The little known and rather generically named Altnet ISP UK Fibre Networks, which since 2019 has operated a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the centre of York (England), appears to be preparing to expand their fibre and fixed wireless network into new areas of the city, as well as Bath, Harrogate, Chester, and rural villages.

The plan was revealed as part of the company’s application for Code Powers from Ofcom. Such powers are typically sought to help speed-up deployments of new fibre and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licenses needed for street works. The powers can also help with supporting access to run new fibre via Openreach’s (BT) existing cable ducts and poles (PIA), which is something UKFN have indicated they may harness.

The operator is predominantly self-funded, albeit with some investment also being obtained via Digital Enterprise Grants, and they hold an ambition to potentially harness some of the Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) grants in the future (most likely as part of their plans for some rural builds, further down the line). But it appears as if their network is predominantly overhead (poles), which tends to rub some people up the wrong way.

Extract from the Code Powers Application

The Applicant [UKFN] sells broadband and VOIP services; its packages offer broadband speeds starting at 150mbps up to 900Mbps for all customers. Furthermore, UK Fibre Networks offers its full-fibre services via overhead cables, rather than the typical underground cables, which results in less disruption to customers and less disruption for the public. The speeds offered are much faster than average speeds today and much better than the variable speeds experienced on copper lines that many other providers offer. In contrast to its fibre competitors, UK Fibre Networks aims to deliver its wireless services within – ten (10) days of an accepted order.

The Applicant does not currently own any ducting, nor does it currently undertake any civil works. Currently, it leases backhaul services from Tier 1 carriers under wholesale contracts. In the future, it may expand its network by using Openreach’s PIA to install its own ducting and poles, whether on private land or public highway btu currently overhead cables are the default installation position.

The Applicant has applied for Code Powers because experience shows that without Code Powers, they will have to pay extortionate associated costs to freeholders, should any further wayleave agreements need to be entered into. Moreover, there may be unreasonable terms proposed by any freeholders, such as unfair termination rights, if Code Powers were not granted.

After a bit of digging, we discovered a local news article on York Mix (not a source we’d pick up on) from earlier this year, which quotes UKFN’s Director, Pete Evans, as stating that the “plan” is to “roll out superfast broadband to all 8,000 premises within the city walls during 2024″. We assume he means gigabit broadband, since “superfast” (usually meaning 30Mbps+) hasn’t been a performance target on new network builds for a while.

The network expansion began in the Gillygate area of York during January 2024 (Phase 1) – including High Petergate, Bootham, Marygate, Lord Mayor’s Walk and Claremont Terrace – and should now be starting to expand into the Micklegate area (Phase 2), with Walmgate (Phase 3) getting underway in July and Goodramgate / Stonebow (Phase 4) following in September or late 2024.

News

AT&T Turbo will offer customers the opportunity to purchase enhanced mobile data.

Beginning May 2, AT&T will launch AT&T Turbo, a new service that will enhance wireless connectivity, for $7 per month.

In a press release, the operator stated that the service “allows users the choice to optimize their network when they want by adding additional network resources to their mobile data connection”.

The service is touted as ideal for mobile applications such as gaming, video broadcasting and video conferencing. When every millisecond counts, the new Turbo service can offer less freezing and lower latency.

The Turbo add-on will increase a customer’s level of “priority” on the network. Networks offer various “Quality of Service Class Identifiers” (QCIs)  which determine which users get priority access and faster speeds. A lower number is a better QCI.

With AT&T Turbo, the operator will exercise their ability to adjust a user’s QCI and bump Turbo customers’ service up a notch. Turbo customers will get QCI 7, while other plans sit at QCI 8. An AT&T official noted that “setting QCI levels is not like changing a radio channel. It includes advanced and complex technologies”.

AT&T customers can easily enable or remove the add-on. By using the company’s app or online, customers can add Turbo to eligible plans and remove it when they don’t want it. Once Turbo is enabled, the higher priority service will be available immediately. The service will not use standalone (SA) 5G technology, but will require users to have a 5G-capable phone.

