Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in Japan

The chart below shows the current spectrum allocation in Japan (source)

As can be seen, Softbank has the maximum spectrum, 250 MHz followed by NTT Docomo and KDDI with 240 MHz each. Newcomer Rakuten has 2x20 or 40 MHz abailable in Band 3 (1800 MHz).

New spectrum for 5G has not yet been auctioned but will happen this year. It was expected to be auctioned last year. Below slide shows the spectrum under consideration.

Related posts:

• Japan Mobile Subscribers and MNO Market Share
• Rakuten Japan: Transitioning from MVNO to MNO later in 2019

Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in South Korea

The slide below summarises the IMT spectrum allocation before 5G (source presentation)

On 1st Dec 2018, all three operators launched commercial 5G networks simultaneously. The plan was to have nationwide commercial 5G services available for everyone by March 2019 but this date has just been postponed. According to Mobile World Live:

The news outlet cited a number of setbacks as hindering SK Telecom, KT and LG UPlus’ target. Handset availability is presumed to be the main factor in the delay, but the government has also rejected proposed 5G pricing plans submitted by operators.

“Commercialisation of 5G is possible when various factors such as network, smartphones and service are ready”, the country’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.

While it did not commit to an alternative date for consumer service launch, the ministry said it is coordinating with SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, along with device makers Samsung and LG Electronics on the matter, the news agency reported.

5G Spectrum has already been auctioned in South Korea with each operator winning 800 MHz in 28 GHz band (high throughput layer) and in C-band (capacity layer), LGU+ received 80 MHz in 3.4 GHz band, KT received 100 MHz in 3.5 GHz band while SK Telecom received 100 MHz in 3.6 GHz band.

All operators are ideally placed with regards to spectrum to role the best possible commercial 5G services there can be. We will just have to wait a bit longer but will happen in 2019 for sure.

Rakuten Japan: Transitioning from MVNO to MNO later in 2019

Rakuten is a Japanese giant with a turnover of over $139 billion last year. Along with all the other e-commerce and internet business, it is also an MVNO.

According to Smart Karma:

In the latest data, MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) have reached 7.0% market share of Japan’s main 3G and LTE (4G) services with over 12m subscribers. Government support remains robust for the MVNOs. Mr. Suga, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, has suggested that MVNOs, in all forms, should expand to 50% of the market in the future. 

As Rakuten prepares for its full MNO (mobile network operator) service launch later this year, the Rakuten MVNO services continues to execute well, taking market share and building a formidable foundation of subscribers. Rakuten is now Japan’s largest MVNO by customer numbers. We expect Rakuten will struggle to make a reasonable return on its MNO on a standalone basis, but it may strengthen the company’s overall ecosystem and create enough synergies to add positive value to the group.

Back in January, Rakuten Blog talked about building the world's first end-to-end cloud-native mobile network:

During Rakuten Technology Conference 2018 in Tokyo last October, Rakuten Mobile Network Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Tareq Amin explained for the first time the revolutionary approach that his team is taking to build Japan’s fourth major network.
...

Since 2014, consumers in Japan have enjoyed affordable mobile phone service through Rakuten Mobile. The service has grown to become Japan’s biggest MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), enjoying particular success attracting young people with its low fees and appealing loyalty point incentives. As an MVNO, however, Rakuten Mobile utilizes the infrastructure of other major network carriers to deliver its service – limiting its ability to launch technical innovation and provide new services to customers.

As the new mobile network will be required to provide coverage across the entire country, Rakuten has mobilized partners and its employee base to rapidly secure sites to build out the radio access network, as well as signing an agreement with KDDI Corporation to provide roaming services during its own infrastructure construction period. Nevertheless, there has been speculation about the ambitious schedule and budget Rakuten has proposed for rolling out its plans.

“How could you do this? It is not possible to build a network in only 12 months without a significant capex investment,” posed Amin during his presentation. “It is possible because we are deploying a very different architecture and leveraging Rakuten IT skills as a leading tech company.”
...

Rakuten has also been making headlines in Japan with its forays into 5G innovation, in partnership with firms such as Nokia, Altiostar, Cisco, Mavenir, Intel, Qualcomm, Quanta and NEC. According to Amin, deploying “true” 5G is an integral part of Rakuten’s mobile journey.

