By: Jara Kern
Hybrid mall shopping experiences by 2030. Smart city trials to measure (and eventually address) noise pollution. Customized digital content experiences. Intelligent transport networks with
AI-enabled digital road twins. These tantalizing headlines aren’t the future—they’re our present, and they’re just a few of the headlines we’re bringing to you this month in our telecom industry
news roundup.
The top telecom industry news stories from the month are summarized below. To view all the news as it breaks, check out Pipeline’s News Center or subscribe to receive our telecom
industry news summary.
In network trends news, the Ericsson Mobility Report has revealed a 300-fold increase in mobile data traffic since 2011, the year
in which the report was first published—including an additional 5.5 billion smartphone users over the last decade. According to the latest forecasts, 5G is on track to become the dominant mobile
access technology, based on global subscriptions, by 2027. Other markers of connectivity bear this growth out, with Connected2Fiber announcing that its Connected World platform has 1.4 billion locations being managed across 147 countries, with network intelligence active on each location.
A recently published report by Dell’Oro Group measured 45 percent growth worldwide in the SD-WAN market for the third quarter of
2021, compared to the same period in 2020. This growth results from the pace of rapid upgrades in network infrastructure as enterprises try to keep pace with new demands.
In other network transformation news, the Broadband Forum has defined a new framework to bring edge computing to cloud-based
broadband networks, enabling service providers to improve their customers’ quality of experience (QoE) while increasing their revenue streams.
Global network news included an announcement that Nokia and Turk Telecom have completed the first successful 25G PON trial in
Turkey, making it the fastest fiber network in the country. The laboratory trial took place in Turk Telekom Ankara Innovation Center and achieved downstream speeds of 20Gbps over a single
wavelength. And Deutsche Telekom has revealed it is expanding its network, with 1.2 million FTTH connections in 2021—and 90
percent population coverage. In Australia, rural and remote communication solutions provider Pivotel has announced plans to make
Australia one of the first countries after the European Aviation Network to truly experience broadband connectivity in the sky. Pivotel has signed a memorandum of understanding with SkyFive to
develop a proof of concept.
Global wireless 5G connections have reached 438 million by the third…