Dimitris Mavrakis

As observed by Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, telcos will need to “change their mindset, culture and commercial model radically” in order to convert API initiatives to a commercial success. “The involvement of communication platform as a service (CPaaS) providers and hyperscalers in telco APIs, which already have succeeded in creating developer communities, can take a significant burden away from telcos and help them commercialize their API initiatives,” Mavrakis said. ABI Research said it expects network slicing, quality of service on demand, and security APIs to be the most successful options, “given that they provide unique functionality not offered by other companies to developers.”

5G-Advanced is expected to introduce many new features that can help operators monetize their 5G networks, Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, previously told RCR Wireless News. “These include advanced support for extended reality (e.g. virtual reality, cloud gaming, augmented reality), better performance for existing networks, advanced positioning capabilities, enhanced sidelink and new device types that include sensor-based devices , more advanced capabilities and industry-specific devices,” the analyst said. Mavrakis also noted that 5G-Advanced introduces new network management and deployment capabilities, including enhanced coverage, network performance and most importantly, the capability to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to manage the network. He also explained that 3GPP Release 18, which is branded as 5G-Advanced, will be frozen in March 2024. “So we should expect relevant features to start appearing in the market end-2024 with additional commercialization in 2025 and after,” Mavrakis added.

“Telecom operators from China and Japan are currently at the forefront of technology transformation, which shows in their involvement in 3GPP and patent holdings,” says Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director at ABI Research. “China Mobile, NTT Docomo, and China Telecom have invested time, effort, and capital in both domains, which now translates to significant expertise, knowledge, and recognition in the industry. Although this is not the only metric for innovation, these leading network operators are well suited to transforming their business, technology, and strategic platforms to look to the future.”

“Telecom operators from China and Japan are currently at the forefront of technology transformation, which shows in their involvement in 3GPP and patent holdings,” says Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director at ABI Research. “China Mobile, NTT Docomo, and China Telecom have invested time, effort, and capital in both domains, which now translates to significant expertise, knowledge, and recognition in the industry. Although this is not the only metric for innovation, these leading network operators are well suited to transforming their business, technology, and strategic platforms to look to the future.”

“Telecom operators from China and Japan are currently at the forefront of technology transformation, which shows in their involvement in 3GPP and patent holdings,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research. He specifically called out China Mobile, NTT Docomo and China Telecom as leading operators in terms of transforming themselves into tech companies.

5G-Advanced, also known as 5G Release 18, is set to revolutionize the telecommunications industry with its advanced capabilities and innovative features. According to industry expert Dimitris Mavrakis, the senior research director at ABI Research, this next phase of 5G is expected to introduce a plethora of exciting developments that will open up opportunities for operators to monetize their networks.

5G-Advanced is expected to introduce many new features that can help operators monetize their 5G networks, Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, told RCR Wireless News. “These include advanced support for extended reality (e.g. virtual reality, cloud gaming, augmented reality), better performance for existing networks, advanced positioning capabilities, enhanced sidelink and new device types that include sensor-based devices , more advanced capabilities and industry-specific devices,” the analyst said.

“Even cells that have a good service may experience outages due to the sheer volume of communication happening at once,” Mavrakis said. “Everyone in these areas may be trying to contact relatives or the authorities at once, saturating the network and causing an outage. This is easier to correct, though, and network operators may put in place additional measures to render them operational quickly.”

Cell towers have back-up technology built in, but this is typically done through optical fiber cables or microwave (wireless) links, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, senior researcher at ABI Research. However, if something extraordinary happens, such as interaction with rampant fires, these links may experience “catastrophic failures and leave cells without a connection to the rest of the world.”

