5G and the Internet of Things: How does it fit together?

Richard Edgar, director of communications technology for Imagination Technologies, recently talked with RCR Wireless News Managing Editor Sean Kinney about the company’s work in the wireless/IP space, as well as the research and development going into 5G mobile networks and how the Internet of Things will take shape.

Earlier this year, Imagination Technologies joined the 5G Innovation Centre R&D collaboration at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Other 5G Innovation Centre partners include BT, EE, Huawei, Samsung, Fujitsu, Telefonica and Vodafone.

“It’s a wide spectrum of companies who all bring a different perspective to the market,” Edgar said. “The whole idea is to develop some standards. The idea is that over the next two, three years, they will have a fully working 5G testbed where all the various things that are being proposed and thught about for 5G can be tested in a real world environment.”

Imagination is putting in IP support 5G testing, as well as dedicating staff to the researchers. “We will be able to provide a platform that enables everybody involved to test a fully working 5G network in advance of real deployment,” Edgar said.

On IoT, Edgar explained that different use cases would require different networks. “If Im’m trying to do a smart grid out in a field in the middle of the Mid West, then cellular becomes the IoT device of choice. But in the house, I suspect that either Wi-Fi or 15.4…they may well become the wireless standard of choice. Effectively, it will become a mixture of all of those. I do think that over the next few years there will be a slow evolution where we actually work out what is the right technology for the application. It all comes down at the end of the day to how people interact.”

Watch the entire interview here.

Stuck in traffic or video blocked at work? Check out the HetNet Happenings podcast.

For previous episodes of HetNet Happenings, as well as other RCRtv productions, click here.

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Azimuth Webinar: LTE-A, HetNet, Small Cells – What you absolutely need to know

The demand for high speed, ubiquitous data is increasing. The industry is looking to LTE-A and emerging technologies to addresses this need. LTE-A addresses this need through a revolutionary approach that leverages multiple simultaneous connections (such as carrier aggregation), network densification, and HetNet. LTE-A involves a drastic change in how networks and devices are deployed.

One of the consequences of network densification is a significant increase in overall interference. A variety of interference mitigation techniques such as xICIC (ICIC, eICIC, FeICIC), SON, advanced interference cancellation receivers etc. have been developed to enable operation in this interference dominated environment.

As a consequence of the network paradigm change and the increasing complexity, existing test solutions become inadequate for testing LTE-A HetNet.

This webinar will cover:

• The evolution from LTE to LTE-A


• An introduction to LTE-A HetNet, Small cells


• LTE-A Interference mitigation techniques


• Requirements and solutions for testing LTE-A and HetNets

Speakers:
Dr. Charles Wright, Chief Scientist & Director of Systems Engineering, Azimuth
Vivek Vadakkuppattu, VP of Product Management & Marketing, Azimuth

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Telecom big data resume: Three examples

With nearly a thousand jobs currently listed for telecom data analysts on Indeed and companies scrambling to design and implement big data strategies at telecom companies, a polished resume is a strong step toward a position in telecom’s big data boom.

Robert Half Technology categorized big data engineers as one of their six high-paying careers in tech in 2015 that also had rising salaries, expecting to see big data engineers get a boost in their already-strong starting salaries of $119,250 to $168,250.

“As organizations of all types launch or advance big data initiatives, many will look to hire experienced engineers who can communicate with business users and data scientists, and translate business objectives into data processing workflows,” the company concluded.

The first step to a big data job, or a new position, is a solid resume. RCR collected three examples of telecom big data resumes listed below, ranging from an experienced technologist to a soon-to-be-college graduate seeking an entry-level position. Skills, including specifics of programming languages, vendor specificity, and broad expertise are sought by many companies — but soft skills, including good communications and ability to work as part of a team, are also asked of data science experts. For students and recent graduates, mentioning coursework in the related subject areas as well as specific projects and tools used can help get a foot in the door.

Telecom Big Data Resume Example 1:

John A. Smith

123-456-7890

email@email.com

SUMMARY:

8+ Years of extensive experience which includes big data and big data analytics in the content management and telecom domains.

