Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband appear to be suffering from significant service disruption to their internet access and phone services in parts of North West England today (mostly around the Greater Manchester, Warrington and Lancashire areas), although oddly Sky’s Service Status page remains green for many of those affected. The issue first started to […]

NEWS

The international operator group has previously announced that it aims to see 30% of its European mobile sites equipped with Open RAN equipment by 2030

This week, Vodafone has announced its latest string of Open RAN partners, further demonstrating the operator’s commitment to Open RAN network architecture.

First and foremost among these announcements is a partnership with Nokia, aiming to create a fully compliant Open RAN solution leveraging Nokia’s ReefShark system on a chip (SoC). The duo say they will create an Open RAN baseband system that can deliver services on par with traditional mobile RAN infrastructure, with live demonstrations using third-party COTS servers to take place early next year.

Nokia’s ReefShark technology is co-developed with Marvell, a chip specialist with whom Vodafone is becoming increasingly entwined. In fact, the company’s second announcement incudes an expansion of the operator’s existing Open RAN partnership with Samsung, inviting Marvell to join the duo’s Open RAN R&D efforts.

“Vodafone and Samsung are combining their technical leadership and embracing open standards with Marvell’s advanced silicon chipset. Together, we can deliver an Open RAN system with features and performance that rivals that of traditional mobile radio networks now, and can better them in future, whilst bringing much needed resilience to the vendor supply chain,” explained Vodafone CTO Johan Wibergh, who is retiring at the end of the year and will be replaced by current chief digital and IT officer Scott Petty.

Earlier this year, the Samsung and Vodafone had collaborated to launch the UK’s first live 5G Open RAN site.

The third deal is also closely related to chipsets, this time with US firm Qualcomm. The new partnership will see Vodafone work with the silicon specialist to develop, test and integrate next-generation 5G distributed units and radio units for use in massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) deployments. These units will make use of Qualcomm’s latest X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card and QRU100 5G RAN Platform, which the company announced back in September.

Lastly, Vodafone has signed a new memorandum of understanding with Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo, pledging to “harmonise mobile operator system integration and test processes”; in short, promising to share their Open RAN-related expertise, technologies, and test results with one another. In particular, the operators’ will reportedly focus on exploring two of Open RAN’s most exciting technical elements: the Service Management Orchestrator and the RAN Intelligent Controller.

“The collective R&D power of Vodafone and DOCOMO will lower the entry barrier for many more companies across Europe and Asia wishing to build Open RAN networks. Rather than fragmenting the industry, Open RAN is bringing us together, across continents, to drive diversification of network equipment vendors and ensure greater systems integration,” said Wibergh.

Alongside this new string of partnerships, Vodafone says it will be taking its Open RAN operations in Germany to the next level, following successful trials in the city of Plauen earlier this year.

A new 5G Open RAN pilot project is being planned to take place in early 2023, seeing the technology deployed in commercial networks in rural areas in Southeast Bavaria and Northeast Lower Saxony.

For Vodafone, this deployment will mark the beginning of a wider German rollout over the next two to three years; in total, Vodafone aims to have 30% of its mobile sites in Europe equipped with Open RAN tech by 2030.

“This will be the first Open RAN system in Germany that not only uses open interfaces but is built on both hardware and software from multiple vendors that is fully interchangeable and interoperable based on the choice of the operator,” explained Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture for Vodafone. “It brings timely resilience to the supply chain, allowing us to work with a greater number and more diverse pool of suppliers. Greater competition also encourages innovation, leading to a better mobile experience for our customers.”

It is still very much early days for Open RAN technology, which has yet to prove itself at scale in live networks. Nonetheless, Vodafone’s increasing commitment to the nascent technology is setting the operator apart from its rivals.

Will Open RAN ultimately disrupt the telecoms vendor ecosystem or is it hot air? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

Also in the news:
The missing 3.2 billion…
New EXA investment serves customers across the Iberian peninsula
Startup stories: Facing up to cybersecurity risks

The post Vodafone announces flurry of Open RAN partnerships first appeared on Total Telecom.

PRESS RELEASE

Arqit Quantum Inc., a leader in quantum-safe encryption, has signed a contract with Nine23 Ltd, a cyber security solutions provider for UK regulated and compliant sectors, to deploy Arqit’s QuantumCloud™, a symmetric key agreement software, on Nine23’s UK Sovereign Secure Private Cloud infrastructure – Platform FLEX – to provide the highest level of assurance for its customers.

