The O2 arena will be turned into a testbed for 5G networks later this year, allowing visitors to experience the possibilities of next generation networks.

Operator O2, which has agreed a ten-year extension to its sponsorship of the iconic venue in North Greenwich, will start with select locations within the O2 before providing blanket coverage in 2020 – the same year that the first commercial 5G networks are expected to launch in the UK.

The testbed will be delivered using ‘Multi-Access Edge Computing’ (MEC) and will be configured for the virtualisation of core 5G technology. Nokia’s equipment will be used in the trial and the spectrum will be whatever O2 wins at the upcoming 5G auction, so most likely 3.4GHz.

O2 5G Testbed

O2’s ambition is to test various equipment and identify potential use cases for 5G, as well as to assess how the technology performs in live conditions. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and live streaming will be among the first applications to be tested.

“The O2 will become a live 5G test bed using trial frequencies and configurations,” said O2 COO Derek McManus before the 2018 BRIT Awards. “We will allow our customers to enjoy phenomenal speeds and capabilities at least two years before they come to market.

“Real customer participation in these trials will help us understand the standards and the use cases for consumers, businesses and the public sector.”

When asked by TechRadar Pro whether the main opportunity presented by 5G was cost reduction or new revenue streams, O2 CEO Mark Evans was adamant it was the latter.

“Each generation has been structurally more efficient,” he said. “When compared to 2G, 4G has 50 times the bandwidth. We’ll multiply that exponentially when it comes to 5G.

“The beauty is not the cost reduction, it opens up adjacent market opportunities such as Smart cities, remote health monitoring.”

O2 also plans to hold trials in all four UK nations – England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – before the commercial launch of 5G.

• Check out our list of the best mobile deals for February 2018 

With just about every image now lining up we’re very confident about what the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus will look like, and there’s now even more evidence of the design in the form of leaked photos and high-resolution renders.

The renders come courtesy of reputable leaker Roland Quandt, and show both phones from the front and back, with details including a dual-lens camera on the Galaxy S9 Plus, a single-lens one on the standard Galaxy S9, slim bezels above and below the curved screen and a likely glass back. They also show off both black and blue color schemes.

Other than the extra camera lens in the case of the S9 Plus and the repositioned fingerprint scanner, which now sits below the camera rather than to the right of it, the two phones look a whole lot like their predecessors.

From renders to real

Then we come to the actual photos , seemingly showing the standard Samsung Galaxy S9 and shared on Facebook by a Vietnamese mobile phone shop called Cườngmobile.

These aren’t quite as high quality as the renders but the details remain the same, and you can even see the phone booting up, with the words ‘Samsung Galaxy S9’ plastered across the screen.

As ever we can’t guarantee the accuracy of these leaks, but with these two sets matching each other as well as most of what we’ve seen before it seems very likely that they’re the real deal.

• The Galaxy S9 will be announced on February 25 and here's what you need to know

Via Android Community

While millions work in office environments where an iPhone or Galaxy phone work just fine, there is a segment of the population that functions in adverse environments where a glass sandwich phone just doesn't cut it. That's where Cat phones step in to shine.

It's not every day that a car manufacturer launches a smartphone, but that's exactly what British firm Land Rover has done as it's just introduced a rugged handset.

The Land Rover Explore is being billed as "the toughest phone in the world" and features IP68 water and dust resistance - the same as the Samsung Galaxy S8 - is drop proof to a height of 1.8 meters, and comes with a factory fitted screen protector.

It can also survive extreme temperature changes, including "freezing cold to blistering heat, thermal shock, intense humidity and vibration exposure."

A mammoth 4,000mAh battery is found inside to keep you going in remote locations, which Land Rover claims will give you two days of usage with the screen constantly on.

There's also the option of a 'Adventure Pack' that sticks magnetically to the rear of the handset to extend battery life with an additional 3.600mAh, as well as improving the Explore's GPS and mapping capabilities.

Sending out a SOS

A compass and SOS light have also been built into the Land Rover Explore, and the touchscreen display can be used when wet or when wearing gloves - two scenarios traditional smartphones struggle with. 

Other specs include a MediaTek Helio X27 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, 5-inch full HD display, Android 7 Nougat, 16MP rear camera and 8MP front snapper.

The handset was built with the help of the Bullitt Group, and the Land Rover Explore release date is set for April 26 with a price tag of £499 (around $695, AU$880).

• The best rugged smartphones of 2018

The iPhone X’s notch turned out to be the “next big thing” in phone design, but the next (next) big thing might not even be noticeable to the naked eye. ARM has developed new iSIM technology that might eventually see the trusty, but ever cumbersome SIM card going away for good.

But for now, temper those expectations as it’s making its debut in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This new SIM replacement is integrated right into the processor and thus, takes up far less space than even eSIM, the impressive SIM card-less tech recently used in the Google Pixel 2 and Apple Watch 3, let alone an entire SIM card slot. 

Conceptually, iSIM isn’t too different than the eSIM, though its dimensions are stark by comparison. Compared to ARM’s new tech that is said to be smaller than a “millimeter squared”, eSIM consumes 6 x 5mm of space inside of the phone – precious space that manufacturers could use to boost RAM or pack in a larger battery.

In with the new SIM

The main motivator behind the creation of iSIM is to make way for new hardware innovation, which given the diminutive size of many IoT devices, any extra space is a good thing. But the implications for the tech could (and will likely be) far-reaching into other product categories. 

Phones, wearables and tablets come to mind first, which would benefit greatly from iSIM technology from a hardware perspective, as mentioned earlier.

In addition to saving you the dreaded hassle of fussing with SIM cards, eliminating the need for a SIM card would save manufacturers some money, which are costly to produce – apparently around “tens of cents” each, according to a statement provided to The Verge. That might not sound like much, but any cash saved on SIM-related hardware could be allocated toward more titillating features.  

But there are other advantages at bay, like having your contacts, carrier settings and other pertinent account data stored securely on the iSIM, and by extension, the cloud, which presents a more formidable roadblock for phone thieves to penetrate.

Lastly, while several phone makers have figured out ways to make waterproof devices with SIM card slots, removing the manual SIM technology would make future smartphones more resilient to the elements.

We’ll likely see more phones adopting SIM-less features in the near future, perhaps with the Google Pixel 3 and the iPhone X2. Heck, maybe we’ll even see some MWC 2018 announcements ditching SIM altogether.

Via WCCF Tech