News 

The partnership could help reduce costs and increase rural connectivity  

Major African network operators Orange and Vodacom are in discussions over an Africa infrastructure sharing deal, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

Anonymous sources hint that the two companies are seeking sharing agreements in their overlapping markets, including Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This would allow both operators to increase their coverage in affected countries and reduce the need to build additional infrastructure in some areas. 

In addition to this sharing agreement, the two companies are also reviewing other opportunities to work together, according to the sources.  

“Our aim is to potentially alleviate the costs of rollout and rural connectivity, helping to address cost to communicate and narrow the digital divide,” a Vodacom spokesperson said to Bloomberg. 

The deal is not yet finalised and could still fall through, said the sources.. Vodacom did, however, confirm that it will detail the specifics of the deal once they have been made. 

The report notably suggested that Vodacom is also in talks with other African operators over similar sharing deals, but again these are yet to be finalised. 

As Vodacom celebrated its 30th anniversary this month, it also passed the milestone of 200 million customers across eight countries, which was confirmed last week during its annual results publication for the year ended 31 March 2024. 

The group’s revenue increased 26.4% up to R151 billion ($8.2 billion) as a result of data revenue and new services (including financial services); however, the company faced challenges such as start-up losses in Ethiopia, higher interest rates, and foreign exchange losses.  

The company’s deeper dive into financial services has helped it reach 78.9 million financial services customers, transacting $1.1 billion a day. 

“This was a year characterised by strong commercial momentum, despite facing several precarious economic headwinds, including a 20% higher effective interest rate and foreign exchange rate pressures,” said CEO Shameel Joosub in the investor’s call. 

Keep up to date with the latest international news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say 

News

The president confirmed this week that the industry is “the most important foundation for making our people’s lives richer” 

South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol has announced that the country will spend a record 26 trillion won ($19 billion) on a support package for its chip businesses, saying the semiconductor industry is a vital sector for the national economy. 

The investment will come through the state-run Korea Development Bank and will support for infrastructure deployment, R&D, and tax relief, which the government hopes will boost domestic companies in the global chip race. 

“As we all know, semiconductors are a field where all-out national warfare is underway. Win or lose, that depends on who can make cutting-edge semiconductors first,” Yoon said in a speech on Thursday. 

“The success of the chip industry depends on system semiconductors. Korea’s fabless firms’ global market share is insignificant. The gap between our foundry players and global leaders is too wide,” he continued. 

This new pledge dwarfs the 9.4 trillion won ($6.94 billion) the President announced last month to support AI and semiconductor development by 2027.  

Combined, all of these investments drive towards the country’s goal of becoming a top-three global player in AI technology and achieving a global market share of 10% for system semiconductors by 2030. 

In January, the country also announced plans to develop a new semiconductor production cluster near Seoul, further galvanising its chip production efforts. The new cluster will be completed through investments of 622 trillion won ($472 billion) from companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix, who combined already produce and sell 60% of the world’s memory chips.  The investment will take place gradually and is expected to be completed by 2047. The government says the funds will help to create 3 million jobs. 

Keep up to date with the latest international news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

Broadband network builder nexfibre, which shares some of the same parentage as retail UK ISP partner Virgin Media (VMO2), has been hit with fines and charges totalling £11.3k in Somerset and £30k in Devon (England) after the local courts found them guilty of various roadworks offences that “posed a danger to pedestrians“.

Just for context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access full fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

The operator has so far covered 1 million premises with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines and are also in the process of investing another £1bn during 2024 to cover another million. But unfortunately, some of their street works (civil engineering), which harnesses Virgin Media’s build engine, has fallen foul of good safety standards.

Firstly, Somerset Council, via the Taunton Magistrates Court, prosecuted the firm (here) following works carried out in Bridgwater. Nexfibre admitted “failing to install proper traffic management to ensure the safety of pedestrians” while working in two of the town’s streets in breach of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.

