A new BBC News report states that BT UK quoted one homeowner in the tiny Lincolnshire community of Wingland a hefty £101,874.60 to run a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to his property, which formed part of an offer under the 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO). But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The […]

Messages of confusion and anger have made their way into our inbox this afternoon after internet provider Cuckoo began informing some customers – seemingly those on Openreach’s network – that they were “sorry“, but they’re “no longer able to be your broadband provider” and are switching them to a different ISP. The development comes after […]

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Manx Telecom, which serves homes and businesses on the Isle of Man (a British Crown Dependency) in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland, has confirmed that many of their customers will be hit by annual “inflationary” price hikes of 5.5% from 1st April 2024 (down from 12.5% last year). […]

Network operator and broadband provider G.Network, which recently resumed the roll-out of their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in London (here), has today announced that Cerberus Networks has become the latest ISP to gain access to harness their network at wholesale. The latest agreement follows G.Network’s inaugural wholesale partnership with Spitfire, announced in October last […]

News 

On day one of MWC this year, we sat in on a fireside chat with Jeff Giard, VP of Business Development Partnerships at T-Mobile, Jason Fritch, VP of Starlink Enterprise Sales, and Hiromichi Matsuda, Executive Officer and Director at Japanese telco KDDI, to discuss their vision to provide Direct to Cell services by the end of 2024

In August 2023, KDDI and SpaceX announced an agreement to provide satellite-to-cellular service leveraging SpaceX’s Starlink low earth orbit satellites and KDDI national wireless spectrum nationwide.  

The two companies, along with global cellular providers including T-Mobile, then announced that they would be be testing the direct to cell system using these satellites. 

Since KDDI began partnering with SpaceX, it has become the world’s first operator to use Starlink for cellular backhaul, became Starlink’s first reseller in Japan and became the first direct to cell partner in Asia. 

The main aim of the partnership, KDDI notes, is to being the urban connectivity experience to rural areas. During the Japanese Noto Peninsula earthquake in January this year, over 200 base stations were rendered unavailable, caused by damages to the fibre backhaul. After bringing in Starlink emergency kits, they were able to switch the load onto Starlink. Space X provided KDDI with the 350 complimentary, enabling emergency responders and communities to be quickly connected following the disaster. 

The partnership is the first direct to cell in Asia. In terms of use cases, it will begin with messaging this year, and then as the constellation becomes denser, voice and data services will be added. The end goal, says Giard, is for users to have a similar experience to what they do on the terrestrial network today, anywhere they are in the world. Despite over 99% of the Japanese population currently having coverage with their traditional cellular network, 40% of the country’s landmass is still without it. KDDI hope that the direct to cell solution can aid this. 

Emergency services are an incredible use case for Starlink, says Fritch. What’s important though, is working with governments in areas prone to natural disaster such as floods, fires and earthquakes so that they are ready for it, they aren’t just reacting to events as they happen. 

Other use cases include working with schools to provide connectivity to underserved areas, along with more traditional situations such as IoT (internet of things). 

The main goal of direct to cell, says Starlink is to eliminate global dead spots.  

What makes Starlink stand out, they say, is that there is no modification required for any of the direct to cell services, so they can be be used on regular handsets, which enables faster delployment (this is because the solution uses terrestrial spectrum, rather than the global satellite spectrum). Space X also has a huge amount of launches (over 100 last year), which enables a huge amount of connectivity. This, T mobile, say, is why they chose Starlink over competitors. 

Although “connecting the unconnected” sounds catchy, the solution relies on users having a fairly modern (and expensive) handset that is capable of satellite connectivity, which is an immediate barrier to entry for those who are not able to afford one. 

What’s next for the companies? Starlink aim to launch 50% more satellites this year on 2023 (around 150), and are ideally looking to have SMS activated as a global service within about six months, and first service activation at the end of the year (with T mobile). Excitingly, Starlink also have announced recent successes with WhatsApp. 

For T-Mobile says Giard, their ultimate vision is that it shouldn’t make any difference which network they are using, it should be seamless.  

