Page 24 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

the fourth industrial revolution a reality.” whole of the UK’s manufacturing sector, team, working with Ericsson, will provide
BT will also bring the scale and expertise it would make a significant contribution the resource and capability to support the
needed to extend the benefits of 5G Private towards boosting national productivity, W5G Testbed. Its primary scope will include
Networks to more manufacturers in key revitalizing the manufacturing industry support for the 5G private Core and Radio
sectors such as Aerospace and to SMEs. and stimulating the economy. This level Access Network (RAN) from Ericsson, Wide
Further details about these industry 4.0 of growth will be absolutely critical to the Area Network (WAN) and the Multi Access
use cases will be announced over the success of post-coronavirus Britain.” As Edge Computing (MEC) environment.
coming months. The insight gleaned from well as managing the 5G Private Network BT and W5G are keen to work with more
the Worcestershire 5G Testbed will be which uses Ericsson equipment, BT will companies across Worcestershire,
used to stimulate innovation across the also provide access to its world leading surrounding counties and regions to help
manufacturing sector in the region. This innovation capabilities at the EE Mobile explore how 5G Private Networks can be
will kick-start the regional growth which Labs in Borehamwood. The EE Mobile Labs used to transform their operations.
will be essential in driving a vibrant local
economy following Covid-19 and beyond.
BT will also use this insight to understand
how to optimize private networking, IoT,
data analytics and edge computing for the
fourth industrial revolution. The data driven
solutions created through the effective
combination of these technologies will
transform manufacturing and other
industries nationally. The testbed’s initial
5G Private Network installation has so
far yielded positive results – increasing
factory output by as much as two per cent.
Councilor Ken Pollock, Worcestershire
County Council's Cabinet Member for
Economy and Infrastructure, said: “If this
productivity gain was applied across the

China Mobile Sees Growth in H1 2020, as 5G
Rollout Continues

China Mobile added 11 million subscribers station units in 2020 alone. The deals were will provide 11.5 per cent. The remaining
to its books in the first half of 2020, taking worth a collective $5.2 billion. According 2.6 per cent will be supplied by smaller
its total number of telecoms subscribers to to a report in the Financial Times, Chinese domestic players in China. China Mobile
946.74 million, as the world’s biggest telco tech giant Huawei would provide 57.2 has already completed phase one of its 5G
continued to grow. The company deployed per cent of the total base stations to network rollout. The company has stated
188,000 in the first half of 2020, as its fuel China Mobile’s 5G roll out. Huawei’s that it would like to provide 5G to 50 towns
gargantuan 5G rollout continued it earnest. Chinese compatriot ZTE will provide 28.7 and cities by the end of 2020, deploying a
The company said that it was on course per cent while Swedish vendor, Ericsson, total of 300,000 base station units.
to hit its target of 300,000 base stations
by the end of 2020, despite the impact of
the Coronavirus pandemic. China Mobile
increased its capital expenditure in 2020
by 8.5 per cent to $25.9 billion (179.8
billion Chinese Yuan Renminbi). Earlier this
year, China Mobile revealed that it would
use Huawei and ZTE for the majority of
its 5G network build out, with help from
Ericsson and a smaller domestic vendor.
China Mobile’s nationwide 5G roll out will
involve the deployment of 300,000 base

24 AUGUST 2020