“What does 5G transformation for Rakuten really look like?” Amin asked the audience at the Conference. “If you look at any traditional operator, both inside and outside of Japan, it’s actually a very unnatural process to upgrade to 5G. They have to completely virtualize their infrastructure, they have to deploy new core architecture, they have to deploy new radio access. In Rakuten’s world, the entire core technology, including our Radio Access Network, is fully ready for 5G.”

The fact that Rakuten, unlike existing telecommunication companies, has no outdated and legacy infrastructure to maintain is a significant advantage. “We don’t have to worry about building and transforming our network from 3G or 4G to 5G. From day zero, Rakuten network is 5G ready.

At the same time, Amin doesn’t consider the 5G services that other telcos are launching to be “true” 5G. “If you truly want to offer functionalities and capabilities like network slicing into this new architecture, you must deploy standalone 5G core, which Rakuten is doing.”

This is a very bold vision but is supported by many different legacy and new vendors bringing lot of experience and innovation into the whole process. The following video from Cisco is showing how the experience and innovation is working together at Rauten


Telecom TV points out:

As if a brand new cloud-native 5G-ready network wasn’t sufficiently exciting on its own, there’s another key angle to the Rakuten story. What makes it different is that the company has a strong services and applications heritage (over 70 services to date, in use by over 100 million registered members). This is not a mobile network operator that will then create and launch applications – this is an established services and apps company that is launching a mobile network. It’s an important distinction, and one which could – if successful – lead to other similar new entrants and business models in the decade ahead.
...

The RAN will initially be 4G and Wi-Fi, with the addition of 5G planned for early 2020, subject to government licensing approval. As well as consumer mobile, Rakuten also plans to offer 5G FWA and NB-IoT.

The Mobile Network has a lot of insights on the Rakuten Network here and here.

• The virtual radio access network for Rakuten’s brand new mobile network in Japan will be provided by Altiostar. The vRAN company, which has just taken a strategic investment from the operator, will provide all the virtual Central and Distributed units (vCUs, vDUs) within the RAN.
• Nokia mentions its  role as “Turnkey” deployment partner. It says it will provide deployment and integration of the new radio network leveraging a ‘zero footprint’ site approach with remote radio heads connected to cloud RAN software on the edge cloud. That cloud RAN software, we know now, will be Altiostar’s. Nokia will be providing its AirScale RRHs as well as some vIMS functions and its AirGile core.
• Nokia is supplying the remote radio units, bolting these on via a specially designed coupling to antennas from Korean antenna supplier KMW Communications.
• Intel’s release confirmed the RAN-core software providers, stating, “The Rakuten network uses a virtualised radio access network running on Intel Xeon processor-based servers from Quanta, support radio access technology from Altiostar and core network software from Cisco, providing a network that is fully virtualised from RAN to core.”
• Cisco is the cloud core and NFVi provider. The hardware, which comes in just four server variants, is all from Taiwanese provider Quanta Cloud Technology

Here is an official video from Rakuten on their mobile network strategy and details of launch plans



Finally, I caught up with my ex-colleague and a big supporter of 3G4G blogs, Rahul Atri at the Rakuten booth. I had to add his picture here 😉

Related reading on this topic:

• Mobile World Live: Mickey Mikitani, Founder, CEO & Chairman, Rakuten presents in Keynote 7: The Next Generation.
• Telecom TV: How Rakuten stole MWC’s thunder
• The Mobile Network: Altiostar gets big RAN win in Rakuten’s virtual network showcase
• The Mobile Network: Rakuten makes a real racket about its virtual network at MWC
• Rakuten Press Release: Rakuten Launches First Real-World End-to-End Tests in a Fully Virtualized Cloud-Native Mobile Network
• Disruptive Asia: Rakuten shows MWC how to build a 5G network, you’re welcome

Further Reading:

• Operator Watch Blog: Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in Japan
• Operator Watch Blog: Japan Mobile Subscribers and MNO Market Share
• The 3G4G Blog: A quick tutorial on Open RAN, vRAN & White Box RAN

Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China

A nice slide summarising IMT spectrum allocation in China can be seen below.

