Major future telecoms research boost announced

A major investment of £62 million will help to position the UK to shape the next generation of telecoms networks.

The funding through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) £70million Technology Missions Fund (TMF) Future Telecoms Mission will support the development of technologies that will be crucial to future telecoms networks such as 6G.

The funding was announced by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology today.

Rakuten and OpenAI partner to deliver cutting-edge AI tools for telecom

Rakuten will collaborate with OpenAI to create solutions to address the unique needs and challenges of telecommunications operators when planning, building and managing mobile networks. The Rakuten AI platform will be expanded to include solutions for customer service, network optimization and predictive maintenance of telecom networks. Rakuten AI will enhance operators' ability to detect and resolve network issues in near real-time, enabling more responsive and adaptive network operations while improving service reliability and performance for customers.

 AI-RAN Alliance launches at #MWC24

BARCELONA – #MWC24 – This year’s MWC kicked off with the announcement of a new telecom industry group, the AI-RAN Alliance, which boasts some of the industry’s biggest names as its founder members and sends a strong message to the mobile sector about the direction in which radio access network (RAN) architectures are heading.

UKTIN member Quantum Dice working with BT Group to explore the use of QRNGs for cryptographic applications in telecommunications

UKTIN member Quantum Dice is leveraging its patented source-device independent self-certification (DISC™) protocol to develop the world’s first compact, high-speed, and continuously self-certifying quantum random number generator (QRNG).

This technology, which harnesses quantum processes to produce verifiably secure random numbers, is suitable for use across applications ranging from protecting terrestrial networks to providing quantum-secure entropy for satellite and IoT systems.

AI and analytics key to telco energy-efficiency efforts

Artificial intelligence, it seems, is the answer to most questions these days and it was no different when the audience of the recent Green Network Summit were asked to vote in a poll focused on network power reduction strategies. 

The question put to them was: How can telcos most efficiently reduce their energy-consumption levels?

Seven possible answers were provided and respondents could select as many as they deemed applicable.

The long-term forecast for O-RAN remains positive according to Dell’Oro report

While end-of-year results are still coming in, 2023 revenue for OpenRAN products appears to have declined, following an impressive increase between 2019 and 2022, according to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group.

The report highlighted that market conditions will remain challenging over the near-term but the long-term forecast for O-RAN remains positive.

The research company expects O-RAN revenue to account for 20-30% of worldwide RAN revenue by 2028, up from 7-10% in 2024.

Three launches Glasgow urban small cell project with Mavenir

Three gathered journalists to the Glasgow City Chambers on a brisk February morning to unveil the project, which was described as a trial to improve urban connectivity by deploying a series of small cells on lampposts around the city, as an alternative to new macro sites.

Three UK’s Chief Network Officer, Iain Milligan, gave a presentation in which he pointed out that if you go to one point of Glasgow your 5G reception will be ‘exceptional’ and at another point it will be non-existent.

New Open RAN ready chip tested by Vodafone, Samsung and AMD

Vodafone, together with Samsung and AMD, announced the successful demonstration of their first end-to-end data call using AMD’s new general-purpose processor on an Open RAN platform.

In addition to proving that the technology works well, it also reinforces Vodafone’s aim to introduce new silicon partners to the Open RAN eco-system, driving both innovation and more competition. A stronger Open RAN ecosystem gives network operators greater choice of software and hardware whilst strengthening the vendor supply chain.