Rakuten Symphony and Qualcomm target Massive MIMO RU and DU

Rakuten Mobile and Qualcomm Technologies agreed to collaborate to develop a next-generation 5G Radio Unit (RU) with Massive MIMO capabilities and distributed units (DUs).

The new products, which will leverage the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card and high-performance Massive MIMO Qualcomm QRU100 5G RAN Platform, are designed to enhance Rakuten Symphony’s Symware product portfolio of Open RAN solutions.

Rakuten Mobile, Rakuten Symphony and Qualcomm Technologies aim to deliver a high-performance Open RAN Massive MIMO solution that supports configurations of up to 64T64R, which will enhance coverage, improve cell-edge data speeds, as well as increase the overall capacity of the network. This will also enable enhanced speed in the rollout of 5G networks with high performance O-RAN compliant infrastructure products.

"Rakuten Symphony is passionately committed to enabling the transformation of mobile networks for the digital-centric future and we are honored to have our group’s opportunity to collaborate with global technology leaders such as Qualcomm Technologies to achieve this goal," said Tareq Amin, chief executive officer, Rakuten Symphony, Inc. "The new RUs and DUs developed with the support of Qualcomm Technologies aim to offer mobile operators and other organizations a dynamic and cost-effective way to deploy high-performance, virtualized 5G networks through the adoption of O-RAN-compliant software and infrastructure."

“Qualcomm Technologies is pleased to collaborate with Rakuten Mobile, the parent company of Rakuten Symphony on the development of comprehensive solutions from Open RAN 5G Radio Units with Massive MIMO capabilities to high-performance Distributed Units platforms. Through this collaboration, our collective aim is to accelerate next generation 5G mobile infrastructure global adoption, and this milestone will help operators meet performance demands at the edge and provide enhanced user experiences,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, 5G, mobile broadband and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. 

Read More

#MWC22: Accelerating Virtual 5G Distributed Unit Processing

 What's hot at #MWC22? In the drive toward O-RAN and v-RAN, silicon vendors are racing toward smaller geometries, and Marvell is on the leading edge with portfolio optimized for the RU, DU and now the virtualized DU, says Joel Brand, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Marvell. 

https://youtu.be/upKd1yp6YOM

The idea with the virtualized DU is to process some of the functionality in a host server leveraging cloud technologies and a new generation of accelerator cards powered by dedicated silicon.

Read More

GSMA Foundry Telco Edge Cloud trial interconnects two MEC platforms

Bridge Alliance, MobiledgeX, Singtel and Telefonica achieved an interconnection between two heterogenous multi-access edge computing (MEC) platforms as part of a GSMA Foundry Telco Edge Cloud trial. 

Bridge Alliance is a group of mobile operators in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

The hub-to-hub interconnection between the Bridge Alliance Federated Edge Hub (FEH) and MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud platform could allow edge applications to be deployed across different edge platforms and regions served by each hub. 

Singtel’s MEC and Telefonica’s MEC are connected by FEH and MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud platform respectively. With the interconnection, Singtel’s customers will be able to deploy edge applications on Telefonica’s MEC and vice versa, enabling multi-market services delivery across an extended geographical footprint, including Asia and Europe. Customers, developers, and partners can discover, as well as order cross-regional edge resources and deploy applications through a unified interface, ensuring a uniform experience across different networks and markets in these regions. Previously, interconnections were performed between operators on a one-on-one basis, making it difficult to scale the edge coverage.

Dr Ong Geok Chwee, CEO of Bridge Alliance, said, “We’re delighted to achieve this industry-first milestone with MobiledgeX and Telefonica. The implication of such hub-to-hub interconnections is that our member operators’ enterprise customers will be able to offer exciting data-intensive and low latency services in markets beyond our Asian footprint. We believe that this is only the beginning of more cross-regional edge deployments in the industry, which will occur as more of our member operators come on board our FEH, and as more trials between different edge hubs/aggregators are established. We welcome more edge hub partners on board.”

