Welcome to episode 178 of the G two on 5G. It's the latest insight scoop on everything, 5G and sometimes six G. We cover six topics in about 20 minutes, and it's brought to you by more insights and strategy. I'm Will Townsend, and joining me again this week as fellow analyst Ancho Sag. Let's get started with my first topic.

And I want to talk about Reliance in India. And they recently launched what they're calling their Jio or JioBrain AI based platform. Hey, correct my pronunciation. Is it Jio or Jio? Yeah. Anyway, this is not exactly novel because a lot of network operators are integrating machine learning and AI into their their networks to improve resiliency and self healing and that sort of thing.

But what I found really interesting about this announcement is that the company says that they've been in development of this capability for the last 2 years.  Hundreds of engineers have been involved. The platform includes a set of over 500 APIs and data APIs for creating ML enabled services and an executive was quoted stating that this will help create new 5G services, optimized networks as well as pave the way.

For 6G development, which Reliance believes machine learning will be a key capability. Interesting. This is the first time that I've read a network operator. Wanting to leverage artificial intelligence to basically develop and deliver new services. So I don't know if you caught the news, but any thoughts

I know geo is very aggressive in doing things on their own.

They bought their own VR company to have a VR service. So I think they're very much about doing things in house. And I think they're one of the few operators in the world that is very aggressive on keeping technology in house and not letting, CSPs or somebody else take the business from them.

I think they're an interesting company and they want to do a lot of stuff in house and I'm not surprised that they have their own AI based platform. 

Hey, that's a very good point that you make because when we look at prior network deployments,  It was the over the top application solution providers that really drove the innovation from a service delivery perspective.

So  mobile network operators haven't demonstrated a lot of skill set and monetizing things beyond access. Although we're beginning to see applications like.  Manufacturing automation and OT industrial control and that sort of thing, but it is interesting. So this is late breaking news. We will continue to monitor that and if there are any updates provide that on a future podcast, but let's move to your 1st topic and it is earning season.

You and I have been tweeting and sharing out some of our insights related to the companies that we cover in our particular coverage areas. You want to talk about Qualcomm and Apple earnings.  

Yeah, so in addition to them, Microsoft and Google also announced earnings. However, none of their earnings were relevant to 5G.

The reason why Apple and Qualcomm earnings were relevant was because for Apple's earnings, they did report record profits. The reason why their earnings were interesting was because smartphone was 6 percent stronger. So there's been a clear rebound on the smartphone market for them because they've been had some, they've had some consecutive quarters of down, down market.

I think it was like, maybe 1 percent or something pretty low shrinkage, but not great numbers for their investors. So mobile took off and the company really follows on mobile. And then they had a 25 percent production in iPad, which is pretty bad. And then I think MacBook also did well or Mac in general.

But yeah, they also had pretty good services, revenues. Which continues to be a strong suit for them as they continue to capitalize on their  their customer base and yeah, they, they had pretty strong earnings overall. And, I think they had earnings the day before they launched vision pro, which is today.

And I've got my vision pro hiding back there. I will be working on it and messing with it and potentially using it over 5G. To see how it works. Hopefully they've done some testing as well. But on the Qualcomm side they also reported earnings stronger than expected again, both on profit and on revenue.

And they also cited stronger mobile shipments for their strength. And they also had strong strength in automotive. They did have some weakness in IOT, but the IOT weakness was expected because the entire IOT segment is shrinking and there's been a pullback in the market.

They will see, they also said they do see IOT rebounding because they include PC in the IOT business and they have a new PC chip coming mid this year. With a newer version of Windows, it's more AI focused and that will be there, using their Snapdragon Elite X Elite chip. Yeah I think both companies really showed that the mobile industry has come back to growth and there's a lot of still headway or headroom.

For growth, especially as 5G starts to mature and we start to see network slicing and more applications, I do think that there's a lot more growth that's potentially there if we really get this moving. Yeah, 

I agree. And hey, I, I want to talk about Apple and Qualcomm with my 2nd topic to, this is something that you and I have been discussing on numerous podcasts, but coincident with.

