Displaying items by tag: Leadership

 Nokia is celebrating twelve months of 5G ‘firsts’: a milestone defined by 23 game-changing achievements in the field of 5G.     

Over a twelve-month period that started on 6 September 2018 with the first over-the-air, end-to-end data transmission on a commercial 3GPP 5G New Radio network in partnership with Verizon, Nokia has gone forward to achieve an additional 22 5G firsts in six continents and in a wide range of technology areas.

In addition, as North America is thus far the world’s largest 5G market, Nokia has positioned itself as the leading vendor with the largest 5G population coverage footprint.

Chief among the achievements in the past 12 months are six world firsts in 5G secured by Nokia’s technology and its people, including the first environment for verification to develop the connected car using 5G, enabled by Nokia’s 3GPP-standard base stations for Softbank; the first tests into new aspects of the 5G standard in real-world industrial conditions at the Port of Hamburg in Germany, together with the Hamburg Port Authority and Deutsche Telekom; and the first over-the-air 5G data transmission using 2.5 GHz and massive MIMO antenna technology, on Sprint’s live commercial network in San Diego, together with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Sprint.

Nokia has also helped to power seven technology firsts in 5G, which along with the September 2018 Verizon trial include the first 8K Ultra High Definition TV streaming in real conditions over 5G, delivered in partnership with France Télévision; the first cloud-based VR gaming on an AI-powered 5G network using open RAN architecture to manage the extreme network demands of immersive real-time VR gaming, after teaming up with CMCC; and the first 5G solution for one of the world’s largest events, the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, using VR to allow visitors to experience Hajj remotely as if they are present on site.

Marcus Weldon, Nokia’s Corporate CTO and President of Nokia Bell Labs, said: “The past 12 months of Nokia’s 5G milestones and successes stem from our years of research into 5G and the resulting innovative technologies are changing the world for consumers and industries.

 “Whether enabling new geographies to experience the possibilities of 5G for the first time, pushing technology to define new limits and deliver groundbreaking performance, or achieving 5G firsts never before seen, Nokia’s end-to-end portfolio is helping customers redefine what’s possible, as the true potential of 5G starts to take hold.”

 Nokia Bell Labs pioneered many of the fundamental technology innovations that are being adopted into 5G standards. Inventions in Low Density parity check (LDPC), 5G radio stack design, Massive MIMO, Mobile Edge Computing, and millimeter Wave have enabled 5G Release 15, and new innovations in 5G unlicensed spectrum and Industrial IoT are leading the digital transformation to industrial automation and Industry 4.0. In addition, Nokia has played a key leadership role in driving the first set of globally interoperable 5G standards through its contribution to the 3GPP standards organization.

Nokia today opened a 5G Future X Lab at its global headquarters in Espoo, Finland, enabling customers to experience Nokia’s full end-to-end portfolio of 5G equipment, software and services. The Lab will enable communications service providers, enterprises and infrastructure providers to learn and understand the techno-economic power of a 5G end-to-end network to better serve their customers and unleash new value.

Ooredoo announced that the company has reached another world-first milestone, with the delivery of the first live 5G home broadband devices.

The devices, which are currently being tested on Ooredoo’s 5G network before distribution, will work on both the Ooredoo 4G and 5G network and can achieve speeds of up to 2 Gbps, that’s 20 times the speeds of Ooredoo’s 100Mbps fibre.

With an Ooredoo 5G connection via the 5G home broadband device, Ooredoo customers will be able to download movies in seconds, seamlessly stream VR gaming experiences and video call like never before.

The company has announced that currently there are only a few 5G home broadband devices in the world, however Ooredoo is working to acquire more stock in the very near future.  As commercial production increases alongside the 5G roll-out, Ooredoo will aim to ensure Qatar is the first country to enable this next-generation technology for its customers.

Talking about the milestone, Waleed Al Sayed, Ooredoo’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Ooredoo is ecstatic to announce that last night, we became the first in the world to have a live commercial 5G home broadband device. This is another amazing world-first milestone for Ooredoo and Qatar and demonstrates that we are on track to offering 5G mega speeds for everyone in the very near future. I look forward to seeing how this technology will benefit all sectors in Qatar, from businesses, to education and beyond.”

Since the announcement of the first live 5G network in May 2018, Ooredoo has begun an intense 5G network roll-out plan across Qatar, with the aim to update 100 network stations to 5G, in the 3.5GHz spectrum band, within the next three months. 

The current live 5G sites, which include West Bay and Katara, have demonstrated an impressive speed of 2.51 Gbps with an extremely high throughput and low latency. Thanks to these results, Ooredoo is working to find 5G compatible devices from across the world to test them on the network, including next-generation Internet of Things applications such as smart cars, VR, AR and drones. 

Italian telecommunications incumbent Telecom Italia has appointed a new general manager – in a move that sees its largest shareholder tighten its grip on the operator. Vivendi’s Amos Genish will now run the company’s day-to-day operations.

Vivendi has a 24% stake in Telecom Italia, and the new appointment comes just days after CEO Flavio Cattaneo departed the company after just sixteen months at the helm, following a number of clashes with the French shareholder.

The new general manager has enjoyed a decorated career, he was CCO at Vivendi, and he formerly headed the Brazilian subsidiary of Spanish operator Telefonica, and also founded GVT, a leading Brazilian mobile operator. Genish, a 57 year-old former Israeli captain will now oversee all of the company’s operations and will be based in Rome.

Cattaneo is the second CEO to leave Telecom Italia in less than just two years after he repeatedly locked horns with the French group which is led by billionaire Vincent Bollore. He has previously expressed an ambition to establish a southern European media powerhouse. Vivendi CEO, Arnaud de Puyfontaine who also acts as Telecom Italia’s executive chairman - will assume the responsibilities of CEO on a temporary basis.

In addition to this, it was also disclosed that further announcements on governance will be made in September. Analysts have claimed that many investment funds that have shares in Telecom Italia, remain unflustered by the latest leadership reshuffle, and are confident that Genish can reinvigorate the operator with a number of deals, which may include a possible sale of the Brazilian unit to a spin-off of the Italian fixed-line network.

De Puyfontaine has admitted that he plans to establish a joint-venture between Telecom Italia and Vivendi’s pay TV unit Canal+, which would play into the French company’s vision of expanding its content distribution across platforms. The Italian operator’s only asset abroad remains its Brazilian unit, and de Puyfontaine said it was doing a good job, but remained coy in relation to a potential sale.

The idea of TIM exiting Brazil has been gaining traction among investors since Vivendi became a top shareholder, because the French group sold its own Brazilian operations before investing in Italy.