Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Sprint deploys nationwide LTE-Advanced
In parallel with its Q2 2018 financial statement, Sprint announced it has deployed LTE-Advanced network technologies nationwide and is providing gigabit-class service in more than 225 cities. Sprint Chief Technology Officer John Saw, in an interview with RCR Wireless News, highlighted the importance of enhancing the operator’s LTE network to provide a surround for mobile 5G, which is planned for launch next year. Saw said he was “extremely excited” about the LTE-Advanced upgrades and said it is “the culmination of a lot of hard work. I think that’s the big news today, and it’s an important stepping stone to 5G.” LTE-Advanced is marked by 4X4 MIMO, 256 QAM and multi-channel carrier aggregation. Unlike some of its competitors, Sprint is sticking to aggregation of its licensed spectrum holdings as opposed to tapping Licensed Assisted Access to aggregate licensed and unlicensed frequencies. “Our focus has been to use all licensed spectrum simply because we have enough of it to roll out gigabit LTE. Our competitors have been using a lot of LAA to supplement what they have with licensed spectrum.” He said using all licensed spectrum provides a more “predictable and available” network experience and provides Sprint “better quality control.” … Read more
Qualcomm focuses on mmWave designs
Millimeter wave frequencies are central to realizing the vision of ultra-fast, multi-gigabit-per-second 5G mobile connections. Case in point, Verizon and AT&T are both taking 5G to market in the U.S. using high-band spectrum, albeit with an initial, respective, fixed wireless and mobile approach. But the network is just one piece; consumers need to have compatible devices. And driving those devices to market is a major thrust of the work Qualcomm put on display last week at the 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong. “5G is a reality for smartphones and we have spent, as Qualcomm, a lot of time showing that the underlying technologies that will make 5G a reality with phones that we can hold in the palms of our hand,” company President Cristiano Amon told attendees at the event. Noting that a variety of 5G smartphones, including flagships, will be hitting the market throughout 2019, Amon said, “It’s going to be all coming together.” Back in July, Qualcomm successfully miniaturized its QTM052 millimeter wave antenna module to a point where multiple modules can fit into a smartphone form factor. Now, just three months later, the San Diego-based company announced it has further reduced the size of those modules by 25%. … Read more
Ligado chooses network vendors
Ligado Networks announced plans to start developing 5G technology in the L-Band for mobile services in North America. Under this multi-year strategic plan, Ligado aims to deploy a satellite and terrestrial mobile network that will utilize 40 megahertz of mid-band spectrum from its holdings at 1.6 GHz to provide 5G solutions for critical industries. The company also said that Ericsson and Sequans have been selected as technical partners for this project. By utilizing existing LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies, the satellite adaptation of this 3GPP standards-based technology will support a new category of emerging devices and evolve as part of the 5G specifications, Ligado Networks said. Ligado, in its former life as company LightSquared, had previously put together plans to build a nationwide, satellite-based LTE network, but ultimately ended up in bankruptcy protection precipitated by the FCC’s refusal to grant the company access to its spectrum licenses due to interference concerns with some GPS equipment radiating outside of GPS channels. LightSquared had attempted to use the spectrum as part of a “4G” network deployment plan with Sprint that would have seen it resell access to third parties. Ligado has been talking up the possibility of 5G plans for its spectrum holdings since 2016. … Read more
To DSRC or not to DSRC?
The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology has released testing results which show that prototype devices can successfully share 5.9 GHz spectrum that is currently allocated to Dedicate Short Range Communications for vehicle-to-everything use — but the FCC now appears more interested in the potential reallocation of the band rather than the DSRC/Wi-Fi spectrum-sharing framework that the testing was designed to explore. Two commissioners have called for a new rulemaking to reexamine how the 5.9 GHz band is allocated. The coexistence testing was first called for in 2016, and results were made public yesterday after having been submitted to the Commission earlier this year. “The reality is that the entire debate has gravitated away from the type of sharing regime envisioned in the testing,” Commissioner Michael O’Rielly said in a statement. “Instead, the Commission should move past this and initiate a rulemaking to reallocate at least 45 megahertz of the band, which is completely unused today for automobile safety.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel noted in her statement that the results came nearly two years after the deadline that had originally been set for for completing a three-phase test plan to determine whether V2V communications and Wi-Fi could share the 5.9 GHz band. … Read more
AT&T preps for 5G launch
As it prepares for its imminent launch of 5G services, AT&T completed what it claims is the first 5G New Radio mobile browsing session on a soon-to-be commercially available 5G device. That testing utilized a Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot and was conducted on AT&T’s millimeter-wave 5G network in Waco, Texas, according to the carrier. David Christopher, president of AT&T Mobility and Entertainment, called the testing “a seminal moment in the advancement of mobile 5G technology” and added, “This proves we are well on our way to the promise of mobile 5G for consumers.” The Netgear Nighthawk 5G router, which will be AT&T’s first 5G device to launch, utilizes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G modem. AT&T also noted that the 5G test in Waco leveraged network equipment from Ericsson. The carrier said that it “[remains] on track to be the first to introduce mobile 5G services in the U.S.” with the Nighthawk mobile 5G hotspot. AT&T said it plans to reach “at least 12 cities this year”, with the goal of deployment in 19 cities by early 2019. During AT&T’s quarterly call last week, John Donovan, CEO of AT&T Communications, said that the carrier’s “5G foundation is in place” and that it is “on track to be the first wireless carrier to introduce mobile 5G services in the United States in the next few weeks.” … Read more
IBM buys Red Hat
As it stands, IBM’s cloud customers have moved around 20% of their workloads to the cloud, according to CEO Ginni Rometty. She called that chapter one. Chapter two is moving the other 80%, which she said will get a major boost from IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat. Speaking to CNBC, she said, “For us, it’s all about resetting the cloud landscape…to create the number one company that will be the number one hybrid cloud provider. To move that 80%, [customers] are going to need what this combination brings them. Clients see this very, very clearly. Chapter two is about hybrid cloud. You have to be hybrid, you have to be able to handle, multiple clouds, you have to be open technologies, you have to do multi-cloud management and that’s what we can do.” Red Hat specializes in use open source software to create enterprise solutions covering Linux, cloud, containers and Kubernetes. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said that strong focus on open source will continue as the company becomes a part of IBM. “First off,” he told CNBC, “IBM has been one of the largest supporters of open source for over 20 years. A long time ago IBM committed $1 billion to Linux. Together we’ll by far be the largest contributor to open source software.” But Red Hat will “remain distinct,” he said. “Red Hat coming in is a neutral sell that works across all platforms. Now we’ll obviously coordinate closely within IBM to be able to drive a lot of incremental value on top of that. It’s about maintaining choice. We’ll work with IBM to both leverage the distribution…but also be able to build unique offerings from IBM on top of that neutral platform.” … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
