Fife-based broadband ISP Gigaloch, which in 2020 began building their own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across a few remote rural communities in Cheshire (England) and Perthshire (Scotland), has secured their first institutional financing round and are now aiming to cover up to 200,000 premises (mostly in Scotland). The operator originally started their build in Mollington (West […]

Interview

At this year’s Connected North conference, we caught up with Matt Hemmings, Managing Director Fibre & Network Delivery at Openreach, to talk about the company’s ongoing fibre rollout and take-up of full fibre services

Fibre is being rolled out across the UK at a blistering speed and, while there is still much work to be done to make this state-of-the-art technology available to all of the country’s citizens, discussions are already beginning to shift towards take-up.

“Building networks is a great way to spend money, but we need people to start using these services if we’re going to make money,” joked Matt Hemmings, Managing Director Fibre & Network Delivery at Openreach.

For Openreach themselves, take-up is progressing nicely, with Hemmings saying the company was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by their progress so far.

“We’ve got ten million [premises] built and we’ve got 30% take-up. So, already we’ve got three million customers using full fibre services on our network. But there’s always more to do,” he said.

But encouraging customers to make the shift to full fibre is not easy. Many customers already incorrectly believe they are receiving full fibre services, in part due to the inconsistent marketing strategies from CSPs. In recent months, Ofcom has launched a consultation into the terminology used by internet providers to promote their services, calling for more uniformity and transparency.

Furthermore, many customers are content with the service they are receiving over their existing fibre-to-the-cabinet network, dismissing the need for a more expensive full fibre service.

But, as Hemmings notes, full fibre is about more than speed, with its added reliability set to be a major differentiator.

“Underlining the resilience that you get from a full fibre future is one of the key things that’s going to incentivise customers to move,” Hemmings explained. “We’re building a network for the future and getting our customers to migrate over to those platforms is key for all of us.”

Check out the full interview with Matt Hemmings from the link below.

Is the UK on track to reach its full fibre ambitions? Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

Also in the news:
ECTA calls on the European Commission to think again
Research claims FTTH reduces internet CO2 emissions by a third
Fibre will underpin our 5G future, says ITS Technology Group at Connected North

VIEWPOINT

The recently-released European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI’s) report on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the millimeter-wave and microwave backhaul promise to bring significant benefits to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in managing the ever-growing need for more capacity as the number of subscribers with new services demanding high bandwidth continues to increase.

“A major benefit for the operator is the possibility of lowering the Total Cost of Ownership [TCO]. The 5G traffic is very mature, with many more users and new services, which requires a very massive increase in capacity. So let’s say tenfold or even more. Since there are limits to what we can do in improving spectrum efficiency, the lowest cost way to transmit more capacity is to use more spectrum so that means that we need to explore higher frequencies, which are more affected by rain attenuation and limited in terms of hop length. The use of new KPIs will permit operators to have a much lower total cost of ownership for the backhaul by avoiding over-engineering,” said Renato Lombardi, Vice President of Huawei’s Microwave Product Line, in an exclusive interview with Total Telecom.

 

Understanding new ETSI KPIs for Microwave Backhaul

He emphasized that the major philosophy behind the recently released ETSI’s KPIs for microwave backhaul is to not consider the microwave as a separated part of the network but to see it as a crucial part of an end-to-end network to provide a truly differentiated network experience to the end user.

There is a greater need to bring down the total cost of ownership because of over-engineering as the 4G and 5G traffic demand continues to rise. “Nowadays, with 4G and 5G traffic demand levels, the TCO impact due to link over-engineering is becoming bigger and bigger in terms of spectrum resources (license fees), size of antennas to be deployed, products to be used, etc. In other words, MNOs deserve a more suitable planning methodology in order to optimize MW/mmW backhaul links TCO,” says the ETSI report on New KPIs for Planning Microwave and millimetre Wave Backhaul Network.

The report further adds, “At the same time, this new planning methodology will ensure MNOs that MW/mmW backhaul links are properly serving RAN [Radio Access Network] traffic without impacting network performances, overall network KPIs and finally, the User Experience (most important aspect).”

Elaborating on the ETSI’s new KPIs, developed by Industry Specification Group (ISG), for the microwave industry, Renato Lombardi said, “The first point was to move from a concept of availability of capacity to the concept of availability of traffic. So the reason why we speak of availability for millimetre-wave link is that the propagation of radio waves at high frequencies is affected by rain, especially when we have stormy weather and heavy showers and we have to engineer the link in order to withstand fading coming from rain. Since microwave has a certain availability for different types of modulation, by moving from capacity to traffic, we wanted to link the probability of microwave being available together with the probability that the base station is requiring a certain capacity.”

The ETSI ISG has created a new metrics called Backhaul Traffic Availability (BTA), which represents the probability that the Microwave/millimeter wave backhaul link is capable of delivering the RAN traffic demand without any impact on the end-user experience.

