Hampshire-based network builder and gigabit broadband ISP toob, which is rolling out its own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South England, claims to have “fixed” a major network outage that began during the small hours of this morning and only began to subside an hour or so ago. But issues are ongoing in Southampton. […]

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has written a new letter that singles out big ISPs, including BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media (VMO2), for being too slow to implement their One Touch Switch (OTS) system, which aims to make it quicker and easier for consumers to switch providers on different networks. The OTS system […]

News

Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary, MMS, will serve as a validator of Fetch.ai’s decentralised blockchain

This week, Deutsche Telekom has joined the Fetch.ai Foundation as the organisations first corporate partner.

The Fetch.ai Foundation, a non-profit founded by Fetch.ai and Bosch, is dedicated to creating an open platform to explore the interplay of AI, blockchain, and other Web3 technologies.

The central premise here is the use of AI-controlled autonomous agents that can coordinate resources, evaluate data, and, crucially, make automated payments (using decentralised currency) on behalf of the customer. These autonomous AI agents have a myriad of potential uses, from smart washing machines that detect when they are out of detergent and automatically order more, to connected electric vehicles that can locate and negotiate prices at nearby charging points.

Fetch.ai says this approach can have a myriad of potential use cases, with the company already offering services in sectors including healthcare, automotive, supply chain management, and digital identity.

Ultimately, the company’s vision is to help enable an Economy of Things, where broadly independent devices and services are being purchased and sold by autonomous AI agents on behalf of their owners.

But with the AI agents pulling data from numerous sources, as well as potentially handling consumers financial details, how can security be assured?

This is where Deutsche Telekom comes in, with the company’s subsidiary, Telekom MMS, serving a validator for Fetch.ai’s blockchain, ensuring network security as devices, individuals, and services are integrated. This blockchain serves to store and secure the large amounts of data that the AI rely on to make autonomous decisions.

“The collaboration between Telekom, Fetch.ai and Bosch is groundbreaking and combines industrial applications with the Internet of Things. Autonomous agents will automate industrial services, simplify processes and make them secure and scalable thanks to blockchain technology,” says Dirk Röder, head of the Web3 Infrastructure & Solutions Team at Telekom MMS.

“This partnership is a significant milestone for Fetch.ai. Through research, development and practical application of agents, AI and decentralized Web3 technologies, real-world use cases can be integrated that improve the existing network,” said Humayun Sheikh, Managing Director of Fetch.ai.

Deutsche Telekom has been a growing supporter of Web3 technologies – especially blockchain – for a number of years now. According to Röder, the company already supports eight blockchain networks with over 200 validators.

“Currently, over 60 million euros of assets from Chainlink, Ethereum, Celo, Q, Flow, Polkadot, Polygon and Energy Web are on our infrastructure,” he explained in a company blog post.

Want to keep up with all of the latest news from the German telecoms market? Join the operators in discussion at Connected Germany 2024

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Bell Canada announces plans to cut almost 5,000 jobs
EE to invest £6 million in retail stores
Mexican president calls for dissolution of telecoms regulator

News

The move comes just two months after the company announced the creation of new data centre business Nxtra

It seems that 2024 is a year of transformation for Airtel Africa, with the operator moving to restructure its business considerably to better capture value from Africa’s ever-growing digital landscape.

This week, the operator has announced the launch of new fibre wholesaler Telesonic, a subsidiary that will manage Airtel’s 75,000km terrestrial fibre network across its 14 African markets, as well as the company’s investment in the pan-African submarine cable 2Africa.

According to Airtel, initial steps will be launching local divisions of Telesonic in key markets to manage the fibre networks efficiently.

Services to be offered include national and international leased lines, dedicated internet access, IP/IP transit, and MPLS services,

“The establishment of Airtel Africa Telesonic Limited underscores Airtel Africa’s commitment to addressing Africa’s needs for the digital revolution by providing cutting-edge fibre-optic solutions that will empower businesses, education, healthcare, and communities at large,” said Airtel Africa’s Group chief executive Segun Ogunsanya.

“No doubt, Africa is experiencing a digital revolution, with surging demand for data across various sectors especially by the continent’s growing youth population. With robust and scalable infrastructure, we aim to bridge the digital divide and unlock opportunities for innovation and economic growth. Our investment signifies not just a technological advancement but also a catalyst for progress, connecting people and ideas across borders.”

The creation of Telesonic is the latest in a number of steps taken by the company as it increases its focus on supporting high quality connectivity across borders throughout the African continent. In December, the company announced the creation of Nxtra, a company aiming to deploy and manage five hyperscale data centres across the African continent. The first of these data centres will begin construction in Lagos, Nigeria, next month, with commercial operations due to begin in 2025.

