NEWS

With COP27 just days away, the GSMA is taking a stand on a sustainable future for mobile devices, with a vision that requires a ‘zero waste’ supply chain and longer-lasting smartphones.

The trade body that represents mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem have published the Strategy Paper for Circular Economy: Mobile devices, in conjunction with Ethos, a Swedish management consultancy specialising in sustainability, and Tele2, who lead a GSMA member project group on the issue.

The document lays out a vision of “devices with as long a lifetime as possible, made with 100% recyclable and recycled content, 100% renewable energy, and where no device ends up as waste.

Currently the typical mobile device is used for around three years, but has a technical lifespan of four to seven years. However the optimal lifetime for a mobile phone in terms of minimising its climate impact could be at least 25 years which the GSMA believes is achievable based on their ‘circularity model’ focusing on the principles of “maximised longevity” and “zero waste”.

Steven Moore, Head of Climate Action at GSMA and Mobile Sector Lead for the UN Climate Champions said: “The mobile industry is making real progress on circularity, but there’s a lot more to do to reduce the environmental impact of devices we rely on every day to stay connected. By setting out a new vision of systemic change for the sector, we’re laying the groundwork for the mobile industry to reduce material waste and increase the longevity of devices.”

The GSMA point out that although mobile phones have a positive impact on people’s lives, they have both positive and negative impacts on the environment, and that up to 21.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved annually by 2030 if the lifespan of the typical mobile phone was extended by one year.

Telco’s around the world are showing ever more interest in sustainability issues as demonstrated by the number of outstanding entries in this years World Communication Awards. The winner of this years Sustainability Award was Vertical Bridge, first telecom tower company in the world to become 100 percent carbon neutral, whilst the WCA judges also highly commended Orange Poland for their #OrangeGoesGreen climate strategy launched early 2021.

Read more on these issues in the Total Telecom sustainability channel

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PRESS RELEASE

CMC Networks, a global Tier 1 service provider, has launched IP Premier, a high-performance dedicated internet access (DIA) solution designed to accelerate the adoption of SD-WAN across Africa. IP Premier provides strict service level agreements (SLAs) related to jitter, packet loss and round-trip delay (RTD), in addition to the standard availability. It provides a trusted foundation for rolling out SD-WAN services and delivering optimised user experience in some of the most challenging markets in the world.

IP Premier delivers predictable performance for connecting enterprise locations, cloud, content delivery networks and internet exchanges locally in Africa and across the globe. CMC Networks is a Microsoft Azure Peering Services partner in Africa and provides one hop from any location to a required on-ramp, optimising Office 365 experience for users.

“Over the last three decades, we have been developing and delivering solutions that cater to the specific needs of local markets across Africa. IP Premier delivers the consistency and reliability in the underlay network that enterprises need to deliver SD-WAN overlay services. We’re going beyond standard SLAs that are based on uptime, and guaranteeing performance that will have a direct impact on the speed of SD-WAN adoption on the continent,” said Marisa Trisolino, CEO at CMC Networks. “Unlike players that are reselling third party services, we’re able to give enterprise customers greater control over their networking and consistent on-net performance.”

CMC Networks’ DIA provides symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 10Gbps. It offers consistent performance across African markets and during peak traffic periods. CMC Networks’ DIA solution is supported by on-the-ground engineers who understand local market conditions and ensure that services deliver maximum uptime and performance.

“The attributes of the underlay network are reflected in overlay services like SD-WAN. It is critical that enterprises across Africa have a reliable foundation for rolling out new software-defined networking solutions. The development of IP Premier is a direct response to enterprise demands and the conversations we’re having with local IT teams in Africa, as well as global MNCs who are active on the continent. They all want greater intelligence and reliability in the underlay network to support SD-WAN, and that’s what we’re delivering,” said Geoff Dornan, Chief Technical Officer at CMC Networks.

CMC Networks is the first and only service provider in Africa with both MEF 3.0 SD-WAN and Ethernet certifications. Its on-the-ground engineers speak local languages and are active in more than 110 service locations in Africa, the Middle East and around the world.

About CMC Networks

CMC Networks is a global Tier 1 service provider that enables and accelerates the digital transformation in the most challenging markets in the world. Headquartered in South Africa and providing services for over 30 years, it combines network reach across six continents with innovation in AI, cloud, cybersecurity, EDGE, SDN, virtualization, and a range of services to solve local enterprise challenges with world-class solutions.

CMC provides data communications to Carriers, Governments, Multinationals, and various non-profit organizations, operating in excess of 110 Service Locations providing a cost-effective, scalable and resilient network.

