The 411km long FibreSpeed network, which is owned by the Welsh Government – albeit now operating as an independent business – and reflects a high-capacity fibre optic communications and broadband network that spans across North Wales, has launched a new Prior Information Notice (PIN) to help plan its future beyond 2025. The network itself, which […]

Grimsby-based civil engineering firm Telec Networks, which has been used by full fibre (FTTP) operators like CityFibre and County Broadband to help construct their networks across various parts of England (e.g. Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Norfolk etc.), has reportedly notified that it intends to appoint an administrator. According to a report on The Business Desk, the […]

Some of Vodafone’s broadband ISP customers, specifically those covered by Openreach’s gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, have been unable to take a package faster than 200Mbps because of capacity problems, which for some of those affected had been going on for nearly two years. But the issue may now be resolved. We first reported on this […]

News

Dish Network and T-Mobile have jointly asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reallocate the 800MHz spectrum, but Dish wants more time to pay for it

This week, Dish has confirmed to the FCC that it intends to purchase spectrum in the 800MHz band from T-Mobile, saying that it will play a key role in accelerating their 5G network coverage.

“As Dish continues to deploy and increase coverage with this first-of-its-kind network, it will expand the availability of competitive services offered to both consumer and business customers,” said Dish in the filing. “The 800MHz spectrum licenses contemplated by this transaction will substantially enhance Dish’s ability to do so.”

The purchase relates to the Sprint–T-Mobile merger back in 2020, with Dish having agreed to build out its own 5G network and become a national mobile operator as part of the deal to appease regulatory authorities. As part of this process, the mobile newcomer was given the option to pay T-Mobile $3.59 billion for a 13.5MHz block of nationwide spectrum in the 800MHz band.

If Dish instead decided not purchase these spectrum licences from T-Mobile, it will owe the latter $72 million.

While unable to offer the same level of 5G performance as mid-band (C-band) spectrum, this low-band spectrum was nonetheless seen as invaluable for rolling out services due to its long-range.

The prearranged deadline for Dish to make its decision on the spectrum passed earlier this year, with the two companies locked in negotiations for many months.

Now, the filing from both Dish and T-Mobile to the FCC indicates that the spectrum purchase will indeed go ahead, though the exact financial details of the deal have not been revealed.

However, there is a catch: Dish is asking the US government that it be given ten more months to make the requisite payments to T-Mobile.

The company argues that the global economic downturn has made paying for the spectrum more difficult than anticipated.

“The dramatic increase in interest rates has made it significantly more expensive for Dish to finance a purchase of the 800MHz Spectrum Licenses, rendering its ability to responsibly do so within the timeline provided by the Final Judgment substantially more difficult than Dish – or other parties to the Final Judgment – ever could have anticipated,” Dish told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Indeed, Dish’s finances have been strained for some time, with the company currently carrying around $21 billion in debt.

The company recently announced that it would merge with its previous parent company EchoStar, in a move largely seen as an effort to bolster the company’s balance sheet.

T-Mobile has not said whether it will oppose the requested extension.

How will the growth of Dish’s 5G network impact the US wireless market? Join the operators in discussion at Connected America 2024 live in Dallas, Texas

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Press Release

Ericsson revs up the tempo on 5G Carrier Aggregation by combining six component carriers to set a record download speed of 5.7Gbps for the world’s first 6CC (component carrier) data call

The data call was achieved using three FDD (frequency division duplex) bands combined with three TDD (time division duplex) bands in sub-6GHz, enabled by Ericsson RAN Compute hardware, state-of the-art carrier aggregation software, and innovative Advanced RAN Coordination functionality.

The 3FDD + 3TDD carrier aggregation testing was carried out in an Ericsson lab with a user equipment (UE) simulator. By combining FDD spectrum with TDD spectrum, more users can benefit from carrier aggregation gains.

In total, 400MHz of bandwidth was aggregated with FDD bandwidths ranging 20MHz to 50MHz to achieve the 5.7Gbps throughput. With six-component carrier capability, communications service providers can optimize use of network and spectrum assets to deliver higher data speeds and capacity that improve the experience of downlink-heavy applications. This can mean better audio and video quality for streaming users, faster file downloads, and a better working environment for digital nomads.

