Tuesday, October 22, 2019

GSMA: 5G penetration in North America to hit 48% in 2025

Almost half of the mobile connections in North Amerca will be running on new 5G networks by 2025, according to a new GSMA study. This is being fuelled by operator spending on new networks, which is forecast to total more than $380 billion (Capex) between 2018 and 2025.

“Our new study highlights how the North America region is vying for global 5G leadership with pioneering mobile markets such as China, Japan and South Korea,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA. “Investments in next-generation networks and services by operators has helped create an industry that is now worth a trillion dollars a year to the region’s economy, providing a platform for innovation, jobs and economic growth.”

Some highlights:

There were 321 million unique mobile subscribers in North America in 2018, representing 83 percent of the population. The number of subscribers is forecast to rise to 345 million (85 percent of the population) by 2025.
Around three quarters of the region’s mobile connections2 are running on 4G networks.
The share of 4G connections will decline over the coming years as the market moves to 5G. New 5G networks are forecast to account for 46 percent of connections by 2025.
Mobile technologies and services generated 4.2 percent of North America’s GDP in 2018, equivalent to $937 billion in economic value. This economic impact is forecast to increase to almost $1.2 trillion by 2023 (4.8% of GDP).
The region’s mobile ecosystem also supported 2.3 million jobs (directly and indirectly) and made substantial contributions to the funding of the public sector, with almost $123 billion raised through taxation last year (not including spectrum fees).
North America’s mobile sector is on track to generate $280 billion in revenue this year, a result of high levels of consumer engagement and spending on mobile services.

Crosslake Fibre activates Toronto – New York network

Crosslake Fibre activated commercial services on the first submarine cable across Lake Ontario from Toronto, Canada to Buffalo, New York.

The diverse, ultra-low latency route connects Toronto’s largest carrier hotels, Equinix TR2 at 45 Parliament Street and 151 Front Street West, to Equinix NY4 in Secaucus, New Jersey with multiple extensions to various points-of-presence in both cities. Crosslake Fibre provides lit and dark fiber services interconnecting Toronto, Secaucus, NJ and Buffalo, NY using the route.

The historic cable traverses Lake Ontario from Toronto to New York State utilizing a specialized 192 fiber strand submarine cable that is 36 miles (58 km) in length.  Using current technology, the cable, which is less than 2 inches in diameter, can provide up to several thousand terabits per second of capacity throughput.

“The new network provides the lowest latency performance, physical geographic diversity, and ultra-high capacity throughput for customers,” states Mike Cunningham, CEO of Crosslake Fibre.  “This backbone Internet infrastructure benefits the financial markets, data centers, content delivery networks, the gaming eco-system, payment processing, and Internet download speeds, in addition to being a catalyst for economic development.”

KDDI implements Cisco's Virtualized Packet Core for 5G

KDDI Corporation of Japan is using a broad mix of Cisco’s 5G Now portfolio beginning with the Cisco Virtualized Packet Core at the heart of the network, and Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) architecture.

Cisco also confirmed that it is currently working with over 100 of the nearly 300 operators globally that have either launched, demonstrated, or are field trialing 5G.

“As a visionary company that contributes to the sustainable growth of society, KDDI is making the right decision to evolve to a virtualized, cloud-powered architecture in prep for 5G,” said Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco. “With this new innovation, KDDI will have the right foundation in place to offer its business, industrial and consumer customers faster, reliable connections and all the new, elevated experiences to come with the 5G era.”

Samsung offers 5G NR access unit for 28GHz

Samsung Electronics introduced a new 5G New Radio (NR) Access Unit (AU) supporting 28GHz spectrum and including a radio, antenna and digital unit in one compact box. The product is powered by Samsung’s in-house 5G RF chipset (announced earlier this year here and the company’s first 5G NR system-on-a-chip (SoC) modem (S9100).

Earlier this year, Samsung Networks successfully deployed its first-generation 5G NR radio base stations in the U.S. with separated radio and digital units (RU-DU separated radio). By integrating these RU-DU technologies with 1,024 antenna elements for mmWave spectrum into one compact box, the new AU can be more easily installed on streetlight poles and building walls, providing operators a faster, simplified way to build out 5G networks.

