News

All major UK operators have agreed with the government to phase out 2G and 3G by 2033  

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has become the final major UK mobile operator to announce 3G shut down schedule, aiming to begin the process in 2025. 

The company says that the switch off is part of its ongoing network transformation, with the move freeing up valuable spectrum therefore allowing for the expansion of its 4G and 5G networks. 

3G services were launched in the UK in 2003, but now carry only a small fraction of the country’s total mobile data traffic. In VMO2’s case, only 4% of all data consumed last year was carried over their 3G network. 

VMO2 added that its 4G services now cover 99% of the population, and they expect their 5G coverage to reach 50% of the population by the end of the year. 

This 3G shutdown schedule puts VMO2 slightly behind its rivals, with EE and Three set to begin shutting down their 3G networks next year, while Vodafone UK aims to have completed the process by June next year. 

“3G was once an exciting new development for telecoms providers that brought new opportunities for customers,” said Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2 in a press release. “But as we continue to evolve our network to provide the best mobile connectivity, it is clear that switching off 3G and focusing our attention and investment on the faster, more reliable and more efficient 4G and 5G services is the right thing to do for our customers, our business and the environment.” 

3G services are likely to be axed before 2G, as 2G remains the only connectivity option in some the most rural parts of the country, as well as used by many Internet of Things services and providing a low power fallback option for more modern networks. 

Here from Virgin Media O2 at this year’s Connected Britain, the UK’s largest digital economy event – book your tickets now! 

Also in the news:
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi 

Contributed Article

by Brendan Gibbs, Senior Vice President, Automated WAN Solutions at Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks announced its expanded Cloud Metro solutions portfolio in July 2022, optimized for enabling sustainable business growth. The Juniper Cloud Metro solutions address profits, people and the planet holistically, and are underpinned by improved service experience. This announcement was the natural evolution of the Cloud Metro vision we introduced  April 2021. Juniper has entered this market with purpose, following significant innovation and investments over the past several years to create an entirely new category of metro solutions for an experience-driven, cloud-connected world, giving service providers an “easy button” to bring the Cloud Metro vision to reality.

Cloud Metro: A New Product Category for Sustainable Business Growth

Metro has become the “new edge” and has huge growth potential. The metro is where 5G, edge cloud hosting, connectivity and service experience converge. But can the traditional “retro metro” sustain business growth for the long term?

Metro traffic bandwidth is estimated to grow more than 500% from 2021 to 2027, but most teams’ budgets will remain flat, which means the current cost per bit is not sustainable and new network economics are paramount to scale productively. User expectations have increased and security threats continue to expand. Eighty-six percent of telecom executives named skilled staff shortage as the primary industry challenge. In addition, a new ITU standard now requires operators to reduce greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030. We believe a new approach is needed to effectively tackle these challenges and enable sustainable business growth holistically. At Juniper, we call this approach “Cloud Metro”.

But arguably, the biggest change needed for Cloud Metro is a revolutionary approach for managing such networks and services. It’s often said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Service providers who rearchitect their networks to accommodate this massive growth in new capacity, new traffic patterns and new sustainability requirements, yet don’t rearchitect their operations, will be unable to truly unlock the full benefits of this shift. A Cloud Metro network is fundamentally an experience-first network, focused on providing a high-quality service experience for customers instead of mere packet transport as in the past, with automated and AI-aware operations at the forefront of this new approach.

Cloud Metro is about applying cloud principles to architecting, building and operating metro networks. It’s a new solution category because the attributes for its operations, systems and architecture are fundamentally different than the traditional retro metro, as indicated in Table 1 below. Take cars, for example. While both electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles are “vehicles”, they’re in different vehicle categories to each other. Similarly, that’s what we’ve done with Juniper Cloud Metro.

