Welcome to episode 222. Wow, that's a crazy number,
my friend, of the G2 on 5G. It's the latest Insight
Scoop on everything 5G. We cover six topics in
about 20 minutes, and it's brought to you by
More Insights and Strategy. I'm Will Townsend,
and as you can probably tell, I'm at my place
in Florida this week. And joining me is fellow
analyst Anshul Sag. Let's get started with my
first topic. Mike Dano at Light Reading reported
last week that T -Mobile could be testing 6G
equipment. So I found this pretty interesting.
The FCC granted a request by T -Mobile to test
what T -Mobile calls an experimental prototype
wireless equipment from Nokia. And this is near
its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. The
spectrum band is in the 7 gigahertz to 8 .4 gigahertz
range. And what was interesting, Mike reports
in his article that this is pretty purpose -built
spectrum for 6G deployment, given it provides
10 to 20 times more capacity and higher data
rates while reusing existing base stations. I
don't know, man, it's pretty cool. And this is
corroborated by Nokia testing in a similar spectrum
range. So this, all the talk. It's been about
AI -infused core infrastructure and RAN infrastructure.
But this is pretty cool stuff. What do you think,
buddy? It seems pretty legit in the sense that,
like you said, that there's FCC documents confirming
that Nokia is testing in this spectrum. Yeah.
As far as I understand, this spectrum isn't necessarily
available yet. So I think both the 7 and 12 gigahertz
spectrum that are being discussed for 6G are
not quite cleared yet. So there might be some
time. that needs to happen to clear that spectrum
but it seems like it's a good idea and honestly
if it's standalone spectrum if it's if 6g will
be standalone as we expect it will be you probably
want in a new band and you probably will eventually
farm over other bands to that bit to 6g as found
appropriate but it seems like it's interesting
good timing i think we're about five years out
most likely so there's a lot to figure out between
now and then especially since seven gigahertz
will not propagate very well outdoors at least
and it will be probably very challenging to deal
with the propagation characteristics because
i think we all know that there's no in no interest
in densifying networks even further that probably
seems the lack of deployment of millimeter weight
spectrum with 5g right yeah and i think If I
remember correctly, the reason why 12 gigahertz
or 6 gigahertz is chosen as the sub -6 versus
non -sub -6 is because sub -6, the radio waves
behave fairly similarly. Once you go above 6
gigahertz, then it behaves a lot more like a
millimeter wave, which means that 7 gigahertz
will not propagate particularly well unless there
are some tricks that are applied. And I've heard
that there are some things that have already
been discussed in making 7 gigahertz. propagate
better we we already saw it i think with some
2 .4 gigahertz spectrum 2 .5 even some 3 .6 right
there are tricks that can be deployed to ensure
better characteristics for things that shouldn't
trick the laws of fix but there's no real full
breakage of them yeah i've rambled along enough
about the spectrum but i think we're still pretty
we're pretty early and Six gigahertz has been
harmonized globally for Wi -Fi in a lot of cases.
So I think seven gigahertz feels like a better
middle ground for everybody. Yeah, I would agree.
To me, this really demonstrates that T -Mobile
is serious about maintaining its leadership with
respect to performance and coverage and all of
that. And one of the secret pieces to this puzzle,
like we were just talking about densification,
Again, the introduction of AI, there's been a
lot of discussion around that, that could be
part of the 6G standard. You and I have been
talking about this and speculating about 6G for
quite some time. There's been discussion around
terahertz spectrum as well. So it's all very
interesting, but given the fact that Nokia has
been testing similar equipment, it doesn't surprise
me that, and obviously Nokia has got a lot of
strength in history and with respect to brand
development. But it's an interesting development.
And as always, our buddy Mike is always fast
on the uptake when it comes to stuff like that.
