The Future of Transportation: A System of Systems Perspective on the Future of the Car

the future of transportation. What do we mean by that? It is not to say that the car is the future of transportation, rather the future of the car will depend on how the broader transportation system digitally evolves. The digital transformation of transportation infrastructure will have profound influence on how and how quickly the digitalization of the car will play out as will the stitching between the intelligent car and the intelligent infrastructure – 5G connectivity.

Industry Insight: The Impartial Governance of 5G Technology

The spotlight continues to shine more brightly on 5G on the global geopolitical stage as it becomes increasingly apparent to the US and European nations that 5G technological leadership is of strategic economic importance. While the race to deploy 5G networks is a global competition, mobile wireless technologies of today have been a result of cooperation and collaboration across standard setting bodies, operators and technology companies across the globe. 3GPP, the engineering organization that sets the technical specifications that are the basis of mobile wireless technology standards, recently held their election for one of the more prominent of its Technical Specification Groups (TSGs), the RAN TSG. The election happens at time when 5G technology leadership is hotly contested and the merits of technological unity is increasingly challenged geopolitically.

Industry Insight: The CBRS Neutral Host Opportunity

When the FCC held the first auction of CBRS (Citizens Band Radio Service), it raised hopes that novel neutral host models will emerge that improve the economics of indoor cellular networks and bring some of the promise of 5G into venues of all sizes. What is the neutral host opportunity presented by CBRS and what are the economic considerations for the business of establishing and running a neutral host network.

Huawei Annual Report 2020: A Year of Survival

neXt Curve was in Nice, France attending the premier global event for digital transformation in the telecommunications industry held from May 14th through May 16th and hosted by TM Forum.  Leading vendors and operators converged to discuss what it will take help the telecom industry reinvent itself and aid telecom service providers in becoming digital service providers.  Now that 5G has arrived in select markets around the globe, the pressure is on for telecom operators to transform their operating models to capture the value promised by the next generation network.

Tech Insight: Rakuten Communications Platform

In an exclusive one-on-one chat with Rakuten Mobile’s CTO, Tareq Amin, neXt Curve’s Leonard Lee received an update on the state of the much-touted Rakuten Cloud Platform (RCP). RCP was formally launched in October of 2020 with the goal of bringing the open RAN innovations, integrations and the inventions that make up Rakuten Mobile’s cloud-native infrastructure to the rest of the world.

The Essentiality of 5G Invention

As the new Biden Administration settles into the White House and contemplates how to deal with a rising China as it inherits a highly escalated tech war with the second largest economy, the topic of technology leadership has come to the forefront of trade and national security concerns. In particular, 5G is seen as the strategic technology that will be the catalyst for revolutionary economic and societal transformation. But 5G cannot and will not happen without essential mobile wireless technologies. Increasingly, the competitiveness of a nation is deemed to rely on leadership in strategic technologies, namely, 5G.

5G Technology Leadership: Winning in the Global Digital Economy

As the new Biden Administration settles into the White House and contemplates how to deal with a rising China as it inherits a highly escalated tech war with the second largest economy, the topic of technology leadership has come to the forefront of trade and national security concerns. In particular, 5G is seen as the strategic technology that will be the catalyst for revolutionary economic and societal transformation. But 5G cannot and will not happen without essential mobile wireless technologies. Increasingly, the competitiveness of a nation is deemed to rely on leadership in strategic technologies, namely, 5G.

Industry Insight: Will Blacklisting SMIC Slow China’s Advance toward Silicon Self-Reliance and 5G Leadership?

On December 18th, 2020, SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company), China’s largest foundry, was added to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) Entity List. This was not a surprising move by the US Department of Commerce given the increasing stringency and aggressiveness of the Trump Administration’s tech trade policy toward China over the last couple of years, especially with the advent of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Besides, Secretary Wilbur Ross indicated in September that SMIC would likely join Huawei on the BIS’s Entity List. What are the implications on the semiconductor industry and the future of 5G?

Interdigital 6G Summit 2020: Key Takeaways

neXt Curve attended Interdigital’s first 6G Summit that was a two-day exploration of the technologies and the possibilities that will come after 5G. This event was a great opportunity to compare notes with some of the industry thought leaders and inventors who are ideating through the future of communications with the technology horizon research we did for Ofcom in 2019. Will 6G be a revolution on top of an expected revolution or just 5G cans kicked down the road?

Qualcomm Tech Summit 2020: Key Takeaways

neXt Curve attended Qualcomm’s premiere event which typically takes places in Maui, Hawaii. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the event was virtual but we got the scoop on everything to get excited about the newest edition of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform. The new chip set continues to integrate best-in class 5G technologies with powerful mobile compute enhancements that will provide Android smartphone OEMs a wide palette of feature differentiation to pursue in 2021.