The UK government wants to catalyse local digital transformations and unleash the full potential of 5G technology by splashing out £40 million.
This investment aims to empower local areas across the country, enhancing their digital connectivity and facilitating the development of advanced wireless technologies, from cutting-edge healthcare solutions to futuristic farming and smart transport systems that combat congestion.
Former rubber boot maker Nokia and research analysts at GlobalData warned that communication service providers (CSPs) worldwide want stronger 5G network security capabilities.
GlobalData, commissioned by Nokia, found that 56 percent of CSPs said they need to substantially improve their cyber capabilities against telecom-specific attacks, while 68 percent said they need to sharpen their defences against ransomware threats.
Surveyed CSPs said they believe 5G Standalone (SA) deployments could increase security vulnerabilities as they disaggregate and open their networks and as industrial enterprises increasingly connect more of their mission-critical assets to their networks.
About three-quarters of the CSPs said their networks had experienced up to six security breaches in the past year, resulting in regulatory liability, fraud and monetary theft, and network services being knocked offline.
The global association for the mobile industry ecosystem GSMA has announced the formation of what it denotes as a global accelerator initiative to push 5G.
The industry hopes that by 2025, mobile technologies and services will contribute almost $5 trillion to the global economy and that there will be 1.8 billion 5G connections. All this will be based on the claim that stakeholders will benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency resulting from the increased take-up of very high-speed mobile services, mmWave is emerging as an important element of the 5G technology mix.
Logicalis has written a cheque for Siticom, which specialises in network infrastructure and 5G.
The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, gives Logicalis access to an 11-year-old business that has a staff of 130 experts based in five German locations, and will be the foundation of an EMEA centre of expertise in 5G networks.
Logicalis CEO Bob Bailkoski said: “The strategic decision to acquire Siticom is driven by the growing demand for broadband services and fibre optics expansion as we continue to deliver speed, scale and agility for global customers. As a Cisco Global Gold Partner, we are already developing SD-WAN solutions and together with Siticom we can build on our partnership to create end-to-end 5G offerings for the business of the future.”
A new government-backed 5G testing facility is to be built in Oxfordshire to help UK businesses use 5G and satellite technology.
Due for completion in 2021, the engineering hub is to be built by the IT and business consultancy CGI at the county’s Harwell Campus. The hub will get more than £3 million in government cash. Last week, the Boris Johnson government quietly muted its manifesto promise to provide the British world+dog a top interweb connection by 2025.
Beancounters at IDG have added up some numbers and decided that the era of Wireless WAN has firmly arrived and is the critical infrastructure in driving innovation, including playing a role in business recovery from the pandemic.
The annual report which was commissioned by Cradlepoint, shows confidence and excitement for 5G, pointing to increasing adoption in the coming year.
Donna Johnson, Vice President of Product and Solution Marketing at Cradlepoint said: “As organisations look to adapt to a new normal and get back to business, Wireless WAN solutions uniquely enable network agility while enhancing security and scale.”
Traditional wired WANs are complex, slow to adapt, and applicable to only fixed locations. As businesses reinvent the way they serve their customers, they are increasingly turning to Wireless WAN technology to connect people, places, and things anywhere.
Mobile business is heading for another revolution, according to TSG lead applications writer Natasha Bougourd.
Bougourd said that technology has come a long way in the past decade, and the telecoms industry is no exception.
“Since 2010, this sector has seen incredible advancements and the worldwide revenue of telecoms services is estimated to be £1,026 billion. This year, we have seen an overwhelming move towards mobile and flexible working — a trend that was already gaining momentum before the COVID-19 lockdown made it a necessity for many businesses. Thanks to the telecoms industry and the innovations we are predicting to see over the coming years, working remotely is set to be more efficient than ever before”, she said.
She said that cloud services have made flexible and remote working possible — something that has come in extremely useful in the recent months. Remote working has also benefitted from fibre broadband, which has become far more accessible for everyone in recent years — an estimated 96 percent of the UK now have access to internet speeds of at least 24Mbps.
The UK 5G market is at tipping point according to the latest IDTechEx report.
The report, with the catchy title “5G Technology, Market and Forecasts 2020-2030,” sees 5G is considered as one of the largest market opportunities in the coming years, with large scale roll-out of infrastructures and rapid adoption of 5G devices and services.
