WCA January 2017

Telecom news

According to an LGA report published on 20 th October, the subsidy would give low-income families a basic service of at least 10Mbps. The LGA did not make any suggestion as to price but commended to providers an existing affordable telephone- and-broadband service from BT, on offer to people who receive income support. Councillor Mark Hawthorne, chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, said: “Many government services are going digital by default, and we need to be able to ensure that the most vulnerable and least well-off can afford to use them.” Ø According to research from Ericsson’s ConsumerLab, viewing on mobile and portable screens is moving ever closer to parity with fixed-TV viewing. At MIPCOM, the TV-centred trade show held 17 th to 20 th October in Cannes, France, Ericsson’s Anders Erlandsson, senior advisor, consumer insights, said that “[we are] clearly heading towards a 50:50 split.” The latest consumer-preference study from the Swedish telecom equipment maker indicates that the ratio between viewing on fixed screens and on mobile screens is close to 60:40 for 2016, compared to almost 70:30 in 2010. Of 100,000 people polled worldwide by Ericcson, one in three respondents aged 16-24 said that a portable screen is more important to their video consumption than a home TV. Ø Together with the Chinese vendor Huawei, the Openreach infrastructure unit of British fixed-line provider BT announced on 19 th October that it had tested the latest fibre-to-the-premises technology in an FTTP connection joining the University of Suffolk, Ipswich Exchange, and BT’s R&D centre at Adastral Park. Simultaneous conductance over a single fibre optic cable of 40Gbps ‘NG-PON2’, 10Gbps ‘XGS-PON’, and 2.5Gbps ‘GPON’ was reportedly demonstrated. Having used the service successfully over a two-week period, the university was expected to continue utilising the high bandwidth for streaming lectures and delivering online courses.

(ms) over the 5G wireless link. The companies said they plan further network testing and collaboration towards the development of 5G standards; and, in Nokia’s case, to demonstrate commitment to playing a leading role in the realisation of 5G in North America. Ø “The Mobile Economy – Middle East and North Africa 2016,” from the GSMA, reports that mobile broadband networks will account for 61 per cent of mobile connections by 2020, up from 41 per cent today, across the diverse Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The London-based organisation for mobile operators found that, as of mid-2016, there were 339 million unique mobile subscribers across the region’s 25 markets – a total expected to rise to 385 million by 2020. At the same point, the number of smartphone connections had more than doubled over the previous three years to reach 263 million, accounting for 42 per cent of total connections and forecast to reach 467 million by 2020. According to Mats Granryd, the GSMA director general, operator investment in mobile technology is playing a crucial role across the Middle East and North Africa, helping to connect the unconnected in emerging markets and introducing innovative services in more developed countries. According to the GSMA report, published on 17 th October, the mobile industry in 2015 contributed more than $150 billion to the MENA regional economy, or four per cent of its GDP, forecast to increase to almost $200 billion by 2020. The industry supported the local economy with more than a million jobs in 2015, including employment in the ecosystem and indirect support from economic activity generated by the sector. The mobile industry also contributed $15 billion to public funding in the form of general taxation. Ø The Local Government Association has called on the British govern- ment to include a social tariff in its universal service obligation for broadband.

access to its Openreach network. This has allowed John Lewis Broadband, SSE, the Post Office and others to all offer broadband. Like them, wrote Ms McGoogan, Amazon has no plans to build its own network but could utilise the access to existing infrastructure. Elsewhere in telecom . . . Ø The Dutch Senate on 12 th October passed the revised Net Neutrality Law as part of an amendment to the country’s Telecommunications Act. The strict new law seeks to ensure that telecoms and Internet service providers (ISPs) do not favour one Internet app or service over another. Opponents, however, assert that the legislation is overly severe and is out of line with the European Union’s own open Internet standards. Afke Schaart, vice president Europe at the GSMA, said: “We are greatly disappointed with the outcome of today’s vote. We believe that the Dutch Net Neutrality Law goes far beyond the intent of the EU regulation. We therefore call on the European Commission to ensure the harmonised implementation of Europe’s Open Internet rules.” According to the London-based GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, the tighter laws in the Netherlands will “hinder development of innovative services and consumer choice.” Ø Finland’s Nokia and Chicago- based USA Cellular have collabora- ted to test 5G fixed wireless in North America and showcase ultra-high speed, next-generation networks in both indoor and outdoor environments. As reported by Nokia (12 th October), the testing used 28GHz spectrum through an experimental licence from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Nokia’s 5G-ready AirScale radio platform to stream six simultaneous 4K ultra high-definition videos. The two sets of tests were conducted at USA Cellular’s technology centre in Schaumburg, Illinois. According to Nokia, in both environments the tests delivered speeds of 5Gbps and ultra-low latency under two milliseconds

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2017

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