Back in 2019, a group of Chinese cable broadcast and television operators, then known as China Broadcasting Network (CBN), won spectrum in the country’s national 5G spectrum auction, signalling their ambition to become the nation’s fourth fully-fledged nationwide mobile operator.
 
The government-backed company won 80 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum and 100 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum, both of which can be used to provide 5G services. 
 
Catching up with the likes of China Unicom…

Back in 2019, a group of Chinese cable broadcast and television operators, then known as China Broadcasting Network (CBN), won spectrum in the country’s national 5G spectrum auction, signalling their ambition to become the nation’s fourth fully-fledged nationwide mobile operator.

The government-backed company won 80 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum and 100 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum, both of which can be used to provide 5G services. 

Catching up with the likes of China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Mobile when it comes to 5G, however, will be no mean feat. 5G subscribers currently account for around a quarter of the trio’s existing subscriber base, totalling around 428 million people. As such, the greenfield mobile operator will need to scale up quickly if it is to prove competitive. 

Earlier this month, the China Broadcasting Network was rebranded as China Broadnet and at the same time announced it was taking pre-registration for 5G phone numbers. 

Today, China Broadnet has begun its 5G journey in earnest, announcing the launch of commercial services. 

For now, it seems that the operator has very little in the way of its own network infrastructure, being largely reliant on a network sharing agreement with China Mobile signed back in early 2021 to offer services to customers.

The 11-year network sharing deal was split into two phases; the first year-long phase, would see China Broadnet able to purchase wholesale access to China Mobile’s 2G, 4G and 5G networks for the duration of 2021, while the following 10-year phase will allow China Broadnet access China Mobile’s 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz networks, as well as committing them to the shared deployment of a large-scale deployment of a shared 700MHz network.

This network sharing agreement will allow China Broadnet to today offer 5G services to a huge proportion of Chinese consumers but luring them away from the more established providers will be difficult. Based on the company’s website, it seems that its mobile plans are slightly cheaper than comparative offers by China Mobile – for example, its cheapest 5G plan is 118 yuan ($17.60) for 40GB of data, while China Mobile charges roughly 10 yuan ($1.50) more for a similar plan ¬– but whether this will be enticing enough to secure a significant market share remains to be seen.

Nonetheless, Broadnet does have something of a unique selling point for customers in its broad array of media assets, with the operator hoping to become a converged mobile and media company, providing immersive and interactive broadcast and TV media services, including the use of augmented and virtual reality, which will be enabled by their 5G network.

In related news, earlier this month, China Broadnet announced that it had selected ZTE to provide the 5G core network for a location-based service (LBS) project, seemingly initially focussed on providing support for emergency services. ZTE will deploy their technology at one site in Beijing and another in Nanjing, with the result being that all of Broadnet’s 5G customers will be able to benefit from emergency location services, with further applications for the technology related to enterprise customers expected to be announced in the near future. 

When Russia illegally invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February earlier this year, international sanctions were swift and severe. Companies of all shapes and sizes quickly took measures to cease business.
Western telecoms equipment providers were no exception, with both Nokia and Ericsson initially pausing shipments to Russia before confirming their withdrawal from the market entirely…

When Russia illegally invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February earlier this year, international sanctions were swift and severe. Companies of all shapes and sizes quickly took measures to cease business.

Western telecoms equipment providers were no exception, with both Nokia and Ericsson initially pausing shipments to Russia before confirming their withdrawal from the market entirely.  

Now, Cisco, which first announced it had suspended operations back in March, has said it too will exit the market completely, not only in Russia but also in its similarly sanctioned ally Belarus. 

“We have now made the decision to begin an orderly wind-down of our business in Russia and Belarus. We are focused on ensuring impacted employees in Russia and Belarus are treated with respect and have our support through this transition. Cisco remains committed to using all its resources to help our employees, the institutions and people of Ukraine, and our customers and partners during this challenging time,” said the company in a statement on their website. 

Cisco is among a handful of major Western companies that continue to ramp up their efforts to leave Russia in recent weeks. Major sportswear company Nike, for example, has also announced its exit from the Russian market this week, with Microsoft having also announced major cuts this month.  

However, leaving the country in an orderly fashion could soon be problematic. Last month, the Russian government passed a law that would allow them to seize control of assets from foreign companies looking to leave the market since the start of the war. Companies that produce essential goods and services that are leaving Russia “without obvious economic reasons” and “based on anti-Russian sentiment in Europe and the United States”, could find themselves forcibly nationalised.

The mechanisms for how exactly this process might work are as yet unclear. 

For now, however, it seems that Russia will still have options when it comes to telecoms communications equipment. Despite the exodus of a number of major players, some Chinese equipment providers, like Huawei and ZTE, seemingly continue to quietly do business in the country, though likely at a reduced level in order not to draw the ire of international sanctions themselves, particularly from the US. 

With the conflict in Ukraine showing no signs of slowing, the loss of Cisco represents yet another blow for the future of Russia’s telecoms industry, potentially causing deep technological divisions that could take decades to heal.
 

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscribe to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here

Also in the news:
Orange targets digital divide with new digital skills centre in Brussels
Australian businesses connected in days not weeks
Startup Stories: The Belle of Belfast City

Since the middle of 2019, the UK’s mobile operators have been racing to deploy 5G technology around the country, broadly proclaiming that the technology would revolutionise the consumer experience in a short few years.
But while the new technology has the potential to unlock many exciting new use cases, from virtual reality to industrial automation, particularly as 5G standalone networks begin to be rolled out in recent months, the reality for most consumers is that a 5G connection currently offers them little more than a minor speed boost…

Since the middle of 2019, the UK’s mobile operators have been racing to deploy 5G technology around the country, broadly proclaiming that the technology would revolutionise the consumer experience in a short few years.

