Contributed Article

By NetPMD

Network design projects can be complex and time-consuming, making it difficult for in-house teams to complete them in a timely manner. Outsourcing can help to improve time to value by allowing companies to access the resources and expertise of experienced network designers. However, within what is still a burgeoning industry it can be difficult to find design teams with extensive experience in designing, planning and rolling out fibre networks.  

In recent years NetPMD has worked on several high-profile fibre network design projects in the United States. The learnings from these extensive projects have been invaluable and they are now helping companies in the EMEA to benefit from their experience. 

NetPMD’s projects within the United States have been across entire cities and regions. Patrik Lowenborg, VP of Network Design said, “Each project has taught us something new about the process of designing fibre optic networks. We’ve also had the chance to work with a variety of third-party suppliers, construction companies and ISPs, which has given us a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different software solutions.” 

He continues “We have used a variety of different software tool out there in the market in order to solve different design opportunities. Fully automated Software isn’t the final answer, as problems exist across the industry as a whole with data quality and accuracy. Therefore the need for human interaction and design experience to interpret how best to use these tools, is key. We’ve also found that the planning stage is probably the most underrated activity in the project lifecycle. Following many successful projects, this experience and learning has enabled us to apply how to best use these tools to deliver the outcomes we need for quality work, thus saving time, increasing output and adding more value to our clients”.  

For example, when working on the City of Pittsburg fibre network design, the challenging geography threw up several challenges to the project. These included multiple risks from natural hazards including earthquakes, landslides, wildfires and floods.  

Similarly, when working on Simi Valley in California, the team needed to consider that the network would be rolled out within a valley between two hilly and mountainous areas of brush covered wildlands with similar natural hazards including wildfires, earthquakes, and floods.  

NetPMD have created a culture where staff are empowered to be curious and bring new ideas to the design table. Through testing various ways of working and “breaking” a few eggs over the years on their US based projects they have  honed their fibre design and implementation service into a a tried  and tested modular approach. 

Undertaking more and more projects in the UK, the NetPMD team, after experimenting with all the technology across the industry, they are now making their partnerships with software programs such as Comsof, IQGeo and Digpro to be more inclusive as part of a lifecycle of services.  

Patrik continues, “Our US experiences have taught us a lot about the fibre optic design process. We know what to look for and what to avoid, and we can offer our clients a much higher level of service as a result. Most of these problems and indeed solutions are a global and so learnings can be applied to any given market across the world”.  

By outsourcing some or all of their network design projects and activities, companies can benefit from the experience and knowledge of external providers whilst also freeing up internal resources. But the key is engaging with those who have extensive case studies to back up their claims. 

Want to learn more? NetPMD will be exhibiting at Connected Britain 2022. Join them and over 3,000 telecoms attendees next week 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 experience helps in reducing time to value in Fibre Network projects  first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

The consortium, led by SK Telecom (SKT), has partnered with the local government of Jeju, aiming to begin commercial pilot flights in 2025

Today, a South Korean consortium headed by mobile operator SKT has announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Jeju Special Self-Governing Province as it builds towards the launching the country’s first urban air mobility (UAM) services.

The resort island of Jeju is one of South Korea’s leading domestic tourist attractions, reportedly attracting a record 6.8 million tourists during the first half of 2022. As such, SKT and its partners believe the island is the perfect location to begin testing its UAM capabilities, envisaging a future where airborne taxis ferry visitors across the Island.

“We will turn Jeju Island, an eco-friendly tourist attraction, into the main game changer for the future mobility service by growing the region into an innovative base for UAMs,” said SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang.

The consortium itself, known as the K-UAM Dream Team Consortium, was formed earlier this year and includes defence and IT specialist Hanwha Systems, the Korea Meteorological Institute, and Korea Airports Corporation (KAC), the national airport authority, alongside SKT.

The partners intend to launch a commercial pilot project in 2025, with Jeju’s local government agreeing to oversee and support the project.

SKT will provide the UAM connectivity platform for the pilot project, which it has been co-developing with US firm Joby Aviation since February this year.