First point of contact for R&D activities and critical problems.

In-depth understanding of Data Structure and Algorithms.

Experienced in:

• Installing, configuring, and administrating Hadoop cluster of major Hadoop distributions.


• Hands-on experience in writing MapReduce jobs in Java, Pig and Python.


• Working with Java, C++ and C.


• Extensive experience in designing analytical / OLAP and transactional / OLTP databases.


• Hadoop applications, including administration, configuration management, debugging, and performance tuning.


• Deploying applications in heterogeneous application servers.


• Creating web-based applications using ActiveXControls, JSP, Servlets


• Creating web pages using HTML, DHTML, Java Script, VB Script and CSS

Excellent analytical, problem solving, communication and interpersonal skills with ability to interact with individuals and work as part of a team or independently. Effective at communications with all levels of an organization, including technical, customers and management.

Ability to perform at a high level, meet deadlines, adaptable to ever changing priorities.

Education: Bachelors in Computer Science, University A

Technical Summary

Big Data Ecosystem:

Expertise in Hadoop, MapReduce, HDFS, HBase, Zookeeper, Hive, Pig, Sqoop, Cassandra,Oozie, Flume, Chukwa, Pentaho Kettle and Hortonworks Talend

Ingestion tools including NetBeans, Eclipse, WSAD, RAD

Deep understanding of :

Java 5, Java 6, JAXP, AJAX, I18N, JFC Swing, Log4j, Java Help API; JSP 2.1 Servlets 2.3, JDBC 2.0,JNDI, XML, JAXP, and Java Beans

Agile, UML, Design Patterns

Ajax, Struts 2.0, JUnit, log4j 1.2, MOCK OBJECTS, Hibernate

Oracle 10g, DB2,MySQL

Apache Tomcat 5.x 6.0, Jboss 4.0

SQL developer, DB visualize

Additional tools: HTML, Java Script, XML, DTD, Schemas, XSL, XSLT, XPath, DOM, XQuery

Previous Roles:

Company B

Ooctober 2010-Present

Title: Hadoop developer

Responsibilities:

• Installed and configured HadoopMapReduce, HDFS, Developed multiple MapReduce jobs in java for data cleaning and processing.


• Importing and exporting data into HDFS and Hive using Sqoop


• Defining job flows


• Managing and reviewing Hadoop log files


• Running Hadoop streaming jobs to process terabytes of xml format data


• Loading and transforming large sets of structured, semi structured and unstructured data


• Managing data coming from different sources


• Jobs management using Fair Scheduler


• Cluster coordination


• Automating data jobs

Company C, September 2007-October 2010

Title: Java Developer

Responsibilities:

• Understanding the scope of the project and requirement gathering.


• Developing web tier using JSP, Struts MVC to show account details and summary.


• Created and maintained the configuration of the Spring Application Framework (IoC).


• Implemented various design patterns – Singleton, Business Delegate, Value Object and Spring DAO.


• Mapped business objects to database using Hibernate.


• Involved in writing Spring Configuration XML files that contains declarations and other dependent objects declaration.


• Used Tomcat web server for development purposes.


• Used Oracle as Database and used Toad for queries execution.


• Write SQL scripts and PL/SQL code for procedures.


• Involved in creation of test cases.

Certifications

Hortonworks Certified Hadoop Administrator, 2011

Hortonworks Certified Hadoop Developer, 2011

Cloudera Certified Hadoop Developer, 2010

Cloudera Certified Hadoop Administrator, 2010

Telecom Big Data Resume #2

Summary

I have 15 years of experience in Predictive Analytics, Informatics, and Visualization. I am a fairly hands-on technical manager with a penchant for strategic business thinking. While I had started my career in the business intelligence domain, much of my recent work has been in predictive analytics. I have worked as a Vice President in Analytics & Technology, grown large analytics teams, and managed analytics business. The bulk of my work has been in the telecommunications domain with a focus on business intelligence.