But while the new technology has the potential to unlock many exciting new use cases, from virtual reality to industrial automation, particularly as 5G standalone networks begin to be rolled out in recent months, the reality for most consumers is that a 5G connection currently offers them little more than a minor speed boost. 

Perhaps this is why, at least in part, that a new study from YouGov, conducted via Global Profiles, shows Brits to be broadly disillusioned with the relatively new technology. 

The study, which explored attitudes towards 5G across 28 global markets, asked participants to respond to the statement ‘Having 5G benefits my life in many ways combined”, selecting ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, or ‘neither agree nor disagree’.

In the UK, 44% of respondents disagreed with the statement, while 36% were neutral, leaving just a fifth of participants to agree that 5G was beneficial. 

Of the 28 nations surveyed, this left the UK the third-least optimistic about 5G, with just Bulgaria (19% ‘agree’) and Austria (18% ‘agree’) even more pessimistic.

By contrast, Thailand was the most positive nation, with 74% of those surveyed saying that 5G would benefit their lives in many ways and just 15% saying that it would not. 

Taken together, 51% of all global respondents were positive about 5G, while 15% said they disagreed that it was having benefiting their lives. 

Thus, over two years since 5G began to be rolled out around the world, it seems that 5G still has something of an identity crisis in the public eye, with countries with more advanced 5G deployments not necessarily being more positive about the technology. 

Both Malaysia and India, for example, have yet to launch public 5G services, but the marketing surrounding the new technology in these countries is seemingly effective, with 68% and 51%, respectively, saying it would have a positive impact on their lives. Perhaps one could argue that they have yet to be disappointed. 

That said, some of the more advanced 5G nations on the list, like Saudi Arabia and China, were broadly positive about the technology (60% and 59% positive responses, respectively). 

In Switzerland, on the other hand, only 22% of respondents were positive about 5G, despite the fact that the country has some of the most comprehensive and advanced 5G deployments in Europe. In fact, 43% of Swiss respondents said that 5G would have a negative effect on their lives, perhaps an indicator of the troubles the country has faced when it comes to 5G protests and (largely unfounded) fears over 5G radiation exposure, both of which caused delays to the country’s network rollouts. 

In the coming years, however, 5G attitudes among consumers could begin to change due to the long-awaited rollout of standalone 5G architecture, which will allow for some of the more exciting use cases, like drones, virtual reality, and cloud gaming, to become reality. As these technologies themselves begin to mature and proliferate, 5G will finally have some major differentiating factors versus 4G, potentially giving it a higher profile in the public eye and even additional monetisation opportunities for telcos. 

Until these networks become a reality, however, it seems that telcos worldwide – but especially UK telcos – must content with a consumer audience not yet convinced of the benefits of 5G technology.

How can telcos change the public perception of 5G? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:
Orange targets digital divide with new digital skills centre in Brussels
Australian businesses connected in days not weeks
Startup Stories: The Belle of Belfast City

When it comes to establishing a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications network, Canada-based satellite player Telesat has some catching up to do. 
Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, the largest currently deployed, already has over 2,200 devices in orbit, while the UK government-backed OneWeb’s revival from bankruptcy in 2020 has seen it go on to launch nearly 400 devices…

When it comes to establishing a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications network, Canada-based satellite player Telesat has some catching up to do. 

Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, the largest currently deployed, already has over 2,200 devices in orbit, while the UK government-backed OneWeb’s revival from bankruptcy in 2020 has seen it go on to launch nearly 400 devices, around two third of its planned global constellation. Even Amazon’s long-delayed Project Kuiper will begin launching prototypes later this year, as well as announcing its first launch contracts for some of its planned 3,276 satellites.

Telesat, meanwhile, currently has just one LEO satellite in orbit. Launched in January 2018, the satellite has since been part of numerous trials and demonstrations, proving the viability of a larger constellation dubbed Lightspeed. Ultimately, they aim for the constellation to comprise 298 satellites, with the devices beginning to be launched in full in the latter half of 2025.

Commercial services are not set to begin globally until the start of 2026.

The project has considerable backing from the Canadian government, which agreed to invest $1.15 billion in the company late last year. In total, the company has received around $4 billion in investment to help advance the deployment of Lightspeed. 

Now, it seems the company is already beginning the paperwork required to operate beyond the Canadian borders, applying for a spectrum licence in the UK from telecoms regulator Ofcom. 

The spectrum requested from Ofcom falls in the Ka-band (27.5 GHz to 30 GHz range), theoretically giving them the ability to deliver multigigabit-speed broadband services to enterprises, as well as supporting mobile backhaul, maritime and offshore platforms, aviation, and government organisations.

Ofcom is now considering the company’s application for an Earth Station Network Licence, which would allow them to connect user terminals directly to the orbiting constellation using the spectrum in question. The regulator is inviting comments by the wider ecosystem over the next month, with a decision expected on September 12 2022. 

Interestingly, this spectrum is remarkably close to that potentially used to provide mmWave 5G services, with Ofcom itself currently in the process of ironing out the details of its upcoming mmWave 5G spectrum auction. The auction will make spectrum in the 26 GHz band (24.25–27.5 GHz) and 40 GHz band (40.5–43.5 GHz) available to UK mobile operators, with the consultation period for the auction’s proposed rules ends next month. The auction itself is not expected to take place until 2024.

How will satellite broadband services reshape the connectivity landscape of the UK? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:
Orange targets digital divide with new digital skills centre in Brussels
Australian businesses connected in days not weeks
Startup Stories: The Belle of Belfast City