CityFibre has today announced that they’ll invest £14m to extend their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the large market and commuter town of Wellingborough in North Northamptonshire (England), which is set to begin in October 2022. The new “town-wide” network deployment, which will aim to reach “almost every home and business” in Wellingborough […]

The Royal Caribbean Group, which operates luxury cruises from various ports around the world (e.g. Southampton in England), has announced that it is to become the first fleet in the cruise industry to adopt Starlink’s (SpaceX) new network of low-latency ultrafast broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Starlink’s mega constellation currently has around 2,941 […]

New data from mobile benchmarking firm Opensignal has looked at the mobile broadband network experience in rural and urban areas of the United Kingdom on 4G and 5G based networks, which naturally finds that rural areas suffer slower speeds. But the performance gap on 5G isn’t as big as we expected. The new report is […]

The state-aid backed Superfast North Yorkshire (SFNY) project has announced that Openreach (BT) have officially completed their fibre-based (FTTC and FTTP) deployment contract under the scheme, which has so far enabled more than 190,000 extra premises to access faster broadband speeds since 2021 (take-up is at 80%). The SFNY project is managed by NYnet (i.e. […]

NEWS

The operator says that initial 5G services will be launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai in October

Today, disruptive Indian telco giant Reliance Jio has announced that it will invest $25 billion to rollout a nationwide standalone 5G network by the end of 2023.

Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said that the company would seek to capitalise on the $11 billion-worth of 5G spectrum it acquired at last week’s auction by rolling out the technology as quickly as possible across the country.

The company’s 5G network will initially be rolled out in the major metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai by October this year, with nationwide coverage to follow.

“Subsequently, we plan to increase the Jio 5G footprint month after month. By December 2023, which is less than 18 months from today, we will deliver Jio 5G to every town, every taluka, and every tehsil [administrative districts] of our country,” said Ambani. “We will use our combined wireless and wireline assets to cover 3.3 million square kilometres, India’s total land mass, with fibre-quality broadband, connecting even those parts of the country where satellite technology was the only option.”

“Jio 5G services will connect everyone, every place and everything with the highest quality and affordability. We are committed to making India a data powered economy even ahead of China and US,” he added.

In his speech, Ambani also announced the launch of Jio’s AirFiber, a fixed wireless access solution that Jio suggests could be the answer to India’s woefully low fixed broadband penetration rates.

“With single device JioAirFiber, it will be real easy to quickly connect any home or office to Gigabit-speed internet. With the simplicity of JioAirFiber, hundreds of millions of homes and offices can be connected to ultra-high-speed broadband in a very short period. With it, India can rank among the top ten nations, even for fixed broadband,” he explained.

India recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of its independence from British rule on the 15th of October, with many onlookers speculating that Jio – and perhaps rival Bharti Airtel – would be seeking to launch commercial 5G services concurrently. However, both Jio and Airtel missed this date, hence Jio now aligning its launch date with Diwali on October 24th.

Earlier this week, Airtel’s chairman Sunil Mittal also announced that Airtel would seek to launch 5G services in the month of October.

Airtel is expected to launch 5G in 13 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune – during the first phase of its rollout.

How will the launch of 5G reshape the Indian telecoms industry? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

Also in the news:
UK drone ‘superhighway’ cleared for take-off
FCC wants additional $3bn to ‘rip and replace’ Chinese network kit
Telefonica and Ericsson demo 5G network slicing for diverse use case

The post Jio prepares to plough $25bn into 5G first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

Working alongside NEC and Rakuten Symphony, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has deployed Open RAN technology in their live commercial network for the first time

This week, VMO2 has announced that they have activated an unspecified number of Open RAN macro-sites in Northamptonshire, handling commercial data traffic for customers.

The deployments are reportedly centred around NEC’s fully open end-to-end solution, paired with Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN software, edge cloud, and radio management and operations system.

The news follows a successful trial that took place last year involving the three partners.

“The successful activation of Virgin Media O2’s first UK macro-sites demonstrates the potential of the multi-vendor Open RAN model,” said Jeanie York, chief technology officer at VMO2. “We are strong believers in the power of diverse Open RAN ecosystems and in NEC, we have a partner that really shares our view. Its industry-leading system integration capabilities are integral in helping us deliver the mobile networks of the future, today.”

The move makes VMO2 the UK’s second mobile operator to have activated Open RAN equipment in a live network, following Vodafone, who switched on their first 4G Open RAN site back in August 2020.

Since then, Vodafone has further deployed Open RAN technology to seven rural locations, aiming to improve 4G coverage for underserved locations.

Vodafone has previously announced that it was working with a variety of Open RAN vendor partners for its deployments, including Dell Technologies, NEC, Samsung, Wind River, Capgemini Engineering, and Keysight Technologies.