Key Accomplishments

• Implemented cross-selling analytics initiatives which have shown 32 percent CAGR increase in revenues for specific products


• Developed a contributed value and risk adjusted marketing offer optimization framework with yearly impact of $7 MM a year


• Managed delivery of cross-sell, upsell and retention marketing strategies & models across clients in multiple domains


• Big Data Solution “Skills Tracker” potential solution for collecting data and reporting for individual employees


• Developed analytics and strategy to integrate debt collection analytics in outbound calling operations


• Implemented analytics delivery on cloud-based visualization platform


• Structured a Value added Reseller agreement with a BI platform vendor to provide domain-specific mobile analytics solution


• Played the role of data architecture steward across global implementation of CRM Analytics data


• Delivered 10x impact from high-valued analytics consulting engagements for multiple clients

Tools and Techniques

• Technologies: SAS Enterprise Guide, R, Octave, Mat lab, CART-MARS


• Supervised: Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, Decision Trees


• Unsupervised: K-means clustering, Anomaly Detection, Recommender Engine


• Business/ Mobile Intelligence: MicroStrategy 9.x, Business Objects XI, MS Analysis Server 2000


• Big Data Visualization: Tableau Public 8.0, IBM Many Eyes, Processing


• Data Sources: Oracle 10i, SQL Server 2000, SQLite, MySQL, SAS, JSON


• Programming: Python 2.7.x, SQL, In memory databases, Hadoop and Big Data Framework


• ETL: Informatica 4.x, Oracle Warehouse Builder 8.x, SQL Server DTS

Education

• Master of Science, 2000, University A, USA


• Bachelor of Technology, 1996, College B, USA

Career Progression

• Big Data Analytics & Strategy Independent Consultant, 2013-present


• Company R, Vice President-Decision Analytics, Transformation Business, December 2009-April 2013


• Assistant Vice President, October 2005-June 2007


• Company G, Senior Manager, October 2003-September 2005


• Company G, Technical Manager, October 2002-October 2003


• Company F, Technical Support Engineer, Anytown USA, June 2000 to October 2002

Certifications

• DMAIC Six Sigma Training


• SAS workshop in CRM through Data Mining

Telecom Big Data Resume #3:

R. Patel

email@email.com

987-654-3210

Summary: I’m an ambitious, self-motivated individual with a strong attention to detail. I’m able to easily meet deadlines and am comfortable working remotely as well as on-site.

I’m actively seeking internships in data analytics, business intelligence and big data for the spring and summer of 2016. I am currently a student at University B in Anytown, U.S. and will be graduating in May 2016 with a Master’s degree in Business Analytics.

Experience

Software Engineering Intern

Company C

May-September 2013

• Worked on development of company web site and search engine.


• Accountable for all ‘Service Level Agreement’ (SLA) changes sought by the requestor


• Responsible for planning & scheduling releases


• Work closely with Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management, the Support Center, Service Delivery processes, and the security group


• Environment: Visual Studio 2010, C#, .NET, ASP.NET, AJAX, Microsoft SQL Server 2010, JavaScript

Skills:

MySQL

JavaScript

C

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office

Education:

University of A

Master of Science (M.S.), Business Analytics

2015 – 2016

Predictive and descriptive analytics using tools like SAS, Stata, and Tableu. Academic project to predict the effect of parks and open spaces to the crime resolution rate in City C. Also involved in Analytics and Business Intelligence Society.

College B

Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Information Technology

2009 – 2013

Organizing member of a national technical event in 2013. Academic project to provide Internet access on phones without GPRS/EDGE connectivity. Constructed a database system for related work called My DateBase Name.

Courses

University A

• Applied Econometrics


• Business Intelligence using SAS


• Database Foundation


• Quantitative Intro to Risk and Uncertainty in Business


• Financial Management


• Accounting for Managers


• Quantitative Methods in Finance


• Prescriptive Analytics

Certifications:

Certified Ethical Hacker

Projects

Analysis of Crime Rates in City A, April 2014

Analyzed publicly available city crime data and found a relation between number of parks in the area and green coverage to the crime rate, using SAS Enterprise Miner. Predictive models like regression and decision trees were used.