But let's go to your first topic. And you want
to talk about Google. They launched the Pixel
9a. And you want to provide your insights about
that mid -range. Yeah, Google's usual cadence
when it comes to Pixel phones is they launch
the primary spectrum. of their device so the
pixel 9 series and then they'll launch the 9a
about six months later and that's usually a cut
down version of the flagship tier but at a much
more affordable price the 9a is 499 so you can
buy that phone outright and not think about or
worry about cost and it's actually cheaper than
the iphone 16e and it does still ship It's the
same processor as the flagship series, which
is you get a lot of the performance of the flagship
series, but in a lower price tier. Obviously,
it's also a lower quality camera. They went with
an older modem. And I think that if you look
at what this offers, it's got the Tensor G4.
It comes with 8 gigs of RAM instead of 12. You
still get an OLED display, which is really nice.
You do get a dual camera, but... What's really
interesting with the Pixel 9a is it has a bigger
battery than the flagship series does. So it
actually delivers better battery life than the
standard Pixel series, which is similar to how
the 16e is, where the budget version of the phone
or the budget version of the flagship actually
offers better battery life. And I think that's
also an understanding of this type of user cares
more about battery life than most other things.
And as a result of that, you get really good
battery life. I have not used one yet. Mine is
on the way, so I will talk to it down the road.
Since I'm not pressed, I get my devices sometimes
later than everybody else, which is perfectly
fine. But this will work on all major networks.
You can still use it on Google Fi. But yeah,
it's a good phone. It pretty much performs very
similarly to the other Pixel series. It does
have a downgraded modem. It will not support
some of the satellite features of the flagship
series, like satellite messaging. And I understand
that the older modem is also probably not going
to have as good coverage. So it's very similar
to the iPhone 16e in the sense that it's a cut
down modem with a bigger battery in it, which
compensates maybe for the less good modem. But
otherwise, it's a good phone. Generally, the
Pixel A series has been what I recommend to people
if they're switching to Android and don't want
to spend a lot of money. If they're a longtime
Android user but don't want to spend a lot but
still want to get a lot out of the phone, it's
the default recommendation. I've used almost
every A series. I have an 8A over there. So the
9A will be good. all the reviews have been really
positive obviously expectations are lowered at
499 but generally us struggles with devices that
are in the mid -range between the high end and
the free phones so there aren't that many choices
that are quite good it's basically samsung and
pixel there are some one plus devices as well
but it's you can count them on your hand and
other regions like india and china have a lot
more choices there oh yeah i will also add it's
i don't know where it is it's not here but Poco
did launch a 499 flagship -ish phone with a Snapdragon
8 Elite processor in it, which is probably the
fastest and most capable phone in terms of price
and capability. That is an offshoot of Xiaomi,
and they are probably also one of the few that
will offer something in that category. So there
are not that many devices in that tier, but the
Pixel 9a is definitely one of the better ones.
Yeah, it's interesting providing better battery
capacity and battery life, right? That's typically
something that you might find in more of a premium
phone. So is it also based on the fact that you've
got fewer radios in the 9A? I'm not really sure.
I would say the battery is mostly, I think, a
function of them trying to focus on delivering
the experience that their customers want to have.
They're obviously saving money on other things.
There are some Chinese flagship phones out there
that have 6 ,000 mAh batteries. So there is a
top tier for battery. We're not really seeing
it in the U .S. The only phone that really has
it right now is the OnePlus 13, which I also
reviewed. That also had insane battery life.
But I would expect this to have incredibly good
battery life as well. And they're probably clocking
down to the Tensor G4 a little bit based on the
benchmarks that I've seen. I would expect so
that it's detuned a little bit to get that better
battery life. But you're the device expert. I'm
the infrastructure guy, so I'm going to stick
to my stuff. But hey, I want to talk, my second
topic, I want to talk about Vodafone. And I thought
this was pretty compelling. They recently connected
their 200 millionth IoT device. And I think this
is pretty phenomenal. IoT has been slow to monetize.
I think we've talked about it on numerous occasions.
Bill Curtis, our analyst in residence at More
Insights and Strategy. Covers IoT, so I don't
want to go too far out of my swim lane here,
but I think it's really interesting. And so this
was an article that I found on RCR Wireless last
week. And within the article, they talk about
Vodafone hitting that. Also, just in general,
that the carrier has experienced an accelerated
sales rate of 50 % year over year over the last
five years, which it's doubled its volume. The
reality is IoT is monetizable. It just, I think
expectations were set really high and what was
going to happen with narrow band and what would
the connectivity modality be there? We've talked
about LoRaWAN, but certainly, and then I recently
met a company FlowLive and they build networking
infrastructure for IoT. They do a lot of the
orchestration on IoT and speaking with them.
