News

With the Malaysian government reviewing its 5G equipment tender process, representatives from both the US and EU warned that Huawei should not be allowed to participate in the country’s growing 5G network

Today, a report from The Financial Times says that both the EU and US have sent letters to the Malaysian government urging them to disallow Chinese equipment vendor Huawei from participating in the country’s national 5G network.

According to the report, the letters from both parties raised this issue of national security, as well as suggesting that allowing Huawei to supply network equipment could impact international investment within the country.

“Senior officials in Washington agree with my view that upending the existing model would undermine the competitiveness of new industries, stall 5G growth in Malaysia, and harm Malaysia’s business-friendly image internationally,” said the US ambassador to Malaysia, Brian McFeeters, in a letter seen by The Financial Times. “The US and other countries prioritise a fair and transparent review process and contract sanctity, as does the international business community. Allowing untrusted suppliers in any part of the network also subjects Malaysia’s infrastructure to national security risks.”

The US banned Huawei from its own 5G networks back in 2019 and has lobbied governments across the world to do likewise. The EU, on the other hand, has taken a less prohibitive approach, rejecting an outright ban but encouraging telcos to steer clear of ‘untrusted suppliers’.

The news comes as the Malaysian government prepares to finalise a review of its 5G equipment tender process, which saw Sweden’s Ericsson win a $2.5 billion contract to provide 5G kit back in 2021.

Malaysia’s 5G journey has been more colourful than most. Back in 2021, the Malaysian government decided to forego the traditional 5G spectrum auction, instead setting up Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), a state-owned vehicle to build its own wholesale 5G network.

This decision was immediately controversial, with the country’s operators saying they would not buy services from DNB, arguing they could roll out 5G networks more efficiently themselves. It took over a year of threats and coercion from the government to finally bring the nation’s mobile operators to heel, who finally agreed to split a 70% stake in DNB between them in August 2022.

While these discussions with the domestic telcos were ongoing, DNB was wasting no time with the buildout of its 5G network.

The state-owned company announced that it had selected Ericsson as its key partner for its 5G project towards the end of 2021, with the Swedish equipment vendor agreeing provide a suite of 5G solutions, including the network core, radio access network (RAN), a various supporting services. The ten-year contract was valued at roughly $2.5 billion.

Since then, DNB has made considerable progress with its 5G rollout, saying at the start of the year that it had already covered just under half (47.1%) of the country’s populated areas.

However, the rollout was about to hit a bump in the road when, in November 2022, a snap general election led to a change of national government. This new government, led by Anwar Ibrahim, quickly launched a review into the Ericsson 5G tender process, citing transparency concerns.

This review process, which was due to be completed by the end of March, presented an opportunity for Ericsson’s rivals, including Finland’s Nokia and China’s Huawei, to restate their claim to a major role in Malaysia’s 5G future. Both companies duly began lobbying the government, arguing that they should be allowed to participate in DNB’s 5G network.

Potential outcomes of the review could include DNB’s privatisation, the creation of a second national 5G network, or that DNB hands over part of its current network build to another 5G equipment vendor.

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

Interview

At this year’s Connected North conference, we were delighted to catch up with Mobile UK’s Director of Policy and Communications, Gareth Elliott, following his panel focussing on the digital divide in the North of the UK.

“Some of the main topics we talk about are making sure people have access to connectivity, but it goes beyond that. There are many issues around people having the will and trust to use connectivity, or the skills to use devices,” explained Elliott.

But how do we overcome these challenges and whose responsibility is it to provide digital skills training?

“It’s a collaborative effort,” said Elliott, noting the many initatives by the UK’s network operators to provide such training. “But I think fundamentally there’s a real role for local authorities and as an organisation we’re calling on the government to fund digital champions to really provide leadership at a local authority level.”

You can watch the full interview from the link below.

Is the government doing enough to support vulnerable customers during the cost of living crisis? Join the telecoms 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

Smart factory, smart mining, and smart port; as technology leaps forward, so does the scale of new immersive experiences that continuously shape the world – and how we interact with it.

The digital economy is thriving due to the pace at which digital technology and services are being adopted by organizations, consumers, and government entities to fuel ambitious digital transformation programs. Underscored by the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and 5G, the digital economy has rapidly become a primary enabler of social progress.

Ronald van Loon attended the exclusive Huawei Analyst Summit (HAS) event and he is applying his industry analyst expertise to explore how advancements in 5G-powered digital transformation initiatives are driving business innovation across sectors and contributing to global digital economy growth.

Per the World Bank, the digital economy contributes over 15% of global gross domestic product (GDP), and has increased at a rate of 2.5x faster than physical world GDP over the last ten years.

