The latest data from Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net website, is beginning to show the sort of impact that the new generation of alternative full fibre broadband networks (AltNets) are having across the UK. But for now, the seven largest ISPs still dominate the country’s fixed broadband market. At present around 70% of UK […]

A partnership between MGM Resorts International and ExteNet Systems will see guests offered enhanced mobile connectivity through a programme to design, build and operate signal and connectivity solutions for MGM Resorts US-wide – the largest neutral host project in the country.

The project will include MGM’s Las Vegas’ casinos where an expanded 5G service will support connectivity for nearly 200,000 visitors daily. Rich Coyle, ExteNet Systems Chief Executive Officer said “The addition of greater connectivity will further enhance MGM’s world-class offerings for guests and support upcoming plans and development with future-ready solutions.”

The project will cover 25 MGM properties, consisting of 54 million square feet, more than 43,000 guest rooms, and more than 70 million visitors annually and will be completed before the end of 2024.

ExteNet is part of DigitalBridge’s portfolio of digital infrastructure companies which also includes shareholdings in the likes of Zayo Group, Vantage Data Centers, FreshWave Group and Boingo Wireless.

Marc Ganzi, CEO of DigitalBridge described enhanced 5G services as “a competitive differentiator for hospitality and gaming companies”

 

The post MGM partnership is the largest in-building cellular enhancement project in the US first appeared on Total Telecom.

Network operator and UK ISP Giganet has confirmed that their rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network has begun to be extended into the two Wiltshire (England) market towns and civil parishes of Marlborough and Devizes, which will benefit 21,500 homes at a cost of around £23m. Giganet is currently investing £250m via […]

The highly reputable UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) has announced that they’re going to double or more the usage allowances on their fixed home and business broadband packages at no extra cost, which, for example, will see their “Home::1” residential tier jump from 500GB (GigaBytes) to 1TB (TeraByte). Some readers often bemoan the fact […]

Leicester-based UK broadband provider Gigabit Networks, which primarily seems to focus on connecting premises across the Midlands of England via CityFibre’s full fibre (FTTP) network, has today partnered with commercial energy supplier Utility Trade Group to offer ultrafast connectivity to local businesses in the region. The Utility Trade Group, which is based in the Midlands, […]

NEWS

The prospect of power shortages across Europe this winter is leading to fears that mobile networks could go dark. In France electricity distributor Enedis is openly talking about blackouts of up to two hours a day in certain parts of the country, and whilst the plan is for essential services (hospitals, police, government etc) not be impacted the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), lobbying on behalf of Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Altice’s SFR, have been unable to win any exemption for antennas.

Similarly in Germany, Deutsche Telekom is planning to use mobile emergency power systems, typically diesel generators, if there are prolonged power failures. But with 33,000 towers across the country, a spokesperson says they cannot support them all.

Against this background it is no surprise that telcos are starting to take their energy consumption more seriously.

In France, Bouygues Telecom has signed up to Ecowatt, a government-backed initiative that monitors power consumption in real time across France. The aim is to avoid the blackouts by making customers, staff, and partner organisations more aware of energy saving measures, but in the longer term Ecowatt focuses on the climate change problem and states an aim to drive the expansion of the green energy asset portfolio to 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2025.

Across the border in Switzerland, Swisscom are looking to further its position as one of the countries most sustainable companies and is joining DETEC’s Energy Saving Alliance. The alliance seeking to secure energy supply this winter through voluntarily taking measures to use energy in a more efficient and sparing manner. For Swisscom this includes reducing indoor and outdoor lighting in shops and offices during the evenings and night and lowering the room temperature in all buildings to a maximum of 20C, as well as seeking to drive greater awareness amongst staff and review usage of buildings and equipment.

However, energy consumption is not just a concern in Europe and not all operators are looking for a short-term fix. In Asia, NTT Docomo and NEC have reported an average 72 percent reduction in power consumption by using AWS Graviton processors in its 5G core network as opposed to incumbent x86 processors. The results are prompting NTT DoCoMo to push ahead with plans for networks in a hybrid cloud environment using AWS Graviton processors designed for energy efficiency to help reduce the carbon footprint of IT networks.

Discover the sustainable leaders of the telecom industry at this years World Communication Awards. Finalists for The Sustainability Award include AsiaInfo, China Unicom Global, Colt Technology Services, KT, Orange Polska, Turkcell, and Vertical Bridge. Join us on the 1 November to see who wins.