The gaming industry could be the next target of cloud and 5G based sales teams according to beancounters at GlobalData.
Traction towards gaming-on-demand is fuelling the migration of games to the cloud while trying to utilise the peak speed abilities of 5G, says GlobalData
‘Cloud’ and ‘5G’ have become rising topics of discussion in the gaming industry in 2020 as tracked by GlobalData’s Filing Analytics platform. Mentions of these terms in earnings transcripts of companies in the gaming industry witnessed double digit growth in Q1 2020 when compared to Q1 2019. Nvidia GeForce Now, Google Stadia, Playstation Now and Microsoft’s Projext xCloud are some of the top cloud gaming services mentioned.
Rinaldo Pereira, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Following the video streaming industry trend, subscription models will cause a shift in the gaming sector due to the dawn of cloud services. The expansion of cloud 5G gaming is attractive for telecom operators – with consumers accustomed to paying for subscriptions in the industry, network operators with the right assets will gain growth and competitive agility in the lucrative market.”
Microsoft has acquired a UK-based 5G specialist Metaswitch Networks, which has a number of high profile customers including BT and Sprint.
Microsoft said Metaswitch’s portfolio of cloud-native communication software will be expanded into its own range of services aimed at the telecommunications industry. It said that it intends to use the talent and technology from Metaswitch’s portfolio to extend Azure’s reach in the telecoms industry.
Yousef Khalidi, corporate VP of Azure Networking, wrote in his bog: “We have a long history of working with operators as they increasingly embrace software-based solutions and continue to support the advancement of cloud-based networking while helping create new partnership opportunities for existing network equipment providers. Our intention over time is to create modern alternatives to network infrastructure, enabling operators to deliver existing and value-added services – with greater cost efficiency and lower capital investment than they’ve faced in the past.”
Vole has been busy building its 5G skills by acquisition. Two months ago it snaffled cloudy based Affirmed Networks.
Excitement over 5G wireless spectrum auctions in Europe in 2020, and the marketing buzz linked to rolling out the related infrastructure, will be inversely proportional to the financial impact on the region’s telecoms operators, says Scope Ratings.
The cost of auctions of 5G spectrum is set to remain well within the financing capacity of Europe’s operators, particularly in countries without new mobile entrants to bid up prices. Meanwhile, the technology itself will have no significant impact on revenues or capital expenditure.
Huawei has been cleared to play a part in forming the UK’s 5G network and the UK government might actually stand up to its American overlords.
A meeting of government officials yesterday concluded that a “limited role” for the vendor would not pose a threat to the UK’s cybersecurity. The UK’s National Security Council will meet next week to decide if and how Huawei’s technology is used.
The government has been under pressure for the US to snub Huawei in the 5G rollout claiming it is all about spying when it is more likely to be about its trade war. The US claims that Huawei’s close ties to the Chinese government could facilitate espionage, which Huawei has consistently denied and the US has so far never come up with any evidence.
Earlier this month the US government reportedly told the UK that allowing Huawei’s equipment into the 5G network would be “nothing short of madness”.
But the UK government views Huawei’s technology as more advanced than that of its competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia – a view that has also been pushed by network providers BT and Vodafone.
The chancellor of Germany today called for European countries to adopt a common front on the future of 5G.
Reuters reports that Angela Merkel told German politicians that individual countries taking their own stance on relationships with China could lead to disaster, not for China but for Europe.
Her message obviously refers to Chinese company Huawei, blacklisted by the USA because of concerns its 5G equipment could pose a security threat.
America has so far failed to provide evidence for this.
The US administration has urged its allies to avoid using Huawei kit, but European countries appear to be reluctant to follow suit.
A CompTIA channel study has found that resellers are clearly aware of the benefits of getting involved with technologies like IoT, 5G and AI because of the margins.
The report found that many are already selling in those categories or internally testing to make sure they can provide them to customers soon.
Beancounters working for analyst outfit Gartner say that global shipments are pretty pants at the moment but it is hoping that 5G could turn things around
Global shipments of smartphones are set to decline by 3.2 percent in 2019, the latest report from Gartner predicts, leaving the category facing its worst decline to date.