A week in telecoms: Rakuten expands, Nokia growth and high-altitude communications

Rakuten is expanding in India with the opening of a new Global Innovation Lab. It will be home to testing of its entire network architecture in a simulated environment, from radio access network (RAN) to Core to transport, as well as demonstrations of its Symworld platform. Rakuten also plans to set up facilities for 6G infrastructure R&D at the site.

Nokia reported a 12% increase in network infrastructure net sales and says its mobile networks have returned to growth despite ongoing supply chain constraints. In addition, it reported its enterprise unit has returned to net growth, which it expects to accelerate in the second half of 2022.

Telefónica also has its eye on enterprises, but with a new connectivity service. It is developing a dual 5G NB-IoT service with the satellite communications company Sateliot. The idea is to integrate Sateliot’s new low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network with Telefónica’s terrestrial NB-IoT networks to offer IoT connectivity. Telefónica plans pre-commercial pilots with customers this year with its eye on agriculture, shipping, and wind and solar farms.

Airbus has a different take on non-terrestrial communication, according to a report in Light Reading. The European aircraft manufacturer is creating a subsidiary to sell High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) aircraft to network operators. A HAPS would cover the same geographic area as 250 cell towers to fill “the gap between ground towers, conventional aircraft and satellites”. As Light Reading notes, Airbus was among a group of telecoms companies that formed the HAPS Alliance in 2020.

SK Telecom is also innovating, but its ambitions are firmly terrestrial. It is very early days in quantum-based security for communication networks and services, but not too early for SK Telecom to seek a standardization lead. It announced the ITU has chosen two of its technologies as work items: ‘Quantum Key Distribution Network Interworking – Software Defined Networking Control’; and ‘Framework of Quantum Key Distribution Network Federation’. The software-defined networking control system aims to allow telcos to manage their existing networks and quantum key distribution (QKD) networks “in an integrated and efficient manner”. The Quantum Key Distribution Network Federation aims to provide quantum-safe communication services to customers as they move between different QKD networks.