Sibel Tombaz, Head of Product Line 5G RAN at Ericsson Networks, says: “We are keeping the momentum on carrier aggregation by continuously stretching its potential to boost capacity and speed. Our successful 6CC data call shows how versatile our solution is and that we are poised to work with ecosystem partners to make this new band combination a reality. Our goal, as always, is to help customers meet end users’ growing appetite for high-capacity, ultrahigh-speed 5G.”

“Carrier Aggregation is crucial to getting the best possible 5G performance out of scattered spectrum assets,” Tombaz adds. “And with 6CC, service providers will be able to maximize use of allocated spectrum and optimize the combined bandwidth for superior mobile experience.”

Also in the news:
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Australian govt launches Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation programme
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The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to make 448MHz of the spectrum frequency in the 28GHz band (27.5–30GHz) available to satellite broadband services, specifically their Earth station gateways, which could help to boost data speeds and further expand coverage into remote communities. Parts of the 28GHz band are already allocated to […]

Residents in the West Midland’s city of Wolverhampton have been warned by the local city council to be on the lookout for doorstep scammers, some of which have recently been posing as council employees in an attempt to entice people to switch their ISP for free broadband. The development comes only a day after we […]

PRESS RELEASE

The Asia Pacific stop of Huawei Network Summit (HNS) 2023 was held successfully in Jakarta, Indonesia. With the theme of “Innovations Never Stop”, HNS attracted more than 800 customers and partners from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and many other Asia Pacific countries.

At HNS, Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled “Innovations Never Stop”, shedding light on how Huawei’s Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution takes network quality to new levels. Specifically, Huawei further enhances its CloudCampus, CloudFabric, and CloudWAN solutions from the perspectives of experience, intelligence, and convergence, respectively. On top of that, Huawei unveiled many groundbreaking products, including a first-of-its-kind experience assurance card (used on flagship campus switches), CloudEngine 16800-X (a 400GE data center network switch), NetEngine F8/M14 (converged transport routers), and iMaster NCE Network Digital Map. All of these offerings empower networks with innovations and unleash digital productivity at an accelerated pace.

Launching Huawei’s groundbreaking network innovations

Leon Wang pointed out that Asia Pacific countries attach great importance to digital transformation and therefore greatly accelerate digital transformation across diverse industries. Against this backdrop, data communication networks — a cornerstone for digitalization — need to constantly innovate to meet diversified needs of industries. For example, as governments accelerate digital transformation, there is a huge demand for HD video conferencing to ensure seamless communication experience. Likewise, the finance industry is digitally evolving to Bank 4.0. As such, multi-cloud and multi-vendor become the new norm, requiring data center network operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities to be constantly upgraded. Another example is the Internet service provider (ISP) sector. ISPs need to provide high-quality network support capabilities to assist enterprises as they enter a period of rapid growth and increasingly demand stable services and bandwidth growth.

Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, delivering a keynote speech

In response, Huawei constantly innovates its Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution by enhancing CloudCampus, CloudFabric, and CloudWAN from the perspectives of experience, intelligence, and convergence, respectively.

CloudCampus 3.0 + Experience: Huawei’s high-quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus solution focuses on user experience and stands out with four unique features: ultra-high-speed access, simplified architecture, ultimate experience, and simplified O&M. This solution is a great fit for public service, education, finance, transportation, and other industries, where it can help to build a non-blocking office network. The resulting benefits include smooth video conferencing, 50% lower network construction costs, and fast fault recovery in minutes.
CloudFabric 3.0 + Intelligence: Huawei’s CloudFabric data center network solution becomes more intelligent than ever, and takes on three distinctive features: ultra-powerful performance, ultra-fast deployment, and ultra-intelligent O&M. In diverse industries like finance, public service, and education, this solution can improve AI training efficiency by 20%, provision services across clouds and data centers in minutes, locate network root causes for application exceptions with one click, and demarcate faults in minutes.
CloudWAN 3.0 + Convergence: Huawei’s converged CloudWAN solution creates new value for customers through converged networks, converged devices, and converged management. Leveraging Huawei’s solution, customers in industries such as ISP, urban rail, and energy can reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by 65% and capital expenditure (CAPEX) by 50% while increasing O&M efficiency by 60%.

Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to innovate and overcome technical bottlenecks through more R&D investments. Furthermore, Huawei will keep aligning best-in-class products and solutions with customers’ future business development. Doing so will help a wide range of industry customers to bridge technical divides and stay ahead of the competition. Huawei’s extensive training and communication platforms help customers gain fresh insight into leading products and solutions, and explore unique ways to unleash

Mobile operator and broadband ISP EE appears to have finally and quietly launched their IP-based Digital Home Phone service this month, which will ultimately replace their old analogue phone service and, perhaps unsurprisingly, is largely just a re-branded variant of BT’s existing Digital Voice product. Just as a reminder. Openreach’s old analogue phone solutions will […]

News

The mobile money platform, the largest in Africa, will take on incumbent operator Ethio Telecom’s own fintech service, Telebirr

This week. Kenyan operator giant Safaricom has launched their M-Pesa mobile money platform in Ethiopia.

The move marks a key part of newcomer Safaricom’s Ethiopian strategy, seeking to replicate the success that their M-Pesa already enjoys in numerous markets across the African continent.

M-Pesa was first introduced by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007. Since then, the service has grown almost exponentially, expanding into six additional African markets and processing transactions worth over three times Kenya’s GDP every year.

Safaricom grows Ethiopian subscriber base

The consortium now known as Safaricom Ethiopia (at the time called ‘The Global Partnership for Ethiopia’) first entered the market back in 2021, having paid the government $850 million for a mobile operating licence.

Since then, the company has been racing to rollout mobile infrastructure, as well as signing a network sharing deal with incumbent Ethio Telecom in April 2022 to begin offering services across the country.

Today, the company’s own infrastructure covers over 21 cities, with the company having attracted over two million subscribers.

The path to launching their own mobile financial services, however, has been less clear.

A rivalry brewing with Ethio Telecom’s TeleBirr

Launching M-Pesa in Ethiopia was one of the key attractions for Safaricom in battling for a mobile operating licence, with the country’s population of 120 million presenting extraordinary potential for revenue growth. However, the company was restricted from launching M-Pesa immediately, with the Ethiopian government forcing them to wait a year in order to give incumbent Ethio Telecom a chance to launch their mobile money platform first.

This Ethio Telecom did in 2021 in the form of TeleBirr, allowing customers to make cashless transactions using their mobile device, including sending and receiving money, depositing and withdrawing cash from selected locations, paying bills, and receiving cash sent from abroad.

With no local competition, TeleBirr quickly racked up customers in Ethiopia’s mobile money space, earlier this year reporting roughly 34 million active users of its platform. In the six months from July 2022 to January 2023, the platform reportedly processed roughly $3 billion in transactions, generating around $1.5 million in revenue for Ethio Telecom.

The scale of TeleBirr’s lead in the Ethiopian market should not be underestimated – M-Pesa’s entire user base across all seven of its existing markets is roughly 53 million users.

Nonetheless, the addressable market in Ethiopia continues to grow at an impressive pace, with Safaricom noting M-Pesa’s role as a key enabler for expanding financial inclusion, just as it has done in Kenya.

“M-Pesa is known to be a game-changer for financial inclusion,” said Stanley Njoroge, Safaricom Ethiopia’s interim CEO. “We will continue to broaden the services our customers receive from the M-Pesa platform.”

Next steps for Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government is only part way through its telecoms liberalisation journey, with plans to sell off a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom recently drawing attention from major international operators, including Orange and e&.

The government has also indicated that it still has plans to relaunch an auction process for an additional telco operating licence in the country, potentially increasing the number of national operators from two to three.

However, both the stake sale and the licence auction have been delayed numerous times, both by the global economic situation and civil unrest in the country’s Tigray region. Even now, with the economy somewhat more settled and the cessation of hostilities, no concrete timeline has been proposed for either process.

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Also in the news:
Sky Business considers buying up TalkTalk B2B unit
Australian govt launches Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation programme
SK Telecom to invest $100m in AI firm Anthropic