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Sunday, January 16, 2022
2022 Predictions from Thought Leaders
Winning bidders in FCC's midband 5G spectrum auction
AT&T was the top winner in the FCC's "Andromeda" auction of flexible-use licenses in the 3.45 GHz band. Gross proceeds for the auction exceeded $22.5 billion. The list of winning bidders was published on Friday.
Auction 110 makes available 100 megahertz of mid-band spectrum for commercial use across the contiguous United States. The spectrum licenses are divided into ten 10-megahertz blocks licensed by geographic areas known as Partial Economic Areas (PEAs). License winners will operate within a cooperative sharing framework that will enable commercial use by an array of service providers, while also ensuring coexistence with federal incumbents where and when they require continued access to the band.
“Today’s 3.45 GHz auction results demonstrate that the Commission’s pivot to mid-band spectrum for 5G was the right move,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “I am pleased to see that this auction also is creating opportunities for a wider variety of competitors, including small businesses and rural service providers. This is a direct result of the Commission’s efforts to structure this auction with diversity and competition front of mind. Enabling commercial use of this spectrum is important to America’s continuing economic recovery and 5G leadership, and I look forward to the continued collaboration between the FCC, NTIA, and other federal agencies to find innovative ways to make spectrum available for next generation commercial and government services.”
Additional notes:
- Thirteen of the twenty-three companies with winning bids in Auction 110 qualified as small businesses or as entities serving rural communities.
- Compared to the prior 5G auction, this auction saw a substantial increase in the number of winning bidders per market: over one-third of the top 100 markets have at least four winning bidders, compared with 10% of the top 100 markets for Auction 107.
- Notably, the 3.45 GHz auction closed as one of highest grossing auctions in the FCC’s history.
- Collectively, the 3.45 GHz band and the neighboring 3.5 GHz and 3.7 GHz bands represent 530 megahertz of mid-band spectrum for 5G, the next generation of wireless services. Wider 5G deployment means that more people in more places will be more connected.
Tonga loses subsea cable connectivity following eruption
Digicel reported that all communication to the outside world in Tonga is affected due to damage on the Tonga Cable Limited submarine cable, which runs 827 kilometers and connects the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa to Southern Cross’ trans-Pacific cable in Suva, Fiji.
https://www.digicelgroup.com/to/en/news/2022/jan/16th/network-restoration-volcanic-eruption.html
Telstra and Australian government to acquire Digicel Pacific
Telstra, in partnership with the Australian government, reached a deal to acquire the Digicel business in the South Pacific region for US$1.6 billion, plus up to an additional US$250 million subject to business performance over the next three years.The Digicel business will be owned and operated by Telstra. Telstra is contributing US$270 million of equity to the US$1.6 billion purchase price and the Australian Government, through Export Finance Australia,...
Telstra, in partnership with the Australian government, reached a deal to acquire the Digicel business in the South Pacific region for US$1.6 billion, plus up to an additional US$250 million subject to business performance over the next three years.The Digicel business will be owned and operated by Telstra. Telstra is contributing US$270 million of equity to the US$1.6 billion purchase price and the Australian Government, through Export Finance Australia,...
SubCom completes repair of Tonga Cable System
The cable ship SubCom Reliance successfully completed the repair of two Tongan submarine cables within eight days of arrival on repair ground. The Tonga Cable and the Tonga Domestic Cable were damaged on January 20, 2019. The ship was on standby in the South Pacific at a port in Apia, Samoa.
The Tonga Cable System is an international cable in the Pacific Ocean that spans 827 kilometers with landing points in Nuku’alofa, Tonga and Suva, Fiji. The Tonga Domestic Cable Extension is a 406-kilometer cable with three landing points in Tonga: Neiafu, Nukualofa and Pangai.
SubCom maintains these two cables in addition to 31 other systems as part of the South Pacific Marine Maintenance Agreement (SPMMA), which was signed in 2017 and covers the area from Singapore in the west to Tahiti in the east and from the southernmost point of New Zealand to Hawaii. This covers over 69,000 km of cable consisting of 33 data and power cable systems in the Pacific Ocean.
Megaport expands to Mexico via KIO Networks
Megaport plans to expand services to Mexico via a partnership with KIO Networks, the country’s largest data centre provider. Cloud connectivity services to Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are expected to be available in March 2022 to local enterprises via on-ramps from KIO Networks’ data centres in Mexico City and Queretaro, subject to approvals.
KIO Networks has 40 state-of-the-art data centres across Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Spain, as well as 11 edge facilities in Mexico. The company has over 20 megawatts of installed operational capacity.
“KIO Networks is excited to offer our customers Megaport’s leading global Network as a Service platform as a quick and easy way to connect their businesses to cloud services for hybrid cloud and multicloud environments inside our data centres in Mexico,” said Santiago Suinaga, Managing Director of KIO Networks. “We believe the partnership gives our customers the agility, flexibility, and scalability they need for their digital transformation initiatives to be successful.”
“Mexico has proven to be one of the leading cloud markets in Latin America and has been growing at a rapid rate over the last several years,” said Vincent English, CEO at Megaport. “Megaport is very excited to partner with KIO Networks to launch our services in Mexico, which will provide the opportunity for our existing customers to grow with Megaport and create new opportunities for Megaport to service businesses in Mexico. We look forward to working with KIO Networks and our cloud partners to meet the growing demand for cloud-based services in Mexico.”
Keysight submits 5G protocol test cases to 3GPP
Keysight Technologies is first to submit 5G new radio (NR) protocol test cases to 3GPP, enabling device makers to verify enhanced network slicing and power saving features as specified in Release 16 (Rel-16).
“This is another achievement made by Keysight in the past year to accelerate the verification of devices in 5G NR standalone (SA) mode and speed the adoption of Rel-16,” said Muthu Kumaran, general manager of Keysight's device validation solutions business. “Access to verified test cases that support advanced 5G features enable chipset and device makers to capture early market opportunities focused on private 5G, industrial IoT, smart city and transportation applications.”
The 3GPP submission was made using Keysight’s S8704A Protocol Conformance Toolset. It leverages the company’s UXM 5G Wireless Test Platform, which supports multiple form factors, spans any 3GPP frequency band and covers both 5G non-standalone (NSA) and SA modes.
