2022.04.15 – Open Broadband News

Research reveals that 5G optimization can save a staggering 70 percent of power usage

Telecoms operators need to embrace new approaches to optimize the hardware they use if they are to fulfil a goal of significantly decreasing their energy consumption and associated costs, as power-hungry 5G networks reach scale in developed markets.

This is the main point made in a new report from research company ABI Research, which suggests if operators act wisely and optimize the hardware used in their systems, this will bring about a decline in power consumption of up to 70 percent and, therefore, reduce energy bills.

“5G energy consumption depends on radio configuration, hardware and traffic load, and over 70 percent of the consumed energy is in the radio access network (RAN),” said Fei Liu, 5G & Mobile Network Infrastructure Industry Analyst at ABI Research. “New architecture can also reduce energy consumption, improve coverage, and enhance performance.”

FWA market to grow by 2.3M customers in 2022

As operators prepare to report their first quarter earnings results, analysts are predicting plenty of growth in the fixed wireless access (FWA) sector. The reason, according to the financial analysts at Cowen, is simple: “These carriers are undeniably swimming in capacity with no data-rich 5G use cases on the horizon.”

Meaning, robust 5G networks are available today, but there aren’t any data-heavy apps that are chewing through all that capacity. The Cowen analysts predict FWA providers will collectively add almost 2.3 million new customers during the course of 2022. And they’re predicting that growth will continue in the coming years.

According to the financial analysts at New Street Research, the growth in FWA will impact the cable industry, but perhaps not as much as some have feared. The analysts wrote that there are a variety of factors impacting the cable industry. Those factors include a decline in the sale of DSL services, new fiber network buildouts and a slowdown in the number of people moving to new homes. Broadly, the New Street analysts expect a slowdown in the cable industry in 2022, a rise in the sale of FWA services and a slight increase in the number of customers for fiber Internet services.

UK fiber-in-water scheme makes a splash

UK water provider, Yorkshire Water and its partners have received a £1.2 million government grant to kick-start research and development of fiber-in-water in the UK. Work will be carried out by the utility company, alongside engineering firm, Arcadis and researchers at the University of Strathclyde, to find out whether its network of water pipes can carry fiber-optic cables. If the project is successful, it is hoped to offer a solution to the challenge of getting fiber broadband into hard-to-reach areas.

The additional benefit is that the cables could help Yorkshire Water to detect cracks and leaks on its pipes, so they can be fixed more quickly, resulting in less water. The funding was allocated under the government’s Fiber in Water open competition, which launched last year to allocate up to £4 million of research and development funding to projects that develop and build pilots to facilitate connecting the hardest to reach areas of the UK, with advanced fixed and mobile telecoms services and reduce water leakage from potable water pipes.

Sam Bright, Innovation Programme Manager at Yorkshire Water said: “We are very pleased that the government is supporting the development of the fiber in water solution which can reduce the environmental impact and day-to-day disruptions that can be caused by both water and telecoms companies’ activities. The technology for fiber in water has significantly progressed in recent years and this project will now enable us to fully develop its potential to help improve access to better broadband in hard-to-reach areas and further reduce leakage on our networks.”

Cloud infrastructure spending takes to the skies in 2021

The force was strong with cloud infrastructure services spending in 2021, up 8.8 percent over 2020 for a total of $73.9 billion, according to a new report by IDC. IDC predicts spending on cloud infrastructure services to increase 21.7 percent in 2022 to $90.0 billion.

The fourth quarter was the icing on the cake for a solid year: In Q4, investment in compute and storage infrastructure services was up 13.5 percent year-over-year, reaching $21.1 billion, despite supply chain shortages, according to IDC.

“This marked the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth as supply chain constraints have depleted vendor inventories over the past several quarters,” the research firm explained. “As backlogs continue to grow, pent-up demand bodes well for future growth as long as the economy stays healthy, and supply catches up to demand.”

Global telco capex growth to ebb in 2023 and 2024

Worldwide telecom company capital expenditures (capex) climbed nine percent last year and likely will grow by another three percent this year, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. However, communications technology vendors shouldn’t get too comfortable, because capex growth is expected to “taper off” in 2023 and 2024 the market research firm states in its new Telecom Capex Report.

The report tracks capex for both wireline and wireless infrastructure. Dell’Oro expects this year’s small increase to be relatively broad-based, with investments growing in China and the U.S.

“Telco investments, in general, have shown remarkable resilience to external factors including COVID-19 containment measures, supply chain disruptions, and economic uncertainties,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and Analyst with the Dell’Oro Group. “Surging wireless investments in the U.S. taken together with non-mobile capex expansions in China will keep the momentum going in 2022.”

However, Pongratz expects what Dell’Oro termed “challenging comparisons” in the U.S. to turn overall global capex southward in the latter years of the forecast. Meanwhile, capex growth prospects across Europe in 2022 will be more muted than what was seen in 2021.