Nine23’s proprietary Platform FLEX provides a multi-private cloud environment with direct network gateway connectivity to all UK government networks including the PSN, PNN, RLI, HSCN and others. The proven, accredited platform offers data residency and solution integration that can be used for Official-Sensitive and higher classifications. Arqit and Nine23 will work together to address government and defence customers looking to improve the security of their infrastructure against cyberattacks, remove the vulnerabilities associated with legacy encryption method Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and prevent data security threats posed by Quantum computers.

This partnership will deliver a fully managed UK Sovereign deployment of QuantumCloud™ for government and defence customers across data networks and infrastructure without the need for significant changes to the existing hardware, software, or support.

The services will be available on the new G-Cloud 13 framework via the Digital Marketplace. G-Cloud 13, provides hosting and software services, together with associated support services to UK government departments, other public sector bodies, and Enterprise customers supporting Critical National Infrastructure. It will be launched on 9th November.

Commenting, David Williams, Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO, said “We are pleased to work with Nine23 to deliver our product to classified UK government projects. We believe that sovereign cloud services have high growth potential and Nine23 has done a great job to become firmly established with existing security cleared contract frameworks through which Arqit is able to gain fast track market access to this government business.”

Stuart McKean, Nine23 CEO, said: “We are delighted to choose Arqit to work with Nine23. Arqit is renowned as one of the most innovative UK companies in the market providing us with the technology to accelerate stronger, simpler encryption via our Platform FLEX. QuantumCloud™ services are the future happening today and we look forward to delivering a true UK technology partnership.”

Arqit’s Chief Cryptographer, Daniel Shiu, is talking about the role of quantum technologies in telecoms at the Total Telecom Congress on the 1 November 2022. Make sure you don’t miss it by booking your place here

The post Arqit to provide secure cloud services for UK Government first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

Investor interest in mobile tower infrastructure is not letting up, as operators around the world continue to divest of their nigh invaluable passive assets in exchange for quick cash

Today, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has reportedly submitted an offer to the Kingdom’s largest mobile operator, STC, to purchase a majority stake in the latter’s tower unit.

The PIF is seeking to purchase a 51% stake in unit, called Tawal, for an undisclosed sum.

According to STC, the unit has been valued at around $5.8 billion on a cash- and debt-free basis.

Tawal itself was spun off from STC itself back in 2019 and contains roughly 15,000 towers throughout the country.

The move should come as no real surprise. The PIF has been looking to create the Kingdom’s leading tower infrastructure company for some time now, having formed a consortium earlier this year to purchase roughly 8,000 towers from Zain Saudi Arabia for roughly $807 million.

Combined, the tower assets of Zain and Tawal will total over 23,000, giving the PIF the largest tower portfolio in the Saudi Arabia.

As always, the deal is subject to regulatory approval.

In recent years, mobile towers have become a highly attractive asset for investment funds, who view them as a reliable, long-term assets with high potential for growth. Operators, on the other hand, are hungry for capital to pay for their expensive 5G and fibre rollouts, making the high valuations offered for their tower assets particularly enticing.

In other tower-related news this week, European tower giant Cellnex has announced that it has divested of roughly 1,100 towers in the UK as part of the conditions imposed upon it by the Competition and Markets Authority. The move comes almost two yeas after the company struck a nearly €10 billion deal to purchase CK Hutchison’s European tower assets.

How is the international mobile tower market reshaping itself in 2022? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

Also in the news:
The missing 3.2 billion…
New EXA investment serves customers across the Iberian peninsula
Startup stories: Facing up to cybersecurity risks

The post Saudi Public Investment Fund seeks majority stake in STC towerco first appeared on Total Telecom.

Network operator Cityfibre, which is rolling out a new gigabit-capable “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP network to millions of UK premises, has today announced that they’ve chosen civil engineering firm Kelly Group to be their “preferred supplier” for installing customer connections in homes. At present Cityfibre is investing £5bn+ on their programme to cover up […]

Interview

Technology has become an integral part of daily life. That’s why inclusive design and access to tech is key to ensuring that everyone can enjoy the benefits.