Economic growth revolves around the technologies that are fundamentally changing the way businesses and industries operate and provide innovative services, experiences and products to consumers. In industries like energy, transportation and manufacturing, 5G-driven digital transformation is demonstrating the economic value of industrial digitalization and influencing the fourth industrial revolution.

The Digital Economy Moves Forward with 5G

Firstly, the digital economy represents a shift in how organizations operate and interact with customers, partners, and stakeholders. Information and communication technology (ICT) is essential to the digital economy as it enables businesses and organizations to connect, communicate, innovate, and operate in a digital world. Without a robust ICT infrastructure, the digital economy wouldn’t function effectively.

5G is a primary component of the ICT infrastructure because it offers significantly faster data speeds, lower latency, and greater network capacity than previous generations. The deployment of 5G requires a substantial investment in ICT infrastructure and upgrades to the back-end network infrastructure, like services and switches, to support the growth in data traffic.

As the world moves closer to an intelligent world defined by connectivity, digitalisation is now impacting legacy industries, like oil and gas, manufacturing, and energy. Integrating ICT technology, like 5G, within industries helps speed up digitalization as it enables new applications and services that depend on faster, more stable connectivity for cloud computing, virtual reality (VR), and video streaming.

$960 billion, or 0.7%, of additional global GDP value is anticipated to result from 5G. 5G offers enhanced connectivity to enable organizations to operate more efficiently; leverage advanced automation such as robotics and AI; extend more immersive customer experiences via augmented reality or VR; and collaborate more effectively across different locations to improve decision making.

Over 20,000 5G use cases are flourishing across 50% of 97 top industries, such as mining, steel, chemical, power grid, manufacturing, and cement. 5G is the vehicle of change for Industry 4.0.

5G Transforms Industry 4.0 with Powerful Enterprise Use Cases

Robust 5G enterprise use cases are currently enabling Industry 4.0 goals, including better efficiency to minimize waste, improved automation to promote safe working environments, enhanced communication between people, devices and machines, and increased sustainability by reducing energy consumption.

During the HAS event, important 5G use cases were highlighted:

Smart factory

Automated production lines, 5G sensors, and AI are optimizing production processes in smart factories. Midea Group, a top electrical appliance manufacturer, developed the first completely 5G connected electrical appliance factory in Jingzhou, China. It features deployment of 5G throughout 15 scenarios and all production links, replacing complicated machine cabling and enabling automatic operations for better productivity. Uplink capacity of 1Gbit/s per 1,000 m2 also enhances the efficiency of AI quality inspections, improving defect detection by 10%. With these capabilities, a washing machine can be produced in only 15 seconds, cutting inventory by 50% and saving 30% in labor costs.

Smart mining

Mining has traditionally been characterized by dangerous conditions. But the industry is now becoming safer via integrated smart mining solutions in underground and open-pit mines. A smart coal mine in Shanxi, China for example, is able to reduce staffing for hazardous positions, like equipping miners to remotely control a boring machine via ICT technologies like wireless industrial control networks. In open-pit mines, remote operators can man 4 driverless trucks to convey ore from excavators to processing facilities for crushing. Smart mining solutions deployed underground can also ensure less people are assigned to dangerous tasks.

Smart ports

The Port of Tianjin in China is one of the country’s busiest ports, and is now the first smart, green port that has been operating reliably since 2021 thanks to 5G and cloud. Traditionally, port staff faced uncomfortable conditions, like being outside all day in crane cockpits that led to neck and back strain, and long-term health problems. Now 5G-connected, electric container trucks can circulate without any human drivers and loaded with containers from cargo ships by automatically operated quay cranes. The trucks then travel from automated workstations along optimized routes that are measured in real-time. The port is also the first port in the world to realize self-sufficient wind electricity, generating no carbon emissions.

 Looking forward to the near-future, 5G enhancements will lead to 5.5G, providing a drastic improvement in network performance:

“Peng Song, Huawei’s President of ICT Strategy & Marketing, talked about how Huawei is working to build leading digital infrastructure. With a 10x increase in network performance compared to 5G, 5.5G will enable improved experiences in interactive services with mobile and home broadband users experiencing peak rates of 10 Gbit/s – up from 1 Gbit/s.”

Also, Passive IoT technology will create a surge in the amount of connected things, a rise from 10 billion to 100 billion. 5.5G will also lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions transmitted on mobile networks by 10x, resulting in greater energy efficiency. Additionally, autonomous driving networks will be improved from a level 3 to a level 4 autonomy to become 10x more intelligent.

