Page 150 - Light Reading News Today

The LG Wing soars on. The wildest phone of 2020 will get access to new C-band 5G frequencies that will make it run better and faster on Verizon in 2021 and 2022. The Google Pixel 5 also just got authorized to use these new airwaves, according to the FCCs website. A tipster alerted us to postings about both of these phones at the commission. The filings are a "class 2 permissive change," which the government agency uses to authorize new radio abilities or frequency bands. In this case, the docum...

Dont blame it on the O-RAN. Blame it on the airwaves. Japans Rakuten has lashed out at recent analyst conjecture that its network performance has deteriorated as customers have joined the service. The criticism evidently stung Tareq Amin, the chief technology officer of Rakuten Mobile, by calling into question his choice of new cloud and software technologies such as open RAN (O-RAN). Any problems have nothing to do with his network, he told reporters and analysts earlier today. Rakutens meage...

Podcast: Detlef Nauck on how BT uses AI, data science 1/27/2021 The Light Reading podcast welcomes Detlef Nauck, Head of AI & Data Science Research for BTs Applied Research Division. Nauck gives us an overview of his work and the processes involved in using AI and machine learning in traditional telecom networks. Nauck said BT is working to help drive standards for machine learning model management and governance – if companies can better explain and interpret what machine learnin...

The global smartphone market experienced a fairly torrid first six months of 2020 as a result of measures adopted to stop the spread of COVID-19, but it seems that the situation improved significantly in the latter half of the year. According to latest figures from research and consultancy firm Omdia, a sister company of Light Reading, the smartphone market grew 4.7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020 – the first time since Q3 2019 that the smartphone market has achieved year-on-year ...

Podcast – The Divide: NDIAs Angela Siefer on digital redlining 1/28/2021 Welcome to "The Divide" – a podcast from Light Reading exploring the ongoing digital divide: why it still exists, where it still exists and what needs to be done to fix it. Todays guest is Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). We talk about what digital inclusion work looks like, how the digital divide is being made worse by digital redlining, and what needs t...

Huawei has been in early-stage talks to sell its premium smartphone brands Pro and Mate and exit the high-end smartphone business, according to press reports. A final decision has not been made on the sale, which follows Huaweis decision in November to exit the budget smartphone market, by selling its lower-end brand Honor to a consortium of 30 dealers. The sale would give Huawei a path forward if the new administration of US President Joseph Biden ends up not canceling the supply chain restri...

Vodafone is to carry out a restructuring of its networks and technology departments that will put Scott Petty, the current chief technology officer of its UK business, in charge of digital and services at group level, Light Reading has learned. Under the forthcoming shake-up, Alberto Ripepi, the groups deputy chief technology officer, will assume group-wide responsibility for all network-related activities. Both men will report directly to Johan Wibergh, who will remain in the chief technolog...

Vodafone is building 2,600 open RAN (O-RAN) sites in the UK. Telefónica Deutschland plans 1,000 of them in Germany. But Orange has arguably just become the most intrepid of the three. It has effectively told big kit vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia to slap a sell-by label on the traditional gear it buys from them. Starting in 2025, Orange wants anything it purchases for European network upgrades to be O-RAN-compliant. The intention is to send a clear message to O-RAN suppliers and watchful ...

The executive in charge of the GSMAs spectrum-related regulatory activities, Brett Tarnutzer, has left the organization to join SpaceX. "Working with fantastic international organizations ... like the International Telecommunication Union, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and so many fantastic national spectrum and telecommunications regulators strengthened my belief that if we work together, we can provide the benefits of communications to all who want it," Tarnutzer wrote on LinkedIn....

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone have made a joint commitment they hope will accelerate ecosystem development.