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Kagan: Qualcomm remains strong with 5G and patent portfolio

Over the last several decades, Qualcomm has been and remains one of the most powerful and important companies in the global wireless space. As a leader in 5G, Qualcomm sees strong growth ahead for many years to comes as the world upgrades its wireless...

The Sunday Brief: The essential economy in 2021—uneven, unstable, unemployed, and underwater

A break in the clouds from the COVID stay-at-home: For our neighbors: homemade cheesecake. For us: homemade boerewors (traditional South African farmer’s sausage) and the Editor’s chakalaka. Silver Linings. After covering this week’s market news, briefly evaluating T-Mobile’s Work from Anywhere (WFX) announcement and discussing the latest batch...

The road to 2023: 5G’s tipping point (Analyst Angle)

Despite the economic and logistical turmoil wrought by COVID-19, the rollout of 5G has proven to be extraordinarily resilient, with new data showing U.S. coverage is up to 75%.  However, that doesn’t mean the growth of 5G has been totally unaffected. The economic shock of...

Kagan: How top companies work with industry analyst relations

As an industry analyst over the last 30 years, I have heard it all. Some executives at some companies understand the segment and how to benefit from it. Most may want good results but are simply lost. So, let me share with you some...

Private 5G: The Swiss Army network (Analyst Angle)

My grandfather gave me a Swiss Army Knife when I was 10 years old. (Of course, the first thing that I did was to test the sharpness of the blade, and I found out that it was a lot sharper than Mom’s kitchen knives). One...

The Sunday Brief: I like big blocks and I cannot lie

End of February greetings from Charlotte/ Davidson/ Lake Norman, where spring is in the air.  Featured is our dog Abby, sporting her brand new T-Mobile pet bandana (free through their T-Mobile Tuesdays app).  Our household is an easy target for free stuff, and T-Mobile’s...

Kagan: Amazon puts UPS to shame with delivery experience

In the scheme of things, you would think delivery and shipping giants like UPS, Fed Ex, DHL and others have a lock on the industry. However, Amazon.com is surprisingly becoming much more efficient, quicker, more accurate and leaves the customer more satisfied. Today, a non-shipping company...

The Sunday Brief: Infrastructure to the rescue (part 1)

Mid-winter greetings from Atlanta (Truist Field pictured) and Lake Norman, NC.  We extend heartfelt prayers and well wishes for all our Texas readership who are learning to cope with the impacts of last week’s storm.  This has been a crazy winter for many, but...

Opportunities and challenges of 5G positioning in the enterprise market (Analyst Angle)

While Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are dominating the scene for outdoor Location-Based Services (LBS), including automotive navigation and smartphone applications, new technologies, commonly called Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS), are making inroads to support new high-accuracy location use cases, such as asset and material...

Making sense of the FCC C-Band spectrum auction payday (Analyst Angle)

To the uneducated, licensed spectrum is a valuable commodity. For carriers such as AT&T, Dish, T-Mobile, and Verizon to deploy next generation 5G access and services broadly, these service providers need a wide range of spectrum assets. The spectrum gap was abundantly clear as...

The Sunday Brief: Valentine’s Day edition—telecom love is in the air (and not on the ground)

Happy Valentine’s Day from Charlotte/ Davidson/ Lake Norman, NC.  We have prepared a very special issue this week for both President’s Day and Valentine’s Day holidays.  Because it’s a long weekend, we took the liberty to slightly increase the length of this week’s Brief.  A...

The Sunday Brief: Earnings recap part #2—I’ve got a secret

Big Game greetings from Lake Norman/ Charlotte/ Davidson, NC.  Pictured (r-l) are Darius Warton,  Bob Guth (audophile and telecom legend), Gary Eason and yours truly.  Gary and Darius have started a business selling vinyl records and turntables – check out their selection at www.thetwistedvinyl.com.  We build...

Kagan: Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk issue warning

The concern many industry watchers have seen coming for years was finally addressed by Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, and Tim Cook, Apple CEO. They say that we have created a dangerous environment. Cook says rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories created by algorithms to increase...

The Sunday Brief: Earnings recap part #1—two truths and a lie

Greetings from Statesville and Davidson, NC, where vaccinations are in full swing.  Pictured is the appointment-only drive thru line at our regional hospital where the elder Pattersons received their first jab Saturday (getting the appointment for Jim’s folks was a definition of “luck of...

What will be the long term impact of the RDOF auction? (Analyst Angle)

The RDOF auction started with the great promise of bringing broadband to vast swatches of the U.S. that is lacking this essential utility.  It ended with questions of whether that promise can be fulfilled. The RDOF auction was established to provide government funding to deploy...

Not all 5G is created equal (Analyst Angle)

iPhone Kick-Starts 5G’s Mass Market Appeal 5G was officially launched in South Korea in mid-2019 with a few smartphones, followed by many countries with additional commercial launches and new devices. Prior to this, and in a very similar pattern to 4G launches, 5G was only...

Kagan: Why Comcast Xfinity is losing customers

When cable TV companies didn’t have competition, they didn’t care about the customer. They only focused on the investor. This worked for them because there was only one cable TV provider for every region, so they had nothing to lose. Now that things are...

The 5G NR mmWave X factor (Analyst Angle)

Signals Research Group (SRG) has been actively involved in tracking the advancement of 5G NR since its inception in September 2015 at a 3GPP workshop, held in Phoenix, Arizona.  At the time, no one knew for certain what 5G NR would look like, what...

The Sunday Brief: Comcast’s crossroads

NFL playoff greetings from Lake Norman, NC (we only wish we were at Kansas City’s Union Station, pictured right).  As we await two excellent NFL football games, we thought we would dive in to the opportunities facing one of the Telco Top 5 – Comcast.  We...

Kagan: AT&T has the fastest 5G network, says Ookla

You may be wondering with all the talk about 5G, which wireless network is the fastest between AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint. Well, mobile Internet speed testing firm Ookla Speedtest, once again gave the top honor to AT&T for 4Q of 2020....

Are mmWave bands cost-effective? ‘Absolutely,’ says GSMA Intelligence (Analyst Angle)

Defying all the naysayers, when ultimately mmWave bands were proven to be well suited for 5G networks, the biggest question on everybody’s mind was, whether they are cost-effective for building large scale networks. GSMA Intelligence (GSMA-I), the market analysis wing of the operator industry...

Growing awareness about 5G patent quality and technology leadership (Analyst Angle)

As a keen industry observer, I have seen with awe, the attention patents (aka IPR- Intellectual Property Rights) have recently gotten. And that has everything to do with the importance 5G has gotten.  Most of the stakeholders now realize that IPR leadership indeed means...

The Sunday Brief: Verizon at CES—let the renaissance begin

More snowy and chilly greetings from Jefferson City and Willard, Missouri, as well as the Tar Heel state, where we anxiously await next week’s warmup.  The opening picture is from a Zoom presentation last week to the Colorado Wireless Association (COWA).  A terrific discussion...

Kagan: Who biggest 5G wireless winners will be in 2021

Everyone is always searching for the best companies. Investors are looking for the best companies to make money. Users are looking for the best quality and reliability. Workers are looking for the best companies to work for. There are always winners, losers and stallers...