Apple's and Qualcomm's earnings and these came out that Apple is yet again, extending and extending, excuse me, it's 5G modem licensing agreement with Qualcomm in additional 2 years for for our sports fans that are keeping score at home Apple purchased Intel's modem business in 2019.

So we're already in 2024.  And this agreement has been extended into 2027, and honestly, Apple's not being very apologetic. They're focusing on that new VR headset, the Vision Pro, they say they have other priorities, and it almost seems like they're treating the whole 5G modem thing like a commodity.

What do you 

think? They are. I think that's part of the reason why they want to do what they're doing. They want to commoditize the 5G modem to make it as cheap as possible. The one thing I didn't mention in Qualcomm earnings, which is relevant here Qualcomm did sign additional licensing agreements that were expiring with multiple Chinese OEMs.

And then in that negotiate in that, QTL licensing umbrella, they talked about the Apple agreement, which includes modem supply and licensing of IP, I believe that this will  potentially continue for as long as Apple continues to fail to deliver a competitive modem. I will say this announcement is almost like a formality because I feel like we already knew that this. 

We just didn't have a formal announcement of it, but nevertheless, the formal announcement does make investors more comfortable with the Qualcomm purchase and help helps the share price because people still believe, that the Apple business is huge and it is, a few billion dollars a year, but Qualcomm's diversified themselves quite a bit and I don't think the Apple business is as important to them as it used to be.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think at this point it's gravy for Qualcomm. Yeah. But let's go to your second topic and we wanna talk about a ST space mobile again this week. But it's a tie up between a ST space, mobile and at t FirstNet. 

Yeah. So this was something I saw on Twitter. I retweeted it when it happened and I was pretty surprised, but I also shouldn't have been, I guess because FirstNet is built on at t's network.

But I think it's interesting because. FirstNet is almost maybe a better, the best application of satellite based communications to enable better public safety for first responders. And the FirstNet authority is, like a quasi government authority. It's just really interesting because, AST SpaceMobile continues to convince.

Really important government bodies that they are ready to work with them. And this was a a test that simulated direct direct L. E. O. Satellite services  for public safety. So it wasn't like a like a real world application yet, but this is like a T up for the next generation of testing.

And, I'm excited to see what happens. And how they use 1st net, because I think the 1st net applications might actually be bigger than the consumer ones.  

Yeah, no, I agree. And if you think about  just, having to operate in very remote areas, and especially when infrastructure is down and natural disasters, it seems like this is a great set for 1st net.

And obviously we reported on the news. Around 18 T's investment, initial investment in a space mobile as well as Google's and then, vote of phones and for around 2. Some of the largest mobile network operators in the world are putting their money where their mouth is behind a space mobile.

I got a lot of interesting feedback on my article post about a week ago and hey, there are still a lot of people out there that believe that.  Starlink is moving in the right direction.  They are just getting their satellites in the air for direct to solid connectivity.

That'll take some time, but hey, competition breeds innovation in my perspective, and it's good that we've got to a potentially very strong front runners. In the hunt for all of this, but, hey, let's move to my 3rd and final topic. And I want to talk about Erickson  and they're focused on boosting their 6G research with an India based university.

And I don't even want to begin to try to pronounce. The province that this is located in, but it's part of the Indian Institute of Technology. Yeah, and both Ericsson and they are focusing on holding conferences and and discussions around the use of AI edge compute with ran infrastructure and it's about resource optimization, dynamic observability.

In sustainable technology support.  It's interesting. I like the approach. I always like it when companies engage academic institutions. A lot of that activity is occurring at my alma mater, the University of Texas. With respect to 5G and 6G. And so I think it's a great way for Ericsson to do a kind of a public private joint partnership.

And I think it also brings more exposure for the company in India. India is a very hot market. It's growing by leaps and bounds. And, we were speaking about reliance earlier,  but there's Bharti Airtel and there are a host of companies that are really driving you.  From my perspective, disaggregated infrastructure, software defined to really stand up these networks very quickly and do them cost effectively because India is such a market that, it's not going to be able to support the same  levels of ARPU that we have, say, in the United States and that sort of thing.

