Customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) are reporting that a recent firmware update to their Hub 5 (Sagemcom F3896LG-VMB) router, which has the version number of LG-RDK_7.6.15-2306.5, appears to have caused the device’s sole 2.5Gbps network (LAN) port to stop functioning correctly. The issue – as covered on Virgin’s Community Forum (credits to Paul […]

The Chief Security and Networks Officer of BT, Howard Watson, has hinted that EE may be in a position to begin their commercial deployment of 5G standalone (5G SA) mobile network technology during the second half of 2024. But they won’t have a better idea of the likely timing until this summer. Most existing 5G […]

New research from Point Topic has revealed how the adoption rates of “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP networks vary between 30 countries within Europe (i.e. how many subscribers take the service vs premises passed). Overall, the average take-up stands at 54.4% (up from 53.3% in mid-2021), while the UK scores just 34.7%. Before we get […]

A small but important development is happening this month as BT finally ends the free distribution of a physical phone book on 31st March 2024. The move, which was announced last year, will bring to end a service that has been running since as far back as 1880. But these days, the vast majority of […]

Network builder and ISP Brsk, which is deploying a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the Midlands of England and beyond (rollout plan), have informed ISPreview that their coverage has grown to pass 450,000 homes (up from 358,000 on 10th Nov 2023). Customer take-up has also increased. The operator – fuelled by an investment […]

Broadband ISP Zen Internet has furnished ISPreview with a small update on their efforts to make their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband packages available – nationwide – across CityFibre’s entire UK network, which was previously due to complete at the end of 2023. Just to recap. Back in March 2022 we reported that Zen Internet […]

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Pressure on the public sector to embrace AI must be “constant and relentless”, he said Deputy PM Oliver Dowden

The UK government has announced that it will test AI systems to increase efficiency and productivity within the civil service. 

Roles that the AI systems could assume include administrative work, analysing responses to government consultations, and drafting preliminary responses to parliamentary inquiries. 

The number of civil servants has skyrocketed in recent years, increasing by over 100,000 since 2016, reaching 519,780 last year. During the same period, the number of employees earning a six-figure salary has also doubled. 

Therefore, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ordered public services to cut spending to pay for tax cuts, and is expected to signal reductions in income tax or national insurance in next week’s Spring Budget. 

As such, AI is seen as a key technology in making the bureaucracy of government more efficient and reducing staffing costs. 

“It really is the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction,” said Dowden speaking to the Telegraph. 

“Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and, and EU exit preparedness. We need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down,” he continued. 

Dowden also cited a recently published report from think tank IPPR which concluded the government could save around £24 billion by increasing AI adoption, which Dowden confirmed is “the sort of target we should be aiming for”. 

Similar AI trials were also announced with the NHS, covering many fields such as diagnostics and prescription tailoring, which if given the go-ahead, will save hundreds of millions of pounds.  

The Deputy PM stressed that pressure on the public sector to adopt AI must be “constant and relentless”, adding “we can’t have the private sector adopting it at pace, and then us being laggards”. 

To aid in this AI transition, the ‘i.AI’ – the team of scientists, engineers, and experts commissioned last year by the government to work with various public sector departments in the adoption of AI – will be doubled in number, reaching 70 personnel.  

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

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At MWC this year, we sat down with Igor LePrince, Chief Executive Officer of Boldyn Networks, to discuss their European operations and recent M&A activity 

Today, Boldyn Networks has announced the completion of its acquisition of Cellnex’s private networks business.  

The acquisition, which was originally announced in November last year, will primarily consist of Cellnex’s Finnish subsidiary Edzcom, which designs, builds, and operates private 4G and 5G networks in numerous markets across Europe.  

This is quite the turnaround for Cellnex, which itself had only acquired Edzcom in 2020.  

Speaking to Total Telecom at this year’s MWC, Boldyn CEO Igor LePrince said that the acquisition was a demonstration of the company’s increasing focus on the growing private network market. 

“Private networks have been one the pillars of our strategy for the last two to three years…. and acquiring probably the biggest private networks company in Europe is very exciting for us,” said LePrince. 

Explaining the acquisition further, Le Prince explained that the deal serves three key purposes for Boldyn: 

Acquiring a team of around 40 people who have are experts in deploying and running private networks for the past seven years,
Acquiring the credentials of Cellnex in the verticals in which they operate, such as the oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and energy sectors, which Boldyn can then make use of in other parts of the world,
and taking over an existing portfolio of over 50 private networks across Europe.

Beyond the company’s M&A activity, LePrince explained how Boldyn has been investing hugely in Italy in preparation for the Pope’s jubilee in 2025, deploying small cells, implementing Wi-Fi coverage on the metro line, and around the main piazza in Rome.  

LePrince emphasised that this has been no easy task, describing the deployment around the city as “difficult” because of the poor quality of existing infrastructure and extensive bureaucracy related to new deployments. 

The project is one of the biggest concessions that the company are sharing with a municipality as part of a joint public–private investment. 

He draws a comparison to its partnership with the city of Sunderland, where Boldyn are deploying new use cases for smart city technology and digital infrastructure, hoping to elevate it to become the UK’s most advanced smart city. There are three networks to make these use cases a reality: a free Wi-Fi network running through the city, a narrowband IoT network, and a 5G network. 

LePrince emphasises that this is something that must be pushed on enterprises and cities to understand. Municipalities need to understand that they cannot afford to wait for operators to invest. They need to contribute to this process themselves if they really want the benefits a highly connected smart city can offer”  

When questioned on “why Sunderland?”, Le Prince explained that Sunderland Council and Boldyn shared a vision of the city’s digitalisation as a differentiator to attract investment .  