Presentation Source


According to Mobile World Live back in December,

China’s government allocated 5G spectrum in the mid-band frequency range to the three state-owned mobile operators, preparing the way for large-scale network testing in 2019 and the launch of commercial 5G services in 2020, China Daily reported.

Both China Telecom and China Unicom received 100MHz in the 3.5MHz band (also known as the C-band), while market leader China Mobile obtained 260MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed.

China Unicom connects a remote village Duogai in Qinghai Province for #CaseForChange

The Qinghai Province of China is vast and daily life is defined by struggles like extreme isolation, widespread poverty and harsh climate. In the remote village Duogai, winters can last up to 8 months, and many young children at the local boarding school only see their parents twice a year.
Getting an area so inaccessible onto the digital map seems like an impossible task. In 2017, China Unicom rose to the challenge and, despite the countless problems caused by the punishing weather, successfully installed 17.5km of optical cable and constructed multiple base stations.

Xuemei Sun bravely accepts #CaseForChange’s mission to visit the school in Duogai and learn how life has changed for the teachers and students there and experiences first hand just how severe Qinghai’s climate can be. Video below.



More details here.

Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results

According to Mobile World Live:

Switzerland’s Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) awarded 5G radio frequencies to all three mobile operators – Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt – raising CHF380 million ($379 million).

The frequencies will be assigned for 15 years, which the regulator said provides the “operators long-term planning security to develop their networks.”

...

Dense Air, a small cell player which launched in 2018, pulled out of the Swiss auction. Reuters noted this “removes a potential rival for the three companies in the already crowded Swiss mobile market”.

Swisscom, which paid CHF196 million, said by the end of 2019 it expects to roll-out 5G to 60 towns and communities.

Sunrise and Salt did not have such concrete plans. The former said the frequencies gained will help it to “deliver a world-class 5G network in the future” and the latter that it will “improve its high-quality mobile network” with “next-generation speed, latency and capacity”.

According to a media release by Sunrise:

At the 5G frequency auction, Sunrise has acquired the strategically most important frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, which perfectly fit its "5G for People" strategy.

With its existing and new frequencies, Sunrise will be able to secure its existing 96% 4G area coverage and deliver a world-class 5G network in the future. This will provide outstanding area coverage and, notably, give suburban and rural areas "optical fiber speed over the air".

Thanks to a clever bidding strategy, Sunrise was able to acquire the most important bands at a favorable price of 0.077 CHF per MHz/Pop. With the frequencies acquired in the middle frequency range and combined with the existing frequencies, Sunrise will be able to provide the area coverage and capacities needed in the long term. 

This is what we estimate the real world 5G NR speeds will look like:
Coverage Layer: 10 – 50 Mbps (10 MHz bandwidth)
Capacity Layer: 100 – 300 Mbps (40 MHz bandwidth)
High Throughput Layer: 400 – 1500 Mbps (100 MHz bandwidth)
Any thoughts? pic.twitter.com/DKOLOvP10g

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) November 7, 2018

According to the chart on top (from Sunrise media release), you can see that all the three operators are well placed with a reasonable amount of coverage and capacity layer 5G spectrum. The 5G future looks good for Swiss.

Japan Mobile Subscribers and MNO Market Share

NTT Docomo Factbook lists the number of subscribers for each of the Japanese MNO as well as their market share. At the end of 2018, according to Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA), the following was the market share:

NTT Docomo - 77.1 million subscribers (45.1% market share)
KDDI - 53.5 million subscribers (31.3% market share)
Softbank - 40.4 million subscribers (23.6% market share)

NTT Docomo provides a complete breakdown of it's mobile subscribers which is available here. The forecast is to have 78.1 million subscribers by Q3 2019.

KDDI au subscriptions info is available here. At the end of 2018, there were 54,262,800 subscribers

Softbank on the other hand, has 33 million mobile subscribers and 7 million broadband subscribers according to their web page. Their broadband service contains of Softbank Air which is high speed 4G wireless internet as well as Optic Fiber service. 

Bell Canada to Deliver ‘Tailored’ Advertisements Based on Customers Personal Info

Bell wants permission to gather and track customer data but Canadian privacy laws mean they first have to ask. A news article in CBC last month said:

Bell Canada began asking its customers in December for permission to track everything they do with their home and mobile phones, internet, television, apps or any other services they get through Bell or its affiliates.

