Ericsson Spectrum Sharing milestone links up continents, 5G live networks and 5G devices

The move toward commercial Ericsson Spectrum Sharing continues to gather pace with a 5G smartphone from Chinese manufacturer OPPO now added to its 5G ecosystem and successfully tested with a transglobal 5G data call in live commercial 5G networks. 

Ecosystem industry players Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., Swisscom, and Telstra also played vital roles in the achievement, which underlined the value of dynamic spectrum sharing to the industry.

The November 29 data-call-first connected Bern, Switzerland and Gold Coast, Australia, with Ericsson Spectrum Sharing deployed in Swisscom and Telstra’s commercial 5G networks at the respective sites. The call was achieved using spectrum sharing on a 3GPP Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band. 

Pre-commercial 5G smartphones from OPPO, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System, were used on both ends of the call. OPPO is the first 5G device manufacturer to implement Ericsson Spectrum Sharing in its smartphones.  

The data call success validates the support for Ericsson Spectrum Sharing across its 5G ecosystem, from chipsets to 5G devices, and communication service providers’ network products and solutions. The strengthening of the ecosystem is also a step towards the commercial introduction of Ericsson Spectrum Sharing.

Ericsson Spectrum Sharing, part of Ericsson Radio System, is a complete dynamic spectrum sharing solution based on the 3GPP standard with additional intelligent scheduler algorithms. This allows the deployment of both 4G and 5G in the same band through a software upgrade, and dynamically allocates spectrum based on user demand. The switch between 4G and 5G carriers happens within milliseconds, minimizing spectrum wastage and enabling best user performance.

This Ericsson innovation will enable service providers to launch 5G services over a wide area and expand 5G coverage in a tailored way by re-using existing network infrastructure and taking advantage of previous spectrum investments. Communication service providers can therefore provide 5G commercial services and move towards standalone (SA) 5G without the need for blanket costly re-investment.

“This industry-first highlights the value that Ericsson Spectrum Sharing has to communication service providers as they roll-out and ramp-up 5G. With this milestone achieved with our 5G ecosystem partners OPPO, Qualcomm Technologies, and customers Swisscom and Telstra, we’ve shown that our unique solution will not only enable service providers to re-use their 4G spectrum assets for 5G but that it will also support all 5G devices,” said Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of networks, Ericsson. “It is the most economically feasible way to launch 5G on existing bands, enabling nationwide 5G coverage and helping make 5G accessible around the world.” 

“As a leading global tech company, OPPO proactively works to accelerate large-scale commercialization of 5G. Our cooperation with Ericsson, Qualcomm, Swisscom and Telstra to facilitate the commercial use of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology is part of the in-depth collaborations among the five companies in the 5G era,” said Andy Wu, vice president and president of software engineering business unit, OPPO. “The 5G smartphones that support this technology will provide more stable, seamless, and speedy connections, and hence a better user experience in the future.”

“Coverage is the next 5G killer app and this is another significant milestone and steps towards ubiquitous 5G coverage,” said Enrico Salvatori, senior vice president and vice president, Qualcomm EMEA. “Dynamic spectrum sharing will bring key benefits to operators and consumers globally and our second-generation Snapdragon X55 5G Modem RF System is a comprehensive solution designed to allow OEMs to rapidly develop global 5G multimode devices for a new era of connected experiences.”

“This latest collaboration of industry partners is paving the way for the faster rollout of 5G by using existing spectrum holdings to serve the needs of 4G and 5G customers in the same location at the same time,” said Channa Seneviratne, Network and Engineering Infrastructure Executive, Telstra. “This collective implementation is yet another innovative example of how 5G technology continues to advance in a rapid fashion, and at Telstra we are pleased to bring that latest technology to Australians first.”

Ericsson has achieved multiple 5G landmarks with all the partners involved in the latest achievement.

Swisscom, with Ericsson as its sole 5G vendor, was the first communications service provider in Europe to launch commercial 5G services in April 2019 on the 3.6 GHz band. Swisscom is targeting 90 percent population coverage by the end of this year.

