Session from Telecoms Europe: Telco to Techco 2023 virtual event
By Mojdeh Amani, Head of Quality of Experience, Wireless Research, BT
For details on future events, visit www.telecomseuropeevents.com
Absolutely fabless – Forefront chipset that makes IoT plantations viable
Invest in Adaptive Passive Cancelation
Growth capital investors BGF has put £3.75 million more into Forefront RF’s ‘disruption’ of the global radio frequency market for mobile technologies. It is disruptive the vendors say, because it’s ‘agnostic’ towards radio frequencies. However, it seems neither disruptive nor agnostic, as its saving graces is its low maintenance modus operandi. It economy with all the most resources needed by those operating in the supply chain. It saves time, money and materials because it has a broad church which can communication on any frequency, rather than questioning their existence. The chip set actually creates the foundations for a very amenable, low maintenance comms system which respects every way of communicating and manages to do so with quiet efficiency and economy of energy.
The investment is part of a £6.7 million round alongside existing investors Science Creates Ventures and Foresight Group.
Cambridge-based Forefront RF, led by founder Dr Leo Laughlin (see picture) CEO Ronald Wilting and co founder Julian Hildersley, makes fabless semiconductor that aim to make multi-band smartphones, wearables and IoT Devices simpler to design and more accessible. BGF first backed Forefront RF in 2021, helping expand its technical team and expedite development. Forefront RF’s chip lets devices connect an increasingly wide range of XGen (3G to 6G) mobile telephony frequency bands. The design obviates the need for a bank of switched crystal filters, be they surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW), which have a huge footprint.
Forefront RF invented Adaptive Passive Cancellation Technology by commercialising academic research from the University of Bristol. Adaptive passive technology can fit in with everything and work with all sorts – if it was a human working within a team, it would be called low maintenance or easy going. The technology was created by redesigning the radio frequency (RF) system in a wireless to that manufacturers can simplify the design and delivery of frequency compatible products. The fact that devices aren’t fussed about frequencies cuts costs and lowers wastage in the supply chain.
This latest funding round will help the company capitalise on strong industry trends and take advantage of global market dynamics to drive further growth. In addition to the investment, Forefront RF is launching a fully Tunable Duplexer using the company’s patented adaptive passive cancellation technology. The demonstrator, specifically designed for the 600-1000MHz bands, will show Forefront RF’s Tunable Duplexer technology suitable for the 4G and 5G standards.
The company is led by a highly talented and specialist team. Ronald Wilting was appointed CEO in 2022, bringing 25 years’ experience in radio frequency technology, having worked in engineering, marketing, sales and leadership roles for firms including Ericsson, Qualcomm, NXP and SemiBlocks. Ronald works closely with Forefront RF’s founders Dr Leo Laughlin and Julian Hildersley to deliver on the company’s ambitious growth strategy, supported by experienced Chair Phil O’Donovan, co-founder and MD of CSR plc (formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio) – a multinational fabless semiconductor company which delivered 4 billion chips and became the market leader in Bluetooth chip technology before being acquired by Qualcomm for $2.5 billion in 2015.
“We’re delighted to receive further investment as Forefront RF is well positioned to capitalise on strong global growth prospects, addressing an industry wide challenge with our cutting-edge technology,” said Ronald Wilting, CEO, Forefront RF. “Forefront RF’s technology has the potential to disrupt a significant market,” said Bill Yost, “it’s continuing [to make] commercial and technical progress.”
Infravia and Iliad-owned Play must deliver to Poland
Play à PON my network
iliad Group has announced it has completed the sale of a 50% stake in iliad’s Polish entity Polski Światłowód Otwarty (PSO) which owns the UPC network infrastructure in Poland to InfraVia. The joint venture announced in June last year, will be jointly controlled by InfraVia and iliad’s Polish mobile operator Play, reports Digital TV Europe. The existing infrastructure is an hybrid of co-axial copper cable and optical fire. This hybrid fibre coax (HFC) network moves data at up to 1 Gbps, but it will have to be upgraded massively to incorporate FTTH technology and to meet with PŚO’s investment programme plans to cover over 6 million households.