All of the expanded capabilities delivered by 5.5G will generate exciting new business opportunities and use cases, including:

Passive IoT tags with 235 meter ranges can improve warehouse inventory automation and livestock development and management via ultra-low-speed passive solutions.
Urban infrastructures will become more intelligent via 5.5G networks that can automatically detect road obstacles in poor weather and notify drivers in advance to increase safety.
Wide-area massive uplink capabilities will enable substantial data to upload to the cloud, driving advancements in holographic interaction experiences and intelligent robots.
24K VR gaming and 3D video without the need for glasses will become the norm. Constant advancement in device technologies and content is anticipated to result in over 1 billion online users of interactive services – a 100x increase.

The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

5G technology is driving a wave of digital transformation across industries, leading to momentous growth and development of the digital economy. With its potential to transform various industries and improve quality of life for people worldwide, 5G is positioned to be a key driver of the digital economy in the coming years, resulting in even greater social and environmental impact.

Be sure to visit Huawei to learn more about the evolution of 5G technologies and how they’re sparking the next generation of digital transformation across industries.

 

 

 

Press Release

World’s largest fiber broadband conference will showcase community impact and fiber’s disruptive market potential

The Fiber Broadband Association today announced the agenda for Fiber Connect 2023, held August 20-23, 2023, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Fiber Connect 2023 is expected to be the largest, most successful Fiber Broadband Association event ever. This year’s theme is “What Fiber Disrupts Next,” showcasing how fiber is a catalyst for change and fundamental for innovation in any market, including gaming, streaming entertainment, Internet of Things, precision agriculture, healthcare, machine learning, and augmented reality. Registration for Fiber Connect 2023 is now open and can be accessed here.

“Fiber Connect 2022 was the largest event in our association’s history, and we already know our 2023 event will surpass the success we saw last year. We have a bigger exhibition hall, expect more than 4,000 attendees, and have added several new programs to the agenda,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. “Our future is 100% technology dependent and the choice states and communities make as they evaluate the right infrastructure to take their community forward will have a generational impact. During Fiber Connect 2023, we will explore fiber’s unique ability to close the digital equity gap and showcase fiber’s unmatched ability to deliver innovation, create disruption, and so much more.”

Fiber Connect 2023 will feature over 225 speakers presenting sessions and topics that are top of mind for everyone across the fiber broadband industry, including federal and state broadband policy, fiber deployment best practices, and workforce development. New elements to this year’s agenda include Fiber Meet Ups, The C-Suite Forum, The State Broadband Summit at Fiber Connect 2023, and Technology Deep Dives presented in partnership with The Broadband Forum.

Also new to 2023 are Operator Light Talks—a series of six 18-minute, Ted Talk-style keynotes presented by executives from AT&T, epb, Frontier Communications, Google Fiber, Lumos Fiber, and Ting Internet. The sessions will explore how these operators are leveraging fiber networks to create market disruption, including advances in Quantum computing, digital equity, 5G, community engagement, and customer experience.

“Fiber Connect 2023 is all about disruption and the role fiber broadband plays in enabling markets, companies, and communities to alter dynamics in new ways,” said Joseph Jones “JJ,” Fiber Broadband Association Board Chair and President at On Trac, Inc. “Our conference committee has curated a wealth of new content that will be presented by the thought leaders responsible for investing, deploying, and operating the fiber broadband networks that will connect every community and eliminate the digital divide.”

General sessions and keynotes will be presented on Monday and Tuesday of the event, covering some of the most important issues the fiber broadband industry is currently facing. The thought leaders that will present these sessions include the following:

Federal, Policy & Regulatory executives from U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Treasury, USDA Rural Development, and the White House Council on Native American Affairs at the Department of the Interior
State Broadband and Legislature representatives from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, ConnectLA, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Kansas Department of Commerce, and Missouri House of Representatives
Executives from operators and local service providers, including Accord, Centranet, epb, Lumos Networks, New Lisbon Holdings, and Ting Internet
Industry experts from Broadband Money, Mattey Consulting, MyTRA Consulting, NATE, Needham & Company, Pew Charitable Trusts, and RVA LLC Market Research and Consulting
Technology providers, including Adtran, AFL, Calix, DZS, Nokia, and Plume

Fiber Connect 2023 will host five Pre-Conference Workshops on Sunday, August 20, to will explore emerging topics impacting the industry or topics that are new to Fiber Connect, including Fiber Broadband Toolkit, The Ecology of Fiber Broadband, Tower Talks, and Community Broadband. A total of 42 Breakout Sessions, which focus on market drivers and opportunities, will be divided into seven tracks. New content this year includes tracks focused on marketing tactics, fiber financials, in-home experience, 5G and fiber, supply chain & manufacturing, and a track curated by Cablefax and ACA Connects designed to discuss the role of fiber broadband in cable operators’ future plans.

