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!
Bring on the 5G lasers
A new 5G demonstration at a lab in Sydney has used a laser to deliver a 5G backhaul link with 10 Gbps capacity, using commercial equipment from a startup as well as Open RAN vendor Mavenir. Venture-backed, Singapore-based start-up Transcelestial conducted the demonstration at the University of Technology Sydney. Transcelestial said that the demo was a collaboration with partners including Open RAN vendor Mavenir and Austrialian wireless tech consultancy ALLDAS Solutions, which focuses on in-building infrastructure and use cases. The demo “captured a 5G signal on site A, and via two of Transcelestial’s Centauri devices mounted on rooftops sent it to site B using [Common Public Radio Interface] protocol which housed a Mavenir multi-carrier, multi-band Remote Radio Unit, delivering 5G signals to multiple devices,” according to a release. “Until now, most telecom and internet service providers could only rely on physical fiber connectivity as a solution to deliver 5G, everywhere,” said Mohammad Danesh, co-founder and CTO of Transcelestial, in a statement. … Read more
Dish seeks $2 billion for network build-out
Dish Network reported quarterly results today that included lower year-over-year revenues and also announced that it is seeking $2 billion in financing to support its network build-out. Chairman Charlie Ergen told analysts on Dish’s quarterly call that the company currently has more than 10,000 towers that reach more than 35% of the U.S. population and is adding about 1,000 towers per month. The company is seeking $2 billion to put to use in continuing that network deployment. Meanwhile, Dish has internally launched its Boost Infinite postpaid product, but it is still working on “operational issues”, Ergen added. Dish doesn’t plan for Boost Infinite to make its commercial debut until the first quarter of 2023, after the holiday rush. That service had been expected to launch before the end of this year. Dish Network reported revenues of $4.10 billion for the quarter, down from $4.45 billion in the year-ago period. Net income was also down, year-over-year, from $557 million in the third quarter of 2021 to $412 million. However, customer numbers for both its wireless and pay-TV operations were positive: Dish gained about 30,000 net TV subscribers to end the quarter with a customer base of around 10 million across Dish TV and Sling TV, and it gained about 1,000 net retail wireless subscribers, compared to a loss of 121,000 at the same time a year ago. That number might be small, but it’s better than the consistent customer losses that Dish has been posting. … Read more
The hardest vertical of all
There was a good panel session, yesterday (November 29; see cover image, available on-demand), on IoT tracking in the supply chain, which brought insightful content and commentary from leading IoT outfits DeltaTrak, Telit, and Unabiz, plus from analyst house ABI Research. But even with the breadth of discussion a four-person panel brings, it is difficult to go as deep as you can with a single speaker, arguably, or a couple in conversation, about a straighter narrative. As such, Enterprise IoT Insights is pleased to be able to complement the webinar, plus the upcoming editorial report, with a transcript of a 40-minute interview with Erich Hugo from DeltaTrak, one of the panellists on the webinar. Hugo, in charge of business innovation at the firm, is joined on the call by Warren Chaisatien, senior director for global CSP marketing at Ericsson, ostensibly to discuss their joint work with Deutsche Telekom to track perishable goods in the supply chain. But the conversation goes beyond this project, actually – and really only brushes over it. DeltaTrak has been in the tracking game for three decades, already, originally supplying manual data loggers to logistics firms for post-analysis of goods in transit – the same ‘things’ now being connected by any number of wireless technologies, by DeltaTrak and others, to get real-time readouts on their position and condition, between first-production and final-sale. … Read more
Dow Chemical’s private LTE push
US system integrator Kyndryl has published a nice-looking blog post, complete with videos, on its headline work, announced at the start of the year, to deploy private LTE for Michigan-headquartered Dow Chemical Company, manufacturer of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products. The post puts focus on the initial scope of the project to modernise plant maintenance at its Freeport manufacturing site in Texas. But the Freeport site is no ordinary factory; it covers 40 different production plants, each with “thousands of mechanical components”, across more than 50 square kilometres of Brazoria County. And the exploratory work across this industrial sprawl, carried out with Kyndryl, and eventually with Nokia as well, set the blueprint for the trio to explode their single-site testbed into a 200-site deployment. Indeed, along with publicly-referenced multi-site, multi-market deployments by Airbus (in process, with Ericsson) and Schneider Electric (on paper, with NTT), and perhaps some others, the Dow Chemical project with Kyndryl and Nokia represents a seminal case study for how to scale private cellular in the complex Industry 4.0 space. The narrative of the blog post – as told by Dow Chemical, as reported by Kyndryl – shows how far, and how quickly, the group came. Because the start-point in Freeport, for Dow Chemical and Kyndryl, was just to digitalise its old industrial processes – across the largest integrated chemical manufacturing complex in the Western Hemisphere. … Read more
