The ITS Technology Group, which manages 36 wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks across urban parts of the UK for businesses and ISPs (aka – “Faster Britain“), has today announced that they’ve completed the acquisition of dark fibre specialist NextGenAccess Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. NextGenAccess – part funded by Amber Infrastructure – is […]

Press Release

After successful pilots with Workspace and at a multinational firm’s UK headquarters, the NHIB approach has been adopted by Three UK for indoor 4G

Mobile network operator Three UK has partnered with connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider Freshwave on the operator’s first deployments of the Neutral Host In-Building mobile specification. After successful pilots at two of flexible office provider Workspace’s properties in London, and at a multinational firm’s UK headquarters in the capital, the approach has now been adopted by Three UK for their 4G indoor connectivity.

Eighty per cent of mobile calls originate indoors, but modern building materials, such as energy-efficient glass, make it harder for the outdoor macro signal to penetrate inside. This leaves many buildings as mobile signal dead zones, which can reduce business productivity and increase frustration. In-building small cell systems bring network indoors with guaranteed quality of service and without placing extra pressure on the outdoor macro.

The Joint Operator Technical Specifications (JOTS) Neutral Host In-Building (NHIB) specification is a recent and world-leading innovation in the telecoms sector. It’s an agreed technical standard for connecting shared in-building radio solutions based on 4G small cell technologies. All four of the UK’s mobile network operators participated in creating the specification and it reduces the complexity around a neutral host providing indoor mobile coverage to businesses. By adhering to the JOTS NHIB specification, a third party, or “neutral host” can provide mobile services to businesses on behalf of one or more of the operators. The neutral host can enable this connectivity using their own choice of vendors and equipment.

Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer at Three UK, said: “We are investing more than ever in enhancing connectivity and coverage, and already have the UK’s Fastest 5G Network, according to Ookla. Indoor focus has been a major priority of ours with the acquisition of additional low frequency spectrum in 2020 and our agreement with Freshwave will further enhance indoor coverage, particularly for business customers.”

Tom Bennett, CTO at Freshwave, said: “This is another step forward in making assured indoor mobile connectivity easier for businesses to access around the UK and we’re pleased to have worked with Three UK on this world-leading approach. We’re excited that Three UK is now also using the specification and that Freshwave is the first company to be the neutral host for multiple operators on the NHIB specification.”

Chris Boultwood​, Head of Technology at Workspace, said: “I’m proud that Workspace provides premium spaces for our customers and that we have the premium mobile connectivity they want and need. Freshwave have been our mobile connectivity partner for many years now and ensure that we remain up to date with the changing technologies available.”

Connected Britain 2022 is happening right now! Keep up with the action across our social media platforms using #ConnectedBritain 

Also in the news:
BT and Atos strike computer vision partnership
South West ISP Truespeed appoints non-exec to accelerate rollout
Nothing changes if nothing changes: The UK’s full fibre rollout cannot rely solely on central government

The post Three UK partners with Freshwave for Neutral Host In-Building mobile deployments first appeared on Total Telecom.

Air Broadband, which offers ultrafast and gigabit speed internet access packages via various different Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks across the United Kingdom, has today announced it can now service over 1 million homes and businesses (up from 250,000 before). But today’s news is mainly focused on CityFibre. The provider is one of several in the market […]

Mobile operator Three UK has, following successful pilots with Workspace and at a multinational firm’s UK headquarters, agreed to join Freshwave’s new Neutral Host In-Building mobile network specification to help improve indoor 4G coverage at enabled sites. Just to recap. The Joint Operator Technical Specifications (JOTS) Neutral Host In-Building (NHIB) specification is simply an agreed […]

CONTRIBUTED CONTENT

Research shows that 89% of consumers want to initiate and reply to two-way conversations with businesses, via multiple mobile and social channels. However, over half (53%) said they were frustrated at the fact that often they cannot reply to a mobile message sent from a business, whether to ask a question, receive an update or complete an action, such as scheduling an appointment.

In all, 3,000 consumers across 15 countries were questioned for the research, which was commissioned by cloud communications firm Sinch.