The fibre network and infrastructure will be upgraded to the XGS-PON standard of passive optical networking, as made by Nokia, enabling operators to use the PŚO network to provide FTTH Internet connections at content throughputs of up to 5 Gbps. The existing PŚO network covers households in 14 provinces and almost 200 municipalities in Poland. The first operators to work with PŚO will be Play and its subsidiary UPC Polska, which service over 1.4 million subscribers on the PŚO network. PŚO will make its network available to all operators based on an open access model.
This transaction marks a turning point in the growth of the iliad Group’s business in Poland, according to iliad’s CEO Thomas Reynaud. “The partnership with InfraVia will provide a boost for the fixed Internet services market in Poland through an open access model, offering all operators equal access to the country’s largest fibre network, which will eventually cover half of all Polish households. The planned investment program will significantly contribute to the development of Polish regions, cities and industry.”
Iliad Telecom boss Xavier Niel recently claimed his telco is effectively being punished for making a bigger commitment to upgrading network technology than any other competitor. Niel told a French senate committee hearing this week that Iliad has re-invested a significantly higher proportion of its revenue into laying new fibre, among other things.
In return the telco has been threatened with punishment at times. In France, for example, it could be hit by demands from Orange France for an increase in unbundling fees for its copper network, as Orange called for the closure of the legacy network to be expedited.
There will be two effects according to Niel. Risk averse telcos would be dissuaded from committing to more investment and the take-up of fibre in countries such as France would be slowed. Niel said that increasing the cost of accessing copper effectively maintains the monopoly of the national operator in regions without real competition.
Safaricom Kenyan gives users wi-fi finish to great 4G approach work
Wi-fi is finishing touch
Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom has moved to boost home internet security across Kenya, after getting a bargain on its supply of Wi-Fi routers and cutting the price of an upgrade. Huawei’s fourth-generation (4G) Wi-Fi router will now retail for up to 40% less. Huawei routers will now retail for 6,999 Kenyan shillings (48.50) down from Sh10,999 (€76.32) while Adrian routers will go for Sh9,999 (€69) instead of the previous Sh15,999 (€111).
This, reports Kevin Rotich in All Africa is a policy aimed at quickening home internet connectivity in the country. “This end month, jibambe na 4G Wi-Fi! Enjoy a 40% price drop on Safaricom 4G Wi-Fi routers and indulge in the online experiences you love,” Safaricom said on its Facebook page.
It says the routers can be purchased directly from the MySafaricom app, Safaricom shops, or dealers, as well as through a USSD code. The routers come with 30 GB of free data for a period of 30 days. Only last year, under network director James Matei, pictured, the telco rolled out 5G networks in five counties, enabling customers to access faster internet speeds in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisii, Kakamega and Kisumu. Faster than a 4G network, clients will be able to download, stream and play video at ‘neck-breaking speeds’, wrote Rotich.
Safaricom currently has 35 active 5G sites spread across Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, Kakamega, and Mombasa. It also has plans underway to provide 5G data packages for mobile internet customers and leverage the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo device-financing solution to avail more affordable 5G smartphones.
Last year Safaricom began to upgrade its existing 4G for homes and businesses fixed wireless access that could feasibly run at 100Mbps. The so-called 5G Wi-Fi to 35 active 5G sites in Nairobi and a handful of other locations so far. By March 2023 however, it plans to reach 200 sites across the country.
Nokia had previously created network slices on hybrid 4G-5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, in trials with African mobile operator Safaricom. The trials were piloted on its live commercial network and this was the first time that 4G/5G network slicing had been successfully achieved in Africa. The trial used a multi-vendor network environment and included a radio access network (RAN), transport and core. The trial also tested the effects of software upgrades to a range of Nokia’s products and services and the system passed.
The successful trial allowed Safaricom to support new types of enterprise network services, including fast lane internet access and application slicing. The telco can also create secure slices of FWA connections to enterprise locations, as well as to private or public application clouds.
