AT&T's Plans on Open RAN and 6G

AT&T was in news recently for their announcement about acceleration of Open and Interoperable Radio Access Networks (RAN) in the United States. According to their press release: 

This industry-leading move, in collaboration with Ericsson, will further the telecommunications industry efforts and help build a more robust ecosystem of network infrastructure providers and suppliers. AT&T’s spend could approach roughly $14 billion over the 5-year term of the contract with Ericsson. 

AT&T’s Open RAN plan is for 70% of its wireless network traffic to flow across open-capable platforms by late 2026. The company expects to have fully integrated open RAN sites operating in coordination with Ericsson and Fujitsu, starting in 2024. This move away from closed proprietary interfaces will enable rapid scaling and management of mixed supplier hardware at each cell site.  Beginning in 2025, the company will scale this Open RAN environment throughout its wireless network in coordination with multiple suppliers such as Corning Incorporated, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Fujitsu, and Intel.

At the Brooklyn 6G Summit (B6GS), Chris Sambar, who leads AT&T’s Network organization and teams responsible for designing, engineering, building, and operating AT&T’s next generation mobile and fiber networks, gave a keynote on "Network: The Innovation Platform". The narrative of the talk says: 

Today’s 5G build is the foundation of 6G. Flexible and open architecture being developed and fine-tuned with 5G will be central to 6G, and maintaining a customer-centric, forward-looking mindset will be critical as we scale and deploy technologies such as Stand Alone core, edge computing, AI, and NTN integration. Implementing the lessons learned in the 5G era and ensuring we have end-to-end alignment across the 6 pillars of our architecture will be vital to making 6G a success.

Goes back to my recent meme about 6G + legacy MNOs I expect… pic.twitter.com/wWXNC8DGwR

— Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) November 1, 2023

RCR Wireless provides a concise summary of the talk here:

AT&T has spent $40 billion on spectrum in the last few years; Verizon has spent more than $50 billion; and T-Mobile US had to acquire another major operator to get its spectrum holdings. With 5G not even at its midway point and the industry already trying to figure out what they might have to spend on 6G, “it can’t be a bottomless-pit industry,” he said.

That said, Sambar did also discuss the promise of 6G for extended and virtual-reality immersive experience for training public safety and military members, and the potential of better network-focused AI and ML to save network operators “hundreds of millions or billions of dollars” if things like self-optimization of networks can be done better and faster. That in itself represents a major challenge. Sambar says that he has thousands of employees in network operations, between AT&T’s wireline and wireless networks and “hundreds” of algorithms that do very simple if-then work and essentially send tickets to humans when a scenario comes up that fits its if-then criteria. If one of those algorithms breaks, he said, “we have to go figure out where it is, what server it’s sitting on, what’s wrong with it and how do we fix it. I would love a machine to manage that for me”—or even better, to stitch the capabilities of multiple algorithms together for more efficient and effective AI/ML applicability to network operations.

The video of the talk is embedded below, thanks to IEEE TV:

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4.5G Coverage is Good Enough for Comoros

The Union of the Comoros, an archipelago off Africa’s east coast with high levels of poverty, sought to improve communications, trade, and economic opportunities by expanding mobile communications and internet services. With support from the World Bank Group, the government liberalized the telecommunications sector, held an international tender, and awarded a second telecoms license. Through competition, Comoros now has better quality and cheaper telecoms services, as well as broader coverage. In a country with scarce government resources, the World Bank’s $32 million has made a substantial contribution by leveraging over $90 million in telecoms licensing fees and infrastructure investment.

Comoros has 2 mobile operators: Huri by Comoros Telecom (Comores Telecom) and Telma Comoros (Telma Comores). Both operators have 2G, 3G, and 4G/LTE networks. The following frequencies are used by the Comorian operators: 2G: 900 MHz, 3G: 900 MHz and 4G/LTE: 800 MHz (Band 20).

Until 2016 Comores Telecom (Comtel) was the sole provider of wireless, broadband and fixed line services on Comoros. Mobile services started in 2003 when Comtel launched a GSM-900 network under the brand name HURI.

2G started as late as 2002 and SIM cards were $100 at the beginning. 3G services started in 2013. Mobile penetration remained low in the Comoros. Many users were dissatisfied with Comtel's bad service and high prices while it had a monopoly. In 2018 they had to slash prices because of their new competitor.

