By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

This month, 5G updates from around the world continued to roll in, including completed 5G spectrum tests in the UK, field trial results stateside, and the vision for a path to 5G in Vietnam. New AI-enabled customer experience tools hit the market. Additionally, Nokia and STK have partnered to improve public safety technology in South Korea, and new studies from Juniper Research lift the curtain on mobile wallet spending and Mixed Reality gaming.

The top stories from the month are summarized below. To view all the news as it breaks, check out Pipeline's News Center or subscribe to receive our weekly news summary.

5G Update

Ericsson followed up a busy March with a busy April, announcing that it has joined forces with Vertiv and NorthStar to form the Ericsson Energy Alliance. The alliance is intended to drive cost-effective and sustainable service provider network evolution towards 5G within the Ericsson Radio Site System. In 5G developments overseas, leading Maltese network service provider Melita announced it had selected Ericsson to support preparations towards modernizing and expanding its network and preparing for 5G. 

Copper Mountain Technologies launched new FET1854 extenders with frequency range from 18 to 54 GHz in addition to the existing CobaltFx mmWave frequency extension system already used by many telecommunications and consumer electronics companies. The CobaltFX system will allow engineers to build a scalable and affordable 5G testing solution.

5G tests and trials continued around the world this month. Vodafone UK completed a test of its new 5G spectrum across an existing live network between Manchester and the company’s headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire. Meanwhile and stateside, AT&T has announced a commitment to provide updates and new findings from its many 5G field trials in a twice-monthly blog by president of technology and operations Melissa Arnoldi as 5G draws closer to reality.

In Finland, Nokia, Finnish operator Telia, and Intel successfully conducted an industrial trial leveraging the ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth capabilities of 5G to support time-critical applications and enhance production and efficiency in a manufacturing environment. This was the first ‘real-world’ industrial application of 5G for manufacturing trialed at the Nokia Conscious Factory, located in Oulu, Finland.

In Vietnam, Huawei outlined the path to a 5G Era for Vietnam at the 4G/5G International Conference in Hanoi. Emphasizing the value that 5G will bring to Vietnam in enhancing people’s lives, improving businesses, and driving economic growth, Huawai also committed to expanding and evolving LTE network and its derivatives as the first steps on the 5G transformative road. 

Network News

Siemens has extended its contract with Orange Business Services for a global “Siemens Digitalization Network” (SDN) built on an SD-WAN infrastructure. The infrastructure will connect 1,500 sites in 94 countries on five continents. Under this new six-year contract, Orange Business Services will migrate Siemens’ entire global infrastructure to a dynamic and flexible SD-WAN network, which will connect cloud applications as well as IoT devices. 

In other SD-WAN news, Apcela launched its Enhanced Analytics Platform (EAP) to move towards machine learning. The platform operates with Apcela’s Cisco SD-WAN/ELK EAP API. 

Public safety technology got a boost both at home and abroad this month. In the U.S., AT&T helped FirstNet launch the country’s first nationwide public safety communications platform dedicated to first responders in times of need. FirstNet was built with AT&T in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority.