BRINGING 5G NR INTO UNLICENSED SPECTRUM: The private network opportunity

By Sean Kinney

DECEMBER 2020

Report sponsors: FEATURE REPORT

Introduction trum typically associated with Wi- of things deployments. Grand View Cellular connectivity is vital to Fi as a way to augment the capacity calls out robotics, camera systems consumers and enterprises. LTE provided by licensed frequencies. and industrial sensors as key appli- facilitated the transition of cellu- Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) cations and name checks industrial lar for talk and text to cellular as proved a boon for operators looking giants ABB, Siemens and Mercedes the connectivity medium for mo- to max out the capabilities of LTE Benz as early movers in the space. bile broadband which, in turn, fun- networks by aggregating licensed But beyond these large incum- damentally changed the way we spectrum with the unlicensed 5 bent players, there’s demand in interact with connected devices. GHz band. Similarly, MulteFire the small- and medium-sized enter- Although 5G has for some time tak- sparked significant interest in put- prise space as well which, for rele- en the lion’s share of hype in the ting cellular technologies to work vant network and solution vendors, telecoms sector--and rightfully so in the 5 GHz band in a standalone arguably presents a bigger, long- given that it will build on LTE while mode of operation in support of pri- term source of revenue. There are augmenting capabilities to support vate networking and similar types numerous deployment and imple- significantly higher throughput, of use cases for high-value indus- mentation models in play here but, markedly lower latency, the inter- trial sectors. Now, as 5G is evolving again, any cellular project relies on net of things at massive scale, and and scaling, bringing the latest gen- spectrum access and, given famil- all around power enterprise digital eration of cellular into unlicensed iarity with Wi-Fi systems using un- transformation--LTE is the work- spectrum represents a major oppor- licensed spectrum, there’s a strong horse of cellular for the time being. tunity for both operators and enter- case for its cellular analogs, both But whether focused on LTE or 5G, prises as they work independently LTE and 5G, to help support these the consummate bottleneck in net- and together on furthering digi- types of critical communications work capacity is the availability of tal transformation and making the use cases. In dissecting the market spectrum. While regulators around Industry 4.0 vision a reality. for private 5G, Grand View focus- the world are coordinating with the In its analysis, Grand View es on manufacturing, energy and telecoms industry on reallocating Research estimates the global val- utilities, transportation and logis- existing licensed spectrum, open- ue of 5G private networks at $919 tics, aerospace and defense, oil and ing up new frequencies for mobile million in 2020 and projects a com- gas, mining and the public sector. services, and liberalizing access to pound annual growth rate of near- As it relates to the outlook for unli- include operators and enterprise ly 40% between now and 2027. The censed spectrum to serve the needs interests, spectrum availability re- growth driver here is primarily the of these verticals, Grand View reck- mains a gating factor. need from the industrial sector for ons that “growth is attributed to Beginning with LTE, the telecoms network reliability, lower latency, the rising demand for high speed sector looked to unlicensed spec- and support for industrial internet private 5G networks at affordable

2 FEATURE REPORT

costs. Also, unlicensed spectrum other companies. They were specif- utilization plus higher capacity.” bandwidth is easily accessible and ically working to apply LTE-U to At the onset of LTE-U, one of the highly preferred [for] massive ma- 3GPP Releases 10, 11 and 12. key things that had to be worked chine-type communications.” ’s Xiaoxia Zhang has out was co-existence with Wi-Fi op- been working on cellular in un- erations. One of the primary issues A brief history of cellular technolo- licensed for more than a decade. here as it relates to LTE-U/Wi-Fi co- gies in unlicensed spectrum Reflecting on 3G, she noted that typ- existence is around requirements LTE-U ical phone usage was simply plac- for listen-before-talk. To give an ex- Extending cellular into unli- ing voice calls but that changed sig- ample, Europe and Japan require censed frequencies began crystal- nificantly with the advent of LTE. devices in unlicensed spectrum lizing in the 2013-2014 timeframe “At a certain point we realized that to implement listen-before-talk with LTE-Unlicensed. This is a tech- in order to increase wireless capac- whereas other places like the U.S. nology that was effectively invent- ity, we have two technical areas for and Korea don’t require that. In ed by Qualcomm engineers and was us to work on. One is how to engage terms of promoting fair co-exis- designed for operation in the 5 GHz more spectrum.” The other techni- tence in the band, LTE-U used a band. Much of this early work was cal area is large scale network den- MAC layer mechanism based on a done in the LTE-U Forum which sification. “By combining those two time division multiplexing to im- was established by Qualcomm, technologies,” Zhang said, “that mo- plement a duty cycle approach. Not Ericsson, Verizon, T-Mobile, tivates us to use unlicensed spec- to undermine what was done with Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and a few trum...to achieve better spectrum LTE-U but the real impact came as LTE-U was technologically evolved to LAA, Licensed Assisted Access. LAA LAA allows an operator to aggre- gate an anchor channel of licensed spectrum with multiple channels of unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. From the standards side, this began in Release 13 and morphed into enhanced LAA (eLAA) with Release 14 and further enhanced LAA (feLAA) in Release 15. That evolution grew from just downlink to include downlink and

Image courtesy of Qualcomm uplink, then autonomous uplink.

3 A New Way to Private Wireless

MulteFire® and 5G New Radio Unlicensed are innovative technologies enabling new IoT deployment scenarios that are locally controlled, optimized and readily deployed. MulteFire and 5G NR-U deliver key performance advantages over alternative solutions in unlicensed spectrum, such as coverage, capacity, security and mobility.

Our latest white paper from ABI Research provides in-depth analysis on the benefits of 5G networks in unlicensed, shared and locally licensed spectrum for enterprise connectivity.

Download The Importance of Spectrum Liberalization for Private 5G Networks white paper today!

The MulteFire Alliance (MFA) supports the common interests of members, developers and users in the application of LTE and next generation mobile cellular technology—such as 5G New Radio—in configurations that use only unlicensed or shared radio spectrum. Learn more at ww.MulteFire.org. FEATURE REPORT

to more market activations around the country. AT&T also used those gigabit LTE technologies, including LAA, which to some degree set the stage for their 5G Evolution brand- ing. T-Mobile arguably was the most bullish on LAA--which was used in thousands of small cell de- ployments in 2017 and 2018.

MulteFire LAA was decidedly good for op-

Image courtesy of Ericsson erators and benefited immense- Specific to LAA, the major ad- idea was that early commercial 5G ly from collaborative standardiza- vancement as adopted by carriers deployments would be geographi- tion done under the auspices of was the ability to aggregate LTE cally limited so you wanted to have 3GPP and, given the broad mem- operations in licensed bands with a high quality LTE surround so that bership of that group, was relative- unlicensed spectrum in 5 GHz. If users wouldn’t have this jarring ex- ly quickly translated from stan- you think back to the 2017, 2018 perience as they moved out of 5G dards to equipment and then onto timeframe, right before the 5G coverage and into LTE coverage. commercial deployment. 3GPP hype cycle really kicked into high The mix of technologies encom- however did not set to work on a gear, the industry was talking passed by gigabit LTE are LAA, 4X4 standalone mode of cellular opera- about gigabit LTE. Gigabit LTE, as MIMO, 256 QAM and multi-channel tion in unlicensed spectrum which the name implies, was all about carrier aggregation. set the stage for the MulteFire using a combination of technolo- To give a point in time snapshot Alliance to fill that gap.. To put a gies to drive peak throughput of of how carriers were thinking fine point on the distinction, LAA LTE up to and past that 1 Gbps about this mix of technologies, in requires an anchor channel in li- downlink mark. August 2017 Verizon commercially censed spectrum which maps to its The logic here was two-fold: there deployed Ericsson LAA radios and applicability to and adoption by wasn’t then and isn’t now an ex- reported downlink throughput of operators with licensed spectrum pectation that 5G is going to rapid- 953 Mbps via aggregation of three holdings. MulteFire is designed for ly replace 4G, so there was a focus channels of 5 GHz with a 20 mega- standalone operation meaning cel- on continuing to enhance that LTE hertz channel of AWS spectrum. lular transmissions can occur sole- experience. As it relates to 5G, the That initial deployment gave way ly in unlicensed spectrum. This

5 FEATURE REPORT Image courtesy of MulteFire Alliance Image courtesy of MulteFire

means MulteFire can be used by at industrial use cases, when you es the following working groups: neutral hosts, Wi-Fi providers and, look at industries [and] what they technical specification, radio, end- perhaps most notably, by private need to secure quality of service, to-end architecture, certification, enterprise users. they have demands for technolo- marketing and industry. Asimakis Kokkos, MulteFire gies that these [other unlicensed] In terms of specifications, the Alliance technical specification technologies, then these [other un- MulteFire 1.0 release encompasses group chair, provided background: licensed] technologies cannot real- a full range of LTE services—voice, “MulteFire was created in order ly meet the standard.” So MulteFire data, mobility and security. The to address the unlicensed spec- Alliance began working to address MulteFire 1.1 release built on its pre- trum in the standalone mode and the gap between what 3GPP was decessor and optimized for industri- there were a lot of reasons for taking through the standardization al IoT with enhancements to sup- that.” Regarding LAA as an off- process and what enterprise users port unlicensed narrowband IoT and load mechanism for carrier traf- could benefit from. eMTC. Kokkos also noted that the fic, this carries numerous costs as- The MulteFire Alliance member- spectral focus evolved from 5 GHz to sociated with spectrum planning ship includes: Bai Cells, CableLabs, also include 2.4 GHz and 1.9 GHz. and coordination, and network con- DEKRA, Ericsson, , Intel, “We really looked at technologies figuration among other cost buck- InterDigital, JI Technologies, that would enable industrial IoT,” ets. Seeing the opportunity LTE Keysight Technologies, M3Connect, he explained. “The situation contin- could bring in a standalone mode , Qualcomm, Quortus, RTX, ued in a way that we would look [at] of operation in unlicensed spec- Sierra Wireless, SoftBank, Sony how 3GPP would react. It came to trum, Kokkos said, “When you look and ViaSat. The group encompass- our attention that 3GPP was final-

6 FEATURE REPORT

ly looking at the unlicensed stand- Case study: MulteFire in Japan 1.1 specification. The 1.9 GHz certi- alone of 5G New Radio which was The MulteFire 1.1 spec, which was fication, with support from a test really great news to us. In MulteFire optimized for industrial IoT deploy- lab in Yokohama, tests eNodeB de- Alliance we basically see ourselves ments with enhancements related vices, verifying that devices can as a good partner with 3GPP and our to enhanced machine-type commu- effectively interoperate and com- member organizations are certain- nications and narrowband IoT, in- municate via LTE. The program is ly very supportive of 3GPP.” While cluded support for the 1.9 GHz band open to MulteFire Alliance mem- there’s a bright outlook for New that’s widely used in Japan. Key to bers and devices that pass certi- Radio Unlicensed (NR-U), MulteFire success in this market was exist- fication may use the “MulteFire Alliance was instrumental in doing ing terminal support for the unli- Certified” logo and certification the work of fleshing out standalone censed band with billions of mobile mark in their marketing. cellular in unlicensed bands for LTE devices in Japan already compati- Private or unlicensed LTE is and tailoring specifications to meet ble with 1.9 GHz. synonymous with the shared the needs of users. There’s still plen- The primary thrust of MulteFire 1.9 GHz band in Japan, also re- ty of run room for LTE and MulteFire in 1.9 GHz was enhancing cordless ferred to as the extended global with MulteFire-compatible network phone services within enterprises platform, or sXGP. The Japanese equipment and devices coming to and public and private venues. In Ministry of Internal Affairs and market. “At the end of the day,” 2019 MulteFire Alliance announced Communications opened up the Kokkos said, “the first step has been the launch of its MulteFire 1.9 GHz band, which had been used for done and I believe that there will be certification program, to ensure DECT-like private PHS (personal some interest coming soon.” devices conform with its MulteFire handy phone service) communi- cations, for enterprise users to use for unlicensed sXGP LTE services. There are approximately 55,000 en- terprises with around 5.5 million private enterprise users that will migrate to the sXGP service over the next four years. The service is also available for enterprise and in- dustrial services. In October 2019, Mazen Chmaytelli of the MulteFire Alliance described the certification, which focused on the Japanese market only, as a