When combined, Airtel believes Telesonic and Nxtra will create a solid connectivity backbone to support Africa’s ever-increasing digital needs.

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

Also in the news:
Bell Canada announces plans to cut almost 5,000 jobs
EE to invest £6 million in retail stores
Mexican president calls for dissolution of telecoms regulator

LONDON (12 February 2024) – AI adoption is growing in the telecoms space, with over half (58%) of telecom buyers across the UK, US and Europe planning to build AI capabilities into their products, according to new research released today by Cavell.

An annual survey since its inception in 2019, the Telecoms Buyer Report polls business owners, C-Level executives and senior managers responsible for purchasing telecoms services at companies of all sizes across the UK, US and Central Europe.

The 2023 report also reveals that 70% of companies have or are planning to adopt a policy on AI usage, while 44% of respondents reported that their company has already adopted a solution that uses AI or is described as ‘AI-enabled’.

Interestingly, the C-suite is playing a greater role in deciding on telecoms services, with a third (33%) of companies saying that their CEO/President has input into the process. Meanwhile, one in five (20%) respondents said they are now consulting their entire employee base on telecoms decisions.

In terms of use cases for AI within telecoms, the US appears to be focused more on improving data analysis and management (26%), whereas the same number in the UK said they were more concerned with reduction in human error.

Finbarr Begley, Senior Analyst at Cavell, commented: “AI in communications is not a future technology anymore, it is here. Its impact is already being seen and it is finding its way into every sort of solution imaginable. This is also driving rapid expansion and refinement of AI policies as suppliers are asked to clarify their own usage of AI and guarantee that no misuse is occurring anywhere in the supply chain.”

Concerns around AI of course still exist, with the primary concern being future adoption will lead to the accidental breaking of customer privacy and protection regulations (28%), while in the UK specifically there is also concern that employees may misuse AI (26%).

-ENDS-

About Cavell

Cavell is a leading research and consulting firm specialising in the telecommunications industry with a particular focus on business communications technologies including UCaaS, collaboration, contact centre and customer engagement software, business messaging, and Microsoft Teams.

Cavell provides insights, analysis, and advisory services to help their clients navigate and succeed in these rapidly evolving sectors.

Cavell’s team combines years of accumulated telecoms industry experience with enterprise and SMB surveys and proven market intelligence to provide a suite of services including market research, commercial and technical due diligence, strategy advisory services and leading industry events.

https://www.cavellgroup.com 

KCOM and Sonalake are delighted to announce that they have completed end-to-end integration testing of their OTS solutions,  covering the full OTS lifecycle (match, order, cancel, update and trigger) in both gaining and losing roles and are well set for the Industry trials as soon as they commence. 

“From the outset, KCOM saw the value of OTS in promoting customer choice and took the strategic decision to be one of the early innovators in embracing the solution. We found the partnership with Sonalake to be a very good fit to KCOM’s agile and innovative culture.” – Neil Bartholomew, Managing Director Consumer KCOM

“Sonalake’s  pivOTS™, is an enterprise grade solution to enable ISP’s achieve OTS compliance in a cost efficient and secure manner. While pivOTS™ is being deployed by several ISPs, we were delighted to test independently towards KCOM’s OTS implementation.  Our Technical teams really enjoyed the collaborative engagement working with fellow pathfinders, KCOM” – Niall Halpenny, Director Telecoms, Sonalake 

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announces AI-powered intent-based operations, within its managed services Ericsson Operations Engine, to enable differentiated premium 5G services for consumers and enterprise businesses.

The new AI intent-based operations capabilities will provide an end-to-end framework to translate business requirement intents into real-time network actions. Leveraging one of the largest telco AI and automation use case libraries, Ericsson Operations Engine now can recommend and take the necessary actions, check network intents are met and support evaluation of solution options with pre-defined strategies.

This process of making recommendations and taking action is fully transparent and supports optimized decision making with the speed and agility needed to enable new diverse services.

AI intent-based operations enable a wider variety of applications and use cases for consumers and businesses. As premium 5G services like network slicing roll out, scale and grow more complex, a new generation of operating models will be required for CSPs to monetize configurable services with detailed agreements on functional and non-functional characteristics.

The technology introduced today will seamlessly support self-optimizing networks that are driven by intent and hyper-automation and can dynamically adapt for increased service demand variability.

Ericsson’s AI intent-based operations has already proven successful in trial customer deployments with Malaysia’s Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) leveraging it to deliver customized 5G services with guaranteed performance

Ken Tan, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Nasional Berhad says: “Our strategic partnership with Ericsson has contributed greatly to us becoming a world leader in 5G performance. Together, we implemented the world’s first multi-operator core network (MOCN), which allows Malaysia’s six mobile operators to access 5G Radio Access Network with their own core network without compromising any end-user experience or network performance. Now, the continued adoption of AI intent-based operations is allowing us to scale the network without incremental cost, which is essential for making 5G affordable and available for consumers and enterprises, as Malaysia continues to adopt digitalization.”

