Month: August 2017

Google Fiber: Will Gigabit Wireless, and Going Long, Keep It Relevant?

by Erik Keith, posted in Ultra Broadband
Erik Keith – Principal Analyst, Fixed Access Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • Google Fiber, despite its still-small subscriber footprint, still generates plenty of hype, even after pulling back on its ambitious growth plans.
  • With a commitment to buildouts in major U.S. cities, gigabit wireless networking, and ongoing fiber technology development, Google Fiber appears to be in for the long haul, but must fill its leadership vacuum quickly.

Half a decade ago, Google Fiber announced its intentions to blow up the U.S. broadband market by building out its own gigabit fixed broadband service – a massive improvement over most cable and telco broadband services currently offered – for only $70 per month. Most of the Google Fiber footprint is served by GPON networking equipment, with the exception being the Ethernet FTTP assets in Utah, acquired from the failed Utopia project. Continue reading “Google Fiber: Will Gigabit Wireless, and Going Long, Keep It Relevant?” →

The 5G Migration That’s Already Happening: RAN Vendors Launching 5G-Era Base Stations

by Ed Gubbins, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV, Ultra Broadband
Ed Gubbins – Senior Analyst, Mobile Access Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • New base station introductions in the run-up to 5G pose challenges depending on both their timing relative to competitors’ moves and their messaging relative to legacy products.
  • All major RAN vendors have faced challenges unveiling new base stations recently, including Huawei, which was forced to make big changes in response to shifting market demands.

Everywhere you look, people are talking about the coming migration to 5G mobile networks. A much less talked about – but perhaps no less challenging – transition is the one radio access network (RAN) equipment vendors are making from base stations that were optimized for LTE to ones designed to lead operators into the 5G era. Yet, in the waiting period before 5G’s true arrival, marketing new base stations aimed at future networks alongside the current generation of base stations is a balancing act akin to stepping from an unmoored boat to a pier. Continue reading “The 5G Migration That’s Already Happening: RAN Vendors Launching 5G-Era Base Stations” →

A Tale of Two Stocks: Ericsson and ZTE

by Peter Jarich, posted in Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich – VP, Consumer Services and Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • Over the past year, the stock performance of ZTE and Ericsson has diverged, with ZTE’s share price up almost 60% over a year ago and Ericsson down almost 20%.
  • With Ericsson being a traditional telecom networking leader and ZTE just outside the top three players in the market, their stock performance tells a broader story about the market’s view of telecom and market concentration.

Earlier this week, Verdict posted a ‘Research Wire’ comparing the stock performance of Ericsson and ZTE over the past year. The exercise was a relatively straightforward one. Where Ericsson had traditionally been the top player in the telecom networking space for many years, ZTE has struggled to break into the top three. More recently, Ericsson has suffered from sales declines and disruptive corporate re-organizations, while ZTE has been forced to pay over $1 billion in sanctions in the U.S., as well as reportedly laying off 3,000 employees. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Stocks: Ericsson and ZTE” →

Cellular IoT: Understanding the “Value” of NB-IoT or LTE-M Key to Operator Success?

by John Byrne, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation
John Byrne
John Byrne – Service Director, Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

• NB-IoT and LTE-M deployments are proliferating. Proofs of concept abound, but neither technology appears to be generating significant momentum yet.

• Regardless of the technology, moving beyond connectivity is vital to mobile operator success in IoT.

In the past six months, cellular operators worldwide have been rapidly deploying narrowband (NB)-IoT and LTE-M. In June, the GSMA announced the success of its Mobile IoT Initiative, claiming nearly 75 operators deploying NB-IoT or Cat-M and 500 members in its Mobile IoT Innovators initiative designed to help operators add IoT value. The bulk of this focus has been on NB-IoT, which cellular operators are using to establish new use cases, including smart agriculture and a variety of smart cities applications involving lighting, parking meters, smart buildings and the like. For example, T-Mobile USA completed live NB-IoT smart city trials in July 2017 in advance of a planned national launch.

Continue reading “Cellular IoT: Understanding the “Value” of NB-IoT or LTE-M Key to Operator Success?” →