The press release announcing the Turbo launch made explicit reference to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) newly re-instated net neutrality rules. The statement specifies that “consistent with open Internet principles, once turned on the boost applies to a customer’s data regardless of the Internet content, applications and services being used”.

AT&T has gone further to clarify that Turbo will not run afoul of net neutrality rules. A spokesperson stated that network slicing is not involved. Ahead of the FCC’s net neutrality vote, AT&T and other wireless providers had requested the agency to avoid rules that might prevent services like network slicing.

Network slicing allows operators to offer varied service tiers over dedicated portions of their networks. This requires SA 5G technology and is in the early stages of being rolled out by some operators. In the FCC’s final net neutrality rules, there was no specific mention of network slicing.

Despite the lack of clarity about the future of network slicing, AT&T has already hinted that it has big plans for enhancing customer experience. While this may not necessarily involve network slicing, the operator stated that it plans to “continue to advance and evolve AT&T Turbo”.

Cox Communications had launched a similar  “Elite Gamer” service in 2020. This add-on also cost $7 per month and offered customers the opportunity to improve the connection between their home internet service and video game servers by up to 32%. Cox discontinued the service in late 2023, citing lower than expected demand.

Given the potential for changes to internet regulation after the 2024 presidential election, and the failure of Cox’s service booster add-on, there is some uncertainty about AT&T Turbo’s future.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter.

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News

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will see Stage X collaborate with Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony with regards to technology and strategy

This week, the newest mobile network operators in Japan and South Korea, Rakuten Mobile and Stage X, respectively, have agreed a strategic partnership alongside Rakuten Symphony that will see the trio collaborate on everything from network strategy to 6G technology.

The MoU aims to establish a framework for strategic collaboration between the three companies, encompassing the sharing of industry knowledge from Rakuten Mobile and telecoms technology from Rakuten Symphony.

“Rakuten Mobile and Stage X are the latest mobile network operators representing their respective countries, and together with Rakuten Symphony we wish to continue broad cooperation,” said Sangwon Seo, CEO of Stage X. “Rakuten Mobile built and deployed the world’s first fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network with a modern infrastructure that ensures stable telecommunication services as the newest mobile network operator in Japan. As Stage X builds out its infrastructure to provide 5G services in the 28 GHz spectrum, we look forward to working with Rakuten and learning from their experience across a wide range of areas.”

Stage X, owned by a consortium led by tech giant Kakao Corp., is South Korea’s newest mobile operator, having won 28GHz (also known as mmWave) 5G spectrum at auction earlier this year.

South Korea itself has had a tumultuous time with mmWave spectrum. Whilst the nation’s 5G telecoms market is itself is one of the most advanced, the country’s three national operators – SK Telecom, KT, ad LG Uplus – have struggled to find a path to monetisation for the high-band spectrum, which they first won at auction in 2018.

By the end of 2022, an audit by the Ministry of Science and IT (MSIT) had discovered that all three of the operators were woefully behind their mmWave deployment targets. As a result, KT and LG Uplus had their mmWave licences revoked, with SK Telecom’s licence also revoked less than a year later.

With mmWave spectrum once again in the hands of the government, MSIT quickly devised a new plan to reauction the spectrum, with a tranche specifically set aside for a new market entrance. This spectrum was ultimately won by Stage X in February for $322.1 million.

The licence comes with significant rollout obligations, including deploying 6,000 base stations nationwide over the next three years.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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News

The deal, expected to value the combined entity at over £1 billion, could be announced as soon as this week 

Mark Riley, the CEO behind Daisy Group – one of the UK’s largest privately-held IT services companies – is close to securing a merger with Wavenet, a UK based communication and technology solutions provider, according to a report from Sky News. 

Anonymous sources say the merger would see Daisy’s Corporate Service Business carved out and absorbed into Wavenet, which is majority owned by Australian financial services group Macquarie. 

The resulting combined entity, which would still be known as Wavenet, would have an enterprise value of over £1 billion.  

The newly merged Wavenet will employ more than 2,000 people under the leadership of executive chairman Bill Dawson with Riley joining the company’s board as a non-executive director. It will serve over 20,000 enterprise customers across the UK including the NHS and Transport for London. 

