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• 5G networks still to reach market penetration tipping point finds Omdia research
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  Only 14% of 5G networks have reached 10% subscriber penetration according to the latest Omdia research. While 147 operators had launched 5G by the end of June 2021, the data shows that only 14% (21 operators) have reached 10% subscriber penetration on their network.

  Omdia analysts have found that 10% in-network penetration is a key milestone for 5G as this is the point at which 5G appears to begin to have a positive impact on mobile revenues.

  Data from leading 5G market South Korea shows a clear revenue uplift post-5G launch once market penetration passed 10% a year ago. In China, 5G subscriptions nearly doubled in the first half of 2021 to reach 318 million in June, which is equivalent to 11% of total mobile connections. Meanwhile, mobile services revenues grew 4.7% and 3.7% year on year in Q1 and Q2 – a level that hasn’t been seen since early 2018.

  “We can only speculate about the impact of 5G on service providers until the technology reaches a certain critical mass beyond early adopters. Only South Korea has reached this point and the story there is a positive one,” said Omdia senior research director Ronan De Renesse. “Another 24 markets are due to reach 10% 5G population penetration by the end of 2021, 37 in 2022 and over 100 in 2026.”

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  Chinese, Korean, Japanese and US operators commanded over 93% of the global 5G market in Q2 2021. Among the more than 400 million subscriptions globally, 82% are in Asia, of which 87% are in China. Markets outside Asia with more than 5% population penetration include the US, Finland and Ireland.

  According to Omdia’s market predictions, markets on average are expected to see a 5% data ARPU (average revenue per user) uplift from two years onwards post 5G launch. However, there is no direct correlation as markets are affected by other factors such as macroeconomic dynamics, COVID recovery, local market competition and regulation.

  Adversely, Omdia expects mature markets to see less growth in percentage terms than others because growth coming from digital services inclusion in developing and emerging markets will dwarf the effects of 5G. For example, while 5G may command a 10% increase in ARPU, a first-time smartphone user in Africa may double their mobile bill.

  “5G is still in its infancy and we have yet to see its full potential from a technology and commercial perspective,” continued De Renesse. “Similar to 4G when it launched, 5G adoption is mostly supply-led which means that demand for 5G needs to be created by the industry. Operators in China and South Korea have shown that if you put 5G in the hands of consumers then revenues are likely to follow.”

  In Australia, as reported by the ACCC, we have seen all three mobile carriers lift mobile service prices.  Perhaps not because TPG and VHA were allowed to merge, or that consumers are willing to pay more for 5G, but because mobile operators need to lift margins in order to release capital to invest in 5G spectrum and networks.

  This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 22 October 2021.
• Leading ed-tech as a service provider Tribal celebrates partnership with Māori Education Trust, New Zealand
  in Education
  By Tribal Group

  COMPANY NEWS: Tribal, a leading provider of ed-tech solutions globally, has announced its partnership with the Māori Education Trust, New Zealand, and is proud to be supporting the trust through the Tribal Education Scholarship.

  Based in Wellington, Toitū Kaupapa Māori Mātauranga (The Maori Education Trust) aims to encourage Māori into secondary and tertiary education by providing financial assistance through its scholarship programme. Its scholarships and grants are derived funds raised and subsidised by the New Zealand Government.

  The Tribal Education Scholarship will be offered to a student for either secondary, undergraduate, or postgraduate education. The successful recipient will also be able to engage in an internship programme with the support from both Tribal and The Maori Education Trust.

  Tribal, a leader in education technology solutions and services empower the world of education and works with over 500 institutions globally. In New Zealand, its customers include The Tertiary Education Commission, The Ministry of Education, Te Pūkenga subsidiaries, Wānanga, universities, English language providers and private training establishments.

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  Tribal's New Zealand general manager Steve Exley says, "We are thrilled to be partnering with the Māori Education Trust. Tribal believes that everyone should have access to a great quality education and we are really proud to announce the Tribal Education Scholarship. We look forward to announcing the first recipient in 2022 and will be wishing them the very best as they continue their learning journey."