Joby is currently developing its own electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) service that it hopes to launch in the US in 2024. The company’s eVTOL vehicle will reportedly have a range of 241km and will be able to reach speeds of up 322km/h.

KAC, meanwhile, will establish take-off ports for the air taxis and monitor them in the air using existing flight safety infrastructure. The exact location for the take-off and landing area (known as a ‘vertiport’) has yet to be identified.

Finally, Hanwha Systems will help develop, operate, and manage the air taxi itself, including helping the consortium to develop navigation and control solutions.

“The K-UAM Dream Team Consortium will do its best to lower the psychological hurdles for new transportation methods in Jeju, where tourism and cultural resources are concentrated, and to lead the future mobility paradigm,” added Hanwha Systems chief executive Seong-cheol Eo.

The K-UAM Dream Team Consortium is currently preparing to compete in the K-UAM Grand Challenge, a competition set up by the South Korean government to demonstrate the safety of UAM flight and find the country’s first official UAM operator.

Multiple rival consortiums have been formed to take part in the Challenge, with many of South Korea’s largest companies, such as car-maker Hyundai, Korean IT firm Kakao Group, and conglomerate Lotte Group, taking leading roles.

Indeed, two of these consortium’s also feature SKT’s direct competitors, KT and LG Uplus. KT announced in November last year that they had formed a partnership with Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, Incheon International Airport Corporation, and Korean Air to develop their own UAM capabilities. Likewise, LG Uplus announced earlier this year that it was teaming up with Kakao Mobility and GS Caltex for a similar UAM pilot in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city.

Much like drones, flying vehicles will need ubiquitous, low latency connectivity to function effectively and safely, hence it is hardly surprising that the nation’s largest mobile operators are set to play a central role in the development of commercial UAM services.

The South Korean government is set to announce the consortiums chosen to participate in the Challenge in November, with demonstrations by the entrants planned to take place in Seoul and Jeollanam-do province in 2023 and 2024.

 

What role to mobile players have to play in emerging markets like drone flight and UAM? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

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 SK Telecom consortium prepares air taxi pilot programme first appeared on Total Telecom.

Earlier this year giffgaff announced that, in order to help ease the burden of rising costs, they would freeze the prices on all of their UK tariffs for the rest of 2022. The good news is that they’ve now made the decision to extend this by freezing their UK prices until the end of 2023. […]

The ITS Technology Group (its.), which currently manages 36 wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks across urban parts of the United Kingdom for businesses and ISPs – under the “Faster Britain” branding, has adopted ADTRAN’s open and disaggregated 10Gbps fibre access platform to power its network. The operator, which is being supported by an […]

News

The platform will target large enterprises across the country, with a specific focus on manufacturing and the automotive industry

Today, Indian operator giant Bharti Airtel has announced that it is working alongside US cloud specialist IBM to deploy an Indian edge computing platform targeting enterprises across the country.

The platform will reportedly Airtel’s 120 data centres across 20 cities in India, aiming to help local businesses maximise the value of Airtel’s upcoming 5G network and edge computing.

“As India gears up to experience 5G, we see a massive opportunity to help businesses across industries transform how they deliver goods and services,” said Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO-Enterprise, Airtel Business. “We have the largest network of edge data centers available in India under the Nxtra brand and we will leverage our work with IBM to help Indian businesses address their critical business needs with greater efficiency.”

The platform is deployed as a hybrid environment based on IBM Cloud Satellite and Red Hat OpenShift®, which will combine to improve business performance and customer experience by reducing latency without compromising data security.

Airtel’s initial targets for this platform are India’s largest enterprises, particularly in the manufacturing and automobile sectors, both of which stand to gain major efficiency benefits from shifting applications to the edge.

One of the company’s initial customers will be Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest domestic car manufacturer, who says it will use the platform to improve quality control and production efficiency.

“At Maruti Suzuki, we continuously strive to meet the highest quality standards by ensuring our processes and quality control are well above industry standards. Technology is a key enabler in this journey, helping boost quality, efficiency and deliver the next-gen user experience. We are excited to work with Airtel Business and IBM to set an even higher benchmark and explore the vast possibilities of deploying AI and analytics at the edge to augment the expertise of our workforce,” said Rajesh Uppal, Senior Executive Director, HR and IT, Maruti Suzuki.

