WCA November 2019

Telecom news

in the Arctic, operator OneWeb has released details of its Arctic Internet service. Beginning in 2020, the company plans to deliver 375Gbps of capacity to the region above the 60 th parallel North, supplying boats, aeroplanes, homes and other built facilities. OneWeb will employ polar-orbiting satellites to carry a high-speed, low-latency service to the 48 per cent of the Arctic that currently lacks any broadband coverage. HD video streaming tests with its first six satellites began in August, demonstrating low latencies below 40 milliseconds. Substantial services will start towards the end of 2020, with full 24/7 coverage by early 2021 to every part of the Arctic Circle. The US senator for Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, said: “Connectivity is critical in our modern economy. As the Arctic opens, ensuring the people of the Arctic have access to affordable and reliable broadband will make development safer, more sustainable, and create new opportunities for the next generation in this dynamic region of the globe.” One of the first OneWeb satellites in orbit has been named Nanuq-Sat – the Inuktitut word for polar bear – by children in Anchorage, Alaska. Too many (temporary) hands said to make light work of iPhone 11 Apple’s contract manufacturer, Foxconn (headquartered in New Taipei, Taiwan), is alleged to have employed too many temporary staff to produce the iPhone 11. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO founded to defend workers’ rights in China, made the initial claims that Foxconn was breaking labour laws by using substantially more temporary workers than allowed under Chinese law. The law states that temporary workers (referred to as dispatch workers) must not exceed ten per cent of the workforce, but it appears that the figure at Foxconn was up to 50 per cent.

Earlier this year, China’s industry regulator issued its first 5G business licences to the three state telecom carriers and state-owned China Broadcast Network Corp. China Unicom and China Telecom will lead the network build in different provinces, based on their business strength. Broadly, China Unicom will handle construction in eight northern provinces including Liaoning, Jilin, Shandong, Hebei and Henan, while China Telecom will build the network in 17 southern provinces including Fujian, Guangxi and Sichuan. The two companies will share construction in major markets such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Hangzhou, but the partnership will not cover the remote, sparsely populated regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. In common with the spread of 5G networks elsewhere in the world, the densely populated, more easily connected cities and urban areas are the first to reap the 5G benefit. As yet there appears to be no plan for a 5G network in Xinjiang and Tibet, and most areas in the two regions still rely on a 3G service. China Telecom chairman Ke Ruiwen said in August that his company was also in talks with China Mobile, with the possibility that the three companies could cooperate to build networks in the remote regions. The company responsible for the construction in a designated region will bear the relevant investment, maintenance and operating cost of the network. The other operator will be able to share the access network and 5G spectrum resources, while retaining its own core network. The operators say they will ensure a unified standard on network planning, construction, maintenance and service in the 5G network co-build regions, and assure the same service level. Despite the partnership, so analysts believe, both China Unicom and China Telecom are still likely to cooperate with China Mobile in areas of 5G network construction. Bringing the Arctic online With the continuing increase in maritime, aviation, enterprise, govern- ment and scientific research activity

The industry news website, iMore. com reports that China Labor Watch received complaints about the working conditions at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory. China Labor Watch noted that the use of dispatch staff coincided with a high demand for iPhone production, in anticipation of Apple’s 2019 iPhone event in September. Wireless – MVNO A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications service provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure it uses to provide services to its customers. In February 2019, a Reuters report valued the MVNO market “at over $25 billion,” adding it was “expected to grow, as small companies are becoming increas- ingly inclined toward expanding the businesses.” Citing a projected compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent, the report estimated that the market would be worth $120 billion by 2024. More recent activity in the market is evidence of MVNO as a growth industry. The US cable group Altice USA has announced the commercial launch of its MVNO unit, Altice Mobile. The service went live in September, pitched as a “nationwide mobile service created for today’s consumer, who craves seamless, simple and reliable connectivity,” assuming the craving consumer lives within the company’s 21-state footprint. Australian retailer Kogan.com has launched an MVNO in New Zealand, utilising Vodafone’s New Zealand network. The online-only service is offered on a pre-paid basis. This is not Kogan’s first venture into the wireless space, having previously operated a Telstra-powered service that shut down in 2013. UK communications provider Gamma Communications reported 60,000 mobile subscribers to its own MVNO service at the end of June 2019, up 20 per cent from 50,000 at the end of 2018. In July 2017 Gamma completed its transition to a full MVNO on the Three UK network, having ended its five-year thin MVNO association with Vodafone UK. Gamma has also acquired its own core network.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2019