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    Vodafone launches InstantX edge project with Linux Foundation 

    Signs strategic partnership with LF Edge to extend community’s reach to address instant data exchange at the far edge

    Vodafone has kicked off a project with Linux Foundation subsidiary LF Edge which is a new cloud and edge cloud platform to exchange and distribute data in real-time between users in a certain geography through “far-edge” computing power. The project, dubbed InstantX short for Instant EXchange, is aiming to solve the problem of asynchronous and instant data exchange across clients in the same region while offering that data for off-line processing and self-learning to derive further usefulness. 

    While thankfully not branded as Industrial 4.0, Vodafone believes InstantX will offer many potential applications that utilise low latency and highly responsive technologies to drive forward the industrial internet. This they say is where programmable 5G standalone networks, edge computing and open APIs will finally come into their own. Connecting machines and applications with cloud-based AI powered services will become as commonplace as communicating via social media platforms – and probably less toxic.  

    InstantX is designed to ensure the secure and reliable exchange and distribution of data in real-time between users in certain locations. It uses ‘far-edge’ or ‘industrial-edge’ computing power which works by locating smaller, industrial servers outside a main data centre but closer to users. 

    Road safety applications 

    Vodafone said it has already developed several applications under InstantX. For example, the telco has already successfully tested improved road safety systems in several European countries. This allows pedestrians, cyclists and motorists plus their vehicles to share information with each other such as hazard warnings and difficult road conditions.  

    Other potential uses it sees include the coordination and control of autonomous robots in smart factories to avoid collisions with other machines, and more importantly, people. It can also help to track, monitor and control beyond-the-line-of-sight drones. 

    One of the gang 

    To push InstantX, Vodafone has also announced it has become a premium member of LF Edge, the umbrella organisation within the Linux Foundation dedicated to creating global collaboration on edge computing. The telco will participate actively in the governance of LF Edge, with Sampada Basarkar, product & platform engineering director at Vodafone, gaining a seat on the project’s governing board, technical advisory council and other committees. 

    The membership enables Vodafone – which is also an active member of the Linux Foundation – to leverage the collective capabilities of open-source edge computing to develop advanced networks for customers of Vodafone Business. Other premium members already include: AMD, American Tower, Arm, AT&T, AVEVA, Baidu, Charter Communications, Dell Technologies, Dianomic, Equinix, F5, Fujitsu, Futurewei, HP, Huawei, Intel, IBM, NTT, Radisys, RedHat, Samsung, Tencent, VMware, Western Digital and ZEDEDA. 

    “I’m delighted that Sampada has been invited to join the board of LF Edge,” said Vodafone Business CTO Justin Shields. “As a premier member of LF Edge, Vodafone can bring its own source coding credentials in edge computing to a leading developer community so that it can benefit many more organisations and individuals. Partnering with other companies and developers is the key to unlocking opportunities in edge computing to support ultra-low latency applications that will drive forward the industrial internet.” 

    “Vodafone’s active participation will propel our efforts to develop more robust and interoperable edge computing frameworks, particularly enhancing 5G and mobile private network connectivity,” said Linux Foundation GM networking, edge, and IoT Arpit Joshipura.  

    Liberty Global maintains course in choppy Q1 waters  

    After 4-17% price rises in its core markets last year, the company will be watching churn closely as it creates more value from its disparate operating companies

    Liberty Global announced it was “on-track” to meet its full-year 2024 guidance metrics across all its operating companies, with price increases recently announced in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium to support its financial targets. Management will however be trend-watching closely, after subscribers fell across its telco operating companies and joint ventures, with Liberty reporting a decline of 84,500 fixed line/video RGUs in its consolidated Q1 figures, plus even more in the joint ventures.  

    Speaking at the company’s 2024 Q1 results, CEO Mike Fries said the company had made “significant progress” against strategy to create and deliver value to shareholders – by proving the parts are greater than the sum – with Sunrise spin-off still looking good for Q4. 

