Intro
Speaker: Will Townsend
Welcome to episode 191 of the G2 on 5G, the latest Insight scoop on everything 5G. We cover six topics in about 20 minutes, brought to you by More Insights and Strategy. Joining me in beautiful Scottdale, Arizona for the MediaTek analyst event is Anshel Sag. It’s been a great event so far. What do you think, Buddy?

Speaker: Anshel Sag
It has been great, and we’re almost wrapped up now. We’ve heard a lot from MediaTek and had many questions answered, though there’s still much more to discuss.

Samsung and O2 Telefonica vRAN and ORAN Deployment
Speaker: Will Townsend
I want to talk about Samsung and O2 Telefonica. This is a huge milestone. They’ve announced the first commercial deployment of virtualized RAN and open RAN in the German market, specifically in Lansburg, Bavaria, providing high performance and reliable 4G and 5G services to customers. ORAN and VRAN continue its momentum. What do you think about all that?

Speaker: Anshel Sag
It’s a big deal. It clearly shows that momentum is growing and that Samsung needed a win there. It’s a net positive for both them and O2 Telefonica.

Qualcomm Posts Stellar Q1 2024 Earnings, Showing Significant Strength in China
Speaker: Will Townsend
We’re spending time with MediaTek but let’s talk about Qualcomm. They reported Q1 earnings this week. They were able to surprise the market because there have been many expectations that they wouldn’t do so well as the smartphone market is in a state of flux. They reported $9.4 billion in Revenue, $2 of GAAP EPS, and $2.44 of non-GAAP EPS. They were able to report a 1% increase in revenue and that they had EPS increase 13%, and then they also reported 35% in growth in automotive while IoT shrunk by 11%. Handsets were up 1% and they talked quite a bit about auto, mentioning a $45 billion design win pipeline which is huge. They’re definitely indexing heavily on automotive. It sounds like in several categories Qualcomm was relatively flat. Did they meet expectations with Wall Street?

Speaker: Anshel Sag
Not only did they meet, they beat expectations and they guided upwards so their stock went up about 4% after hours.

AT&T Turbo Launch Promises to Boost 5G Data Connectivity
Speaker: Will Townsend
I want to talk about AT&T. They launched a new service called Turbo. It’s not network slicing as one might assume from the press release. I was pre-briefed by the company. They’re positioning Turbo as an enhancement to your data plan which boosts performance. It’s based on open internet principles, addressing net neutrality concerns. AT&T is pricing this incrementally for subscribers, so it’s a $7 adder if you want it. It’s aimed at Mobility users who want to take advantage of improved latency and more consistent throughput for things like mobile gaming and video-intensive applications for video conferencing. What are your thoughts on this service?

Speaker: Anshel Sag
It’ll be interesting to see what the uptake is like and what people are willing to pay, and if they’re able to demonstrate that $7 value is worth the extra spend. I think it’s priced right. $5 would have been a slam dunk; $7 is not here nor there. If it was $10 or over, from a consumer standpoint, they should have tried it at five and see how it went. It’s easier to lower prices than raise prices.

The FCC Fines the Big Three (Plus Sprint) $200 Million for Violating Customers’ Privacy
Speaker: Will Townsend
The SEC levied some fines against operators. They fined all major operators in the US: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile gets to pay the Sprint fee and the T-Mobile fee. It accumulates to a total of $200 million across all four carriers. T-mobile pays $80 million, AT&T pays $50 million, and Verizon pays $47 million. The lawsuit claims and validates that the carriers were collecting user location data without their consent or knowledge and selling it to third parties. They are basically paying a fine for breaking the law. This was something that happened back in 2018 pre-merger. It seems like they all thought they could get away with it and the FCC disagreed.

Insights from MediaTek’s Analyst Day
Speaker: Will Townsend
We’re invited to this event every year, last year it was in Austin at the famous hotel Driscoll, but we’re here in Scottsdale at the Sanctuary Resort. We just concluded a day with MediaTek. We got to hear from all of the business unit leaders in the morning and then we had breakouts this afternoon. I continue to be impressed with how the company is forging forward with Dimensity at the flagship level. They’ve got a 30% market share in the China market. I’m also impressed with the investment the company is making in Wi-Fi and how they’re very aggressively pushing into Enterprise. They couldn’t speak to any specific design wins although they are expecting to land a major design win within Enterprise soon, which would be tremendous for them.

Speaker: Anshel Sag
They have become a lot more aggressive on the Wi-Fi side and have made some significant claims in terms of performance. They have pretty close relationships with AMD and had a strong one with Intel before Intel killed their 5G business. They are really moving forward with their Wi-Fi business and also have some considerable products on the 5G side. I’ve been using the Dimensity 9300 for a bit now, and I was really impressed with it. The performance was there, the battery life was there. MediaTek has really moved themselves into a new tier and continue to do so by delivering quality products that their customers want to bring to market.

Nokia is Finally Sending a 4G Network to the Moon with NASA, SpaceX, and Intuitive Machines
Speaker: Will Townsend
You’re going to see Nokia technology not only on the moon but also something that SpaceMobile is leveraging, that AirScale technology that Nokia provides to make what they’re doing from a satellite communications direct to cell perspective function.

Conclusion
Speaker: Will Townsend
It’s been a little distracting with the bee, my friend, and Camel Back Mountain behind us but it’s been a great conversation. 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. We hope you have a great weekend.