Why India should not go with the global wind of shortcoming with Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE.

Amidst the much hype of 5G and intense attempts to thwarts the challenges around and gain the leads, there are interesting insights to be watched and allude for. 

I took some in context of Indian turmoil to include Huawei and ZTE in its 5G test bed plan. 

There are few industry cues to go with Huawei on 5G, or in general for Chinese vendors.

1. 5G has been there across global in a very limited capacity so far, see the commercial deployment of 5G from Verizon and AT&T and SK Telecom and even the upcoming test beds, all have been in constrained and limited scope. 

2. All 5G commercial deployment have been with rigorous criticism, like for Verizon home broadband service severely criticized by T-mobile  CEO Mr Legere as "fake 5G". As it was on proprietary 5G standards based on Verzon 5G Technical Forum. Also the 5G Which came through AT&T is also under criticism as AT&T shown it with logo of '5G Evolution' not a clear 5G. Both vendors seems to be running on Samsung or Ericsson based equipment.

3. 5G Demonstration from Huawei has been at par with standards in comparison to others, Huawei leadership has been well recognized as BT Chief architect has already praised Huawei capabilities on 5G. 

BT Chief architect Neil McRae  on Huawei capabilities and readiness in Global mobile broadband conference.

"I've been to Shenzhen recently [Huawei's headquarters] and there's nowhere else in the world where you can see" the kind of 5G technology developments that Huawei has achieved, he noted during a panel discussion, though without highlighting any specific advances.

"The other suppliers need to learn from Huawei -- the others are held back by old telco issues," he added.

Not only Huawei but ZTE has also gone side by side with its remarkably innovative streak for 5G E2E Solution like FlexE for backhaul and X-haul kind solution and 5G Converge core for 5G core network solution. Apart from that ZTE solution also enabled pre-commercial rollout on 5G in Europe etc. 

ZTE, in partnership with Wind Tre and Open Fiber, accomplished Europe's first pre-commercial 5G network in October 2017, symbolizing a major step forward for 5G commercial deployment in Europe.  

ZTE seems to be first who satisfied IMT2020 for 5G core networks.

ZTE's latest version of 5G core network is developed in compliance with 3GPP Release-15 specifications released in September 2018. By adopting SBA, micro-service components and network slicing, ZTE's 5G core network can achieve flexible and agile service innovation. 

ZTE recently announced successful 5G call with Chinese service provider china unicom. 

4. 5G Ecosystem is in complete flow with Chinese vendors and Chinese  innovation, Qualcomm investment wings has recently announced to fund Chinese innovative venture Baicell. Altogether global ecosystem does not take Chinese vendors in dissolute. 

5. In an interesting move from Verizon CTO Mr Kely malady, where he recognized that true 5G has yet to evolve and hype around 5G is over hyped, as technology has not been in place in its true form. As per him, more has to come and 5G name need to be reserved for that. 

"The potential to over-hype and under-deliver is a temptation the industry must resists," said Malady

6. T-mobile and Sprint also been reluctant to hype around 5G so far, in fact T-mobile CEO Mr legere called the current 5G as "fake 5G". And their debut on 5G has been around their existing infrastructures and with low spectrum band i.e. 700 MHz and 2100 MHz.   

7. There was some interesting insights on 5G that could be conduced when Vodafone India CTO speak about 5G readiness as a software upgrade only.

Among these all, which i refer to as cues around 5G progress and roll outs with commercials, pre-commercials and even test beds plans. Recent outspoken statement from Huawei CEO  Mr Ren Zhengfei made the dust clear. 

"I personally would never harm the interest of my customers and me and my company would not answer to such requests," Ren said, as reported by Fox Business.

As reported by CNBC, he told the assembled journalists at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzen, China, that "when it comes to cyber security and privacy protection, we are committed to be sided with our customers. We will never harm any nation or any individual.

India has been in on and off situation while taking Huawei and ZTE for its 5G Test bed considerations. Whereas Indian Telecom export specific organization came up with strict restriction on Chinese vendors, but department of telecom and ministry of telecom given a separate stand after initial tussles - and given Huawei a green flag, though ignored ZTE. 

Reason behind accepting Huawei by Indian telecom ministry could not only technical or based on security assessments, but political as well. But as an industry observer, I corroborate with the decision here and even want to extend it further like for ZTE as well. 

Chinese vendors can not be ignored by the massive economy like India, as well as Indian service providers are also in likely hood for them. As Indian Cellular operator association chief Mr matthew has also expressed interest of cellular industry of India in favor of Chinese vendors. This all are due to valid reasons of their capability and suiting prices.

These view are based on industry observation and from Saurabh Verma, Chief technology Consultant, Fundarc Communication (xgnlab).

IOT: Much Ado About Nothing - So Far.