And this comes after recent research from Mitto, the provider of global omnichannel communications solutions, which found that 87% of US consumers now use social media apps to message with brands, while 80% of consumers in China, Brazil, India, and Nigeria use chat apps for brand engagement.

Boosting sales

Mitto’s research among US consumers, shows increased messaging with brands is driving their purchasing decisions, with 55% reporting a brand’s social media messaging influenced a purchase via the website, 39% in store and 42% via the social media app.

The types of messaging consumers like to see from brands via social media include promo codes (70%), sales (61%), customer support (54%) and order updates (52%).

It’s clear there’s a big opportunity to generate sales through messaging. But when Sinch asked how long it typically takes to get a response from a brand on social media, nearly one-in-four people said it took a day or longer. Most respondents said they’d be less likely to buy from a brand given these unreasonable wait times.

AI-powered?

The Sinch study found 70% of people had interacted with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot at least once, but what happens when a live service agent needs to step in? A resounding 95% of respondents wanted to be instantly handed off to a live agent in these situations, but this is a stark contrast to the 35% of businesses currently enabling this, according to a recent IDC white paper.

Sinch said the situation “amplifies the imbalance” between consumers’ desire for more intimate digital brand interactions and the limitations of brands’ current one-way messaging realities.

“Because many brands aren’t yet equipped to provide this enhanced conversational experience, customers are being unintentionally ignored, which can lead them to abandon a business altogether,” says Jonathan Bean, chief marketing officer of Sinch. “Activating omnichannel two-way messaging is a critical way of boosting the customer experience and forging more loyal, satisfied relationships with consumers.”

That said, it’s clear that messaging specialists, and the telcos that carry such messages, have an opportunity to generate more sales, in hopefully helping enterprises meet customer expectations going forward.

Making bills pay

Around 20 years ago, the Telecommunications Managers Association (TMA) in the UK had a number of key issues in its sights, including the high price of leased lines from only a limited number of suppliers, and the lack of a broadband alternative for businesses, as incumbent BT was not unbundling its exchanges, to enable the faster introduction of ADSL and other forms of broadband.

Another key topic was billing, specifically the difficulty in companies actually understanding their telecoms costs, and often being overcharged as a result. Also, it was concerned that alternative service providers were finding it very difficult to resell telco services, because carrier billing systems were too complicated.

While most phone exchanges have now been unbundled as a result of market forces and thanks to government action, and the resulting different broadband services are now widespread, the issue of billing problems has still not gone away.

The TMA became the Communications Management Association (CMA) to reflect the fact its members were no longer just managing telephone call records, but also extensive data ones too, as a result of the convergence of telephone networks and computer networks. And eventually, the CMA was taken over by the British Computer Society (BCS), the IT managers’ association.

This little history perfectly illustrates the extensive problems being faced by those having to manage communications bills, they are big, and growing, as a result of the wider communications services all markets internationally are creating.

Coping

So how to cope at the sharp end? Well, implementing robust revenue assurance protocols before and after each bill run can make a big difference to the bottom line, for one. And checks should also be performed to ensure that buy prices are in accordance with the tariff agreed with the carrier. Assuming the carrier gets it right can be a costly mistake made by many.

These are basics, but without an automated billing platform most end customers and resellers cannot tally up charges as they grow their business, and the bills become a big threat to the bottom line.

I spoke to Gareth Pritchard, marketing manager for Union Street, a provider of billing platforms. He says that while billing automation is key to enable organisations to cope, resellers also shouldn’t lose site of the opportunities.

For instance, in mobile, most users demand unlimited call and data packages, even though most don’t need them for their actual usage. The clever providers, he says, will buy a large bundle from a carrier and then resell pieces of it to end customers using “unlimited” accounts, which they won’t make use of.

This results in bigger profits for the reseller, providing they have a decent automated billing system to carefully manage the operation.

Roaming

For the last three months, I’ve been trialling Vodafone‘s 5G MiFi device, a mobile router that provides either personal communications use or which can be shared with multiple devices. It can be deployed in either a fixed space to support retail use, for instance, or carried on your travels.

I’ve been using it around the UK, in search of those slowly growing 5G signals, and abroad. Where there is a 5G signal to be had, the network performance is solid and the battery is also reliable, sometimes lasting a couple of days without having to re-charge.