In return, Bell says it will provide advertising and promotions that are more "tailored" to their needs and preferences.

If given permission, Bell will collect information about its customers' age, gender, billing addresses, and the specific tablet, television or other devices used to access Bell services.

It will also collect the "number of messages sent and received, voice minutes, user data consumption and type of connectivity when downloading or streaming."

Privacy and security concerns

"I mean, in a perfect world, they would give you discounts or they would give you points or things that consumers would more tangibly want, rather than just the elimination of a pain point — which is what they're offering right now," Toronto-based consultant Charlie Wilton, whose firm has advised Bell and Rogers in the past, says.

Teresa Scassa, who teaches law at the University of Ottawa and holds the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy, says Bell has done a good job of explaining what it wants to do but there are also privacy and security concerns to consider.

At the macro level, Bell's data security could be breached by hackers. At the micro level, she adds, there's the potential for family friction if everybody starts getting ads based on one person's activities.

Ads for pornography, birth control or services for victims of abuse could trigger confrontations, for instance.

"Some families are open and sharing. Others are fraught with tension and violence," Scassa says.

Wilton says a company in Bell's position also runs the risk that customers will feel betrayed if their information is leaked or the advertising they receive is inappropriate.

Back in Oct. 2013, CBC reported another similar news item on Bell about Privacy commissioner to start investigating Bell's data collection as Canadian telecom giant was about to begin highly targeted advertising program in Nov. What Bell said back then:

"What's new is that we're giving Bell customers the option to receive internet advertising that's relevant to them rather than the random online advertising they're receiving now. The number of ads customers see won't increase and they can opt out anytime by visiting bell.ca/relevant ads. We're giving customers advance notice before we start offering relevant advertising on Nov. 16."

iPhoneInCanada has more details on this topic.

The Relevant Ads Program was eventually phased out in 2015 after the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ruled the advertising violated Canadian law, as it automatically opted-in customers.

Now, Bell’s current version of this ad tracking program recently asked customers last month to gain more access to personal information for improved “tailored marketing.” This data would arise from a Bell’s customers wireless or landline, internet, television, or anything related to Bell apps and the company’s affiliates.

The Canadian Press reports a notice sent out last month by Bell explained, “Tailored marketing means Bell will be able to customize advertising based on participant account information and service usage patterns, similar to the ways that companies like Google and others have been doing for some time.”

Bell says it wants to gain data such as a customer’s age, billing address, gender and specific devices used to access Bell services, on top of the “number of messages sent and received, voice minutes, user data consumption and type of connectivity when downloading or streaming,” for the sake of delivering more targeted ads.

Both pictures above are from iPhoneInCanada. You can read more details about this story there.

The potential that is Pakistan

Its been an eventful five years for Pakistan’s mobile industry. The South Asian country has seen a dramatic increase in mobile broadband penetration and the introduction of 3G/4G services has impacted the lives of millions. 

In December 2017, 3G/4G subscribers in Pakistan numbered 47 Million.  According to a recent report issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), at the end of December 2018, there were 62 million 3G/4G Subscribers in Pakistan with penetration rate of 29.55%. That is a very significant increase indeed.

However in a country so large and populous, their mobile broadband market is still considered to be at an early stage of development with penetration well below most other Asian countries. Strong growth is predicted over the next five years to 2023, driven by further adoption of 4G and eventually 5G services. The uptake of 3G/4G has been quite impressive that has given the government and the mobile operators the confidence to look forward to 5G.

Presently four mobile operators provide services to the country. Here are there most recent market shares/figures. 

Source

Jazz (created by the merger of Mobilink and Warid) is the current market leader with the largest number of subscribers. In 2016/7 they merged with Warid and adopted Warid's 4G network and offer their 4G/LTE to all of their customers as a single brand. In 2017 they received an own license for 4G on 1800 MHz (band 3). Their tagline is “Dunya ko Bataa Do” (tell the world) and their partnering with travel vlogger Eva Zu Beck to showcase their coverage and the culture of Pakistan has been a popular advertising strategy. 

Norwegian owned Telenor is the third largest operator in the country. They cover more than 80% of Pakistan's population in urban and rural areas with a network of over 11,000 cell sites of which 80% are 3G and 70% are 4G enabled. 

