BT, is again a matter for conjecture as the restrictions on Patrick Drahi’s Altice group comes to an end. BT is seen as one of the country’s most strategically important firms.

Drahi surprised the market when he acquired a 12.1 stake in BT in June last year, which he increased to 18% in December when he renewed his assurance he would attempt to gain a controlling share.

Bloomberg has suggested that Drahi might cosy up with Deutsche Telekom, which holds a 12% stake in BT, if the French-Israeli billionaire attempts to gain a controlling stake.

Government intervention

Any such move is highly likely to trigger the UK government’s intervention, under the terms of the recent National Security and Investment Act, which was cited by Kwasi Kwarteng , Secretary of State for Business, Industry and Skills, when he announced an investigation into Drahi’s stake.

According Forbes and cited in The Times, Drahi’s financial worth has slumped from a high of $16 billion in 2015 to $6.3 billion now. “Those business setbacks have raised questions in the City over whether the Swiss-based businessman lacks not only the political cover but the financial firepower to engineer greater control of BT,” according to The Times’ article.

Drahi has previous

Four years ago the European Commission imposed a €124.5 million fine on Altice for implementing its acquisition of Portugal Telecom before notification or approval by the European Commission.

Previously, France’s competition authority slapped an €80 million fine relating to the takeovers of SFR and OTL Group, which distributed services under the Virgin Mobile brand, in November 2016.

Juniper ranks Vodafone Business as leading IoT roaming vendor globally

Annie Turner
-
0
Juniper ranks Vodafone Business as leading IoT roaming vendor globally

Report suggests operator looking to offload its IoT division

A new study from Juniper Research  ranked Vodafone Business as the leading IoT roaming vendor in its new report, IoT Roaming Strategies: Key Opportunities, Competitor Leaderboard & Market Forecasts 2022-2027. The report also predicted that the number of roaming IoT connections globally will increase from 300 million in 2022 to 1.8 billion by 2027; representing 500% growth. 

This is a long way from the 2010 prediction by the then CEO of Ericsson who reckoned there would be 50 billion IoT devices by 2020.

According to its annual report, Vodafone Business made only €900 million in the last full financial year accounting for 2% service revenues with just over 150 million connected devices. Vodafone also estimates it has 9% market share globally.

IoT unit to be spun off?

Iain Morris of Lightreading noticed in Vodafone Group’s annual report that IoT it being groomed to be spun off as this will “help to accelerate the platform’s growth and attractiveness to both new customers and connectivity partners”. Not to mention raise some badly needed cash – Vodafone has angry investors breathing down its neck, most notably Cevian Capital.

Juniper Research’s report assesses each vendor against a set of key indicators to derive their relative positioning in the matrix. These include a vendor’s capacity and capability, their product positioning, size of their operations, financial performance and the sophistication of their IoT roaming solution. 

Tata Communications, was ranked seconf, followed followed by TNS, BICS, Syniverse then iBasis.

1...283284285...1,641Page 284 of 1,641
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP
DOWNLOAD OUR NEW REPORT

5G Advanced

Will 5G’s second wave deliver value?

DOWNLOAD REPORT