“The second step in this direction in order to put together wireless backhaul and the wireless access to the radio access path was also to consider what level of reliability we need to provide, not just for the wireless backhaul segment itself, but for the end-to-end quality of experience for the end users. So we performed a lot of 5G RAN simulations, adding the models of the backhaul with an industry wide activity as several vendors and operators participated in this exercise,” says Renato Lombardi. The KPIs, which will impact the network planning and planning tools, involved two years of extensive work by several players of the major industry stakeholders.

“We have seen some simulations which we have full confidence that they will result in double the hop length, especially for the millimetre-wave resulting in an incredible cost advantage for the operators because the possibility to transmit multi gigabits over the E-band is definitely much lower cost, not only in terms of hardware but especially in terms of the cost of the spectrum.

Growing Importance of New Frequency Bands

It is important to explore new frequency bands since there is a need to increase the capacity in order to address the growing traffic because of 5G and 5G Advanced. “A few years back, we started working on the usage of the frequency bands above 90GHz, which we call W-band and D-band, which are two frequency bands that together can permit using more than 50GHz of spectrum. This will permit the allocation of huge capacity in one single channel, and this could also lead to potential applications not only for the backhaul but for the fronthaul itself,” says Renato Lombardi.

“So fronthaul is what is needed if the operators want to deploy a different type of architecture, what we call a centralized architecture. With the separation between baseband processing and the radio elements in a way that could lead to lower operational costs for the operators, especially in terms of power consumption, renting of sites and provision of mobile edge computing,” he added.

Even as new frequency bands are being explored, it is crucial to define licensing schemes and licensing fees to ensure that the telcos are able to deploy wireless backhaul and fronthaul cost-effectively. “For this reason, we propose a formula that takes into account the usability of the channels. We are about to publish a white paper on these concepts, especially on how to relate wireless backhaul costs to the penetration of 4G and 5G with benefits and their benefit on the country GDP. It is very important once again to underline the economical overall impact of 5G on the digital economy and how this is so tightly linked with the spectrum cost.”

A new OnePoll survey of 1,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Green Smartphones and focused on those who reported using 5G to get online via their mobile phones, has claimed that 80% of people are satisfied with the broadband speeds and coverage offered by their 5G service (9% were dissatisfied, while 12% were undecided). […]

Sources have informed ISPreview that UK ISP Sky Broadband (Sky), which sells FTTC and FTTP packages via Openreach’s national network, are aiming to introduce a new WiFi 6 capable router for their residential customers sometime around the end of Q3 and early Q4 2023. Sky have so far done a fair job of keeping a […]

News

The consortium, including both telecoms and satellite specialists, will bid to jointly operate the European Commission (EC)’s burgeoning IRIS² low-earth orbit satellite constellation

Satellite communication networks have seen a meteoric rise in recent years, buoyed by the steady growth of Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, which now comprises almost 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Soon, the expansion of similar constellations, such as the UK government-backed OneWeb and Amazon’s nascent Kuiper Project, will see the sky above our heads soon filled with orbiting devices capable of beaming down connectivity to hard to reach areas.

For a number of years, the European Union (EU) has expressed its wish to join this emerging space race, saying that the creation of its own LEO satellite network would be crucial to ensuring the region’s digital security and sovereignty.

Last year, these ambitions finally began to take shape with the announcement of the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) constellation, the EU’s €6 billion satellite project.

According to the EU’s plans, IRIS² will seek to cover the entirety of Europe and Africa, providing connectivity for governments, businesses, and citizens.

To achieve this, the project will require the launch of around 170 new LEO satellites, which will be incorporated with various existing orbital assets in Low, Medium, and geostationary orbits. The EC aims to launch the first of these satellites in 2024, with the entire constellation completed and ready for service in 2027.

The public tender process for the right to build and operate IRIS² was launched last month, with the EU having agreed that €2.4 billion in public funding would be provided, with the rest of the €6 billion to be provided by the private sector.

Now, this week has seen the formation of a new consortium that aims to bid for the IRIS², touting their collective expertise in both the satellite and telecoms sectors.

The consortium is to be led by Airbus Defence and Space, Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES, and Thales Alenia Space, with a wider ‘core team’ that comprises Deutsche Telekom, OHB, Orange, Hisdesat, Telespazio, and Thales.

The consortium is reportedly open to additional members, with startups and SMEs encouraged to join and build ‘amore innovative and competitive European space sector’.

“The integrated team aims to foster collaboration among all European space players across the whole connectivity value chain with a view to enabling EU’s strategic autonomy through the delivery of sovereign, secure and resilient government services to protect European citizens,” said the group in a statement. “The team will leverage synergies between government and commercial infrastructures. The teaming partners are also well positioned to provide commercial services to bridge the digital divide across European territories and to increase Europe’s global outreach and competitiveness as a space and digital power on the global market.”

