Displaying items by tag: 5G

Britain’s telecom companies could be fined up to 10% of turnover or $133,140 a day if they violate a ban on using equipment made by China’s Huawei under a fresh law put forward this week.

The Telecommunications (Security) Bill will tighten the security standards of the UK’s telecoms networks, the government said.

Britain in July decided to ban the use of Huawei in 5G networks from the end of 2027 because of growing security concerns and future co-operation with the US.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said the benefits of 5G and fiber networks could only be realized if they were secure and resilient.

“This groundbreaking bill will give the UK one of the toughest telecoms security regimes in the world and allow us to take the action necessary to protect our networks,” he said.

Huawei said it was disappointed that the government was looking to exclude it from the roll-out of 5G.

“This decision is politically motivated and not based on a fair evaluation of the risks,” said Vice President Victor Zhang.

“It does not serve anyone’s best interests as it would move Britain into the digital slow lane and put at risk the Government’s levelling up agenda.”

The government said the tougher security standards in the bill would also help protect Britain from potential cyber-attacks from countries and criminals.

Regulator Ofcom will be given the duty of monitoring and assessing the security of telecoms providers.

In the latest part its ongoing campaign to fight back against having to remove its communications solutions from European countries’ infrastructure, Huawei has released the findings of a report from business analysts Oxford Economics. 

According to the report, Huawei contributed €16.4 billion to Europe’s GDP and supported 224,300 jobs in 2019. The Chinese telecoms giant holds the largest global market share (~35.3%) of any vendor. The second-largest, Nokia, holds less than half of Huawei’s market share at around 16.1 percent.

Huawei’s impact in Europe has grown markedly over the last five years. Its contribution to GDP increased by an average of 19.1% per year, in real terms, between 2015 and 2019.

The total employment and real tax contributions associated with Huawei’s activities in Europe grew by an average annual rate of 17.1% and 16.8% over the same period.  

In 2019 alone, Huawei also supported €6.6bn in tax revenues – sufficient to pay for over 151,000 teachers’ salaries.

The study, penned by the UK think tank, highlights that pulling out Huawei’s equipment and replacing it with alternatives is going to be a costly and time-consuming endeavor—one that will likely delay 5G rollouts.

Hanging over the report is the decision in July 2020 by the UK government to commit to a timetable for the removal of Huawei equipment from the country’s growing 5G communications infrastructure by 2027 – effectively a huge U-turn to the decision it took only in January 2020 to restrict Huawei’s presence to just the radio access network element of 5G setups.

Pete Collings, Director of Economic Impact Consulting at Oxford Economics said: “This report is an objective way to show the full extent of Huawei’s economic impact in the UK. Companies like Huawei are major contributors to the UK directly but their impact is extended through the spending they undertake with other UK firms. This spending, and the further economic activity it generates, sustains jobs across the country, contributing to UK GDP and government tax revenues.”

Huawei and Cambridge Wireless have partnered to deploy and build a private 5G testbed at the Cambridge Science Park. This marks the start of a 3-year partnership which will include digital training, joint events and business support.

This will be the UK city's first 5G mobile private network, and will support companies with R&D and application of new digital technologies in areas such as remote surgery, autonomous vehicles and clean energy. The 5G testbed will go live in January 2021. 

Owned by Cambridge University, the Cambridge Science Park currently has over 120 technology companies and scale-ups. Cambridge Wireless is a community of 1,000 companies in R&D and application of wireless and mobile, internet, semiconductor, hardware and software technologies.

Victor Zhang, UK head of Huawei, said: “The Cambridge eco-system is recognized as a global leader in technology and we are excited to work with the talent and vision in this eco-system. We hope to enable Cambridge Wireless members to reach new heights by allowing them access to our state-of-the-art equipment and markets including China and beyond. Our commitment to the UK and industry remains as strong as ever and we will continue to offer our expertise and technology to our partners to promote connections and innovation.”

Nokia and Deutsche Telekom Group have announced the expansion of their strategic partnership by setting plans to build a 5G-ready IP network.

Deutsche Telekom has selected Nokia's 7750 Service Router (SR) platform to significantly expand capacity across its edge/core routing network as it prepares for next-generation broadband and 5G services. Deployment has already started in Greece, where Nokia is replacing and modernizing the operator’s existing IP network. Rollout in Hungary is expected in Q4 2020.

