550mn users to be connected to 5G networks by 2022: Ericsson Mobility Report

By tech2 News Staff /  25 Nov 2016 , 18:06

Ericsson has released a new Ericsson Mobility Report forecasting the trends in telecom sector across the world. According to the report, there are two major trends that the networking giant can foresee. The first, obvious trend is the rise of 5G networks and consumers subscribing to the network. The second one being rise in mobile broadband to 6.1 bn unique subscribers by 2022.

The report points out that approximately half billion users will be connected to 5G networks by 2022 with almost quarter of all the mobile subscriptions opting for 5G connectivity.

Nearly 25 percent of all the 5G subscriptions in 2022 will come from North America, with the exact figure reaching 550 million. Asia Pacific will closely follow North America regarding the fastest growth of 5G subscribers with about 10 percent of the share. The Middle East and Africa will shift from predominantly GSM/EDGE only to approximately 80 percent of users being connected to WCDMA/HSPA and LTE. The report further points out that the mobile subscriber base is estimated to scale 6.8 billion with over 95 percent people being connected to 4G or 5G networks.

Ulf Ewaldsson, chief strategy and technology officer, Ericsson added, “Almost 90 percent of smartphone subscriptions are on 3G and 4G networks today and standardised 5G networks are expected to be available in 2020.” He further added that 5G would help Automation, IoT and big data.

The second major point discussed in the report was the rise of mobile broadband with approximately 6.1 billion unique subscribers by 2022. To set the context, the world added 84 million new mobile subscriptions during the third quarter of 2016 with India leading regarding net additions with 15 million, with China closely following with 14 million new mobile subscribers.

Ericsson also points out that the mobile video traffic will grow 50 percent every year through 2022, accounting for about 75 percent of all the mobile data traffic. Social Media traffic will be the second type of traffic that will dominate the mobile traffic growing 39 percent each year.

Currently, consumers are focusing on the live streaming aspect along with social networks to interact with friends, family and customers. Two in every five smartphone users are interested in live streaming apps in India and other high-growth countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Oman with the figure dropping to one in every five smartphone users in the United States of America.

Along with 5G and Mobile Broadband, IoT will also see significant growth, with approximately 29 billion devices connected to the internet, out of which 18 billion of the devices relating to IoT.

Ericsson keen to grow partnership with Cisco to combat weaker growth over next two years

Image Credits: REUTERS

  11 Nov 2016 , 09:21

Struggling telecoms equipment maker Ericsson is looking to expand the scope of its partnership with Cisco as it hunts for ways to offset weaker growth for the industry over the next two years. Ericsson shares, which have slumped 44 percent this year, rose 3.7 percent on Thursday after the Swedish firm gave a new outlook that was less bearish than some analysts had expected and said its Cisco partnership was gaining momentum.

Nonetheless, Ericsson’s acting CEO told investors in New York he was not satisfied with the company’s performance. “We have a tough market situation out there,” Jan Frykhammar said, pointing to weakness in emerging markets where its best hopes for more 4G mobile network upgrade contracts are located, as well as slower mobile network demand in Europe.

“We understand that we need to perform better but you also as investors need to give us some time,” Frykhammar said. The company is wrestling with a drop in spending by telecoms firms, with volume demand for next-generation, 5G technology still years away and amid stiff competition from China’s Huawei and Finland’s Nokia.

Ericsson said negative industry trends from the first half of 2016, when demand weakened for mobile broadband equipment across the industry, were expected to prevail for at least the next two or three quarters. It expects average annual growth of 1 percent to 3 percent from 2016 to 2018 for areas of the market where its provides products and services. In its previous market forecast, issued a year ago, Ericsson predicted 2 percent to 4 percent total market growth each year from 2014 to 2018.

“Ericsson is perhaps a bit more optimistic about 2017 and 2018 than the market,” Redeye analyst Greger Johansson said. Ericsson said its Cisco partnership, which was announced a year ago, got off to a slow start but was gaining traction with more than 60 joint customers and scope to collaborate in areas such as data centres, WiFi, security and the Internet of Things.

“The opportunities go beyond where we originally had been focusing, which is the core and IP networks,” said Rima Qureshi, Ericsson’s chief in North America. “As a consequence, we’re looking at expanding the scope.”

Hard Times

Ericsson has had a brutal year. Former CEO Hans Vestberg was ousted in July and the company shocked investors last month when it warned of a 93 percent plunge in operating profit for the third quarter and tumbling sales. The firm has been slashing jobs and last month appointed veteran board member Borje Ekholm to take over as CEO in January and steer the firm through its worst crisis in a decade.

It said on Thursday that its results would be weighed down by a 10 percent to 15 percent fall in the global mobile infrastructure market this year and a 2 percent to 6 percent decline in 2017.

That puts Ericsson roughly in line with Nokia, which warned last month its addressable market for mobile network equipment would likely decline by low single digits in 2017, after it announced a drop third-quarter sales.

Shares in Nokia rose 2 percent on Thursday and network equipment makers were among the top performers on the STOXX European tech index, which was down 0.9 percent overall. Still, Ericsson is more dependent on mobile broadband demand than its main rivals, as the Alcatel-Lucent merger gave Nokia a larger fixed-line networks business while Huawei has a broader telecom offering than Ericsson.

For its mainstay networks business which generates 75 percent of group sales, Ericsson cut its growth outlook, forecasting its market would be flat or shrink by as much as 2 percent between 2016 and 2018. Its new IT & Cloud division is expected to grow 5 percent to 7 percent in the same period and generate 20 percent of net sales.

Reuters

TRAI fines Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for denial of interconnection to Jio

  22 Oct 2016 , 11:09

The Indian telecom regulator on Friday slapped heavy penalties on three telecom players — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular — for not providing sufficient points of interconnections (PoI) to Reliance Jio.

It also said the action of the three operators showed “ulterior motive to stifle competition”.

In three similar letters to the three players, the watchdog — Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) — said it has recommended a penal action of Rs 50 crore per licence service area (LSA) (except Jammu & Kashmir) where PoI congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 per cent as reported by Airtel/Vodafone/Idea Cellular through emails in September 23.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1050 crore each while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for

Etisalat Misr, Vodafone Egypt sign 4G license deals in Egypt

(Reporting by Ora Noureldin; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Mark Potter)

The building of Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications Co is seen at the Smart Village in the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, October 27, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

CAIRO (Reuters) - Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr have signed license deals allowing them to operate fourth-generation (4G) mobile services in Egypt, the country's telecoms regulator said on Sunday.

Egypt is selling four 4G licenses as part of a long-awaited plan to reform the telecoms sector and to raise money for stretched government finances.

The country's three existing mobile phone operators - Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat - initially all turned down the 4G licenses saying the amount of spectrum on offer was not sufficient to allow them to offer the service efficiently.

The regulator then announced that operators that paid for a license entirely in dollars would be given priority in buying additional spectrum. U.S. dollars are scarce in Egypt due to a long-running economic crisis.

Orange was first to sign the deal last week, paying $484 million for the license. Vodafone Egypt agreed to pay $335 million in a deal signed late on Saturday, the regulator said.

Etisalat Misr, the Egyptian unit of Etisalat, also signed a deal late on Saturday, and will pay $535.5 million. An official from Etisalat Misr said his firm would also receive 10 Megahertz of additional spectrum after the deal.

Both Etisalat Misr and Vodafone also agreed on fixed line phone service licenses for $11.26 million each, the regulator said.

Telecom Egypt, the state's fixed-line monopoly, was the only company to take up the original offer, buying a 4G license in August for 7.08 billion Egyptian pounds ($797 million) to enter the mobile market directly for the first time.