Awards

Dean’s Scholarship

University A, received January 2013

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Carriers cooperate, Samsung launches payment app … 5 things to know today

5 things to know today this Monday …

1. The scramble for unlicensed spectrum is turning enemies into allies, as the carriers team up to promote LTE in the 5 GHz spectrum band currently used by Wi-Fi. Today Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US joined Qualcomm and Alcatel-Lucent in announcing a new media campaign called Evolve Mobile. The carriers say that bringing LTE to unlicensed spectrum will NOT degrade the quality of Wi-Fi. All the companies in the Evolve coalition have invested heavily in Wi-Fi, and in a press conference today they stressed the fact that LTE in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) will not compete with Wi-Fi.

The group referenced “mountains” of test results, saying tests have shown that “when tested together, Wi-Fi performed the same or even better with LTE-U than Wi-Fi does alone.” Nonetheless, carriers are worried that the Federal Communications Commission will try to regulate unlicensed spectrum and are working to educate the public in hopes that the FCC will not hear a public outcry to protect the 5 GHz band.

CTIA and The Competitive Carriers Association are also part of the Evolve alliance. CCA president Steven Berry said that LTE-U would be very helpful to the rural carriers in covering places and events that see dense traffic, like high school football games.

2. Apple broke its previous opening weekend sales record, selling 13 million new iPhones this weekend through carriers, third party retailers, and its own Apple stores. For the first time Apple is offering the iPhone under its own installment plan, giving customers the chance to pay unlocked iPhones from Apple and pay for them month-by-month.

3. Samsung Pay launches today in the United States. The mobile payment platform works on the more recent Galaxy smartphones, and on all nationwide carriers except Verizon Wireless. Visa and MasterCard have partnered with Samsung Pay, but so far American Express has not.

4. Facebook is launching new mobile-friendly ads, primarily for Instagram.Facebook’s Instagram app already generates more than $7 billion a year in mobile ad revenue. Now Facebook is trying to convince advertisers to shift their TV budgets to mobile.

5. Ericsson has released the latest edition of Microwave Towards 2020, saying that microwave will trump fiber as a backhaul choice for many wireless deployments, largely because fiber is not universally available. Ericsson predicts that by 2020, 65% of all cell sites will be connected by microwave solutions. The firm predicts a much lower percentage in countries with significant fiber infrastructure in place: China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Our featured job today comes from Global Recruiters of Blackhawk. The company’s client is looking for a Chief Financial Officer in the greater Boston area. Please view this role and other executive-level opportunities on LinkedIn. Send resume to Paul Harris at pharris@grnblackhawk.com or call Paul at 925.804.6211

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Test and Measurement: Pilot testing for Spectrum Access System sensor

Federated Wireless is pilot-testing a new Spectrum Access System sensor in partnership with the National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network to accelerate the development of a system supporting spectrum sharing with multiple access types.

The company focuses on sharing licensed spectrum and has a three-tiered SAS; Federated Wirelss spoke on the topic of spectrum sharing at 3.5 GHz at the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Techniques earlier this year(see RCR’s coverage here).

Federated Wireless said the pilot test of an Environmental Sensor Capability for its SAS is an important milestone and that the testing and validation “will help to accelerate the certification of a spectrum access services solution with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Defense (DoD), and ready the technology’s deployment.”

NASCTN was established earlier this year as a partnership among several federal agencies, including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the DoD as well as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to explore spectrum sharing testing.

– Anritsu says new software packages launched this week make it the first vendor to offer a single-instrument system that supports 4-component carriers for LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation, with its MT8821C Radio Communication Analyzer. The equipment enables 4CA testing with 2×2 MIMO as well as testing of Category 11 devices (supporting up to 600 Mbps) and 13 devices. Data throughput tests up to 600 Mbps can be conducted. One of the packages includes a Voice over LTE voice-loopback option and supports power consumption and SAR tests during VoLTE calls and voice function tests.

Rohde & Schwarz and Prisma Telecom Testing collaborated to demonstrate 4-component-carrier testing capabilities at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, which involved multiple units in their set-up.

–Keysight Technologies launched new equipment for testing the higher data and power transfer abilities that are being demanded of busses in consumer electronics, such as USB 3.1 Gen 2 and other Type-C connectors, as well its third software donation this year to support electronics engineering education in South Korea.

