Horizontal telco APIs really won’t move the needle, even in AI
An analyst company we normally have a lot of time for, GlobalData, recently told the market that telcos are becoming part of an expanding cloud ecosystem for enterprise digital transformations, and that, “Enterprises are witnessing an expanding cloud ecosystem, which is beginning to include telecoms and networking providers looking to support API services, container integration/consulting, and AI network integrations.”
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5G private network UK use cases still coming. Which is very welcome, but why can’t we have more?
In 2022, RCR Wireless News published a list of four UK private 5G pilots. Last month, it revisited the idea and produced an updated version that shows what it says are the most notable private (4G and) 5G deployments in the UK.
If 5G SA network slicing helps me get my pint and packet of scratchings quicker—the more the merrier, please
Recently, we were rather mean about our friends over at BT Group. That’s because we’re passionate about this industry and what it can achieve—which is why we’re always happy to redress the balance and so call out what seems to be a truly outstanding pilot that’s turned into something real and useful from the same company: the first real-world deployment of 5G Standalone (5G SA) network slicing capabilities over the EE mobile network.
BT cab crash! Super-promising recycling and EV idea turns out to be not worth the pixels it was printed on
Last Summer, we welcomed what seemed like genuinely innovative and pragmatic plans by BT Group to convert no-longer-needed street cabinets into electric vehicle (EV) charging points; at the time, the company said it could see up to 60,000 of these redundant pieces of street furniture being given a useful second life plugging at least some of the many holes in our planned national EV grid (and which is still very patchy; the Government says it wants x by y, but as of end of last year we had 73,699 electric vehicle charging points across the UK, across 37,011 charging locations and 108,410 connectors; the CMA says we’ll need more like 280,000-480,000 by 2030 to support the growing EV market).
Full universal, high-speed broadband access from the sky? Love it. But first, let’s see the plan for it not just being yet another demonstration of a ‘potential solution’
At RMA, when it comes to delivering actual full universal high-speed broadband access, we love innovation—so when we see news of how the UK government is evaluating bold new ways to close the rural connectivity gap, we can’t help but get excited.
6G Madness, 2: Is there a glimmer of 6G reality out there?
In the first of this two-parter looking ahead to 6G, we said that we were concerned about hype and what seemed very unrealistic proposals in the spec that seemed designed to be there to please everyone, and so could end up pleasing no-one (“While it pains us to say it—we’re beginning to wonder if what we’re telling the world 6G will deliver might not end up being our next case of ambition slamming hard into fiscal and real-world reality”).
6G Madness, 1: The 6G hype is promising us Paradise. Not only does Life not work like that, the craziness could also hurt us all.
It’s 1969. Man was on the Moon, and the US has won the Space Race. Richard Nixon has just been elected as the first Republican President for a decade; in the Oval Office, between folders about the parlous state of the US economy and the Vietnam War, he finds plans on his desk for next steps in America’s manned spaceflight drawn up by the colourful driving spirit of NASA, Wernher von Braun.
Mobile industry, you’ve now researched, piloted and trialled the life out of Smart Cities. Either build them, or give up
Here’s some profound wisdom. “One of the challenges [with Smart Cities] is how to maintain the new technology platforms and results from projects. In quite many cases, the development of platforms and services will end when the project funding ends. Thus, it is essential that the business model (including also the exit strategy) for how the platform (or trial) is developed and maintained after the initial funding ends is necessary[1].”
Is there any real point to multiple tiny ORAN R&D projects?
In September 2023, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published a list of all the ‘Open Systems Ecosystem’ project funding winners on the homepage of the UK Government, GOV.UK.
The promise of Agri AI transformation can’t be unhitched from the need for hedgerow-level connectivity
There’s a famous joke from the Monty Python’s Flying Circus absurdist comedy canon in the form of an algorithm (which is, after all, what any recipe is) for making Rat Pie: 1 Catch Your Rat, 2 Make The Pie, 3 Enjoy The Pie—the joke being, stages 1 and 2 don’t really give us enough detail on how to actually complete the steps.
