Cheap computing, storage and communications are basic assumptions upon which products and business models are built these days. Our ability to commercialize millimeter wave spectrum for mass market communications hinges on the cost of signal processing, for example. Before the advent of cheap [...]

The total amount of data consumption of SK Telecom 5G subscribers is about double that of usage by 4G customers, the company says. Consumption reached 62,000 TB on average per month over the past three months (Dec. 2019 ~ Feb. 2020). During the same period, the average monthly data usage of [...]

Mobile service provider revenue growth rates over the past decade have fallen from a range of six to seven percent to less than 1.5 percent, though rates are higher in some countries. That arguably is the single greatest issue mobile operators face, though not for the first time.  source: GSMA [...]

A new study and set of standards from an international body essentially says “5G is safe” in terms of health hazards. In fact, actual transmit levels for 5G are about one percent of the limits now set by the group.  The ICNIRP Guidelines on Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields are for [...]

Time series data is most helpful when trying to assess the underlying major trends in telecommunications. New data from New Zealand’s Commerce Commission simply confirms global trends in developed markets. Not adjusted for inflation, New Zealand connectivity provider revenue has climbed slowly [...]

A study by GSMA Intelligence might be useful, in terms of looking at firm sustainability and competition, after the merger or T-Mobile US and Sprint. A key argument in the debate over the merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint was its impact on competition and consumer welfare (prices being the [...]

As tantalizing as projected productivity advances using 5G and edge computing might be, it is worthwhile to recall that past eras of automation and computerization often have failed to move the needle where it comes to measurable productivity gains.  Nokia points out that the era of applying [...]

Can IoT, Wi-Fi, low power wide area or maybe someday mobile IoT devices operate with such low battery draw that battery life literally can reach a decade? And how can that be done? Perhaps even more futuristically, can IoT devices be designed to operate without any power sources of their own? [...]

No business strategy lasts forever. Five decades ago, profits were driven by long distance calling and the base business was selling monopoly voice to everyone. Sometime in the 1980s the revenue and profit growth shifted from fixed network long distance to mobility. Fixed network operators [...]

It is at present very difficult to determine whether private 5G, operated by enterprises or neutral host providers will, on balance, help or harm mobile service provider revenues. One might use the analogy of Wi-Fi, historically the province of private networks, as an example. It is doubtful if [...]

Way too much is made of near-term potential revenue gains for mobile service providers because of 5G. Keep in mind that nearly every 5G account replaces an existing 4G account. When a 5G account generates more revenue for a mobile service provider, it might sometimes be for a mix of reasons, [...]

One often thinks of satellite communications being most valuable for reaching customers in highly isolated locations where fixed networks are impossible to build or merely too expensive. That often includes wide parts of the developing world. But SpaceX might get an early test of demand for its [...]