Accessible technology means something different to everyone you ask. So, ahead of Total Telecom Congress 2022 next week, we spoke to technology analyst Chris Lewis to find out what the term means to him. Chris and his guide dog Varley are well-known faces at industry events and furthermore Chris is a leading advocate on improving access to tech.

You are well known for your advocacy on accessible technology, what does that phrase mean to you? 

Being blind it has a very specific meaning about rendering all content consumable to me. But, more broadly, it is about making sure everyone has access to the digital world with all of its content, applications and interaction possibilities. Accessibility has a physical meaning, of course, but for our industry it is more about ensuring that devices and communications services give everyone that access to everything.

If there is one main thing telcos can do to improve in this area, what would it be?  

Customer experience is on everyones’ lips. From an accessibility perspective it is essential that all channels of interaction are made accessible and/or interchangeable. What I mean by that is that people are not forced to use channels they find difficult to navigate. At the end of the day, channels should be the ones preferred by the individual and not by the technology choices of the industry. So, personal interaction with a knowledgeable agent has got to remain a key service option, even if this is more expensive than the chatbots in vogue today. In short, turn the customer experience into a personal, human one and don’t expect humans to force-fit themselves into a technology straight jacket.

You will be chairing a panel titled Accessible Technology. Can you tell us about how improving accessibility can present a major opportunity for telcos? 

This is indicative of where accessibility comes from. It was a CSR issue, has moved into ESG and now into EDI (Equality Diversity & Inclusion). It is a mainstream issue with previously excluded groups such as the disabled now being brought into the mainstream markets. And, of course, that comes with new customers, new spend and the opportunity to deliver them a service which enhances their personal and working lives. And, by the way, these formerly excluded groups include the elderly, people unable to afford the service as well as the disabled community. It is a major commercial opportunity if taken together and baked into all product and services going forward. This is one reason why I am increasingly looking at Inclusive Design and the notion that if we design for the peripheral case we get the benefit for free. It is sort of turning perceived wisdom about design on it its head, catering for the peripheral cases such as disability first and then building a much simplified but majorly more inclusive environment for everyone to flourish.

What are you looking forward to at Total Telecom Congress next month? 

Total Telecom Congress is always a great place to meet the people shaping the future of our industry. Taking time out to listen to the diverse perspectives and to have those impromptu side discussions all add to a better understanding of the industry and where it’s going.

Chris will be chairing a panel on “Accessible technology” on 1st November. Head to the Total Telecom Congress website for more details on how to join.

The post Making technology accessible for everyone first appeared on Total Telecom.

London-focused UK gigabit-broadband ISP G.Network, which is currently investing around £1bn to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the city, has said a recent newspaper report (Sunday Times) that alleged the company had recently warned of the risk it “could go under” are “simply not true“ The provider, which reports to have already covered […]

FROM SMART EDUCATION TO SMART BINS, PROJECTS LED BY BAI COMMUNICATIONS AND SUNDERLAND CITY COUNCIL SHOW HOW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CAN ENHANCE EVERYDAY LIFE. 

BY BILLY D’ARCY, CEO, BAI COMMUNICATIONS UK

Sunderland City Council, in partnership with communications infrastructure provider BAI Communications (BAI), is developing pioneering new use cases for smart city technology and digital infrastructure, as it works towards its ambition to become the UK’s most advanced smart city and put the North East at the forefront of digital innovation.

The partnership is helping to realise the huge potential of smart city technologies for enhancing public services and boosting the local economy. The first of these being a 5G private network in Sunderland city centre, which will provide the high speed wireless

connectivity needed for new innovations. This will be combined with an ultra-fast public WiFi network to ensure residents and visitors can stay connected as they enter the city. The roll out of transformative digital services across Sunderland will also have benefits for business across a number of key sectors in the local area, including manufacturing, logistics, and social care, boosting economic growth, and creating jobs.

The Council and BAI are working closely with the University of Sunderland, for example, to deploy advanced wireless technologies to support and enhance research, teaching and the student experience. The roll out of an Internet of Things (IoT) network across the University’s campuses will improve operational efficiency for services such as estate management and footfall analytics. Super-fast public Wi-Fi will be made available for students, staff and guests via EduROAM and a 5G test lab will be established, creating a hub for research into the potential uses of 5G and IoT technologies in manufacturing, healthcare and other sectors.