They believe a 5G network is the best network
to support not only narrowband and industrial
IoT, but obviously everything else that gets
hung on a mobile network. So I thought this was
pretty incredible. The cool thing is I finally
have made a connection with Vodafone. And so
I'll be getting a briefing here in the next couple
of weeks to spend more time with them. to not
only dive into what they're doing with IoT, but
also to discuss some of the other things that
they're doing. They're a big adopter of Open
RAN, and obviously they're a huge force to be
reckoned with in other parts of the world as
well. But I don't know if you caught the news.
Any thoughts before we move to your second topic?
I did. When we were filling out our topics, I
saw this. I was going to put it down on the side.
You'd already done so. So I think it's cool.
I think it also shows that Vodafone. I think
people really underestimate the size of Vodafone
as a global entity. So I think this kind of is
a reminder that they're very large and they used
to own 50 % of Verizon, but they're quite large
and they have a lot of influence and they're
always on the edge of enabling the latest technologies.
Yeah. Awesome. Great insights, my friend. All
right, your second topic. We're going to talk
about REDCap. I mean, this seems to be one of
your favorite topics, but the GSA is forming
a 5G REDCap special group, and you want to talk
a little bit about that today. Yes. So the GSA,
which is the Global Mobile Suppliers Association,
there's a lot of GSAs out there. Their goal is
to create this special group to facilitate and
collaborate on RedCap networks, features, and
product rollouts. The founding members are Ericsson,
Huawei, Qualcomm, and MediaTek. So two infrastructure
providers and two endpoint providers, which is
good. I just accidentally triggered some kind
of AI on my camera that... shot me out here.
So now you get to see my whole office, including
some of my monitoring. That's the hand gestures.
I don't know what I was doing. It's my fault.
But yeah, the key here is that 5G REDCap requires
standalone networks. And the truth is that there's
a lot of opportunity in IoT and in non -smartphone
applications for REDCap. I've obviously talked
plenty about Red Captain, blabbed endlessly about
it. I have a review of that device coming fairly
soon, calling it Wildit 5G, which is fun. And
yeah, I just think that this is really good for
the industry because one, it pushes more towards
standalone, which is important, which is what
we need for 5G. There needs to be more standalone
for real 5G applications to occur, but also we
need more. collaboration between all the players
because these modems need to be integrated pretty
well. They're very low power, but they can offer
a lot of new and unique services that we've been
thinking about and planning for years that just
weren't possible because 5G is just way too power
hungry for a lot of applications. And RedCap,
in my experience, as I tested it, it was using
well under a watt in most use cases. And only
when you are uploading A significant amount of
data. Did you ever go over one watt? I think
there's a lot of opportunities here to fine tune
and understand applications for REDCap and potentially
replace a lot of 3G and 4G infrastructure, but
also expand to new use cases. I tried connecting
it to my TV, to a Kindle and a bunch of other
devices. Some were successful, some were not.
But I think there's a lot of opportunities where
maybe MediaTek and Qualcomm work with device
OEMs to properly build their devices to. be pre
-built to enable REDCap and utilize 5G standalone.
I think it's really interesting and it's exciting,
but standalone 5G is the key here and we need
to push more operators to move in that direction.
Yeah. And the application of 5G REDCap will do
that. What I'm very excited about is the use
case around wearables, right? And integrating
very low cost sensors into clothing. And that's
something that's been discussed for quite some
time, but it was chicken and egg, right? Because
not only the bill of materials, but the power
requirement to do that. And so like, I think
potentially we're going to see a lot of innovation
with respect to the integration of sensors into
shoes, into clothing, health tech. kind of applications.
What are some of the other use cases do you think
are going to rise to the top? I think there's
going to be a lot of industrial applications.
