Interview

Ahead of the inaugural Connected America conference, we caught up with The Wall Steet Journal’s SVP of Tech, Media & Telco Business Development, Sara Mascall, to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the telecoms industry in the US 

5G was a major focus at Mobile World Congress this year. Do you think the technology is living up to its potential in the US?

5G was a huge focus at MWC Barcelona recently, and I was privy to a few discussions about it at our Journal House. This was the first time The Wall Street Journal has hosted a Journal House at MWC, which is an experiential place, offering business leaders a space and time to connect with peers and catch unscripted interviews with the decision makers at the forefront of tech’s biggest transformations.

Joanna Stern, our Senior Personal Technology Columnist at The Wall Street Journal hosted a discussion, What’s the Deal with 5G?, with Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm. Joanna has recently written a column, It’s Not Just You: 5G Is a Big Letdown, which was at the heart of the conversation. Cristiano responded that 5G is still in its early stages, and we could not live up to the needs of consumers without 5G, and that 5G “really is going to be the last mile to connectivity.”

Raakhee Mirchandani, Anchor & Contributing Editor for The Trust at WSJ | Barron’s Group also hosted a conversation covering Connectivity and Digital Equity with Caroline Chan, VP and GM, 5G Infrastructure Division, Network Platform Group Intel and Gretchen Tinnerman, Vice President, US Network & Edge Practice Leader, Kyndryl (the newsroom was not involved in the production of this session). In this discussion, they touched upon ways they’re helping bridge the digital divide by Intel providing connectivity to underprivileged communities in Sacramento, and Kyndryl is working with businesses to provide connectivity to help with health and safety.

Obviously there are lots of discussions surrounding 5G and there is still a lot of untapped potential in this space; for instance, in rural areas and developing regions across the world. And with this next wave of 5G I think we can expect to see new use cases (as Joanna mentions in her article, for drones, self-driving cars, and other devices), and entry into new markets. In fact, at MWC, GSMA Intelligence announced a new report that 5G connections are poised to double over the next two years, with 5G infrastructure deployments in more than 30 countries this year.

The IIJA is at the centre of many industry discussions right now, especially when it comes to fibre. How effective do you think this bill is going to be in helping better connect Americans? Is the funding going to the right places?

The IIJA is putting in place a $65 billion investment into broadband of which $48.2 billion will be administered by NTIA’s newly established Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth. So while this is certainly a step in the right direction to help the digital divide in places with, for instance, underserved areas and areas with higher poverty, but like any bill I think it will come down to the rules, timeframes, and deployment of funds along with the execution.

Do you think the industry is doing enough to reach and support rural communities? 

Many of the major challenges in rural areas, such as inadequate infrastructure to support connectivity, complicated terrain, more limited knowledge, and higher costs, have made investment in rural areas a non-viable business case for telecommunications operators.

But now, as mentioned previously, part of the theory of the IIJA is to help underserved communities connect – it should make it more accessible for all, which includes fiber network expansion into rural communities. Last year the USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the department is investing $401 million to provide access to high-speed internet for 31,000 rural residents and businesses in 11 states, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to investing in rural infrastructure. So, with more investment and funding in this space it looks to be improving and more of a priority.

We’re in the middle of a global economic crisis, putting the strain on customers and telcos alike. How do you see this impacting the telecoms sector over the coming year? 

The Wall Street Journal recently reported The Companies Conducting Layoffs in 2023: Here’s the List of which tech and media is highly represented, with Ericsson planning to lay off about 8% of its workforce, while it cuts costs as orders for its 5G gear have slowed in the U.S. and other markets.

In order to be competitive, tech and telco industries need to embrace digital transformation and invest in initiatives such as 5G and fiber rollouts but with the uncertainty of the economy these could face setbacks.

I foresee the telecommunications industry continuing to be impacted and challenged by the market reset, including lay offs and labor shortages.

You’re joining us to moderate the opening keynote discussion at the first ever Connected America conference next month. What are you most looking forward to at the event?

It’s been great to attend events recently and have that real life connection that had been missing for a couple of years during the pandemic, so I’m looking forward to meeting and connecting with people at the event, especially with Chris Sambar from AT&T, Prayson Pete from Adtran, and Elad Nafshi of Comcast for the session I’ll be moderating.

As we just mentioned in the last question, it’s an exceptionally challenging time for this industry and I’m eager to learn and hear directly how this is impacting organizations, the shifts we’re seeing, and the trends we expect to see in the industry.

Join the industry in discussion on all of the key issues at our Connected America conference, taking place live next week in Dallas, Texas! 

