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!
Rakuten Mobile launches 5G services in parts of Japan
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile, a unit of e-commerce giant Rakuten, has announced the availability of its commercial 5G service in certain areas across six prefectures of the country. The service, initially offered via Non-Stand Alone (NSA) 5G architecture, is already available in parts of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Hokkaido, Osaka and Hyogo. The company’s 5G launch was initially expected for June this year but was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The operator announced its “Rakuten UN-LIMIT V” service plan which offers customers access to 5G services for the same JPY2,980 ($28.2) monthly fee as the previous “Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0” plan. From today, existing subscribers of the Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0 service plan will be able to use 5G services for no additional cost, in 5G service areas with a 5G-compatible device, Rakuten said. New applicants for the 5G plan are also eligible for the campaign offering 3 million subscribers the first full year of service free of monthly fees launched in March 2020. … Read more
Let’s frame the Open RAN value proposition to better understand the benefits of disaggregating radio hardware and software, trading single-purpose equipment for general-purpose hardware and moving vital network functions into the cloud. First and foremost, network economics need to change; for 5G, and LTE, to scale and provide the kind of meaningful business value touted in press releases and sales briefs, something has to give. Telecom operators are dropping billions of dollars every year into building networks yet are met with stagnating ARPUs, operational complexities that introduce more costs, and it’s not sustainable. Facebook Connectivity Vice President Dan Rabinovitsj described it as “an economic imperative. [Operators are] going to be buying a lot more stuff, particularly RAN equipment. By focusing now on converting that to an open architecture, an open standard and a potential to source white box hardware, I think this really changes the game.” Tying that specifically to Open RAN, he continued: “The reason why Open RAN has become so interesting is because, for the first time, the telecom infra industry and the mobile operators that are driving the purchase of a lot of this equipment, they realize they need to get away from their monolithic supply chain.” … Read more
CBRS gains more support from Infovista, Select Spectrum
With the Priority Access License Auction concluded, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service continues to expand its ecosystem related to the secondary PALs market and network planning tools. Select Spectrum, a secondary spectrum broker, said this week (pdf) that it plans to launch on web-based platform, CBRS Direct, in January to facilitate leasing and sub-leasing of PALs on both a full-county basis and for smaller geographic areas. The company noted that while the Federal Communications Commission ultimately settled on PALs that were county-sized, there was significant interest in even smaller, census-tract sizes for licenses. Select Spectrum said that its new platform “will provide these users with access to spectrum on a sub-county basis, and PAL rights holders the ability to gain a return on portions of their license areas that may be underutilized.” Andreas Bitzarakis, director of broadband at Select Spectrum, said in a statement that the CBRS Direct system would include support for partitioning licenses into smaller geographic areas as well as for disaggregation of the spectrum, or the ability to segment the licenses by frequency and use less than the full bandwidth available. … Read more
T-Mobile expands mid-band 5G; Verizon adds 5G FWA markets
As U.S. carriers invest in both 5G network expansions and new services built on the network, both T-Mobile US and Verizon made announcements today with the former lighting up its 2.5 GHz spectrum in 121 additional markets and the latter using its millimeter wave 5G network to provide fixed wireless access home internet service in two new markets. T-Mobile has in place nationwide standalone 5G using its 600 MHz spectrum, and is adding a nice mix of coverage and capacity by layering in 2.5 GHz 5G using spectrum that came with the Sprint merger. T-Mo said 2.5 GHz 5G is now available in 121 more cities and towns bringing the total to 210 markets covered by mid-band. The carrier reports average download speeds around 300 Mbps with peak speeds in the 1 Gbps range. T-Mobile execs, for several years now, have dinged Verizon’s millimeter wave-based 5G approach for its limited reach, and VP of Technology continued that in a statement: “It would be easy to deliver fast speeds are only available less than 1% of the time, like Verizon, but T-Mobile’s strategy is different. With more low and mid-band spectrum than anyone in the U.S. and dedicated airwaves for 5G, only T-Mobile is delivering 5G with both coverage and speed.” … Read more
Schneider Electric recruits Orange, Nokia for France’s first industrial 5G network
France-based energy management and automation specialist Schneider Electric has deployed the first private indoor 5G network in the industrial sector in France. The firm has worked with mobile operator Orange and telecoms vendor Nokia. The network utilises “experimental frequencies”. The network has been live at Schneider Electric’s factory in Le Vaudreuil, in Normandy in France, since March. The company says the site at Le Vaudreuil has been inducted into the World Economic Forum’s index of ‘lighthouse’ smart factories, along with its factory in Batam, in Indonesia. It has not registered, however, in Enterprise IoT Insights’ periodical coverage so far of this Industry 4.0 equivalent of the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Schneider Electric claims its factories in Wuhan, China, and in Monterrey, Mexico, have also been earmarked by the World Economic Forum as candidate (‘developing Advanced 4th Industrial Revolution’) lighthouse venues. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