EC’s mobile tech plan is patent madness
Not everyone’s cup of IP
The European Commission has weighed up the issue of intellectual property rights in the mobile tech industry with one finger tilting the scale as its seeks a new process to set technology patent-licensing fee rates. This puts power of setting ‘fair’ licensing rates to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in the hands of those will little experience in patents, reports TelecomTV which says the plan’s peer reviews, from industry experts, range from contentious to madness.
The EC wants to update the mobile intellectual property rights (IPR) sector by putting the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in charge. The setting and managing fair technology patent prices that this entails is currently managed between patent holders and their licensees or ruled upon in courts of law. The new regulation is set to be presented in draft form on 26 April (World Intellectual Property Day) by EC vice president Margrethe Vestager (pictured).
The patent-licensing sector is one of the axes on which the industry revolves around. It is worth billions and has very complex influence on the rest of industry. The fear is that if the EC regulation is passed, influential players could skew the market in a way that is not possible via the legal process and the value assigned to standard essential patents (SEPs) will be set at inappropriate rates.
A relatively small subset of the millions of tech patents granted are afforded standard essential patent (SEP) status. These catalyst are often of immeasurably far reaching consequence. Industry standards, like 5G or Wi-Fi, are covered by hundreds or even thousands of SEPs. Companies that hold SEPs charge a licensing fee that is often agreed by the patent holders and licensees based on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. Such FRAND fees are usually determined by the fees charged for similar SEPs and sometimes also (or alternatively) determined by how many patents a company has developed (the strength of its patent portfolio). When there is a dispute over the fee being requested by the patent holder, the parties involved turn to the courts of law to determine a fair outcome.
There are regular court battles, often involving large technology product manufacturers that believe they should be paying less to use patented technology developed, in the case of the cellular technology sector, by the likes of Qualcomm (the market leader in wireless IPR revenues), Ericsson and Nokia. Sometimes Apple and Nokia have agreed a settlement but when Apple sought to improve its position with chipmaker Qualcomm through the courts, and when video and cellular patent-holder InterDigital fought Lenovo’s T&Cs lengthy and complex legal battles resulted, to great expense
The EC, though, thinks the process can be improved by handing the EUIPO the power to set fair royalties on SEPs (in a process taking no more than nine months) and then rule on any resulting disputes, with independent evaluators deciding on which patents are SEPs. The EUIPO-managed “procedure should simplify and speed up negotiations concerning FRAND terms and reduce costs,” noted the EC in the draft regulation document seen by Reuters. The draft regulation requires the EUIPO to compile a register of SEPs and get companies to sign up to the register if they want to charge patent fees or take legal action. The EC also wants patent-holders to come up with an “aggregate royalty” that can be charged for SEPs related to a standard.
The plan has been widely derided by those who follow the tech patents sector. Industry analyst Keith Mallinson , founder of research and consulting firm WiseHarbor, told TelecomTV the move is “extremely contentious”, as there are major question marks over whether imposing an aggregate royalty is desirable and even bigger question marks over deciding which, if any, body should have the power to administer such decisions, especially a body like the EUIPO that has no experience of dealing with SEP or FRAND issues. Its current role is to manage the EU trade mark and the registered European community design. ETSI already compiles and manages a technology patents database, said Mallinson.
It’s madness according to Joff Wild, the former editor in chief of intellectual property (IP) publication IAM and an IP consultant. “Giving so much responsibility to the EUIPO, which has not got any patent experience of any kind, is one hell of a call,”” Wild said on LinkedIn. “This looks like legislation that has been drafted after listening to one set of interests without giving even the slightest consideration to those of people who actually understand SEP licensing. I sense years of paralysis ahead.”
The EC’s Unified Patent Court (UPC), which was set up to arbitrate on patent cases, create legal certainty and encourage innovation, is only just getting up and running. “For years, the commission has been saying that the UPC system will be a gamechanger for Europe. Now, it seems to have decided that it does not trust the court or its judges to make the right calls about FRAND,” said Wild.
Florian Mueller’s Foss Patents blog concluded that the EC is: “putting a thumb on the scales only to the detriment of SEP holders.”
