Credible sources have confirmed that Openreach this week issued draft contracts for their forthcoming “Equinox 2” offer to UK broadband ISPs, which will further discount the prices of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) product and explains why Cityfibre chose yesterday to launch their competition complaint (here). The draft notice suggests that Openreach’s plan is to formally […]

Broadband ISP and mobile network operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has just become the “first UK telecoms provider” to be recognised by the Carbon Trust for its action towards achieving Net Zero carbon emissions across its business (i.e. removing as many emissions as they produce). The operator currently plans to cut carbon and to […]

A new Point Topic forecast of fixed line ISP network coverage, which considers both the impact of “full fibre” (FTTP/B) and Cable (DOCSIS 3.1) networks, has predicted that gigabit-capable networks will cover around 97% of the UK by 2030 and the majority of postcodes (75%) will also have the choice of up to three gigabit […]

Press Release

DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (“DigitalBridge”) and IFM Investors today announced they have completed their previously announced transaction in which funds affiliated with the investment management platform of DigitalBridge and an affiliate of IFM Investors acquired all outstanding common shares of Switch, Inc. (“Switch”) for $34.25 per share in cash, or approximately $11 billion, including the repayment of outstanding debt.

“We are excited to embark on the next chapter of Switch’s evolution in partnership with DigitalBridge and IFM Investors, two leading digital infrastructure investment firms,” said Rob Roy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Switch. “With their strategic expertise and financial resources, Switch is ideally positioned to meet growing customer demand for the world’s most advanced and environmentally sustainable data center infrastructure.”

Jon Mauck, Senior Managing Director at DigitalBridge Investment Management, said, “We are delighted to partner with Rob and the Switch team as DigitalBridge continues to grow our portfolio of high-quality digital infrastructure assets globally. With a shared vision for the future of communications infrastructure, Switch, IFM Investors and DigitalBridge are ideal partners, and together we will scale Switch’s business domestically and internationally to meet the robust enterprise demand for mission-critical digital infrastructure.”

Kyle Mangini, Global Head of Infrastructure at IFM Investors, said, “IFM Investors is excited to join DigitalBridge to support Switch in its next phase of growth. Switch’s excellence in data center design and operations, along with its industry leadership in sustainability, makes the company an ideal fit for IFM Investors as we seek to deliver returns to our investors and maximize the retirement savings of the millions of working people they represent.”

With the completion of the transaction, Switch common stock is no longer listed for trading. Switch was previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SWCH.”

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

The post DigitalBridge and IFM Investors complete $11bn privatisation of Switch first appeared on Total Telecom.

Press Release

Total Access Communication PLC (dtac) has entered into a strategic partnership with Telenor and Google Cloud to help Thai businesses accelerate digital transformation. Together, the organizations have developed and launched dtac B-LAB – a one-stop solutions platform – to help businesses connect, learn, and grow. dtac B-LAB is designed to empower local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to fully digitalize their businesses and achieve profitable growth, by providing access to a knowledge hub and tailored software as a service (SaaS) and mobile connectivity solutions.

How B-LAB began

B-LAB is the brainchild of dtac, Telenor, and Google Cloud, as a part of their shared commitment toward holistically addressing businesses’ dynamic needs in today’s digital-first landscape. What started as a joint internal transformation project quickly evolved into a new vision for better serving and supporting Thai SMEs. The combined expertise of Google Cloud teams across Europe and Asia, Telenor teams in Norway and Poland, and the full dtac business team in Thailand was required to bring this project to life.

Research by dtac revealed that one of the biggest barriers holding back businesses’ digital adoption is the shortage of relevant competencies and skills. The three organizations have therefore built a rich community ecosystem on dtac B-LAB that offers educational content, certification courses, and seminars focusing on digital skills, emerging business trends, and future readiness. To further enable digital transformation powered by best-in-class cloud and connectivity technologies, a wide range of tailored solutions have also been made available on the platform’s digital marketplace.

Mr. Sadat Ibne Zaman, Chief Business Officer, Total Access Communication PLC, said: “dtac Business’ vision is to go beyond mobile connectivity, by working with world-class technology providers to curate the right products and services for businesses to thrive in today’s digital era. A deep understanding of our customers’ pain points has helped us develop solutions that are easily accessible, user friendly, and customer-centric. For instance, what we’re hearing from startups is they need new options to reduce costs, improve team collaboration and data storage security, and insights to help them stay ahead of current and future market trends.

B-LAB can be leveraged by single proprietorships like online retailers, freelancers, content creators, lawyers, accountants, or consultants. It’s great for businesses that work in teams, such as media agencies, health clinics, or car dealerships with several branches. It meets the needs of businesses large or small in any industry, regardless of whether you are a manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, or retailer.”