Bradley Mead, Head of Ericsson Managed Services says: “With this award-winning solution, we are enabling Ericsson Operations Engine to really understand communication services providers’ (CSPs) own business language and translate it into a telco service technical specification so that the network automatically delivers the requested business outcome, and is able to constantly evolve to meet future demands. This is a big step in our autonomous networks journey which shows how Ericsson Operations Engine continues to be at the forefront of innovation when transforming network operations.”

To learn more about Ericsson’s intent-based operations, click here.

News

Shortlisted bidders include KKR, Macquarie, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), and Global Infrastructure Partners

According to a report from Bloomberg, numerous major players are lining up to bid for Altice Group’s 50.1% stake in XpFibre, France’s largest alterative fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) wholesaler.

Potential suitors for the stake include KKR & Co., Macquarie Group, CDPQ, and Global Infrastructure Partners, according to anonymous sources.

No financial details behind the potential bids have been revealed.

The news comes just months after billionaire Patrick Drahi announced that numerous Altice Group assets were being put up for sale, including a minority stake in Altice France, to tackle the Group’s $60 billion debt pile.

However, it has quickly became apparent that a stake in mobile operator Altice France (SFR) is in fact far less appealing than that of FTTH unit XpFibre, which currently covers more than 5 million premises across France.

XpFibre was created from the spin off of Altic France’s FTTH unit back in 2018, with Allianz Capital Partners (ACP), AXA Investment Managers, and Canadian investment firm Omers Infrastructure investing in the venture to jointly acquire a 49.9% stake in the business for €1.7 billion.

Stakes in Altice France and XpFibre are not the only assets from Altice to be put on the chopping block. In December, Altice Portugal received a €6 billion takeover offer from Warburg Pincus, with additional companies such as stc and Iliad potentially also looking to make a bid for the business.

Altice also recently spun off its data centre assets into a separate business, selling a 70% stake in the new entity to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for just over half a billion euros last month.

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

Also in the news:
Bell Canada announces plans to cut almost 5,000 jobs
EE to invest £6 million in retail stores
Mexican president calls for dissolution of telecoms regulator

Press Release

Kicking off LBN’s 2024 plans it was announced that they are deploying their full-fibre broadband network across the Black Isle. This further expansion is part of LBN’s plans to give the entirety of the Highlands access to ultrafast broadband within the next three years.

LBN who have already built network and provide services across much of the Highlands from Evanton up to Helmsdale including Alness, Tain and Invergordon will commence building the network on the Black Isle in February.

The new network build will tackle the challenge of poor broadband speeds and unreliable connectivity experienced by many throughout rural Scotland. Trading as Highland Broadband homes in the area will be able to access a range of competitively priced broadband packages with speeds ranging from 100Mbps up to 2Gbps; LBN also offers social tariff products for anyone who is in receipt of a universal credit or on a state pension.

Gavin Rodgers, CEO of LBN:

“It is thrilling to be able to continue to expand our ultrafast broadband network throughout the Highlands. While the Black Isle is the first new build of 2024, we will shortly announce further expansion plans which will further close the digital divide during 2024.

“One of the most encouraging things about being the leading broadband provider in the Highlands is the reception we get from customers. In terms of data usage our customers in the Highlands use twice the UK national average showing the level of appetite there is for gigabit capable digital connectivity.”

Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said:

“With digital connectivity becoming an increasing necessity, access to fast and reliable broadband is more important than ever.

“I hope that improved connections will continue to unlock key opportunities for those households and businesses on the Black Isle and the wider Highland digital economy.”

ENDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN) media enquiries, please contact:

Sara Johnson, Senior Manager Brand & Experience

T: 07948 505322

E: sara.johnson@lothianbroadband.com

 

Notes to editors – LBN

LBN is the parent company of the Highland & Lothian Broadband brands and is Scotland’s leading rural fibre company and currently provide broadband services across East Lothian, Fife, Stirling, and the Highlands with plans to extend their service into other areas of Scotland throughout 2024 and beyond.

The company is led by experienced industry executive Gavin Rodgers. Gavin was formerly head of a national fibre delivery organisation at Virgin Media and has a record of deploying fibre at scale.

LBN deploys XGS-PON technology to deliver fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) with symmetrical upload and download connection speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). This compares with BT/Openreach’s fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) product which delivers speeds of typically less than 40Mbps download and 20Mbps upload [source: Think Broadband].

www.lothianbroadband.com