Customer Experience

In customer experience news, Quantenna Communications announced a breakthrough in mobile performance, with 1Gbps throughput achieved between Quantenna-based access points and a wireless adapter based on the Intel Wireless-AC 9260. Mosaic Telecom has tapped the full power of Calix Cloud to deliver an exceptional subscriber experience while increasing ARPU and take rates, boosting service uptake by 80 percent. And, according to J.D. Power, overall U.S. network quality continues to improve year-over-year, with Verizon leading in wireless network quality in all six regions covered by the study. Results were published in the 2018 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Study, Vol. 2 and measured call quality, messaging quality and data quality.

The Road to 5G

Developments on the road to 5G came in from around the world this month. In domestic news, Verizon has announced that Indianapolis is the fourth city selected to receive 5G residential broadband service by the second half of 2018. The city joins Houston, Los Angeles, and Sacramento as the first in the country to receive service. In another significant milestone, Sprint and LG confirmed they are working together toward delivery of the first mobile 5G smartphone in the US. Delivery is targeted during the first half of 2019, with additional details and specifications to come. Ericsson announced an increase in its U.S. footprint through the expansion of its 4G partnership with Verizon. This extended partnership includes Ericsson Radio System 4G LTE equipment which, in addition to enabling the latest advances in 4G LTE capabilities, will provide a 5G-ready platform that will allow Verizon to rapidly transition sites to 5G when service is deployed in those markets.

Additionally, application and bidding procedures have been set by the FCC for the upcoming November 14 US 5G spectrum auction. The auction will cover Upper Microwave Flexible Use Services licenses in the in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz) and 24 GHz (24.25-24.45, 24.75-25.25 GHz) bands.

In Europe, Ericsson announced that Hi3G has selected it to modernize Hi3G’s Denmark transport network with 5G-ready routers over the next three years. This modernization will prepare Hi3G’s network for future 5G requirements as well as support the increasing number of connected devices on the network. Additionally, Vodafone Spain announced the acquisition of 90 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 3700 MHz band for mobile data services. Purchased in the Economic Ministry’s auction for a cost of just under 199 million euros, the 3700 MHz spectrum will be used to deploy 5G services, enabling Gigabit speeds and lower latency to enhance applications for connected vehicles and robotics, industrial automated systems, and virtual and augmented reality.

In the Middle East, Etilasat and Ericsson successfully conducted a live on-air trial of Ericsson Radio System and Massive MIMO technology. The trial, which furthers preparation for 5G deployment, was conducted in the dense and high-traffic urban environment of Dubai Marina in the United Arab Emirates.

Cloud

Windstream Enterprise announced the launch of SD-WAN Cloud Connect, a flexible, high-performance way for enterprises to connect all their network locations to their cloud-based applications. SD-WAN Cloud Connect is offered in collaboration with VeloCloud, now part of VMware. In other enterprise cloud news, AT&T Edge Solutions now includes Cisco’s Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS) virtualization platform. Over in Europe, Orange announced the completion of its 100 percent acquisition of Basefarm, a leading European player in cloud-based infrastructure and services, to support Orange’s enterprise cloud offering.

In other cloud developments, Aricent and CableLabs are collaborating on a self-managed and optimized virtual infrastructure platform on the Kubernetes and the Docker container model. BullsEye Telecom has launched VirtualTech to remotely diagnose and solve intermittent and chronic telecommunication network issues. Mist is partnering with VMware to create a seamless AI-driven wireless LAN (WLAN)/WAN network experience to provide unique LAN, WAN, and cloud visibility and facilitate troubleshooting into user network experiences.