Ms. April Srivikorn, Country Manager, Thailand, Google Cloud, said: “Efforts that support the growth of small and medium businesses will be an essential driver of Thailand’s future economic development. SME owners have also been seeking three things that are essential for growth: tools to establish or reinforce their online presence, capabilities to deliver personalized engagement to digital-first users, and the right skills to put these tools and capabilities to effective use. This is why we have been collaborating very closely with dtac and Telenor to build and bring to market B-LAB, an all-in-one platform that provides the necessary data-powered capabilities, employee communication and collaboration tools, and digital skills for SMEs in metro and non-metro areas to become tomorrow’s established enterprises – at a scale only made possible by combining market-leading cloud and connectivity technologies.”

B-LAB’s Three Key Pillars:

Connect SME owners and enable them to share their experiences and best practices for operating a business more efficiently and successfully.
Learn from resources that deliver knowledge and insights into digital skills, business trends, and future readiness.
Grow using best-in-class SaaS, cloud, and mobile connectivity solutions, including Google Workspace and the full dtac product suite.

Built on Google Cloud’s industry-leading cloud-native communication and collaboration platform, Google Workspace brings together the applications people know and love – like Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Chat, Meet, and more – into a single, integrated workspace, with built-in enterprise-grade access management, device management, data protection, and data encryption, to establish a secure remote working environment from anywhere, on any device.

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

The post dtac, Telenor, and Google Cloud team up for Thai SME digitalisation platform first appeared on Total Telecom.

PRESS RELEASE

S&T Iskratel, the leading European broadband-solutions provider, and AVM, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of products for broadband connections and the digital home, today announced they have successfully achieved interoperability of S&T Iskratel’s XGS-PON Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) with AVM’s FRITZ!Box, an integrated access device with built-in XGS-PON frontend.

The two major European vendors joined forces again with their flagship XGS-PON products, S&T Iskratel’s Iskratel Lumia C16 and AVM’s FRITZ!Box 5530. This follows the two companies’ previous successful interoperability announcements, such as GPON interoperability in 2019.

Iskratel Lumia C16 is a compact 16-port Combo PON OLT, able to serve up to 4,096 users over XGS-PON. Its record-low energy consumption helps operators cut energy bills, implement their sustainability strategy and reduce their impact on the environment. The unique dual nature of Iskratel Lumia C16 facilitates a controlled and cost-effective virtualisation. It allows operators to skip hardware-upgrade cycles which slashes their capex and delivers the lowest possible five-year TCO, resulting in cost savings from 30% to 70%. Iskratel Lumia C16’s industry-leading temperature range from –40 °C to +65 °C makes it deployable at central office and in less controlled remote locations such as street cabinets.

FRITZ!Box 5530 Fiber integrates a router and a fibre optic modem (Optical Network Terminal) as a combined device and is connected directly to the optical fibres. This saves electricity and ensures easy and convenient operation. Internet, Wi-Fi, streaming, telephony, Smart Home and much more – FRITZ!Box Fiber is the perfect choice for all fibre connection types. The BBF.247 certification for XGS-PON fibre optic technology and the certification from the Broadband Forum (BBF) for GPON technology confirm the conformity with important standards and thus the smooth operation of FRITZ!Box in the different fibre optic networks.

Dr Mitja Golja, S&T Iskratel’s Director of Business Development at Business Unit Broadband, said: “Our superior fibre-access platform repeatedly proves its versatility to operate with leading ONTs in the market. The interoperability with AVM is another milestone in providing an open portfolio that fits the needs of fibre-optic providers in Germany.”

Henning Kroll, AVM’s Product Manager Fiber Optics, adds: “With the FRITZ!Box 5530 Fiber, providers can offer customers a product directly at the connection that is easy for users to operate and enables a range of services such as streaming, cloud gaming, VPN, data transfer, telephony and Smart Home to be integrated and scaled as desired. The BBF.247 certification from the international Broadband Forum confirms seamless deployment for high-performance fibre optic networks.”

More information on the companies’ interoperable XGS-PON portfolio is available at S&T Iskratel and AVM webpages, or at Connected Germany 2022, which takes place at Mainz Congress from 6th to 7th December 2022 in Mainz, Germany.

 

The post Handshake for interoperability first appeared on Total Telecom.

Press Release

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier digital communications solutions provider, and Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) today announced a collaboration to support the growth of India’s digital ecosystem. Airtel and Meta will jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure and CPaaS based new-age digital solutions to support the emerging requirements of customers and enterprises in India.

Foundational connectivity infrastructure such as subsea cable systems are crucial for supporting the rising demand for high-speed data and digital services as India prepares to roll out 5G networks later this year. With the constant endeavor to augment the nation’s infrastructure, Airtel will partner with Meta and STC to extend 2Africa Pearls to India. 2Africa is the world’s longest subsea cable system and is expected to provide faster internet connectivity to almost 3 billion people globally. Airtel and Meta will extend the cable to Airtel’s landing station in Mumbai and also pick up dedicated capacity to further strengthen its submarine network portfolio. The 2Africa cable will significantly boost India’s cable capacity and empower global hyper-scalers and businesses to build new integrated solutions and provide a high-quality seamless experience to customers.

