#TBT: Racing to standardize IoT; FCC dips its toes into rural broadband; Dish eyes spectrum auctions … this week in 2014

Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the highest headlines from the previous. Fire up the time machine, placed on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and benefit from the recollections!

IoT consortia jockey for place in standardization race

Within six years, the variety of linked units which can be NOT smartphones, tablets or PCs will skyrocket to 26 billion, in accordance to Gartner. The implies that the Internet of Things will embody greater than thrice as many units as the standard cellular ecosystem. But how will these units talk with each other? Companies that need to money in on connectivity know they want to be certain their {hardware} and software program can communicates with that of their companions, and even their rivals. In a race to create requirements for communication between linked units, a few of the largest names in know-how are forming alliances to develop IoT interoperability requirements. The newest launch comes from Intel, Samsung, Broadcom, Dell, Atmel and Wind River and is known as the Open Interconnect Consortium. The consortium will help iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Tizen functions. The OIC is just not the one Internet of Things alliance for Intel. Earlier this 12 months, the chip large was certainly one of 5 corporations to announce the formation of the non-profit Industrial Internet Consortium. The group mentioned on the time that it might give attention to new trade use instances and check beds, greatest practices, reference architectures and requirements necessities. Founding members of the IIC are Intel, Cisco, IBM, GE, and AT&T – the one wi-fi provider thus far to announce participation in an IoT requirements group. One title noticeably absent from each lists of cooperating corporations is that of Qualcomm, the present chief in mobile connectivity chipsets. Qualcomm is spearheading its personal IoT consortium, referred to as the AllSeen Alliance. … Read more

Inside Verizon’s Edgecast

Working for a Fortune 500 firm has executed nothing to dampen the entrepreneurial spirit of Edgecast founders James Segil and Alex Kazerani. The two companions, who collectively received Ernst & Young’s 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year award for the higher Los Angeles area, have been in a serious enlargement mode since Verizon Communications acquired their company seven months ago. Segil says Verizon has made vital investments in the Edgecast content material supply community, typically leveraging the IT infrastructure, information facilities and safety experience that got here to Verizon by way of its 2011 Terremark acquisition. “They can drop an enormous quantity of infrastructure,” mentioned Segil, and apparently that’s simply what Verizon has executed, including 20 new factors of presence worldwide and doubling the egress capability of the Edgecast content material supply community. Edgecast handles content material supply for Twitter, Hulu, Pinterest, Sony Mobile and now for all of the Verizon digital media properties as properly. The eight-year-old firm, now a part of Verizon Digital Media, focuses on “fats pipes” that join to all wi-fi suppliers and specializes in video optimization software program. Verizon famous on the time of the acquisition that the 2 corporations shared “a typical architectural method to video-optimized networks.” “Verizon’s acquisition of Edgecast was very a lot proof that carriers are specializing in optimization of content material supply,” mentioned Sue Rudd, director of service supplier evaluation at Strategy Analytics. That optimization requires state-of-the-art software program and billions of {dollars} value of infrastructure. … Read more

We really feel the necessity, the necessity for … spectrum!

Wireless spectrum is clearly an essential aspect to the industrial cellular communications market, as it’s the medium in which shoppers can walk-and-talk unimpeded by cables. As such, the necessity for wi-fi suppliers to frequently achieve entry to extra spectrum in order to feed an insatiable urge for food for cellular communications is a requirement for the trade to proceed to prosper. RCR Wireless News spoke with Kevin Thompson, director of Deloitte’s National Telecommunications Practice, concerning the rising want for extra spectrum to be made accessible to home operators in order to preserve a high-level of service high quality, in addition to to preserve the nation’s place as a world chief in wi-fi broadband communication providers and innovation. Thompson famous that the federal authorities was falling behind in liberating up much-needed spectrum belongings, noting the present shortfall in releasing the five hundred megahertz of spectrum pledged as a part of the National Broadband Plan. Thompson defined that not solely was this spectrum mandatory to bolster service ranges of cellular broadband networks, however that the United States’ long-standing place as a pacesetter in the area was in jeopardy. Some of that concern may very well be alleviated by way of upcoming spectrum auctions, together with the AWS-3 auction set for later this 12 months and the 600 MHz incentive auction set for mid-2015, however these efforts are anticipated to solely meet present wants and never put together the marketplace for future demand. … Read more