“This deal brings together two prolific consolidators, making Wavenet the largest independent Managed Service & Security Provider for large SME & corporate customers,” Wavenet CEO Philip Grannum told Sky News. 

“It provides both Daisy and Wavenet customers greater access to enterprise grade solutions combined with the very best customer service and gives fantastic career opportunities for our employees.” 

It’s understood that Macquarie will retain its position as the largest individual stakeholder in the new Wavenet, with additional support from debt financing provided by Ares. 

Daisy has been on something of a dealmaking spree recently, having last month closed a deal to acquire 4Com, a Bournemouth– based communications, IT, and broadband provider for £215 million.  

Riley was reportedly attracted to 4Com because of its cloud communications product HiHi, a business phone with in-built video calling technology, and its accompanying software platform. 

In fact, Daisy’s expansion in recent years has cemented its position as the second-largest player in the UK’s SME telecommunications market, behind only BT. 

Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, Daisy transitioned to private ownership in 2014 with backing from Toscafund Asset Management. 

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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The latest Q1 2024 results have today been released for Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), which reveals that they’re now home to 5,722,900 broadband customers (up by just 5.3k in Q1 2024 vs 9.5k in Q4 2023) and built another 194,000 full fibre (FTTP) premises via nexfibre (down from c.300k last quarter).

Just to recap. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners setup a new £4.5bn joint venture called nexfibre in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access full fibre (FTTP) network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises. But Virgin Media, which shares some of the same parentage, is currently the only ISP on this network (here).

At the same time, Virgin Media’s Project Mustang programme is also upgrading their older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC1) and FTTP based Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) network – covering over 16 million premises – to harness the same XGS-PON based FTTP technology as nexfibre. But this process isn’t due to complete until 2028, although it will eventually mean that VMO2 and nexfibre cover 23 million premises with full fibre.

According to the latest results, the combined VMO2 and nexfibre network currently reaches 17,193,700 million Homes Serviceable (up from 16.99m in Q4 2023) and the vast majority of that new build is from nexfibre. The nexfibre network alone accounts for c.1 million premises passed of this total (here) and they aim to add another million over the next year.

Nexfibre Rollout Progress
Q1 2024 = 194,000 Premises
Q4 2023 = c.299,000 Premises
Q3 2023 = 250,800 Premises
Q2 2023 = 175,500 Premises
Q1 2023 = 107,800 Premises
Q4 2022 = 24,000 Premises

NOTE: Roughly 4.2 million VMO2 and nexfibre premises are now covered by FTTP (XGS-PON and RFOG), which is up from 4m in Q4 2023. But a tiny portion of the above figures include a small bit of infill build for Virgin Media itself (separate to nexfibre). The c.175,000 premises passed by Upp, which was acquired by nexfibre last year, have yet to be integrated into the total.

The operator’s mobile base has also grown during Q4, although sadly Virgin Media has stopped giving any solid figures for their Pay TV (video) base and that often happens when a base is in decline.

VMO2 Q1 2024 UK Customer (Connection) Figures – Q1 2024
5,722,900 Fixed Broadband – (up from 5,717,600 in Q4)
45,083,300 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 44,861,200)

At this point it’s worth noting that VMO2’s mobile contract base actually declined by -74,500 connections / customers in Q1 “due a slower handset market, seasonality and expected disconnections due to the decommissioning of a legacy IT system“. So the positive growth of +222,100 mobile connections above is actually coming from their IoT and wholesale (MVNO) base, which includes Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile etc.

The latest results also revealed that 5G coverage is now available to more than 50% of the UK population, which gives us no indication of change from the 50% they reported last quarter. On the financial front, VMO2 reported total revenue of £2,588.8m in Q1 2024 (-0.5% YoY), although we aren’t going to reference the previous quarter’s figure for comparison because VMO2 changed how they report revenue in Q1.

Lutz Schüler, CEO of VMO2, said:

“While there is much to do in the remainder of the year, we are gathering momentum in accelerating fibre build and marketing the nexfibre footprint, launching new services to enhance and improve customer experience, and progressing wider IT efficiency programmes as we continue our digital transformation.