RELATED CONTENT: NTT UNVEILS SUSTAINABILITY-AS-A-SERVICE

The post Operators switch on to energy saving first appeared on Total Telecom.

PRESS RELEASE

NTT Ltd., a leading global IT infrastructure and services company, today announced its full-stack Net-Zero Action offering at Mobile World Congress 2022 (MWC) in Las Vegas, Nevada. This climate-focused solution leverages NTT’s vast infrastructure and services capabilities to help clients reduce the environmental impact of business activities. Climate initiatives are top of mind as organizations work to increase sustainability initiatives that will help them achieve net-zero goals and make data-driven decisions to reduce their carbon footprint. This innovative offering will help customers achieve better economic performance through enhanced climate action including measuring, monitoring, and reporting impact, proactively working to limit climate incidents, and improving response times when detecting issues.

“We are very excited to launch the industry’s first full-stack Sustainability as a Service offering at a time when industries are looking for effective ways to make good on their commitments to achieving net-zero goals,” said Devin Yaung, Group Senior Vice President of Enterprise IoT Products and Services at NTT Ltd. “Today’s news reinforces NTT’s commitment to helping organizations proactively limit climate incidents, respond in real-time with automated resolutions, and accurately measure their environmental impact in communications with regulators, employees and other stakeholders.”

Organizations are increasingly being held accountable for achieving net-zero goals to meet the expectations of their stakeholders, including clients, shareholders, institutional investors, employees, business partners, and communities. In a recent survey, 58% of Fortune 500 companies aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net-zero goals by 2050 or sooner. Those that commit to these goals are often faced with the additional challenges of being under-resourced and underfunded or are unable to consistently capture accurate data fit for purpose. Additionally, McKinsey has estimated that it will take $9.2 trillion of aggregated annual capital expense to achieve 2050 goals.

In response to this challenge, NTT has announced the industry’s first full-stack Sustainability as a Service architecture combining extensible technologies leveraging NTT’s solution building blocks including IoT, Private 5G, Edge Compute, NTT Smart Solutions Platform, Digital Twins and Machine Learning products. The full-stack offering along with its consulting service is designed to be customized depending on net-zero goals, the organization and the supply chain’s carbon-producing footprint. It will help organizations build a comprehensive picture of the status of climate goals by streamlining the monitoring, measurement, and reporting of emissions. It will also speed up incident response times to get to the root cause of an issue. All of this is applicable to industries such as manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and healthcare providers.

The full-stack sustainability offering includes:

Remote Environmental Monitoring: Using NTT’s IoT for sustainability solution, this technology uses sensors to identify the presence of pollutants in the air, water, and plants across the globe, in real-time. In manufacturing, this can assist with measuring processes and products that consume energy. In the transportation industry, this can monitor greenhouse gas emissions more effectively for fleet management.
Digital Twin and Smart Solution: This solution uses a combination of NTT Smart Solutions and Digital Twin capabilities which act as the “brain” of the system. This will help organizations to predict issues with the built-in Machine Learning technology, respond to incidents faster with context from Digital Twin and measure the carbon footprint at a granular, actionable level, in real-time.
Automation and Orchestration: Leveraging the existing A&O, the Digital Twin automates problem resolution where possible or creates a ticket for support personnel to investigate and address the issue and thus limit greenhouse impact.
“As a global leader in tire and rubber manufacturing, we believe that growth, innovation and sustainability go hand in hand,” said Nizar Trigui, chief technology officer and group president, Bridgestone America. “Having real-time visibility into carbon footprint and progress towards net-zero ambitions is an essential foundation of our growth and innovation agenda.”

MORE RELATED CONTENT IN THE SUSTAINABILITY CHANNEL

The post NTT unveils sustainability-as-a-service first appeared on Total Telecom.

NEWS

The opening keynote session at MWC Las Vegas was, as you might expect, brimming with optimism for the ongoing development of 5G in the US. Presentations from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all extolled the virtues of their respective networks, each claiming to be more innovative and customer-focussed than the last.

But nestled amongst all this unbridled positivity, was a rather refreshing sit-down chat between Recon Analytics’ founder Roger Entner and David Christopher, the chairman of the CTIA (also EVP & General Manager of AT&T Business Development and Alliances), acknowledging some of the challenges 5G development still faces as it comes of age.

