Page 83 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

North American Operators Tackle 6G

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile US and US Cellular joined other telecoms heavy hitters
under the guise of the Next G Alliance, aiming to steer development of 6G and
establish North America as a global leader in the technology. The group’s work
will span R&D, manufacturing, standardization and market readiness, seeking
to rally operators, vendors and other participants around a core set of priorities
to influence technology development, government policy and funding. Beyond
the US operators, founding members of the group include Canadian operators
Bell Canada and Telus; equipment vendors Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung;
Qualcomm; Facebook; Microsoft; JMA Wireless; Ciena; InterDigital; and Telnyx.
The group was launched by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry
Solutions (ATIS), which in May called on the US government and industry
experts to begin work on the next generation of mobile networks. ATIS CEO
Susan Miller stated the Next G Alliance’s work will lay “the foundation for a
vibrant marketplace for North American innovation”.

DOCOMO Develops 5G X-Border Platform

Japanese cellco NTT DOCOMO has announced that
its new 5G X-Border Platform (5G-XBP) went live
from 1 October 2020. In a press release, Japan’s
largest cellco by subscribers noted that 5G-XBP
‘directly connects the DOCOMO Open Innovation
Cloud platform with 5G networks overseas using a
dedicated network for closed communication walled
off from the open internet, allowing customers to use
cloud services with confidence in secure cross-border
environments’. The statement goes on to confirm that
the carrier will initially use the new platform to offer
‘a global version of the AceReal solution (i.e. a global
version of a platform that includes DOCOMO’s cloud-
based AceReal Apps business-support application)
on a limited-time pre-service basis in Thailand (in
collaboration with local mobile operator Advanced
Info Services) which will allow technicians in Japan
to remotely support worksites in Thailand beginning
15 October 2020. The solution will be provided via a
dedicated secure cloud network.

Open RAN Spending Tipped To Top $5B By 2024

Market research company Dell’Oro Group and analyst, explained momentum is operator networks: officials previously
predicted sales of open RAN equipment being fuelled by “a confluence of factors expressed interest in developing open RAN
will grow at double-digit rates in the including promising results from initial technologies as an alternative source of
five years to end-2024, citing political commercial deployments, growing support telecom kit. Major players Ericsson and
uncertainty as one of three main drivers from the incumbent RAN suppliers and Nokia both backed open RAN, with the
of momentum behind the approach. increased geopolitical uncertainty acting former a member of the O-RAN Alliance
Total spending over the forecast period as a catalyst for operators to rethink their since February 2019 and the latter
is tipped to hit $5 billion, with cumulative supplier strategies”. The political reference joining a US-oriented lobby group in May.
shipments of radio equipment including appears to relate to attempts by the US Nokia detailed plans to incorporate the
macro and small cells expected to reach government to push Chinese vendor technology into its range in 2021.
1 million units. Stefan Pongratz, VP Huawei out of domestic and international
83 SEP-OCT 2020