BROWSING: Opinion

Blockchain technology in the telecom industry: Part 3 (Reader Forum)

Editor’s note: Click here for part 1 and here for part 2 of this three-part series on blockchain technology in the telecom industry. The first six telecom applications of blockchain are covered in part 2.  Blockchain applications in the telecom industry 7. Blockchain in roaming management These telco services...

Operator cooperation, new ecosystem is key to ending messaging disintermediation (Reader Forum)

Since the first text message was sent in 1992, messaging as a method of communication has exploded in popularity. Free unlimited texting was incorporated into the majority of mobile operator packages in the 2000s, and by 2008 the number of texts being sent in a month passed the number of phone calls in the United States. For many years, messaging represented a steady revenue source for...

Blockchain technology in the telecom industry: Part 2 (Reader Forum)

Editor's note: Click here for part 1of this three-part series on blockchain technology in the telecom industry. Blockchain applications in the telecom industry `1. Blockchain in fraud management Revenue leakages and frauds are the results of the porosity of the traditional ecosystems, fraud loss was estimated close...

NFV — The need for virtualized acceleration and offloads (Reader Forum)

The ideas around Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), each in their own right, have been around in the industry for many years. They have garnered significant interest in the marketplace as methods to break the vertical market stranglehold that vendors have...

Blockchain technology in the telecom industry: Part 1 (Reader Forum)

Blockchain for telecom: Operational systems and business applications 1. Introduction to blockchain   It started with a Hash function... then the data blocks...then the chained/permissioned data blocks and mining … then distributed Hyperledger and smart contracts completed the picture to provide management and business applications for public, private...

Analyst Angle: Is this the last major step before the commercial 5G smartphone?

Qualcomm and Ericsson make 5G-NR call with test smartphone Amidst a barrage of unending announcements of “5G firsts” that we have heard and keep hearing, there was a gem,  announced on Sep 6. Qualcomm and Ericsson said they successfully completed the first over the air...

Kagan: T-Mobile US tries to win users with “uncarrier” care

Great customer care and customer service is a winning strategy for any company. All the great companies have a strong focus on this area. Seeing this as a way to strengthen their own customer relationships, T-Mobile saw this as an opportunity. So, their most...

Kagan: Why Verizon throttled wireless data speed of firefighters

Shame on Verizon Wireless for throttling the wireless data speed of the smartphones used by West Coast forest firefighters. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the stories. Imagine, firefighters risking their lives to save the lives and property of others, hindered when they...

The spectrum game and the millimeter wave challenge (Reality Check)

Spectrum is an operators’ money pit, and its cash cow, and 5G is unlikely to change that any time soon. But in the era of 5G, the focus will change from “how much” spectrum to “what kind”. The path to 5G commercial rollouts is...

For 5G, timing is everything (Reader Forum)

When we hear 5G, we automatically tend to think of incredibly fast connections with extraordinarily low latency for our mobile broadband experience. However, the 5G experience is more than just mobile broadband. 5G is a transformation that enables a multitude of services with diverse...

Growing fangs: Immutable workloads and the transforming telco (Reader Forum)

FANG – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google – is taking a bite out of traditional service providers’ business. By competing with telecommunication service providers (telcos) to create and optimize the next generation of networks – including the highly anticipated 5G – these web-scale disruptors...

Kagan: 5G wireless pay TV will challenge cable TV

5G wireless network speeds will bring us more than just fast wireless service. It will transform other industries we use as well. Let’s take a closer look at how 5G wireless will transform the pay TV industry in the very near future. Currently, cable TV...

Using an “ABC” approach for successful digital transformation (Reality Check)

In the present era, it may be difficult to imagine communication service providers (CSPs) not moving toward digital transformation in some way. The new evolving technology ecosystem, demanding customer preferences, and competitive threats present a new playground where CSPs can play. But while CSPs...

Transforming legacy infrastructure into powerful and profitable next-generation cloud communications services (Reader Forum)

To quote the famous Rolling Stones song, “You can’t always get what you want, but you can get what you need.” That’s wisdom for communications service providers (CSPs) and the large, global enterprises, who own networks that rival the size, scope and scale of...

Fighting data decay with open source analytics tools (Reader Forum)

From the perspective of big data, the proliferation of internet-of-things (IoT) devices has dramatically changed the way businesses handle data processing. According to BI Intelligence, the velocity of IoT adoption is only set to grow faster. It estimates $70 billion will be spent by...

Five reasons why tenant comfort can create better building NOI

What's the NOI implication of tenant comfort? With so much focus on OPEX reduction, can the visceral benefits of building automation equate to measurable benefits for building owners? Many of us have seen the stats.? Per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity accounts for approximately...

Introducing DSRC: Vehicles are more high tech (and potentially dangerous) than you think

For many years, vehicles have been running on software, relying on wireless networks to function, but those networks have been local and closed. With a car operating on a local network, you can’t use your cellphone, tap into your car’s wireless network, and access...

AI and IIoT: How to make products better and faster – at less cost (Reader Forum)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key asset in the continuing effort to derive greater value from business processes and business models in general. While much of the attention AI has garnered has centered on digital services and applications, the technology is also driving significant enhancements...

Kagan: How 5G will change pay TV and internet

5G is more than just faster wireless service. It is transformative. It will transform the way we use wireless and expand what we can do over it. Over the next few years, 5G wireless will open new doors and create a completely different experience...

Americans and Canadians both want 5G, but policy is lagging (Reader Forum)

Most often, we read of differences between the United States and Canada, but in one area, the people of both nations agree: neither country can get enough of mobile wireless services. Consumers devour more mobile wireless data each year, and mobile operators beg the...

The next steps for FirstNet: Defining indoor coverage specifications (Reader Forum)

Today, critical communications between first responders – such as police officers, paramedics and firefighters – is compromised by unreliable, ineffective, non-interoperable radio communications systems. To address this, in March 2017 AT&T was selected to build LTE-based FirstNet (First Responder Network Authority), a public safety network....

Analyst Angle: Microwave sharpens its edge for 5G backhaul

Last year, Sky Light Research wrote a paper on microwave being able to meet the requirements of 5G.  That paper explored various benchmarks that microwave needs to meet for 5G to be successful - capacity, low latency, high cell densification, and flexible OAM through...

The pros and cons of automating physical building security

The role that IoT can play in the physical building security can have massive implications on a comprehensive intelligent building solution.? At its most basic level, physical security can be enhanced in a number of ways by leveraging IoT sensors and/or cloud connectivity.? Briefly...

Kagan: Frontier AnyWare lets you manage your company from the cloud

Frontier Business is expanding their AnyWare business service offering. They let users manage their company’s usage through the Frontier Cloud. This service is growing into a fully integrated set of services that is easy to manage for any business over the cloud. Let’s take...