7 FEATURE REPORT

“critical step” in the development Understanding 5G NR-U more spectrum globally, but it of standalone LTE-based wireless As established, 3GPP did not take marks new verticals and new de- networks operating in unlicensed on a standalone mode of cellular op- ployment strategies,” Das said at and shared spectrum bands.“We’re eration in unlicensed spectrum for a press event this summer, adding excited to officially begin certifi- LTE. However, that changed with 5G that container ports, warehous- cation in Japan and have plans to New Radio. 5G NR-U for both 5 GHz es and underground mines are expand the programme to enable and 6 GHz was included in 3GPP’s strong examples of the new spaces certification of MulteFire devices Release 16. Qualcomm, which led where unlicensed 5G technology to additional geographic regions,” much of the standardization work might soon find itself. NR-U is the he said. around NR-U, called it “an important first global standard that supports Kokkos provided more context: “It chapter” in the cellular connectiv- both license-assisted and stand- was understood that the old tech- ity journey, where the power of 5G alone use of unlicensed spectrum. nologies like DECT and PHS could is brought to unlicensed spectrum. Therefore, operators can use a not really satisfy the needs for hav- Further, Pratik Das, a Qualcomm non-standalone mode to aggregate ing a more... industrial tool that they staff manager for technical market- the unlicensed bands with licensed could use. MulteFire was developed ing, said that when it comes to in- 5G frequencies to bolster capacity in release 1.1 to co-exist with DECT door coverage, 5G NR-U represents similar to LAA, as well as a stand- and PHS. The spectrum was shared “a brand-new field of spectrum.” For alone mode wherein an enterprise in a fair manner. Since April 2017 starters, the FCC recently released could use unlicensed spectrum to there was some live demos there 1200 MHz in the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi deploy a private cellular network. and then of course it was launched and 5G NR-U, expanding network ca- When it comes to private net- commercially as well. The idea was pacity by an unprecedented amount. works, specifically, 5G NR-U can de- that you can really connect a lot of But, that’s just the beginning. liver improved coverage capacity devices in this spectrum, even you “Not only [does NR-U] unlock and mobility, but also reliability can have just phones, you can make phone calls from home, the office or an industrial environment.” He said the key to success of MulteFire in Japan was ecosystem development. “I think there’s still some possibility we can see that become a global band but there’s still discussion. We are happy that

MulteFire entered that space.” Image courtesy of Qualcomm

8 FEATURE REPORT

service continuity with wide area networks “The main idea and what we have really been looking [at] is you need to create a private network which is right there,” Kokkos said. “Some of the customers, they really want to see it so where is my data, this is my base station, I know that it is mine. That is where you set up let’s say a MulteFire system in a facto- Image courtesy of Qualcomm ry or an enterprise or a facility. You and precise timing. This is due in The private network opportunity can control it as you like. You don’t part because 5G can be integrat- Kokkos detailed the primary ben- really need to wait with a hope ed with time sensitive networking efits MulteFire and NR-U bring to that your service provider one day (TSN), which provides determin- private networks: will get you better coverage in this istic services over IEEE standard n Industrial-grade reliability. one corner.” 802.3 Ethernet wired networks, Customized quality of service Beyond the radio access network, guaranteeing low-latency packet classes with guaranteed latency this premise extends to localized, transport, low packet delay varia- n Interoperability. MulteFire bespoke core infrastructure which tion and low packet loss. and LTE-based solutions as well further emboldens the proposition Additionally, 5G NR-U also sup- as 5G NR of ownership and control. Another ports wideband carriers, flexible n Cellular-based security. SIM key aspect is the simplicity associ- numerologies, beamforming, which and non-SIM credentials and lo- ated with unlicensed spectrum. “If controls the directionality of the cally routed traffic we put ourselves into the shoes of transmission or reception of a signal n Future proof solutions. Rich the factories, the industrial players, on an antenna array, and dynamic roadmap for voice and IoT they really want something they can TDD, where the uplink-downlink optimizations control but they want to have it as allocation may change over time to n Capacity. Low to high data simple as possible. They don’t want adapt to traffic conditions. rate applications for a large really to have a team of telecom “We expect to see NR-U help- number of devices engineers if they want to configure ing operators not only deploy net- n Coverage. Superior range in- it.” MulteFire and 5G NR-U is “much works freely but being able to scale doors and outdoors simpler” when compared to a tradi- them very fast across markets and n Seamless mobility. Handovers tional mobile network. borders,” Das said. for high mobility devices and Lego Gergs, a research analyst

