It is fashionable to talk about the race to 5G. This theme started last year, and has picked up this year with many opinion articles published on the topic. Perhaps the one that got most attention is the white paper by Deloitte: The chance to lead for a decade. The paper compared US networks and investments to… Read More: Is China Really Leading the 5G Race? »
Anyone knows what generation processor running in their laptop? How about which DSL or cable modem technology is serving their house? With 802.11ax starting to come to market, I don’t see anyone rushing to upgrade their access node. When no one is keeping track of ‘generations’ in these technologies, why is it that in mobile… Read More: The Last G! »
The Algiers Smart City Project is more than just another smart city project: It is a platform for talent mobilization. Over the past week, I had the pleasure to participate in the Smart Cities Summit in Algiers and as mentor and judge in the Leapfrog Hackathon and Startup Challenge. These events were designed to focus… Read More: The Algiers Smart City Project: A Talent Mobilization Platform »
Interest in the 3.5 GHz band is increasing as its set to become the global 5G spectrum band. We recently undertook a study for a new research report* of global 3.5 GHz band to uncover the impact on the 5G deployment timelines and ecosystem. One of the fundamental questions is putting figures on the value… Read More: 5G Spectrum Costs: The Value of 3.5 GHz Spectrum »
5G as a platform for private networks and enterprise applications is more than just another service provider technology. Enterprises, neutral host service providers, building owners, asset management companies and many others are asking about the potential impact of 5G. We have prepared the 5G workshop to provide the facts – not sell the hype of… Read More: 5G Workshop: Demystifying 5G for Decision Makers »
It’s official! Telecom is a utility! The admission comes from service providers themselves. Service providers struggled to monetize value added services to keep from being dumb pipes. Now, it seems that they have resigned themselves to being a utility and are happy to be the pipe. This admission came at the TMT M&A Merger Forum… Read More: Telecom is a Utility! »
Results from the recent UK spectrum auction and the minimum price set by the Korean regulator show record 3.5 GHz spectrum valuation. UK operators paid £1.16 Billion ($1.64 Billion) for 150 MHz. In Korea, the regulator asked for close to $2.5 Billion for 280 MHz. For comparison, the 3.5 GHz UK spectrum is more than 5x… Read More: 3.5 GHz Spectrum Valuation Setting New Records »
It is common to pin the 5G value proposition on its performance, mainly capacity* and latency. These features will enable applications that operators can monetize. However, I will argue here that capacity and latency are secondary to realizing the full 5G value proposition. Capacity and latency make for big headlines and are easy to grasp… Read More: The True 5G Value Proposition: It’s not about Speed and… »
In my earlier post, I outlined a few myths about 5G to avoid the cascading technology trap. Here, I like to extend the discussion and share a few data points on the cost of 5G networks. Over the past few months, our team has analyzed vendors’ roadmaps and product features, assessed spectrum and its cost,… Read More: The Cost of 5G »
There are a few myth about 5G that I came about in discussions with executives, investors, smart city officials and other parties active in technology development and planning for new services. Two examples: Don’t bother deploying a certain IoT technology – for example LoRaWAN or similar technology – because 5G will serve all these applications… Read More: 5G Myths and the Cascading Technology Trap. »
Is blockchain just a buzzword, or can we expect real applications? If it is for real, where’s the opportunity? Xona’s thoughts on these questions are in the video below. Here, I give my own take on these questions.
Artificial intelligence is in yet another hype cycle – the fourth since the 1960’s. What is different this time from past hype cycles is that it is driven by data from the bottom up as opposed a top-down approach in previous hype cycles. The pervasiveness of connectivity and the Internet make AI applicable in many… Read More: The AI-Telco Intersect Opportunity: A Dehype! »
The Xona Partners team was at Mobile World Congress and compiled a set of takeaways focusing on industry trends (link). Here, I wanted to add some personal observations on MWC 2018 which is a good barometer of the state on the wireless industry. But I don’t think you can judge based on the size of the… Read More: Observations from MWC 2018 »
Startups lead innovation in the technology world. But is there room for startups in the telecom world? And, what is the future of innovation in this industry? Innovation is one of the themes of this year’s Mobile World Congress which is starting next week, so will the ecosystem address this question? Is telecom a utility… Read More: Is There Room for Innovation in Telecom? »
One of the criticisms of blockchain technology center on power consumption and the cost of mining. The electricity consumed in mining operations is high and continues to grow as mining difficulty increases in response to increasing processing power. Some think that blockchains is wasteful technology that is not compliant with a 21st century outlook for… Read More: Power Consumption: Bitcoin Mining vs. Mobile Base Stations »