Launching ceremony of the 4.5G network of #ComoresTélécom this morning at the head office #Comores #Telecom. As a reminder, the are two telecommunications operators (#Telma and #ComorosTélécom) and both of them are covering athe country with a wide 4G and 4.5G networks pic.twitter.com/JlDWsTJ1FC

— Yasser Mze Said (@YasserMze) July 17, 2018

From July 2018 they started to advertise with a "4.5G" network, so 4G/LTE seems to have be started on unknown frequencies (probably bands 20 and 3).

Telma Comoros, officially known as Telma Comores but will be referred to as just “Telma,” was awarded a license in 2015 to bring competition in the Comorian telecom market. They are an operator from Madagascar where they operate as Telma Malagasy. 

The launch of Telma Comores has expanded mobile services in Comoros, giving people high quality 4G LTE mobile broadband technology at lower prices. In response to this competition, Comores Télécoms has launched an even faster 4.5G network. By 2018, mobile broadband subscriptions rose to 58 per 100 inhabitants, and coverage is on track to provide all citizens with broadband mobile phone and inter- net services by 2030.

Telma doesn't block VoIP providers like Skype or WhatsApp calls. They also feature very cheap calls to neighboring French Mayotte. They might be the smarter alternative, once they have full coverage now. At least they brought the incumbent to cut prices.

5G Development Strategy & Plan of Turk Telekom

Founded in 2011, Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) has been dedicated to constructing a robust ecosystem of TD-LTE, speeding up the commercialization of TD-LTE and promoting the convergence of LTE TDD and FDD. Today, GTI has become an influential cooperation platform with global presence with operators and key vendors, and has completed the GTI 1.0 mission by building an end-to-end TD-LTE ecosystem and achieving global commercialization of TD-LTE and converged LTE TDD/FDD.

As the newest member of GTI, Ahmet Fethi Ayhan, Network Director at Turk Telekom, had the opportunity to share Türk Telekom's 5G roadmap and network transformation with the world's leading industry representatives at the 38th workshop held in Istanbul.

His talk is embedded below:

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• Operator Watch Blog: Turkey Plans 5G Rollouts in 2021 with Demand Expected from 2022 Onwards 

Grenada is Slowly Progressing Towards High Speed 4G

Grenada is an island country consisting of Grenada itself and six smaller islands in the southeastern Caribbean. It's located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. About 126,000 inhabitants live on 348.5 km2 area.

Like on many Caribbean Islands there are these two usual providers: Digicel Grenada and Flow (by Cable & Wireless). Flow is the incumbent provider and Digicel came to the Caribbean 2001-6 to end this monopoly and has since become market leader in Grenada by aggressive marketing.

2G is on European bands while 3G is on US bands. Both operators have 2G/GSM on 900 and 1800 MHz. For 3G Flow uses 850 MHz (CLR band 5) while Digicel employs 1900 MHz (PCS band 2). 

Digicel Grenada, launched commercial 700MHz LTE network services in December 2018.

Flow addressed widespread criticism over the quality of its fixed broadband services by announcing it has spent XCD15 million (USD5.6 million) to provide faster web browsing for its subscriber base. As a result, they have been able to increase speeds from 15Mbps to 50Mbps, putting the country ‘on par’ with many developing nations.

Recently Grenadians have become more and more dissatisfied with the services provided by FLOW and Digicel. Many customers have reported losing money due to various reasons, including sudden deactivation of their numbers despite having substantial account balances. This issue raises significant concerns regarding transparency and accountability within these companies. Additionally, the quality of telephone and internet services provided by both FLOW and Digicel has been deemed unacceptable by many customers, particularly in rural areas where Flow Landline and broadband services have experienced prolonged outages.

In light of these failings, it is imperative that the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) in Grenada takes proactive measures to ensure that these companies meet accepted standards. If the NTRC fails to fulfill its responsibilities, it may be necessary for the government to intervene by considering potential changes in board membership.

Jio 5G - Enabling India to go Digital

Jio, the incumbent Indian MNO, was in news recently for having rolled out 1 million 5G cells across India. An RCR Wireless article nicely summarised their announcement from the earning statement as follows:

Reliance Jio Infocomm has already deployed over 1 million 5G cells across India, the telco said in its earning statement.

Jio’s 5G network is currently providing coverage in nearly 8,000 towns and cities across India.

Jio also highlighted that it has contributed to 85% of the overall 5G capacity in the country. This has been powered by a 100% in-house 5G stack, designed, developed and manufactured in India, the telco added.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only Indian operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.

