I missed this multinational press release, issued by the US, Australia, Canada and the UK when it was first issued last week and I thought it would be worthwhile bookmarking it here on my blog.

The UK characterizes the release as the other countries signing up to the UK’s “vision” for a stronger 5G supply chain. “Australia, Canada and the United States have backed guidelines for telecoms companies, developed by the UK, designed to build a more innovative, competitive and secure supply of equipment for telecoms networks, including for 5G and 6G.”

The four principles are:

1. Open disaggregation, allowing elements of the RAN to be sourced from different suppliers and implemented in new ways.
2. Standards-based compliance, allowing all suppliers to test solutions against standards in an open, neutral environment.
3. Demonstrated interoperability, ensuring disaggregated elements work together as a fully functional system – at a minimum matching the performance and security of current solutions.
4. Implementation neutrality, allowing suppliers to innovate and differentiate on the features and performance of their products.

This joint statement sets out the initiatives that will seek to guide our shared efforts on telecommunications supplier diversity, building on the 2021 Prague Proposals and the Open RAN Principles:

1. Information sharing
   We plan to continue to share information on our respective policy approaches to telecommunications supplier diversity and encourage information sharing between our respective testing and research facilities, such as the UK’s SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC) and state-of-the-art UK Telecommunications Lab, Australia’s ‘Secure-G’ Connectivity Lab, once operational, and the Communications Research and Innovation Network of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences.
2. A complementary approach to research and development (R&D)
   We expect to take a complementary and cooperative approach to telecommunications R&D that promotes alignment of priorities and objectives, ensuring that our combined respective R&D approaches together form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This could include R&D partnerships, bringing together the brightest minds and most innovative entrepreneurs of each country to develop world-class open networks.
3. Ensuring strong security
   We have a shared view that open and interoperable architectures should be secure. Security should be a core consideration throughout the entire lifecycle of relevant components and systems, including in the design, development, deployment, operation and decommissioning stages. We intend to proactively address any concerns while these architectures develop. Sufficient vendor participation, transparency and openness in Open RAN standards enable security researchers to identify and address potential issues rapidly as they arise. Examples of state-of-the-art facilities aiming to test and improve the security of open and interoperable systems include the UK Telecommunications Lab and Australian ‘Secure-G’ Connectivity Lab.
4. Supporting transparency in standards
   We intend to work together to encourage transparency in industry-led standards-setting processes to ensure that overall security is enhanced by open practices despite the opening up of additional interfaces. The onus and responsibility to lead standards development is with industry, but governments should be supporting and enabling these efforts. Transparent standards development is crucial to allow independent review to identify and resolve potential issues, ensuring that standards are built upon best practices.
5. Avoiding fragmentation
   We encourage industry to avoid fragmentation of the nascent market by focusing on the smallest possible number of options for disaggregation, which still allows the neutral implementation of secure and performant networks. This suggests a focus on developing the necessary number of specifications, splits, standards, and standards bodies to promote interoperability and security, without unduly limiting market-based innovation. This should have the dual benefits of accelerating progress and reducing complexity for entrants, as set out in the 2021 Prague Proposals. This extends to proactively negating fragmentation at the system level—avoiding so-called ‘islands of interoperability’ only between partnered vendors, systems integrators and hardware suppliers—to ensure genuine Open RAN, as per the principle of ‘Implementation neutrality.’
6. Working with international partners
   Telecommunications supplier diversity is a global issue and will require a collaborative approach from the international community. We plan to, therefore, coordinate our efforts when engaging with international stakeholders and fora, to share and implement best practices, and to work together to tackle shared policy challenges. We intend to seek the ongoing support from other like-minded countries to truly realize the benefits of a diverse telecommunications supply chain on a global scale.

The preamble to the joint release says that the four countries “are committed to ensuring the security and resilience of our telecommunications networks, including by fostering a diverse supply chain and influencing the development of future telecommunications technologies such as 6G.”

Despite a difference in temperature of more than 20 degrees, it’s good to be back home.

Sure, I could get used to the weather in Israel. They call winter the “rainy season”, but keep some perspective as to what they are comparing: it simply does not rain, drizzle or think of precipitation between April and September.

And when the winter precipitation falls, you don’t have to shovel it.

I have always liked to eat local when I travel. The food scene in Israel is fabulous. Local fruit and vegetables are available year-round and there are still distribution networks to have field ripened produce delivered to corner markets daily.

It’s a Mediterranean country, so many of my favourite fish dishes are fresh from the sea. For kosher eaters like me, there are choices that are unparalleled. This led me to frequently digress on my Twitter feed, showcasing my dietary feed.

So, thank you to my Twitter followers who have indulged me for the past 4 weeks while I over-indulged myself.

Back to telecom.

We used Canadian carrier roaming for one of our lines and used a local SIM for the other (easier for people to call a local phone number).

As I have written before, Israel’s low mobile prices come with a high cost: compared to Canada, the networks are awful. Coverage is weak in many areas, even in urban centres and most of the time, our phones were operating in 3G, periodically transitioning to 4G. Even then, the connection delivered painfully slow data speeds. According to Ookla Speed test, Israel ranked 69th in the world for median Mobile speed in October (29.6 Mbps down) compared to Canada which was ranked two and a half times faster at 74.49 Mbps. Neither of our lines even came close to the Ookla medians, even though we were usually in Israel’s 3rd largest city.