Probe into market domination halted as Apple objects
CMA now powerless to investigate
Apple Inc claimed to have won its appeal against the decision by Britain’s antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, after the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled in its favour in an appeal on the last day of March. However, the killing of a potential investigation into Apple and Google’s joint monopoly of the mobile browser and cloud gaming markets was due to a legal process technicality, rather than a lack of evidence.
UK Regulator the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) had opened a full investigation in November into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google in mobile browsers, and the possibility of the iPhone maker restricting the cloud gaming market through its app store.
Apple argued that the CMA had “no power” to launch such a probe because it did so too late. Its lawyer Timothy Otty earlier this month said that the market investigation should have been opened last June at the same time the CMA published a report on mobile ecosystems, which found the two tech giants had an “effective duopoly.”
The CAT endorsed Apple’s argument, saying that in declining to take action at that time only in the expectation of receiving further powers it might well be said that the CMA “erred in law”.
The CMA said it was disappointed with the ruling.
“Today’s judgment has found there are material constraints on the CMA’s general ability to refer markets for in-depth investigations,” it said in a statement.
“This risks substantially undermining the CMA’s ability to efficiently and effectively investigate and intervene in markets where competition is not working well.
“Given the importance of today’s judgment,” it added, “we will be considering our options including seeking permission to appeal.”
Apple in a statement issued after the ruling said it believed in “vibrant and competitive markets where innovation can flourish.”
“We are pleased with the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision and will continue working to deliver support for developers and a safe and secure experience for users,” the company said.
European Data Act is finally in the starting blocks
Not everyone’s a fan
The European Union’s member states have agreed a “negotiating mandate” as the basis to for talks on the Data Act. The Data Act is a horizontal European regulation and the second main legislative initiative following the Data Governance Act, resulting from European Data Strategy. Its purpose is to define fair access, the uses of data, who can create value from it and in what circumstances. Published by the European Commission in February 2022 the Data Act was adopted by the European Parliament by April that year. The aim is to bring it into force from September 2023. The intention behind the Act is to remove obstacles preventing the movement of data between businesses by regulating “the rights and obligations of all the economic actors involved in sharing data from internet of things (IoT) products”.
Negotiations are to start with the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Commission and will centre around how put into practice the principle that the owners of connected devices have the right to access and share the data they were instrumental in generating. MEP Damian Boeselager, a strong supporter of the Act, stated it is time to move on from a situation “where data is mostly kept hidden on private servers, to a future in which data is widely shared and further used for innovative business models, more efficient processes and better policy making.”
Other objectives of the proposed Act are to prevent unlawful transfer of data by cloud providers and the development of interoperability standards so data can be “reused” between sectors. Cloud providers will also be obliged to locate their data infrastructure in Europe. There are business-to-consumer (B2C) domain issues too. If a consumer opts for a repair of a smart home appliance from a provider other than the manufacturer, then the manufacturer must provide data about the appliance without direct or indirectly charging for it. However, since the manufacturer will have to cover the inevitable cost, this seems naïve.
Other clauses are designed to guard against “the abuse of contractual imbalances in data-sharing contracts due to unfair contractual terms imposed by a party with a significantly stronger bargaining position.” Finally, public sector bodies will be allowed to access and use data held by the private sector in “exceptional circumstances” such as public emergencies.
Here is what the International Network of Privacy Professionals has to say about the proposed Act:
In our view, the scope of work of the Data Act seems sometimes unclear since some Chapters concern the reuse of data generated by the IoT, while other chapters (e.g. safeguards for SMEs/fairness test, sharing of data with the public sector bodies) seems to apply in general words to all data.
In terms of legislative process, the number of regulations concerning the big data seems quite high, potentially slightly overlapping and the exact scope of each of these seems rather difficult to follow, especially for players that cannot dedicate sufficient resources to understand the impact or the benefits of the various regulations (e.g. the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation, the Database Directive, the Open Data Directive, the Data Governance Act, etc.)
Thirdly, in terms of business impact, while the scope of the mandatory sharing of data generated by the IoT is limited (sharing to the user and proxy holders of the user), and notwithstanding the fact that the sharing is intended to lead to increased competition (and while protecting the trade secrets), such sharing may in our view lead to an increase in anticompetitive / unfair practices among businesses.