Proof of Concept demonstrations will return to Fiber Connect 2023, as well as the FBA OpTIC Path™ Train the Trainer program. To view the full Fiber Connect 2023 agenda, visit the event website at fiberconnect.fiberbroadband.org.

Interview

Ahead of Submarine Networks EMEA 2023, we caught up with Ceci Rodriguez Cruz, Project Manager of the International Project Office for the JTF for SMART Cables. Ceci shares her insights into the progress of SMART cable development and what smarter subsea cables would mean for both the scientific and telecom communities.

For those who aren’t aware of the JTF for SMART Cables, could you tell us more about the organisation and your role there?

JTF for SMART Cables is a United Nations effort uniting science with the telecom industry to provide the necessary strategic direction and leadership for the development of a sustained SMART subsea cable network. The network will monitor climate change including ocean heat content, circulation and sea level rise, provide early warning for earthquakes and tsunamis, and monitor seismic activity for earth structure and related hazards. All relate to disaster risk reduction and the informed sustainable development of coastal and offshore infrastructure, including the cables themselves and their mission of global connectivity.

The JTF was formed in 2012 and has been led by a chair and a vice chair. From January 2023, the JTF has an International Project Office that supports the JTF effort to make SMART cables the global standard. The IPO can be thought of as the executive branch of the JTF and I’m in charge of the office.

What kind of data can SMART cables yield and how is it used?

A SMART cable combines the functionality of a telecommunication cable with environmental sensing, with the emphasis on the SMART repeater (amplifies the optical telecommunications signals, every ~70 km), now with 3 ocean bottom sensors observing the environment:

Temperature: understand climate change with improved estimates of ocean heat content and the component of sea level rise related to thermal expansion of water.
Bottom pressure: improve understanding of ocean circulation (water flows from high to low pressure), sea level rise due to melting land ice, and directly measuring tsunamis that improve early warning thereof.
Seismic acceleration: provide early warning for earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as better understanding of associated risk to coastal areas.

This information will help governments to sustainably develop and manage the oceans and coastal and offshore infrastructure, including helping the subsea telecommunication industry with warnings of external hazards to cables and improved cable system routing.

How expensive is it to deploy these SMART cables compared to a traditional cable?

It is approximately a 10% incremental cost relative to the traditional cable. So, for example, the Portuguese system (discussed next) with 50 SMART repeaters is expected to cost about e150M, and the SMART part is nominally e15M. Amortised over the 25-year life, the cost is about e15K/sensor/year, which is very, very reasonable. This can be compared with a single tsunami warning buoy cost of e500k/buoy/year.

Have there been any major success stories with SMART cables so far? 

Portugal has funded the SMART Atlantic CAM system which will be ready-for-service in 2025 (3,700 km connecting Lisbon, Azores, Madeira in a ring). We will assure a data management system is in place that can route the data to the relevant operational centres in real time.

The EU just closed a e100M call for international cable connectivity that could include SMART capability.

We have a $7M grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to facilitate SMART, globally and regionally, as well as Vanuatu-New Caledonia.

Other systems are in proposal stages, including, New Zealand-Chatham Islands, US-NSF New Zealand-Antarctica, MEDUSA in the Mediterranean, and Far North Fiber.

We have great support from our sponsoring organisations including ITU, WMO, and IOC.

Are there any major barriers to deployment beyond cost? 

The most often cited possible barriers revolve around permitting, legal and security issues. We believe the best way to tackle these is to simply begin with modest sized systems (technically prudent in any case!) involving landing countries that need and want the SMART capability. For instance, both Portugal and Vanuatu-New Caledonia need the earthquake and early warning capability – countries on the Ring of Fire. Basically, systems involving just one country (i.e., a domestic system) or two or so friendly and receptive countries. These first systems would set positive precedents that would lead to more general adoption.

Do you think all subsea cables will be SMART in the future? Is this the first step to building a global ocean observation system?

We are taking the first steps in creating a new observing platform for the continually developing Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). It will effectively measure the ocean bottom boundary condition and the waters above (as well as the earth beneath). We expect that more capability (e.g., more sensors) could be added as it evolves.

While our (very) long term goal is that all cables would be SMART, realistically this is a process that will take decades. We will have to prioritise which systems to pursue to obtain the most optimal global sampling, given as always, funding constraints. A modest objective is to have ten systems in the pipeline (RFP, CIF, RFS) at any one time in the next decade. More than this will likely take a major shift in the stance of stakeholders.