There has to be a middle ground for mobile and telecom policy, encouraging investment in coverage and deployment of advanced infrastructure, while applying measures to ensure universal affordability.

It is surprising (and perhaps somewhat disappointing) that various levels of government in Canada have not done more to explore targeted affordability measures for telecom services based on income. Notably, I distinguish between the popularity of generally lower prices – we all want to pay less for everything – contrasted with why I would consider to be real affordability, the inability to buy a product or service that one requires to participate in today’s environment.

No matter how low average prices fall, there will be disadvantaged segments that cannot afford even the most basic, entry level services. We need to find a solution.

Government funding programs have targeted geography without regard to income. The federal government’s 25% reduction in general mobile prices did little to improve genuine affordability for lower income Canadians. In both of these instances, one can see the political benefit of the program, but I am not convinced these approaches have delivered sufficient benefits for those who need the most help.

The industry stepped up on its own to create affordability programs for fixed broadband. There is still much more work to be done to address digital literacy and other issues that impede adoption of new technologies.

Perhaps the coming year will see the government look at funding a targeted mobile affordability initiative, and develop programs to study and address non-price related factors.

It’s good to be back.

Within walking distance of where I have been staying, there are two kosher shawarma stands across the street from each other.

Both offer outstanding flavours, fresh pita, an array of unlimited salads and toppings, and I have enjoyed each one on different occasions.

One is a classic outdoor spot, a street corner “temporary” structure that was built decades ago; the other is inside a newly renovated shopping mall, with 2 different types of meat offered, food court tables, trays, bright lights and a website.

The outdoor spot charges about 25% less. Both spots have a steady stream of customers from 11:30am until closing, selling out each day.

Clearly, each has staked out its own market, with one targeting those willing to pay the premium for the comfort of indoor seating and the more upscale ambience (if such a phrase can be applied to a shawarma stand).

Years ago, I wrote about differentiation in the coffee business, how some companies have found ways to increase revenues in a commodity industry.

At this time of year in Israel, bakeries have elevated donut making to an art form, such that people will pay more than $10 for a single sufganiya at a premium coffee shop, more than the cost of a dozen at the local grocery store bakery.

Why wouldn’t we expect similar differentiation in the telecom industry?

Over the past few weeks, I have been increasingly disturbed by the normalization of overt antisemitism around the world. While it is easy for some to think this is occurring at the margins of society, former President Trump’s embrace of Kanye West cannot be ignored. Nor can we brush aside the reports of antisemites and Holocaust deniers being welcomed at a Canadian Parliamentary reception.

In the early hours of the morning yesterday, I wrote a 6-part Tweet that I am reproducing here for archival purposes:

As Shimon Fogel, president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs told the Globe and Mail, “It’s disappointing and difficult to understand how these failures of vetting continually occur, and now we have yet another incident that sends a troubling message to the Canadian Jewish community.”

Last week at The Canadian Telecom Summit, Ericsson released a new consumer study claiming “Canadian consumers are ready to bring 5G into the mainstream as four million smartphone users plan to upgrade to 5G services over the next 12-15 months.”

Ericsson ConsumerLab conducted the global consumer study interviewing 49,100 consumers in 37 markets (including 1200 in Canada) between April and July 2022.

The study highlights six key 5G trends, suggesting how communications service providers can respond to the expectations of early adopters as well as the next wave of consumers, driving further 5G adoption:

1. Consumer 5G adoption to be inflation-resilient
2. 5G is being adopted by a new wave of users with higher expectations
3. Perceived 5G availability is emerging as the new satisfaction benchmark
4. 5G is pushing up usage of enhanced video and augmented reality (AR)
5. 5G monetization models are expected to evolve
6. 5G adoption is paving the path to the metaverse

Relevant to the 3rd trend, the study found that 5G population coverage in Canada has reached 75% but only 33% of Canadian 5G users perceive being connected more than 50% of the time.

According to Ericsson Canada,

Six in 10 Canadian survey respondents said they want 5G plans to offer more than just gigabytes. Consumers are looking for more tailored network capabilities like application enhanced connectivity rather than best effort 5G, which has itself improved measurably this year with rollout of Mid-Band spectrum. This demonstrates the new business model opportunities the next wave of 5G presents for service providers by bundling digital services and focusing on quality of service for demanding applications like gaming and extended reality (XR).

This study is reportedly the largest global 5G-related consumer survey in the industry to date, and the largest consumer survey conducted by Ericsson on any topic.

And yesterday, Ericsson released its November Mobility Report [pdf, 2.6MB] that looks back at the growth of the wireless industry in 2022 and reveals key predictions and trends looking toward 2028. Ericsson observed that 5G continues to scale faster than any previous mobile generation: “5G subscription uptake has been faster than that of 4G, with 5G expected to reach 1 billion subscriptions 2 years sooner than 4G.”

Key drivers are said to include the availability of devices from multiple vendors, with prices falling faster than for 4G. North America and North East Asia continue to see strong 5G growth, with 5G subscription penetration in the regions expected to reach about 35 percent by end of 2022.

According to Ericsson, almost 230 Communications Service Providers have launched 5G services, with more than 700 5G smartphone models announced or launched commercially.

Two reports from Ericsson to add to your December reading list.