News 

Amin cited personal reasons for his departure in a LinkedIn post 

The new management structure – effective from yesterday – sees Mickey Mikitani (group chairman and founder) appointed CEO and chairman of Rakuten Symphony. 

The firm explain in a statement issued yesterday that Mikitani “will draw on his position as Chairman and CEO of the Rakuten Group to drive Rakuten Symphony forward as it moves into its next phase of continued growth by maximising group synergies”. 

Sharad Sriwastawa (currently CTO of Rakuten Mobile) was appointed acting president of Rakuten Symphony, while also taking on the role of co-CEO at Rakuten Mobile and retaining the position of CTO. Kazuhiro Suzuki will continue as co-CEO. 

According to the company, Sriwastawa will be responsible for advancing “the progress of Rakuten Symphony’s innovative telco solutions that make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security”. 

Amin first joined Rakuten in 2018, starting out as CTO of Rakuten Mobile. He served as CEO of Rakuten Symphony from mid-2021, and co-CEO of Rakuten Mobile from April last year. 

Amin has long been a strong advocate for the Open RAN, describing the technology as the foundation for the introduction of cloud native, automated network operations. As an executive at Rakuten Mobile, he oversaw the rollout of the world’s first nationwide Open RAN-based mobile network, becoming something of a poster boy for the emerging technology. 

Rakuten’s commitment to Open RAN was further demonstrated with the company’s purchase of virtualised RAN provider Altiostar and its cloud management software provider Robin.io, which then combined to form Rakuten Symphony. Despite this legacy, Daryl Schoolar, director and analyst at Recon Analytics, noted that “it is very unusual for a company that starts out as a service provider to pivot to being a technology vendor. It is in this area Tareq appears to have limited success. It will be interesting to watch what happens to Symphony with Tareq gone.” 

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Also in the news:
Rakuten Mobile partners with Oracle for policy and charging software
Pair of subsea cables severed off the west coast of Africa
Airtel launches first 5G fixed wireless access service in India 

News

The West African Cable System (WACS) and South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) submarine cables were reportedly damaged by a submarine landslide in the Congo Canyon

According to a report from MyBroadband, both the WACS and SAT-3 cables have experienced breaks off the coast of West Africa.

Reports suggest that the breaks took place on the cable sections situated between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, likely due to a submarine mudslide around the Congo Canyon.

Congo Canyon is a steep submarine valley carved into the seabed around the mouth of the Congo River. The area is well known for cable disruption, with huge aquatic mudslides occurring when the Congo River floods heavily. This was the case in early 2020, when the Congo River saw its worst flooding for half a century, resulting in an underwater avalanche that heavily disrupted both WACS and SAT-3.

Now, it appears that similar activity has once again impacted these cables, with Telkom SA’s wholesale fixed-line division Openserve confirming that both cables have been severed.

The company also noted that service disruption from the event should be low due to the availability of alternative data transport routes.

“The impact on our network is limited to customers on the international private leased circuits (IPLC) services,” explained Openserve in a statement. “The Openserve network remains robust due to our investment in other international cable capacity, hence all Openserve IP Transit services (WebReach) traffic have been automatically re-routed, ensuring our customers stay seamlessly connected.”

The two cables in question are follow a similar route, travelling roughly 14,500km up the west coast of Africa and connecting South Africa to Portugal, with numerous international branches along the way.

SAT-3 is by far the older cable, coming into service in 2002, while WACS was activated in 2012.

The task of repairing the cables has already been allocated to the cable ship Leon Thevenin, but the process is likely to take some time; according to reports, the ship has only recently arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, and hence will travel south, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back up the west coast of Africa to reach its destination.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest submarine cable news? Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest submarine cable industry event

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Mobile operator Sky Mobile, which harnesses O2’s Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) platform, appears to have become one of the first UK mobile providers to add Apple MacBook laptops to its range of devices with a bundled SIM, starting from just £22 a month for an Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch M1 (2020). The launch covers […]

Customers of mobile operator O2 (VMO2) in the rural Norfolk (England) village of Horning have complained of signal problems after one of the operator’s key mobile masts in the area was disconnected, which was done in order to avoid it causing interference with a new Ministry of Defence (MoD) radar dome. At quick look at […]

Network builder and broadband ISP Brsk, which has already deployed their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 266,000 UK premises (rollout plan), has today confirmed that they’ve chosen Neos Networks to provide them with diverse national backhaul services as they expand their coverage. Last year saw brsk, which currently focuses their rollout on parts […]

Belfast-based network operator and broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network across parts of Northern Ireland and England, has revealed that 44 out of their 110+ strong fleet of vehicles (37%) are now powered by electricity (up from 14 in Dec 2022). As of May 2023, the […]

Mobile operator O2 (VMO2) has today continued their campaign against abuse of airtime contracts that cover the cost of both your handset and mobile plan, which can leave some consumers overpaying for mobile phones they already own, by launching a new online calculator to help check if you’ve overpaid for your Smartphone. A few months […]

Network access provider Openreach has announced a new special offer on bandwidth modifies, which essentially makes it cheaper for UK ISPs to upgrade customers on Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) and SOGEA broadband lines to an 80Mbps max download (20Mbps upload) speed. The deal, which will be available for a period of six months between 4th […]

Press Release

New study shows that graphene-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) could finally unlock nature’s wasted energy

Scientists may have finally found a solution to effectively harvesting energy from humans into electrical energy.