Because right now, if you think about the cost
of a 5G module or even a 4G module, it's still
very high. T -Mobile with TCL, the device that
they were selling was like $60. I think they
retailed it for $90, but they were selling for
$60. And honestly, they were just giving it away.
They were also lowering the price of the plant
to $5 a month. while you're not getting very
fast speeds you are getting connectivity for
five dollars a month and that's basically like
a smart watch plan essentially right and i think
that i could see to your point where health wearables
having more 5G modems in them, because first
of all, it's way more secure, but also they don't
always need to be connected all the time. They
only need to connect when, as they're connected.
So AI will help to decide when communication
needs to occur with the network. And I think
there are some significant power savings and
bomb cost savings because this thing, it connected
via USB -C port for power. So it didn't even
have a battery. So you could create some of these
modules where It's so low power that you just
power it over USB -C and you can attach it to
certain things like AR glasses down the road.
But I also think that subsequent generations
may be built on more advanced process node tech
could operate, create some integrated 5G modems
for AR glasses or other wearable devices that
we aren't using today, but also integrating them
into equipment that otherwise wouldn't have had
it. Due to power constraints or cost constraints
that I think could actually expand pretty quickly.
Yeah, no, I agree. Great insights, buddy. Hey,
I want to hit my third and final topic. And this
is pretty late breaking news. So AT &T and AST
Space Mobile are set for FirstNet trials. So
this news just broke this week. And basically
it's band 14. And so the FCC is allowing AT &T
and AST permission to test direct to cell satellite
connectivity. over that. And as I'm reading through
the article, it's part of a broader initiative
to extend FirstNet's mission -critical capabilities
beyond the reach of traditional terrestrial infrastructure.
But it's important to note that AT &T has deployed
satellite colts and that sort of thing in times
of natural disaster. I've visited a few facilities,
one in New Orleans. I've probably mentioned this
a number of times on our podcast. It's just another
validation as AST Space Mobile moves forward.
What do you think? Yeah, I saw this news as well.
I thought it was pretty big. I think one, it's
big for FirstNet because it gives them a satellite
provider that's pretty well known. Oh, there
we go. Back to tight shot. I figured out how
to use it now. But yeah, I think it also helps
AST continue to show their relevance in the market.
And this is one of the best applications for
direct to sell. I think this is use case number
one. is emergency services. I think it's exciting.
And T -Mobile is already offering this with T
-Priority. It makes total sense. It makes total
sense to me. I think every single provider should
be offering Satellite as a component of their
emergency services offerings. It makes total
sense. You know, AT &T is a big provider when
it comes to FirstNet. Honestly, I'm surprised
it took this long. I would have expected this
to have come sooner. but it's good to know it's
happening nonetheless and this was also something
that i caught so i'm glad that you had as topic
yeah late breaking because we didn't get to record
a podcast last week you and i have been on the
road for weeks and weeks but we're getting back
into the swing but with that let's say your last
topic and you want to talk about mediatek and
they've announced a new dimensity solution and
another that i can't even pronounce so i'm going
to look okay i got this so that's the companion
ultra okay basically This happened last week
as well. These are two products that are launching
in the next few weeks. The Dimensity 9400 Plus
is a minor speed bump to the Dimensity 9400,
which is already in market. And it's really designed
to enable high -end flagship devices. And you'll
see the 9400 almost exclusively in phones. The
main use case for this is flagship phones, mostly
in China. So it's a lot of the same OEMs like
Oppo, Vivo, and other Chinese. And then the truth
is it's really an AI performance boost in a lot
of ways. It does have the same NPU and the same
CPU cores as a 9400, but there's a little bit
of optimizations for certain capabilities like
running DeepSeq's R1 model. So that's what they're
really focused on in enhancing FPA calculations.
There's also some improved Baidu satellite support.
So like faster time to fix, 33 % faster in fact.
Very clearly small tweaks, but designed to make
it a slightly enhanced version. And then they
also did some graphics software optimizations
as well. So there's, it's like a lot of tweaking
here and there. And then the Companio Ultra is
a chip specifically for Chromebooks. And I think
this will actually get a lot of traction. at
the high end of Chromebooks because it has very
similar configuration to the media, the 9 ,400
in terms of CPU, GPU, and NPU. It's for PC use.