    “Our fibre upgrade projects in the UK, Belgium and Ireland remain on track and nexfibre recently announced it had reached the milestone of one million premises built in the UK, as VMO2 fibre build capacity continues to ramp up,” he said. “Our overall financial performance in Q1 was in line with expectations, highlighted by the return to strong Adjusted EBITDA growth in the Netherlands and the return to positive broadband net adds in Switzerland.”  

    He added: “Fixed ARPU trends in the UK and Switzerland improved while our businesses in Belgium and the Netherlands each delivered continued fixed ARPU growth.” 

    Liberty Global’s Q1 revenue increased 4.1% YoY on a reported basis and 1.9% on a rebased basis to $1.95bn while net earnings increased 173.9% YoY on a reported basis to $527m. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 6.9% YoY on a reported basis and 6.8% on a rebased basis to $581.4m and Fries highlighted the telco group’s healthy liquidity of $4.7bn comprising nearly $1.2bn of cash, $2bn of investments held under SMAs and $1.5bn of unused borrowing capacity. 

    VMO2 sees some declines 

    In the UK, VMO2’s fixed customer base declined by 2,000 in Q1, primarily driven by a reduction in gross adds, as a slowdown in customer activity in the fixed market offset growth in nexfibre areas. VMO2’s premium fixed ARPU was broadly stable for the second consecutive quarter ahead of price rises being implemented in Q2. The broadband base grew by 5,300 in Q1, while growth in broadband speeds continued, as average download speed increased 17% YoY to 368Mbps. VMO2 became the first major UK provider to publicly launch a residential 2Gbps service in February. 

    In mobile, the postpaid base declined by 74,500 in Q1, driven by a reduction in handset sales and disconnections related to the decommissioning of a legacy billing system. During Q1, VMO2 built 194,000 premises, the majority of which were FTTH homes built for the nexfibre JV, representing an increase in build pace of 80% YoY.  

    VMO2’s revenue – in US GAAP terms – increased 3.8% YoY on a reported basis and decreased 0.5% YoY on a rebased basis to $3.3bn. The rebased decrease was primarily due to the net effect of an increase in other revenue due to low-margin construction revenue from the nexfibre JV and a decrease in mobile revenue due to lower handset sales, plus a decrease in B2B fixed revenue. Q1 adjusted EBITDA increased 4.6% YoY on a reported basis and 0.3% YoY on a rebased basis to $1.1bn.  

    Sunrise holding its own 

    Liberty’s Swiss subsidiary – for now – delivered 6,200 broadband net adds, primarily driven by an improved main brand performance from customer loyalty initiatives. In mobile, Sunrise delivered 26,000 postpaid net adds. FMC penetration remains high at 59% across Sunrise’s broadband base.  

    Sunrise’s revenue in Q1 was $854m – up 5.8% YoY on a reported basis but flat on a rebased basis. The flat rebased result was mainly due to the positive impact of last year’s July price rise and continued momentum in mobile subscription and B2B, offset by lower handset revenues. Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.2% YoY on a reported basis and 0.4% on a rebased basis to $279.3m.  

    “We have started 2024 with a strong operational and solid financial result. We continued our growth momentum in mobile postpaid despite a generally less liquid market compared to the previous year. At the same time, we achieved strong net growth in broadband driven by increased customer loyalty,” said Sunrise CEO André Krause. “Overall, we are well on track, fully confirm our guidance for the 2024 financial year, and expect positive effects of operational cost optimization in the following quarters. Finally, we look forward to being listed on the Swiss stock exchange soon.” 

    Telenet has a steady start to 2024 

    In Belgium, Telenet’s postpaid mobile base declined by 800 while its broadband base declined by 6,000 – with Liberty putting this down to the “intensely competitive market environment”, which more than offset the improved sales performance from Telenet’s latest marketing campaigns. Wyre, Telenet’s NetCo partnership with Fluvius, in which it holds a majority 66.8% stake, is on track to achieve its FTTH rollout plan, while continuing to “explore ways in which it can maximize efficiency of such rollout”. FMC penetration remains high at 49% of the broadband base. In April, Telenet extended its digital ecosystem through Blossom, an “all-in-one” digital solution for the installation of charging stations and smart charging for electric cars. 