CMC Networks has the largest pan-African network servicing 51 out of 54 countries in Africa and 12 countries in the Middle East, plus regional hubs in key interconnect locations across Europe, UK, the Americas and Asia Pacific. CMC’s majority shareholders are The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm with $222 billion of assets under management across 365 investment vehicles.

https://www.cmcnetworks.net/

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Alternative broadband ISP Quickline, which has deployed a mix of Full Fibre (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based networks across parts of Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire in England, has today announced that they’ve covered 2,000 rural communities in just the past 12-months. Some of the locations that are known to have benefitted from this […]

Alternative broadband ISP Zzoomm has announced that their UK rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network is being expanded to include nearly 3,000 properties in the small West Yorkshire town of Upton, which is anticipated to cost the operator £1.7 million to complete. So far the provider, which launched in 2020 and aims to […]

PRESS RELEASE

International network service provider RETN continues to invest in the Baltic Region with a new long-haul DWDM route in Latvia, Riga – Daugavpils, and the opening of a new office in Vilnius. The Lithuanian capital is RETN’s newest office location in the Baltics & Nordics and follows the opening of an office in Finland at the end of last year.

Maxim Lukoshius, Regional Director Baltics & Nordics: “The new entity allows us to be even closer to our Lithuanian customers. The opening marks a natural step in our long-term network expansion plan in the region, with the goal to further diversify interconnections between the Baltic and Nordic region and Asia.”

RETN Group now has 5 offices across the Baltics and Scandinavia, with further locations in Latvia, Estonia, and Sweden.

At a length of 243.2km, the new route Riga – Daugavpils allows for one of the shortest existing routes to connect Riga and Vilnius, with a round-trip time of 4.3 ms. By adding a fourth diverse route coming to Riga, RETN improves network redundancy both in the region and the Latvian capital.

“RETN’s latest addition to its backbone network in Latvia allows us to achieve full redundancy between Riga and Vilnius, to reduce single point of failures thanks to 100% diverse fiber routes and to provide a wider choice of capacity services in the Nordic & Baltic region.”

Riga – Daugavpils is the second new long-haul route in the region deployed by RETN this year. In August, RETN launched its first cross-border route between Sweden and Latvia, Stockholm – Gotland – Riga, with a guaranteed RTT of just 6.07 ms for Riga – Stockholm. RETN’s third newest long-haul route, Rezekne – Daugavpils – Vilnius, was implemented in late 2021.

About RETN

RETN is one of the fastest growing independent Eurasian network providers, with unique resources to connect Europe and Asia. It offers a wide range of connectivity services, such as IP transit, Ethernet & VPN, Capacity, Remote peering to major IXPs, Colocation and Cloud Connect. RETN’s most distinctive feature is its ownership of an extensive, international fibre network. Encompassing more than 132,000km across approximately 865+ PoPs, it allows RETN to have maximum control of its physical network, which is running on leading equipment vendors such as Infinera, Juniper and Ciena.

RETN’s unique solution to connect Europe and Asia is built on its own homogenous DWDM and IP/MPLS Network Platform and widely branched land routes, passing through Western Europe, Eastern Europe and up to the border with China and further onwards into Southeast Asia.

RETN provides telecommunication services throughout its Eurasian network with short lead times, industry leading uptimes, and multiple layers of redundancy for its 1500 customers.

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Hampshire-based home and business broadband ISP Onestream has signed a new “strategic agreement” with Vodafone – said to be worth £40m over 2-years – that will enable them to extend beyond superfast broadband (FTTC) packages to launch a new range of SOGEA and gigabit Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based plans. The details of this agreement are a […]

NEWS

Lumen Technologies have agreed to sell their EMEA business to Colt Technology Services for $1.8B, a figure equating to an 11x multiple of the EMEA business’s estimated 2021 adjusted EBITDA. The agreement will encompass Lumen’s terrestrial and subsea networks, data centres and other network equipment in the EMEA region.

The aim for Lumen is to maintain a strong balance sheet whilst enabling them to investment more in enterprise growth, primarily enterprise and Quantum Fiber initiatives, whilst forming a strategic partnership with Colt to serve multinational enterprise customers, as well as Cirion in Latin America.

For Colt the deal further strengthens their fibre network presence in Europe with progress into additional countries, European cities and data centres.

LinkedIn suggests Lumen Technologies have around 1,300 employees in Europe, most of whom are expected to transfer to Colt Technology Services. This will facilitate Lumen continuing to offer seamless service for multinational customers with needs in EMEA, whilst the strategic partnership should help Colt better serve the needs of EMEA-based customers with service needs outside of EMEA.