What are you looking forward to about attending Submarine Networks EMEA 2023?

Networking! This is still the most important aspect – connecting with people who can make a positive impact. And of course, simply learning more about where the industry is headed and new opportunities.

Ceci will be chairing a keynote session on 1st June at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023 on “Maximising undersea infrastructure: the journey towards SMART cables”. The JTF for SMART Cables will also be joined by speakers from ASN and Assured Communications. For more information on the conference and how to get involved, head to the event website.

Mobile network analysts at Streetwave have published the results of a new survey, which examined the mobile signal quality on the London (England) to Edinburgh (Scotland) train route. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the route was found to suffer from various “not-spots“, while EE’s network performed the best for mobile broadband. The research found some users went without […]

Viewpoint Article by Ahmed Essam, CEO of Vodafone UK

Ahmed Essam, Vodafone’s UK chief executive, lends his support to Openreach’s new full-fibre wholesale pricing proposal, but asks wholesalers to introduce broadband social tariffs to help vulnerable customers

Vodafone has the widest full-fibre footprint in the UK through partnerships with wholesale fixed line providers such as Openreach and CityFibre. This means Vodafone superfast broadband services are now available to almost 12 million homes across the country.

Using our partners’ networks, rather than building our own, avoids needless duplication and cost and helps us remain agile in a highly competitive market. It’s how we can offer fast, reliable and affordable broadband to all our customers.

We all want to build Gigabit UK as fast as we can and we appreciate that our wholesaler partners are investing huge sums building out this full-fibre network of the future, with all the economic and societal benefits to customers across the country. It’s fair that they should want and need a return on their investment.

In fact, we welcome Openreach’s latest ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP) broadband pricing offer – called Equinox II – which it has presented to regulator Ofcom for consultation. It seeks to offer more affordable wholesale prices for fibre over the medium term, helping broadband retailers put together more attractive packages for consumers.

We think their proposed offer poses no threat to efficient alternative fibre providers and, importantly, doesn’t discourage retailers like Vodafone from using other wholesalers. Indeed, we hope to widen our use of alternative fibre providers in the near future.

We strongly believe that a competitive wholesale market is essential to ensure UK consumers benefit from good value, choice and innovation.

So we hope Ofcom will recognise the value of Openreach’s Equinox II offer to consumers and its important role in encouraging wider fibre adoption.

Help for vulnerable customers

But as a purpose-led business, we also want to offer broadband packages that are affordable for our most vulnerable customers. This is why we launched our social broadband tariff in October 2022 – the cheapest on the market at the time. At just £12 a month it represents fantastic value for money.

Unfortunately, it is unsustainable at that price.

Even though our costs having been rising sharply due to rampant inflation – our energy bills in particular have spiralled – we’ve kept our social tariff at £12 a month. But the wholesale element of that social broadband bill accounts for more than the entire retail price!

So if we’re going to continue offering affordable – financially viable – social tariffs to digitally excluded people – as we, Government and Ofcom want – we need Openreach, CityFibre and others to offer an equivalent wholesale social tariff at a substantially reduced rate.

We’re hoping Ofcom will support us in this ask.

Conclusion

Full fibre offers much faster download and upload speeds – the old copper networks are on the way out. We need to make these benefits abundantly clear to our customers if we’re to encourage them to switch up from legacy copper networks and justify all that infrastructure investment made by our wholesale partners. And we need to make full-fibre products and services affordable and easily available.

Ultimately, we want to build a full-fibre Gigabit UK that is fair for customers, retailers, wholesalers, and investors alike. To do this we must strike the right balance between the incentive to invest and the need to offer competitively priced products and services for all our customers, including those on benefits.

I firmly believe we can achieve that goal if we adopt a spirit of compromise and co-operation.

#TogetherWeCan

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

Openreach (BT) has today issued another update to their £15bn UK rollout of a new multi-Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network, which adds 10 new locations to their deployment plan – covering an additional 124,000 homes and businesses in places across England, Wales and Scotland. The rollout, which has already covered more than 10 […]

Oxfordshire-based alternative network and UK broadband ISP Zzoomm has reportedly become the latest full fibre builder to hit troubled waters. The provider is understood to be laying off 300 employees in its construction team (engineers and office jobs), which is said to reflect about 50% of their workforce. Zzoomm, which aimed to build their Fibre-to-the-Premises […]

UK ISP BT has published their latest biannual (April 2023) update on the progress they’ve made in delivering the 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband, which reveals that they’ve so far built a USO connection to over 7,000 premises (up from 5,900 in Oct 2022), with 800 further builds in progress (down from 2,000). […]