Juniper’s Expanded Cloud Metro Solutions

Together, the expanded portfolio and enhanced capabilities create a new model for metro network operations, systems and architecture, all aligned with a single purpose – to enable sustainable business growth. Our newly expanded Cloud Metro solution combines:

Sustainable Operations with AI-enabled, cloud-delivered Automation as a Service
Sustainable Systems that deliver port density and flexibility with speeds to 400G, while reducing carbon footprint and e-waste
Sustainable Architecture with a scalable IP services fabric that features embedded active service assurance and integrated Zero Trust security

Reimagining Metro Operations

In 2021, Juniper introduced Juniper Paragon™ Automation—a portfolio of cloud-native, experience-driven software applications to automate the full lifecycle of the network and services. Now, we’re making it even easier for service providers to consume, providing:

AI-Enabled Automation as a Service: Most automation tools function as standalone solutions, requiring complex specialized software and dedicated on-premises infrastructures. Today, we’re introducing Paragon Automation as a cloud-delivered service. Teams can instantly simplify and accelerate service delivery by consuming automation from the cloud as a SaaS solution, reducing time-to-service introduction from months to minutes with dramatic improvements in productivity and speed. This offering will be available starting in early 2023. Throughout next year, we will be rolling out additional use cases and an AI-driven conversational assistant.
AI-Enabled Intelligence: Drives down manual effort and timelines for Day-2 operations with AI-driven operations (AIOps). Networking operational staff can diagnose problems much more quickly, drawing on the proven Juniper AI expertise. With Juniper AIOps, the Cloud Metro network itself can more efficiently observe, predict and remediate network failures and service degradations at service provider scale.
Reimagined Metro Device Onboarding: For our first use case leveraging the power of Paragon Automation as a Service, we’ve made end-to-end metro device onboarding available as a service – instantaneous, secured and virtually error-free. This fully automated metro device onboarding as a service is available anywhere from the cloud and can provision a fully configured, secured, tested and inventoried device in minutes, a far cry from the hours it traditionally takes to onboard individual devices.

The Juniper Cloud Metro model for sustainable operations dramatically reduces tedious manual tasks, enabling superior experiences for end users and operators alike. And it enables profitable growth by helping service providers bring differentiated services to market faster than competitors.

Learn more about how Juniper is reinventing metro network operations. 

Reinventing Metro Networking Systems

In April 2021, we introduced two new platforms in the ACX7000 family, as well as our Unified PON solution, all designed to bring more capacity and intelligence to the metro edge. Today, we’re announcing the next step in this evolution: a greatly expanded ACX7000 family, along with new Juniper co-developed 400GE ZR/ZR+ optics.

The expanded family of Juniper Cloud Metro networking systems is expected to deliver future-proof performance, while reducing power consumption by up to 77%. These new systems feature:

Adaptive Power Innovation: The Juniper ACX7000 family leverages the latest generation chipsets and system design, plus new energy innovations, to deliver performance, scale and density with less space and power. With the ability to turn off software functions when not in use, these systems reduce power consumption by 61-77%—and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) up to 71%.
Future-Proof Performance: The expanded Cloud Metro portfolio delivers broad scale from 1 Gbps to 4.8 Tbps, and line card capacity of 1.6 Tbps per slot. Juniper also offers port flexibility & density for 1/10/25/40/100/200 and 400G ports, and the ability to support high-power XR/ZR/ZR+ coherent optics on every port simultaneously. With the industry’s only Class D-verified timing precision accuracy, these systems are ready for low-latency applications of the future.

With this kind of headroom, we believe Juniper Cloud Metro systems will last four to seven years longer than alternatives on the market, protecting investment far into the future while reducing e-waste. It adds up to the industry’s most sustainable metro network solution—both for the planet and service providers’ ongoing business economics.

Learn more about the Juniper ACX7000 Family Portfolio.