In a Computer Weekly article looking at the acquisition, ABI Research senior research director Dimitris Mavrakis noted that Broadcom’s vision in acquiring VMware was to create products that allow enterprises to freely move their application payloads between private, public and hybrid cloud environments. “Right now, this is not possible without cost and effort. Broadcom aims to address the technological and cost gaps. Application portability is a challenge for enterprises using the public cloud, but VMware alone may not have the resources to develop a world-class solution,” he wrote

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

ABI Research’s senior research director, Dimitris Mavrakis, believes Nvidia might be onto something. “Even with high-end massive MIMO configurations, several functional splits, and the availability of fibre, allow the placement of the DU at a more centralised location, perhaps at an aggregation point or a base-station hotel,” rather than in very close physical proximity to the antennas and towers, noted the analyst in an email response to questions. “These are prime locations for edge datacentres and, as far as I am aware, operators are desperate to monetise them in the best way possible,” he added.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

The mobile telecoms industry relies heavily on standardization for compatibility and interoperability between networks, devices, countries, and applications. Within The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), multiple companies are competing to influence the standards and capitalize on their leadership in intellectual property. In its new research service, Cellular Standards, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), global technology intelligence firm ABI Research has compiled a thorough and in-depth analysis of 3GPP 5G contribution metrics and 5G Standards Essential Patent (SEP) declarations to act as a first step toward measuring the market influence and technology innovation trend in 5G and mobile networks.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

According to one industry analyst, Verizon’s new push in the customer service space is the sign of a trend in the enterprise services space. “We see the Verizon announcement as a key indicator for the carrier’s willingness to engage with enterprises and help them improve their clients’ journeys. In fact, this is exactly what we consider as the next wave of business innovation in the telco domain: Providing platforms – rather than just connectivity – that enterprise clients can use in the B2B space to improve their products and services,” Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, told TelecomTV. He pointed to Telefónica Tech as another example of a telco with a similar data platform strategy for enterprise clients.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

“Qualcomm is the best fit for Cellwize, given the synergy between the two companies’ technology portfolios and Qualcomm’s leadership in cellular radio technologies and Open RAN, in particular,” Dimitris Mavrakis, Research Director at global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, said.

BT’s revenue for the year to March 2021 was £21.3bn, with profit of £1.8bn. The company will be looking to improve this profit margin, and mitigating the impact of legacy technology could be one way to do that, says Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research. “BT is a very big network operator with significant legacy technologies, especially after the acquisition of EE,” he says. BT purchased the mobile operator in 2015 for £12.5bn.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

As operators globally deploy 5G, Asian markets -- South Korea, in particular -- have showcased effective strategies for simultaneous outdoor and indoor connectivity deployment. The indoor environments include airports, train stations and shopping malls that use digital indoor systems for connectivity, as opposed to distributed antenna systems, wrote Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research. These digital indoor systems can lower deployment costs and enable 4G and 5G to operate together in a single system for future compatibility, which, in turn, could reveal what future, 5G-connected enterprises may look like. Specific use cases Mavrakis noted included a service from Huawei with a feature called distributed massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), which was developed for the specific demands of indoor enterprise spaces.

For those worried about seeing 4G household devices phased out, don't be. Dimitris Mavrakis, a senior director at market research firm ABI Research, said the shut down of 4G networks won't happen anytime soon, noting "other generations will likely remain in the market for a very long time." Because 2G introduced mobile voice and 4G introduced mobile broadband, he calls 3G "somewhere in between" and "not ideal for either voice or mobile broadband." "Ultimately, 4G is a lot better than 3G," he said. "This is why it's being phased out."

"There is always a risk of people losing service or devices being disconnected from the network," said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior director at market research firm ABI Research. "Mobile operators make significant attempts to minimize this, but there will always be devices that are left out."

"The impact will be that users will likely consume more data, the connection will be more robust and most likely we may see new types of applications emerging," said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior director at market research firm ABI Research. "5G is also positioned toward enterprise services, so this upgrade may push both carriers' plans to address this domain even further."

“Companies are starting to combine the value of multiple hardware and software solutions. Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if combined correctly with other technologies. For example, by combining location tracking data with a voice solution, warehouses using a WMS can optimize workflows by minimizing distance traveled based on a worker’s whereabouts,” says Adhish Luitel, industry analyst, supply chain management and logistics at ABI Research.

