Wireless Watch 677 March 13: Telcos turn to AI

Key Issues:

• MWC: AI to enable network autonomy and the ‘self-driving telco’ 2
• Shared spectrum is clearly essential to make any 5G business case 8

Comment:

• Intel acquires Mobileye, shows first fruits of Spreadtrum alliance 15
• MWC: Will cablecos be the savior of unlicensed LPWANs, now LTE-M is here? 17
• Dish fends off FCC with NB-IoT built-out, which it is trying to bill as 5G 22
• UK’s Openreach settlement highlights wider issues of 5G convergence 24
• Qualcomm muscles into Microsoft Azure and the Open Compute Platform 28

M&A Watch:

Softbank to sell 25% of ARM to its own fund, to attract more Arab money 29

5G Watch:

• UK sets out detailed 5G strategy, but with paltry funding 29
• Turin to become Italy’s first 5G city 31

Standards Watch:

3GPP agrees to two-speed process for 5G NR standards 32

Spectrum Watch:

India’s state telcos may merge at last as new spectrum opens up 33

WiFi Watch:

XcellAir brings advanced WiFi to play in the NWaaS model 34

Operator Watch:

Vodafone slams proposals to split Safaricom’s payments business 35