Mobile & Wireless Roundup #34

Welcome to the 34th edition of this newsletter. I am still catching up on all MWC news, recaps, sessions, etc. Hopefully I will be done by the end of March. Many thanks to my contacts that sent me some excellent pictures from the MWC exhibit floor.

I am also delighted to inform you that I have been invited to chair 5G World Series' inaugural 6G Summit in Berlin on 26 April 2023. Details on my LinkedIn post here . You can find my latest thoughts and other information on 6G that I happily share on the Free 6G Training blog.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a technologist with over 24 years’ experience in mobile wireless technology, currently working as an independent analyst, consultant and a trainer. This newsletter is a summary of my posts and others news that caught my attention since the last newsletter.

? MWC 2023 Recap/Summaries

• GSMA Intelligence Brief: What did we learn about 5G-Advanced at MWC23? (link )
• Analyst Paolo Pescatore ’s summary of MWC 2023 (link )
• MWC Barcelona 2023: UKTIN ’s highlights (link )
• RCR Wireless: Test and Measurement: Greener RAN, Open RAN, NTN among the test showcases at MWC23 (link )
• Dell’Oro: MWC 2023–RAN Market Key Takeaways (link )

? 6G

• Free 6G Training: NGMN Alliance Whitepaper on '6G Requirements and Design Considerations' (link )
• Light Reading: China dominates research in 6G and optical – report (link )

? 5G

• Dell’Oro: Massive MIMO Slowed in 2022 – Still More Growth Ahead (link )
• Operator Watch Blog: Nepal is Taking Right Steps in Direction of 5G (link )

? 2G/3G

• Vodafone UK successfully retires 3G in Basingstoke and Plymouth (link )
• Finland: DNA's 3G to be first shut down in Hyvink?? in May – phasing out old technology will free up bandwidths for 4G and 5G (link )

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

• Alex Jinsung Choi on LinkedIn: O-RAN SMO - Who is in the driver's seat? (link )
• Light Reading: Open RAN hits its awkward teenage years (link )
• This whitepaper from Nokia explains "Look-Aside" and "In-Line" L1 accelerator options for Virtualized and Cloud RAN (link )
• Telefonica’s journey towards network softwarization and exposing network capabilities for future telco services (link )
• Light Reading: Operators hold the course with open RAN (link )

? Private Networks

• RCR Wireless: Is private wireless overhyped? Experts weigh in at MWC 2023 (link )
• Globalstar recently signed a strategic agreement with Qualcomm. As part of the collaboration, Qualcomm Technologies plans to make select Qualcomm FSM Platforms optimized to work with Globalstar’s Band n53 terrestrial spectrum for private networks. (link )
• RCR Wireless: Kyndryl sees high demand for “bullet-proof” private 5G for Industry 4.0 (link )

? Cloud & Edge

• Diginomica: How Ocado migrated its on-premise robotic control system to AWS on Christmas Eve (link )

? Security & Privacy

• Light Reading: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Dish have all been targets of hacks this year (link )

? Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

• The Verge: Ford’s self-repossessing car patent is a nightmare of the connected-car future (link )

? AI, ML & Automation

• Gary Kim on Twitter: “#ChatGPT and other #GenerativeAI platforms are likely going to accelerate sales of general-purpose #GPUs , servers and a rearchitecting of data center architectures to support remote AI tasks. https://dlvr.it/SkkHXk ” (Tweet )

? Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Connectivity Technology Blog: 5G NR-NTN Demos make a Debut at MWC 2023 (link )
• Light Reading: Most satellite D2D services will fail, predicts Iridium CTO (link )
• Orange and OneWeb sign agreement to enhance and expand global connectivity (link )
• A Twitter thread looking at the superiority of AST SpaceMobile as compared to the competitors and how it can help close connectivity gap (Twitter thread with photos)

? Wi-Fi

• KT, Intel, and Wi-Fi 7 technology for the first time as a telecommunications company (link )

? Metaverse

• A new report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) has found that a slowdown in consumer spending and a lack of standards may remain a drag on virtual and augmented reality adoption… in the short-term. (link )

? Sustainability

• ICYM this Green Future Networks whitepaper from NGMN - 'KPIs and Target Values for Green Network Assessment' (link )
• TMN: How mobile operators can go green (link )

? Other News and Technology Stuff

• The 3G4G Blog: How many Cell Sites and Base Stations Worldwide? (link )
• Gartner: Do Recent Layoffs Mean the Tech Talent Crunch Is Over? (link )
• Light Reading: MWC party goes on amid the rubble of telecom (link )
• Telecom TV: New report claims Beijing tries to “manipulate” the ITU (link )
• MWL: KDDI develops underground base station (link )

? Picture of the week: Radio equipment theft is a big issue in Africa. These pictures highlight how some customers resort to home built cages to prevent their equipment being stolen. (Source Tweet )

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 .