The news comes shortly after the conclusion of India’s long-awaited 5G spectrum auction, with Airtel saying that they will launch 5G services commercially later this month. By December, the company aims to have coverage in key metropolitan areas, extending this coverage to all of ‘urban India’ by the end of 2023, according to CEO, Gopal Vittal.

“After that, we will expand rapidly to cover the entire country. We expect to cover urban India by the end of 2023,” said Vittal last week.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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 Airtel and IBM partner for Indian edge computing platform first appeared on Total Telecom.

Contributed Article

High quality, robust products are the key to a sustainable fibre optic network. They will minimise the cost of installation and, with time, significantly reduce the operational expenditure as well as the carbon emissions of the network operator argues Philippe Vanhille, Executive Vice President Telecom Division at Prysmian Group

Quality is key when it comes to fibre optics and fibre optic networks. We should know: Prysmian is Europe’s leading fibre and optic cable manufacturer and the only major optical cable maker in the UK. We have manufactured many of the cables that are integral to the physical, high speed communication network that now connects the globe.

Fibre optic cables use strands of glass to propagate light signals between devices. At the centre of the fibre optic strand is a small inner core that carries the propagated light. To protect the fragile core, it must be surrounded by robust, high performing outer sheath. The quality and compatibility of both elements are fundamental to the performance and longevity of the fibre optic cable. A good quality fibre optic cable, such as those manufactured by Prysmian would be expected to last for 20 to 30 years or even longer.

Fibre optic cables are the passive element in telecoms infrastructure. Given the criticality of the cable to the performance of a telecoms network, it might surprise some investors to know that the cable’s capital cost and that of the connectivity hardware is generally only a fraction of the total cost of the infrastructure investment, often between 10% to 12% of the total. By comparison the cost of installation for the cable could represent as much as 50% or even 60% of the total investment, particularly where the cable is in a congested urban environment. What this means is the longer a cable can remain in place, without the need for replacement, the better value it will provide to investors.

From experience Prysmian know that over its lifetime a cable is likely to be mistreated, often not intentionally but simply because it is often buried in the ground, regularly in the public domain. Underground cables in particular can be mishandled by those working on adjacent utilities. In addition, they need to be able to withstand natural events such as flooding and the stresses of diurnal and seasonal temperature cycling. And, if a cable is connected to an aerial or mast, it may also have to cope with wind forces and snow loading. In the field it is the quality of the cable that what will ensure that it will continue to perform for 20 years or more.

Of course, there are plenty of standard fibre optic cables that have been built in line with a customer’s specification. While the performance of these cables can be demonstrated in a laboratory, customers will have to hope that the quality of these cables will ensure they continue to perform over their expected lifetime, often in far from ideal conditions.

What is the consequence should a cable fail? For the customer it is a disrupted connection and no service. For the company managing the network whose reputation is at stake, the task is first to identify where the problem has occurred, which can be difficult in a big, congested city; then they have to organise for the cable to be repaired or even replaced, which can be even more of a challenge.

Quality is key to longevity. It makes financial sense to choose quality, it makes sense from a reputational perspective, and from a sustainability point of view. Yes, Prysmian can make cables using recycled materials. Yes, Prysmian can make cables smaller, so they use less materials and require less space for installation so buildings can have a smaller footprint. But, if a network operator really wants to be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable, then the most effective thing they can do is to avoid having to replace its fibre optic cable network too soon.

Not only does cable replacement mean additional cost and emissions from manufacture of the replacement, but it also includes emissions from the physical process of digging a new cable trench, along with the impact on nearby businesses and homes.

I admit that this might sound contradictory to Prysmian’s interests as a cable maker. It is not. We need our customers to be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable, so we want them to understand that not all cables are the same when it comes to quality.

A homogenous, robust, reliable network made of quality components and good quality cables can be expected to last for 25 years plus. Whereas a poor-quality network could result in a company having to reinvest more than is necessary in their networks. In the lab and in the field, quality will win out every time. As an experienced cable and fibre optic manufacturer, we have the experience that our products really do last the test of time.