Bharti Airtel hits 1 million 5G subs in less than 30 days
Indian operator Bharti Airtel announced that it has already reached 1 million unique 5G subscribers in less than 30 days since it had commercially launched this technology in certain areas of the country. Last month, Airtel announced the launch of 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The services in these cities are getting rolled out in a phased manner as the operator continues to construct its 5G network. Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel, said: “These are early days, but the response from customers have been very encouraging. Our network is being built every da,y even as all 5G devices are now capable of working on the Airtel 5G Plus network, barring a few exceptions which should also be done in the coming weeks. We will continue to advance our network with a vision to connect the entire country.” Airtel had started 5G trials in 2021 and said it became the first operator to commercially launch 5G in the country. Bharti Airtel is chiefly using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung for the provision of 5G services. … Read more
FCC sets up a Space Bureau
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reorganizing to better support the growing satellite industry by transforming the International Bureau into two entities: The Space Bureau and a standalone Office of International Affairs. According to the Commission, the separation of satellite policy from international policy “acknowledges the role of satellite communications in advancing domestic communications policy and achieving U.S. broadband goals.” In a press statement, FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel shared that the agency has received applications for 64,000 new satellites, indicating just how much the sector is booming. It is true that the likes of SpaceX, Starlink and even the top tier carriers are ushering in a new era of satellite connectivity. As of last February, SpaceX, for instance, had around 2,000 satellites in its network, with plans to launch thousands more, potentially blanketing the planet in coverage. Currently, the FCC has granted SpaceX permission to launch up to 12,000 satellites. “The satellite industry is growing at a record pace, but here on the ground our regulatory frameworks for licensing them have not kept up,” Rosenworcel said. “We are seeing new commercial models, new players, and new technologies coming together to pioneer a wide-range of new satellite services and space-based activities that need access to wireless airwaves.” … Read more
T-Mo launches real-time emergency texting
T-Mobile US has partnered with cloud platform provider Sinch to launch NextGen 911 Real-Time Text (RTT), a new service that allows customers to text for emergency assistance. RTT, which the carrier first implemented in its devices in 2016, refers to the capability to send and read a text at same time, without the need to hit send. The latest capability, currently available at the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) in Hood County, Texas, enables users to communicate with 911 through simultaneous conversational text and voice. The carrier pointed out that such an option is particularly beneficial for the nearly 48 million Americans who are Deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who have speech-related disabilities or are non-native English speakers. “RTT 911 provides an enhanced service to our community including Deaf, hearing or speech impaired individuals as well as those who want to use RTT,” confirmed Christy Williams, director of 911, North Central Texas Emergency Communications. … Read more
China’s plan to boost VR
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with other four Chinese government agencies, developed a five-year action plan targeting the shipment of 25 million virtual reality (VR) devices by 2026, Chinese newspaper Global Times reported. The initiative is part of a broader ambition to boost China’s economic and industrial development. The action plan, which will run from 2022 to 2026, aims to further integrate VR with industrial applications. By 2026, the total scale of China’s virtual reality industry, including related hardware, software, and applications, is forecast to exceed CNY 350 billion ($48.56 billion), according to the plan. The Chinese authorities expect that the plan could achieve major breakthroughs in key technologies such as three-dimensionality and also seeks the increasing adoption of VR technology for the promotion of economic development in several sectors. The major targets of the government-backed plan include significantly strengthening innovation ability, continuously improving the industrial ecosystem, and achieving strong results in integrating VR technology with current applications. The plan also aims to cultivate 100 “backbone enterprises” with strong innovation capabilities in the VR sector and to build 10 public service platforms for the industry by 2026. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