  Tribal will also support the Māori Education Trust by overhauling its scholarship application process. Tribal will implement its market-leading student management system ebs, and ontrack staff and student portals to completely digitise the application process. The solution will also include a workflow engine to assist with scholarship recipient selection which has previously been a manual, paper-based process for the Trust handling over 2000 applications annually. It will vastly improve processes for the trust and provide the organisation with more time to focus on securing and providing funding for Māori Education.

  Māori Education Trust general manager John Cribb says "the software package is long overdue. Several new partners are currently engaging with the trust which will increase the number of scholarships and Tribal's solution will allow for less administration time and give students an easier application process online."

  The Māori Education Trust aims to have its new software in place when they open their scholarship applications in December. The next stage of their online application service will include a portal to handle applications online for each of their partners.

  About the Māori Education Trust

  In 1961 the Māori Education Foundation was established under the Māori Education Foundation Act 1961. Its basic objective was to encourage Māori into tertiary education, and this was achieved through the payment of grants and scholarships. These were derived from public raised funds and private bequests which were subsidised by Government. In 1993 the Māori Education Foundation Act 1961 was superseded by the Māori Education Trust Deed and the Māori Education Trust came into being. Toitū Kaupapa Māori Mātauranga is the Māori name for the Māori Education Trust.

  About Tribal Group

  Tribal Group is a pioneering world-leader of education software and services. Its portfolio includes Student Information Systems; a broad range of education services covering quality assurance, peer review, benchmarking and improvement; and student surveys. Working with higher education, further and tertiary education, schools, government and state bodies, training providers and employers, in over 55 countries; Tribal Group's mission is to empower the world of education with products and services that underpin student success. Visit www.tribalgroup.com @tribalgroup.
• Samsung and Virgin Media O2 ready to roll up sleeves for 4G & 5G trials
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  Samsung Electronics announced that the company will conduct 4G and 5G trials with Virgin Media O2. During the trials, the two companies will verify the capability and performance of Samsung’s 4G and 5G network solutions in Virgin Media O2’s commercial network. The trial will also assess the interoperability between Samsung’s latest solutions and Virgin Media O2’s 2G and 3G legacy networks.

  Virgin Media O2, which launched in June 2021, is a joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica in the U.K. The new business has become one of the U.K.’s largest, with 47 million connections across broadband, mobile, TV and home phone, and offers connectivity services, applications and digital solutions to tens of thousands of U.K. businesses and public sector organisations.

  For the trial, Samsung says it will provide its solutions which include its baseband unit, 5G Massive MIMO radios, as well as 4G radios on both low-band and mid-band spectrums, while being Open RAN compliant with some configuration changes and additional support in the future.

  The company said its latest baseband unit offers improved performance with industry leading capacity and throughput, while supporting both 4G and 5G technologies in a single unit. Moreover, Samsung’s 5G Massive MIMO radios have a slim and lightweight design, which ensures easy and quick installation for operators, as well as increased coverage and data speeds for driving enhanced 5G end-user experiences.

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  “With this trial, we are excited to join hands with Virgin Media O2 to demonstrate the readiness of our 5G network solutions for deployment in the U.K. and our capabilities in bringing immersive and reliable 4G and 5G mobile experiences to users,” said Samsung Electronics executive vice president head of global sales & marketing networks business Woojune Kim.

  “At Samsung, we are continuously enhancing mobile experiences through powerful network solutions that advance and drive 5G to new levels.”

  “Vendor diversity is crucial to developing safe, secure, and more efficient networks,” said Virgin Media O2 chief technology officer Jeanie York. “We look forward to undertaking these initial trials with Samsung, which is another milestone in our continued journey to provide the best possible 5G experience for our customers, as well as boosting our 4G network, as we look to upgrade the U.K.”

  Julia Lopez, Minister for Media Data and Digital Infrastructure said: “We’re investing £250 million to put the UK at the forefront of 5G innovation so more people and businesses can benefit from improved and secure connectivity. It is fantastic to see industry supporting this push with Virgin Media O2 and Samsung working together to increase competition, resilience and choice in the 5G supply market."

  Samsung Networks says it has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualised RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools.