Ahead of price rise implementation, we delivered improved service revenue growth across both mobile and consumer fixed. Our teams also continue to innovate as shown by the targeted launch of 5G Standalone and a new 2Gbps broadband service on the nexfibre network in Q1, highlighting the future evolution of our networks as demand rises and new technologies emerge.

Our performance in Q1 sets the foundations for our full year guidance as we make key investments to support future growth.”

Despite the positive language above, it’s clear that VMO2 are struggling a bit to add new broadband customers, which isn’t surprising when you consider how much pressure they’re under from Openreach and the many rival alternative networks that now exist in the same space.

In the past, Virgin Media has always tried to position itself as the premium option, but that’s a hard position to maintain in today’s competitive market and the recent price hikes certainly won’t be helping. The impact of the latter will feed into the next results too, as well as the ending of any student contracts (these factors could make for a difficult Q2).

Speaking of pricing, this is an issue that feeds into both the wholesale side of nexfibre, including VMO2’s plans to open their network up to wholesale in the near future. After all, they’ll need to be aggressively competitive to compete, while also being able to attract other ISPs to their platform with favourable and fair terms. Not an easy task.

Finally, the average Virgin Media broadband speed in Q1 was 368Mbps, increasing 17% YoY. The recent launch of their new symmetric speeds add-on and a 2Gbps package won’t be having much of an impact yet, but it will be helping as the year goes on.

UK ISP BT has today published the latest biannual progress update on their delivery of Ofcom’s flaky 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. The internet provider has so far helped to build a USO connection to over 7,954 premises (up from 7,681 in Oct 2023), with 265 further builds in-progress (up from 185).

The USO, in case anybody has forgotten, is a legally-binding and industry-funded obligation that falls on BT across the UK, as well as KCOM in Hull. In short, people living in areas where they can’t yet receive a 10Mbps or faster download speed, and aren’t expected to be covered by such a network in the next 12-months, can request a service capable of 10Mbps+ downloads (1Mbps upload) from the aforementioned providers.

A cost sharing model also applies here, which means that the providers will “calculate the total excess cost of the build and divide that between the eligible premises. If that amount is below £5,000 per premises (on top of the £3,400), we’ll automatically split the costs“. But some areas can still end up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, even up to £1-2m, and would thus find the USO route to be unviable (here and here).

Ofcom states that 57,000 UK premises (0.2%) currently fall into the USO gap (i.e. those outside of suitable fixed line, fixed wireless and 4G mobile coverage), which falls to around 400,000 premises if you exclude wireless solutions. But the regulator expects this to fall to around 50k by September 2024, mostly as a result of upgrades via publicly funded schemes (connection vouchers, project gigabit contracts etc.).

Just to be clear about this. Many of those who pursue the USO option via BT say they were offered 4G (mobile broadband) connections via EE, but those actually considered to have been delivered under the USO itself usually get Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP). Commercial builds of the latter have also helped to shrink the USO gap.

The gap will continue to shrink as commercial builds expand and the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme starts to make progress. The government are currently also exploring how best to reach those who live in “Very Hard to Reach” areas – roughly equating to the same sort of area as the USO is focused upon – and at the same time they’re preparing to review the USO itself (here), which could lead to changes.

BT’s April 2024 USO Report

The latest statistics continued to show that the delivery of USO connections is slow (e.g. over a year ago there were 2,000 builds in progress, which fell to 800 in Apr 2023, then 185 in Oct 2023 and increase a bit to 265 now). We suspect this may be a combination of factors, such as a lack of consumer familiarity with the USO (apply for it here) and the fact that the policy may also be starting to run into the limitations of economically viable deliverability.

Hampshire-based alternative network operator and gigabit broadband ISP toob, which has spent the past few years deploying a full fibre (FTTP) network – and also sharing some of CityFibre’s infrastructure – across parts of South England, has today become the latest Altnet to confirm some redundancies and a change of build strategy.

