neXt Curve’s key takes and insights from GSMA’s Mobile World Congress MWC 2023 with a focus on Open RAN, semiconductors, telco cloud and more.
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T-Mobile and Space X Connect Nowhere
On August 25th, T-Mobile and Space X announced their “Coverage Above & Beyond” partnership to bring about the “end of mobile dead zones”. The announcement was made by Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile and Elon Musk, CEO and Chief Engineer of Space X at a media event that took place at Space X’s Starbase in Texas. It is one of a growing number of announced partnerships, ventures, and rumors of similar nature and purpose of expanding the frontier of connectivity where it hasn’t gone before.
Though the partnership between Space X and T-Mobile was announced as a technology partnership, that didn’t stop T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert from setting some commercial expectations. “Coverage Above & Beyond” promises to provide satellite-based cellular connectivity directly to T-Mobile’s current smartphones thereby providing coverage anywhere in the U.S., its territories, as well as the vast unregulated oceans.
Continue readingIndustry Insight: The State of Open RAN
What is the state of Open RAN? Despite all the excitement, little progress has been made on the commercial front. Brownfield mindshare and presence are yet to be realized amid early-stage greenfield deployments of open RAN networks, most notably Dish and 1&1.
Continue readingTech Insight: The Open RAN Movement
Excitement about the open RAN movement continues to rise as operators such as Rakuten proves out OpenRAN and O-RAN principles in their greenfield 5G network which went live last year. How are major network equipment manufacturers adjusting to the new technology landscape? What are the benefits and costs to operators and vendors in adopting open and interoperable technologies?
Continue readingTech Insight: Rakuten Communications Platform
In an exclusive one-on-one chat with Rakuten Mobile’s CTO, Tareq Amin, neXt Curve’s Leonard Lee received an update on the state of the much-touted Rakuten Cloud Platform (RCP). RCP was formally launched in October of 2020 with the goal of bringing the open RAN innovations, integrations and the inventions that make up Rakuten Mobile’s cloud-native infrastructure to the rest of the world.
Continue readingIndustry Insight: Rakuten Rolls Out 5G
Rakuten recently launched their long-waited and highly-anticipated 5G network service. Despite a Covid-19 induced delay, Rakuten has managed to put up a 5G network in a very short time. The jury is out as to whether they have succeeded but one thing is for certain, Rakuten has proven that an industry outsider can put up a compelling offering with the help of new cloud-based and open technologies.
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