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

News

The deal means the Hungarian government now has minority stakes in two of the country’s mobile network operators

This week, state-owned Corvinus Nemzetkozi Befektetesi has acquired a minority stake in Hungary’s second-largest mobile operator, Yettel Magyarorszag, via a share swap agreement with Antenna Hungaria.

Antenna Hungaria is itself a subsidy of 4iG, the Hungarian IT firm that purchased Vodafone Hungary for €1.7 billion earlier this year.

Taking both of these deals together, 4iG explained that Antenna Hungaria had raised its stake in Vodafone Hungary to 70.5%, having acquired a 19.5% in the business from Corvinus in return for a 25% stake in PPF Telecom Group, which includes Yettel.

This leaves Corvinus’ stake in Vodafone Hungary reduced to 29.5%.

“The transaction enhances the assets and participation of the Hungarian state in the strategically-important telecommunications sector,” said the Economic Development Ministry in a statement. “Apart from diversifying its investment portfolio further in the telecoms sector, the deal will also enable the state to more forcefully and efficiently contribute to the development of the industry.”

This news represents the latest step in the Hungarian state’s increasing control over the nation’s telecoms industry, which has been growing gradually over the past decade under nationalist leader Viktor Orban.

Under the Orban administration, the government’s control over many of the country’s key sectors, including the energy and banking sectors, has grown considerably, with Orban having called for ‘Hungarian-owned national champions’ to occupy positions of strategic importance for the national economy.

In somewhat related news, Yettel today announced that it has deployed a private 5G network at the Becsi ut campus of Obuda University in Budapest. The company says it completed the deployment late last year, which is now fully available for students and researchers.

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

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

Rural UK broadband ISP Gigaclear has announced that, as part of their £84 million investment to deploy a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across Oxfordshire (England), the provider now expects to reach several thousand additional premises across four villages. Engineering work is already taking place to connect more than 2,400 homes in Adderbury and Hook Norton […]

Interview

For years, many nations have declared their desire to be a ‘gigabit’ society. But are they? Not yet. The average fibre-to-the-premise coverage that would provide gigabit speed access is still less than 50% in many countries.

But this shortfall is an opportunity. High speed low latency fibre will power fast-growing industries such as autonomous transport, non-line of sight drones, metaverse and more. Investors are waiting.

In this exclusive interview at Total Telecom’s Connected Britain conference, Susan White, Head of Strategy and Portfolio Marketing at Netcracker Technology, outlines the wholesale fibre proposition for telcos and explains how a lean IT environment can speed up deployments and customer on-boarding.

For more information on how lean IT environments can supercharge the wholesale fibre market, please visit: https://www.netcracker.com/portfolio/solutions/netcracker-cloud-solutions-for-netcos-and-servcos/netcracker-fiber-cloud-solution.html

Want to learn more about the rapidly shifting dynamics of the UK fibre industry? Join the telecoms sector in discussion at Connected Britain and its sister event Connected North

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

The sixth contract awarded under the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme – worth £122 million – has today been awarded to CityFibre, which will upgrade connectivity for “around” 45,000 hard-to-reach homes and businesses across rural parts of Cambridgeshire in England. At present CityFibre is best known for deploying across urban areas and […]

A spinout from a team at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, called WhiteHaul, has secured £275k from Scottish Enterprise (SE) to develop a novel spectrum aggregation technology that claims to enable “high speed long-distance” backhaul links that “cannot currently be commercially achieved by existing fibre or wireless technologies.” The problem with transmitting gigabit class […]

Viewpoint

Article written and supplied by Veego
AT&T recently disclosed its investment of between $10 and $15 billion in fiber cable infrastructure. Nokia and Eurofiber Group signed an agreement at the end of the year to expand on the current 60,000 km of Eurofiber fiber infrastructure. More global CSPs are expected to follow.

But is the investment in this new broadband infrastructure worth it?

The Main Types of Broadband Infrastructure
The answer is: It depends. But to explain how we arrived at this answer in detail, let’s first take a step back and explain the many different types of broadband infrastructure available, each with multiple uses and speeds of data transmission:

DSL – Digital subscriber lines (DSL) transmit data over copper wires, using either asymmetric subscriber lines (ADSL) or symmetric subscriber lines (SDSL). ADSL users receive a lot of data but don’t need to send it (e.g., users streaming movies or playing video games); SDL users receive and send a lot of data.
Fiber – Fiber optic cables convert electric signals into light, which moves much faster than DSL.
Cable modem – Uses the same cables that transmit data to your television.
Wireless – Since it transmits data over radio signals, wireless broadband is particularly useful for delivering service to remote locations. Wireless can be mobile or fixed. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology is the latest standard in cellular technology, reaching speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second (Gbps).
Satellite – Uses satellites orbiting the earth to transmit data.