IOT: Much Ado About Nothing - So Far.

IOT means Internet of Things, in literary term it's like expansion of connectivity to things not only to humans assistance for remote connectivity, that is only 'Internet'.
There are radios already available for Low range and low power connectivity and also devices and sensors. IOT is for what then - to rejuvenate this industry by creating a buzz in disruptive environment. Definitely not, but it could not be denied that such industry has taken or created much ado around IOT, which is actually not IOT but a kind of Automation only. Although good to specify some has come with categorization like Industrial IOT or IIOT.
There are technology like BLE, LORA, ZiGBEE, Sigfox, LOPWAN, already there and have a significant ecosystem too, and so could be said for devices with sensors - enhanced with LTE backhaul connectivity and miniatu.
IOT is widely used to create the buzz around, though the term IOT is essentially about global connectivity, much like internet. Its essentially about connectivity of devices, with zero human interaction, to far reaching data centers.
This is possible only with the networks of capacity and capability to connect this massive devices hives. Hives with different kind of requirements like throughput, signaling, and so on.
3GPP has come up with standards on it like LTE-M, NB-IOT and also GSM specific technological tweaks to cater such issues. But there is no big picture across the industry around IOT as a holistic system.
IOT is relevant with Big data and analytics, and could help and also be squared up with AI and machine learning.

BT and EE show their post-merger road map with hybrid connections for all

The key message is that the company will converge their network by 2022, which will mean (it says) that "customers will never again have to think or worry about which network they are connected to". We're not sure anybody did, but hey.

Included is a 'hybrid' service which will leverage both the BT network and EE 4G cellular offering which aims to make calls and data faster and more reliable.

The result is a service called BT Plus or EE Keep Connected which will be used to ensure that you won't be waiting for ages for a fault fix or new line.

It will also guarantee your line speeds - with 100Mbps minimum speed on the Ultrafast Fibre Plus service, which will also include a 4G hub as back-up. Maxed out speeds could be as high as 314Mbps.

By 2020, all customer service calls will be answered in the UK and Ireland, whilst BT Stores will return to High Streets, presumably leveraging floor space from the extensive EE Store network.

For detail news click HERE

Mergers are evident for survival to become big and scaling up, but market has different emotions

The merger announcement triggered the highest-volume selling day since April 2013, dropping the stock into a six-month trendline of rising lows. A turnaround right here could save the day for discouraged bulls, carving a higher low in a possible inverse head and shoulders basing pattern. However, heavy selling pressure signals a major change of heart, raising the odds for a breakdown that tests the 2017 low.

The industry grew just 2.7% in 2017, while many research firms expect zero growth in 2018.

Read more: T-Mobile and Sprint Stocks Near Breakdowns After Merger News | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/news/tmobile-and-sprint-stocks-near-breakdowns-after-merger-news/#ixzz5EJe5nNsc 

T-mobile and Sprint merger- talk of town of telecom carriers

T-mobile and Sprint merger is being talked about with the asteroid falling impact on US economy and consumers, both are boasting each others with their capabilities and capacities those gonna changed the game and transform the combination to stand at 3rd largest, following Verizon and AT&T. They are going to create the 'ultimate network', based on 5G, an example of their mega plans and also to boost the confidence and showcase their strength.

The deal still awaits regulatory approval and raises plenty of questions and speculations, while the $26 billion deal still has to face approval from the FCC and Justice Department.

"This new company would represent more than 90 million retail wireless phone customers in the U.S., roughly one-third of the market", said research firm Recon Analytics.

With the two companies combining their networks, it's possible service on both will improve, in a joint statement, the companies promise that existing customers, with both services, will benefit from increased speeds, coverage, and performance.

There are many talks of the towns, and much expectation and anticipation, in terms of consumer benefits and economical impacts, but any naive guy who is following industry around the globe, must be understanding the emerging games , that could be for survival of industry 4.0  and upcoming technological advances as for 5G.

5G is anyway about scaling up, whatever it be, technology or its performance, capacity, throughput or data rates.. That scaling up is also for business, operation, investment, revenue, comprehensiveness in approaches etc etc.

That is need of hour, nothing to boast here, you can't move into next level of the game if you are not big enough.

Ajit Pai, current FCC chairman, rightly said it's not about number of player in the game as no one can justify whether it should be 4 or 5. The main concern is competitive environment among them and growth and sustainability in the marketplace.

Lets see how this goes up, regulatory authorities are going to be conducive but ball is mainly supposed to be hanging with department of justice.

--

Saurabh Verma

Chief Tech Consultant & Founder

Fundarc Communication (xgnlab)

Noida, India - 201301

M:+91-7838962939/9654235169

saurabhverma@xgnlab.com

www.xgnlab.com