Lumen President and CEO Jeff Storey said “Colt’s strong reputation and customer focus make them the ideal partner to serve the needs of our customers, and we expect to remain Colt’s partner of choice for their customers’ needs in North America.”

Keri Gilder, CEO, Colt Technology Services said “Colt and Lumen share values, and a drive to deliver outstanding customer experience,”

“This combination is powered by amazing people and incredible infrastructure and is inspired by technology’s ability to change the way we live and work.”

Evidence of this is provided by the win on Tuesday for Colt Technology Services at the 24th annual World Communication Awards where they won the Customer Experience Award.

Subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, the deal could be finalised by late 2023. Lumen is being advised by Morgan Stanley & Co. and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP whilst Colt is supported by Evercore Group L.L.C. and Baker & McKenzie LLP

 

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VIEWPOINT

Empowering service providers with solutions to enhance 5G network performance and user experience while boosting energy efficiency were the key themes of the media roundtable led by Yang Chaobin, President of ICT Products and Solutions, President of Wireless Solution, Huawei, at the ongoing Huawei MBBF 2022.

There is a growing network complexity now as the service providers manage several networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks, at the same time. Further concurrent running of all the networks means that the power consumption is high. “It is advisable to phase out 2G and 3G networks, as several operators across the globe have started to do. This will help reduce power consumption. Further, all spectrum bands should evolve to 5G to enhance the efficiency of the spectrum,” says Yang Chaobin during the session with global media.

Even so, there is a need to adopt solutions that simplify network management as several technologies will continue to co-exist for a long time. Ensuring superior network performance while bringing down power consumption is the need of the hour. This is critical as the telecom industry is under pressure from regulatory authorities as well as industry bodies to bring down carbon emissions and adopt sustainable practices.

Solutions to help service providers boost energy efficiency 

Over the last few years, Huawei has introduced several products and solutions to help service providers boost the energy efficiency of their networks. MetaAAU is one such solution that is helping carriers to improve coverage while improving energy efficiency.

“MetaAAU’s Extremely Large Antenna Array (ELAA) allows service providers to provide a superior network experience even as they are able to bring down energy consumption. Compared with traditional AAU, the power consumption is reduced by 30% in MetaAAU. It also helps in improving the area coverage,” explained Yang Chaobin. MetaAAU was introduced earlier this year and is already being used in 60 networks across the world and has touched 100,000 shipments.

He revealed that Huawei is working with several European telcos, who are witnessing a dramatic rise in operational expenditure because of increasing power costs, to phase out the use of air conditioners at the site.

Another challenge being faced by the telcos in 5G is that it involves the use of spectrum from several frequency bands. The challenges in 5G are more daunting, compared with 2G, 3G and 4G, because there are more spectrum bands and also because several technologies are co-existing, leading to an increase in power consumption. 5G uses both FDD and TDD spectrum to achieve continuous coverage. Huawei’s BladeAAU allows service providers to use spectrum from different frequency bands by integrating key antenna and filter technologies.

“Our Blade AAU supports various combinations of Massive MIMO and antennas, including TDD Massive MIMO and FDD Massive MIMO, thus helping service providers to simplify operations and reduce operational and power expenditure,” says Yang Chaobin.

He also spoke about FDD ultra-wideband multi-antenna, which allows dynamic power sharing across all modes, improves user experience by 30% and helps bring down power consumption by 30%. These include the true triple-band RRU, which supports the widest bands in the industry. In addition, it is the industry’s only commercial FDD Massive MIMO product and its only green Hertz antenna.

Need to evolve to address changing market requirements

He also highlighted the growing need for networks to evolve as the requirements from 5G networks are vastly different from the previous technologies. Each band comes with its own features and specifications.

“The spectrum for 5G is fragmented and from several frequency bands and the carriers need to use them together to deliver on the promise of innovative use cases. The 5G use cases are diverse and very different from the use cases of the previous technologies. For instance, enterprises from different business verticals will use 5G for different use cases, while on the other hand, the bandwidth consumed by consumers will increase significantly. All this means that the networks need to evolve quickly to address the market requirements.”

Yang Chaobin also called upon the regulatory authorities of different countries to reserve the 6GHz spectrum for mobile operators because it will help the countries maximize the socio-economic benefits of 5G.

 

The post Enabling carriers to boost user experience while improving energy efficiency first appeared on Total Telecom.