Building Scalable, Assured and Secure Metro IP Services Fabric Architecture

When we began our Cloud Metro vision, we introduced a new converged IP services fabric architecture optimized for supporting end-to-end network slicing, with the ability to support both scale-up and scale-out expansion. Today, we’re taking Cloud Metro architectures to the next level with:

Embedded Active Assurance: Traditional networks require complex standalone solutions to validate network devices and services. Now, we’ve embedded Paragon Active Assurance test agents directly into the Junos OS Evolved in every ACX7000 platform. We’ve turned the metro network itself into a “sensor” that proactively enables user experience, without requiring advanced expertise or tedious manual effort. By adding the ability to emulate 5G UE/gNodeB with Paragon Active Assurance, service providers can also proactively enable end-to-end 5G services, verifying ahead of time, for example, that new cell sites are ready to serve customers or that edge clouds will meet SLA requirements for a new network slice. And incident resolution times can be cut in half—even as most problems are fixed before they affect customers—translating to happier, more loyal subscribers.

Built-in Zero Trust Security: Juniper has applied the Zero Trust security principles throughout the Cloud Metro IP services fabric. Each new Juniper ACX7000 platform now features a unique, cryptographically signed device identity (DevID), compliant with IEEE 802.1AR standard and stored in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 silicon, which is installed at the time of manufacture to mitigate the risk of being spoofed by hackers. The moment a Cloud Metro platform boots, it automatically verifies device authenticity and integrity, attesting that neither hardware nor software has been tampered with and activating RFC-compliant secure Zero-Touch Provisioning (sZTP). In addition, the Juniper Cloud Metro solution features native file encryption to protect data at rest and MACsec on all ports to safeguard data in motion. In addition, the new Paragon Automation as a Service offering includes validation and reporting of network trust to provide insight into infrastructure security posture across an end-to-end network.

Together, these capabilities create a more scalable, assured and secure metro IP services fabric that’s optimized for the explosion of new devices and applications at the metro edge. They provide a powerful foundation to deliver next-generation metro edge services and network slices and achieve sustainable business outcomes.

Reimagine the Metro, Reinvent Your Business

The landscape for new digital experiences and the metro networks enabling them is changing before our eyes. The emergence of the next-generation edge brings new challenges, but also presents an incredible opportunity for service providers to redefine their business and their role in the digital ecosystem. We can’t get there, however, with yesterday’s retro metro. To capitalize on tomorrow’s converged, cloudified edge, service providers will need a new, more sustainable approach to their metro network operations, networking systems and architectures.

While the rest of the industry continues to figure out what a next-generation metro network should look like, Juniper can deliver it today. Our newly expanded Cloud Metro solution provides service providers with a powerful foundation to fuel sustainable business growth—for their people, the planet and their bottom line.

Want to learn more about Juniper and their Cloud Metro solutions? Find them at Stand 30 at Connected Britain in London on 20-21 September 

Also in the news:
“Open dialogue for 5G.”
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi

 

Statement of Product Direction

The information on this page may contain Juniper’s development and plans for future products, features, or enhancements (“SOPD Information”). SOPD Information is subject to change at any time, without notice. Juniper provides no assurances, and assumes no responsibility, that future products, features, or enhancements will be introduced. In no event should any purchase decision be based upon reliance of timeframes or specifics outlined as part of SOPD Information, because Juniper may delay or never introduce the future products, features, or enhancements.

Any SOPD Information within, or referenced or obtained from, this website by any person does not give rise to any reliance claim, or any estoppel, against Juniper in connection with, or arising out of, any representations set forth in the SOPD Information. Juniper is not liable for any loss or damage (howsoever incurred) by any person in connection with, or arising out of, any representations set forth in the SOPD Information.

Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Juniper, Junos, and other trademarks listed here are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

VIEWPOINT

To reach a truly connected Gigabit Britain, every home and business needs to have access to the best connectivity, and partnerships among fibre industry leaders are critical to bridging this gap. Two industry leaders have come together to help BSPs level up their network deployments: Calix, and Virtuvi. And will be present at Connected Britain and have brought to market a fully integrated technology ecosystem.