–Tektronix has added automated support for 100G optical networking, aimed at simplifying conformance testing for the new 802.3b standard from IEEE for interoperability in 100G networks. Tektronix said the new solution offers the industry’s first fully automated Transmitter Dispersion Eye Closure (TDEC) measurement, as well as its 100GBASE-SR4 conformance test solution for making sure that new designs conform to the optical spec.

Tektronix will be highlighting its 100G and 400G testing solutions at ECOC 2015 next week.

– The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has a new white paper out on mobile edge computing and its implications for the network as technology evolves toward 5G, including a proof-of-concept framework specification. According to ETSI, MEC “is characterized by low latency, proximity, high bandwidth and real-time insight into radio network information and location awareness” and has implications for the connected car, intelligent video acceleration, gaming, the “Internet of Things” and more.

ETSI has established an industry specification group on MEC which started work in late 2014 and is in the process of “developing terminology, service scenarios, technical requirements (including use cases and their benefits) and a framework and reference architecture,” according to ETSI; once that’s done, they’ll start working on APIs, platform services and interfaces. Check out the white paper (pdf), and more information on the ISG MEC and its work here.

–Rohde & Schwarz‘ Broadcast Test Center has new compliance test support. The system is already being used in Thailand and Vietnam by telecommunications authorities.

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Report: T-Mobile US is best ‘all-around’ carrier

Network metrics weren’t as good as Verizon Wireless, but T-Mobile still edged out No. 1 carrier

Tech reviewer Tom’s Guide, in a comparison of nine wireless carriers, concluded that T-Mobile US is the best “all-around” carrier based on a combination of its performance, plans, customer service, phone selection and extras.

Tom’s weighted each of those categories on a 100-point scale, which resulted in T-Mobile US coming out on top.

T-Mobile US came out with 91 out of 100 points, compared to Verizon Wireless with 89 out of 100 points, AT&T with 85 out of 100 points and Sprint with 77 out of 100 points. Metro PCS and Boost Mobile tied for 5th place with 69 out of 100 points and Virgin Mobile, Straight Talk and Cricket, in descending order, rounded out the list.

Sprint edged out T-Mobile US in Tom’s Guide review of network quality, but T-Mobile US’ performance in the other metrics brought to the top of the list.

“T-Mobile didn’t top our network performance tests,” reviews wrote, “but it finished second to Verizon, making it a great choice in cities where customers can best enjoy its mix of performance, price and customer service. (T-Mobile’s network has not traditionally fared as well outside of cities, but it is making progress with extended range LTE.) T-Mobile CEO John Legere likes to accuse other carriers of following his company’s lead. Based on our evaluation, that would be a wise strategy.”

Tom’s Guide wrote that T-Mobile pros were “lots of data at competitive prices; perks like free music streaming and rollover data; strong network performance in many cities; [and]good for international travel.”

Cons were performance outside of cities not being comparable to Verizon and AT&T, while customer support testing reviews “finished behind other major carriers.”

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Sprint, others fined $1.4M by FCC related to 911 calls

FCC has fined service providers more than $40 million this year for 911 failures

Keeping up its aggressive penalization of carriers who fail to properly handle 911 traffic, the Federal Communications Commission on Sept. 24 fined Sprint, Hamilton Relay and InnoCaption a collective $1.4 million for failing to handle 911 calls from people with hearing problems.

The FCC said in a statement that the companies “were not only unable to relay 911 calls from Americans who are hard of hearing but were unaware of this issue until a commission investigation revealed the problem.”

People with hearing problems can use Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) that allows a person to listen while also receiving text captioning of the conversation.

Sprint, Hamilton and InnoCaption did not support the service for up to 10 months, according to the FCC.

FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said, “All Americans must be able to reach 911 in an emergency. Today’s settlements reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the hard of hearing community has essential 911 service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not only are we fining these companies for failing to provide this vital services, but we are assuring that they provide it going forward.”

The service breakdown was noticed when FCC investigators placed test calls in 2014. The three companies agreed they violated FCC rules and adopted compliance plans.