There is no denying that 5G rollout has taken place more rapidly than previous generations of mobile technology ¬¬– 50% faster than 4G, according to Christopher. But the pace of this rollout masks a technology that is still in its relative infancy and has significant speed bumps before its true potential can be realised.

Augmented reality and the problem of latency
Augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) applications have long been vaunted as some of the most exciting prospects for the 5G era, with the potential to impact everything from healthcare to heavy industries.

Currently, however, functional AR applications are few and far between, both in the consumer and enterprise space, due in no small part to the problem of latency.

“We’ve solved the speed problem,” Christopher explained. “Now we need to get the latency below that of the human body, around 0.25ms, or users can experience motion sickness.”

For now, this sort of ultra-low latency is generally out of reach for most 5G connections in the US; earlier this year, Ookla measured both T-Mobile and Verizon’s 5G latency to be 31ms, while AT&T’s 34ms.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time because this is really hard and we haven’t done it before. In the past we’ve built on speed and reliability, but this focus on latency is a new dimension,” said Entner.

Christopher noted that he hopes to see technical advances take latency below the threshold next year.

“This is what the industry is waiting for,” he said. “Once we’ve solved the latency problem, AR will revolutionise how we do training and maintenance.”

Searching for smart city trailblazers
It is broadly accepted that 5G will be a key role in enabling the IoT on a massive scale and will play a key role in the creation of the smart cities of the future. These theoretical cities will be saturated with intelligent sensors, generating a wealth of data about everything from traffic congestion to air quality.

But we are now a handful of years into the 5G era in the US and smart cities at scale have yet to materialise. Private network deployments have begun to change the connectivity landscape for individual locations, like sports stadiums and university campuses, but there are few major success stories emerging on a city-wide scale.

The challenge, according to Christopher, revolves around convincing local authorities to take the plunge and invest.

“For adoption at scale, the industry will need to convince local authorities that they will quickly be saving money,” said Christopher. “We’re waiting for the first players to jump in – then many will follow suit.”

It is surely no coincidence that, following the keynote later that same day, NTT announced that it would be deploying the largest private network in the US for the city of Las Vegas. Making use of CBRS, the deployment’s initial goals are tied to improving education, surveillance, and healthcare, as well as rolling out NTT’s Smart Solutions suite of IoT solutions.

Perhaps Last Vegas will be the smart city trailblazer the industry is waiting for?

Calling for a ‘cogent spectrum roadmap’ for the US
Christopher’s final point of contention was focussed on the operators’ need for additional spectrum to truly maximise the value of 5G – and at a reasonable price.

“The coffers are empty,” he said. “We need a cogent spectrum roadmap here in the US.”

He also emphasised the importance of licences spectrum, noting that the “prime real estate” ¬of the shared CBRS had yet to produce a lot of success stories.

“Sharing is hard,” he said. “And it cannot take the place of licenced spectrum.”

The hunt for the ‘killer app’
For all of the operators positive rhetoric surrounding their 5G successes, it is clear that there are still major challenges for the next steps in 5G’s development. Nonetheless, the pace of the 5G rollout in thee US remains impressive, creating the perfect stage on which to hunt for the elusive ‘killer app’ for 5G.

“We’re preparing the field for innovators to sew their seeds,” said Entner. “People are asking ‘are we there yet?’ but we’re just getting started on this journey.”

The Total Telecom team have been in Las Vegas talking to people about the forthcoming Connected America event. If you didn’t see them there and want to find out more visit www.totaltele.com/connectedamerica

RELATED CONTENT: Visit our North American channel

The post Are we there yet? CTIA talks 5G challenges at MWC first appeared on Total Telecom.

Internet giant Google has announced that they will “begin winding down” their cloud-based remote-play online video gaming service, Stadia, which launched in the UK during November 2019. Despite their best efforts and a lot of publicity, the service simply “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected“. The idea of a cloud-based video gaming […]

CONTRIBUTED NEWS

A network of remotely monitored Internet of Things (IoT) sensors is being trialled by FarrPoint to help monitor the health of peatland in Scotland’s Western Isles, in what is believed to be the first project of its kind in Europe.