ISPs looking to build and optimise their networks require collaborative environments and streamlined processes. By leveraging the power of Vitruvi’s GIS-based SaaS telecom construction management software, and the Calix Software and Intelligent Access Edge platform, altnets have all the building blocks to initiate a game-changing deployment. This combination of solutions allows altnets to visualize, plan and build their network from start-to-finish and end-to-end—all with the experience and combined vision of two partners that have extensive collaboration under their belts with not only altnets, but also with each other. This greatly simplifies every part of the process for altnets, collapsing what used to be multiple, distinct touchpoints into one unified effort.

At this year’s Connected Britain, both will showcase their innovative solutions as sponsors of the UK’s most important connectivity event. In addition to demonstrating their shared value, each partner is sponsoring an award at the event.

Full Fibre ISP Innovation, sponsored by Calix. This award recognises altnets that are true “champions” of full fibre, demonstrating entrepreneurial spirit or breaking through barriers to market entry to grow their businesses—and help drive full fibre adoption in their operating areas. As a cloud and software platform company that is helping altnets innovate how they deliver Gigiabit services to their communities, Calix has sponsored this award to highlight local or regional marketing innovation, creative approaches to achieving results in a crowded connectivity market, and excellence specifically in the areas of education and empowerment from altnets to their customers.
Project Roll-Out, sponsored by Vitruvi. This award recognises any organisation that has been outstanding in enhancing the delivery of gigabit capable broadband in the UK—particularly via the development of engineering and delivery strategies. As a build management software that unites project workflows, designs and PIA data into one easy-to-use GIS and mobile platform., Vitruvi has sponsored this award to highlight those organisations and broadband builders that have adopted accelerated rollouts to help create a connected Britain.

Learn how these three industry leaders come together to help accelerate and streamline network deployment by visiting them at Connected Britain, where they’ll be attending, presenting, and hosting networking events. Don’t miss the event from September 20-21 at ExCeL London.

News 

Firms dubbed ‘gatekeepers’ will be forced to share data with rivals and make their services interoperable  

The European Commission has named six global tech giants – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft – as ‘gatekeepers’ under the new Digital Markets Act (DMA). 

The DMA, launched in November last year, aims to make the digital economy fairer by establishing a definitive set of rules for so–called ‘gatekeepers’ – those that have an overwhelmingly dominant position in their respective digital markets and essentially control businesses’ access to customers. 

These rules include forcing the companies to share relevant data with rivals and increase the interoperability of their products. It would also force these players to allow device users to decide which apps were preinstalled on their devices. 

Companies that do not comply with these stipulations could face fines worth billions of euros. 

“We know that some tech giants have used their market power to give their own products and services an unfair advantage and hold back competitors from doing business and creating added value and jobs,” said Thierry Breton, EU internal market commissioner, in a speech this week. 

“These practices distort competition, undermine free consumer choice and hold back SMEs’ innovation potential notably arising from Web 4.0 and virtual worlds.”  

To qualify as a ‘gatekeeper’, firms must hit certain thresholds, such as having over 45 million active local users and having a turnover of over €7.5 billion in the last three financial years. 

As a result, 22 platform services have been indicated in the EU’s initial ruling: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn (social media services); Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Amazon Marketplace, iOS App Store, Meta Marketplace (“intermediation” services); Google, Amazon and Meta (ads delivery systems); Chrome, Safari (browsers); Google Android, iOS, Windows PC OS (operating systems); WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger (Number-Independent Interpersonal Communication Service); Google (search engine); and YouTube (video sharing platform). 

There are, however, some notable absences from the above list, including web-based email services such as Gmail and Outlook, despite meeting the prerequisite criteria. 

“[T]he Commission has concluded that, although Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser meet the thresholds under the DMA to qualify as a gatekeeper, Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung provided sufficiently justified arguments showing that these services do not qualify as gateways for the respective core platform services,” noted the EU. “Therefore, the Commission decided not to designate Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser as core platform services. It follows that Samsung is not designated as gatekeeper with respect to any core platform service.” 