With networks experiencing unprecedented traffic growth and unpredictable demands, operators want to meet ever-increasing performance requirements while driving down network costs. The scale, feature breadth and versatility of the Nokia 7750 SR-s platform addresses these requirements, enabling operators like Deutsche Telekom Group and its affiliates to build bigger, smarter, automated and secure networks with greater return on investment.

As part of its network modernization, Deutsche Telekom needed to replace an existing IP edge/core network that was reaching its end of service with a new network that can cope with 5G and ultra broadband access requirements. A key principle to achieve this was the consolidation of network layers through the integration of IP aggregation and edge/BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) functions into one converged layer.

Deutsche Telekom selected the Nokia 7750 SR-7s routers as they support the full spectrum of provider edge, gateway and core functions for advanced residential, mobile and enterprise services. Powered by the programmable FP4 network processing silicon, the routers will enable Deutsche Telekom to boost IP network capacity with deterministic performace for a top-quality subscriber experience. As a result, Deutsche Telekom can support 5G interconnectivity and an increasing growth in backbone traffic driven by an increase in mobility applications, video streaming, gaming and other high-capacity demands such as remote working.

The 7750 SR-s is managed by the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP). NSP supports 5G IP transport with automated slicing across IP and optical transport layers with end-to-end orchestration of network resource provisioning and assurance operations. This simplifies operations so that operators can create customer policies/slices with different network performance, quality and routing capabilities to respond quickly to fast-changing subscriber demand.

Bernhard Scholl, Technology Europe VP Access Core & Transport at Deutsche Telekom, said: “Deutsche Telekom Group affiliates need to expand and modernize their IP networks to address stringent 5G IP transport requirements. We continue to see tremendous growth in network traffic and the need to deliver more throughput and higher capacity with strict QoS to our customers is critical. This is particlarly the case as bandwidth intensive applications are shifting to on demand video along with the growing usage of cloud-based services. Building out this backbone with Nokia's IP edge routers will allow us to stay ahead of our customers’ network needs.”

Vassilis Kazatzopoulos, Head of International Sales DT Global Customer Business Team at Nokia, said: “With trends like 5G, IoT and Industry 4.0 now a reality, networks are expected to handle hundreds of new applications and services for millions of users. The Nokia 7750 SR-s series of IP routers takes router performance to the next level by delivering the massive scale, comprehensive feature set and platform versatility needed to stay ahead of evolving demands. Nokia is excited to expand its longstanding relationship with Deutsche Telekom Group to help prepare its affiliates’ networks for the future.”

A Swedish court has postponed the decision to ban Huawei’s 5G equipment from the country’s network as it reconsiders the merits of the case against the tech giant.

This decision, which was taken by Stockholm’s administrative court, has forced the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) to also postpone the 5G auction which was due to take place on Tuesday.

When news of the alleged ban broke, Huawei previously stated that the ban would have lacked “legal basis” and violated “fundamental human rights” and “fundamental EU legal principles…. And is incorrect in substance”.

The Swedish telecom regulator has stated that its October 20 ban, which would have affected ZTE too, was in line with new legislation “to ensure that the use of radio equipment in these (5G network) bands does not cause harm to Sweden’s security”.

The regulator has now been asked to submit its arguments first in order for the court to make a decision.

Huawei has said that the ban would have caused irreplaceable harm to its business. The ban would have meant that all the existing and already installed Huawei kits would need to be removed and that no further equipment from the Chinese vendor is to be deployed.

Nokia has announced a services deal with A1 Austria, building on the leadership of both companies in the Austrian enterprise market.

In this three-year contract, started earlier in 2020, Nokia is providing its industrial-grade private wireless technology and services for all existing and new A1 Austria LTE and 5G enterprise campus network deployments.

As part of the deal, Nokia will provide operational support and care for all existing campus networks, ensuring adherence to even the most challenging service level agreements (SLAs) and quality of services (QoS) requirements. With the support of Nokia, A1 Austria will accelerate the digital transformation of its enterprise customers. A1 and Nokia have already successfully deployed a number of private wireless campus networks in Austria, including installations at Magna Steyr, Vienna Airport and 5G Playground Carinthia.

Nokia is now the technology partner of A1 Austria, ensuring high-performance 4.9G/LTE 5G private wireless network solutions. In addition, A1 and its customers benefit from Nokia’s globally proven capabilities in digitalization, automation, AI and network slicing.