Earlier this month, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited demonstrated what it claims to be India’s first satellite-based giga-fiber service, dubbed JioSpaceFiber, at India Mobile Congress 2023.

The telco said the new offering aims to provide high-speed broadband services to hard-to-reach geographies across the country.

Jio has rolled out 1 million 5G cells across India, extending coverage to 8,000 towns. They've established 150,000 5G sites, bringing the benefits of 5G to 70 million customers so far. #Jio #5G 📡🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/N850Si7Dig

— Telecom TALK (@TelecomTalk) October 27, 2023

At the recent Brooklyn 6G Summit, Shyam Mardikar gave a keynote on how Jio 5G is enabling India to go Digital. His bio states: "Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar is responsible for Reliance Jio’s mobile network and leads the network strategy, design, and transformation towards making Jio’s mobile network fully converged, programable and future ready. Over past one year, he has successfully led world’s fastest 5G network creation with nearly 1 Mn 5G cells live." 

His talk is embedded below:

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• Operator Watch Blog: Jio Platforms (JPL) is Flaunting their 5G Wares
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Rwanda got 4G, Satellite Connectivity and Possibly Stratospheric 5G

Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwanda was slow to liberalise the mobile sector, allowing MTN a monopoly until 2006 when the fixed-line incumbent, Rwandatel (since acquired by Liquid Intelligence Technologies) became the second mobile operator. There was effective competition among three operators after Tigo launched services in 2009. However, the acquisition of Tigo by Airtel saw a significant consolidation in the market, and the cancellation of Rwandatel’s licence in 2011 resulted in the market becoming a duopoly between the dominant operator MTN and Airtel. However there is a third operator now: kt Rwanda (KTRN for Korea Telecom Rwanda Networks), which is on 4G/LTE only.

The fixed broadband sector has suffered from limited fixed-line infrastructure and high prices. Nevertheless, operators are rolling out national backbone networks which also allow them to connect to the international submarine cables on Africa’s east coast. These cables gave the entire region greater internet bandwidth and ended the dependency on satellites. Liquid Technologies has continued to expand its FttP services across Kigali and a number of other towns, while the country also has a new cable link with Tanzania, and via Tanzania’s national broadband backbone it has gained connectivity to the networks of several other countries in the region.

The number of subscribers on LTE infrastructure has increased sharply, helped by national LTE coverage achieved in mid-2018. Mobile remains the dominant platform for voice and data services. The regulator noted that the number of mobile subscribers increased 2.7% in 2021, year-on-year. However, there was a slight fall in the beginning of 2022, though this decline was entirely from Airtel.

MTN based in South Africa is the leading operator in the country with the best coverage. They claim to have a 95% coverage in the country. But this refers to 2G only. 3G is only available in the centers. It used to have a market share of 100% back in 1998, but now faces stiff competition from 2 new players in the market.

Both Airtel and MTN have launched their own 4G LTE networks, having had their operating licences amended to enable them to roll out 4G technology. The two firms were previously only able to offer LTE-based services using the infrastructure of wholesale provider KT Rwanda Networks (KTRN), but the government announced earlier this year that KTRN would lose its exclusivity in the 4G market.

MTN claims to have so far upgraded 80% of its network sites to support 4G technology, while Airtel has not given an update on its coverage. Both firms say they are offering 4G at the same price as their 3G tariffs.

Tigo changed the game when it entered the market in Rwanda in 2008. Their coverage is was as good as MTN's, but they offered quite lower rates.

Airtel bought Tigo in 2017 and Tigo was merged with Airtel. In the intermediate time it was called Airtel-Tigo. In 2020 Airtel-Tigo has rebranded as Airtel Rwanda. The firm has also been issued with a new twelve-year unified operating licence under its new moniker. Airtel claims around 46% of Rwanda’s mobile subscriber total, with the remainder accounted for by market leader MTN.

Airtel launched its own 4G network in July of this year.

In 2013 the Government of Rwanda and KT entered into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with a Korean group to install a high-speed broadband network and expand the nation's online services capacity. KT Rwanda Networks was established to deliver universal broadband access based on 4G/LTE technology upon Rwanda’s national Fiber optic infrastructure and to manage the fixed-mobile converged infrastructure as the wholesale provider of high-speed mobile broadband, covering 95% of the population within 4 years. 

