A couple of updates – and firsts – have taken place in the NB-IoT (NarrowBand IoT) and VoLTE (voice over LTE) spaces.

Deutsche Telekom has introduced two entry packages as pilot NB-IoT solutions in Germany, in a move to widen the scope of its network offerings in the arena and accelerate its 2020 5G communications standard.

The packages are NB-IoT Access, a streamlined NB-IoT device connectivity package, and NB-IoT Access & Cloud of Things, which is a more comprehensive product offering.

Both...

SK Telecom has announced that it has successfully commercialised five-band Carrier Aggregation (CA) and 4X4 MIMO, which are key technologies of LTE-A Pro, the last stage of LTE evolution. It aims to enhance its data transmission speed and performance to represent an early application of 5G technologies that support Gbps-level data speeds and massive network capacity.

SK Telecom’s five-band CA LTE-A Pro service supports up to 700Mbps data rates, enabling users to download 2GB within 23 seconds. This...

Hutchison-owned mobile operator Three is hoping to entice UK consumers stuck on slow ADSL connections to make the switch to 4G mobile broadband.

4G speeds are often faster than old connections using home telephone lines which some consumers are still forced to use. Some of these locations are now covered by a 4G signal, and Three is hoping to attract business from these underserved communities with a new plan.

Larger households may find the limit too restrictive.

The...

Public safety 4G/5G LTE technology will reach the mainstream markets after 2020 as trials and deployments gain momentum across the world, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. Hardware revenue is expected to grow by 30 percent annually, reaching $540 million in 2025.

The United States, UK, and South Korea markets will host the world’s first three operational public safety LTE wireless networks by the end of 2017 or early 2018. Many countries will likely follow, either through a...

A network sharing deal between China Unicom and China Telecom in 2016 has been a contributing factor in the country’s LTE capex decline by 16% year on year, according to the latest note from IHS Markit.

Insights from IHS Markit’s “2017 Mobile Infrastructure: China Annual Market Tracker” show that China – being the world’s largest mobile subscriber base – had a total of 1.3 billion subscribers in 2016. Among these subscribers, 64% were on China...

It might be Samsung’s new “Infinity Display” on the Galaxy S8 receiving most of the attention, but the smartphone also has the honour of being first to support gigabit LTE.

Qualcomm revealed last year the first smartphone to support gigabit LTE would arrive in the first half of 2017. While many suspected it would be Samsung’s latest smartphone, this wasn’t confirmed until the Galaxy S8’s full reveal yesterday.

The Galaxy S8 is powered by the...

Typically, VoIP is voice traffic that's carried over the public Internet. The launch of 4G LTE, and wireless hotspots in major cities around the globe, has brought about a downward trend in traditional switched telecom network activity.

VoIP is more efficient than PSTN, and technology improvements in these areas have been instrumental in allowing VoIP to spread to the mobile environment.

Market development for VoIP apps

Juniper Research has revealed that the number of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) subscribers will...

Orange has announced plans to advance its LTE-M strategy this year in preparation to support a wide range of IoT devices.

The operator will focus its LTE-M efforts in Europe initially and will begin the roll-out this year in Belgium and Spain before expanding across the rest of the company’s European footprint. At the end of last year, KPN claimed the first to start testing LTE-M in Europe, but Orange is on track to become the first commercially-available network.

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As the growing applications for mobile internet access place greater demands on wireless broadband communication networks around the globe, telecom service providers are updating their infrastructure to support the traffic.

There are more than 7.2 billion wireless connections, including 1.45 billion LTE connections, around the world today that are operating with the technology standards developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

5G Americas, the industry trade...

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Despite all the technological advances being made in the realm of renewable energy infrastructure, the move to push renewable alternatives into the mainstream has been surprisingly slow. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, total renewables used in the electric power sector are expected to slow in growth in 2017, from a 10% increase this year to only 5% in the next.

While the government has attempted to push the...