As much as mobile service providers “worry” about 5G revenue upside, compared to 4G, that does not seem to be an issue for many larger service providers. The data suggests 5G average revenue per user is exceeding 4G ARPU for many larger mobile operators, ranging from a slight increase in the [...]

Connectivity service providers these days often use words such as “experience” or “personalization” or “seamless integration” or “user defined” or “advanced features” when describing the value of their products. That should not come as a surprise. Most industries and firms try to do the same [...]

If telco executives get their way, 6G will be a software upgrade that does not require replacement of 5G network elements such as radios. In some ways, that will be challenging. “We believe that a software-only upgrade to 6G is the best way to meet the increasing demands of mobile users [...]

Rarely in the networking or computing businesses is there but one solution for any given problem. And that almost certainly applies to 5G network slicing as well. There are many other alternatives offering functionality that is comparable or better, with costs that might also be lower. The [...]

Sometimes what is important about a report or statement is what is not said. In the case of a report discussing European Union region network infrastructure issues, the European Commission did not issue an explicit decision whether a few large app providers (Netflix, Meta, Google) should be [...]

It likely still is too early to know whether explosive revenue growth for mobile and telco connectivity providers will be produced by internet of things use cases. A large part of the issue is that even exponential growth of IoT devices is not the same thing as direct connectivity using mobile [...]

In some ways, it is premature to evaluate the value of 5G, as the networks are still early in deployment (or non-existent) in most countries. Early in 2023, for example, only about 35 percent of humans globally had the option of buying 5G service from at least one mobile service provider. And [...]

As “nobody wants to be known as a telco anymore, so no connectivity provider wants its value proposition to be some version of “we connect you.” Increasingly, we hear calls to rebrand as something else. Just what that something else could be is a matter of significant [...]

Some now wonder why mobile network generations cannot more fully resemble the ways optical fiber transceiver development and Ethernet standards increase capacity over time. As optical transceivers moved through 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps, and Ethernet boosted speeds from 10 Mbps [...]

It is clear why infrastructure suppliers tout all the new features 5G can provide, compared to 4G: it helps such firms sell their products. It also is obvious why mobile operators tout 5G: it helps them convince regulators to commit additional spectrum (capacity) for use by mobile operators. [...]

To some extent, the mobile connectivity industry already is moving towards a “reuse rather than replace” mode for its development of next-generation networks. For example,  6G will build on 5G as 5G was built on 4G. 5G networks were designed to be compatible with 4G core networks, for example. [...]

Revenue growth is arguably the paramount strategic concern for access service providers in developed markets that are virtually completely saturated, meaning almost every person who wants to use mobile devices and networks already is a customer. And in highly-competitive markets, boosting [...]