Opportunities for smart technologies to benefit education are not limited to the university, as better connectivity in primary and secondary schools will support online and remote learning and ensure students develop vital digital skills. Deploying this across Sunderland will follow on from a successful test case at Hudson Road Primary School, which now has super-fast 5G Wi-Fi connectivity, breaking down barriers to learning by allowing teachers to stream educational videos for pupils and participate in online training sessions.

An additional innovation being piloted in Sunderland is solar-powered, smart compactor bins, which have been installed across the city this summer. The bins include a solar-powered ram which compacts the waste inside, increasing their capacity so that they can store up five times more waste than standard. The smart compactor bins are contained within ordinary wheelie bins, making them compatible with the council’s existing equipment, and sensors on the bins communicate how much waste is inside so that they can be emptied in a timely and more efficient manner.

Looking forward, BAI and Sunderland City Council will be exploring smart technologies to enhance health and social care services. This will include scaling assistive technology and installing sensors to support vulnerable people to live independently in their own homes. There are also opportunities to improve supply chain agility in local manufacturing, potentially through developing self-driving vehicles, including autonomous heavy goods vehicles, which could transfer parts amongst the North East’s car manufacturing supply chain cluster. It is hoped that the innovations set in Sunderland will not only show that these digital technologies can be highly effective, but highlight that they can have huge beneficial impacts on local communities and economies, improving standards of living and public services and enabling businesses to grow. Having seen Sunderland’s successes, other cities across the UK and the world may follow in adopting the same advanced smart city vision.

To learn more about our project with Sunderland City Council, watch our video.

The post How smart city technology is transforming Sunderland first appeared on Total Telecom.

A team of researchers from the University of Texas Austin (UTA) have examined the downlink signal structure of Starlink’s (SpaceX) mega constellation of ultrafast broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and shown that, with a few software tweaks, the company could perhaps turn it into a useful GPS-style backup. SpaceX’s Starlink constellation currently has […]

NEWS

The deployments will help add capacity to the network at these typically busy locations, relieving the pressure on existing macro-site infrastructure

This week, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) have announced their latest collaboration with infrastructure-as-a-service provider Freshwave, seeking to deploy 5G-ready small cells in bus shelters in parts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

These small cells can be integrated directly within the shelters themselves, providing the surrounding area with increased mobile capacity and thereby helping customers to connect and access mobile services, even at peak times.

For now, these sites will provide 4G connectivity, but in future will be capable of delivering 5G service to customers. Backhaul for the small cells will take place over VMO2’s fibre network.

The bus shelters in question are managed by Clear Channel UK, an advertising firm that owns and operates around 40,000 advertising sites in the UK, including from bus shelters to digital posters in supermarkets.

Deployment is set to take place in over the coming months. The exact number of bus shelters set to receive a small cell has not been announced.

“Smart cities and towns need new approaches to digital connectivity. And the more existing street assets that can be used to bring this to our towns, the better it is for both the mobile network operators and the customers and communities they serve. This is why we’re already working on a multi-operator, multi-technology design for bus shelter use too,” said Simon Frumkin, CEO at Freshwave.

This announcement builds on an announcement from the two companies earlier this summer, when VMO2 and Freshwave revealed they had deployed over 1,300 live 4G and 5G small cells across London. Part of this deployment included a trial involving 5G-capable small cells within bus shelters, which it seems is now being expanded across Tower Hamlets.

As demand for mobile connectivity continues to increase, small cell deployment will become increasingly important in delivering quality services in urban areas. Though of vital importance, densification will be a costly process for the operators, particularly with regards to securing wayleaves to deploy these small cells on buildings.

As such, it makes sense that these initial small cell deployments will take advantage of existing street furniture, such as bus shelters and lamp posts, allowing the operator to bolster network capacity at high footfall locations for a cheaper price.

How will the rise of small cells impact the UK mobile market? Find out from the experts at the upcoming Connected North conference in Manchester

Also in the news:
The missing 3.2 billion…
New EXA investment serves customers across the Iberian peninsula
Startup stories: Facing up to cybersecurity risks

The post VMO2 and Freshwave installing 5G-ready small cells in London bus shelters first appeared on Total Telecom.