    Telenet’s revenue increased 1.1% YoY on a reported basis but decreased 0.5% on a rebased basis to $762.6m. The rebased decrease was primarily driven by the decrease in B2B wholesale revenue after losing VOO, a decline in the fixed customer base and lower interconnect revenue, partially offset by the benefit of the June 2023 price rise. Adjusted EBITDA increased 1.8% YoY on a reported basis and 0.2% on a rebased basis to $308.4m, primarily due to the net effect of lower programming and interconnect costs and lower energy costs – partially offset by higher staff-related expenses following the mandatory 1.5% wage indexation as of January 2024 and growth in the overall FTE base.  

    VodafoneZiggo confirms guidance 

    In the Netherlands, VodafoneZiggo saw FMC net adds increase by 22,700 to almost 2.7 million in Q1. FMC penetration remained stable at 48%. Mobile postpaid net adds grew 22,300 alongside growth in mobile postpaid ARPU of 3.4% YoY supported by the price rises implemented in October. The broadband base contracted by 23,500 in the quarter, a 3,000 improvement compared to Q4, as a 26,600 decline in Consumer was only partially offset by a 3,100 increase in B2B. 

    The telco’s revenue increased 2.8% YoY on a reported basis and 1.6% YoY on a rebased basis to $1.1billion in Q1. The rebased increase was primarily due to continued growth in mobile and B2B fixed revenue, partially offset by a decline in the B2C fixed customer base. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10.1% YoY on a reported basis and 8.8% on a rebased basis to $519m. The rebased increase was primarily driven by lower energy costs and the phasing of wage increases. 

    “We maintained customer growth in mobile and B2B in the first quarter of the year and our broadband performance continued to show improvement quarter-on-quarter, underpinning our belief that we are executing the right strategy to provide the best network and entertainment experience for our customers,” said VodafoneZiggo CFO Ritchy Drost. Preparations are well underway for broadcasting all UEFA club football matches exclusively through our Ziggo Sport channel and Ziggo Go app this summer.” 

    He added:  Adjusted EBITDA has returned to growth, underpinning Q1 financial performance and our 2024 guidance which we remain on track to deliver. On behalf of the company, I would also like to thank Jeroen Hoencamp who has stepped down as the CEO of VodafoneZiggo from 1 May 2024. Through his strong leadership, Jeroen leaves VodafoneZiggo in a good shape, with a strong position in the Dutch telecom market and a solid financial foundation, including its balance sheet.” 

    SES to acquire Intelsat for $3.1bn to form multi-orbit operator

    The European acquirer reckons the expected total synergies will be equivalent to 85% (€2.4 bn) of the total equity value of the transaction

    Luxembourg-based SES is to acquire Virginia, US-based Intelsat for a cash consideration of $3.1 billion (€2.8 billion) “and certain contingent value rights”. This deal will be done by SES purchasing 100% of the equity of Intelsat Holdings S.a.r.l. (that is, a limited company).

    The Financial Times reported the two were in possible merger talks as far back as 2022.

    The combined SES will continue to be headquartered and domiciled in Luxembourg (picture shows SES’ HQ in Betzdorf, Luxembourg), while maintaining significant presence in the US, “notably in the greater Washington, DC area”. 

    The companies have a gross backlog of €9 billion, revenue of €3.8 billion, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €1.8 billion.

    Stronger together

    The parties say the combination will create a stronger, multi-orbit operator with greater coverage, improved resilience, more solutions and greater resources to invest in innovation. Not to mention creating a bigger pool of talent, expertise and experience. 

    The thinking is that the combination will deliver greater value for customers and partners, and “a compelling alternative in the new era of growth, innovation, and competition for the satellite communications industry,” according to the press statement.

    SES states that the deal fully aligns with its financial policy and is underpinned by expected total synergies equivalent to 85% of the total equity value of the transaction. The parties expect this will be realised within three years of the deal closing.

    Complementary assets

    In large part, this is because the new entity will combine complementary investment in space, ground, and network innovation to unlock future value and opportunity. The two have a combined fleet of more than 100 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 26 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites.

    The joint entity will benefit from enhanced coverage, greater network resiliency, complementary spectrum (C-, Ku-, Ka-, Military Ka-, X-band, and Ultra High Frequency) rights, and improved service delivery utilising an expanded network of ground segment assets. 

    By end-2026, eight new GEO (including six software-defined) satellites and seven new MEO (O3b mPOWER) satellites are expected to be launched adding more redundancy and capacity.  

    The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies. Intelsat shareholders holding about 73% of the common shares have entered into support agreements meaning they will vote in favour of the transaction.

    The transaction is subject to the usual regulatory filings and approvals, which they expect to receive in the second half of 2025.

    Satellite in the mainstream

    Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES, commented, “This important, transformational agreement strengthens our business, enhances our ability to deliver world-class customer solutions, and generates significant value for our shareholders in a value accretive acquisition which is underpinned by sizeable and readily executable synergies.

    “In a fast-moving and competitive satellite communication industry, this transaction expands our multi-orbit space network, spectrum portfolio, ground infrastructure around the world, go-to-market capabilities, managed service solutions, and financial profile. I am excited by the opportunity to bring together our two companies and augment SES’s own knowledge base with the added experience, expertise, and customer focus of the Intelsat colleagues.”

    He added, “This combination is also positive for our supply chain partners and the industry in creating new opportunities as satellite-based solutions become an increasingly integral part of the wider communications ecosystem.”

    The end of torrid times?

    David Wajsgras, CEO of Intelsat, said, “Over the past two years, the Intelsat team has executed a remarkable strategic reset. We have reversed a 10-year negative trend to return to growth, established a new and game-changing technology roadmap, and focused on productivity and execution to deliver competitive capabilities. The team today is providing our customers with network performance at five 9s and is more dedicated than ever to customer engagement and delivering on our commitments. This strategic pivot sets the foundation for Intelsat’s next chapter. 

    “By combining our financial strength and world-class team with that of SES, we create a more competitive, growth-oriented solutions provider in an industry going through disruptive change. The combined company will be positioned to meet customers’ needs around the world and exceed their expectations.”
     

    A missed opportunity: passing the EU’s Gigabit Infra Act

    Brussels can tick the box, but it could and should have been so much better

    The Gigabit Infrastructure Act, hailed by Brussels as a flagship piece of legislation for the European Union and the wider world, is finally about to pass into law. It replaces the 2014 broadband cost-reducing directive (BCRD).

    Following the usual rigamarole, it received the nod from the European Council after the European Parliament voted in its favour. It is now in the process of being published in the Official Journal and officially becomes law three days after that is completed. However, it will not be enforceable for another 18 months, taking us to late 2025, and even then, not all of it will be binding.

    Tight timeline

    This doesn’t give much time for it to help the EU to hit its ambitious 2030 targets regarding the penetration of fast network coverage. The goal is full fixed gigabit coverage by 2030 and 5G networks in all populated areas by 2030.

    The EU’s State of the Digital Decade report published last September showed that fibre networks are available to just over half (56%) of households. 5G covers 81% of urban populations but this falls to 51% for rural dwellers.

    The EU reckons will cost €200 billion collectively for operators to hit those targets.

    The Act is designed to speed up the process for operators in obtaining permission to build infrastructure on landlords’ property. Already the terms have been diluted – example, with various exemptions, voluntary elements and interim steps introduced – to get it passed into law and the intra-EU prices caps that should expire on 14 May will now be in place until 30 June 2032.

    For more information, see this detailed analysis.

    Not a great track record

    An attempt by the British government to smooth the way for operators building out infrastructure in the UK achieved little – the updated Electronic Communications Code was published in 2017. The intention had been to make gaining permissions easier and make the rental fees that land and property owners could charge operators reasonable. Naturally, the landowners didn’t always agree with what the operators thought was reasonable, andVodafone lost a landmark case in 2020.

    The UK government has just had another go at addressing part of the issue – access to multi-tenancy buildings.

    So yes, after much toing and froing the current Commission has got the legislation over the line before its term ends later this year but how much it will achieve and when is not clear.

    Broadband numbers static as Italy shifts to FTTP 

    Mobile stays prepaid while VOD subscriptions grow but viewing falls

    By the end of 2023, FTTC accounted for about 49 percent of the Italy’s total broadband user base of around 18.95 million – with the total only creeping up 22,000 in the year. Despite being almost half, FTTC connections fell 475,000 YoY while FTTH grew by 290 thousand in the last quarter of the year and 978 thousand year-on-year. Compared to December 2019 the FTTH increase is 3.34 million lines. DSL fell 675,000 but was offset by growth in lines in other technology. 

    Despite some hype around fixed wireless in Italy, FWA increased 150,000 and at the end of December 2023, amounted to 2.11 million subscriptions. The figures are part of Italian regulator AGCom’s latest Communications Observatory. The country’s fixed network overall fell 16,000 on a quarterly basis and now stands at around 20.11 million lines. Copper lines decreased by about 186,000 on a quarterly basis and by 798,000 compared to December 2022. Over the past four years, they have decreased by 5.72 million. 

    Connection speed have improved: lines with speeds of 100Mbps and above rose from 40.3% at the end of 2019 to 73.4% in December 2023. Of note was the growth in the weight of marketed lines with transmission capacity ≥1GB/s, which increased from 3.2 to 22.2% in the 2019 – 2023 period.  

    At the same time, the growth in data consumption continues. In terms of overall volume, daily traffic in 2023 marked a 15.6% year-on-year growth, marking, at the same time, a 120 percent increase over the corresponding value in 2019. This is reflected in daily traffic per broadband line, with unit consumption figures more than doubling in the period 2019 – 2023, increasing from 4.23 to 8.52GB per line on average per day. 

    TIM is confirmed as the largest operator with 38% of lines, followed by Vodafone with 16.4% and Wind Tre and Fastweb with 14.2% and 13.7% respectively. After that comes Tiscali (3.7 %), Eolo (3.5%) and Sky (3.3%).  

    Mobile dominated by prepaid 

    In Italy’s mobile network, as of the end of December 2023, there were 108.5 million active SIMs (both ‘human and M2M’), up by just under 1.3 million units year-on-year. Of that however, M2M SIMs showed an increase of 1.2 million units, while that of ‘human’ (i.e. voice only, voice+data and data only involving human iteration) was about 60 thousand SIMs. 

    Non-M2M mobile lines are 86.5% residential users, while, with reference to contract type, just under 90 percent of subscribers prepaid. Relative to overall sims, TIM is the market leader with 27.8%, followed by Vodafone with 27.1%, Wind Tre with 23.7% and Iliad reaching 9.9%. 

    Considering only the ‘human’ SIM segment, AGCom said Wind Tre remains the leading operator with 24.6%, followed by TIM with 24.1%, Vodafone with 21.7% and Iliad – with 1.5 percentage points YoY growth – has reached 13.7%. After that comes PostePay (5.4%), Fastweb (4.6%) and CoopVoce with 2.7%. 

    An estimated 58.6 million ‘human’ SIMs produced data traffic during the last quarter of 2023, which is about two million more than in the corresponding period of 2022. In 2023, daily mobile data traffic grew year-on-year by 21.7% but 245% over 2019. Correspondingly, the average daily unit consumption in the January-December period can be estimated at about 0.78GB, up 21.1% compared to 2022 and more than 230% compared to the corresponding period in 2019, when it was estimated at 0.23GB. 