"The 6G R&D and patent race is in full swing at the moment but most activities are taking place behind closed doors, which is normal at this stage of development for a new technology," said ABI Research analyst Dimitris Mavrakis. "China is very active in this area, especially Huawei and ZTE, as well as Europe with Ericsson and Nokia and the U.S., led by Qualcomm." The U.S. and some European countries banned telecom companies from buying Huawei's 5G network equipment on national security grounds. Huawei management has stated it aims to be tops in 6G wireless technology. Mavrakis added that industry standards groups, such as the 3GPP, continue to focus on more advanced versions of 5G networks.

How and where this potential $65 million in federal funds flows will have long-term implications for smaller, regional operators and community-run or municipal-owned networks, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research. “There are indications that President Joe Biden’s plan is to empower community providers rather than traditional carriers or cable companies, so we should expect to see more activity in this area,” he said. “If indeed community-based providers are funded and prioritized, then it is likely that the broadband market will become a more fragmented and distributed business landscape compared to the market today, which is dominated by large carriers,” Mavrakis said. “It is very likely that this model will create new markets and help close the digital divide in the U.S.” Nationwide carriers stand to receive some funding to expand broadband deployments, but it’s unclear how much will be split between the large and small carriers, he added.

ABI Research senior research director Dimitris Mavrakis describes satellite 5G as an “interesting concept” although he warns that “it may be very challenging to implement.”

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

The five awards won by Huawei prove that the Chinese vendor is still very important to a healthy market. Its innovation and business stability have been recognized by the industry. “Huawei’s wins are an important indicator for the global nature of the supply chain, regardless of the restrictions caused by the pandemic or geopolitical challenges,” according to Dimitris Mavrakis, Research Director from ABI Research. “We expect Huawei to continue to innovate in the technology and commercial domain and highlight its achievements in industry awards and other initiatives.” In addition, the awards confirm the recognition of Huawei’s technologies in the global market, Huawei officials said. The demonstrations of these solutions at MWC 2021 proved how Huawei has utilized cutting-edge technologies to bring greater values to society, the officials added.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, told Mobile World Live (MWL) the telecoms industry is “quite advanced” in tackling climate change compared to other sectors: “Sustainability is a key topic of discussion, when in other industries it’s just an afterthought, it’s not a core planning point”.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Dimitris Mavrakis (DM) There haven’t been many missteps in the deployment of 5G so far, mainly because most deployments have been quite slow to start with. This has given infrastructure vendors adequate time to improve their products and services, which are now in a very good state. The biggest milestone for 5G deployments was the South Korean network launches, which were the first to offer a nearly nationwide coverage footprint. This allowed the rest of the world to understand the implications of deploying a large scale 5G network and what the associated pitfalls and opportunities are. South Korea deployed aggressively from 2019. I would also say that the deployment of 5G in China was a major milestone in 2020, where mobile operators there are expected to deploy an excess of 200,000 5G base stations in 2020 alone. The only misstep was that certain vendors were not ready for large scale commercial deployments and their products needed further evolution to be considered for these nationwide deployments. However, these have now been addressed and all vendors are providing high-quality 5G infrastructure.

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Even though India is not an early adopter of 5G, it isn’t lagging behind, says Dimitri Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research. One Indian company in particular has caught his attention. “Reliance Jio is set to be the major player in the 5G development because of the three main steps Jio has taken: huge investments from companies like Facebook and Google, valuable partnerships with companies like Microsoft, and planned acquisitions of companies like Radisys,” he says. Mavrakis expects Jio will make more acquisitions to strengthen its position not just as a network operator but as a vendor of equipment to other operators. “Jio seeks to become a major player in 5G and use this expertise for their own network and sell its solutions to other operators outside India. Whether they do it themselves or with help from system integrators like Tech Mahindra or Wipro remains to be seen,” he says.