9 work. As we see in Germany and in France...enterprises FEATURE REPORT Industry are waking up to the fact that acquisition of spectrum is only part of the equation. Managing their own Perspectives network is far from being a no-brainer but requires a lot of personal resources and investment and with Leo Gergs capabilities. It’s a question of whether that enterprise Research Analyst, ABI Research will have the capabilities to build that up. A large enterprise might have that. If you go beyond that and moment, how to resemble or how to combine public look at the medium sized segment which in the long cloud resources with private cloud resources into a kind term provides the more sustainable and larger revenue of hybrid environment to guarantee both operational opportunity, they will require more easily plug and efficiency enhancements around latency for example, play solutions. They will not want to spend their time without having to sacrifice on network security and going through operator X,Y,Z, infrastructure supplier network integrity. X,Y,Z, separately. They will want to have one centralized To some extent it is also because this conundrum is When we consider the technology decision- interface for connectivity solutions. perceived as being unresolved by the enterprises. This making process that plays out in high value That has been something that system integrators and Q is at the moment one of the challenges that enterprises verticals like manufacturing, ports, logistics, mining and industrial automation companies have largely been face in deciding for private cellular connectivity. I think energy, how much of a priority is data security and data involved in. Hyperscalers are addressing this concern. once it is clear how to guarantee, or once enterprises sovereignty, particularly in the context of enterprises I think what we see with a lot of industrial cloud understand how to guarantee, this level of security, I using both public and private cloud services then partnerships between hyperscalers and enterprises think that will be an important bottleneck passed for potentially layering in public and/or private cellular? is that they’re building, hyperscalers are building, this private cellular in the enterprise domain. I think security is one of the top priorities. trust within the enterprise community. As it stands, In addition to liberalization of spectrum From two aspects really: one is the security of hyperscalers cannot do this on their own. There’s a lot A access, we’re also seeing converging the functioning of the network; the other aspect is the Q of what we call co-creation programs happening. For trends around hardware/software disaggregation integrity of networking data. For example, an industrial hyperscalers to provide a full end to end connectivity and hyperscalers both working with operators and manufacturer who has say four production lines wouldn’t solution for enterprises, they’re most prominently working directly with enterprises to support digital want to have any of that condition data on these four missing last mile connectivity. transformation strategies. Given all of this, how do production lines—say one production line is failing— Time will tell whether they will continue to rely on you see the enterprises wanting to consume these wouldn’t want that to be transported into a public cloud. partnerships there...or whether they will go about and complementary technologies? Is the preference to The public cloud will still play an important role in build up that knowledge, that know how, from scratch work with operators, hyperscalers and operators, or cellular connectivity for enterprises especially when you which would be a duplication of already existing know acquire spectrum and manage their own networks; or are moving beyond these large enterprises targeting how in the market which would create inefficiencies. is the market big enough that all options are viable? more the small- and medium-sized segment where it But certainly hyperscalers will become a very important is important to offer easily scalable solutions. As we The enterprise community is heterogeneous partner for enterprise digitization not only for private see it, there’s a lot of talk within the industry at the A enough that all three of the options would cellular but for all kinds of enterprise digitization.

to have efficient communications. They are happy Industry when we talk about that this is 3GPP technology and they are looking forward to the 5G enhancements Perspectives like very low latency, reliability. with Asimakis Kokkos What the industrial customers are looking for is the benefits of the 5G, the benefits of the 3GPP technology, Technical Specification Group Chair, in a simple and easy to manage way which is scalable MulteFire Alliance; Head of Industry and very economical. What MulteFire is going to bring Environment Strategy, Nokia and what New Radio Unlicensed is going to bring into this picture is that of course there will be spectrum that In your role with Nokia, you work on many will be used together with partner operators, there will be industrial private wireless projects, including Q spectrum that will be locally licensed but there is also with companies like Siemens and Bosch and many unlicensed spectrum. If you think that the unlicensed When we think about the security needs of others, what commonalities do you see in how those spectrum doesn’t cost anything, you just use it, then all enterprises looking to cellular for mission companies prefer to consume wireless technologies; Q you need to do is you can set up a network, it works in the critical communications, does MulteFire meet those and does MulteFire and 5G NR-U, given its reliance unlicensed band, you have it secured because it is not stringent requirements? on unlicensed spectrum, present an opportunity to like the other...unlicensed technologies that you always apply those commonalities to small- and medium- I think that MulteFire inherits the security hear complained that it’s not safe, it’s not secure...It is sized enterprises? A from the LTE specifications. All the let’s say very secure. And also the data remains local. mechanisms—you set up a call, you transmit your data The customers, they come obviously from The cloud is important as well. It will be more like a in a safe way—that is there. We haven’t done anything A the industrial sector and they need a very controlling element so you can really define through additional to that. If you look at the 3GPP security plug and play, simple system that they don’t need the cloud things that are not really let’s say sensitive mechanisms, they are the ones that are safest anyway. to really need to bother to maintain. They need to in a way for your data. That all brings a picture that It is the inheritance of this safety and security that we control the data on their premises. They are happy our customers, they want an easy to use system are getting in MulteFire by following the 3GPP specs. when you tell them the data is in this box. They need which is very technically competent.

10 FEATURE REPORT

with ABI Research, has studied and shared spectrum accounting for Conclusion global trends around spectrum ac- roughly 30% of that market.” Enterprises of all sizes and in all cess liberalization as it relates to “Private 5G and also private 4G high value sectors are embarking connectivity needs of heavy indus- will also be important for enter- on multi-year digital transforma- trial verticals. For industrial manu- prise digitization across the globe tion initiatives that can benefit facturers, he identified pain points and spectrum liberalization ini- from the use of cellular technolo- including the cost of infrastructure tiatives are really key to capture gies. This is a multi-billion dollar, maintenance and attendant pro- this revenue opportunity,” Gergs long-term opportunity for carri- duction loss associated with ma- concluded. He also cautioned that ers, network equipment providers, chine downtime, the high cost of spectrum liberalization is current- and the telecoms sector as a whole. cabling new production sites, lack ly fragmented and not occurring Foundational to making this work of real-time analytics, and person- at a global scale. “Unlicensed spec- and capturing the revenue oppor- nel safety concerns. With the ad- trum access can be a cost efficient tunity is access to spectrum wheth- dition of a 5G system, an industrial alternative and an opportunity for er that’s licensed, unlicensed or manufacturer would gain the abili- enterprises to deploy their own pri- shared. Given the dynamacy of this ty to flexibly layout a factory floor vate network without having to in- transition to the Industry 4.0 era, by mobilizing production assets, volve an operator. MulteFire and success will be a function of tying and minimize unplanned downtime NR-U offer enterprises an alterna- technology investments directly to by using real-time analytics analy- tive opportunity to manage their desired business outcomes. Given sis for predictive and preventative own private network.” global availability of unlicensed maintenance. He explained that private cel- spectrum, simplicity of use, robust Network integrity and aligning lular investments should follow ecosystem support, and a rich fea- networks with industrial use cases from a robust digitization strategy ture set, MulteFire and 5G NR-U involving a “high degree of mission including consideration of which will certainly have a role to play critical and life critical” services are connectivity solutions directly ad- near- and long-term as enterprises both top of mind for potential private dress unique pain points; how leg- work to cut costs, drive operational 5G users, Gergs said. “Availability acy technologies could present efficiencies and bring cellular tech- and reliability of a cellular network operational barriers; the variabil- nologies to bear in a way that drives becomes important. All the features ity of complexity brought about top line and bottom line growth. that are included in 5G...are of ut- by private, public and hybrid net- most importance. For private cel- works; whether a third-party or Editor’s note: RCR Wireless News Technol- lular in general, including both 4G wholly-owned deployment is pref- ogy Editor and James Blackman, editor in and 5G, we’re looking at a $15 bil- erable; and which spectrum assets chief of Enterprise IoT Insights, contributed lion market by 2030 with unlicensed are available. to this report.

11 Featured Companies

MulteFire The MulteFire Alliance is an independent, diverse, and international memberdriven consortium defining and promoting MulteFire – a cellular-based technology for operating in unlicensed and shared spectrum. Our purpose is to support the common interests of members, developers and users in the application of LTE and next generation mobile cellular technology—such as 5G New Radio—in configurations that use only unlicensed or shared radio spectrum. As an open organization, we will collaborate with stakeholders that have an interest in shared unlicensed spectrum. Our goal is to develop technology that will be widely adopted in global standards.

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12 Featured Companies

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