Hel-LEO to the Future: This is space Internet!
In a virtual ‘fireside chat’ at Capacity Europe 2020, Riad Hartani of Xona Partners and Manik Vinnakota of Telesat discuss the impact of emerging LEO constellations.
mmWave FWA vs. FTTH: Friend or Foe?
5G fanatics would lead you to believe that 5G will make fibre obsolete. So how real are their claims and how does 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) compare to FTTH on performance and RoI? To answer, we teamed-up with our partners at DTS to objectively assess the performance of fibre and millimeter wave (mmWave) FWA.… Read More »
Who Will Lead The Enterprise Private Wireless Network Market?
Enterprise private wireless networks been around ever since commodity base station silicon came to market in the mid-2000’s. 15 years later, deployments remain few and small. So the questions for investors are: are private wireless networks for real? How big a market is it? If I were to put money, where and how should I… Read More »
3.7 GHz C-Band Spectrum Valuation
We are offering a packaged valuation service for the upcoming FCC 3.7 GHz C-band spectrum auction and the Canadian 3.4 GHz auction. Included with the services is a detailed update of prices for global auctions and operator allocations in mid-band spectrum. Contact me for a quote. Click here to see our 5G midband spectrum valuation… Read More »
Hindsight is 20/20: Internet Technologies Trends Retrospect
Many significant trends we saw coming in the mid 2010s became reality. Notable examples include the evolution of network function virtualization, the emergence of the telecom cloud platform, the slow but progressive leverage of Artificial Intelligence by telecom operators as a productivity engine, the use of continuous integration and delivery DevOps framework in telecom service… Read More »
CBRS Spectrum Auction Pricing
Does Open RAN Stimulate Innovation?
Proponents of open RAN argue that opening the RAN interfaces will stimulate innovation. They claim that non-interoperable interfaces allow incumbent vendors to lock out new innovative players and stifle the market. With a small number of incumbent vendors owning much of the market share, the pressure to innovate is low. Incumbents counter by stressing the… Read More »
A Perspective on Open RAN
There are over 800 service providers, but market power favors a handful of radio access network (RAN) vendors who dictate the tempo of technology. With the RAN accounting for around 60% of the network total cost of ownership, open RAN promises to change the balance of power in favor of services providers by reducing vendor… Read More »
Clarifying the Confusing RAN Types and Nomenclature
Radio access networks have many descriptors that confuse the non-specialists. This includes open, virtual, cloud, centralized, distributed and cooperative RAN. Confusion is understandable because there are many inter-related aspects. Here, I outline the fundamentals elements that define RAN types and clarify the nomenclature. The Three Pillars of RAN Architecture, implementation and deployment are the three… Read More »
Network Sharing: Trends and Opportunities
Network sharing is one of those topics that makes economic sense, but often falters when it comes to adoption and implementation. Recently, I was asked about the prospects for network sharing given 5G capital investment requirements at a time of economic crisis. This is, of course, related to active sharing models where operators share the… Read More »
The Case for Network Automation: Application to Power Consumption
Integrated AI-based technology enables networks to adapt autonomously which helps operators optimize their service delivery to consumers and enterprises. As communication networks increase in complexity, operators seek to simplify operation and maintenance activities and reduce operating costs. Network automation could help operators achieve this objective. Automation is not a new concept: it has been around… Read More »
COVID-19: ICT Infrastructure Investment Opportunities and Risk to Competition
Over the past weeks we closely followed the impact of economic lockdowns on the ICT infrastructure to identify weaknesses and areas for future investments. Our analysis is multi-dimensional given the complexity of the ICT infrastructure which combines different types of access and backbone networks. This heterogenous infrastructure varies widely by geography. Our assessment led us… Read More »
Spectrum Pricing Trends in Millimeter Wave Bands
Written in collaboration with Martyn Roetter* Countries across the world have been releasing new spectrum for 5G deployments in millimeter-wave spectrum bands (mmWave), while others are planning to do so soon. Although a few governments have awarded mmWave spectrum via administrative processes at little or no cost to operators (Japan, Hong Kong), in most cases… Read More »
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing: The Pros and Cons
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) has emerged as one of the hot 5G discussion topics [see here on T-Mobile and Verizon]. This feature which allows simultaneous operation of LTE and 5G technologies has become a bellwether of product maturity and 5G leadership for equipment and silicon vendors and for service providers. But how important is DSS… Read More »
CBRS PAL Spectrum Valuation
Spectrum pricing is a function of supply and demand. Over the course of recent 5G spectrum auctions, regulators demonstrated, yet again, their influence on the outcome. Italy and Taiwan are two examples which set a record valuation for the 3.5 GHz auction. This year, we will see one of the largest auctions ever: the CBRS… Read More »