Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 141

Welcome to the 141st edition of the Mobile and Wireless newsletter. It has been a busy few weeks as I have been tied up with a number of projects. One of the recent highlights was a visit to Glasgow, a city currently celebrating 850 years since it became a Burgh. The purpose of the visit was to see the brownfield Open RAN network SCONDA in action. It is always fascinating to observe how new technologies are being integrated into existing environments, and the impact they are having on both the network and the people involved. I look forward to sharing more about this in an upcoming post.

In the meantime, the rapid progress of Generative AI tools continues to reshape how content is created and consumed. More platforms are now enabling people to create short videos with remarkable ease. From generating scripts and selecting visuals, to adding narration and producing polished final edits, it is now possible for individuals to create videos that once required professional media teams.

This shift is already helping individuals and organisations to operate in a much leaner and more agile way. However, it also raises important questions. As the volume of AI-generated content grows, so does the challenge of navigating through it. The line between fact and fiction is becoming harder to distinguish, and the risk of misinformation and content fatigue continues to rise. The industry will need to think carefully about how to manage this wave of content while finding ways to maintain trust, clarity and relevance in communication.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a technologist with over 25 years’ experience in mobile wireless technology, currently working as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and a trainer. This newsletter is a summary of my posts and other news that caught my attention since the last newsletter.

⦿ 6G

• NIST: Shaping the 6G Era (link)

• Free 6G Training: Multi-Radio Spectrum Sharing (MRSS) and/or Dual-Stack for Initial 6G Rollouts (link)

⦿ 5G

• Japan's first successful demonstration test of CBTC system using 5G on a commercial line (link)

• 5G and the LTE Evolution Poster by Rohde & Schwarz (link)

⦿ Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)

• Light Reading: Mavenir boss regrets open RAN 'bet' in U-turn after financial rescue (link)

• Patrick Lopez on LinkedIn: Do you want to understand why Mavenir had to pivot away from #openran radios manufacturing? (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Private 5G and Automation Transform Viticulture in the Moselle Valley (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Wednesday Wonderings: Admiral-ble Performance! (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Small Or Far Away? (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• NTT Docomo Technical Journal: Advanced Technologies for Industry Creation and Solution Co-creation in 3GPP Release 18 (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Operator Watch Blog: How AI Is Reshaping Network Operations at Deutsche Telekom (link)

• Dell’Oro - AI-for-RAN in Focus: Key Takeaways from the Telco AI Forum (link)

• Giant Ventures - World Leading Tech Analyst, Benedict Evans: Making Sense of AI (video)

⦿ Picture of the week: Is there an official name for a person wearing an Apple Maps backpack and taking photographs of indoor locations? I’m not sure. ChatGPT suggested Apple Maps Field Surveyor or Apple Maps Data Collection Specialist as professional-sounding titles for the role. Recently, these Maps Data Collection Specialists have been spotted in various parts of the world. One was seen in Leeds just last week. A Reddit thread shows others sighted a few months ago in Italy and Singapore. Now, investigative reporter Ben H. has tracked them down at Munich Central Station, as captured in the images below:

Happy to hear your thoughts. Feel free let me know what worked, what didn’t, how I can make this better, etc. Get in touch over LinkedIn!

PDF version of this and previous newsletters are available here.