The Two Somerset Offences

• On Tuesday 12 September 2023, Nexfibre Ltd carried out street works at Taunton Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, in contravention of S65 of NRSWA 1991 by failing to install traffic management to ensure the safety of pedestrians, particularly those with disabilities and the travelling public affected by the works.

• On Thursday 21 September 2023, Nexfibre Ltd carried out street works at Westonzoyland Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, again in contravention of S65 of NRSWA 1991 by failing to install traffic management to ensure the safety of pedestrians, particularly those with disabilities and the travelling public affected by the works.

Along with the two charges in Somerset, Nexfibre also pleaded guilty to “nine similar charges” in Devon and had to pay a total of £30k in fines and charges.

Richard Wilkins, Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Digital, said:

“We take these sorts of offences very seriously, carrying out works without proper measures is simply unacceptable. We will take action if companies are in breach of their duties. Our message to the public is please report issues to Somerset Council if you see them – help us to make sure companies work in a safe and considerate manner.

The court imposed fines totalling £8,000, costs of £3,325 for the offences in Somerset.”

The Taunton Magistrates Court did, however, give Nexfibre credit for entering guilty pleas “at the earliest opportunity” and accepting the mitigation measures. But they also found “aggravating factors in that the works were deficient in any pedestrian safety and therefore there was a danger to pedestrians and road users alike and that the offences were numerous and committed over two counties“. We have asked Nexfibre to comment.

New customers looking to join either Smarty or iD Mobile, both of which are virtual mobile (MVNO) providers on Three UK’s network, may like to know that they’ve both slightly reduced their top SIM Only 4G and 5G unlimited data (mobile broadband) plans to £15 per month on a 30-day term. Both plans include the usual array of unlimited minutes and calls.

In the case of Smarty, the main differing feature is that you only get EU Roaming with a 12GB (GigaBytes) fair usage limit. By comparison, the special deal (sponsored link) on iD Mobile only limits you to 30GB when roaming across 50 countries, and you also get “up to 3 months free Apple Music and Arcade“, as well as a commitment toward “no annual price rises“.

A number of the smaller and cheaper plans, with capped allowances, for each operator have also seen some small changes. But there are too many to list.

News

The ‘Symbiosis Coalition’ will focus on “next-generation nature restoration projects” that can generate nature-based carbon removal credits 

Tech giants Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce have joined together to form the ‘Symbiosis Coalition’, which pledges to reduce the companies’ carbon footprint by supporting nature restoration projects. 

Together, the companies have committed to contract up to 20 million tons in nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030. Essentially, this equates to paying external companies to conduct carbon-negative “nature-based projects”, such as planting more trees, to cancel out their emissions. 

The deal is the first and largest advance market commitment ever for nature-based carbon removal, according to the press release.  

The partners note that similar projects have often failed due to a “perceived lack of high-quality restoration projects and uncertainty around willingness to pay,” meaning that the public have little faith in them. To make matters worse, results from the projects are typically hard to quantify and are hard to scale. The coalition claims it will change this by bringing in new technology and research to measure the outcomes more effectively. 

“While we’re first and foremost committed to reducing emissions from our operations and value chain, we recognize that won’t be enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability officer at Google. 

“Our work with the Symbiosis Coalition is a key step towards realizing our carbon negative goal by 2030 through a diversified portfolio of carbon removal,” said Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft. 

The group will share its project criteria to help other companies adopt sustainable best practices. It expects more companies to join the Coalition over time. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

News

The data breach was one of the country’s biggest ever cyber attacks 

Australia’s Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has begun legal action against Optus, the country’s second largest telco, over a data breach it suffered in 2022. 

The watchdog has filed legal proceedings to the Federal Court, alleging that Optus “failed to protect the confidentiality of its customers’ personal information from unauthorised interference or unauthorised access,” and was therefore in breach of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act of 1979. 