  This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 21 October 2021.
• Qualcomm announces new RF filter technology to enable next generation 5G and Wi-Fi solutions
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  Qualcomm ultraBAW filter technology extends radio-frequency portfolio for 5G and Wi-Fi Segments up to 7 GHz.

  Qualcomm Technologies announced the Qualcomm® ultraBAW RF filter technology for bands up to 7 GHz, another innovation that builds on the company’s modem-to-antenna solution that is driving high-performance 5G and connectivity systems across wireless product segments.

  Radio frequency (RF) filters isolate radio signals from the different spectrum bands that phones use to receive and transmit information. The new Qualcomm ultraBAW RF filter technology will enable both 5G and Wi-Fi solutions to access spectrum up to 7 GHz, delivering high performance at higher frequencies. Access to sub-7 GHz spectrum will enable next-generation mobile devices, laptops, as well as numerous solutions for Automotive, IoT, and industrial applications to benefit from 5G and Wi-Fi co-existence, leading to enhanced performance and power efficiency indoors and outdoors, the company says.

  Qualcomm says its new ultraBAW RF filter extends and expands the leading edge performance of our previously announced Qualcomm® ultraSAW technology. While Qualcomm ultraSAW covers low-band frequencies from 600 MHz to 2.7 GHz, the Qualcomm ultraBAW covers the range from 2.7 to 7.2 GHz, expanding mid-band connectivity up to sub-7 GHz. Qualcomm ultraBAW also supports ultra-wide channels of up to 300 MHz, and co-existence for 5G and/or Wi-Fi networks, enabling faster downloads and uploads.

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  By increasing frequency support from 2.7GHz to 7.2GHz, Qualcomm ultraBAW now provides support for critical Wi-Fi bands including 5 GHz and the newly adopted 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi 6E and future Wi-Fi standards. Devices with Qualcomm ultraBAW technology will be able to enjoy enhanced transmission rates and location services, among other benefits.

  Qualcomm added that it is using thin-film piezo material micro-acoustic technology, Qualcomm ultraBAW filters combine a small footprint with innovative thermal module technology improvements for high power efficiency and long battery life.

  Additionally, as the latest addition to Qualcomm Technologies’ industry-leading suite of modem-to-antenna solutions, Qualcomm ultraBAW will allow OEMs to bring high-performance 5G and Wi-Fi to multiple product verticals including mobile, automotive, laptops, tablets, customer premises equipment (CPE), small cells, fixed wireless access (FWA), and IoT, Qualcomm continued.

  “Our new generation RF filter solutions are crucial in the expansion of 5G beyond mobile. We’ve seen tremendous success with our Qualcomm ultraSAW technology for sub-3 GHz, and now with Qualcomm ultraBAW we’re able to offer superior performance up to 7 GHz,” says QUALCOMM Germany RFFE GmbH senior vice president and general manager RFFE Christian Block.

  “Qualcomm Technologies is working with industry-leading OEMs to develop the next generation of connected devices, allowing consumers to seamlessly enjoy peak performance from 5G NR and Wi-Fi networks, wherever they’re streaming videos, downloading files, or enjoying extended reality experiences.”

  The company said that products enabled with Qualcomm ultraBAW filter technology are currently sampling to customers. Commercial devices featuring the technology are expected to launch in the second half of 2022.

  This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 21 October 2021.
• What exactly is 5G security and why is it essential?
  in Guest Opinion
  By George Tsoukas, Gigamon

  GUEST OPINION by George Tsoukas, ANZ Manager, Gigamon: New technology always brings a host of worries about its negative potential, and 5G is no different. Although there are many legitimate 5G security concerns to address and discuss, it’s worth first clarifying the false claim that 5G causes health problems.

  It doesn’t — 5G technology is not harmful to humans. With that out of the way, we’ll discuss what 5G is, what security risks it faces, and how experts are working to ensure 5G security.

  What Is 5G? The term 5G stands for the fifth generation of cellular mobile network. In terms of architecture and protocols, the 5G radio access network (RAN) and 5G core are quite different from 4G LTE. The 5G RAN uses new radio frequency (RF) protocols, offers broader and higher frequency band spectrum, and has an open distributed architecture.

