Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 107

Welcome to the 107th edition of this newsletter. I participated in a couple of events this week, one of them was a discussion on 6G, however it led me to ponder on the fact that most 6G events are inviting only supporters and cheerleaders and hardly any speakers who can present a more balanced or even realistic view. Even though I like to think of myself as a balanced speaker, during the 5G days a conference producer told me that some sponsors object to me being part of the panel because I was too negative.

I feel we should have learnt from rolling out 5G that forcing artificially optimistic views in the short term can only create problems for the industry in the long run. While there is token caution at the 6G conferences, they are overwhelmingly avoiding any critical voices that might sow seeds of doubt.

The psychologists warn us about the ‘illusion of truth effect’, which in simple terms is “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. Many conferences fall into the trap of reinforcing existing beliefs by inviting speakers who align with their own values or perspectives. This creates an echo chamber, where only supportive views are heard and reinforced. It's comfortable for organizers and participants to engage with ideas that validate their opinions rather than challenge them.

One can argue that complex and realistic views often require deeper discussions, context, and nuance, which may not fit into the typical format of a conference. That is why short online panel sessions are the best way to bring these issues to the forefront.

And just so there is no misunderstanding, I am not against 6G or any other technological evolution. I just believe that setting an arbitrary date of ‘new generation every 10 years’ or ‘6G in 2030’ is not necessarily the right approach. There should be a compelling reason for convincing mobile operators to invest time and money to move to the next evolution of mobile and wireless technology.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a technologist with over 25 years’ experience in mobile wireless technology, currently working as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and a trainer. This newsletter is a summary of my posts and other news that caught my attention since the last newsletter.

? 6G

• The Rise of 'giga MIMO' or 'gigantic MIMO' (gMIMO) (link)
• Telecom Review Asia - AIS: Paving the Way for a 6G-Ready Future (link)
• Light Reading - White House 6G priorities: Openness and security, and the 6G part isn't a prerequisite (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: 6G Core – Relocate, Reuse and Replace Proposal by Qualcomm (link)
• 6G World - Taste of the Autumn: 6G Profit, Policy & Tech Moves This Week (link)
• Free 6G Training: Panel Discussion on 'Evolving AI Architectures in Support of End-to-end Heterogeneous Next Generation Networks' (link)

? 5G

• The latest issue of ZTE Technologies magazine covers Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) (link)
• Operator Watch Blog: The Bahamas Consults on 5G (link)
• DCD: Norwegian carrier Ice deploys 5G Standalone network, touts network slicing potential (link) – Press release from Lyse Group (PR)

? Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)

• ODIN: ATIS Open RAN MVP Leaves Room For Improvement (link)
• TMN: Get on with it, says Telus man on Open RAN (link)
• Eugina Jordan on LinkedIn: Big Board changes are happening at the Telecom Infra Project! (link)
• TelecomTV: Yago Tenorio leaves Vodafone, joins Verizon (link)
• TIP: TIP OpenLAN Exceeds 100,000 Enterprise-Grade Devices Including OpenWiFi? Access Points and OpenLAN Switches, Showcasing Market Growth and Scalability (link)
• Aetha: Paving the way to Open RAN adoption (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: Intelligent OpenRAN Roadmap for AT&T's consideration... (link)

? Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog: The Use of Mobile Private Networks (MPNs) in Ports (link)

• BAI Communications: How private mobile networks are making waves at container ports (link)
• Nice to see a Private 5G advert on London Underground - Three Business Connects Construction (link)
• Fierce Network: 5G private network, or a network slice? (link)

? Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Wednesday Wonderings: Blue Sky Thinking or Stuck in the Past? (link)
• Peter Clarke on LinkedIn: "Small cells, small cells, small cells everywhere: Virgin Media O2's new rollout of an Ericsson small cell grid to Reading has yielded substantial footprint and much macro offload in little time…" (link)
• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Sunday School: Give me a Lift (link)

? IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• MWL: Iridium standards call answered by 3GPP (link) – “The 3GPP granted a request by Iridium to add functionality of NB-IoT for non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to the work plan for Release-19, which is due to be finalised by Q4 2025.”

? Virtualization, Cloud & Edge

• Refresher: What is Cloud Native and How is it Transforming the Networks? (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Cloudy with a Chance of RAN! (link)
• TelecomTV Panel Discussion: The essential components of a cloud-native strategy (video)

? Security & Privacy

• The 3G4G Blog: Detection of Real-world Fake Base Station (FBS) Attacks in Thailand (link)
• TelecomTV: BT’s research chief on quantum-safe networking and network APIs (video)

? Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

• Samsung Electronics Collaborates With Hyundai Motor and Kia to Further Expand the SmartThings Ecosystem (PR1, PR2)
• MWL: Volkswagen gears up for in-car AI assistant (link)

? Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• Light Reading: BICS gets set for big push on travel eSIMs (link)
• MWL: Smartwatch maker targets seniors with Doro takeover (link)
• Developing Telecoms: How do we improve smartphone affordability in Africa? (link)
• Wired: This Brain Implant Lets People Control Amazon Alexa With Their Minds (link)

? AI, ML & Automation

• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: Challenges in executing Intelligent Control & Orchestration of tRAN, vRAN, ORAN? (link)
• MWL: Korea boosts MSIT R&D budget with AI focus (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: What's Next for Intelligent Control & Orchestration of RAN? (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: "Achieving higher capacity and lower latency in the mobile fronthaul, thereby extending distance and increasing aggregation in C-RAN, and making AI-RAN value proposition even more attractive in #OpenRAN, #ORAN architecture implementation…" (link)
• SDxCentral: Is AI the kick open RAN needs? (link)
• Alok Tripathi on LinkedIn: Is there architectural alignment between 3GPP and O-RAN ALLIANCE for #AI/#ML powered RAN Management? (link)

? Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Charlene King on LinkedIn: "Financial Times: "The satellite spectrum battle that could shape the new space economy." Now, with the world's appetite for wireless connectivity exploding, these bands are getting congested; and nowhere is that congestion being felt more than in the rapidly evolving commercial space sector…" (link)

? Other News and Technology Stuff

• The Conversation - Graphene at 20: still no sign of the promised space elevator, but here’s how this wonder material is quietly changing the world (link)
• Luke Kehoe on LinkedIn: "The proliferation of a diverse crop of MVNOs and sub-brands in the UK and Ireland has imparted significant competitive dynamism in the mobile market in recent years, playing an important role in catering to niche demographics and driving innovation through novel tariff, bundling and convergence strategies…" (link)
• Radio Free Mobile: Qualcomm & Intel – Indigestion (link)
• Harry Baldock on LinkedIn: "Some pretty serious shots being fired in today's clash over peering between Meta and Deutsche Telekom! …" (link)
• 404 Media: Google Serves AI Slop as Top Result for One of the Most Famous Paintings in History (link)
• Yahoo Finance/Bloomberg: More Than 4 Million Robots Are Working in Factories Worldwide (link)
• Techspot: A bold plan takes shape to build the world's largest subsea energy interconnector - It would link Europe and North America with 2,000 miles of cables (link)

? Picture of the week: Most people using 5G iPhones outside of US have never seen any of the fancy 5G icons that iPhone supports for US mobile devices. Here are these different icons as detailed on iPhone User Guide page for iOS18 here:

Happy to hear your thoughts. Feel free let me know what worked, what didn’t, how I can make this better, etc. Get in touch over LinkedIn!

PDF version of this and previous newsletters are available here.