As members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Open RAN project group, Airtel and Meta have been pioneers of Open RAN technologies with the shared goal of increasing ecosystem diversity, driving innovation, and cost-efficiency in connectivity networks. Airtel has signed an agreement to help increase operational efficiency of Open RAN and facilitate energy management and automation in radio networks using advanced analytics and AI/ML models. Airtel is currently conducting trials for 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions on select sites in the state of Haryana and will commercially deploy the solution across several locations in India over the next few quarters. Airtel will share its learnings with wider ecosystem partners within the TIP community, including Meta, to help accelerate the deployment of Open RAN based networks across the world.

Businesses in India are rapidly shifting to cloud-based solutions to serve their customers digitally. Airtel IQ, the world’s first network embedded Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) ecosystem, offers cloud communication across voice, messaging and video channels to help enterprises transform their customer engagement and drive profitability by leveraging automation and boosting revenue. Airtel will integrate Meta’s WhatsApp within its CPaaS platform. With this integration, businesses will now be able to use WhatsApp’s rich features and reach to provide an unparalleled omni-channel customer engagement to enterprises.

Vani Venkatesh, CEO – Global Business, Bharti Airtel said: “We, at Airtel, are delighted to deepen our partnership with Meta to serve India’s digitally connected economy by leveraging the technology and infrastructure strengths of both companies. With our contributions to the 2Africa cable and Open RAN, we are investing in crucial and progressive connectivity infrastructure which is needed to support the increasing demand for high-speed data in India. We look forward to working closely with Meta to deliver best-in-class digital experiences to our customers in India.”

Francisco Varela, vice president of mobile partnerships for Meta said: “Subsea cables and open, disaggregated networks continue to play a huge role in the foundational infrastructure needed to support network capacity and fuel innovation. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Airtel to further advance the region’s connectivity infrastructure that will enable a better network experience for people and businesses across India.”

Want to keep up to date with all the latest news from the submarine telecoms sector? Join us in London in 2023 for next year’s Submarine Networks EMEA event

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

The post Meta, Bharti Airtel, and STC partner to extend 2Africa Pearls to India first appeared on Total Telecom.

Sky UK (Sky Broadband, Sky TV etc.) has, over the past week or so, begun rolling out a new firmware update (QS013) for their broadband-based Sky Glass TV service and display, which fixes various bugs and also appears to improve image quality by enabling local area dimming on the screen. Local dimming is a feature […]

News

The world’s largest chipmaker is set to more than triple its previously announced $12 billion investment

Back in May 2020, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), by far the world’s largest producer of microchips, announced its intentions to build its newest $12 billion factory in Phoenix, Arizona, having been evaluating US locations since 2019.

Now, TSMC has announced a significant upscaling of these plans, announcing its intention to increase its total investment in the facility to around $40 billion.

According to sources speaking to Japanese news media Nikkei, TSMC was initially planning to use the new fab to produce 20,000 wafers per month but is now planning to double that capacity through the new investment.

The new facility will also create more advanced chips than previously hoped, include 5nm and 4nm chips. A second planned facility, the details of which have yet to be announced, will also create cutting-edge 3nm chips by 2026.

The announcement came in conjunction with the Arizona facility’s official ‘tool-in’ ceremony today, where the first piece of equipment is installed on the shop floor, with US President Joe Biden notably in attendance.

The investment by TSMC represents a major win for President Biden’s semiconductor strategy, which aims to shrink the US’s reliance on China and Taiwan for semiconductor manufacturing.

Earlier this year, the President passed the Chips and Science Act, earmarking $52 billion in subsidies for US-based chipmakers, spurring a flurry of speculation about multi-billion-dollar investments from TSMC, Intel, and others.

President Biden was not the only high-profile guest at the ‘tool-in’ ceremony included TSMC founder Morris Chang and several high-profile customers, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.

“Bringing TSMC’s investment to the United States is a masterstroke and a game-changing development for the industry,” said Huang in a pre-prepared statement.

But despite all this optimism about TSMC increased US capabilities, it is worth noting that the US will be far from weaned off its reliance on Taiwan for semiconductor production. Even if the new fab quickly reaches its full capacity, domestically made chips in the US will still only account for only around 15% of the country’s demand, leaving the US still largely at the mercy of the geopolitical tides lapping the shores of Taiwan.

How will the increase in domestic chip manufacturing capabilities impact the US telecoms industry? Find out from the experts at next year’s Connected America conference live in Dallas, Texas

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

The post TSMC to pump $40bn into Arizona chip fab first appeared on Total Telecom.

Network builder Cityfibre has today announced that they’ve formally submitted a Competition Act complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Ofcom against Openreach (BT), which accuses the operator of “undertaking an aggressive strategy to foreclose infrastructure competition in the UK fibre broadband market“. At present Cityfibre is investing an estimated £2.4bn in equity […]