But don't know if you caught the news. Any further thoughts before we move to your 3rd and 

final? I did not catch the news and I don't have any final thoughts, but I know that, we're still, in the early stages of 6G research. I don't think it's a bad thing to at least, start thinking about it. 

Yeah, and I 

think they're obviously their applications for what Ericsson is doing with 5G services as well. But, hey, people are beginning to focus on 6G and, let's not put the cart before the horse. We got to do standalone and get there. But, hey, I think it's all good in the big scheme of things. 

But hey, let's wrap up with something that's very important. The Super Bowl. So that is coming up very quickly this Sunday. My wife's favorite team, the Kansas City Chiefs are playing the 49ers. We will both actually be in Las Vegas, not at the game. We just happened to pick that weekend. So we're going to be sharing space in Las Vegas, Nevada with what's estimated to be almost half a million visitors. 

But you want to talk about what T Mobile and Verizon are doing to support the Super Bowl.  

Yeah, so T Mobile just came out with some data about how they're improving the experience. I feel like they, they really planned ahead more so than I think the other operators did, because they were, they already built out a lot of the infrastructure for the Super Bowl during F1.

Yeah. So they, they really invested a lot in permanent infrastructure improvements. I didn't go to CES, so I wasn't able to experience maybe that experience. Already enhanced for CES as well. But the Super Bowl is a big one. They made a lot of permanent upgrades to the stadium itself. 62 IDA sectors inside the stadium, which include three sectors covering the field.

Which all cover the entire stadium with ultra capacity 5G. 7 ODAS sectors, servicing areas just outside the stadium for better coverage and celebrations happening outside the stadium. Millimeter wave enhancements, both inside and outside the stadium, which I thought was interesting. And they said that they should be able to reach peak speeds with millimeter wave.

And standalone of up to 4. 3 gigabits per second uplink speeds of 420 megabits YOLO swag for 20. And then there's  all kinds of other upgrades. I think they said something like  Peak upload, peak downloads will probably be around 1. 2 gigabits per second, which is 10 times faster than it was before with 200 megabits per second.

So they are just supercharging the network for the Super Bowl. Interestingly enough, Verizon hasn't really come out with clear updates in terms of numbers, but they actually brought press out a few weeks ago to Allegiant to look at the stadium and see the upgrades that they have for the Super Bowl.

And I'm reading a light reading article where they talk about how there's 250  millimeter wave radios in the stadium, and that there's going to be 160 megahertz of C band in the stadium.  In the general area, including the stadium. And they just added additional fiber to the stadium to add more capacity.

So there's going to be tons of adding capacity and performance for Verizon as well. I will say Verizon. Looks like they're going to be really doing a big media blitz. They're going to be talking a lot about them, all of the different media things that they're doing and having a Verizon live and having a Superbowl commercial.

So I think they're going to be focusing more on, the brand recognition for what they do with the NFL, because they're like the NFL partner. I think T Mobile is definitely. Just because they have both a lot of mid band and they have a lot of millimeter wave and Verizon has a lot of millimeter wave.

But I'm really curious to see how both networks hold up. And I think we're going to see people doing tests and showing us how things actually look.  

Yeah, it should be incredible. Once it all is said and done to see the stats. They're always published and the amount of data that was. Generated and consumed and that sort of thing will be interesting.

I will also point out that Cisco has a ton of infrastructure in Allegiant as well, and that's pretty critical for a lot of the routing function and that calling and that sort of thing. The fiber connectivity. Yeah, it should be interesting. Go cheese. But with that, my friend it's been another great podcast.

Why don't you take us home? 

Absolutely. We hope our viewers and listeners found this week's topics interesting. If anyone out there would like to provide insights on a specific 5G topic for a future podcast, please reach out to us on social media. Will's at Willtown Tech and I'm at On Shell SOG. We hope you have a great weekend and please tune in again next week.

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