Ultimately, Vodafone aims to have 2,500 4G and 5G Open RAN sites live by 2027.

In contrast to Vodafone and now VMO2’s apparent optimism about Open RAN deployment, the UK’s other mobile operators, BT and Three, have been much more reserved with their Open RAN ambitions.

At the start of this year, BT announced that it was trialling Open RAN tech in Hull, installing and testing Nokia’s RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) technology across a number of sites across the city.

Partnering with one of the largest traditional RAN vendors for their Open RAN trial may seem somewhat counterintuitive, but it is in keeping with BT’s somewhat sceptical approach to the new technology, particularly around the added complexity that working with numerous vendors could entail.

Last year, BT’s Chief Architect Neil McRae said that the idea that Open RAN would save operators money was one of the “big myths” being perpetuated by the telecoms industry, though he stressed that Open RAN technology was still in its infancy and would “absolutely play a significant role in our network” in future.

“Open RAN is in its early stages… and having seen the pace it has moved during the past two years, it’s insane how quickly things are developing. But it’s still got some big hurdles to overcome,” explained McRae. “Could we build the network we have today in the UK, not just our network but other networks, purely with Open RAN. Right now, the answer to that is that we absolutely couldn’t. Could that be the future? Absolutely it could, and that’s where we’re engaged…”

Three is even less openly engaged in Open RAN development, having yet to announce a single trial with the developing technology.

Back in December 2020, Three CEO Robert Finnegan said that Open RAN was unlikely to play a major role in the company’s 5G rollout, given that they had already partnered with Ericsson for their RAN needs.

“I wouldn’t say the ship has sailed, but it is close to sailing because everyone is close to rolling out and you’re not going to change midstream,” Finnegan told reporters at the time.

All of these varied approaches to Open RAN are taking place alongside a national government that is a staunch advocate of the new technology, one that is increasingly incentivising the operators to .

In a joint statement with the UK’s mobile operators at the end of 2021, the government said it was now targeting 35% of the nation’s mobile traffic to be carried by Open RAN architecture by 2030. Since then, it has launched numerous initiatives to boost Open RAN R&D focussed around the £250 million Open Networks Research and Development Fund announced this summer.

The government is hopeful that Open RAN will be able to provide UK operators with a broader vendor ecosystem, providing additional security, resilience, and competition for telecoms technology providers.

What impact will Open RAN have on the dynamics of the UK’s mobile industry? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

The post VMO2 activates first Open RAN sites in live network first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband ISP WightFibre, which operates a network across the Isle of Wight – just off the South Coast of Hampshire in England, today claims to have become the first telecommunications operator in the UK to switch off their old copper network – beating KCOM, Virgin Media and Openreach (BT) to the punch. The operator is […]

The UK Government has announced that network providers (e.g. broadband ISPs and mobile operators) will become subject to new regulations – under the Telecommunications (Security) Act – from 1st Oct 2022, which aside from restricting the use of Huawei, will also impose changes to make networks safer from cyberattack. Just to recap. The TSA became […]

Ambitious superfast broadband provider, Upp, has appointed a new Director of Information and Cyber Security as part of the rollout of services across the East of England.

Upp which was founded as FibreMe in 2020 connected their first customer under the new brand of Upp in September 2021. Since then they have started connecting customers in the East of England, and plan to expand further across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk.

The latest appointment is Ian Hill who joins as Director of Information and Cyber Security and has a background that includes KCom and Drakken Internet which he founded in 1996. Ian said of his new role, “I’m really excited to be joining the great team at Upp, and it’s fantastic to be a part of the provider’s journey in the early stages, and help to really make a difference as we continue on what is a hugely exciting journey.”

Last year Upp committed to investing £1bn to deploy a full fibre network to 1 million premises in eastern England by 2025 and along the way hopes to create 600 new jobs. Upp’s investment plans are funded by international investment business LetterOne who said that they hoped their “substantial investment in connectivity will set Eastern England up to build back better for generations to come.”

Commenting on the appointment of Ian Hill, Alex Marshall, the Chief Innovation Officer at Upp, said “We are delighted to welcome Ian to the team. With over 35 years of IT experience, his knowledge and expertise will help make Upp one of the country’s most secure and trusted fibre broadband providers, by not only our customers but also our partners and regulators.”

To find out more about the latest rollout plans in the UK, make sure you attend Connected Britain in London on 20-21 September 2022 – Find out more

The post Upp to the job first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband and mobile giant O2 (VMO2) has today announced that their early tests of Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN or O-RAN) technology – supported by NEC and Rakuten Symphony – are now being extended to the field phase, which will see the activation of the first live sites in VMO2’s commercial mobile network. The O-RAN […]