Airtel and MTN both offered services via KTRN’s 4G wholesale infrastructure, in which Korea Telecom is thought to have invested $140 million. However this monopoly has now ended as both have launched their own networks. 

Back in February, Starlink, the satellite broadband service from SpaceX, was issued a licence to enable it to operate in Rwanda, following on from its recent commercial launch in Nigeria which marked its entry to the African market. A report from New Times said that 500 Rwandan schools were set to receive connectivity from Starlink under a pilot scheme by the end of the month, with full commercial availability before the end of March. The Rwandan government is aiming to connect a further 3,000 schools to the internet by end-2024.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change non-profit organization has announced that it worked with the Republic of Rwanda government to provide SpaceX Starlink internet to 50 schools situated in rural communities.

A survey from Ookla, for the second quarter of 2023, said that the Starlink satellite service was faster than all fixed broadband providers in Nigeria and Rwanda. In Rwanda, median download speeds were a little closer with Starlink recording a median download speed at 63.10 Mbps in Q2 2023 compared to the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined at 34.55 Mbps.

#Rwanda, SoftBank deliver ‘World’s first 5G connectivity from the stratosphere’https://t.co/8ULE7ntOa0

— The New Times (Rwanda) (@NewTimesRwanda) October 18, 2023

This week, the Government of Rwanda and SoftBank Corp. announced that on September 24, 2023, they successfully tested SoftBank's proprietary 5G communications payload in the stratosphere installed on a solar-powered High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype.

The demonstration, conducted for HAPS research purposes in Rwandan airspace by SoftBank and the Government of Rwanda, marked the world's first publicly announced delivery of 5G connectivity from a HAPS UAV in the stratosphere*1. The successful 5G connectivity demonstration follows a stratospheric flight test conducted in Rwanda in June 2023, during which the HAPS UAV prototype carried a mockup of the payload with a similar weight and dimensions.

SoftBank's stratosphere-ready communications payload continuously delivered 5G connectivity for approximately 73 minutes in the stratosphere at a maximum altitude of 16.9km and performed as expected in demanding atmospheric conditions.

During the test, the stratosphere-ready 5G communications payload enabled a 5G-based Zoom video call between a smartphone at the test site in Rwanda and SoftBank team members in Japan. Since the radio waves transmitted and received from the 5G communications payload installed on the HAPS UAV prototype in the stratosphere operated on the same frequencies as existing smartphones and devices, a regular 5G smartphone was used in the test.

No Plans for 5G in Barbados with Plenty of Scope for LTE Improvement

Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean. It's covering an area of 432 km2 and is situated about 168 km east of the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and 400 km north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Almost 300,000 people live on the island.

Like on many Caribbean islands there are these two usual providers: Digicel Barbados and Flow (by Cable & Wireless)

Flow is the incumbent provider and Digicel came to the Caribbean 2001-6 to end this monopoly. A third provider called Sunbeach on CDMA was closed in 2013. Digicel has become market leader and commercially launched its 4G/LTE mobile network in the capital Bridgetown in 2016, Flow in 2017.

Flow is on US frequencies of 1900 MHz for 2G and 850 MHz and 1900 MHz for 3G, while Digicel uses European bands of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz for 2G and 2100 MHz for 3G. Digicel's 4G/LTE has started on 700 MHz and 1900 MHz (bands 17 and 2) while FLOW's 4G/LTE is on bands 1900 MHz and 850 MHz (bands 2 and 5).

Digicel started in 2004 to challenge the monopoly of Lime (now known as Flow). They have been very successful in Barbados and had a 57% market share in 2015. In 2016 they were the first operator to launch 4G/LTE in Bridgetown and have extensive coverage over the island. 

Flow (previously called Lime), is operated by Cable & Wireless. In recent years they have fallen back against Digicel, but lowered rates in 2017. They offer a good 2G and 3G coverage, and launched 4G/LTE in 2017.

Barbados has issued a third telecoms licence, as it seeks to break up the long-standing Digicel-Flow duopoly. Clifford Bostic, Director of Digital Infrastructure at the Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology (MIST), told Barbados Today:

‘We have a third service provider in Barbados that has been licensed, and that is KW Telecommunications Ltd, and they are also preparing for number portability, as well as preparing to launch their services in Barbados.’

While little is known about KW Telecommunications, or its backers, the newcomer appears set to fill the void left when the previous third operator, debt-wracked Ozone Wireless shut down in August 2019, barely two years after its launch.