Outside the UK, I have also tried to use it in the US, Spain and the Middle East. It didn’t work in California, as a Vodafone bod hadn’t flicked the necessary switch in a data centre. Although I hadn’t warned them of my impending travel, that was part of the trial in my mind.

In Spain’s Canary Islands, I was only able to find a 4G signal, but this was excellent and supported two smartphones and a very happy Mrs Savvas, an F1 nut. While on holiday, she watched the entire Saudi Arabia Grand Prix on her iPad by the pool, with no service drops.

As I write this, I’m on a business trip to Tel Aviv, Israel. I can’t find a 5G signal in the centre of town at the moment, but the 4G signal, and even the 3G one that occasional pops up, is good enough for the basics. The networks that appear through this device while abroad are often Vodafone’s interconnectivity partners, and that’s why Vodafone has always been a reliable operator to use while travelling.

The author is Antony Savvas, a global freelance business technology journalist. This article first appeared on www.vanillaplus.com

 

 

The post Messaging and billing are key to the bottom line first appeared on Total Telecom.

Satellite operator OneWeb, which is partly owned by the UK Government, has announced that 36 of their Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based ultrafast broadband satellites have just arrived at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, ahead of an expected launch to space next month. The operator has already launched 428 of their small […]

Low-cost broadband ISP TalkTalk has called on the government to be more proactive in encouraging the take-up of new full fibre and other gigabit speed capable networks. One of their proposals calls for a national information and awareness campaign to help highlight the benefits of such connections. At present the industry is still primarily focused […]

Network operator CityFibre has today announced that they’ve covered 2 million UK homes with their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network (up from 1.9m in August), which represents 25% of their 8 million target. Better yet, they passed the second million some three times faster than their first million. The achievement forms part of […]

Contributed Article

by NetPMD

When designing a fibre network all stakeholder’s understanding of data can make or break the project. It’s crucial therefore to elevate the importance of data, and to consider data throughout the end-to-end lifecycle of a network design project.

There are several benefits to taking a data driven approach.

Data driven design reduces obstacles

In the past, designing a fibre optic network was a cumbersome process. Engineers had to manually plot out the route of the network, considering obstacles like buildings, railways, rivers and lakes. This process was not only costly, but it was also prone to errors. Thanks to advances in data analysis, it is now possible to design a fibre network using data-driven methods.

From a design perspective it is key to understand what customers want as a final deliverable, and as such make sure the right input data is made available at the start of the project.

Data driven design reduces time to value

By taking a data driven approach, project managers can shorten timescales, and avoid key obstacles from vision and feasibility through to delivery. Having data as a guiding point from start to finish and pre-empting some of the issues that the data will throw up along the way will enable companies to not only break ground quicker but also to achieve time to value quicker.

Data driven design helps you to future proof your network

With a thorough knowledge of data, your design team can create a digital twin. Think of a digital twin like a copy of a city landscape.

Therefore, should you need to make any changes during construction you can do so. Equally once the network is built you can go back to the plans in the future if needed and know exactly what is in place.

Design experts should be data experts

Design experts need to be also experts in designing end to end data flows. A good fibre design team will be able to take demographic data, subscriber demand data, address points data, buildings and cell sites, existing infrastructure information, land parcels and other geographic information (GIS) and bring it all together into a risk free, future proofed fibre design. And because they’re experts in data, they’ll be able to do this at pace.

Patrik Lowenborg, VP of Network Design at NetPMD says, “Our design and installation process runs through six key stages. Along the way there are data considerations we need to address. Only data driven design teams will know how to approach that and the importance of it. I’m proud that we’re all data driven here at NetPMD.”

From Planning a network into operational design and beyond

Planning any fibre network is no easy feat and often takes a long time depending on how mature the market is, costs to build, return of investments (ROI), and architecture used to name a few. Whether you start with due diligence or pre-study of a network area, once it has been decided what solution, deployment method and architecture will be used data will need to be acquired to start any design.

For this reason, it is essential at an early stage to identify not only what architecture, choice or material, and deployment methods, but also what system or tools the entire process will be built on.