A1 Austria is a global lead customer for Nokia’s network slicing technology in 4G and 5G mobile networks, a key functionality for enterprise networking which A1 Austria is planning to make available nationwide. Private wireless networks are ideal for the business-critical communication requirements of factories, logistic hubs, and other enterprise verticals along with public safety organizations.

According to Mobile Experts1, the global private LTE and 5G market is anticipated to triple by 2025 as a variety of industries are upgrading their investment in private wireless networks to support industrial operations.

Alexander Stock, CTO at A1 Austria, said, “This deal reinforces the long-standing collaboration between A1 and Nokia, including an agreement to expand next-generation 5G mobile communications in Austria. A1 is now a clear leader in enterprise in Austria and, together with Nokia as its technology partner, we are looking forward to quickly rolling out new deployments.”

Friedrich Trawöger, Head of Operate and Managed Services at Nokia, said, “As operators like A1 Austria diversify their portfolios with new services and business innovation to digitalize industries, Nokia is in place to deliver proven expertise in the deployment and operation of business-critical private network solutions. We have had significant success on a number of executed projects with A1 in Austria and this deal will further position both companies as leaders in the private LTE and 5G domain.”  

In addition to the services contract, Nokia provides A1 Austria the infrastructure, software and services for setting up the private LTE networks. This includes a micro core network, AirFrame servers, small or macro cells, as well as professional services.

Huawei has appealed against Sweden’s decision to exclude the Chinese vendor from 5G networks, the Swedish telecoms regulator PTS said.

The ban, announced by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) on October 20, "lacks legal basis, violates fundamental human rights, violates fundamental EU legal principles ... and is incorrect in substance," Huawei wrote in its appeal to PTS and the Stockholm administrative court.

If carried out, it would cause "exceptionally comprehensive and irreparable damage" to its business, Huawei added.

PTS has said that its ban, which also affects Chinese company ZTE, is in line with new legislation that took effect in January 2020, following an examination by Sweden's security service "to ensure that the use of radio equipment in these (5G network) bands does not cause harm to Sweden's security."

Kenneth Fredriksen, Huawei’s EVP of Central East Europe and the Nordics, told Reuters: “We think the decision that has been taken is not good for customers nor for Sweden in general.”  

“We therefore want a Swedish court to look at if the decision has been taken through a proper process and according to the law.”

European governments have been tightening controls on Chinese companies building 5G networks following diplomatic pressure from the US, which alleges Huawei and ZTE equipment could be used by Beijing for spying. Huawei has repeatedly denied being a national security risk.

Huawei said in its appeal there was "no concrete evidence of a cyber security threat" posed by the company, and insisted that "the Chinese state cannot order Huawei to spy".

Nokia today announced it has been selected by Telia Company as the exclusive provider of 5G RAN in Finland in a five-year deal that includes the modernization of legacy networks and will cover 7,500 sites.

Nokia is a long-standing strategic partner to Telia Company and has also been chosen as the supplier of 5G standalone (SA) core in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

Nokia will supply Telia with its AirScale portfolio including 5G RAN, AirScale base stations and Nokia AirScale radio access products. The deal will see the modernization of existing radio networks, as well as the rollout of 5G in Finland.

 Nokia is the incumbent radio provider for Telia Finland, as well as providing its 5G non-standalone cloud-native core for all countries. These solutions at the heart of the networks will enable Telia to build on its existing leadership position and deliver incredible connectivity and capacity benefits to its consumer and business subscribers.

Nokia’s 5G core and Cloud Packet Core (CPC) portfolios will also supply Telia with a 5G SA core network, an expansion of the current core network from Nokia. Building upon Telia’s existing Control/User Plane Separation (CUPS) core network architecture, Nokia's CPC’s appliance solution will be used in the 5G SA user plane, making it highly scalable. Nokia’s core solution allows Telia to build a unified core network offering quad-access (2/3/4/5G) services for a seamless experience to their subscribers.

Telia opened the first pre-commercial 5G networks in Helsinki, Vantaa and Oulu in Finland in September 2018 together with Nokia. The commercial network was opened at the beginning of 2019, and the accelerated roll-out has continued to 42 cities in Finland, with a population coverage of over 25 percent. 