Senior Research Director at ABI Research Dimitris Mavrakis put out commentary stating that the Next G Alliance is a significant step to establish the U.S. and Canada in the center of 6G developments. “North America has lagged behind other regions in 5G, mainly due to the lack of a Tier-1 infrastructure vendor based on the continent, but the Next G alliance aims to create a coalition to make North America a clear leader in 6G,” Mavrakis stated. “This does not necessarily mean that geographical fragmentation is looming in 6G, but rather that companies with U.S. and Canadian interests will have a unified voice and push together for a single goal: to make North America the undisputed leader in 6G and beyond.”

Unlike 4G, 5G has been designed for enterprise applications. While 4G radically changed the consumer space by leading to the development of social networking sites such as TikTok, Airbnb and Uber, 5G could revolutionise enterprise and the business-to-business side, says Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at global tech market advisory firm ABI Research.

Xilinx T1 Telco Accelerator Card Deemed a ‘Major Breakthrough’ Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, called the product a “major breakthrough and significant milestone in the evolution of open RAN.” By handling traffic to and from multiple radio units, functions typically delivered on specialized radios from incumbent vendors, the Xilinx T1 Telco Accelerator Card is providing operators another path to open processing architectures augmented by dedicated accelerators, Mavrakis explained. The card will also “simplify the complexity of open RAN equipment and accelerate its implementation across multiple deployment scenarios,” he said in a statement. “It is the first of many expected industry announcements that will create the foundation for smaller companies as well as the big players to innovate. Xilinx now has a first-mover advantage that will likely result in major business growth for the company and will surely help in accelerating the creation of the new open RAN ecosystem.”

The Xilinx T1 card announcement is a breakthrough and a milestone in the evolution of Open RAN, a market expected to be worth $37.5 billion in 2025 and approximately 22 percent of the total public network RAN market, Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at tech market advisory firm, ABI Research, said.

Speaking at the ABI Tech Summit, Dimitris Mavrakis, a research director at ABI Research, pointed out that engineers and technicians could not visit sites because of COVID-related restrictions he said. Such restrictions could show delays in installations of small cells and other new equipment needed for 5G, Mavrakis explained. On the other hand, Mavrakis also said that COVID-19 would also fuel the fire of demand for 5G going forward because the pandemic has created such a significant increase in WiFi and cellular traffic.

5G is the first cellular technology generation that enterprise use cases will play a larger role in than consumer use cases. Learn more from ABI Research's 5G Technology Summit.

Dimitris Mavrakis, 5G and mobile network infrastructure research director at ABI Research, thinks Huawei customers such as BT, EE and Vodafone won’t hang around. “UK operators can’t buy anything from Huawei after the end of the year but it is likely they will stop buying immediately,” he says. “This is a really big deal, a major concern. There will be an immediate effect on Huawei.” ABI Research’s Mavrakis says there is little else Huawei can do. “Internally, there can be no action from Huawei in response to this. There is nothing Huawei can counter, because it is a political decision. I think internally Huawei is mainly feeling confusion. It is certainly a blow. But it is bigger than Huawei.”

Article by Dimitris Mavrakis

Dimitris Mavrakis, research director for telco networks at ABI Research, said his analyst team does not think Microsoft will try to edge carriers out of the private networks business. "We don't expect Microsoft to deploy private cellular networks at a large scale but it's certain that some projects will require this," Mavrakis said. Analyst Dimitrios Pavlakis, who follows IoT security for ABI Research, added that wireless carriers and other firms that want to offer customers IoT solutions may end up taking a look at some of CyberX's competitors. "There are many companies and startups that fit the CyberX profile operating in industrial cybersecurity and some of them, like Dragos for example, rose above the ranks quite fast because they managed to address the ever-expanding cybersecurity threat horizon brewing over ICS [industrial control systems]," Pavlakis said. "Any organization that has internal strategies aligned with cybersecurity in the IoT would be interested in acquiring and partnering with said companies."

