WCA July 2016

Telecom news

2016”, issued on 5 th April, the New Jersey-based telecom describes a broadening IoT marketplace, with “companies across all industries [now having] IoT squarely on their radar.” Thus the projected 17 per cent jump from 9.7 billion connected devices in 2014 to more than 25.6 billion in 2019, hitting 30 billion in 2020. For carriers mulling where to concentrate their resources, Mark Bartolomeo, vice president for IoT connected solutions at Verizon, identified smart cities as one of the areas of greatest need. He cited the great number of municipalities demanding “solutions that address sustainability, safety and economic growth.” Ø According to the market research company Vertical Systems Group (Norwood, Massachusetts), the “fibre gap” continued to narrow in the USA last year as business fibre penetration in commercial buildings grew to 46.2 per cent. (The gap refers to the remaining commercial buildings without optical fibre facilities that readily connect to business network services.) The research covered fibre- connected multi-tenant and company-owned buildings with 20 or more employees: more than two million individual business establishments. It was found that fibre penetration increased as network operators targeted greenfield metro areas and mid-size multi-tenant buildings for new installations. Fibre access to network services is being pre-built into nearly every new commercial building across the USA. Vertical Systems pronounced fibre the most widely deployed access technology for delivery of carrier Ethernet services in the USA, increasingly drawn upon to support higher-speed hybrid VPNs, cloud and Internet connectivity; as well as mobile traffic aggregation and emerging SDN-enabled Dynamic Network Connectivity Services (DNCS).

an already saturated market, pushing companies to evolve as the country’s economy undergoes the transition from a manufacturing-based model to one led by the service economy. Analysts told the Post that this presents an opportunity for China’s telecom industry; and Steve Lo, a technology managing partner with Ernst and Young in Beijing, noted that the industry would be receiving significant support in terms of investment by the government. But the increasing rivalry will, Ms Ng wrote, put pressure on corporate profits even as it favours market leaders like state-owned China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless network operator by subscribers. Ø While Internet usage in Canada has sharply increased over the past half-decade, according to new research from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) only around 33 per cent of Canadians are satisfied with the cost of their home Internet connections; and approximately that percentage is unhappy about the speed and reliability of the service. As Canadian Internet providers are among the few in the OECD to enforce data transmission caps, respondents to a recent CRTC survey also complained of a lack of capacity. Telecoms Tech reported (1 st April) that OpenMedia campaigns direc- tor Josh Tabish declared these findings “unsurprising” since incumbent Internet providers dominate more than 90 per cent of the Canadian market. Mr Tabish noted that the OECD ranks Canada 30 th among 34 countries in broadband affordability. Ø Declaring 2015 “the year IoT gained legitimacy,” Verizon asserts that the concept of network connectivity among physical objects is now “mainstream”. In its 24-page report “State of the Market: Internet of Things

Mobile broadband, the white paper asserted, “is capable of bridging the digital divide” and offering new development opportunities: especially in rural and remote areas where fixed telecommunications operator infrastructure is rare, making wireless the only alternative for bringing broadband services to the population. Mr Tomás noted that, according to 5G Americas, most regulatory agencies in Latin America have expressed interest in auctioning spectrum on the 700MHz band in the near future. At least eight countries had already made allocations in the first quarter of 2016. Elsewhere in telecom . . Ø TowerXchange, specialising in research into the telecom tower industry, believes that European telecoms are on the cusp of a major shift in infrastructure ownership, to play out over the next five years. As reported by Anne Morris of FierceWireless:Europe (22 nd April), a new TowerXchange study indicates that 48 per cent of the mobile towers in Europe will be owned by independent tower companies by 2020 as mobile network operators continue to divest their infrastructure. Also on 22 nd April, Telefónica Deutschland became the latest operator to demonstrate the trend, with plans to sell almost all of its mobile towers to Telxius – the new mobile tower unit set up by Telefónica in Spain. The German provider said it will be receiving $662 million for 2,350 towers. Ø The 13 th Five-Year Plan, as outlined by China’s legislature, envisions a total population 85 per cent covered by a mobile broadband network by 2020, up from the current 57 per cent. But Naomi Ng of the South China Morning Post (24 th April) cautioned that Chinese telecoms and handset makers face a challenging year ahead as smartphone subscriber growth cools. Competition among operators and smartphone vendors can be expected to intensify in

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2016