Telstra, with Ericsson as a key network partner, went live with 5G commercial services and four 5G devices in May 2019 on the 3.6 GHz band. Telstra now offers six 5G devices, and has some 5G sites in 25 metro and regional cities around Australia, with another 10 cities to be added by 30 June 2020.

Intel opposes Qualcomm’s appeal in US District Court; files brief supporting FTC

Intel files a brief supporting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and opposing Qualcomm’s appeal of the judgment rendered in May against Qualcomm by the United States District Court, Northern District of California. 

The District Court found that “Qualcomm’s licensing practices have strangled competition in the CDMA and premium LTE modem chip markets for years, and harmed rivals, OEMs and end consumers.” The District Court also found that Qualcomm’s conduct “unfairly tends to destroy competition itself.”

Intel agrees with the District Court’s findings. Intel suffered the brunt of Qualcomm’s anticompetitive behavior, was denied opportunities in the modem market, was prevented from making sales to customers and was forced to sell at prices artificially skewed by Qualcomm. 

Qualcomm would have you believe that its position in the market today — as the last surviving U.S. supplier of premium modem chips — is due to its “ingenuity and business acumen,” and that its rivals in the market failed simply because “they did not offer good enough chips at low enough prices.” This is simply not true.

Instead, as detailed in the District Court’s opinion and in our brief, Qualcomm maintained its monopoly through a brazen scheme carefully crafted and implemented over many years. This scheme consists of a web of anticompetitive conduct designed to allow Qualcomm to coerce customers, tilt the competitive playing field and exclude competitors, all the while shielding itself from legal scrutiny and capturing billions in unlawful gains.

The victims were Qualcomm’s own customers (original equipment manufacturers or OEMs), the long list of competitors it forced out of the modem chip market, including Intel, and ultimately consumers. 

Intel fought for nearly a decade to build a profitable modem chip business, and invested billions, hired thousands, acquired two companies and built innovative products that eventually made their way into Apple’s iPhones, including the most recently released iPhone 11. 

But when all was said and done, Intel could not overcome the artificial and insurmountable barriers to fair competition created by Qualcomm’s scheme and was forced to exit the market this year.

“As I have pointed out before, the District Court’s decision finding Qualcomm violated the antitrust laws comes on the heels of governmental entities around the globe reaching the same conclusion,” wrote Steven R. Rodgers is executive vice president and general counsel at Intel, in a post. “As a result of its anticompetitive practices, Qualcomm has been fined nearly $1 billion in China, $850 million in Korea, $1.2 billion by the European Commission and $773 million in Taiwan (later reduced in settlement). The FTC, however, did not seek monetary relief. Instead, it sought injunctive relief to prevent Qualcomm from continuing to engage in its unlawful conduct.”

Among other things, the District Court prohibited Qualcomm from continuing to implement the central component of its scheme, its coercive “no license, no chips” (NLNC) policy. Under the policy, Qualcomm cuts off handset OEMs’ purchases of modem chips unless they enter into a patent license agreement on Qualcomm’s terms. These onerous, one-sided terms enable Qualcomm to artificially lower the price of its modems while simultaneously inflating customers’ costs of using modem chips manufactured by competitors, like Intel, by charging royalties as large as the price of the modems themselves. 

The District Court concluded that the NLNC policy, together with other anticompetitive behavior on Qualcomm’s part, unlawfully distorted and, in fact, destroyed the competitive playing field.

The world benefits from fair competition in the wireless technology market. Given the importance of wireless technology to the future of connected computing, including the revolutionary promise of 5G, we strongly support the efforts of the FTC and other law enforcement agencies to require Qualcomm to obey the laws and compete on a level playing field.

“We hope our amicus brief will help in clarifying the full extent of the harm that Qualcomm’s unlawful behavior has caused and will continue to cause if left unchecked,” Stevans added.