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Ericsson on 2021: The year Industry 4.0 takes off – rocket-fuelled by private 5G

In 2021, increasing availability of 5G will provide the launching pad for manufacturing to truly evolve to Industry 4.0, the new industrial revolution that will push industries forward. Connected factories will move from isolated pilot programs and early test cases to truly integrated ecosystems,...

Druid Software on 2021: Boom-time for private cellular – with pickup in Spain, Italy

The Covid 19 pandemic has helped accelerate private cellular network adoption, and will continue to do so in 2021. But it has also highlighted a new digital divide (which is not going away anytime soon) between vertical sectors that have and have-not prioritized access...

Telefónica on 2021: Private 5G and the ‘massification’ of industrial IoT

2021 will be the year industrial IoT gets ‘massive’, when companies decide, after the impact of Covid-19, to make change, and to accelerate their digital transformation. In technology terms, a major driver of this ‘massification’ will be 5G, and in particular private deployments of...

Verizon on 2021: 5G and MEC to deliver ‘untold breakthroughs for business’

While the Covid-19 global pandemic upended the world's expectations in 2020, fortunately, the technology industry has weathered the challenges as an essential component of daily life. Innovations in 5G and mobile edge compute (MEC) in particular continued to accelerate. Now enterprises have commercially available...

Verizon partners with Deloitte on 5G, edge computing

Verizon, Deloitte partnerships targets manufacturing and retail verticals Verizon Business is teaming with Deloitte to carry out joint innovation activities in the 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) fields. The two companies aims to design solutions to target both manufacturing and retail, and ultimately expand to...

What won’t happen in 2021: industrial 5G-proper (3GPP pushes Release 17 to 2022)

The hype around industrial 5G – the only 5G hype worth getting hyped about – has been knocked off course, after the 3GPP standards group said Release 17 of the 5G New Radio (NR) standard will not be completed until 2020, a year behind...

Semtech on 2021: Availability and simplicity to drive critical mass for LPWAN systems

One thing that became abundantly clear during the Covid-19 pandemic was the importance of the supply chain throughout the enterprise. From the factory floor through distribution to retail stores and deliveries, there is an increased imperative to track and manage billions of items as...

Samsung, IBM make pact on private 5G and edge compute for ‘industrial-scale’ AI

Samsung and IBM are to collaborate on on-premise industrial 5G and edge computing to drive the Industry 4.0 market, they have said. The pair want to combine their expertise in private 5G networks and edge computing, in the shape of Samsung’s 5G smartphones and...

BehrTech on 2021: Hybrid low-power IoT, as the surging “lifeblood” of digital change

Amidst the pandemic, the economic uncertainty has certainly constrained demand and funding for many IoT projects. However, we’ve also seen an acceleration of innovation as it seeks to support a new ‘normal’. IoT and wireless connectivity have become the lifeblood of driving digital transformation...

Qualcomm readies ‘super-30’ IoT bundles, ‘cracks code’ for smart-city ROI

Qualcomm has released a new ‘services suite’ that pulls together full-stack tech IoT componentry into a modular plug-and-play IoT solution for cities and city-based ‘verticals’. The chip-maker declared it has “cracked the code” for smart cities with the bundle, on the grounds it removes...

Ericsson preps 5G mesh network to break satellite ‘monopoly’ on maritime comms

Ericsson is readying a new ‘maritime mesh network’ solution, based on LTE and 5G, as an alternative to ‘high-cost, high-latency, low-throughput’ satellite-based communication for the shipping industry, which it has blamed for slowing the pace of digital change on the high seas, compared notably...

Nokia on 2021: A private 5G reality check, a private 4G mass market, a new industrial era

As we look forward to 2021, we must also reflect on this past year. In addition to tragic human cost, the pandemic cast a spotlight on the ability of business and society to cope with previously unimagined challenges. For industries such as manufacturing, supply chain,...

Amazon and Semtech integrate LoRaWAN into AWS IoT core network server

The LoRaWAN low-power wide-area IoT connectivity protocol has been integrated into Amazon Web Services’ cloud-based IoT core network server. The news comes as the LoRaWAN community pushes Amazon to re-think its recent decision to choose a proprietary version of LoRa, over LoRaWAN, for its...

Bosch on 2021: A rallying cry for flexible, efficient production in times of crisis

The coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis has changed the way we work like no event or crisis before. What it has shown is that digitization of the industrial sector, and of factories in particular, is required as a matter of urgency, in order to bring flexible...

Europe agrees “most ambitious” €95.5bn Horizon mega-fund for digital change

The European Council and the European Parliament, representing the governments and citizens of European Union member states, have approved the European Commission’s new €95.5 billion Horizon Europe fund for the period to 2027; they are now to sign the deal off to set in...

Saab deploys private 5G network from Nokia at Airbus / Boeing factory in Sweden

Aerospace and defence company Saab has deployed a factory-wide private 5G network at a manufacturing plant in Sweden. The facility in Linköping, in the south of the country, produces ‘aerostructures’, notably for Airbus and Boeing.  The deployment has been organised by Swedish tech consultancy Combitech...

Fractus Antennas on 2021: After the gold rush (post-hype, when the real work begins)

Big brands will start to enter the IoT space more aggressively in 2021 with full end-to-end solutions, buying up successful companies either to avoid competition or else to complete their own portfolios. This will trigger regulators to set rules in the longer terms around...

Hyundai buys robot maker Boston Dynamics from Softbank for $1.1 bn

Hyundai Motor Group has agreed a $1.1 billion deal with Softbank to acquire an 80 percent stake in US-based robotics company Boston Dynamics. Japan-based telecoms group Softbank will retain a 20 percent stake in the firm, and contribute alongside as Hyundai looks to bring...

Private wireless podcast – 2020, the year everything changed (episode #3)

RCR Wireless News · Private wireless podcast – 2020, the year everything changed (episode #3) 2020; what a year! As society has sought new ways to work amid the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the telecoms industry has accelerated deployments of cellular-based LTE and 5G...

Industry to drive URLLC-era 5G market to $23bn by 2030 – with boom for operators

It is a little early, some way ahead of the standardisation schedule, but the first (?) market-sizing forecast is in for Release-17 era ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), pegged as the blue-riband version of 5G, geared towards more rarefied industrial change.  The crystal ball gazers over...

Fashion brand Desigual deploys blockchain solution to keep tabs on supply chain

Spanish clothing brand Desigual has deployed a blockchain solution to improve transparency and resiliency in its supply chain, the company has announced. It is working with Finboot, also headquartered in Barcelona, to integrate the blockchain group’s MARCO track and trace application into its import and...

How is Nokia doing with private LTE / 5G? ‘Good, better than Ericsson, except that…’

How is Nokia doing with private networks for enterprises? Pretty well, and probably better than Ericsson, choruses the analyst community in response. Except its strategy is too narrow, its offer is too inflexible, and its competition – beyond its traditional vendor peers, and beyond...

New York Power Authority to test private LTE at 900 MHz for industrial IoT, drone checks

The New York Power Authority, the largest state public power group in the US, has received permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week to experiment with private LTE at 900 MHz for industrial IoT and drone inspections. The New York Power Authority has...

ABB co-develops new digital twin solution for energy and process industries

Swiss engineering conglomerate ABB and French simulation company CORYS have signed a deal to “advance digital twin modeling and simulation technology” across the energy and process industries. CORYS supplies transportation, power and hydrocarbon simulators. The pair have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for “digital...