PRESS RELEASE

[Bangkok, Thailand, October 26, 2022] Today, Operations Transformation Forum 2022 kicked off in Bangkok, Thailand, bringing together global communications service providers (CSPs) and industry partners. Themed “Toward Digital Operations Transformation 2.0, Further Unleash Transformation Value,” the forum explored how CSPs could seize new opportunities of digital economy through digital transformation, gain momentum for data-driven growth, and find new growth engines through digital transformation of the ToB market.

At the forum, TM Forum called for the formulation of the Digital Operation Transformation (DOTF) maturity evaluation standards from different dimensions: transformation strategy, value criteria, process optimization, data & platform, and organization & people. Leading CSPs shared their best practices and experience of digital transformation. Huawei, together with CSPs, industry organizations and analyst firms, initiated the OTF Executive Council to encourage discussions on new values, scenarios, and standards of transformation and further unleash the digital transformation.

By 2030, the Dataflow of Usage (DOU) will reach 600 Gbit/s, and the 10GE home broadband penetration rate will reach 23%. Digital transformation is going to reshape the B2B market and bring human-machine collaboration to the production workforce. The rapid development of the digital economy will bring rapid growth, which will further increase CSPs’ business and network complexity. How do we cope with these impending challenges? Huawei will help CSPs upgrade the industry through business upgrade, operation upgrade, and standard upgrade. Business upgrade offers new experience, new scenarios, and new customer values through the connection plus X mode based on carriers’ secure & native connection capabilities. Operation upgrade with human-machine collaboration enables intelligent O&M. Standard upgrade defines a set of recognized maturity standards to effectively measure value, identify gaps, and develop goals and methods for digital operations.

Jacky Zhou, President of Huawei Services & Software Solution & Marketing Dept. launched Digital Operations Transformation DigiVerse 2.0, which has four improvements. First, the transformation from clean data to smart data unleashes the potential value of data. Second, upholding the principles of core asset security and application efficiency, CSPs can build a cloud-based target network architecture. Third, from a single scenario to cross-scenario collaboration, business & network synergy across scenarios brings high-quality service development, while coordination between experience, operations and optimization enables closed-loop experience operations across scenarios. Finally, digital transformation extending from ToC and ToH markets to ToB industries drives new revenue growth.

CSPs can carry out digital transformation through digital infrastructure, digital and intelligent operations, digital services. Combining CBA model (Customers, Business, and Architecture) with ABC model (AI, Big Data, and Cloud Platform), digital transformation can be driven not only by technologies but also by business. This results in a transformation from single scenario to multiple scenarios which will provide more value to CSPs and further unleash the potential of digital transformation. Jacky emphasized that the value of digital transformation should be considered from the perspectives of capability, service, and business values. Capability value, the root of a tree, shows CSPs’ ability to seize business opportunities in the future. Service value, the stem of a tree, aims at service or process KPIs such as quality, efficiency, and product competitiveness. Business value, fruits of a tree, determines ultimate business success of digital transformation. At the conference, Huawei released the Transformation Value Model Tree (TVM) to help CSPs evaluate the transformation and take account of both the short-term and long-term benefits.

Jacky Zhou, President of Huawei Services & Software Solution & Marketing Dept

Up to now, Huawei has officially launched seven regional smart operation centers in Asia Pacific, Middle East, South Africa, North Africa, Latin America, Europe, and China, which provide enablement, adoption, and advisory services to achieving the transformation value with our customers together. Huawei has been working with CSPs to form an integrated joint team to further unleash transformation value.

The post Toward Digital Operations Transformation 2.0, Further Unleash Transformation Value first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

Dutch-based operator has confirmed that it’s seeking a buyer for its Russian business

The multinational operator, headquartered in Amsterdam, released a statement yesterday, confirming that it is initiating a competitive sales process for its Russian business, with its management “currently exploring options in an effort to ensure that an optimal outcome is achieved for all relevant stakeholders, including Veon, its Russian operations, its shareholders, its creditors, its customers and its employees working both in and outside of Russia.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has placed VEON in a particularly difficult position, as it operates in both countries. The international response to the war, particularly the implementation of economic and individual sanctions by the US and its allies against Russia, has made doing business in the country particularly fraught for western based companies. Nokia and Ericsson have both left the Russian market, and with Mikhail Fridman, who set up the LetterOne investment firm which owns nearly half of VEON’s shares, being targeted by sanctions, VEON’s move is not surprising.

While Russia is by far VEON’s biggest market, accounting for around 50% of its revenues, the war and the sanctions imposed on Russia in response have made the company’s position within Russia increasingly untenable. While it seems highly unlikely that a western company will look to buy, and there is indeed no guarantee that a buyer will be found, it will be interesting to see who, if anyone emerges as the owner after the sales process.

 

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