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CommScope Explains What IoT, 5G, and Smart Cities All Have In Common

MEC Digital — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:10:32 +0000

CommScope’s Morne Erasmus explains what IoT, 5G and smart cities all have in common.

Read any tech news story today and chances are high that you’ll see something concerning IoT, 5G or smart cities. These are all hot topics, but did you know all of them have CommScope in common?

To make things “smart” and improve overall efficiency, we connect IoT devices through a network to the cloud (and each other).

Thus, anything “smart” requires connectivity, both wired and wireless, at least in most cases. The 5G networks of the future can bring refined connectivity to these edge IoT devices with higher speeds, more machine-to-machine connections, and extremely low latencies – enabling a brand new generation of applications and use cases that we haven’t yet thought of.

Once we connect all the eyes and ears (IoT sensors) of the world to the data center brain, we can begin generating intelligent information to drive new analytics and services. As well, more processing power is shifting to the edge, with the deployment of MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) moving closer to the particular endpoints and users to enable lower-latency applications.

All of these IoT edge devices and MECs need a home near to the users, that is why we are seeing city streetlights morphing into smart poles.

Streetlights are uniquely spaced throughout the city; they provide power and altitude and are prepared for remodeling with LED replacements. Today, cities are eyeing 2 kinds of smart poles for replacing legacy streetlights:

IoT streetlight pole – A streetlight pole can support public Wi-Fi deployments, environmental sensors, gunfire detection and LED lighting control upgrades. Adding IoT edge devices transforms humble streetlight poles into smart IoT poles.
Telco pole – These are the typical small cell poles deployed by carriers or neutral hosts to support cellular connectivity in dense areas. These poles are designed for connectivity and will play a crucial role in 5G mmWave deployments. By adding IoT devices, simple telco poles become smart telco poles. With telco poles, the connectivity backbone delivering a path between the edge and also the cloud is already established, thereby enabling quicker deployments. Thanks to the larger type factor of small cell equipment, physical constraints should be an early and primary guideline for aesthetic concealment in cities.

It should be noted that smart poles are a part of a smart ecosystem and no single company can go at this alone. We are constantly asked if CommScope has any plans to create IoT sensors, software, apps or services for smart poles and our answer is “no, we need an ecosystem.” put simply, these interconnected products and services require multiple players to work harmonical to offer complex services.

This is why the industry must support an open ecosystem that enables customers to decide on their own edge devices, software, and cloud providers. This is notably important because of the long lifecycle (decades) of public projects compared to typical enterprise (years) engagements. Additionally, regulatory guidelines should also be considered.

At CommScope, we offer the physical layer for smart poles and do that exceptionally well. This starts with the fiber and copper solutions connecting all the racks inside a data center. From there, we offer outside fiber solutions to connect these data centers to the central offices (head ends) for the carriers and to the business/home or macro/metro cell tower. At these endpoints, we usually see the conversion from wireline to licensed or unlicensed spectrum wireless.

These wireless networks also are experiencing constant changes where licensed (4G/5G) and unlicensed (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, etc.) are commencing to converge. For instance, smart buildings are expected to produce reliable cellular coverage within the building along with ubiquitous Wi-Fi and support for IoT wireless networks. Add the upcoming CBRS private networking play and we shortly realize we are building multiple networks under one roof – all delivering ones and zeros to endpoints. How can all these networks converge in the future?

By providing the connectivity piece in this advanced puzzle, CommScope adds tremendous value to the client. we will still build out our ecosystem so we can provide complete solutions with our partners. So, the next time you read something regarding IoT, 5G or smart city projects, know that we at CommScope are providing the wired and wireless connectivity to make the world even smarter with our #smartcityconnectivity

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The post CommScope Explains What IoT, 5G, and Smart Cities All Have In Common appeared first on MEC Networks Corporation.

Where is the Philippine ICT Heading in 2020?

MEC Digital — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 03:22:14 +0000

Where is the Philippine ICT Heading in 2020?

Philippines is becoming one of the emerging tech regions in Asia as strong public investments are expected to support the country’s economic growth. More than ever, the Philippine Government recognizes the need for strengthening efforts to widen the reach of ICT in the Philippines. In line with this, P5.2 billion is allocated for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for 2020 to support its efforts in rolling out interconnectivity and data security programs.

Of the overall budget, P1.1 billion will be used to install free WiFi in public places. Some P280 million will be used to fund free Wi-Fi facilities in state universities and colleges while P196 million will be for the National Broadband Plan.

Furthermore, it is also envisioned that around P295 million is needed on creating the National Government Data Center (NGDC) which will serve as the physical infrastructure that will interconnect government agencies through centralized data centers, servers, and storage facilities.

The Market Potential of ICT in the Philippines

According to the 2015 Frost & Sullivan report, there is going to be a shift in total spending in the ASEAN IOT Market. Singapore, the undisputed leader with 44.25% of total IoT spending, will drop by close to the 50%

Singapore 2015

44.25%

Singapore 2020

50%

while the Philippines share will increase by 12%. This only means one thing, the Philippine IoT spending is forecasted to grow from US $55.1M in 2014 to a staggering US $766.8M in 2020. We are about to see the emergence of Philippine’s ICT Market.

