It is not too hard to find critics who say 6G being overhyped, as was 5G. Though true, such criticism also is largely irrelevant. On either fixed or mobile networks, we see major upgrades of capacity at least every decade. For mobile operators, that coincides with the launch of a [...]

Can mobile service providers become “platforms?” Can they change their revenue models to move beyond connectivity and subscriptions? That question often is in the background of all efforts to “move up the value chain,” enter new parts of the internet ecosystem, radically change [...]

At the moment, 5G fixed wireless is the clear contributor to new revenue sources earned by 5G networks. No other use case has produced the volume of new revenue.  Revenues from 5G fixed wireless, in the near term, will dwarf internet of things, private networks, network slicing  and edge [...]

I learned early in my career making forecasts that it is better to conservative in the early going. Consider that an application of the maxim that humans tend to overestimate near-term impact of any technology and underestimate the long-term impact. “We tend to overestimate the effect of a [...]

Charlie Ergen, Dish chairman, always has believed that spectrum has business value, and should be acquired whenever possible, even if his firm had no immediate way to monetize it, and even when nobody is quite sure how monetization would happen. Many observers over the decades have quipped that [...]

Vodafone is not the first, nor will it be the last mobile operator to conclude that full ownership of tower assets is no longer a necessity. In fact, mobile operators have reached that same conclusion for a decade or more, spinning out tower assets to raise cash for other purposes such as debt [...]

iberty Global is looking at selling its Belgian tower network. Separately, Liberty and Telefonica are investigating selling  U.K. towers as well. Both deals illustrate the changing value of asset infrastructure in the mobility business. Where once tower ownership was considered essential, it [...]

Liberty Global is looking at selling its Belgian tower network. Separately, Liberty and Telefonica are investigating selling  U.K. towers as well. Both deals illustrate the changing value of asset infrastructure in the mobility business. Where once tower ownership was considered essential, it [...]

Though mobile operators might not like the frank answer to the question “where is the 5G revenue?,” the answer, for the most part, right now, is “right where it already is.” Which is simply to say that the bulk of “5G” revenue, with one exception, comes from existing or new customers switching [...]

Sometimes big problems get solved and we hardly recognize that has happened. Consider the problem of providing voice communications to all the people of the planet. Fifty years ago, that was a big problem, as “half the world’s people had never made a phone call.”  These days, the availability [...]

It is surprising how many times one hears or reads that 5G has failed. It is an odd argument since 5G still is not deployed in most places, though it will be. Such assessments are partly ahistorical.  No new mobile or fixed network, in any country of sufficient size, can be built fast (within a [...]

Some observers note that 5G demand at present is lower in Europe than in China or the United States. Ookla notes that uptake is driven by network coverage, device availability and use cases.  Some of us might add “consumer demand” to that list, as there is evidence European consumers valued 4G [...]