Allison Kirkby, President and CEO of Telia Company, said, “Our networks have never been more important and are the foundation of a thriving digital economy. Nokia is our sole supplier of 5G standalone core in all markets and of radio network technology in Finland. We share a long history of close collaboration with Nokia, particularly in Finland, and I look forward to continuing this partnership by delivering the best network for our subscribers.”

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, Nokia, said, “We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with Telia Company. For over half a century we have worked with Telia to deliver best-in-class connectivity - now that continues into the 5G era, as we supply Telia's RAN technology in Finland and its core 5G network across the Nordic and Baltic nations. I look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Telia for years to come.”

Nokia is a global leader in 5G with the industry's only end-to-end portfolio that is available globally. With more than 160 commercial engagements underway, its 5G solutions, software and services allow Nokia customers to take advantage of the promise of this next generation of network technology.

The US has been persistent in its global campaign against Huawei and some other Chinese tech giants such as WeChat and TikTok.

Emerging reports have been pointing towards renewed pressure on South Korea and a number of European operators to replace cloud infrastructure and facilities which were supplied by Chinese vendors.

It has been reported that the US has urged Korean authorities to subscribe to its Clean Network initiative, an initiative that was received with a great deal of criticism a few months ago, amidst a call between the two nations’ politicians.

It has been disclosed that Korea left it up to private companies to decide what to do with their equipment and which vendor to use.

For some time now, the US has been carrying out a long-running campaign against Huawei with regards to its 5G equipment. This has drastically affected the supply chain of operators across the world. The US has been relentless in trying to persuade its allies in Europe to also scrap Chinese vendors’ cloud infrastructure, including but not limited to Huawei.

US representatives recently met with Deutsche Telekom and Masmovil to raise security concerns in relation to data center and cloud infrastructure provided by Chinese vendors.

This comes as the US ramped up its efforts to influence tech policies across the rest of the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a memorandum of understanding in an effort to ensure that developing countries avoid working with “untrusted vendors” and encourage them to use “open, interoperable, reliable and secure” infrastructure.

However, despite the US’s efforts to undermine Huawei and other Chinese vendors, there is still no conclusive evidence that justifies their actions to target and harm their business abroad.

Apple introduced its latest iPhone lineup, with 5G as the exciting new feature of the iPhone 12 family.

The Californian tech giant launched four new iPhone models with varying price points and display sizes at the event, including an iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Although most of the features were expected prior to the event, the consensus among analysts is that the 5G compatibility will be one of the key drivers of iPhone growth over the next few years.

“This is a huge leap for iPhone, bringing the best 5G experience in the market and delivering our most advanced technologies to users who want the absolute most from their iPhone,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Marketing SVP. “Each generation of iPhone has changed what we expect from a smartphone, and now with 5G, iPhone 12 Pro provides a new generation of performance.”

Krish Sankar, lead analyst at investment bank Cowen, didn't see any major surprises from the iPhone 12 event, but noted that the addition of 5G across the lineup could "enable a longer strong cycle."

Sankar forecasts that iPhone unit shipments could grow 12% year-over-year to 208 million units in 2021, and an additional 3% to 214 million units the following year. He also notes that overall pricing rose moderately on a blended basis compared to the iPhone 11 lineup.

Some analysts believe Apple is taking a serious bet on 5G adoption and expansion, and may be introducing a device that the market is not ready for.

Tim Long, senior research analyst at Barclays, raised a number of questions around Apple’s new 5G technology.

“We’ve been a little bit more skeptical on the iPhone side for the last few years here. It’s been a time since they’ve had a real hit. Remember that the 10 was supposed to be a supercycle as well. We didn’t really see it so we’ve seen a lot of changes as far as customers’ willingness to pay really since that iPhone 10 so there’s been a lot more mixing down and of course now really the new feature here is 5G. … When we have a new technology, we struggle with – is it worth the cost? Are there applications? What’s it going to do with my battery? What will the coverage look like?”

Nilay Patel, editor in chief of The Verge, is also skeptical about the uses of 5G.

“In the middle of Apple’s pitch for 5G, they announced a feature called Smart Data Mode … the thing that Smart Data Mode does for you is it turns 5G off to save battery life. So not only is the network not ready, the hardware, because the networks are new and the modems are new, is going to drain your battery life if you overuse 5G. So the phone itself unless you’re doing something that demands a lot of speed is going to turn 5G off almost most of the time. I did not see a single compelling use case for 5G in that entire presentation, other than the speed test app.”