WCA July 2018

Telecom news

management), HappyOrNot (custo- mer satisfaction terminals), and Prisma (retail/hypermarkets). Ø Ø Elsewhere in the Nordics, Denmark’s TDC has announced that its NB-IoT network in Aalborg was set to officially go live in June. Its partners include businesses, the city council, the Invest in Aalborg civic organisation, and Aalborg University, which has established an ‘IoT living lab’ to develop IoT applications with public and private-sector participants. Ø Ø Comarch and Arqiva have extended a commercial partner- ship for 15 years under a long-term plan to roll out next- generation smart utility meters in the UK. As part of the UK government’s Smart Metering Programme to be delivered to 26 million homes by 2020, Comarch provides the operational support system (OSS) and professional services supporting Arqiva’s smart metering platform. Arqiva is currently delivering communications ser- vices to connect smart electricity and gas meters in some ten million homes and businesses in the north of England and Scotland. Ø Ø T-Mobile Austria has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on joint IoT development with China’s Huawei, expanding an existing operator-vendor development partnership, which has already spanned eight years. In February, the pair demonstrated what is believed to be Europe’s first 5G drone. Ø Ø Elsewhere, Huawei has also inked an MoU with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications & IT (MCIT) to support the kingdom’s 2020 National Transformation Plan and Vision 2030 goals. Working with IoT and artificial intelligence technologies to support Saudi entrepreneurship, Huawei will further develop an innovation centre. Ø Ø Lastly, Claro Argentina has partnered with LoJack to launch the Strix IoT platform, which connects automobiles, bicycles, homes, and items such as bags and luggage to Claro’s 2G/3G/4G network via specialised IoT devices on a monthly subscription basis.

Ø Ø Canalys was looking for a second-quarter return to growth, as Oppo, Vivo and Huawei launched new flagship devices in hopes of exciting the Chinese smartphone market once again. The company also allowed for a short period of stagnation as the vendors refocus on research and development while reining in on marketing. Elsewhere in telecom . . . Ø Ø As reported by Brian Santo of FierceTelecom (24 th April), nearly a year after Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria, communications networks in both territories were still crippled, running out of capacity, and in dire need of upgrades and hardening against future storms. AT&T, which said it is overtaxing its own power systems to keep its networks up and running, told US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai that it has been running its networks in both territories on generators, which have “a short life-span due to out-of-spec intensive use,” and expressed an immediate need for over 200 generators. Characterising the situation as “serious”, the company strongly endorsed a proposal by Mr Pai to establish a set of funds, totalling $954 million, to rebuild wireless communications infrastructure in the islands. AT&T noted that many households in both territories still lack reliable home broadband service and are using their mobile service for Internet access. The company said that average mobile use (both voice and data) in March 2018 versus August 2017 was up 63 per cent in Puerto Rico and 69 per cent in the Virgin Islands. Energy problems appear to be particularly bad in Puerto Rico, wrote Mr Santo, “exacerbated by both the shortcomings and the unreliability of the island’s power grid” which was knocked out yet again in mid-April, although relatively briefly that time. Ø Ø Citing new research by the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) and Point Topic, TelecomTV reported on 16 th April that alternative networks

(altnets) now run fibre past nearly a million premises in the UK and are aiming to pass 50 per cent of the population by 2025. That total would represent nearly twice the number of premises currently reached with fibre by BT’s Openreach. The report also estimates that altnets with fixed wireless access networks could eventually extend to a further two million premises, mainly in rural areas of the UK. Ø Ø According to a report from Accenture, the Dublin-based global management consulting and professional services firm, a vast majority of industrial manu- facturers are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to “turbocharge” products and services. On the basis of a survey of 500 manufacturing companies in six industries across Europe, North America and Asia, the 25 th April report notes the ability of AI – particularly when combined with mobile computing and big data analytics – to transform not only core operations, but also worker and customer experiences. It is also seen as ultimately influencing even business models, and enabling “Industry X.0” strategies. Yet the research found that only a small group is already leveraging AI in a way that Accenture defines as “applied intelligence”. While 98 per cent of the surveyed organisations have begun to enhance their offerings with AI, only 16 per cent have established an AI vision for their businesses; only five per cent are committing resources to AI-driven product initiatives; and only two per cent report that they have begun to leverage AI solutions at scale. Ø Ø The following is a selection from “IoT Time” (26 th April), the M2M/ Internet of Things weekly digest from the telecommunications market research and consulting firm TeleGeography : Ø Ø Elisa has announced that it is the first operator in Finland to achieve a national NB-IoT network footprint, with a coverage presence in every Finnish municipality. The NB-IoT network had been in a test/pilot phase since October 2017, with client companies utili- sing it including Enevo (waste

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2018