4G/LTE was started in August 2016 in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Sawaton on 850 MHz (band 5) and has spread to other major towns. Telenor was the first network to enable VoLTE and officially launch 4.5G (LTE Advanced) in Pakistan. It has done so by aggregating two LTE bands, FDD-LTE Band 5 (850 MHz) and FDD-LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz), a portion of which has been re-farmed for LTE, it was previously used on the 2G (GPRS/EDGE) network. Telenor's new LTE-A network will initially be available in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Zong in Pakistan is owned by China Mobile Pakistan. It has a limited network on 3G in many towns but was the first to launch  4G/LTE on 1800 MHz (band 3) in the centers of 7 major cites in 2014. It presently has over 9 million 4G subscribers, more than any other network.  
According to Zong when it comes to 4G coverage, subscribers, internet speed and innovation, no other network can reach the heights of Pakistan’s No.1 data network. They more than 10,000 4G towers with plans in place to launch 5,000 more 4G sites in the next 3 years.

Ufone owned by Etisalat is the fourth operator in the country. It has 3G network coverage in over 9,000 locations and across all major highways of Pakistan. There is no 4G/LTE yet.
A recent Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) survey found Ufone takes 5.73 seconds to connect a call, the fastest among all networks in the country.




2018 was a great year for Pakistan’s Technology industry with substantial growth and development in IT Sector and for 3G/4G penetration. Supported by growing tech-savvy population, increasing businesses and rising internet penetration, Pakistan is destined to become one of the fastest growing economy by 2030 and has the potential to be one of the  leading digital economies. There is a lot of promise in the IT sector of Pakistan with young population turning to computers and other digital technologies creating a huge market for local and foreign investors.

Israel to auction 5G spectrum this year and launch 5G in 2020

According to ITU Measuring the Information Society Report 2017, Israel has a vibrant and competitive mobile market. The privatization of incumbent operator Bezeq (now operating under the brand name Pelephone) started in 1991, followed by the opening of the mobile market to a second operator (Cellcom) in 1994. At the end of 2016, five mobile network operators and a number of MVNOs competed in the mobile market. These include MNOs Partner Communications, Hot Mobile, and Golan Telecom. The latter two entered the market in 2012 and are both owned by transnational French telecommunication groups. With their low-priced offers, they have been able to gain significant market shares and intensified competition between the operators. Mobile-broadband penetration is increasing, and above the European average. Operators continue to invest in 3G and LTE networks and 3G population coverage is almost complete.

A new mobile operator we4G was launched on April 10, 2018. According to Telegeography, Israel has a new mobile network operator in the form of 018 Xfone, which has launched services under the ‘We4G’ brand. The network went live today (10 April), and reportedly leverages network sharing agreements with incumbent cellcos Cellcom and Golan Telecom. According to a previous report by local news site Globes, the newcomer will be using the ‘051’ prefix previously assigned to Pelephone. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, 018 Xfone is a subsidiary of Marathon Telecom, which is itself controlled by Israeli businessman Hezi Bezalel. In January 2015 the telco agreed to pay a total of ILS33 million for a 5MHz block of spectrum in the 1800MHz band, and went on to receive the frequencies in August that year.

According to a report by Reuters regarding 5G:

Israel’s telecoms regulator unveiled plans on Thursday to publish a tender for fifth generation (5G) mobile networks in the first half of 2019, at a time when fierce competition has slashed profitability at local operators.

The Communications Ministry expects the tender in April or May, with the hope frequencies can be allocated by the end of 2019 and 5G can be launched between 2020 and 2023, the ministry’s director-general, Netanel Cohen, said.

He estimated a 5G network - which would be an additional layer on existing 4G networks - would cost around 2 billion shekels ($529 million).

The cost, though, may be too steep for operators, which are struggling to remain profitable in a country with 8.9 million people and nine mobile providers.

He said only the six main mobile operators would be eligible to bid for 5G licences, leaving out the three virtual operators. Since there are only three networks in Israel - owned by Cellcom , Partner Communications and Bezeq unit Pelephone - companies will be encouraged to join forces and bid together.

Raz-Dror said operators would not be required to deploy 5G in all of the country but would have to move away from 3G and improve 4G networks.