Reality Check

I hear over-and-over again from industry experts that 5G doesn’t matter for consumers. Yet every time I turn on the TV, I see Communications Service Providers (CSPs) advertising consumer 5G devices and phone plans. It’s easy to see that it …

Our sci-fi future is just around the corner, right? Well, let’s pump the brakes. The industry has big plans for 5G networks: autonomous vehicles, immersive augmented reality, ubiquitous drones, automated factories. If it was on The Jetsons, it’s probably on …

This weekend sees the G7 meetings take place, which gives Britain a chance to stake its place in the world order post-Brexit.  The recent agreement on corporate taxation – whether you agree with it or not – is a powerful …

As the volume of connected IoT devices increases, CSPs and enterprises both have a common goal: generate value from a vast amount of new IoT-enabled use cases. Combined with 5G’s enhanced speeds and low latency communications these two technologies will …

A few weeks ago, the industry trade body representing the interests of the world’s mobile operator community, the GSMA, released a report looking at the impact of global regulators offering enterprises spectrum for the creation of private 4G and 5G networks. So …

  Despite all the recent advances in technology, the actual business of telecoms has been slow to move with the times. Take dynamic pricing as an example, a practice common across many industries. Using dynamic pricing, businesses can set flexible …

  Over the past several months, we’ve seen the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act, a bill to deter criminal robocall violations and make it easier for authorities to assign financial penalties, signed into law; the FCC strengthen efforts to fine robocallers and …

  When Gordon Moore put forth his prediction about the number of transistors per square inch doubling every 18 months, he had no idea how long this state would endure nor what technologies would bring about its demise. All good …

With America’s vast geography and unique competitor landscape, it is arguably one of the most intriguing battlegrounds for 5G rollouts globally. Therefore, as we enter the first inning of 5G in the U.S., it’s not shocking that it has become …

After many years of development, the first commercial rollouts of 5G have finally begun this year. 5G will bring higher speeds, lower lag times, and larger data transfer capacity, but it will also bring much more. In addition to powering …

Network architectures are becoming more complex and decentralized. Applications are becoming more advanced, data-heavy, and compute-intensive. Both trends will continue as communications service providers (CSPs) upgrade their 4G networks first, and then begin the migration to 5G. While doing so, …

  The hype around 5G continues to grow. Many carriers are promoting this technology as a way to target the enterprise networking and IoT markets with an end-to-end service that spans indoor and outdoor coverage. Fundamentally, the carriers (and their …

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s recent announcement that he supports the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile with their commitments is welcome news. The merger will create a better-resourced combined company with a renewed focus on disrupting wireless with competitive prices and …

  From corporate offices to friendly neighborhood coffee shops, nearly every organization operating a Wi-Fi network is highly exposed to vulnerabilities which bad actors can use to steal sensitive data, eavesdrop, and infiltrate further into the network. The Wi-Fi attack …

June 29th, 2007, a day of infamy in the world of telco’s.  On that day, the vestiges of “walled gardens” and premium data services crumbled like the Berlin wall did 16 years earlier. On that last Friday of June, the …

On October 18, a group of operators including BT, EE, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, MTS, Telus, KPN, Orange and Vodafone gathered in London for the Mobile Video Industry Council (MVC) to debate the future of mobile video and 5G. ABI Research, …

This October, North American operator Verizon launched the first 5G fixed wireless access service, making it very clear that 5G is closer than you think. 5G is set to promise speed, greater network efficiency, reduced latency and above all, an …

In part 1 of this series, we discussed the state of networks heading into 5G, and why we’ll need to move beyond today’s concept of assurance. To achieve tomorrow’s agile, self-organizing networks that can uphold absolute assurance, we’ll need five …

Network Function Virtualization — NFV — promises much. NFV is the next generation of network architecture, replacing software running on dedicated hardware with virtual appliances running on commodity hardware. NFV should mean the ability to deploy software functions on any …

The new network is different than the old network. And the way it’s managed is different, too. Until now, management has been on a device-by-device basis, but volume and complexity have made that method unsustainable. Automation and orchestration drive network …

Smartphone usage. Voluminous streaming data. Multiple mobile devices tethered together. All of these activities are expected to have much smoother connections once 5G is rolled out. Because it’s touted as the answer to latency or slow speeds, network operators are …

Merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector will be robust at least well into 2019, driven by several factors, indicating higher M&A valuation for companies in this sector. Merger and acquisition activity in the …

Blackberry’s growth in-regards to connected car is probably one of the best-kept secrets in mobile.  Few people know about Blackberry’s QNX business, and even fewer know about how dominant they have been in the infotainment technologies used in automobiles. The …

Dissecting a poignant phrase coined at this week’s SDN NFV World Congress On day one of this year’s SDN NFV World Congress in The Hague, I was intrigued by a phrase used in the keynote: ‘fake virtualization’. The speaker, Jehanne …

Our networks have matured over the years, and as we roll into a new realm of 5G, we’re left revisiting, revising and even reinventing our approach to service level agreements (SLA) and assurance. Bluntly put, our current approach to SLA …