5G is supposedly about enabling new industrial applications that will benefit from the industrial grade connectivity that 5G promises to bring. Yet, enterprise uptake of 5G is in the very early stages with recent support for private networks using licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Where are we with 5G for the enterprise? Is it ready for prime time?
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What is edge computing? The term has become the buzzword du jour. Many industry pundits claim that edge computing is the next big thing. Others claim that we have been doing computing at the edge for decades. To make matters even more confusing, some folks say that the edge is everything outside of the data center. What does it all mean?
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The Pandemic changed everything. Musicians, artists around the world, big and small, who largely depend on live performances for their livelihood saw their primary medium of expression and monetization shutdown almost completely for months going on more than a year. Necessity has forced the industry to pivot hard to online channels but artists and audiences alike miss the vibe of live music events. neXt Curve attended SXSW 2021 to gain insights into how music artists and producers are looking to recreate the vibe virtually and remotely on top of the 5G networks of today and tomorrow.
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The semiconductor industry has never faced a more tumultuous and exciting time than now. Competition, innovations, and geopolitics are forcing tectonic shifts in the industry landscape. These shifts have put a spotlight on RISC-V from multiple vantage points that highlight its emerging importance. While it is still early days, SiFive has been at the forefront of advancing the RISC-V agenda and bringing it to the mainstream. The company’s founders are the founders of the open semiconductor standard. How are they approaching an incredibly dynamic market and fast-changing industry?
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The spotlight continues to shine more brightly on 5G on the global geopolitical stage as it becomes increasingly apparent to the US and European nations that 5G technological leadership is of strategic economic importance. While the race to deploy 5G networks is a global competition, mobile wireless technologies of today have been a result of cooperation and collaboration across standard setting bodies, operators and technology companies across the globe. 3GPP, the engineering organization that sets the technical specifications that are the basis of mobile wireless technology standards, recently held their election for one of the more prominent of its Technical Specification Groups (TSGs), the RAN TSG. The election happens at time when 5G technology leadership is hotly contested and the merits of technological unity is increasingly challenged geopolitically.
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When the FCC held the first auction of CBRS (Citizens Band Radio Service), it raised hopes that novel neutral host models will emerge that improve the economics of indoor cellular networks and bring some of the promise of 5G into venues of all sizes. What is the neutral host opportunity presented by CBRS and what are the economic considerations for the business of establishing and running a neutral host network.
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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?
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As the new Biden Administration settles into the White House and contemplates how to deal with a rising China as it inherits a highly escalated tech war with the second largest economy, the topic of technology leadership has come to the forefront of trade and national security concerns. In particular, 5G is seen as the strategic technology that will be the catalyst for revolutionary economic and societal transformation. But 5G cannot and will not happen without essential mobile wireless technologies. Increasingly, the competitiveness of a nation is deemed to rely on leadership in strategic technologies, namely, 5G.
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neXt Curve attended Interdigital’s first 6G Summit that was a two-day exploration of the technologies and the possibilities that will come after 5G. This event was a great opportunity to compare notes with some of the industry thought leaders and inventors who are ideating through the future of communications with the technology horizon research we did for Ofcom in 2019. Will 6G be a revolution on top of an expected revolution or just 5G cans kicked down the road?
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It has been almost two years since the first commercial deployment of 5G and we have seen operators around the world embark on the deployment of the next-gen mobile wireless network. In these early days of 5G, use cases such as smart factories are touted as proving grounds for 5G’s disruptive potential, but we will need URLLC. neXt Curve is joined by renowned telco industry analyst, Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis to discuss the state of URLLC. What is real and what is hype today?
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