Since fiber offers the fastest connection, many ISPs and CSPs are transitioning to fiber broadband, hoping this will satisfy their subscribers’ needs for fast and stable home connectivity.

Fiber Broadband Infrastructure Doesn’t Eliminate Network Issues
But even with the rapid adoption of fiber broadband around the globe, common internet problems such as weak signals, physical connectivity issues, and slow performance persist.

Let’s explore some of the most common reasons for these issues:

Latency. Caused by internet network hardware, the server’s location and the routers between it and the end-device, almost everything related to a user’s internet experience can be impacted by latency. Increased latency can lead to significantly slower connectivity, making it particularly crucial for online-gaming and conferencing applications.
Signal interference. Probably the top reason for slow home connectivity. WiFi signals weaken as they travel through large metal appliances, thick walls, or if there are multiple devices with overlapping signals to receive the WiFi.
Bandwidth contention. When ISPs share fiber cables between customers, it is known as contention. A 5:1 contention means that five users share one fiber cable. The more users, the more likely the connectivity is slower during peak hours.
Incompatible routers and slow devices. Older routers can’t handle the fast connectivity rates that fiber delivers. Slow devices such as phones or computers also slow data transfer, causing poor connections.

CSPs Invest Heavily in Infrastructure with Little to No Return
CSPs invest a lot to upgrade and maintain their fiber infrastructure and deliver their customers the best possible experience. In the United States, it can cost anywhere from $700 to $6,000 to construct a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network per household passed, depending on whether the household is in a rural or urban area.

How is it that despite the many infrastructure improvements, customers are still stuck with slow internet or a generally poor customer experience, leaving CSPs with high operational costs and unsatisfied customers?

Gain Visibility Within the Home and Beyond
These subscriber issues continue because CSPs don’t have the appropriate tools to understand what might be impeding on their subscribers’ Quality of Experience, starting with the real last mile, the subscribers’ home Wi-Fi. They don’t know what is happening inside the subscribers’ connected homes (CPE, LAN, devices) or beyond the homes (server, WAN) that might be causing any service degradation. With no visibility comes no efficient way of resolving problems, which equals being blindfolded.

An alternative for CSPs to improve their customer care and subscribers’ experience is by adding network intelligence and CX management platforms to their portfolio. They can detect where problems are occurring, why they occur, and how they affect the user experience, and deliver a qualitative metric that measures the subscriber’s experience in real-time (e.g., a Quality of Experience score).

So how do they work?
By deploying technology such as app and device identification, CSPs can identify all connected devices and consumed apps within a home, combining it with an intricate knowledge of the entire network, including each of its network conditions and how they affect every individual session.

As a result, CSPs gain a better understanding of:

the network performance along the entire service-delivery chain (cloud, WAN, router, LAN, device)
the subscriber’s Quality of Experience (QoE)
where problems originate, why they occur, and how these problems affect the user experience
how to resolve these issues quickly and potentially even without subscribers noticing

Since it can now identify the root cause of problems and their origins, (e.g., device, router, WiFi, cable, server, etc,) the CSP no longer wastes time and money on other repairs. This includes reducing unnecessary truck rolls and router replacements, shortening support calls, and helping subscribers resolve problems faster.

Another bonus for this technology is that it helps CSPs resolve problems autonomously, reducing the need for technicians or customer care altogether.

Placing Your Bet on Proactive Customer Care
CSPs must make wise investments and not put all their eggs into the broadband infrastructure upgrade basket. They must monitor their network performance, identify when and why something went wrong, and respond quickly without disrupting the subscriber’s experience. Not only can advanced data analytics platforms help resolve these issues cost-effectively, but they can do it while improving subscribers’ Quality of Experience at the same time.

Veego sponsored the 2022 Total Telecom Congress. This year the event moves to an exciting new venue in Amsterdam, offering an even more convenient and compelling proposition for European and international telecom professionals. To find out more about getting involved, visit www.totaltele.com/congress

Broadband ISP RunFibre, which is deploying a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural areas of South Gloucestershire (England), has announced that they’ve completed their gigabit voucher-supported build to 119 rural properties in the village of Over and its surroundings. The move complements their existing builds in the communities of Hawkesbury Upton, Inglestone Common, Easter Compton, Bradley […]

The government and mobile operators have officially started activating the new UK-wide Emergency Alerts service, which has been designed to warn mobile users if there’s a “danger to life nearby” (e.g. severe flooding, fires and extreme weather). But it will only work on modern 4G and 5G Smartphones. The Emergency Alerts system is similar to […]