Governments worldwide are generally failing at making more spectrum available for 5G, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday at the virtual 5G Manufacturing Forum. “Not enough attention is being placed and not enough spectrum is being cleared … given the transformational nature” of 5G, O’Rielly said. Other speakers said challenges remain to broader use of 5G by manufacturers.
Open radio access networks are likely to dominate 6G, taking multiple forms on different networks, the Brooklyn 6G virtual Summit heard Monday. Experts agreed 6G will likely be deployed starting as early as 2029.
About 819,000 foldable smartphones were sold globally in Q2, up 147% sequentially and 0.3% growth year over year, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. In Q3, DSCC expects 215% quarter-on-quarter and 480% year-over-year increases to 2.6 million. It’s forecasting 46% quarter-on-quarter and 450% year-over-year growth in Q4 to 3.8 million. It credits the launch of Samsung’s “aggressively priced” Z Flip 3, $999, and the debut of Samsung’s “full featured” Z Fold 3, $1,799. “These attractive products are backed by a reported $2B spend by Samsung in promotions and marketing which are significantly increasing consumer awareness of foldable smartphones,” said DSCC CEO Ross Young.
Virtual MVPDs Sling TV and fuboTV were the sole gainers in Q2 among major pay-TV providers who give regular reports, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Sling TV added 65,000 subscribers in the quarter to reach 2.4 million. Sports-focused fuboTV added over 91,000 subscribers, reaching 681,721 subscribers, and Hulu+Live TV lost 100,000 subscribers to 3.7 million. The vMVPD figures don’t include YouTube TV or Philo, which don’t provide regular reports. Total pay-TV subscriber losses were 1.2 million in the quarter, down from 1.5 million in Q2 2020, said LRG. Traditional pay-TV providers continued to shed subscribers, with Comcast losing 399,000 to 18.6 million, while Charter lost 50,000 to 16 million, Cox 60,000 to 3.5 million and Altice 48,300 to 2.9 million. Among other traditional pay-TV services, AT&T Premium, including DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV, dropped 473,000 customers; Dish 132,000 to 8.6 million; Fios 63,000 to 3.8 million; and Frontier 30,000 to 423,000, said the report.
Qualcomm wants to outbid Magna International and buy Veoneer for $37 a share in an all-cash $4.6 billion transaction that would bring a “competitive and open” combined advanced driver assistance systems platform to automakers and tier 1 suppliers “at scale,” said Qualcomm Thursday. Magna and Veoneer announced a definitive agreement July 22 for Magna to buy Veoneer for $31.25 a share in a $3.8 billion cash deal. Qualcomm “continues to see traction in automotive, with a revenue-design win pipeline of approximately $10 billion,” it said now. Qualcomm’s board unanimously ratified the Veoneer offer, but Qualcomm shareholder approval won’t be required, it said. Veoneer and Magna didn’t respond to queries Thursday.
Slightly fewer than 10% of U.S. internet subscribers were provisioned for gigabit speeds at the end of Q1, compared with 3.8% in Q1 2020, OpenVault said Tuesday. It said the portion of subscribers provisioned for such rose 75% over the past two quarters. It said the monthly weighted average data used by subscribers in Q1 was 461.7 GB, up nearly 15% from Q1 2020. It said data usage was relatively flat compared with Q1, but usage is elevated from pre-pandemic.
Global smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.38 billion handsets this year, rising 7.7% over 2020, reported IDC Wednesday. That trajectory is expected to continue into 2022, with 3.8% growth to 1.43 billion. “Markets worldwide continue to migrate toward 5G,” said IDC. “Within emerging markets, there is strong demand for mid-range and low-end 4G phones following last year's pandemic slowdown.” It projects a 3.7% compound annual growth rate in smartphone shipments through 2025. The chip shortage remains a concern for smartphone OEMs, but the impact has been far less than in other markets, said IDC. “Smartphones are seeing competition for consumer spending from adjacent markets like PCs, tablets, TVs and smart home devices, yet that hasn't slowed the market's path to recovery,” said analyst Ryan Reith. A strong “supply-side push” toward 5G continues, and prices of such handsets are dropping, said Reith. IDC expects average selling prices for 5G Android devices to drop 12% in 2021 to $456 and then below $400 in 2022: “With 5G shipments expected to grow nearly 130% in 2021, almost all regions outside of China will see triple-digit growth.”
Canada's planned 2023 auction of 250 MHz of C-band spectrum for 5G might mean incumbent user Telesat will be approached by auction bidders about clearing out sooner than the 2025 deadline, though that could be "a messy process" about spectrum not yet won and possibly revealing confidential bidding strategies, Lightshed Partners analyst Walt Piecyk wrote investors Tuesday. He said Telesat will be left with 200 MHz, but it likely needs only half that, which could be an opportunity to monetize the other 100 MHz later. He said the Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada announcement last week about the country's C-band approach seems to "set Canada’s 5G ecosystem back relative to other countries." Telesat was willing to clear the spectrum by end of 2023, so ISED setting a 2025 deadline is "a loss for the wireless operators and suppliers in Canada," he said. Canada delaying accessing the C band will drive up prices, which benefits the Canadian government, he said. Telesat said it's evaluating ISED's 3.8 GHz decision. It said ISED didn't adopt Telesat's proposal for clearing a portion of the band and auctioning that spectrum, with proceeds going to help fund Telesat's planned low earth orbit Lightspeed constellation, but it was "pleased that the decision acknowledged the important role LEO constellations can play in bridging the Digital Divide and, to this end, that the Government is in discussions with Telesat to support funding of the Lightspeed program.”
Top cable providers had a Q1 net loss of about 775,000 video subscribers, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. Losses in Q1 2020 were 595,000. Comcast slid 491,000 to 19.3 million. AT&T Premium TV, Dish Network, Verizon Fios and Frontier shed 865,000, led by AT&T Premium. Top publicly reporting virtual MVPDs lost 255,000 vs. 210,000 exits a year ago. Overall, top U.S. pay-TV providers dropped 1.89 million vs. 1.95 million losses a year ago. The only pay-TV service to post Q1 gains was fuboTV, which added 42,550 to reach 590,430. Hulu shed 200,000 to 3.8 million, and Sling TV dropped 100,000 to 1.4 million. The top seven cable companies have 43.1 million of the 78.7 million pay-TV subscribers. Other traditional pay-TV services have 28.9 million and vMVPDs 6.7 million. Over the past year, top pay-TV providers lost 4.79 million vs. a loss of 5.12 million in the prior year, said Principal Bruce Leichtman.
Pandemic trends are stressing tablet supplies, said Strategy Analytics Thursday. There was a 44% year-on-year shipment spurt to 45.8 million units vs. Q1 2020. The top four global vendors had double-digit increases, led by Apple (16.8 million units), Samsung (8.3 million), Amazon (3.8 million) and Lenovo (3.8 million); No. 5 Huawei had a 33% drop to 2 million. A focus on productivity is part of most tablet vendor strategies, said the researcher. Even as laptop demand stays hot, Windows detachables from Microsoft, Lenovo, HP and Dell “are showing growth once again,” said analyst Chirag Upadhyay, citing use for entertainment, games and communication. Analyst Eric Smith said tablet strength should continue based on work-from-home trends “as people look beyond COVID restrictions.”