From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
History was made today when the first Irish international holographic call was carried out between Ireland and Vodafone’s Innovation Centre in Germany using 5G technology.
Hosted by Vodafone Ireland’s CEO, Anne O’Leary, the holographic call involved a Q&A session with Max Gasparroni, Vodafone Ireland’s Interim CTO, who was in Germany, using fully standardised 5G technology.
It was part of Vodafone Ireland’s launch of first live 5G network site open for trials in Dublin’s Docklands.
The network consists of fully standardised Ericsson 5G being deployed over Vodafone
Ireland’s recently acquired 5G spectrum.
Vodafone Ireland said it will use this site to trial the latest 5G hardware, software and services as they become available in advance of 5G products hitting the market, and will continue to expand coverage in the area over the coming months.
The firm said the first Irish international holographic call was a demonstration of the type of possibilities that can be achieved on 5G, which could become an everyday future reality across business and society in Ireland.
Benefits include robotic surgery, driverless cars and real time virtual gaming on the move, Vodafone Ireland said.
Vodafone and Ericsson have also partnered with NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, to create a new 5G accelerator programme.
Through the nationwide programme, participants will have the opportunity to develop and enhance their business plans and validate the commercial potential and technical feasibility of innovative 5G enabled products and services.
Earlier this year, Mr Gasparroni told the Irish Examiner what 5G would mean for everyday life once it became mainstream.
“5G is the next generation of mobile technology, built upon the foundation of 4G. What will it do? It will provide four main features, essentially. "That is, ultra-high speeds, firstly. The second feature is that you will be able to connect a huge amount of devices. Thirdly, it will increase the reliability of the connection. Fourthly, it will mean very low latency. These four features mean an improvement of what we currently have on 4G.
5G will enable for the everyday user — that is someone in the normal sense, someone with a smartphone, or a device with the Internet of Things (IoT) — to unlock a plethora of new use cases. We classify the use cases broadly into four categories. The ultra-high speeds will enable use cases like broadband in media.
“So it could be 4K media streaming, video analytics, holograms — very high definition video download and upload, with continuous progress in terms of screen resolutions enhancing what can be transmitted.
“It will enable the massive adoption of the Internet of Things, where you have a number of devices connected.
"It could be a car, it could be a fridge inside your home, smart meters, smart lighting. What it does is build on narrow-band IoT technology as part of the 4G,” he said.
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
By Eamon Quinn
Vodafone revenue growth in Ireland in the latest quarter outpaced many of its other areas in Europe even as it posted sharp falls in much larger markets in Italy and Spain.
A pledge to cut costs, however, sent the share of the mobile phone giant sharply higher.
They surged over 8% in London, paring losses over the past year to 22%, after its new chief executive Nick Read said he would reduce operating costs by €1.2bn by 2021, and review its mobile phone tower assets to drive higher returns.
It reported group service revenue of over €10.9bn in the three months to the end of September, of which over €7.58bn was sourced from its European operations, including its huge markets of Germany, UK, Italy, and Spain.
In Ireland, part of its “other Europe” territories of businesses, it posted over €241m in revenues in the quarter, up 3.3% from a year earlier on an underlying basis — compared with growth rates of 1.1% in Portugal and 1.2% growth in Greece.
Other big mainland European markets fared poorly. In Spain, it posted a 7.2% fall in service revenues to around €1.1bn. Revenues in Italy fell 6.3% to €1.26bn.
Mr Read said he had taken decisive action to respond to challenging conditions in Italy and Spain, and would reduce Vodafone’s costs for the third year running.
The group figures showed it was operating generally in line with analysts forecasts and said it would freeze the dividend until it reduced its debt pile, easing worries over a possible cut.
“The reason why the share price is up [Tuesday] is upgraded guidance for free cash flow… Essentially it is the pot of money that is used to pay back debt and pay the dividend,” said Helal Miah, analyst at The Share Centre.
“Having a bigger pot of money raises hopes that the dividend isn’t going to be cut,” he said.
The shares had fallen sharply since the beginning of the year as investors fret about the cost of acquiring John Malone’s Liberty Global’s cable assets in Germany, the outlay on new spectrum for 5G services, and tougher conditions in some European markets.
Mr Read laid out first priorities that included delivering more consistent results and getting more out of Vodafone’s infrastructure.
He said he was forming a company to house its 58,000 telecom towers in Europe to cut operating costs and was considering the best strategic options for its tower assets.
“We’ll explore all options,” Mr Read said, saying the towers were the first step to improving the way Vodafone uses its assets to improve shareholder returns.
Analysts at Bernstein said the results were “expectedly wretched”.
But they added that the full-year earnings guidance, the upgrade to free cash flow and the commitment to the dividend were “all positive and good news for investors in this beleaguered name”.
- Additional reporting Reuters and Bloomberg
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here