Want to learn more? Philippe Vanhille, Executive Vice President Telecom Division at Prysmian Group, will be talking about the benefits of quality, innovation and miniaturisation in the production of fibre optic cables at Connected Britain 2022  

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 Quality Above All Else first appeared on Total Telecom.

NEWS

The Qatari telecoms company follows in the footsteps of rival Telenor, which left Myanmar earlier this year after the military coup made continued existence untenable

Ever since a military junta overthrew the civilian government in Myanmar back in February 2021, the country’s telecoms industry has been in turmoil.

With civil unrest rife throughout the nation, the military quickly turned to the nation’s operators to help suppress dissent, pressuring them to impose various curfews and service blackouts, including for the entire month of April. They also asked that the operators install spyware in their networks, allowing the army to access private communication data to quell unrest.

The situation quickly became untenable for Telenor’s Burmese unit, which the Swedish company wrote down in May 2021. The sale of the unit was quickly arranged to Lebanese operator group M1, but the junta intervened, arguing that they did not want to pass critical national infrastructure to another form company.

The sale was ultimately approved in March 2022 after M1 partnered with the Burmese conglomerate Shwe Byain Phyu.

Ooredoo Myanmar, by contrast, had initially sought to continue its operations in the country, but this effort was short-lived, with the company quickly haemorrhaging millions of subscribers.

Rumours that Ooredoo would look to sell the unit began circulating back in July, with anonymous sources saying that the company had received interest from three companies: Burmese conglomerate Young Investment Group, Singapore’s Campana Group, and local pay-TV operator SkyNet.

Now, the divestment is finally set to take place, with Ooredoo announcing that it has reached an agreement with Singapore’s Nine Communications to sell the unit for $576 million.

“The difficult decision to divest from our Myanmar business is a direct result of this review to reshape our portfolio as a leading telecommunications company,” said Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, chief executive of Ooredoo Group, in a news release. “We will ensure a smooth transition with the least possible disruption adhering to all local requirements.”

The sale will need approval from the military government and it remains to be seen whether Ooredoo will also be forced to onboard a Burmese partner for the takeover to get the green light.

 

Want to keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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 Ooredoo bails out of Myanmar in $576m unit sale first appeared on Total Telecom.

Press Release

Lumen Technologies has today announced Kate Johnson’s appointment as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors, with the transition date expected to be November 7, 2022

Johnson succeeds Jeff Storey, who has announced his retirement after a distinguished 40-year career within the telecommunication and technology industries, including Lumen and its predecessors. Storey will remain with the company through December 31, 2022, to ensure a smooth transition.

Johnson is a technology executive with an extraordinary track record of success. She specializes in leading digital and business transformations to drive growth, having held key leadership roles across a variety of Fortune 100 companies including Oracle, General Electric and Microsoft. Most recently, Johnson led Microsoft U.S., the company’s largest business with a remit for all of the company’s sales, services, marketing and operations. During her four-year tenure in this role, she led the division through a substantive cultural transformation while nearly doubling enterprise revenues.

“Kate’s appointment and the strategic transition announced today are the culmination of a succession plan that Jeff and the board have been engaged in for the past several years,” said T. Michael Glenn, Chairman of Lumen’s Board of Directors. “We are confident she is the right leader to take the reins at this important moment in Lumen’s history. Kate is an inspiring and motivational leader who is known for identifying and creating growth. She is the ideal CEO for Lumen.”

Johnson stated, “I am proud to take on the CEO role and eager to advance the strategy Jeff and the team have created. Lumen has made significant progress strengthening its balance sheet, expanding its fiber footprint and enhancing its portfolio of digital capabilities. I’m looking forward to leading this great company through its next chapter and helping customers leverage the Lumen platform to power amazing digital world experiences.”