“The city and Boldyn had the same vision. The city was big enough to be able to play with everything, but small enough (with a population of around 200,000 people) to execute the project.”  

A perfect combination of scale and ambition like this is hard to find, said LePrince, and is greatly helped by the presence of a proactive council.  

Nonetheless, LePrince says there is a major opportunity for the company’s expansion of the neutral host model. Given , the capital expenditure pressure on operators today, LePrince says that there is “no way” that that cities can continue to sustainably deploy connectivity without adopting some form of neutral host approach.  

Catch Boldyn Networks’ partner Sunderland City Council at this year’s Connected North – 22-23 April in Manchester – get your tickets now!

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A new solution from pureLiFi is preparing to deliver 5G connectivity inside the home, without degrading the signal quality

The concept of using visible light to deliver data between devices has been around for many years now, through paths to commercialisation have been slow to materialise.

However, at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), Scotland-based LiFi specialist pureLiFi had a number of new solutions on show demonstrating the technology’s rapidly growing maturity. These included SkyLite, a whole-room access point that can cover an entire 50m2 room with high speed, low latency connectivity, and the LiFi Cube, a plug-and-play LiFi hotspot, ideal for dedicated use cases within a home or enterprise.

While these new solutions represent a technology growing increasingly versatile, pureLiFi CEO Alistair Banham made clear that LiFi would not be replacing WiFi any time soon.

“It’s not about displacing WiFi for us, it’s about being additive and complementary,” Banham told Total Telecom at this year’s MWC, noting that one of the technology’s key benefits is the avoidance of interference with radio waves.

“The way we see LiFi improving the quality of service is by covering high bandwidth download areas. For example, putting a hotspot over your TV or home computer, allowing these data hungry activities like streaming or gaming to be connected over light, instead of potentially degrading the quality of the WiFi network for all users in the building.”

But perhaps the most interesting new solution the company had on offer is the LINXC Bridge™, a product being developed in partnership with wireless power company Solace Power to help tackle the challenge of indoor 5G connectivity.

A common issue with 5G, particularly as we approach higher band frequencies such as mmWave, is that it suffers from significant signal degradation as it passes through walls and windows in homes and offices.

As its name suggests, the LINXC Bridge aims to overcome this problem by using LiFI, the signal of which is unaffected by passing through glass, to transfer the 5G signal from the outside to the inside of the building without signal attenuation.

The solution itself comprises two boxes, one attached to the inside of a window, the other to the outside. The outside box receives the 5G signal via an integrated 5G modem and converts it into light, which is then delivered through the glass to the inside box. Here, the signal is converted back into an electronic signal, which is then delivered to the home’s Wi-Fi or Li-Fi router. Future iterations could even have the router integrated into the internal box itself, removing the need for additional consumer premise equipment.

The device is powered using Solace’s integrated power solution that similarly delivers power wirelessly through the windowpane, reducing the need for any external power source.

A live demonstration of the LINXC Bridge in action at the show was delivering speeds of 1Gbps while connected to the 5G network, far higher than the 5G speeds typically recorded in-building.

“The average from our research suggests that customers are lucky if they can get 200–300Mbps in their home when connected to sub-6Ghz 5G – which, by the way, is also congested as more people make use of the network,” Banham explained. “We’re offering the operators the chance to deliver customers the same 5G service inside the home that they can get outside home. That’s really exciting.”

With around 80% of mobile data traffic generated indoors, the challenge of indoor 5G is one that is only going to increase in years to come. While LiFi products like the LINXC Bridge are still in their relative infancy, they could offer mobile operators a scalable and relatively hassle-free answer to this ever-growing pain point.

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

Also in the news:
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The initiative now is now supported by 47 operators worldwide, many of which vaunted their API success stories at this year’s MWC

The GSMA launched their Open Gateway initiative – which seeks to create a unified Application Programming Interface (API) development platform for telcos and app developers – at last year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC).

At the time, GSMA director general Mats Granryd hailed the project as a turning point for the industry’s ability to deliver digital services, allowing app developers to create new mobile experiences more quickly and deploy them seamlessly across numerous operator networks.

Now, one year on at MWC 2024, the project continues to grow steadily, with more operators and developer partners joining the fold and demonstrating early success.

Open Gateway is now supported by 47 operator groups worldwide, representing over 65% of global mobile connections, more than doubling the 21 operator partners the project had at launch last year.

Notably, in six national markets – Brazil, Germany, Spain, Indonesia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka – all the local operators are participating in the Open Gateway projects, meaning developers need only a single API key to access network capabilities of every telco within the country.

“Our collective job for 2024 is to nurture and grow this opportunity and provide ubiquitous access to enterprise developers and cloud providers, so they can do what they do best, which is launch game changing new services that can maximise the benefits of 5G networks,” said Granryd.

Some of these new services are already hitting the market, including APIs tackling online fraud, quality-on-demand, and geolocation services.

In total, 94 APIs are commercially available to enterprise developers in 21 markets.

Open Gateway also provides a major opportunity for the hyperscalers, with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft all participating in numerous related projects.

Ishwar Parulkar, AWS’s chief technologist for telecom and edge cloud, called the progress of the Open Gateway project over the last year had been “very encouraging”, saying that alignment between hyperscalers and telcos would be crucial to their combined commercial success.

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

Also in the news:
VMO2 records £3.3bn loss as interest rates begin to bite
Verizon to trial private 5G networks at NHL stadiums
From humble beginnings: The amazing journey of Hormuud Telecom CEO Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf