Connectivity Technology Blog

In January 1985 the UK launched its first mobile networks. Now, thirty years on, many people and companies in the UK have been celebrating this enormous achievements and advances that have been made since then and which have seen the mobile evolve from a humble telephone into the multimedia pocket computer which has become such an essential part of modern life. It was simply not possible in 1985 to envisage a country that would be able to boast more active mobile phones than people or to have along the way clocked up several world firsts, and be now leading on the deployment of 4G and shaping the future 5G technologies.

Back in 2015, University of Salford organised a seminar to mark 30 years of mobile networks in the UK. Speakers from the 4 UK MNOs, EE, Vodafone, Three, O2 and other contributors pieced together a ‘phenomenal story’ of the mobile phone at MediaCity campus on Saturday, September 12, to mark three decades of the technological revolution in the UK.

The talks are embedded…

An introductory presentation (slides & video) below to explain what are different backhaul options available for 3G/4G/5G mobile networks today

Different Types of Backhaul from 3G4G
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The 3G4G Blog: Small Cells, Macrocells, Backhaul, Infrastructure and other connectivity solutions from #MWC18

Ever wondered how Wi-Fi and mobile connectivity works on aeroplanes? This video explainer is all you need to understand this.

GSMA recently released couple of reports on Sub-Saharan Africa. The Mobile Economy Report (including the Infographic above) and 5G: laying the foundations report. The interesting bit was the technology popularity in the region. This can be seen in the picture below.

2019 is the year when 3G overtakes 2G and in 2023, 4G will overtake 2G. What should be remembered here is that in 2025, there will roughly be 1.04 billion connections. So in 2025, nearly 620 million 3G connection, 120 million 2G connections, 230 million 4G connections but only 30 million 5G connections.

The 5G report details the number of IoT connections. There will be 332 million connections, 130 million in the consumer segment while 202 million in the enterprise. My guess will be that the majority will still be 2G in 2025, with LTE-M and NB-IoT just starting to become noticable.

The final chart that is interesting is the backhaul that is used in different parts of the world. In SSA there is hardly any Fiber in use today…

Back in April SoftBank announced the launch of a High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) business through HAPSMobile, a joint venture between SoftBank and US-based company AeroVironment, Inc. With the aim of constructing a HAPS system that delivers telecommunications network connectivity from the sky for a global business, HAPSMobile developed “HAWK30,” an unmanned aircraft for stratospheric telecommunications platform system that flies at altitudes of approximately 20 kilometers.

HAPS refers to systems where unmanned objects such as aircraft flying in the stratosphere can be operated like telecommunication base stations to deliver connectivity across wide areas. By utilizing HAPS, SoftBank will be able to build stable Internet connection environments at locations unserved by telecommunication networks, such as mountainous terrain, remote islands and developing countries. Furthermore, by efficiently interconnecting with current telecommunication networks, SoftBank will be able to realize…