Analyst Angle by Dimitris Mavrakis

Open RAN can disrupt the current verticalized infrastructure supply chain, and support large scale deployments of modularized infrastructure. This coalition will be a major milestone in the development of an open and modularized infrastructure ecosystem, Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at tech market advisory firm, ABI Research, said.

“This coalition illustrates that there is significant activity behind the scenes for open RAN and we expect this to be a major milestone in the development of an open and modularized infrastructure ecosystem,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at ABI Research, in a statement. “Incumbent vendors, who have so far been somewhat resisting open RAN, will now be under tremendous pressure to adopt this approach or face a massive disruption of their business looking forward.”

Major cloud vendors are hard at work deploying more edge servers in local markets and 5G deployments, and spending on 5G capabilities should increase again next year, ABI Research director Dimitris Mavrakis said in a recent webinar.

According to a research note from ABI Research focusing on telco cloud revenues from 5G core deployments, this could fall between 20% to 30% short of previous forecasts of $9 billion this year. ABI fears the investment shortfall in updating networks could be between $2 billion to $3 billion ‘in the short term’. “The 5G market was growing faster than anticipated, with 2020 expected to be the starting point for 5G Standalone (SA) core commercial deployments in CSPs’ networks. But that expectation may take a little longer to materialize. “That is due, in part, to the fact that Covid-19 will almost certainly derail further trials and testing to verify the processing performance and stability of 5G Stand Alone networks. In the short term the industry may have no choice but to protect existing consumer revenue,” suggests Don Alusha, senior analyst at ABI. Meanwhile, Dimitri Mavrakis, Research Director for 5G at ABI, told EE Time,s“there are relatively few challenges as regards the supply chain, which remains relatively robust. The biggest problem we see impacting deployments is that relating to site engineers and technicians, who clearly need to follow strict guidelines when working in close proximity with others, as well as access issues to some key sites.” Again, these sentiments echo the projections at Gartner. Porowski told EE Times, “infrastructure supply chains have been slowed but not broken. CSP inventories have thinned, but at the moment there are no major concerns about the non-availability of critical infrastructure.” Mavrakis suggests this could add at least 3 months of delays to the process. The bigger problem, he argues, is consumer confidence and the availability of 5G enabled devices. The lockdown has also, counter intuitively, focused some to question the need for 5G. “We are hearing from clients, and experiencing, that existing networks are coping relatively well at most operators. But this really misses the point that 5G is targeting the macrocell domain, and thus outdoors coverage. Of course, most of us now are indoors. That clearly will change and we will see that 5G is very much a much needed, cutting edge technology for the medium and long term.” ABI Research said due to disruptions in the supply chain, caused primarily by a shortage of certain components and integration engineers, it is now forecasting a 10% fall in 5G infrastructure revenues from the forecasted $2.1 billion. As for 5G enabled smartphones, “we are looking at a 30% shortfall in shipments for now, but this, also, will be reined back once business is back to normal,” said Mavrakis. The big surge is expected to come once the mobile network operators have opened their retail outlets, where the majority of upgrades and new subscriptions are sealed. According to senior analyst at ABI research Jiancao Hou, the spread of Covid-19 globally is likely to delay deployment of advanced 5G NR systems, including MIMO and active antennas that many operators have started deploying. “This may mean that operators that have already deployed a significant number of base stations will be in a better position to become early adopters and benefit from an earlier transition from previous generations to 5G, but this will rely on the availability of relevant handsets.” Referencing the on-going discussions on OpenRAN and open networks, Hou suggests “it is important for mobile operators to broaden their supply chain and avoid a single-vendor infrastructure market.”

A global pandemic is crippling entire industries but the 5G market and its prospects will scrape by largely unscathed compared to other markets, according to ABI Research. Capex spending on 5G network deployments will decline 10% globally this year, but those activities will pick up next year, or once the crisis is over, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at ABI Research. “The biggest factors contributing to this slowdown are actually personnel issues and human resources, not supply chain issues,” Mavrakis said during a webinar about the pandemic’s impact on various technologies. Most technicians and engineers can’t visit sites because of public health restrictions, but operators remain confident that 5G deployments will get underway again around June, he explained.