Michael Lochead, SVP of product for MobiledgeX said, “The true promise of edge computing hinges on seamless developer access for high-performance applications that can take advantage of global reach. Today’s announcement represents another major leap toward this goal, demonstrating that operators in disparate regions can choose the edge computing platform that best fits individual market needs while still easily achieving worldwide reach. We are proud to continue advancing edge compute possibilities with our operator partners as meaningful edge service rollouts are prepped for 2022 and beyond.”

https://www.telefonica.com/en/communication-room/bridge-alliance-mobiledgex-singtel-and-telefonica-achieve-world-first-interconnection-of-heterogenous-multi-access-edge-computing-mec-platforms-utilising-hub-to-hub-architecture/

Read More

Taiwan's ITRI and Pegatron show private 5G base station

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Pegatron are showcasing a 5G energy-saving private network solution at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC).

The debut of the 5G Open RAN (O-RAN) energy-saving private network solution demonstrates how smart algorithms in conjunction with network traffic monitoring and traffic steering technology allow 5G base stations to provide smart, energy-saving, and uninterrupted services. 

https://www.itri.org/eng.

Read More

Deutsche Telekom's revenues grew 7.7% in 2021

Deutsche Telekom exceeded its financial guidance for 2021, with total revenue growing by 7.7 percent to 108.8 billion euros.

Service revenues rose by 6.5 percent to 84.1 billion euros. Adjusted EBITDA AL rose by 6.6 percent year-on-year to 37.3 billion euros. 

“We won’t let up,” said Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “Profits are growing in all areas. The Group’s successful course continues.”

In 2021, Deutsche Telekom invested 18.0 billion euros worldwide, excluding expenses for mobile spectrum. 5.9 percent more than in the previous year. Adjusted net profit increased by 2.6 percent to 5.9 billion euros; on an unadjusted basis, it increased by 0.4 percent to 4.2 billion euros.

Some highlights:

• In its home market, Deutsche Telekom can look back on a year of substantial growth in customer numbers and of strong earnings. In the broadband business, the Company recorded 360,000 customer additions, thus significantly increasing its market share in 2021. At year-end, 17.2 million (retail and wholesale) customers were using a fiber-optic based line (FTTH, VDSL/vectoring), 1.2 million more than a year earlier.
• In mobile communications, Telekom recorded growth in branded contract customers of 666,000 for the full year. The clear market leadership in terms of mobile service revenues was reinforced. In the fourth quarter, this figure was up 2.3 percent against the prior-year period.
• The Germany operating segment increased total revenue by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the 2021 financial year to 24.2 billion euros. Growth in adjusted EBITDA AL was even stronger: up 3.6 percent to 9.5 billion euros.
• T-Mobile US ended the year with 108.7 million customers, an increase of 6.7 million within 12 months. More than 2.9 million of these additions related to the particularly profitable postpaid phone segment. Total revenue increased by 15.2 percent to 80.8 billion U.S. dollars. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA AL increased by 11.8 percent to 26.9 billion U.S. dollars. The business combination with Sprint is paying off. Last year, synergies leveraged in shared functions, sales, and networks amounted to 3.8 billion U.S. dollars. In 2022, this figure is expected to rise to between 5.0 and 5.3 billion U.S. dollars, thereby exceeding the integration costs of the merger on a full-year basis for the first time since the business combination with Sprint as of April 1, 2020.
• The Europe operating segment generated adjusted EBITDA AL of more than 4.0 billion euros within a year for the first time. In organic terms, i.e., adjusted for exchange rate effects and changes in the composition of the Group, this was 5.4 percent more than in the prior year. This indicator for earnings performance had increased organically year-on-year in every quarter of the last four years. Service revenues grew by 2.0 percent in organic terms in 2021 to 9.6 billion euros.
• Customer numbers increased in all areas in 2021. The European national companies won 770,000 new mobile contract customers in total. The number of broadband customers went up by 350,000. The number of users of convergent fixed-mobile product bundles increased by 842,000.

Read More

North American MWC moves to Las Vegas

 The North American edition of MWC has been scheduled for 28 – 30 September in Las Vegas. 

The will be delivered in partnership between GSMA and the CTIA. The event is part of the GSMA’s annual series of MWC events that includes editions in Barcelona, Africa, and Shanghai.

“We are excited to bring the MWC experience to Las Vegas, bringing Connectivity Unleashed to a proud center of business and technology in the US. Our North American event has always brought the mobile ecosystem face-to-face to build strong relationships and harness innovation, and this year will be no different.” John Hoffman, CEO GSMA Ltd said.

Read More