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

Viewpoint

On the first day of MWC Barcelona this year, Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Board Member and President of ICT Products & Solutions launched the telecoms industry’s first Telecom Foundation Model, an artificial intelligence model for operators 

 

The model’s objective is to offer vital artificial intelligence technologies for service innovation which will improve the efficiency of operators, enhance network productivity and help commercialise 5.5G. 

 

Huge innovation in the telecoms industry has led to more productive networks, but this has come with increased service demands, which are only set to increase in the future. Therefore, the services provided by the operators will need to improve user experience and operation and management of their platforms as the number of users increases. 5.5G is able to deliver enhanced network capabilities to support an even more diverse range of services.  

 

Therefore, the model will help provide key intelligence technologies that support service innovations, improve operational efficiency, improve the productivity of the network and hit 5.5G intelligence objectives. 

 

Specifically, the model will help operators go intelligent by supporting intelligent natural language interactions for different roles to improve employee knowledge and efficiency. It also provides intelligent agent applications for different operations scenarios, which analyse and break down complex processes and orchestrate operation solutions to ensure user experience and satisfaction. Some typical example of application will include: AI assistants (in the case of agile service providing), and will also help improve employee knowledge and efficiency.

 

“The Huawei Telecom Foundation Model leverages Huawei’s strengths in intelligent technology and offers two types of applications: role-based copilots and scenario-based agents,” said Chaobin in his keynote speech. 

 

“It will help carriers empower employees and improve user satisfaction, which will, in turn, improve network productivity,” he continued. 

 

Bringing his speech to a close, Chaobin called upon industry partners to increase the applications of this intelligent technology via rough collaborative industry promotion, talent training, and innovation. He also encouraged the telecom foundation model sector to ensure best practices and bring more intelligence to the telecom industry. 

News

Vodafone has today confirmed that the deal has been agreed, with the companies waiting to sign the relevant paperwork

While the majority of the telecoms world has its eyes set on Mobile World Congress this week, in the world beyond the Fira the wheels of M&A continue to turn.

Today, Vodafone has confirmed that it has agreed to sell its Italian unit to Switzerland’s Swisscom for €8 billion.

“Vodafone has engaged extensively with several parties to explore market consolidation in Italy and believes this potential transaction delivers the best combination of value creation, upfront cash proceeds and transaction certainty for Vodafone shareholders,” said Vodafone in a press release seemingly in response to media speculation.

Vodafone’s new CEO Margherita Della Valle has been seeking to offload the Italian unit as part of a Group wide simplification plan. Initially, it had seemed that Xavier Niel’s Iliad would merge its local unit with Vodafone’s, but these discussions fell through in January, leaving Vodafone in search of a different suitor.

For Swisscom now says it will merge Vodafone Italy with its own Italian unit, Fastweb.

Fastweb itself is primarily a fibre network operator but has had growing ambitions in the mobile space for a number of years now. In 2019, Fastweb won 5G spectrum at auction making it the country’s fifth mobile network operator.

The scale of the company’s mobile network, however, remains relatively small – far smaller than Iliad Italia’s – a fact that will likely see this new deal face far less regulatory scrutiny than the previously proposed merger.

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

News

A selection of the month’s biggest news stories from the German telecoms market, with guest commentary provided by Rowan Thomson, Senior Conference Producer of Connected Germany, Total Telecom

Vodafone Germany to power 5G infrastructure with renewable energy: Vodafone Germany has signed a renewable energy supply deal with RWE and will, in turn, supply the energy company’s offshore windfarm with 5G connectivity

Deutsche Telekom joins Fetch.ai Foundation to pursue AI and blockchain convergence: The German telecoms giant continues to lean heavily into AI, this time considering the long term implications it could have for Web3 technologies.

Deutsche Telekom shifts voice customers to the cloud: Deutsche Telekom has successfully centralised 17 million customer connections in the cloud, processing billions of voice minutes through the NIMS platform.

Telefonica Germany builds self-powered 5G site: Photovoltaic modules have been installed next to the mobile tower, removing the need to connect the site to the national grid.

“This month’s stories highlight the growing focus within the sector on emerging technologies and technological transformation, with artificial intelligence and cloud transformation big topics, not just within the telco space, but within Germany’s digital economy more generally.