Philippines 2015

12.56%

Philippines 2020

24.65%

Considering that the Philippines is a country with a young population that is in the process of building its ICT market, it is poised at creating a government, as well as companies, that are actively looking for partners in the ICT space.

Key Areas in ICT Development:

Back in 2014, Manufacturing and Logistics has the biggest share of spending in ICT. However, the sectors of banking, healthcare and smart city hold a lot of promise for future investments of ICT.

Banking

In a study done by the World Bank, it is said that 69% of Filipinos did not have bank accounts in 2014. This factor, combined with the rise of online shopping, presents a gigantic opportunity for e-wallet operators in the ICT space, as they could easily claim roughly two-thirds of the Philippine population as potential customers.

Healthcare

Meanwhile, in the latest Philippine Statistics Authority report, health-related expenditures pose an 8.3% increase in total spending in 2018 compared to the previous year contributing 4.6% to the country’s GDP. In effect, the Philippine government has been also actively looking at ICT services for healthcare solutions in an effort to provide a sufficient level of health care, especially to rural areas and spread-out island communities.

Smart Cities and Infrastructure

Smart Cities are an important component in growing digital economies, as it incorporates sustainable growth and deep technological integration into the country as well as giving substantial economic boost. The Philippines have planned for multiple smart city projects that will be launched over the next decade such as the New Manila Bay City of Pearl and New Clark City being the core developments. The New Clark City alone is predicted to contribute an additional USD$31 billion to the country’s GDP.

Factors Driving ICT Spending Increases in 2020

Upgrading Infrastructure

We are all aware that the world of technology is fuelled by continuous advancements. Upgrading ICT infrastructures, which remains to be the main driver of ICT spending increase, is an imperative for businesses because keeping legacy ICT infrastructures can expose your business to risks like system downtimes, decreased productivity, security issues, and increased cost.

Growing Security Concerns

The threat of cyberattacks remains as one of the biggest challenges that the Philippines is facing nowadays. The growing number of aggressive and malicious hackers targeting businesses is not to be shrugged off. A study by Frost & Sullivan states that a large-sized organization in the Philippines can possibly incur an economic loss of $7.5 million, more than 200 times higher than the average economic loss for a midsized organization ($35,000). Organizations should invest in a robust unified threat management system that protects their most valuable assets, data and information.

Employee Growth

The abundance of human and talent resources in the Philippines presents an under-tapped national asset that is ripe for mobilization. Building a thriving ICT ecosystem requires a mechanism to complement this opportunity with a conducive policy and business environment that can optimize productivity and increase competitiveness. For instance, ICT innovations, such as higher broadband speeds first introduced through the BPO sector’s rigorous global requirements, are slowly becoming mainstream requirement in other industries like banking, education, the government, and even at home.

Ready to Get Started?

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In the end, we at MEC look forward to how the private and government sectors will strengthen the partnership and move past industry boundaries to build on the momentum of digital growth that will promote balanced regulation, empowered innovative endeavors, and boosted competitiveness for inclusive growth of all Filipinos.

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Cloud-based Internet Access in the Philippines by Ruckus

MEC Digital — Wed, 08 May 2019 23:26:14 +0000

Ruckus Networks announced that Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi, a cloud-managed Enterprise Wi-Fi solution is now available in the Philippines and in the remainder of the Asia Pacific region.

Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi allows network administrators to manage multiple locations through a single web- or mobile app-based dashboard. This solution is designed to help ‘Lean IT’ staff at schools, retail, professional services, warehouses, and hotels effectively manage a multi-site network while delivering exceptional connectivity for students, guests, and customers.

Additionally, it allows organizations to lessen their total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to other solutions by matching cloud efficiency with high-performance access points (APs) that serve more users over a wider area.

The Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi solution offers short videos to show its new features. It also has a network to auto-update and remain secure, informing them through text messages and push notifications through a mobile app of any outages.

Designed to be simple and scalable, Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi allows businesses of all sizes to deploy and remotely oversee Wi-Fi networks across multiple sites. With just a single interface to create new Wi-Fi networks, add access points, and manage network performance and activity, the solution lets administrators manage from anywhere via a simple and intuitive, web-based interface or the Ruckus Cloud mobile app.

“As organizations in the Asia Pacific region undergo digital transformation, reliable and high-performance Wi-Fi is a must to accelerate growth and improve operational efficiencies,” said Kho Teck Meng, regional sales director, Asean, for Ruckus Networks. “By using the same enterprise-grade technology present in all of our installations, customers now have access to a combination of simplicity and performance that wasn’t previously available. We look forward to helping our partners across the region drive greater value for their customers with a solution that is easy to deploy and manage,” added Meng.

The solution is the first foundational service of the many software-as-service offerings by Ruckus Network.

Ruckus Cloud-Wifi is now available in the Asia Pacific Region.

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