Between 17–20  September 2022, Optus suffered a data breach that affected up to 10 million current and former customers, comprising a third of Australia’s population. The breach resulted in the illegal acquisition of sensitive information, including names, dates of birth, addresses, and contact details.  

The then CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin was widely criticised for her handling of this situation, with the matter made worse by a major network outage in October last year that left nearly half of Australia’s population of 26 million without mobile or internets services for over 12 hours. Bayer Rosmarin resigned in November, saying that her resignation “is in the best interest of Optus moving forward.” 

Optus’s parent company Singtel said in a statement to investors that it intends to defend the legal challenge from the ACMA, adding that “Optus Mobile is not able to determine the quantum of penalties, if any, that could arise.” 

The company is already battling another lawsuit relating to the cyber-attack. After the event occurred, Optus hired Deloitte to conduct an assessment into the attack’s causes. Since then, those affected by the attack have hired law firm Slater and Gordon to initiate legal action, aiming to get the results of Deloitte’s investigation published.  

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom newsletter 

Also in the news: 
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

News

The event, co-hosted with the Republic of Korea, saw the UK government pledge new funding to researching AI safety measures, as well as convincing major tech firms to shore up their safety measures

The AI Seoul Summit took place this week, bringing together the UK and South Korean governments to discuss AI safety alongside some of the biggest companies in the AI industry.

The meeting saw 16 global AI companies commit to a set of safety outcomes building on those set out by the ‘Bletchley Declaration’.

The UK published the ‘Bletchley Declaration’, signed by 28 countries and the European Union, at the AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in November last year. The document has the companies pledge to develop AI responsibly and responsibly, as well as collaborating on further AI safety and research measures.

The new commitments on AI safety, agreed by major tech firms from around the world, includes a promise not to develop or deploy AI models if associated risks cannot be mitigated. They must also display an increased level of transparency, publishing safety frameworks measuring the risks of their frontier models

The signatories of this “Frontier AI Safety Commitments” document are:

Amazon
Anthropic
Cohere
Google / Google DeepMind
G42
IBM
Inflection AI
Meta
Microsoft
Mistral AI
Naver
OpenAI
Samsung Electronics
Technology Innovation Institute
xAI
Zhipu.ai

“The true potential of AI will only be unleashed if we’re able to grip the risks. It is on all of us to make sure AI is developed safely and today’s agreement means we now have bolstered commitments from AI companies and better representation across the globe,” said Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan.

“The UK is a world leader when it comes to AI safety, and I am continuing to galvanise other nations as we place it firmly on the global agenda and capitalise on the Bletchley Effect.”

Alongside these pledges, the UK Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan has also announced £8.5 million in grant funding for AI safety research projects back in the UK.

The programme will be overseen by Shahar Avin, a researcher from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) in Cambridge, and Christopher Summerfield, Research Director at UK’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), which was launched by the government at the start of this year.

“We expect to offer around 20 exploratory or proof-of-concept grants and will invite future bids for more substantial proposals to develop research programmes further,” reads the AISI website. “AISI will collaborate on this work with UKRI, The Alan Turing Institute and other AI Safety Institutes worldwide for this programme.”

Initiatives being considered will include, but are not limited to, those challenging the malicious use of deepfakes and AI-related misinformation. Importantly, these solutions would ideally intervene on the relevant platforms themselves, rather than modifying the AI models that generated the content.

“With evaluation systems for AI models now in place, Phase 2 of my plan to safely harness the opportunities of AI needs to be about making AI safe across the whole of society,” said Donelan.

“This is exactly what we are making possible with this funding which will allow our Institute to partner with academia and industry to ensure we continue to be proactive in developing new approaches that can help us ensure AI continues to be a transformative force for good.”