Each members specific contributions to the project have yet to be revealed.

The EC is set to evaluate initial proposals until May 25, after which it will seek more detailed proposals. A final decision on the winner of the contract will be decided by the end of the year, with an official announcement expected to be made in late January 2024.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter straight to your inbox

Also in the news:
ECTA calls on the European Commission to think again
Research claims FTTH reduces internet CO2 emissions by a third
Fibre will underpin our 5G future, says ITS Technology Group at Connected North

VIEWPOINT 

Future-oriented IP target network architecture is key to helping Mobile Network Operators and enterprises build converged IP networks, to enhance efficiency and introduce digital managed network solutions and architecture, enabling them to drive new growth in business-to-business (B2B) services.

“At Huawei, we are aiming to provide a future-oriented intelligent IP network. We hope to help operators to accelerate the development of new scenarios, new services and new business models to seize the digital transformation opportunities, win the future,” says Rui Gu, VP of Huawei Data Communications Product Line. He was speaking at the recently concluded MPSL SD & AI Net World Congress.

The service providers across the globe are trying to provide improved services to the enterprise segment to increase their revenue. This is particularly important as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of enterprises across all industry verticals and geographies. Now the growing 5G ecosystem, which enables high-speed and extremely low-latency network experience, allows service providers to provide relevant use cases for different industry verticals. This implies that the IP transport networks are required to not only increase bandwidth but also to provide intelligent connections to transport multiple services with differentiated SLA assurance. This is the key for telcos to expand and grow their B2B services.

Growth in the B2B segment is crucial for service providers as the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) from traditional voice and data services is coming down while the expense of providing always-on ubiquitous high-speed network is going up for the telcos. Further, now they face competition from OTT players who are offering services, like voice, typically offered by service providers.

Four Factors For Telco Growth in B2B Segment 

“There are four major characteristics: the ultra-broadband, the full service carrying the highly automation and one-stop services.”, says Rui Gu. He elaborated that the ultra-broadband refers to the technologies such as Wi-Fi 7, 800GE, and orthogonal architecture that help build the required broadband infrastructure networks to meet the evolving requirements for the best-in-class user experience. The ultra-broadband should be designed to provide extremely low-latency, high capacity and high-speed network experience.

On the other hand, full-service transport is an all-in-one hardware platform and network slicing required to address the requirement of converged transport and to ensure the delivery of demanding Service Level Agreement (SLA) assurances. In addition, the full-service, all-in-one platform is geared to carry multiple services in the cloud era while ensuring network simplification and flexibility to provide a truly differentiated network performance.

Further, the requirements of the fully converged IP networks demand high automation based on SRv6 and network digital map. SRv6 standards and technologies are becoming increasingly mature, with over 160 networks with SRv6 deployed globally, and deployments are ramping up. This ensures network-wide programmable and easy automation for improved network efficiency.

The last key requirement for building converged IP networks is to ensure that the service providers are able to provide one-stop services for B2B customers based on carriers’ IP private lines with the digital-powered managed network. Private Line + X, a  totally controllable management platform, cloud-native and multi-tenants POP, cross-domain SRv6 and multi-domain and multi-vendor integration are crucial to providing extreme experience and end-to-end visibility for better management and monitoring.

All four factors must work in tandem to provide build converged IP networks to enhance efficiency and introduce digital managed network solutions and architecture to enable them to drive new growth in business-to-business services.

In addition, fully-converged IP networks require the foundation of Green IP Networks that enable more bits, less watts for sustainable network development. Energy-saving and emission-reduction innovations at all levels, including equipment, network and operations, will help in building green IP networks. Operator is expected to have 6.2M € electricity bill reduce in 5 years at device level enabled by saving technologies.

Huawei is working with several service providers and industry partners to support the evolution of the target IP networks to empower them to confidently explore new services and business models. This is crucial to not just accelerating the digital transformation of businesses but to enabling enterprises to maximize the benefits and growth in the digital era.

A new Opinium survey of 2,003 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch.com, has found that average monthly bills for broadband ISP bundles and mobile phones have increased by £18.50 and £9.50 (per month) respectively this year. Despite that, 27% of broadband and 22% of mobile users still do not know when their contracts end. […]

ISP Connect Fibre (Fibre Assets), which aims to cover 100,000 premises across the East of England with their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, has continued their steady rollout and now looks set to go live in the large village of Killamarsh (Derbyshire) and the town of Thorne (South Yorkshire). The operator, which is being […]

Mobile operator Vodafone and TV broadcaster ITN have today announced that the Coronation of King Charles III will be the first UK broadcast to be enabled by a public 5G Standalone (SA) network, which will harness a specific “network slice” on the operator’s trial network. Existing 5G deployments in the United Kingdom tend to harness […]