Microsoft Working with Samsung and Others on 5G Rollout

U.S. software giant Microsoft has announced plans to collaborate with telecommunications companies on the rollout of 5G networks with a view to making cloud and edge technologies more accessible via Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. In a blog post, Azure executive vice president Jason Zander said Microsoft intends to help operators unlock the potential of 5G by enabling them to offer a range of new services such as “ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity, mixed reality communications services, network slicing and highly scalable IoT applications.”

The company said its approach is built on the recent acquisition of two 5G telecom software providers, Metaswitch Networks and Affirmed Networks, and on the development of Azure Edge Zones. “By bringing together hundreds of engineers with deep experience in the telecommunications space, we are ensuring that our product development process is catering to the most relevant networking needs of the operators,” said Zander.

Separately, South Korean device manufacturer Samsung announced an agreement to collaborate with Microsoft on an end-to-end, cloud-based private 5G network solution. Samsung said the two companies plan to advance the virtualization of 5G solutions, including the deployment of Samsung’s virtualized RAN, virtualized core and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) technologies on Microsoft Azure. 

The aim is to achieve greater cost efficiencies in 5G deployments, lowering the barrier to entry for private 5G networks in businesses such as retail stores, smart factories and entertainment venues, said the company. 

The benefits of 5G to a broad spectrum of different kinds of consumers, in the large-enterprise, SME and consumer spheres, are apparent, and the push to make them accessible to as many customers as possible is on. In order to make 5G’s potential a reality, partnerships between technology companies, software developers and telecom operators are key. Microsoft’s current initiatives appear to be promising, although they betoken both advantages and challenges for mobile operators.

On the plus side, Microsoft Azure’s acquisition of two 5G software providers should enable the company to offer a one-stop shop for MNOs that are looking to improve the quality of their 5G signal, to provide bespoke IoT applications and to bring MVNOs into their ecosystem by way of network slicing. For MNOs, partnering with Microsoft could provide access to a range of solutions that otherwise could be more costly in terms of R&D.

On the other hand, Microsoft’s partnership with Samsung presages something of a problem for MNOs. Combining the expertise and infrastructure of a software and cloud computing provider and a device and technology developer is intended to make 5G networks available to companies on a private basis. If retail store, factories and entertainment venues can specify the design of their own private 5G networks and implement them, MNOs would effectively be shut out, and precisely in the area of their core business. As this possibility looms on the horizon, major MNOs should certainly be thinking about how to position themselves to meet the special needs of such enterprises, even to the point of collaborating with them to create local networks for specific venues and purposes.

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Microsoft to Launch Microsoft WiFi

U.S.-based software and technology giant Microsoft has announced that it is working on a new Wi-Fi service, called Microsoft WiFi, to replace Skype Wi-Fi. Microsoft said the service will provide access to 10 million hotspots worldwide. Currently Skype Wi-Fi has 2 million hotspots. Microsoft made the announcement via microsoftwifi.com, which stated that the new service will be available for users of Skype Wi-Fi, users of Microsoft Office 365 for Enterprise, and people who have received a special Wi-Fi offering from Microsoft. No financial details of the planned service—which will be available via Windows Phone, Mac, Android and iOS—were disclosed. While it is not yet clear when Microsoft WiFi will launch, it seems that when it does, a large step will have been taken in the direction of making public Wi-Fi connections universally accessible. Ten million hotspots in some 130 countries is no doubt an impressive number, and it marks a quintupling of the number now available to Skype subscribers (Microsoft owns Skype, which it acquired in 2011). We have written recently about the proliferation of services that rely partially or wholly on Wi-Fi hotspots—usually free ones—as an auxiliary or even a replacement for traditional cellular data (and, by extension, voice and text messaging if over-IP solutions are used). The success of such challenges to the mobile operators’ connectivity depends, of course, on the number and density of Wi-Fi hotspots available in public places both indoors and outdoors. Until now, Wi-Fi hotspots have not been ubiquitous enough to make these services game changers. However, if a giant entity like Microsoft can really spread hotspots across the globe densely enough, a web of connectivity operating outside the MNOs’ networks can come into existence. Of course, while this will be public Wi-Fi, it will not be free public Wi-Fi; Microsoft will be charging for the access, so in order for it to position itself as a significant competitor to cellular service, it will have to be priced appropriately.

Tarifica has been the leading provider of telecom pricing information for close to four decades. It maintains the most robust, in-depth and up-to-date pricing database in the industry, which includes mobile and fixed line rates from over 400 operators in 85 countries, as well as historical data going back to 1997. Tarifica also produces reports, surveys, publications and custom analyses. Its clients include operators, regulators, enterprises and consultants in every region of the globe. 

IBM to Put US $3 Billion Into Connecting Enterprises to IoT

U.S.-based technology giant IBM wants to connect the Internet of Things (IoT) to the enterprise, and will invest US $3 billion over the next four years to reach that goal. The company has announced that it will establish an IoT unit to drive insights into business operations and build a cloud-based open platform to help clients and ecosystem partners build IoT systems. IBM’s IoT Cloud Open Platform for Industries will provide new analytics services for IBM, clients and partners and will be used to design and deliver vertical industry IoT systems. For example, IBM will introduce a cloud-based service that will help insurance companies extract insight from connected vehicles. This will enable the implementation of more dynamic pricing models and the delivery of services customized to individual drivers. IBM’s IoT ecosystem will expand, with partners ranging from device manufacturers to industry-oriented system providers such as U.S. telecom operator AT&T, U.K. semiconductor manufacturer ARM, U.S. semiconductor company Semtech and The Weather Company. The alliance with The Weather Company’s B2B division WSI will enable the analysis of massive amounts of data. WSI’s forecasting system generates 2.2 billion unique forecast points worldwide, and averages more than 10 billion forecasts a day. The IoT and cloud computing allow data to be collected from more than 100,000 weather sensors and aircraft, millions of smartphones, buildings and even moving vehicles. IBM and The Weather Company will help industries use their understanding of weather on business outcomes and take action systemically to optimize those parts of their businesses. The Internet of Things is a rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide. We have written about it on a number of occasions recently, though mainly with regard to its applications in the consumer sector, such as smart-home technology. However, its potential in the enterprise sector is huge, and it makes sense that a giant technology developer such as IBM has seen that potential and made a substantial investment in it. By doing it via a cloud-based open platform, it makes access to the IoT easier for a wide variety of companies, and if that strategy might entail a certain surrender of control on IBM’s part, we believe that will be more than compensated for by the breadth of expansion of the IBM ecosystem, and therefore, ultimately of revenues. The deal with The Weather Company has particularly great potential. As the provider of information for the weather apps for Apple, Google, and Microsoft, the company has a very large footprint. And weather data is an invaluable resource for industry as well as for consumers. By means of IBM’s IoT platform, The Weather Company’s enterprise division, BSI, will be able to connect more businesses with weather-data collection sources. Mobile operators also participate in the IoT, if only by providing the connectivity. Here, a non-MNO entity has provided the platform, and that could be considered a challenge for MNOs to try and compete in the sector by creating their own branded IoT platforms or systems for their enterprise clients. One of IBM’s partners in the Cloud Open Platform for Industries initiative is AT&T; while its role is not yet clear, it could point a path for other operators toward exploiting the expanding IoT sector.

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