Mobile & Wireless Roundup #98

Welcome to the 98th edition of this newsletter. In the last edition I shared the picture of smartphones that were being used for broadcasting live video (see examples here and here) from different sites at the Olympics. It was nice to see some of these videos being broadcast via Orange, Cisco & Neutral Wireless private networks (see TMN article here).

Staying with the Olympics, the rings have different colours which were chosen so that in combination with the white background, they could produce the colours of all national flags worldwide. One of the colours that fascinate me the most is red.

Red represents danger (blood for example) and warning (stop traffic light for example) and there are loads of myths associated with red but there are also lots of fascinating facts. Humans have been conditioned to associate stop with red hence many of the emergency stop switches are red in colour.

There could be a scientific explanation to this as well. Red is the colour that babies see first before any other, and it’s also the first colour that those suffering from temporary colour blindness after a brain injury start to see again.

But red is not all bad news, it is also a colour of good luck and prosperity in many different cultures. In the Indian subcontinent, the bride wears red dress, which is generally associated with prosperity, fertility, etc. In the western world, red carpet is used during high profile events or when an important visitor comes. In Chinese culture, red is auspicious and associated with life-generating energy. It is the colour of celebrations and prosperity and strictly forbidden at funerals.

The most interesting fact about red that you will most likely not know is that bees can’t see red and as a result the red flowers are generally pollinated by birds, butterflies, bats and wind.

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

• Free 6G Training: Videos from San Diego Wireless Summit (SDWS) 2024 (link)

? 5G

• New presentation from Qualcomm: 'A closer look at 5G Advanced Release 18' (link)

• Dimitris Mavrakis on LinkedIn: Reviewing 3GPP TR 22.837 on #5G ISAC use cases (link)
• Daniel Ollé on X: "Not everyone likes DSS: Brazilian Government fines Oi, Vivo & Tim for misleading 5G advertising…" (X post)

? 2G/3G

• IMDA, Singapore: 3G services to retire in phases, starting with M1’s network in Aug 2024 (link)
• The Guardian: Why is Australia’s 3G being shut down – and could it spell chaos? (link)

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

• Juniper Research: Open RAN investment by operators to surge in next five years to $39bn (link)

? Spectrum

• UK SPF Report: Exploring a new framework for defence spectrum sharing in the UK (link)
• RCR Wireless: France considers assigning midband spectrum for private networks (link) – ARCEP said that it aims to award mobile spectrum in the 3.410-3.490 GHz and 3.8-4.2 GHz bands.

? Private Networks

• Private 5G Helps Volvo in Construction, Mining, Quarrying with Autonomous Transportation (link)

• Fierce Networks: Who's who in private networking in-a-box systems? (link)
• RCR Wireless: Asterisk, asterisk, asterisk – things to think about when thinking about private 5G (link)

? Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Connectivity Technology Blog: Lower Latency and Higher Data Rates with Hollow Core Fiber (HCF) (link)

• UKTIN Practical Case Study: On-train network (link)
• The Rise Of The Neutral Host Network (link)
• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Enclosures, the Unsung Heroes (link)

? IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• RCR Wireless: Vodafone Spain sees nearly 28% YoY IoT growth, leads the IoT with 7.4 million active lines (link) – original VF ES PR here.

? Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• Slides and video from 'eSIM Summit: A New Era of Innovation' at MWC Shanghai 2024 (link)

? AI, ML & Automation

• LinkedIn live with Eugina Jordan and Jillian Kaplan - How to AI: AI Strategies for CSPs (link)
• Communications Today - Revolutionizing telecom with AI: A deep dive into conversational, predictive, and Generative AI (link)
• LinkedIn live with Monica Paolini and Geoff Hollingworth - AI adoption: Real challenges and early breakthroughs (link)

? Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• DroneLife: Consortium Explores 5G-Enabled Drone Deliveries in Remote Areas of the UK (link)
• Qualcomm OnQ Blog: Up, up, and away: Ensuring safe drone flights with Aircraft-to-Everything (link)

? Metaverse & Extended Reality (XR)

• Wired: The Metaverse Was Supposed to Be Your New Office. You’re Still on Zoom (link) – LinkedIn discussion by Analyst Camille Mendler (link)

? Public Safety Networks

• Disaster Roaming in 3GPP Release-17 (link)

? Other News and Technology Stuff

• McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2024 (link)
• Stefan Pongratz on LinkedIn: "We just posted our 5-year RAN forecast update (we officially update these long-term projections twice per year)…" (link)

? Picture of the week: Today we are sharing pictures shared by analyst Ben Wood on LinkedIn from Samsung Mobile's street art installation in East London to mark launch of new Galaxy foldables.

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.