We can also see the importance of sustainability as well as the growing synergy between the telecoms industry and energy sector, with areas such as smart networks, smart grids and broader decarbonisation efforts becoming increasingly important as part of hitting Germany’s net zero goals – as highlighted in our stories on Vodafone’s renewable energy partnership with RWE and Telefonica’s build out of a self-powered 5G site. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest industry news from Germany and further afield.”

– Rowan Thomson, Senior Conference Producer of Connected Germany, Total Telecom

Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox

Want to keep up with all the latest developments in the German telecoms market? Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany conference live in Munich

Viewpoint

On Day Zero of this year’s MWC Barcelona event, Huawei hosted the 5G Beyond Growth Summit. Here, Li Peng, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service discussed how carriers can achieve business success in 5G and how 5.5G will further unlock the potential of networks, creating new growth opportunities

Li began by reminding the audience that it has been five years since 5G launched into global markets, and since then, the way our world is connected had changed exponentially. He noted that 5G is the fastest growing mobile technology ever. Since hitting the market in 2019, there are now over 1.6 billion 5G users globally from 302 carriers in more than 100 countries in five years. With 4G, this same milestone took seven years to reach.

Despite less than 20% of global mobile subscribers using 5G currently, this generates 30% of all global mobile traffic, which in turn accounts for a huge 40% of all mobile service revenue. To tackle this, it’s essential that carriers find new ways to monetise 5G to bring this revenue back up. Let’s take a look at some successful examples of 5G monetisation.

Because 5G can deliver up to ten times faster speeds than 4G and a lower cost-per-bit, Li continued, it results in increased investment in both home and consumer markets. In the home market, 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has been a success, as over 150 global carriers have launched 5G FWA services, which have connected three million households. Especially for carriers in the Gulf Cooperation Council, (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) it has become a lucrative income source.

Speed based pricing is another way to effectively monetise 5G. Charging customers different prices based on different speed tiers, has been done effectively in 21% of 5G carriers in countries such as Switzerland, Austria, UAE and Thailand. Similarly, providing more speed tiers in hotspot areas can result in monetisation. For example, a carrier in Thailand recently released a 5G Boost Mode add-on. Users can use this whenever they want to enjoy faster speeds in hotspot areas. Boost Mode plans only cost $1.4. They include 3 hours of faster speed and 5 GB of data. And these plans have increased average revenue per user (ARPU) by 20%.

Targeting plans at specific consumers is another viable monetisation option. For example, one Chinese carrier launched a plan with guaranteed uplink rates designed specifically with live streamers in mind. China has the world’s largest livestreaming market, and specifically in China’s Guangdong province, there are more than 300,000 livestream users who have increased ARPU by 70%. This model could be adapted to different types of users, such as business professionals or delivery drivers, to help monetise the experience of the existing consumer base.

New services emerging in the areas of 5.5G, AI and cloud convergence. Chinese carriers have, for example deployed services such as New Calling, cloud phone and glasses-free 3D. Since launching the services, they have over 100 million New Calling users and 12 million cloud phone users.

In the area of smart vehicles, 5G powered autonomous vehicles are being adopted in various sectors such as logistics, retail and security. In Beijing for example, 5.5G is being used to power hundreds of unmanned distribution vehicles that can travel at a top speed of 25 Km/h, whereas before it was 12Km/h. Therefore, more packages each day are able to be delivered at a faster speeds than a human employee, increasing efficiency and increasing revenues.

These are some examples of industry successes of 5G adoption and monetisation. As adoption increases and more customers are able to make use of the different opportunities that 5G can bring to both consumers and businesses. However, more work must be done to ensure than new growth in the industry is driven, to build today’s networks for tomorrow’s applications.

Li closes out the session by promising the audience, “Together with carriers, we will unlock the potential of 5G and 5.5G, and drive incredible new growth”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency appears to have scrapped the relatively user-friendly website for their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which instead redirects interested consumers and businesses to a somewhat less user-friendly GOV.UK information page that lacks even a simple availability checker. Just to recap. The GBVS generally offers grants worth up to […]