    VOD grew but users are watching less 

    AGCom said paid video-on-demand saw 15.1 million surfers by December 2023 (up 169,000 YoY). On average, in 2023, Netflix registered about 8.7 million unique users (down 1.6%) compared to 2022 and is followed by Amazon Prime Video with 6.7 million visitors (up 3.1%). Disney+, with more than 3.5 million internet users and Sky/Now, with average unique users of 1.2 million, registered growth of 2% and 16.4% respectively, while Dazn (2.1 million average unique users) registered a decline of 9.8% compared to 2022. 

    Analysing the browsing time on the main video streaming sites offering pay-only services in December 2023 showed a growth of 11.8% YoY. “Analysing the total hours spent by surfers on the different platforms in 2023, allows us to observe, albeit with different intensity, an overall contraction for the main operators with the sole exception of Comcast/Sky’s Now service (up 35.7 percent),” stated the report.  

    In detail, Netflix dropped from about 376 million hours in 2022 to 360 million hours in 2023 (down 4.1%). Amazon Prime Video also contracted in the amount of time spent viewing its sites and apps (down 20.6 percent, from 69 million hours in 2022 to 55 million hours in 2023), as did Disney+ and Dazn, both of which are declining when considering the total hours spent by users on their sites and apps (decreasing from 30 to 28 million hours and from 9 to 7 million hours of total browsing from 2022 to 2023, respectively.  

    Free VOD services have 35.4 million unique viewers connected as of December 2023, record a year-on-year decline in audience of 1.5 million. In this regard, in 2023, it is noted that among the free VOD platforms, the most visited ones in terms of average monthly unique users were News Mediaset Sites (with 22.1 million), Sky TG24 (with 9.8 million) and RaiPlay (7.4 million). 

    Surfing time spent on this type of site last December exceeded 26 million hours, registering a decrease of more than 1.6 million hours compared to December 2022. 

    The full data for the report can be accessed here [English] 

    Corning signals resumption of “normal” carrier spending  

    The company forecasts second-quarter core sales above estimates on the back of steady telco and hyperscaler spending

    While most eyes are focused on the global chip manufacturers’ recent return to the black, one of the big three fibre makers, Corning, said it was seeing “encouraging signs of improving market conditions,” according to Corning chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks. Corning had already said in January it expects its carrier customers to deplete their excess inventory and resume normal purchasing patterns. 

    Now, Corning said it expects second-quarter core sales of around $3.4 billion, which is above analysts’ expectations on average. Q1 revenue for the company’s optical communications segment, its largest by sales, was at $930 million, versus estimates of $866.7 million. 

    “We continue to expect that the first quarter will be the low quarter for the year,” he said on the company’s Q1 results call. “We are executing our plans to add more than $3 billion in annualized sales within the next three years and we already have the required capacity and capabilities in place.” 

    “In Optical Communications, carrier inventory drawdowns have been the primary source of our below trend sales,” he said. “Once carrier inventory starts returning to more normal levels and our customers resume purchasing to support their deployment rates, we would expect to see our order book grow. And that’s exactly what is happening.” 

    “Our order book grew nicely from fourth quarter levels. This and our regular conversations with large carrier customers indicate that the gap between our sales and customer deployments is moderating,” he added. “As a result, we expect carrier sales to increase from first quarter levels.” 

    “As I’ve covered in the last two calls, fibre shipments are more than 30% below trend. We fully expect that gap to close adding more than 40% to our overall Optical Communication sales,” he said. “In conversations with our large carrier customers during the quarter, they reinforced their commitment to increasing fibre deployments in 2024 and beyond.”  

    AI demand impacts fibre deployments 

    Wendell said Corning’s recent wins for AI datacentres will translate into orders and sales during the year – part of its Enterprise portion of Optical. Gen AI creates significant demand for passive optical connectivity solutions. All datacentres consists of a front-end network connecting racks of CPUs. To meet the computational demands of AI, customers are now building a new fibre-rich, second network to connect GPUs, which increases Corning’s market opportunity. 

