STOCKHOLM - Sweden's Ericsson has almost doubled its global forecast for 5G mobile subscriptions to 190 million by the end of this year, due to faster than expected uptake in China.
The telecoms equipment maker, which had previously forecast 100 million subscriptions by the end of 2020, said it had made small downward adjustments for other parts of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"For example, several spectrum auctions in Europe have been delayed, with a slower uptake of 5G subscriptions in the near term expected as a result," it said in its biannual Mobility Report.
Ericsson nudged down its 5G subscriptions forecast for 2020 and 2021 in North America, but maintained 2025 forecasts for both Europe and North America.
It also confirmed it had raised its forecast for global 5G subscriptions to 2.8 billion by 2025, or around 30 percent of all mobile subscriptions, from 2.6 billion previously.
"Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, service providers continued to switch on 5G, and more than 75 of them have now announced commercial 5G service launches," Ericsson said.
The mobile network industry has faced waning demand for 4G and older network equipment, but 5G spending in North America has helped to fuel a return to growth.
Ericsson, which competes with China's Huawei and Finland's Nokia, said 4G would remain the dominant mobile access technology by subscriptions during 2020 to 2025, with 5.1 billion in 2022 and 4.4 billion expected by the end of 2025.
But in 2025, 5G networks will carry nearly half of the world’s mobile data traffic, it forecast.
The new generation of mobile phone technology will bring faster data speeds and support a greater variety of connected devices.
-reuters-
MUNICH - Online content should be regulated with a system somewhere between the existing rules used for the telecoms and media industries, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told global leaders and security chiefs on Saturday.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Zuckerberg said Facebook had improved its work countering online election interference, and expanded on his previous calls for regulation of social media firms.
"I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... there's a question about which framework you use for this," Zuckerberg said during a question and answer session.
"Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries - there's like newspapers and existing media, and then there's the telco-type model, which is 'the data just flows through you', but you're not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line."
"I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between," he said.
Facebook and social media giants including Twitter and Alphabet's Google have come under increasing pressure to better combat governments and political groups using their platforms to spread false and misleading information.
Zuckerberg said he now employed 35,000 people to review online content and implement security measures.
Those teams and Facebook's automated technology currently suspend more than 1 million fake accounts each day, he said, adding that "the vast majority are detected within minutes of signing up."
"Our budget is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users," he said.
"I'm proud of the results but we will definitely have to stay vigilant."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Japan's SoftBank has reached a broad accord to merge its US subsidiary Sprint with T-Mobile to create a rival to America's top two wireless carriers, a newspaper said Saturday.
SoftBank and German group Deutsche Telekom, which holds 64 percent of T-Mobile, are considering a stock swap for the deal, which could be announced as early as this month, the Nikkei daily said.
The two will also discuss details of the planned merger, including ownership ratios, the business daily said.
The Japanese telecom giant is also planning to begin procedures for the approval of the US Federal Communications Commission and the US Department of Justice, the report said.
Immediate confirmation of the news report was not available.
T-Mobile ranks third among US wireless carriers by subscribers, followed by Sprint in fourth place, the Nikkei said.
Together, the pair would have 131 million subscribers, which would see them virtually match second-ranked AT&T and pose stiff competition to market leader Verizon Communications, it said.
SoftBank has long sought to combine the two firms but appeared to abandon the plan due to likely opposition from US regulators.
But the prospects for consolidation among US carriers have brightened with the pro-deregulation stance of President Donald Trump, the Nikkei said.
SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son was among the first businessmen to meet Trump after his election victory last year.
SoftBank's founder pledged to invest $50 billion in business and job-creation in the United States, winning praise from Trump.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
