Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 147

Welcome to the 147th edition of this newsletter. While I spend a lot of time tinkering with technology, I would not call myself especially tech savvy. I often rely on Google to work out how to connect certain devices or perform tasks that many others may not even need to think about.

Fortunately, we live in a time when tools exist for almost everything, many of which are freely available online. Personally, I sometimes prefer reading a summary over watching a video. Transcripts are not always easy to navigate, but there are tools that can now summarise videos quite effectively.

Some podcasts, however, are only available online, which somewhat defeats their purpose. I want to be able to listen offline, whenever it suits me. This is usually while I am multitasking with household or garden work. Why is this still so difficult? I once heard someone say that offline is the new online, and it stuck with me.

The real bonus would be a way to combine all these approaches. While I do not think the tools are quite there yet, imagine downloading an audio file to listen to during a flight, bookmarking key moments, and later syncing with the video version online to review those specific sections. That kind of seamless experience is what we should be aiming for.

It may take a bit more innovation to reach that point, but the direction is clear. As mobile and wireless technologies continue to advance, I remain hopeful that we will see more user friendly, integrated ways to access and interact with content, whether we are online, offline or somewhere in between.

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

• Northeastern Global News: Northeastern researchers build tiny tech that could power faster, smarter 6G wireless (link)

• Free 6G Training: Intelligent RAN and the Road to 6G at the 9th O-RAN 6G Workshop (link)

⦿ 5G

• 5G-Advanced Overview - A new white paper by 5G Americas (link)

• True Corporation (Thailand) Unveils Enhanced 5G Experience with DSS Technology (link)

• TelecomTV: Rolling on with rolling out 5G standalone (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: LTE RRC Connection Release Procedure (Idle Mode) (link)

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

• MWL: AT&T, Ericsson claim first with third-party rApp deployment (link)

⦿ Spectrum

• Developing Telecoms: Morocco awards 5G licences to Maroc Telecom, Inwi and Orange (link)

• GSA Reports on the Global Status of 5G Spectrum: Low-Band, Mid-Band and Millimetre Wave (PR)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Nokia and Rockwell Automation Advance Industrial Transformation with Private 5G (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Sunday School: IP or not IP, that is the Question! (link)

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: NGMN’s Common Language for Antennas Lays the Foundation for Future-Proof Infrastructure (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Coverage like Swiss Cheese? (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• RCR Wireless: Viasat intros new satellite IoT service (IoT Nano) for remote industries (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: MAC Data Inactivity Timer - Safeguard for LTE IoT Reliability. What happens if an LTE device misses an RRC Connection Release message? (link)

• IKEA introduces new chapter in designing technology for the home (PR)

• Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "Really interesting development in #satellite #directtodevice options for #IoT using #LoRaWAN, or maybe other technologies. The European Electronic Communications Committee, which is part of regulatory body CEPT, has created a unifed #spectrum framework in the unlicensed 862-870MHz band used in this region - comparable to the US 900MHz ISM range…" (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn: Serious vulnerability in Bluetooth protocol: once a device goes to sleep, its session can be hijacked by attacker (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: "Telecom threats evolve. So does 5G Hierarchy of Threats! A proper update of the MITRE FiGHT matrix is out…" (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "…I'll do deep-dives later as I learn more, but MCP (Model Context Protocol) is moving so fast it needs immediate attention. It was announced by Anthropic in Nov'24 and has snowballed into a major "thing" …" (link)

• Ryan Jeffery on LinkedIn - Agentic Experience (AX): Is it a game-changer for OSS Design? (link)

• Dan Warren on LinkedIn: Network AI and Network Virtualisation - explicitly stating an implicit assumption (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Al Jazeera: Iran’s plan to abandon GPS is about much more than technology (link)

⦿ Quantum Networks & Technology

• TelecomTV: SoftBank takes quantum approach to RAN optimisation (link)

• TelecomTV: BT, DT seen as quantum-safe networking pioneers (link)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• BBC: India's AI-driven tech firings could derail middle class dreams (link)

• Connectivity Technology Blog: Pushing the Boundaries of Wireless Sensing Technologies (link)

• Ookla - Rethinking Indoor Connectivity: Why It Matters More Than Ever (link)

• India’s SACHET Public Warning System: A Case Study in Mobile Alerting (link)

• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "Omdia's annual Telco Software Market Forecast Report (subscription required) is out. As always we delve into the detail of the BSS and OSS market, assess its size in multiple different product categories (see chart) and project how the market will evolve over the coming years…" (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: As regular readers will know from previous issues, the Japanese mobile operator KDDI has been working extensively with SpaceX’s Starlink low Earth orbit satellites. This week, I am sharing a photo of a smartphone screen showing the satellite icon while connected through satellite based coverage, shared by @denpa893 on X (f.k.a. Twitter). You can also see a video of test here and a G-NetTrack Pro screenshot here.

 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.