    “Now we will see this in our financials as customers begin to build large GPU clusters and adopt our latest high-density innovations,” he said. “Customers want fast deployment. Our pre-connectorized structured cabling solutions offer big installation time advantages. And the GPU clusters, which pack a very large amount of computing power per rack requires smaller denser cables making connector size and cable diameter important requirements.” 

    To meet these high-density requirements, Corning introduced its RocketRibbon cable with Flow Ribbon technology that it said could reduce cable diameter by 60% with fibres per cable approaching 7,000. The company also has its Contour Optical Fiber, which has a 40% smaller cross-sectional area than legacy fibres. 

    Revenue per GPU 

    “In our recent customer wins, our revenue is low-single-digit hundreds of dollars per GPU. We believe the customer density needs, combined with our technology’s superior performance will sustain these attractive sales attach rates long term,” he said.  

    Wendell explained how this impacts spend at a rack level where a typical front-end rack of filled with CPUs has about 32 fibres and 16 ports, two fibres per port. “Assuming one of these back-end network GPU racks will tend to have on the order of a couple of [Nvidia] H100 servers to service those, you need more like 256 fibres on that same rack,” he said. “So, you’ve got about an eight times increase in the amount of fibres per rack.” 

    Nvidia’s B100 will create even higher density racks and is bandwidth increases latency also becomes critical meaning the processing power is limited by distance and the servers must be closer together. Wendell said pushing the photons closer and closer to “the beachfront” of those GPUs is “opening up an entire new set of categories for us for our flat glass, for our ability to cut the light into various formats…leading to a whole new family of innovations upon which we are working diligently.”  

    Webinar with SS8 Networks: Leveraging Location Technology to Help Reduce Crime, Prevent Terrorism, and Save Lives

    Recording of our webinar from 23 April 2024 with Simon Mason, Solutions Architect at SS8 Networks.

    For more information about SS8 Networks, visit www.ss8.com

    Lumine prevails in bid for Casa’s 5G core and RAN assets

    Interloper Skyvera lost out by a narrow margin but cost Lumine $17.2 million more than the original deal it had struck

    Bloomberg reports that the Canada-based Lumine Group has clinched the deal for Casa Systems’ Axycom 5G core and RAN assets for $32.2 million. It outbid Skyvera’s by $0.2 million.

    Before Skyvera got involved, Casa Systems had agreed to sell the assets to Lumine for $15 million to fund bankruptcy proceedings.

    Bloomberg said a US bankruptcy judge approved the sale as it seemed Casa Systems was close to out of money this week. If Lumine doesn’t close the deal this week, then the judge has stipulated that the assets will go to Skyvera which was the only other bidder in the auction.

    Casa Systems made a considerable splash selling broadband kit to cable operators, but racked up hefty costs getting its 5G mobile core and RAN products to market.

    Verizon invested $40 million in Casa Systems in 2022, which gave it a 9.9% stake in the firm.

    Casa has agreed to sell its cable systems tech business to fixed access network technology specialist Vecima Networks for $20 million.

    In January, Lumine Group agreed to acquire Nokia’s device and service management platform businesses for €185 million. This was part of Nokia’s restructuring of its Cloud and Network Services division. The sale was completed on 1 April. About 500 staff are moving from Nokia to the new owner.

    Lumine has been building a portfolio of communications networking software systems through acquisitions over several years.

    Omdia ranks global top 12 operators’ progress towards becoming techcos

    Concludes they are doing well in terms of adopting a software-based operating model and developing enterprise digital services, but their focus on verticals needs work

    China Mobile is ranked as the top overall performer in Omdia’s telco-to-techco benchmark. The Omdia study assesses the efforts of 12 leading telecom service providers globally as they transition towards the techco operator model, integrating communications and technology services.

    Indeed the top three are in Asia, with the leading European group, Deutsche Telekom, four points behind the leader. The US’ leader, AT&T, is joint fifth.

    Telco-to-techco benchmark total scores by service provider

    The high cost of deploying 5G and fibre networks, combined with low growth in revenues for communications and connectivity services, is leading many telcos to reinvent themselves as techcos that provide technology services, primarily to the enterprise sector.