  The 5G core differences include SDN with control and user-plane separation (CUPS); disaggregation offering many more discrete control and orchestration functions, virtualisation, and microservices (that is, containers); HTTP/2 (not GTP-C) control plane; TLS 1.3 encrypted control plane; and multi-access edge compute (MEC).

  These all represent significant changes, and while in some cases they look to help with security, in other cases they open up a potential for more vulnerabilities and even lack of visibility. The new 5G core is required to help fulfill the expectations that 5G promises; the high-band spectrum alone is not sufficient to fulfill this.

  5G is expected to be roughly 100 times faster than the current 4G network, in part because the networks are built on a high-band spectrum, rather than mid-band. This speed boost will bring upgrades to everything from cloud robotics to healthcare.

  One major downside of this lower latency network, however, is the range and penetration. The lower power and higher frequency signals don’t travel as far and have a harder time getting through walls, which is why it might take a little longer for 5G to become a standard feature of most mobile device services.

  There is a major advantage to this high-band adoption lag, though: experts have more time to find solutions to 5G security concerns.

  Many of the things that make 5G so appealing, like the decreased latency and increased bandwidth, are also threats to security. Security threats include:

  # New technology – New advances in technology often mean new problems. And given that 5G is not only new but also very different from 4G, this means that while experts can predict some security weaknesses, others may not become apparent until a breach has already occurred.

  # Increased points of access – 5G allows for more access points. Every additional hardware point of contact creates another potential opening for attackers to access the network. That means all access points will need to be monitored on a physical and digital level.

  # Internet of Things (IoT) – The speed of 5G lends itself well to use with IoT devices. That said, an increase in connected machines can also mean an increase in 5G security risks. Smaller IoT devices like thermostats often have weaker security, and a breach in one of these devices can mean the entire system is compromised.

  # Speed – 5G is fast enough to be considered for use in remote surgery and self-driving cars, but that also means it could be harder to track and prevent attacks. At the same time, this critical and sensitive data transmission will require even higher levels of security to prevent breakage in communication, malicious behaviour or snooping/stealing information.

  # Disaggregated architecture – As mentioned, 5G’s disaggregated architecture means that network functions are able to operate freely from the underlying system hardware, allowing for improved control and visualisation. However, the downside is that rather than relying on a single, overarching security approach, each of these components will need to have its own security measures ‘baked in’.

  Of course, these are just some of the risks to 5G security. Keeping services and connected devices secure is rarely, if ever, a 100 percent guarantee.

  Solutions for 5G security

  Although the 5G network poses new and unique threats, there are already ways to help ensure better 5G security:

  # Increased defence for individual mobile and IoT devices

  # Zero Trust combined with a foundation of software security

  # End-to-end visibility

  # Threat analytics

  For optimal 5G security, networks should be treated as a Zero-Trust environment, where it cannot be taken for granted that connected devices will have sufficient security or vulnerability protection. So the first step should be ensuring adequate visibility across the network with appropriate security monitoring, threat detection, and mitigation processes in place even before devices are connected to the 5G network.

  Keeping 5G networks secure will be a group effort, involving network providers, cyber security experts, and customers themselves. As a second line of defence in conjunction with Zero Trust, a foundation of software security for mobile and IoT devices will need to be developed in tandem with network providers and cybersecurity firms.

  Even innocuous IoT devices like smart fridges should be equipped with high-level security. What’s more, precautions should be in place to ensure a breach in lesser IoT machines won’t lead to unauthorised access of sensitive information.

  Next, end-to-end visibility is vital for monitoring any system, but it’s especially necessary in 5G security, where there are so many points of access for malicious actors to target.

  This monitoring should extend across all layers of the network, including the physical network cells and data planes. Effective monitoring will also provide vital information for understanding new attacks. Combined with mitigation procedures, this will provide a more effective defence against potential incursions.

  Threat analytics is a useful way to track and even predict attacks. Ideally, these analytics systems would be able to enact preventative measures to stop a breach from occurring. These programs offer vital information in the ongoing process of defending devices on a 5G network.