Glenn continued, “On behalf of the board, I thank Jeff for his leadership and commitment to Lumen during his time with the company. Thanks to his contributions, Lumen is leveraging the areas of our business that we believe are best poised for growth. The imprint Jeff leaves on Lumen is noteworthy – giving our customers better, faster and more secure connectivity. He led with care and empathy during challenging times including the pandemic, ensuring employees stayed safe and customers connected. He leaves Lumen with a strong foundation in place.”

“It has been a privilege to serve as Lumen’s CEO,” said Storey. “Throughout my time with the company, I have been incredibly impressed by our team’s commitment to Lumen and to our core purpose of furthering human progress through technology. I am proud of all that we have achieved together as we have driven forward on Lumen’s transformation journey. However, when I took this amazing job, I always spoke openly with the board about my future timeline for retirement. I am confident that the organization has the strategy in place to deliver on its priority of achieving profitable revenue growth. I am very excited to welcome Kate to Lumen. I believe her experience, leadership and enthusiasm are exactly what we need as we drive the company forward.”

 

How is the US telecoms industry evolving to meet the ever-growing needs of their customers? Find out from the experts at the upcoming Connected America conference 

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 Lumen CEO retires, replaced by Microsoft veteran Kate Johnson first appeared on Total Telecom.

The Hampshire County Council in England has notified suppliers that their Top-Up funding for the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) has run out. The vouchers help hard-to-reach rural homes and businesses get a gigabit-capable internet connection installed. The GBVS scheme – as managed by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) programme – normally offers […]

Press Release

Deutsche Telekom and Mavenir have announced the successful delivery and deployment of cloud-native 5G Core to Deutsche Telekom in Germany

Deutsche Telekom selected Mavenir as the supplier for software applications to run on its defined hardware and the existing Kubernetes-based platform of its German business, ensuring an open architecture approach. As part of the deployment process, the Converged Packet Core was integrated with Telekom’s existing multi-vendor access network and other system components.

The new Converged Packet Core supports data, voice, and messaging services and network slicing. The initial network slicing use case is focused on live video broadcasting. The deployment has been successfully certified against devices from the major terminal vendors.

The Mavenir solution is based on automated software delivery and network upgrades. This will allow new Converged Packet Core services with all the required network functions to be deployed in minutes by using the automation framework of Deutsche Telekom. It is largely self-updating for the entire lifecycle of each application. The platform can automatically synchronize production environment resources and configuration with changes expressed in code. It is therefore less prone to the human errors that come with manual testing and deployment.

Dr. Abdurazak Mudesir, Group CTO Deutsche Telekom, said: “The deployment of a cloud-native Standalone (SA) core marks a key milestone in the evolution of our 5G architecture. This sets us on a path towards a fully automated network with the reliability, massive scale and flexibility required to deliver innovative 5G SA services to our consumer and enterprise customers.”

Pardeep Kohli, Mavenir’s President and CEO, said, “The Mavenir solution deployed with Deutsche Telekom in Germany, creates the foundation for the future introduction of 5G standalone enabling new applications and services to take advantage of 5G features such as low latency and network slicing.”

Key attributes of Mavenir’s solution include:

Open Architecture: uses Telekom-defined hardware, a Kubernetes-based platform, and the automation framework of Deutsche Telekom.
Network slicing support: with dedicated control and user plane network functions for meeting strict service level agreements.
Cloud-native design: a fully containerized solution based on stateless microservice architecture that allows better resiliency and faster recovery in the event of network failures. It also enables the easy onboarding of users on Telekom’s Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) that can be run on any public, private or hybrid cloud environment.
Third-party vendor network function (NF) integration: integrated with multiple third-party vendors, including 4G and 5G access network and subscriber management functions.
Converged architecture: Supports 4G, 5G non-standalone (NSA), and 5G standalone (SA) modes and enables all access technologies to run on a common cloud-native platform by Deutsche Telekom.

Mavenir’s Converged Packet Core solution is part of its cloud-native MAVcore portfolio built on an open architecture which offers easy scaling of applications and services, hardware decoupling, agility, portability and resilience.

 

Want to learn more about the development of 5G in Germany? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Germany conference 

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 Deutsche Telekom and Mavenir deploy new cloud-native 5G core first appeared on Total Telecom.