Ericsson welcomes Sweden-US 6G agreement
While operators continue to roll out 5G networks, standalone deployments are still relatively few, with 5G Advanced due to launch soon. Work is already underway on the next generation of mobile technology as part of an ongoing effort among standards bodies and technology companies.
Mobile technology has developed in decade-long cycles since 2G first emerged, with 6G expected to begin rollout around 2030. This month, Sweden and the United States also announced plans to cooperate on advanced wireless technologies, including 6G.
Ericsson said this week that it welcomes the collaboration, noting that the declaration is the latest bilateral agreement between Sweden and the United States regarding their desire to share resources, expertise and technology leadership on new, evolving and future connectivity technologies.
Areas of cooperation include 6G research, including potential funding, 6G spectrum allocation, introduction of new technologies in existing frequency bands, global harmonization of 6G frequency bands, development of technologies compliant with international standards, promoting a broad and inclusive 6G ecosystem, and developing 6G technologies to bridge the digital divide.
Of course, national leadership is important, and many countries are now hoping to get ahead with 6G, but as Fierce Network reports, the real work on standards will be carried out by 3GPP and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as well as companies like Ericsson and rivals Qualcomm, Nokia, Samsung and Huawei.
Delloro paint The communication kit market is a mixed bag
It is well known that mobile operators have been cutting capital spending on mobile networks in recent months, which has affected the performance of companies such as Ericsson and Nokia.
A series of recent reports from Dell’Oro Group paint a bleak picture for the network equipment market in general, from wireless access and mobile core networks to optical transport equipment.
In fact, Dell’Oro states that the mobile core network (MCN) market is set to plummet 15% in Q2 2024 (2Q24), hitting an all-time low in growth. Notably, 5G MCN market growth stagnated for the first time, declining 8% year-over-year, the research group said.
Dave Bolan, research director at Dell’Oro Group, didn’t mince words: “We are entering uncharted territory. This indicates that economic headwinds are firmly in control of the market. It also strongly suggests that mobile network operators (MNOs) have excess capacity to accommodate subscriber growth.”
Volan said that while the 5G MCN market is benefiting from the deployment of standalone 5G, the market is “slowing such that Q2 2024 will be the first quarter of the 5G era to show negative year-over-year growth.”
He added: “To date, there are approximately 58 MNOs that have launched commercial 5G SA eMMB networks. There will be 21 new 5G SA networks in 2022, 13 in 2023 and three in the first half of 2024. As a result, we forecast the MCN market to decline 11% year-on-year in 2024.”
When it comes to the radio access network (RAN), Dell’Oro acknowledges that the market remains challenging in the first half of 2024, but there is a ray of hope that “double-digit declines may be a thing of the past for the time being,” according to vice president and analyst Stephen Pongratz.
“The fact remains that the RAN market is projected to decline at a 2% CAGR over the next five years, but the pace of decline should slow somewhat going forward,” Pongratz said.
When it comes to optical transmission equipment, Dell’Oro found that the market declined 19% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2024 “due to customer excess inventory, delays in new project starts in the Asia-Pacific region, and ongoing market adjustments due to weak macroeconomic conditions.”
“The decline in the optical transport market wasn’t a big surprise, but the scale and scope of it was,” said Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell’Oro.
The group also said service provider spending on routers fell sharply in the second quarter of 2024, with router equipment revenue falling 33% year-over-year.
China Mobile advances with 5G advanced technology
As reported by Light Reading, China Mobile has become a global pioneer in the launch of 5G Advanced, the specifications of which were only set out two months ago in 3GPP Release 18.
The company announced in March that it would roll out 5G Advanced to 300 cities across the country by the end of 2024, and has since launched the service in Shanghai and Beijing, though pricing has yet to be disclosed.
China Mobile has reportedly announced that it has upgraded more than 7,000 5G base stations in China’s capital city, providing full coverage across the capital and delivering download speeds of up to 5Gbps. The company is working with Huawei on the network evolution.
Light Reading said it aims to have 20 million 5G Advanced users by the end of the year, but acknowledged that it needs to cooperate with hardware companies and developers to build an industry chain and expand the supply of terminals and new applications.
Currently, there are about 10 5G Advanced devices on sale from brands such as Vivo, Oppo, Honor and Xiaomi, and China Mobile reportedly wants to increase that number to more than 20 by the end of the year.
Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom expands into Germany
Taiwanese telecommunications operator Chunghwa Telecom has welcomed the opening of a new subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany, marking its expansion into the European market, saying it is Taiwan’s only telecommunications operator with overseas branches and global network expansion.
Chunghwa Telecom added that it has been focusing on expanding into overseas markets for many years and has established subsidiaries in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“With the official opening of its base in Europe today, Chunghwa Telecom has completed its international service network spanning Europe, the Americas and Asia,” the company said.
The company plans to mainly support Taiwanese companies in expanding into Europe, sees Germany as a gateway to the 27-nation European bloc, and plans to “actively cooperate” with European telecommunications operators, Taiwanese companies, and German ICT companies.
In addition, it will continue its cooperation with Polish fixed-line operator Exatel. Chunghwa Telecom and Exatel signed a cooperation agreement in July 2023.
Asian Telecommunications Operators Support Bridge Alliance API Exchange
The Bridge Alliance, a mobile alliance with 35 member operators globally, has announced that 13 Asian operators have endorsed the Bridge Alliance API Exchange (BAEx) since the initiative was announced in July: Airtel, AIS, China Unicom, CSL, CTM, Globe, Maxis, MobiFone, Optus, SingTel, SK Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Telkomsel.
BAEx was created as a strategic initiative between Bridge and fellow alliance member Singtel, and the telecoms API exchange is underpinned by Singtel’s Paragon, a telecoms network orchestration platform.
According to Bridge, support from these carriers will enable BAEx to aggregate more carrier APIs and achieve broader coverage.
BAEx builds on the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative and Project CAMARA, which are working to develop a common network API framework to give developers universal access to operator networks. (TM Forum’s “Operate API” complements the CAMARA Network API with the goal of providing a standardized way for mobile operators to commercially offer interfaces to aggregators and developers.)
BAEx currently offers Silent Network Authentication APIs, a set of APIs that silently fulfill authentication and fraud prevention needs using real-time data from carriers, such as Number Verify and SIM Swap, and plans to introduce more APIs in the future, such as eKYC (electronic know-your-customer) and QoD (quality of service on demand).
Henry Calvert, head of Networks at the GSMA, said BAEx “is expected to play a key role in helping enterprise developers around the world develop new mobile services and features for businesses and consumers. Initiatives like BAEx are needed to collectively highlight the wealth of innovative capabilities available to developers in mobile networks.”
Early adopters of BAEx are V-Key, whose security solutions are used by government, banking and mega-app clients deploying large-scale applications across the region, and Spain-based solution partner Unmanned Life, which provides a software platform for the seamless orchestration of autonomous robots.
Also worth noting is that…
1&1 and Vodafone have launched a nationwide roaming partnership in Germany.
Xavier Neel’s investment firm Atlas Luxco said it would acquire a 40.42% stake in Millicom International Cellular through an initial public offering.
Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has agreed to build 1,900 towers for Italy’s Iliad.