NetPMD are a data driven fibre design and integration company who are not geographically bound, so whether based in the UK, Europe or cross the globe, they can deliver. Their experience in the United States means they are perfectly placed to share this learning with companies in the UK and beyond to add value and speed up projects.

 

Connected Britain 2022 will take place TOMORROW and promises to be bigger and better than ever before. It’s not too late to join the discussion. Grab your ticket now.

Also in the news:
BT and Atos strike computer vision partnership
South West ISP Truespeed appoints non-exec to accelerate rollout
Nothing changes if nothing changes: The UK’s full fibre rollout cannot rely solely on central government

The post Why data driven design is the key to fibre network design success first appeared on Total Telecom.

Contributed Article

by CommScope

How will you maximise profitability for your next-generation networks in areas of low subscriber density – rural areas, for example – where there’s less revenue per square mile?

As with any network roll out, you need to keep your capital infrastructure costs down by maximising the capacity of your existing facilities and also choosing hardware that will last. At the same time, you need to minimise your operating costs by architecting your network both for service reliability, and so that it’s quick and easy for you to add new subscribers and deliver new features.

In areas of low subscriber density, these costs will be under scrutiny like never before. Yes, there is new public funding to build next-gen passive optical networks (PONs) in remote areas. But it comes with strings attached. You’ll need to demonstrate the financial viability of your plans and prove that you can deploy them quickly enough. So, there’s more to think about.

Make major savings on your infrastructure and deploy much faster

Of course, the main challenge with serving areas of low subscriber density is the often-prohibitive costs of building or leasing physical facilities to house equipment to serve user locations nearby, due to range limitations with PON system. You can, however, now reduce your overall costs by deploying remote optical line terminals (OLT) that can be placed closer to end-user locations.

By deploying environmentally hardened remote optical line terminals (R-OLTs) suited to be deployed in outdoor cabinets, operators can avoid the need to build or lease active cooled and expensive Central Office space. The R-OLTs accept long-range optic links as network side interfaces to fewer centralized facilities from where the network can be managed. R-OLTs are more physically robust than traditional OLTs, making them also fit for transport when pre-installed in street cabinets. At the same time, this approach makes sure that operators do not deploy more OLT ports than are strictly required for the target service area.

Right-size your hardware deployment to optimise CapEx

Indeed, these cabinet-based R-OLTs also enable the most cost-effective deployment of infrastructure for very small geographic areas, while providing capacity for future growth. You can deploy them initially with low port counts and high split ratios (1:128), and then scale them by adding ports and moving to a lower split ratio (1:64) as necessary.

Slash your operating costs through easier management and fewer visits to site

Deploying R-OLT and shelf OLT devices that run modern software means that they can be managed remotely more easily. That enables them to be configured more flexibly as their roles evolve, and it also means major savings in time and travel to their locations. Advanced software capabilities enable modern R-OLTs to be provisioned with zero touch and managed automatically.

Choose the right fibre technologies and topologies for your specific project

You can also reduce the costs of fibre deployment through your choice of technology and topology. Placing R-OLTs deep in your network means the last active device is positioned much closer to subscribers than is possible with centralised facilities. That improves performance to users’ homes, gives you more choice in split ratios, helps you extend service over longer distances, and also enables you to connect new subscribers more quickly.

Meanwhile, cascaded, tap and indexing network topologies offer savings over traditional centralised topologies. Using plug-and-play connectors, and being able to speed up a number of tasks, means significantly reduced labour requirements and deployment time.

Optimize your network now for years of service

If you’re currently implementing XGS PON, then now is your chance to architect your networks for the best possible performance and subscriber growth. Effective planning can ensure your network is future-ready, reduce costs, and enable you to launch new features faster. For instance, a software-defined network (SDN) architecture built on modern microservices will run faster and make it easier for you to onboard PON systems.

For more information on all the options available, please read our eBook, ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Next Gen PON Decisions’.

 

Want to learn more from CommScope? Join them in discussion at Connected Britain 2022, taking place tomorrow live in London

Also in the news:
UK telcos to face stricter cybersecurity obligations under new govt rules
Jio prepares to plough $25bn into 5G
VMO2 activates first open RAN sites in live network

The post How XGS PON can enable broadband for everyone first appeared on Total Telecom.