Lumen Technologies reported their growth in Q4 2021 was weak, and their projections for 2022 don’t look like things will improve. This concern raises an interesting and important question. Why is Lumen having trouble with growth in an industry that is transforming and growing...
T-Mobile US said something surprising and perhaps worrisome. As the cable TV industry is showing wireless growth, T-Mobile US says they are not worried about them as a competitive threat. What is concerning is, Comcast Xfinity Mobile, Charter Spectrum Mobile and Altice Mobile are...
Greetings from the Midwest. Today’s opening picture shows Paul Stebbins of Wifinity, a small Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP), presenting to the Vernon County (MO) Commissioners last Wednesday. I chose this picture for several reasons: 1) A reminder that we are meeting in person...
As we watch the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine, there are so many stories, opinions and concerns regarding what is coming next and if it will impact other countries like the United States of America… and how. The White House and other US...
My friend Tareq Amin made an interesting suggestion recently: He believes that the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) should be given away for free, in order to host the open world of applications for mobile networks. As I circulated at the Mobile World Congress, each vendor...
AT&T is explaining their recovery path at their 2022 AT&T Analyst and Investor Day. They laid out their growth strategy going forward after they complete their WarnerMedia divestiture. Based on what they say, they are now on a recovery path after struggling over the...
During Samsung's announcement of Galaxy S22 phones, I tweeted that it's all about the camera. But after using Galaxy S22 Ultra for the last few weeks, I have realized that it's not just the camera, but productivity as well, thanks to Samsung's hallmark, built-in...
We’ve been talking about 5G wireless years before it became a reality. It seemed the top three wireless carriers were jumping all over each other trying to be first and best at this next generation wireless technology. A curious thing is happening. Now that...
The metaverse has been getting lots of attention ever since Facebook changed their name to Meta several months ago. However, in the real world we have been talking about it in the industry for quite a long time using different names and terms. That...
It took the industry 30 years to consolidate mobile communications developments into a single 4G standard with the introduction of LTE and the demise of WiMAX. That attainment—also in 5G—should be cherished; but it is imperiled by geopolitical developments.
While the international response to Russia’s...
Greetings from Kansas City, Nebraska and Louisiana. Pictured is one of the stops on Jim’s broadband tour of the Cornhusker state, Buck’s Bar and Grill in Venice, Nebraska. Terrific food and amazing service (and, while not personally witnessed, the live music also has a pretty darn...
Earlier this week I have a very interesting and I think important conversation with Steve Berry, who is the President and CEO of the Competitive Carriers Association. We discussed the CCA Mobile Carriers Show coming up in April in Tampa Florida. However, the conversation...
Have you noticed this? We all used to spend plenty of time attending various trade shows, conferences and corporate meetings. Then suddenly everything shut down over the last couple years. Industry conferences were cancelled and those that went on were very quiet. Today, things...
T-Mobile US has been an amazing growth story over the last few years. They were dead last competing with Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and Sprint, and after several years of hard work they fought their way up to number two. That success did not...
A couple years ago T-Mobile US acquired Sprint with the help of Dish Network who wanted to get into wireless themselves. Word was, Dish was going to become the fourth largest wireless provider. We expected to see them rapidly building 5G throughout the country,...
After being badly battered by the global pandemic, Mobile World Congress (MWC)—the mobile industry's biggest show, is back to its old glory. It will again be the place where futuristic technologies and products are revealed as well as market trends are set. If you...
Greetings from Kansas City and Nebraska. Pictured is our colleague, Bob O’Keefe, surveying the Omaha landscape during one of the coldest days of 2022. Trust us – under that grin is one nearly frozen individual. We had a terrific time in Nebraska this week...
A single cellular site has never been this noteworthy and a milestone across multiple dimensions. I am talking about the recently launched Open RAN site in the UK by Vodafone and Samsung Networks. This was the first such commercial site in the UK—a brownfield...
The talk of the outsized role of cloud players in Open RAN is as old as talk of Open RAN itself. After prolonged anticipation, the collaboration between traditional telco and cloud players is finally coming to fruition. The recent HPE and Qualcomm announcement about...
If you think the successive generations of Wi-Fi are coming far more quickly than before, you are not wrong. While Wi-Fi 6E is relatively new, and Wi-Fi 6 devices are ramping up now, the industry is already readying the next step, Wi-Fi 7. There...
Let me start by saying a sincere and heartfelt thank you! Someone just said to me that I have been an industry analyst and columnist for nearly four decades. How, over that time I have been sharing thoughts, analysis and insight into the news...
Turn of the decade calls for revitalized global climate action
The ongoing global warming and climate change are now exposing humanity to future threats, and their consequences are already impacting many regions of the world and affecting hundreds of millions of human lives as we...
Well, the automotive industry has done it again. They shot themselves in the foot more than a decade ago and now they are doing it again. I am talking about the navigation systems on cars today. This is when you press a button and...
When the Super Bowl fever is gripping the country, and everybody is looking forward to the first major public sports event coming out of the Omicron wave, the timing couldn't have been better for Verizon to showcase its preparedness and 5G prowess. It opened...