Dimitris Mavrakis, based in Athens, mirrored Santi’s observations about the growth in traffic and added that it has been heartening to see operators working hard to deliver connectivity and services to end users and being true to their corporate social responsibilities. In China and many other parts of the world, carriers have helped to deploy connectivity to brand new hospitals in record time. In fact, 5G is being deployed in China specifically for fixed wireless applications to deliver connectivity, especially to medical facilities for life-critical applications. Dimitris also observed that operators have been delivering connectivity and services to doctors and healthcare workers on the frontline in many parts of the world to save lives. Carriers have demonstrated huge responsibility during this crisis.

“All the money is in radio,” says Dimitris Mavrakis, 5G research director at market-advisory firm ABI Research

Dimitris Mavrakis, Research Director at ABI Research, is sceptical of the plan, launched towards the end of last year, but has some recommendations for success.

"This is a good compromise between alleviating 'security' concerns and making sure that the 5G UK market is not harmed," commented Dimitris Mavrakis, a telecoms analyst at ABI Research. "It means there will be minimal disruption to existing 5G rollout plans."

ABI research director Dimitris Mavrakis points out that despite 5G already being available in 70 UK towns and cities, an unstable economy caused by Brexit and other factors means operators are more hesitant to spend aggressively on souping up their networks than those in some other countries. Mavrakis cites the more stable environment in South Korea, which he says has helped that nation become a frontrunner in 5G. “South Korea has already been quick to bring 5G to consumers,” he says. “It is a tech-savvy country that hasn’t been affected by something as big as Brexit.” GfK global director Imran Choudhary agrees – but he thinks that despite the challenging market conditions, networks in this competitive new-technology environment also have an opportunity to drive margins and buck the broader trend of declining ARPU. In turn, he says, this can provide OEMs with the opportunity of a much-needed boom amid stagnating sales.

Another expert also expressed reservations. "Even if it they could get past other hurdles, Viettel would have to pay patent and royalty fees to the likes of Qualcomm, Huawei and Ericsson, which would make it financially unrealistic to create and sell its own infrastructure," suggested Dimitris Mavrakis, from ABI Research. "It would have to pay exorbitant amounts - the technology specifications and the intellectual property rights are very tightly controlled. "It's not as if anyone can just jump in and create their own, otherwise other industry giants like AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone would also have done the same." In addition to being Vietnam's largest network operator, Viettel also offers services in 10 other countries across Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The radio antenna market may see some disruption by startups as the use of mmWave spectrum in the United States drives 5G innovation, according to a new report from ABI Research. The U.S. does not have a native telecom infrastructure vendor to compete against the likes of Ericsson, Nokia or Huawei. But the country is home to a new breed of startups that are developing wireless antennas. ABI Research identified several new startups and small companies that are innovating in the cellular and 5G antenna space, including Airrays, Anokiwave, Artemis, Fractal Antennas, Fractus Antennas, Gapwaves, Maja Systems, Metawave, Movandi, Pabellon, Pivotal Commware, and Satixfy.

According to ABI Research, the private wireless networking market opportunity will be worth $16.3 billion by 2025. Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at ABI Research, said Nokia is arguably the first telecom infrastructure vendor that has invested significant research and development in addressing enterprise verticals.

China announced it has started commercial 5G deployment nationwide. The country is set to become the largest provider of 5G subscriptions by next year, according to new forecasts from ABI Research. 5G is growing much faster than anticipated and is set to overtake 4G LTE connections by 2025, the research firm said, reflecting about 3 billion 5G connections with 4G declining to 2.2 billion by the same year. According to ABI, there will be 12 million 5G connections worldwide by the end of this year, accelerating to 205 million by the end of 2020. “Despite the challenges faced by early adopters and the relatively high prices of 5G-capable smartphones in 2019, ABI Research expects 5G to reach the mass market mid-2020, by which time China will start to dominate in terms of connections, and as a result, market interest and technology expertise,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at ABI Research. “The infrastructure value chain is maturing, handset vendors are manufacturing mid-tier 5G handsets, and consumers are now discovering higher speeds, better user experiences, and new services, including Cloud Gaming and AR/VR applications. All of these will contribute to the explosion of consumer 5G in 2020.”