Small Cell Forum tackles NFV

The virtualization motion continues to achieve steam because the cellular area seems for tactics to enhance effectivity whereas decreasing prices. The newest push comes from the Small Cell Forum, which introduced plans to handle community operate virtualization as a part of its on-going “launch program.” The commerce group mentioned the brand new initiative will “consider virtualization choices to perceive the optimum method to apply to the small cell layer.” “Operators want to perceive how small cells match into the cloud-[radio access network]story,” defined Sue Monahan, CEO of the Small Cell Forum. “We consider there will probably be higher [return on investment]if operators can plan virtualization throughout the complete [heterogeneous network], together with small cells, somewhat than as a separate train. This work stream will think about the impression of such an method on the whole lot from community structure to the enterprise case. We at the moment are inviting discussion board members and the broader trade to get behind this initiative and assist form the way forward for cellular networks by way of our launch work.” As a part of its initiative, the Small Cell Forum launched a slideshow providing up its plans for NFV in regards to the small cell atmosphere. The data offered was gleaned from a gathering of discussion board members at a current occasion, and contains perception into the enterprise case, entrance haul issues and backhaul potentialities. A recent report from Maravedis-Rethink predicts almost three-fourth of cellular operators will deploy some type of community features virtualization by 2018 … Read more

The FCC’s $100 million rural broadband ‘experiment’

The Federal Communications Commission has introduced plans for an “experiment” designed to develop broadband providers into rural communities. The program is about to tie in with the FCC’s Connect America Fund, with up to $100 million being put aside to fund the experiment. That funding will probably be separated into three teams, with $75 million put aside to check building of networks providing obtain speeds of 25 megabits per second and uplink speeds of 5 Mbps; $15 million used to “check curiosity in delivering service” in high-cost areas at speeds of 10 Mbps on the downlink and 1 Mbps on the uplink; and $10 million earmarked for those self same community speeds “in areas which can be extraordinarily expensive to serve.” Those trying to faucet into the funding will compete nationwide in a aggressive bidding course of, with the cash doled out to “tasks which can be most price efficient.” Eligible applied sciences will embody fiber and wi-fi, with bidding open to “non-traditional suppliers, together with electrical utilities, wi-fi Internet service suppliers and others.” The FCC added that challenge sizes will probably be capped in order to present sufficient funding for numerous tasks and that entities serving Tribal lands can be eligible for a 25% bidding credit score. The FCC earlier this 12 months gained a court victory in help of its Universal Service Fund reform efforts, with a federal appeals courtroom upholding the company’s Connect America program that’s designed to subsidize rural broadband providers. … Read more

Dish units its sights on spectrum auctions

Dish Network said it plans to participate in the upcoming AWS-3 and 600 MHz incentive public sale, in accordance to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC plans to conduct the AWS-3 auction, which is able to embody 65 megahertz of each licensed and unlicensed spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, later this 12 months. The extra complicated incentive auction is presently scheduled to start in mid-2015. The firm, which doesn’t presently provide wi-fi communication providers, not too long ago bolstered its spectrum portfolio by acquiring all of the H-Block licenses up for bid in the federal government’s current spectrum public sale. Dish now controls spectrum across the 2 GHz band in addition to a smaller slice of spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Dish has been rumored to be in talks with a number of wireless operators concerning network sharing arrangements that will enable Dish to make the most of its spectrum holdings with out having to spend the billions of {dollars} mandatory to construct out its personal community. … Read more

Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for extra tales from the previous.

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