Researchers from the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging (ITFSI) from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) explored the use of the 3D graphene foam material Gii™ by Integrated Graphene as an active layer in an energy generator (known as a TENG).

The investigation aimed to transform mechanical energy wasted in nature into electrical energy that could be used to power small electronic devices and sensors in the booming global market for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

The research, published in ScienceDirect, shows that the force of a human footprint on a pressure-sensitive mat, equipped with Gii-TENG sensors, can produce enough energy to anonymously identify people entering or leaving a room. As well as providing a low-cost and energy-efficient solution to monitoring building occupancy, the mats could also help to optimize energy resources by, for example, controlling room temperature upon entrance or exit.

The findings of this study will be of particular interest to schools and universities who could employ the technology to link the measurement of room occupancy to a ventilating system and a CO2 monitor, reducing the volume of CO2 which has been shown to reduce the ability to focus.

Mechanical energy is one of the most abundant and versatile energy sources available in nature. For around 20 years, TENGs have been investigated as a technique for converting mechanical energy from our daily actions into usable electrical energy which can power both small IoT electronic devices and sensors but also more power-hungry items such as electric cars and drones.

However, efforts to develop a commercially viable TENG have, to date, been hampered by issues relating to low durability, limited energy output and inefficiency. The addition of Gii™ to TENG has opened up a whole new world of possibilities due to its unique properties including high surface area, porosity, light weight, and superior electrical properties. The energy autonomous, pressure sensing nature of Gii-TENG has the potential to transform various aspects of our lifestyles, society and economy including, for example:

Harvesting energy from sports such as golf, running, and tennis to power smart devices which generate performance data
Self-powered wearable biosensors for early diagnosis of health conditions including cardiovascular disease, gout and diabetes.
Harvesting energy from cars on roads and people walking in the creation of smart cities
A smart energy solution for industry 4.0
Extending the hovering time of drones, allowing transportation of parcels – and even people in the future – for longer distances and longer times

Marco Caffio, CSO, Integrated Graphene said: “The possibilities of Gii-TENG are endless, with the potential to push the limits of technology beyond human expectations. With the number of IoT devices interlinked worldwide forecast to reach 100 billion by 2030, there is a clear need for new sustainable energy sources and technologies which can meet the power demand from our reliance on technology for work, life and play. Our Gii-TENG platform could potentially prevent the constant replacement of batteries in trillions of devices, and reduce the utilisation of wires, making the IoT technology of the near future to be wireless and energy autonomous. We’re excited by its potential and believe it could play a key role in society’s journey towards a smart world.”

Dr Carlos Garcia Nuñez, Lecturer, School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS), UWS, said: “We’re very excited by these findings. Through our work with Integrated Graphene, we have proven that using Gii-material – an advanced type of three-dimensional graphene (3DG) foam – as an active layer in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can work as a reliable and cost-effective energy harvesting power source for autonomous sensors and electronics. This discovery has enormous potential for the booming global Internet of Things (IoT) industry. Given the global need for alternative sources of green energy, Gii-TENGs can potentially provide a sustainable source of power for the multitude of small electronic devices which we use in our everyday lives. Bringing us one step closer to realising a greener and more energy-abundant future.”

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News

Airtel says the service will provide high-speed internet to areas of the country without access to fibre connectivity 

This week, Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest telcos has launched a 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service called ‘Airtel Xstream AirFiber’. 

The FWA offering is delivered to customers as a plug-and-play solution with built-in Wi-Fi 6 technology. It will allow users to connect up to 64 devices simultaneously with initial plans offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps. 

In its press release, Airtel noted that fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology currently only reaches 34 million households in India out of a possible 303 million, leaving millions of people unable to access high speed internet at home or at work. As such, this FWA solution can offer a viable alternative in areas yet to receive the fibre upgrade. 

“India has seen the rapid growth of home broadband but there still remain areas with no access to hi-speed internet at home due to the physical challenges of laying fiber in a country the size of India,” said Consumer Business Director Shashwat Sharma. “While fiber to the home will always define the best experience of Wi-Fi at home, AirFiber helps bridge the experience gap for everyone else.”   

The service also notably eliminates the need for the installation of costly wired fibre connections, offering additional flexibility and convenience to consumers. 

Airtel will roll out the service across the country in phases, with Airtel 5G users in Delhi and Mumbai being the first to gain access. New locations will be added as the company’s 5G network rollout itself progresses. 

However, Managing Director Gopal Vittal noted that the economics of the FWA devices remains challenging, as they are twice the price of the home-broadband router. 

The newly launches service will also drive-up domestic manufacturing, as the firm plans to produce the units in India as part of the government’s “Make in India” initiative, which was launched in 2014 and designed to make India a global manufacturing hub. 

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Also in the news:
Airtel Business passes 20 million IoT connections
Airtel Rwanda launches its own 4G network
Could triboelectric nanogenerators be key to powering the IoT?