The firms will now have until 6th March next year to ensure that they are fully compliant with the Digital Markets Act obligations or else face large fines of up to 20% of their global annual turnover. 

‘The DMA will likely face legal challenges from the disgruntled tech giants, who have similarly been challenging its sister law, the  Digital Services Act (DSA) of 2022, which regulates the obligations of digital services that act as intermediaries in their role of connecting consumers with goods, services, and content. 

In June, both Amazon and Zalando filed legal cases in European courts against the EU’s classification of them as “very large” platforms under the DSA.  

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
STC Group acquires a €2.1 billion stake in Telefónica
Vodafone to begin UK’s largest Open RAN rollout
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi   

News 

The UK government has acknowledged that the controversial “spy clause” (Clause 122) of its Online Safety Bill may not be “technically feasible” 

The Online Safety Bill aims to make websites and other internet–based services and platforms free from illegal and harmful material by requiring the platform owners to remove all prohibited content. 

By failing to do so, these firms could face financial penalties of up to £18 million or 10% of annual revenue, whichever is greater. 

The task of defining which content should be censored is controversial and onerous enough, but the Bill has grown even more contentious due to the so-called “spy clause”, which would force platforms to scan private and encrypted user messages for prohibited content. 

The clause would also give Ofcom the power to issue messaging services with notices requiring them to develop and roll out software to carry out the scanning processes. 

As it turns out, the technology needed to carry out the scanning without infringing on customers privacy, does not yet exist.  

“Scanning is fundamentally incompatible with end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. Scanning bypasses the encryption in order to scan, exposing your messages to attackers,” said Matthew Hodgson, co-founder of Element, a decentralized British messaging app. 

“If appropriate technology does not exist which meets these requirements, Ofcom cannot require its use,” said culture minister Stephen Parkinson in the House of Lords yesterday. “Ofcom cannot require companies to use proactive technology on private communications in order to comply.” 

Even if the technology was available, its us would still be hugely controversial. Its detractors argue that the passing of the bill would make wider surveillance of consumers inescapable. 

“You make mass surveillance become almost an inevitability by putting [these tools] in their hands,” said Alan Woodward, a visiting professor in cybersecurity at the University of Surrey. “There will always be some ‘exceptional circumstances’ that [security forces] think of that warrants them searching for something else.” 

Despite this apparent win for user privacy rights, the government’s position on the clause itself remains unchanged. UK government officials have said that the government could still “enable Ofcom to direct companies to either use, or make best efforts to develop or source, technology to identify and remove illegal child sexual abuse content — which we know can be developed.” 

If the bill is passed, service giants such as WhatsApp have threatened to pull out of the UK altogether. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
EU hits tech giants with new regulations under the Digital Markets Act
STC Group acquires a €2.1 billion stake in Telefónica
Vodafone to begin UK’s largest Open RAN rollout 

Contributed Article

by FullFibre

The strong desire for seamless connectivity is driving the direction of the telecommunications industry in 2023, and its influence is expected to last for many years. In this dynamic environment, providers are working hard to come up with new solutions to satisfy the growing need for fast and affordable internet services all over the UK

In an era marked by remote working and the integration of AI-driven services in business and personal lives, the demand for steadfast, reliable connectivity looms large. And the shift towards a connected future is already in progress, with the race to full fibre underway and the advent of technologies like 5G, which promise to redefine the telecom industry for years to come.

The sector’s transformation unfolds against the backdrop of a concerted drive for efficient network management and collaborative infrastructure sharing. This change isn’t just about technology progressing; it’s a crucial plan to make the industry more resilient and relevant. So, as we think about the future, a major question to consider is: will the UK become a fully connected country by the goal of 2025?

Empowering connectivity

Historically, the UK telecoms market has long been a global powerhouse, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. Industry projections echo this sentiment, forecasting a surge from USD 34.32 billion in 2023 to an impressive USD 42.95 billion by 2028. This trajectory underscores the UK’s resolute stance as a commanding force in the telecommunications domain on the global stage.