Sprint will pay $1.175 million, Hamilton will pay $235,000 and InnoCaption will pay $25,000.

In just the past few months, the FCC has fined operators more than $40 million related to 911 issues.

The FCC has prioritized upgrades to the nationwide 911 system, including mandates for more accurate indoor locating technology.

In an August speech, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pointed to the fines as evidence of the organization’s commitment to public safety.

“In the last 4 months, we have issued almost $40 million in penalties for outages that left millions of consumers unable to reach 911 for hours at a time. I cannot imagine a more harrowing experience than desperately needing to call 911 because a loved one needs medical attention, only to pick up the phone and hear … nothing. We won’t stand for it.”

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AT&T: Smart cities are the future

AT&T smart cities GM talks saving money and energy with technology adoption

The United Nations estimates that in the next 15 years the number of people living in cities globally will reach 5 billion. The first time in all of recorded history the urban population has reached this high, it will also be the first time ever that urban populations outnumber rural ones. Growing populations and diminishing resources have led to several metropolitan governments, private organizations and even the U.S. government to embrace the idea of smart cities.

AT&T has begun its own investment into the field of smart cities technology. To learn more about AT&T’s efforts, RCR Wireless News sat down with Mike Zeto, general manager of the AT&T Smart Cities Organization.

“It’s a real exciting time for AT&T. We’ve had a lot of success over the years in the Internet of Things area of our business. We are the leader in the U.S., and some would say globally, as the provider for Internet of Things solutions for telecommunications. The natural progression of that is to move into vertical areas that use underlying Internet of Things technologies and communication solution’s like smart cities.”

Zeto explained how AT&T has formed a dedicated organization under his direction within AT&T’s IoT business unit to develop smart city technologies. Zeto said the approach is to look for multi-faceted ways to develop smart infrastructure, “looking at ways we can drive smart city applications that can solve problems for the cities and the citizens.” The technologies that Zeto and his colleges are developing are modular so the tech can serve a variety of different purposes across multiple systems, including sanitation, traffic control and public safety.

These systems include smart lighting, a system that uses an app to view and manage lights remotely. With smart parking, parking garages have lights that only turn on when a car approaches. Smart traffic signals organize traffic flow based on the number of vehicles and pedestrian. Public safety sensors, such as gunfire detection technology, lets law enforcement know where a shooting occurred, rounds fired and number of people involved. Smart buildings, structures with motion sensor lights, can dim or shut off when a room is empty, while water meters can alert maintenance of leaking pipes and electric meters monitor energy use and alert when it reaches a specific threshold.

These systems are designed to save money and energy and help them deliver services more efficiently. However, Zeto noted that his unit cannot build a smart city alone. “There’s a lot of partners that need to come together to create a successful solution. AT&T is one of them and I feel like we have the ability to lead large alliances and drive successful IoT ecosystems because we have long standing relationships with cities as a technology provider going back fifty years.”

Zeto is upbeat on the prospect of increased investment, both public and private, in smart cities technologies, pointing out that the U.S. government has recently committed $160 million for investment in smart cities. “I think that $160 million will help to fund and seed some of the growth so the technology providers can start to test and quantify what the benefits of (smart cities) technologies will be.”

Zeto is also adamant that AT&T takes the concerns of cyber security for these systems they are developing very seriously. He explained that security is at the forefront of their design process and said, “Frankly we’re doing a lot of our investment around security. We feel and we know based on testing and our position in the market we have the most secure scalable network that’s out there today.”

Zeto doesn’t foresee the move toward smart cities reversing: “Many cities both large and small, as well as research universities, have started to lead the way in looking at these solutions.”

Zeto went on to say, “It will take a while to roll out solutions in a building block approach and get them to scale. Were at the beginning of a journey and that’s something everybody needs to keep in mind.”

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Kagan: Upgrade to Apple iOS9 or wait?