The AU can deliver 10Gbps throughput, enabling operators to deliver higher 5G NR speeds to more users. Additionally, improved cost-efficiency is achieved by eliminating the need for ‘fronthaul’ fiber connections, thanks to the AU’s integration of the digital unit. Samsung is currently shipping the new AU to a leading U.S. Tier One mobile network operator.

“Samsung has a long history of network innovation. Our innovative sprit has led us to introduce next generation technologies and open up a new 5G era,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Cultivating mmWave spectrum provides infinite opportunities by unlocking 5G's full potential. We’re excited to advance the industry by offering a new vision and diverse options to our customers around the world.”

ServiceNow names Bill McDermott as CEO, former CEO of SAP

ServiceNow appointed Bill McDermott as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, replacing John Donahoe, who is stepping down from ServiceNow to become President and Chief Executive Officer of Nike in January 2020.

McDermott served as CEO of SAP from 2014 until this month and was co-CEO from 2010 to 2014. During McDermott’s tenure as co-CEO and CEO, SAP tripled its market value to approximately $140 billion, growing into a global software company with more than 437,000 customers in over 180 countries.

“ServiceNow’s board is thrilled to have Bill McDermott join the company,” said Jeff Miller, Lead Independent Director of the ServiceNow Board of Directors. “His global experience and proven track record will provide for a smooth transition and continued strong leadership. Bill will further enhance ServiceNow’s momentum and reputation as a digital workflows leader committed to customer success, and as a preferred strategic partner enabling enterprise digital transformation.”

In addition, ServiceNow announced preliminary third quarter 2019 financial results, as well as updated guidance for its full year 2019 financial outlook. For the third quarter 2019, subscription revenues were $835 million, representing 35% year-over-year growth, adjusted for FX. Subscription revenues for the third quarter exceeded the mid-point of ServiceNow’s guidance by $9 million, excluding the impact of FX.

For full year 2019 guidance, ServiceNow is carrying forward the $9 million in subscription revenues and $10 million in subscription billings that, excluding the impacts of FX and duration, exceeded the company’s previous mid-point guidance for the third quarter.

For the full year 2019, ServiceNow expects subscription revenues between $3.240 billion and $3.245 billion, representing 36% to 37% year-over-year growth, adjusted for FX. This includes an impact of $18 million due to FX.

Riverbed appoints Rich McBee as CEO

Riverbed appointed Rich McBee as its new President and CEO, replacing Riverbed Chairman and interim CEO David Murphy. Earlier this month, Paul Mountford stepped down as CEO to take another executive position in the industry.

McBee is the former President and CEO of Mitel, where he led a transformation of the company from a premise-based PBX pioneer to be a leader of public and private cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions. During his tenure, Mitel completed a dozen strategic transactions. Previously, McBee served as President of the Communications and Enterprise Group of Danaher Corporation. McBee joined Danaher in 2007 when they acquired Tektronix Communications, where he had worked at since 1998 in a variety of leadership positions including: Senior Vice President and General Manager.

Riverbed is a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo.

“Rich is a strong leader and strategist, and has a solid track record of driving business execution and results. Riverbed has experienced strong performance recently and Rich is the right leader to continue our upward momentum, as well as bring the passion and dedication to operational excellence that he is well known for in the industry,” said David Murphy, Riverbed Chairman and Senior Operating Partner, Thoma Bravo. “I look forward to working with Rich and the Riverbed executive team as we continue to deliver against our strategy and drive growth in two very unique and growing markets: Digital Networking and Digital Experience Management.”


Tier 1 U.S. Mobile Operator picks Sprirent for Service Assurance

A tier-one U.S. mobile operator has selected Spirent Communications to support nationwide 5G assurance efforts. The operator will deploy Spirent VisionWorks for active assurance, initially testing end-to-end performance across its Non-standalone (NSA) 5G network. The deployment is underway in more than two dozen 5G markets, with plans to expand to hundreds more over time and to support the roll out of Standalone 5G beginning next year.

“With 5G, the stakes are higher than ever for operators to deliver differentiated experiences and guaranteed quality for a range of customers and applications, from connected vehicles to IoT sensors and beyond,” said Doug Roberts, General Manager of Lifecycle Service Assurance at Spirent. “For the first time, we’re seeing operators deploy service assurance alongside the earliest stages of their next-gen network rollouts. Our customers have recognized that delivering on early performance expectations is absolutely paramount to the development of sustainable 5G revenue streams.”