Also, various businesses, especially the holders of data generated by the IoT will most likely experience lots of pressure and costs in implementing the various measures imposed by the Data Act, such as in relation to data access by design and business to business contractual framework for data access.
MWC 2023 – Interview with Pivotal Commware and Intellias on new network modelling tool
Sponsored: Mobile Europe’s Michelle Donegan speaks with Brian Deutsch, CEO of Pivotal Commware; Alex Katko, VP of Engineering at Pivotal Commware; and Konstantin Besfamylnyi, Practice Leader – Technology, Media & Telecommunications at Intellias, on how the two organisations work shoulder to shoulder on developing WaveScape – a network and economic modelling tool, and how their partnership has developed in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
To read more, please visit https://pivotalcommware.com/2023/02/16/pivotal-accelerates-wavescape-development-with-intellias/
To find out more about Intellias, please visit www.intellias.com
Video sponsored by Pivotal Commware and Intellias
Vodafone cuts German headcount by 6% in savings drive
Last November, the Vodafone Group set a goal of saving €1 billion over three years
Vodafone Germany is to cut 1,300 jobs, but add another 400 in different roles, so the net loss is 900 or just over 6% of its total workforce in its biggest European market.
The job losses will be made over the coming year, and, according to this brief announcement [in German], the 1,300 positions that to be cut are in management and other functions that are not customer-facing.
The 400 positions that will be added are all directly customer related.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Vodafone Italy is cut about 1,000 jobs or 17% of its workforce.
Its first half earnings, reported last November, showed Vodafone had performed poorly in Germany, Spain and Italy, with the UK the only bright spot. Group adjusted earnings were down €2.6 billion for first half of financial year, and shortly afterwards, the Group CEO, Nick Read stepped down.
E-Space and e& plan to take IoT to a better place
IoT over land and sea
UAE-based telco e& (Etisalat) and green low earth orbit E-Space, have announced plans to develop global Internets of Things (IoT), Smart-IoT and digital transformation. They claim they can jointly create business models so powerful they will change the digital transformation agendas of governments and global enterprises. The low-cost base of E-Space could make the power of space more accessible to governments, business, communities and individuals, it’s claimed in a release. The relationship will also give e& better customer data to connect directly to private datacentres.
The partners will maximise the end-user value potential of borderless smart connectivity and digital solutions that can be provides by applications that are omniscient over land, sea and sky. They will focus on the creative development of cloud-native digital and IoT systems tempered by edge-based Artificial Intelligence (edge AI). With the combination of e&’s terrestrial infrastructure and E-Space’s space system, with its global LEO constellation and what it claims to be unique device capabilities, the partners claim they can create powerful new business models that raise the IoT and digital transformation agendas of governments and large-scale enterprises worldwide.
Joint development of global IoT use cases that could create new revenue streams, using an optimised satellite ecosystem in global tracking and agriculture, were mooted. The portfolio for IoT and digital products could expand to enable products across land, sea and air environments, anywhere and at any time, with speeds ranging from kilobits per second (Kbps) to megabits per second (Mbps).
E-Space expects to offer the most sustainable and affordable satellite-based system in the digital and IoT ecosystem with coverage available everywhere to support uninterrupted, global real-time data services. It claims that can deliver an estimated 90% reduction in overall system and terminal costs compared to second generation LEO networks, allowing more governments, business, communities and individuals to access the power of space.
Telcos and space technology have a natural synergy, offering enormous opportunities for telco companies to expand their reach and capabilities, argued Mikhail Gerchuk, Chief Executive Officer, e& international. They see the big picture, from space sensors to satellite broadband, so perhaps they have a unique overview on the potential to improve the way we connect, communicate and gather data from space.
“With our advanced infrastructure and E-Space’s next-generation space system, optimised with edge AI, we will offer a multi-technology platform enabling our customers to embrace a digital-first lifestyle more efficiently,” said Gerchuk. “We are confident that we can use our combined expertise to create seamless global digital IoT experiences to help our customers advance their digital transformation plans.”