Last week when iOS9 came out I upgraded my Apple iPhone 6. It worked. In fact, things went so well that this morning I upgraded an iPhone 5S and an iPad. Big mistake. That’s when I was hit by an Apple tidal wave so big it would make the Titanic feel like it was just caught in a sun shower. So should you update now or wait a while for the bugs to be worked out? That’s the million-dollar question. Let me share with you what I learned after spending hours at the Apple store this morning.

I have lost all my data and apps on my devices. That’s a tragedy, but Apple said it’s not lost. It’s just unreadable. They tell me when a fix is created I will get them back. That’s better than losing all that information. However, the next question is how long will that take?

Don’t update to iOS9 from iOS7 or older

Bottom line, if you are currently using iOS8, then chances are better you will have a successful update to iOS9. However, if you currently use iOS7 or older, don’t even think about updating. Not until Apple creates and releases a fix for the massive problems this creates.

It would be nice if Apple would have warned us about this, don’t you think? I updated an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 5S, which both used iOS8. They both upgraded without problem. The problem came when updating an iPhone 5S and iPad using iOS7. When I did this, suddenly the phone didn’t talk to my cloud any longer.

What that means is the iPhone and iPad became bricks. After taking them to an Apple store they got them working again, but they were blank. I still have to manually install everything. Even then I won’t have any data. Basically all I had was a brand new and blank iPhone.

The rest of the story

The entire story was a lot more aggravating. It took a trip to an Apple store and spending several hours there earlier this morning. We had to forcefully update my iPhone and iPad several different times each. It seemed to work well until I tried to access my iCloud data. That’s when it froze and I had to update all over again.

There were many other people there complaining about the same thing. There was a big problem and there was no solution. I was there long enough that I think I understand what is going on.

Problem with no solution yet

So the new update to iOS9 seemed to work well when updating from iOS8. However, if you are using iOS7 or older, don’t even try. You will freeze your system and have to spend hours just getting the device to work again.

The Apple solution

According to the Apple staff, they now understand the problem and are working on a fix. When that fix comes out, it should solve the problems and you can go back to normal. Until that point, you are stuck. When will the fix come out, tomorrow, next week, next month?

So if you don’t need to update your operating system, play it safe and DON’T!

If you do want to update it, make sure you are currently at least using the most updated iOS8 version. And make sure you update everything before you update. Without that you are walking into a trap.

Either way, there are certain devices, which should not be updated yet like those that use iOS7 or older and are connected to iCloud.

The culprit seems to mainly be around the iCloud. If you don’t use it you may not have this problem.

Never upgrade early

I never upgrade quickly. I always wait months before upgrading. I know there will be problems and don’t want to get caught in the chaos and lose my data. As a wireless analyst I get lots of smartphones and tablets to test and compare from carriers and handset makers. These are the devices I typically update quickly to experience the thrill of the high-speed wipe out. What a rush!

However the wipe out is never that bad since these are only test devices and not my primary phones and tablets and such.

Never update when travelling

Last week I heard the iOS9 was ready to go so, without thinking, I updated my primary smartphone. Unfortunately, I realized too late that I never update one of my primary devices for this very reason.

Fortunately it worked. I say fortunately because I was travelling last week and would have been very angry if all of a sudden I couldn’t make a phone call, send a message or use an app.

I realized this was a mistake and highly risky after pressing the OK button. At that point there was no way to stop the update. Fortunately I dodged a bullet with that one. However, the other devices I updated this morning were a year older.

Apple should release updates on staggered basis

If Apple knew this and failed to warn users, they should be ashamed of themselves. Job No. 1 should be to protect the users. After all, they are the reason for your success. Apple always talks about how many of us update the iOS. That always sounds impressive. What they don’t tell us is whether it works.

So, if you didn’t update yet, stop. If you did and you dodged a bullet, congrats. If you did and you are now suffering, sorry. All you can do is wait for the Apple fix.

While that does not help anyone until the fix comes, at least we didn’t lose everything. At least we hope not. This is a helluva position for any of us to be in however, isn’t it? We have to remember a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Let’s hope Apple gets the fix out ASAP.

The post Kagan: Upgrade to Apple iOS9 or wait? appeared first on RCR Wireless News.

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Kagan: Upgrade to Apple iOS9 or wait?