Just to recap. Toob was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here). During 2023 the operator also secured £160m of additional funding (debt financing) from Ares Management‘s Infrastructure Debt strategy (here), which we were told could be upsized to £300m over time to support growth.

However, regular readers will know that a growing number of network operators, both big and small alike, have over the past year moved to slow their network deployments (usually resulting in job losses) and switched their focus toward growing take-up to ensure some future stability. Such moves are a prudent course of action in the current climate of rising build costs and high interest rates, which makes it harder to raise fresh investment.

The latest operator to possibly be experiencing some of these headwinds appears to be toob. According to some of the feedback we’ve received from sources this week, toob is alleged to have announced a large round of redundancies for August 2024, which some have claimed could slow their pace of FTTP build by around half. But toob itself gives a more optimistic interpretation.

A Spokesperson for toob told ISPreview:

“toob has made an internal announcement to our teams that we will be changing our build model at the end of the year, with toob teams doing more of the work directly.

toob has committed funding to deliver a financially stable business based on a network build of over 300k premises alongside expansion of the toob broadband service onto CityFibre’s network. The plan is working well, and we have enjoyed strong customer growth across both networks.

In line with this plan, the business’ existing build areas will be materially complete by the end of this year, in a change to our model further build in 2025 and beyond will be largely delivered by toob teams on an agile and sustainable basis. There will therefore be growth in some areas of the business but fewer roles in others. As a result, some roles may be at risk of redundancy at the end of the year.

As a growing company that values our employees, we made the announcement to allow the maximum time for employees to consider their options for either redeployment or retraining within the company.”

Toob does still appear to be on a modestly stable financial footing (commitment wise), and their build target of 300,000 premises passed does seem viable. But whether they can go significantly beyond that remains to be seen, particularly with consolidation hungry networks like CityFibre lurking nearby (very little overbuild with toob).

The operator declined to tell ISPreview precisely how many jobs were now facing redundancy, although we’ll no doubt get a better idea of this once the usual consultation phase has concluded in the summer.

News

The act replaces the broadband cost-reducing directive passed in 2014 

The European Council has passed the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA), which aims to simplify and accelerate the roll out of high speed networks like fibre and 5G to meet Europe’s connectivity objectives.  

The GIA was first proposed by the European Commission in February 2023, with the legislation aimed at reducing the costs of deploying gigabit-capable networks and simplifying the rollout process.  

It is part of the EU’s wider goal of deploying gigabit-capable infrastructure across the EU by 2030, in line with the EU’s Digital Decade programme. By this date, the EU wants all European households to be covered by a gigabit network, and all populated areas covered by 5G networks. 

It is hoped that by unifying the network deployment regulations across EU member states, the GIA will promote economies of scale for both operators and businesses. 

But while the GIA should allow for faster network rollouts (at least, once fully enforced by member states in 18 months’ time), the decision is not without controversy. 

In February this year, industry groups representing European operators (ETNO, ECTA, the GSMA, and GigaEurope) released a joint statement warning that the act would damage both the companies and the wider sector due to greater regulatory pressures.  

The statement read that the act is a “a measure that penalises telecoms operators, without producing any real benefit in terms of administrative simplification.” 

The new regulation will be published in the EU’s Official Journal in the next few days, and will enter into force three days after that. The law will be implemented in around 18 months. 

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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News

White House updates rules for infrastructure permitting to promote speed and protect environment

The Biden-Harris Administration has announced that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is finalizing the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule. This aims to simplify and modernize the federal environmental review process to speed up permitting in several key sectors.

The Administration is walking a tightrope with the new permitting rules – both encouraging faster build-out of key infrastructure projects, and maintaining robust environmental protections.

The updated rules aim to reduce bottlenecks for projects in seven sectors: transmission; renewable energy on federal lands; offshore wind; high-speed internet; semiconductor fabrication; critical mineral mining; and transportation.