How is AI changing the UK’s connectivity landscape? Join the discussion at Connected Britain 2024

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

Merseyside-based ISP BeFibre, which is powered by FullFibre Ltd’s national FTTP network, has discounted some of their packages and moved to a fixed 12-month and 24-month pricing strategy in order to “give our customers much better value & assurance of what they will be paying for that fixed period” (i.e. the Be-Guarantee assures they won’t increase prices mid-contract).

In terms of the new pricing, BeFibre’s entry-level 150Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 24-month term with free installation now costs just £19 per month (£25 thereafter), while 500Mbps is £24 per month (£40 thereafter) and 900Mbps comes out as £29 per month (£40 thereafter). This is a few pounds lower than the previous pricing and is expected to stay at this level until 31st July 2024.

The network, which as of January 2024 could be reached by about 300,000 premises across England (here), can be found in parts of Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Network operator nexfibre has just expanded their 2Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network, alongside partner UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2), to cover an additional 24,000 premises in the Merseyside (England) borough of Wirral.

Nexfibre has already covered 1 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing a further £1bn during 2024, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises on top of that. Both Virgin Media and nexfibre share some of the same parentage in Telefónica and Liberty Global, while nexfibre also harnesses Virgin’s existing build engine to aid their roll-out.

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally set up the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s separate network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

The result of all this is that both nexfibre and VMO2 combined should cover up to 23 million premises, or around 80% of the UK, by around the end of 2028.

Insight

We caught up with Ian Fogg, Research Director – Network Innovation at CCS Insight, to discuss some of the exciting infrastructure solutions on show at Mobile World Congress as the industry readies itself for 5.5G  

It is well understood that 5G is evolving far faster than previous generations of mobile technology, with infrastructure innovation happening at a similarly blistering pace. With 3GPP’s Release 18 being frozen later this year, operators are already preparing for the next systemic shift: 5.5G.  

For CCS Insight’s Ian Fogg, one interesting trend already underway in 5G is the increasing support being provided for additional spectrum bands in radio products.  

“When we look at the actual product lineup, one of the things that really stands out is the shift towards having greater band support on the FDD (frequency division duplexing) product range,” said Fogg. “That’s really important because those bands tend to be the lower frequencies, the ones that get inside buildings, and they’re the ones most commonly used for 5G.” 

The shift to 5.5G will notably coincide with the switch off of 2G and 3G networks in many markets, meaning operators will have additional spectrum to use for 4G and 5G, thereby making these FDD advances all the more important.  

While these advancements in spectrum efficiency will help develop far more effective networks, 5.5G’s real promise lies in its ability to help develop smarter networks, incorporating AI and automation at scale. In turn, this will offer up new use cases for operators and new paths to monetisation.  

“Better network performance and machine learning in the RAN gives you that bread-and-butter piece to deliver a better quality network experience that you can then monetise,” explained Fogg. 

Indeed, when it comes to monetisation, one of the biggest opportunities on show at Mobile World Congress was a renewed interest in mmWave, particularly for fixed wireless access (FWA).  

“There’s a big second push for mmWave in many markets, such as India and China,” he explained, noting that the spectrums high capacity makes it ideal for FWA. “If service providers just use their traditional, smartphone-based bands for FWA, they will clog up. This means they have to make a decision between high ARPU per gigabyte for a smartphone user or low ARPU per gigabyte for a FWA user. But mmWave has so much capacity […] you can fully support a FWA business line and all the new revenues that they support without damaging the smartphone business.” 

But perhaps the most exciting aspect of 5G’s ongoing evolution will be the new use cases 5.5G will enable.   

“With [3GPP’s] Release 18 we’ll finally have robust network slicing,” said Fogg, noting that this has long been a target of.  

In addition, 5G Reduced Capabilities (RedCap) will allow 5G to be used far more widely for more low-powered devices, making the technology even more versatile. 

“This offers the ability to connect 5G to many more devices, opening up opportunities with the IoT, as well as some fixed wireless use cases,” said Fogg.   

You can watch our full interview with Ian Fogg, Research Director – Network Innovation at CCS Insight, below: