Telefonica has continued its 5G innovation drive by partnering with ZTE for another research and development project.While yesterday’s announcement saw the Spanish telco join forces with Huawei over RAN-based R&D; today’s partnership agreement with rival Chinese kit vendor ZTE was more vague on the objectives and details. ZTE referred to the deal as a move which will facilitate the move from 4G to 5G, with its ambition being to create a “virtuous circle of innovation”. It says the agreement will enable more opportunities for cooperation across different industries focusing on very current technologies like IoT, network virtualization and cloud.
All posts tagged: Telefonica
Telefonica, Qualcomm Launch Mobile for Change Apps Contest
Telefonica’s learning unit, Telefonica Digital Education, has joined forces with Qualcomm Incorporated and UNESCO to launch an international competition for mobile apps that, in the words of the organisers, “contribute to the improvement of our surroundings and society”. Participants can submit mobile apps related to education, entrepreneurship, healthy lifestyles, art, creativity, environmental sustainability, public safety, social inclusion and the empowerment of women. However, all apps must be created using the AllJoyn open source software project of the AllSeen Alliance, the Qualcomm platform Vuforia and applications based on App Inventor, a development environment for Android devices.
Participants are encouraged to acquire the necessary skills through free online courses (MOOCS) available on the Myriad X platform, including “Development of Augmented Reality and P2P applications” and “Entrepreneurship and App Inventor”. The idea of the initiative is to provide the opportunity for anyone with an idea and a concern for their environment and society to create an app and promote it in international forums.
The competition has three categories, a general category, in which all of the apps submitted take part, and two special categories, one for apps that are aimed at empowering women, and another for those that have been created by participants aged 18 to 25. There will be nine prize-winners, three from each category, with the first prize in each category consisting of promoting the winner and their app at an international event, including flight, accommodation and EUR 1,500 in spending money. Applicants have until 15 May to register and upload their app at the www.mobile4change.org website.
Ericsson and Telefonica Extend Co-operation for Network Virtualization
Ericsson and Telefonica have announced that they will continue working together to transform the operator’s global networks, extending an agreement originally made in 2013 and executing on the results that it provided.
The focus of the partnership is on network transformation, including finishing an ongoing network virtualization total cost of ownership (TCO) study, and the two companies will also jointly work on an NFV roadmap that will prepare the first migration steps.
These steps include the set-up of a multi-vendor cloud environment to test Ericsson virtualized network functions (VNFs) on top of a cloud infrastructure, including the possibility of using Ericsson VNF Orchestrator.
A key long-term ambition for both companies is also to work together on the operational model definition for virtualization in telecommunications, IT and B2B.
Enrique Blanco, Global CTO Telefonica, says:
“The co-operation that we entered into with Ericsson in 2013 has been very fruitful, and we are excited to continue the great work we have done together and begin to implement some of our findings. At Telefonica, we are convinced that network virtualization will help to improve TCO efficiency and improve our service agility.”
Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO Ericsson, says:
“Ericsson is at the forefront of Cloud and NFV technology, and well-placed to assist a global operator such as Telefonica to deliver on its vision and its targets. The cooperation so far has been superb, with both parties gaining valuable experience and insights, which we will now leverage to deliver superior results.”
Ericsson and Telefonica signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2013 to launch a joint R&D program to explore and understand the challenges and opportunities in network virtualization during the coming decade.
Two areas of particular interest were network functions virtualization (NFV) and service provider software defined networking (SDN). At the center of this initiative is the need to build more flexible and cost-efficient solutions, as well as to enable networks as true platforms for innovation.
Ericsson and Telefonica Extend Network Virtualization Partnership
Swedish vendor Ericsson and Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica have announced that they will continue a partnership aimed at transforming the latter’s global networks, extending an agreement originally reached between the two companies back in 2013. With a view to ‘executing on the results that [the initial deal] provided’, a press release confirming the extended partnership noted that the focus of the partnership is on network transformation, including finishing an ongoing network visualization total cost of ownership (TCO) study. Telefonica and Ericsson will reportedly jointly work on a Network Functions Visualization (NFV) roadmap that will prepare the first migration steps, with steps to include the setting up of a multi-vendor cloud environment to test Ericsson visualized network functions (VNFs) on top of a cloud infrastructure, including the possibility of using Ericsson VNF Orchestrator.
As per the initial memorandum of understanding (MoU) struck in 2013, Telefonica and Ericsson agreed to launch a joint R&D program to explore and understand the challenges and opportunities in network visualization, with a specific areas of interest being NFV and service provider software defined networking (SDN).
Commenting on the updated deal, Enrique Blanco, Global CTO at Telefonica, said:
“The co-operation that we entered into with Ericsson in 2013 has been very fruitful, and we are excited to continue the great work we have done together and begin to implement some of our findings. At Telefonica, we are convinced that network visualization will help to improve TCO efficiency and improve our service agility.”
Small Cells Market Healthy As 2014 Deployments Reach $1.8 Billion
According to ABI Research, outdoor Small Cells sales are expected to show a healthy 2014 growth in equipment revenue at a year on year rate of 33% to $1.8 billion. This growth is the results of efforts made by operators like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Telefonica, Softbank, SK Telecom, and Sprint driving shipments of both outdoor and Metrocell deployments.
“As mobile network operators implement small cell outdoor networks, several success factors emerge as critical for a successful deployment,” says Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research.
We see multiple solutions for backhaul, power, permitting, and siting employed by the operator community throughout the rest of 2014 and which will increase small cell momentum in 2015.”
In 2014, 4G small cells are the fastest growing small cell type in the market driven by venue and dense urban deployments. ABI Research forecasts the number of LTE small cells to grow by 2X in 2014 and by a similar factor each year through 2019 where the value of LTE small cells will reach more than half of a $10 billion equipment market.
The Asia-Pacific region, given its large size and 4G deployments in South Korea and Japan and the start of commercial TD-LTE operations in China and India will grow to represent over 50% of the worldwide small cell equipment market by 2019.