Attempting to use mmWave networks as a stand-in for existing LTE networks is a recipe for disappointment. "Millimeter wave is a very specialized form of 5G. It certainly cannot replicate 4G use cases," said Dimitris Mavrakis, 5G research director at ABI Research. Commercialized deployments of 5G networks in the US rely on mmWave frequencies as "this is the only spectrum available to them," according to Mavrakis.

Dimitris Mavrakis, Research Director at tech market advisory firm, ABI Research: (Provided to CW): “Apple’s acquisition of Intel’s 5G modem business will not only allow the iPhone manufacturer to gain world-class expertise in cellular modems, which is one of the most challenging areas in R&D, but also allow it to strike better deals with other major 5G patent holders. Apple will also potentially be able to negotiate better terms with its current 5G suppliers as well as integrate parts of the 5G modem into its existing processors. “It is important to note that by inheriting some of the key 5G patents developed by Intel, Apple will be able to differentiate its 5G offering in what will soon be a very highly competitive 5G landscape.”

2. Skyrocketing mobile video: The MViC forecast on the day that 90% of traffic on 5G will be mobile video. Dimitris Mavrakis, Research Director at ABI Research also highlighted some key 5G mobile video insights during his MVIC presentation: “5G Vision and Deployments”. Some operators are yet to fully monetize 4G and they are already looking at 5G as an enterprise vertical enabler. According to Mavrakis, 5G will initially be used to improve the consumer user experience – and surprise surprise – mobile video will spearhead this strategy. In 2016, mobile video represented 48% of traffic and ABI Research predicts that 5G’s mobile video growth will accelerate in 2022. By 2025, video will reach 78% – and here’s the punch line: 40% will be 4K video that sucks up bandwidth.

The blacklisting of Huawei and other Chinese tech companies is breaking apart what had been a deeply interconnected global telecom supply chain, adding costs for the rollout of 5G. Patents for 5G standards are evenly distributed among companies from the U.S., Europe and China, said Dimitris Mavrakis, an ABI Research analyst. The splintering supply chain “can only drive 5G technology prices up for mobile operators,” he said.

Red Hat, which facilitates the movement of data across various cloud platforms, is an industry leader. Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at ABI Research, viewed the expensive purchase as a smart decision.

“5G may have more to offer to AI rather than the other way around,” Mavrakis wrote. “5G will introduce distributed intelligence throughout the cellular network, creating the platform for advanced Ai algorithms, including federated and personalised learning. This will create the foundation for new enterprise vertical services that utilise the edge of the network for AI model inference, and perhaps even AI model training. “The benefits of this are very much sought after,” Mavrakis added, “privacy, security, distributed processing, lower latency and what mobile service providers have been trying to achieve since the early days of 3G: to become much more than connectivity enablers.”

“They are vital,” Dimitris Mavrakis, an ABI Research analyst covering antennas, told SpaceNews by email.

Europe's penchant for hands-on regulation could damage 5G's deployment before it properly starts, writes Dimitris Mavrakis, ABI Research

Some observers argue that there is another point that gets lost in discussions of the race to 5G: No matter which region of the world develops 5G first, whether it is America, Europe or Asia, the companies that will benefit the most are patent holders, says Dimitris Mavrakis, an ABI Research analyst. He says those companies include Qualcomm and InterDigital in the U.S., Huawei in China, Finland’s Nokia , and Sweden’s Ericsson . “If we want to talk about economic impact, we have to look at the big patent holders,” he says.