How have mobile phone networks dealt with the demands of the current Covid-19 crisis? Traffic patterns, locations and demands have all changed radically. On the whole, they’ve held up pretty well but there have been a few surprises. Additional insights have been made available about population movement levels, but one area of operations has been severely affected. 

Rural areas will benefit from £30 million of new UK Government funding announced recently. Under the guise of encouraging 5G, specific research and development projects have been given the stimulus to trial and evaluate small cell deployments which offer the potential to address the problem of poor rural coverage with the latest technology. Several UK and US companies are involved.

Last week, the FCC formally authorized CBRS for nationwide commercial deployment, opening the doors for a potentially huge new area of wireless service. I spoke with Dave Wright, President of the CBRS Alliance, and Iyad Tarazi, President and CEO Federated Wireless, for inside information about the launch and what we can expect to see in the year ahead.

Cambridge Wireless hold an annual event looking forward at wireless technology. This year focussed on three specific topics that are most likely to impact the industry over the coming 3-5 years. Speakers from operators, vendors and researchers outlined their vision for the future.

After much-longer-than-hoped-for delays, CBRS was granted Initial Commercial Deployment approval by the FCC, NTIA and DoD this week. It’s a major step forward for small cells and for independent cellular adoption as a whole. A market leading first for the USA. We consider what this now allows, what’s still to come and implications for the wider marketplace.

With commercial 5G launches just starting in Europe, this London event provided good focus on the industry state of play. High level speakers from US and Asia helped set the context, supplemented by well known industry analysts. This wasn’t purely about 5G basestation equipment, with exhibitors offering a wide range of services from planning to testing to applications. A celebration of what 5G technology can achieve for sure, highlighting the need for more small cells if true saturated coverage is to be achieved yet still lacking in credible 5G business cases.

While much industry attention is focussed on 5G, we take another quick progress check on CBRS, the pioneering cellular project soon to launch across the USA. We spoke with Iyad Tarazi, President and CEO of Federated Wireless who shares his insights on current progress and several exciting recent developments.

As we approach the holiday season, it’s once again time for me (and other analysts) to reflect back on the year gone by, revisit our predictions and make some new ones for the year ahead. CBRS has progressed but will not be commercially deployed until early 2019, still holding much promise. Open Source projects like TIP seem to be gaining momentum, but it remains to be seen if there were be a large breakthrough. Mainstream media continue to hype 5G. Political decisions could affect the market share of major RAN vendors. Business and regulatory issues will set the pace for next year rather than technology development alone.