A White House press release outlined several ways in which the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule will modernize federal environmental reviews. The new efficiencies were negotiated and secured in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

To accelerate critical infrastructure, the rule sets clear deadlines and page limits for environmental reviews. Additionally, it gives agencies new and more flexible ways to implement categorical exclusions to expedite projects with that have no significant adverse effects. When an agency or project sponsor has opted to mitigate the effects of a project, the rules allow for lower levels of environmental review.

Agencies can now use programmatic environmental reviews to assess the impact of particular categories of projects. The rule also encourages the use of shared environmental analysis to avoid duplicated effort.

In an effort to promote long-term sustainability, the new rules instruct agencies to consider climate change effects when they conduct environmental reviews and identify alternatives to mitigate climate impacts.

The rule also instructs agencies to engage in early and meaningful engagement with impacted communities to cultivate community buy-in, avoid conflict, and improve project design. Agencies are also directed to consider environmental justice and follow best practices for inter-agency collaboration and coordination.

Permitting for communications infrastructure projects should be faster and simpler under new plans. In March, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) provided a new way for federal agencies to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. Previously, the ACHP had provided a faster review process for projects on federal lands, but this update extended the benefits to projects on non-federal lands.   This action is designed to shorten historic preservation reviews from over a year, to under three months.

In April, the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration (NTIA) adopted 36 new categorical exclusions. These categorical exclusions are categories of actions that a federal agency has concluded usually have little impact on the human environment and are, therefore, exempt from some forms of environmental assessment.

In addition to the categorical exclusions, the NTIA developed and released a permitting and environmental mapping tool. The application will help federal broadband recipients and subgrantees identify and understand permit requirements and avoid environmental impacts.

Although the newly-established rules are intended to streamline permitting and environmental review processes, some critics have argued they will have the opposite effect.

Several Senators and Representatives have argued that the rules will lead to increased litigation and costly delays. Business groups have argued that the rule gives preferential treatment to project favored by the Biden Administration and makes agency analysis more complex.

The CEQ has taken a number of steps to rollback changes the Trump Administration made to the country’s permitting process. However, there is opposition to the new plan from both sides of the aisle. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has threatened to lead a vote to undo the new rules, but he and potential supporters are unlikely to succeed as Biden would almost certainly veto an attempt to roll back the regulation.

However, given the seeds of dissent already visible, the future of the new regulation may not be set in stone. If Donald Trump is re-elected as President in November, these permitting regulations may be destroyed, along with most of President Biden’s environmental legacy.

News 

German operator Deutsche Telecom has launched a trial to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its radio access network (RAN) to improve its efficiency, save energy, and reduce operating costs

At this year’s FutureNet World 2024, the company’s Vice President of Technology Strategy, Ahmed Hafez, explained that the company is testing the use of AI in the RAN that can automatically switch off parts of the network during quiet periods (often at night) to increase the network’s energy efficiency. 

According to stats from mobile equipment vendor Ericsson, dynamic “sleep mode” solutions can save operators up to 10–12% of total energy expenditure. Ericsson claims that energy bills can account for 5–7% of total operating expenditure, a huge expense that will only increase as network capacity rises. 

“Now, with AI, you can actually tap into the maximum you can do without impacting user experience, and that’s really a very efficient thing. I mean, not only for saving money, but also for the environment,” said Hafez at FutureNet World. 

Incorporating AI into the RAN is becoming an increasingly exciting field for mobile operators across the globe. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, a new initiative called the AI-RAN Alliance was formed to enhance the integration of AI into the RAN. The founding members, which include AWS, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, and T-Mobile (in which Deutsche Telekom is the largest shareholder), will focus their research in three main areas: 

AI for RAN – using AI to improve spectrum efficiency on the network;
AI and RAN – using AI to better utilise RAN infrastructure to generate new revenue streams;
AI on RAN – deploying AI on the network edge to increase efficiency and bring new services to mobile users. 

Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer at the GSMA praised the “AI-RAN Alliance’s shared ambitions to create new, open platforms that can help democratize the use of artificial intelligence in mobile industry.” 

“AI has the potential to deliver huge societal benefits and accelerate technology innovation. However, it’s critical it’s democratized, so all parts of the connectivity industry and their customers, wherever they are in the world, can benefit,” he continued. 

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