So Chromebooks running Chrome OS, but really
it's for Chrome OS plus, which is specifically
the Gemini capable. version of Chromebook. So
it's a lot more enhanced with more AI capabilities
with all the G Suite and anything that runs Android.
And it's on the three nanometer process node.
So it's going to get good battery life. They
made a lot of comparisons to Intel's Core Ultra
125U, which I think is one of the bigger chips
in that higher end of the Chromebook market.
They're claiming that it's 30 % better battery
life and also better performance than Intel's
GPU. Intel's CPU. So they're saying 18 % faster
CPU performance and 40 % better GPU performance
and 50 % less power consumption. So they're really
like pushing this hard. And I think we'll probably
see a lot of this maybe at Google IO with OEMs
taking this up. And it's, yeah, it's a really
interesting platform. So MediaTek has continued
to work really closely with Google to enable
Gemini on both platforms. And yeah, I just think
that there's... A lot going on at MediaTek because
they're also partnered with NVIDIA and they,
there's a lot interesting stuff going on and
they also have modems, but this was mostly focused
on applications processors. Not really many 5g
applications for the companion, but I'm interested
to see if we ever see a 5g Chromebook. Yeah,
it's interesting. So you mentioned support on
that, that, that Chromebook chipset for G suite,
the basic AI stuff, but They're not positioning
that solution as an AI PC -like platform. Oh,
yes, they are. They are? Oh, yes, they are. That's
Google's answer to the AI PC. Oh, okay. Interesting.
That's Chromebook Plus. So have you kicked the
tires on it yet? Can you do an apples -to -apples
comparison on something from Qualcomm, as an
example? I haven't yet, but I fully intend on
doing so. In fact... I just got my hands on the
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, which is a 9300
plus chip. That launched last year. There's not
that many Dimensity chips in the US, but I have
a feeling that there will be a lot of Companios
and they will mostly be in Chromebook. I think
we're probably a few months away from being able
to test the Companios. And that would be a really
interesting comparison, especially against Intel,
but also Qualcomm and all benchmarks. Yeah. Yeah,
I was going to say, I see a Forbes article, review
article in your future. Maybe if I have time
to, I'm buried right now. Not to give you another,
not to give you another. So anyway, oh, and I'll
just do like a gratuitous plug before we close.
I did spend time with NTT last week at their
upgrade event. I just posted a research note
to the More Insights and Strategy website. So
I would encourage our viewers and listeners,
if you want to learn more about what I learned
with NTT, but they're going to surprise you.
I'll just give you a quick headline. Number three
in the world in data center service delivery.
I'm blown away. I didn't know that factoid. So
anyway, hit the website, check that out. A lot
of content out there as well. I was going to
say that MediaTek announcement, actually, I heard
already written up and is published on Forbes.
So you can read that from last week if you want
more details on those announcements. And then
I'll also add that tomorrow, Will and I will
most likely be busy watching our teams play each
other. in houston that's right i think it's a
5 -10 game for me which i think means it's a
7 -10 for you and neither of us are wearing our
hats right now but for mostly for me for lighting
purposes but i also don't really wear my hat
at my desk but yeah it'll be fun to see the slam
diego padres play against the houston astros
okay astros and padres looking thanks for letting
me know about that i've been so heads down here
in the florida keys this week focused on work
and finishing up a kitchen remodel and i wasn't
unaware of that but i will be in key west tomorrow
i'm escaping the traffic here they're going through
a water main replacement and the area that i
live in tavernier is the last and it's brutal
the traffic's normally brutal down here during
peak season but it's even more so i've been like
huddled in my condo here and been staying very
productive. But hey, buddy, I'm glad we could
get this podcast recorded this week. 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 PUBG topic for a future podcast,
please reach out to us on social media. Will
is at WillTownTech and I'm at OnShellSog. We
hope you guys have a great rest of your week
and maybe even weekend. And don't forget to rate
and subscribe.