Peatland covers around 20% of Scotland and is vitally important to the environment as it stores 1.7bn tons of carbon, the equivalent of around 140 years of Scotland’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is estimated that 80% of this peatland is damaged, which allows it to dry out. If this continues it will release a large amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, making climate change worse.

The deteriorating nature of peatlands is not just a local problem. Across Europe, these ecosystems store five times more CO2 than forests.  This is a particular concern in Finland (home to almost a third of Europe’s peatlands) and Sweden (where one quarter are located), with the remainder in the UK, Poland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, The Netherlands and France. Ensuring these peatlands are preserved is of paramount importance across the continent.

IoT Trials in Western Isles, Scotland

The year-long trial, which covers a peatland area surrounding Loch Orasaigh in the Western Isles, is being carried out by UK digital connectivity specialist, FarrPoint in collaboration with NatureScot Peatland ACTION, the Carloway Estate Trust and Scottish Water with funding from the Scottish Government.

This work aligns with the Scottish Government’s £250m, 10-year peatland restoration initiative, to significantly reduce carbon emissions and support biodiversity as part of its climate change plan. Peatland ACTION-funded restoration work around Loch Orasaigh has been phased over several years and the FarrPoint IoT sensors are currently gathering a baseline dataset prior to restoration of this area. Post restoration monitoring is also planned using the same technology.

Real-time data to inform peatland restoration work

Monitoring peatland to measure its water content has traditionally been a manual task, with regular travel to monitoring stations in often remote locations, often on foot. FarrPoint’s IoT solution to monitor peatlands could become a game changer in helping to save peatlands in the UK and beyond, by providing real-time information to inform how restoration work impacts the health of the peatland.

 Dr Andrew Muir, FarrPoint’s CEO, said:

“Scotland’s peatlands are one of our key natural resources in the fight against rising carbon emissions and we must make efforts to protect them.

“When in good condition, our peatlands offer multiple benefits to the environment and our communities. With 80% of Scotland’s peatlands damaged, projects such as this can help us fight climate change and support biodiversity.

 “Digital technologies will become central to our ability to limit the damage of climate change and hit our net-zero targets. This summer’s drought has shown how vulnerable the UK is to extreme heat and this trial will provide valuable and timely data which will help inform future peatland restoration activities.

“Connecting remote and rural areas with digital technologies can be extremely challenging, and whilst benefits have been shown for larger cities, this trial will create key learnings that can be applied to other remote regions of Scotland and Europe.”

Mairi McAllan, Environment Minister said:

“Peatland restoration represents a cornerstone of our action to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Restoring Scotland’s iconic peatlands can help us sequester and store carbon from the atmosphere, support biodiversity and provide good, green jobs – often in rural communities.

“Since the launch of the Peatland ACTION programme in 2012, around 39,000 hectares of degraded peatlands have undergone restoration in Scotland. We are committed to significantly increasing the rate of restoration and have invested £250 million to fulfil our commitment to restore 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030.

“This innovative project, which has been awarded £60k from Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate, highlights how new and digital technologies will be crucial in helping us deliver our net zero ambitions.”

 

Lucy Elliff, Peatland ACTION Monitoring Officer at NatureScot said:

“Using these sensors in a remote area has enabled us to gather real-time live data, which is important to monitoring the response of water table dynamics to peatland restoration. Projects like this help us explore how emerging technologies can be used to meet the challenges of monitoring peatland restoration work which is often in remote locations.”

Wider smart community project benefits

As part of the same project, FarrPoint is also exploring the broader use of IoT solutions to benefit the local community in the Western Isles. Working with the Scottish Government, it has already consulted with local residents to identify other key social and economic issues that could be solved by using IoT technology, such as deploying remote sensors in the local community (The Pairc Trust) to monitor humidity and temperature levels for its archive of paper-based records and local artefacts. Many of these items need to be conserved in a stable environment, in particular humidity variations proving a key challenge due to the local climate.

This approach to “stackable” use cases, where multiple uses can be delivered over the same infrastructure is seen as essential, particularly in more remote areas, to improve the investment case.

Join us at the Total Telecom Congress for sessions including Data is the new gold: creating revenue from a telco’s most valuable asset. Find out more at www.totaltele.com/congress 

The post Scottish IoT project aims to revolutionise peatland restoration in Europe first appeared on Total Telecom.