Central to the UK’s journey is the government’s ambition to foster a new era of digital connectivity. By aiming to provide every household and enterprise with access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, the government envisions not only economic prosperity but also social cohesion.

The roadmap to this reality relies on full fibre digital connectivity and 5G technology, but security and resilience of the underlying infrastructure is of the utmost importance moving forward.

This effort goes beyond simply possessing advanced technology; it’s a change in society that requires being ready and able to adjust. It’s a cultural shift, a change in the way we interact, work, and live in a world that’s increasingly interconnected. This shift requires individuals, businesses, and institutions to be proactive in embracing the changes, open to exploring new ways of operating, and flexible enough to adjust to the evolving landscape.

A blueprint for transformation

A cornerstone of this transformation is the UK’s pivot to fibre optics, coupled with the impending end of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by 2025. Guided by this ‘national switch,’ the outdated copper phone network will gracefully step aside, creating space for the introduction of full fibre connections. Although there might be small interruptions expected, the UK government and Ofcom have taken proactive steps to safeguard the interests of consumers during this significant transformation.

The benefits of this change go beyond just new technology. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), moving to full fibre could bring together communities that previously had lacklustre internet. This shift could also boost the economy by almost £59 billion because it will enable people to work more efficiently. Additionally, as flexible working becomes more widespread, around a million people might be able to join the workforce again, which would create more opportunities for both individuals and businesses.

At the same time, the widespread introduction of 5G technology since 2019 has opened up exciting possibilities in the world of telecommunications. Offering the advantages of reduced delays, increased data capacity, and faster connection speeds, the fifth-generation cellular network enhances the ability to smoothly navigate a world that’s more connected than ever before. Going beyond these improvements, 5G’s real value becomes evident in its stronger security measures, including advanced ways of confirming identities and verifying users. As 5G becomes available to more people, consumers can look forward to increased efficiency, better cost management, and stronger protection against cyber threats.

A horizon of connectivity

Against this backdrop of transformation, UK consumers stand at the precipice of unprecedented benefits. The upcoming digital revolution could completely change not only how we talk to each other, but also how we live, work, and interact. As time goes on, it’s important for individuals to be prepared so they can take advantage of these chances and make the most of the different aspects of this new digital era.

The trajectory of the UK’s telecommunication sector is promising. With pioneers like Digital Infrastructure and sister company BeFibre leading the way and government support strengthening the progress, the dream of a completely connected UK by 2025 is achievable. The merging of full fibre broadband and 5G technologies is at the heart of a future where consumers and businesses play a key role in a nation that’s empowered by digital advancements. In the upcoming digital era, connectivity is transforming from a luxury to becoming an essential part of everyday life, moulding the shape of an exciting new world.

Want to hear more from Full Fibre on the UK’s broadband journey? Join them at Stand 68 at Connected Britain, the UK’s largest digital economy event

Also in the news:
“Open dialogue for 5G.”
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi

Ofcom’s summer 2023 study of UK fixed broadband and mobile coverage has reported that “full fibre” (FTTP) now reaches 52% of the UK (up from 48% in Jan 2023), while 75% are within reach of a gigabit-capable network (up from 73%) and 76-85% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal from at least one […]

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media / VMO2) has today become the final operator to reveal their plan for switching off the old 3G mobile (mobile broadband) network, which unlike their rivals is a process that won’t actually begin until 2025. The withdrawal will then occur in phases, with completion by the end of that same […]

A new survey of several thousand UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch, has claimed that over 21.7 million people experienced “broadband outages” of 3 or more hours over the last year – double 2022’s figure of over 11m. This stopped 15% of respondents from working and is estimated to cost the economy £2bn (lost […]

The Welsh Government (WG) has released a new update on the £52.5m Phase 2 Superfast Cymru contract with Openreach (BT), which confirms that the “build phase of the contract has now concluded” and a total of 37,497 extra premises (up from 36,869 in Q1) have gained access to their full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network. […]