    “A telco that has adopted the techco model successfully is a software-based organization that offers services in areas such as AI, big data, the cloud, and IoT, and can implement digital transformation for specific vertical sectors,” said Matthew Reed, Chief Analyst, Service Provider Strategies, at Omdia.

    China first

    China Mobile ranks first in the telco-to-techco benchmark with a score of 31 points out of a potential maximum of 40, based on the scale of its high-speed broadband platform; its capabilities in AI, big data, and security; and its portfolio of enterprise digital services and vertical market solutions.

    Digital transformation revenue, which is China Mobile’s term for revenue from new digital services, accounted for 29.4% of China Mobile’s service revenue in 2023, an increase of 22.2% year on year, according to the company’s reports. (At the end of 2023, Orange’s had reached 44%.)

    NTT ranks second in the benchmark, reflecting its strengths in software services and in the enterprise market, while SK Telecom, which ranks third, recently unveiled a new strategy to become a global AI company. SK Telecom’s new AI services include an AI-based digital assistant, A., which it plans to launch around the world with other telcos. 

    Top Europeans

    Telefónica ranks fourth in the benchmark, reflecting its progress as a provider of cybersecurity and other enterprise digital services through a dedicated unit, Telefónica Tech. 

    AT&T, e&, and Vodafone rank equal-fifth in the benchmark. AT&T says that being an early adopter of AI has helped it to make operating cost savings of $6 billion. e& adopted a new strategy in 2022 to become a leading global technology and investment group [including a substantial stake in Vodafone], and has acquired or developed assets and capabilities in multiple digital service and technology areas.

    Vodafone has increased its focus on the business market, including enterprise digital services, and aims to expand its IoT operation, already the largest of its kind outside China, as a standalone unit as part of ten-year, GenAI services agreement between with Microsoft.

    “Overall, the operators covered in the benchmark are making good progress towards a software-based operating model and with their development of enterprise digital services,” said Reed. “But their vertical markets focus is less advanced generally and is an area that needs more work.”

    FCC fines US mobile operators almost $200m for sharing location data 

    First mooted in 2020, the regulator’s decision will no doubt have other regulators watching closely

    The Federal Communications Commission fined the largest US mobile operators nearly $200 million for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent and without taking reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorised disclosure. 

    Sprint and T-Mobile – which have merged since the investigation began – face fines of more than $12 million and $80 million, respectively.  AT&T is fined more than $57 million, and Verizon is fined almost $47 million. 

    “Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us.  These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers’ real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are,” said FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.   

    “As we resolve these cases – which were first proposed by the last administration – the Commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and making sure they fulfil their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data,” she added.  

    The FCC Enforcement Bureau investigations of the four carriers found that each carrier sold access to its customers’ location information to “aggregators,” who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.  In doing so, each carrier attempted to offload its obligations to obtain customer consent onto downstream recipients of location information, which in many instances meant that no valid customer consent was obtained.   

    This initial failure was compounded when, after becoming aware that their safeguards were ineffective, the carriers continued to sell access to location information without taking reasonable measures to protect it from unauthorised access. 

    The investigations that led to the fines started following public reports that customers’ location information was being disclosed by the telcos without customer consent or other legal authorisation to a Missouri Sheriff through a “location-finding service” operated by Securus, a provider of communications services to correctional facilities, to track the location of numerous individuals.   

    Yet, according to the FCC, even after being made aware of this unauthorised access, all four carriers continued to operate their programmes without putting in place reasonable safeguards to ensure that the dozens of location-based service providers with access to their customers’ location information were actually obtaining customer consent.   

    It wasn’t me 

    The mobile operators said they plan to challenge the fines. 

    According to Reuters, T-Mobile said the FCC “decision is wrong, and the fine is excessive. We intend to challenge it.” 

    In a statement the operator added: “industry-wide third-party aggregator location-based services program was discontinued more than five years ago after we took steps to ensure that critical services like roadside assistance, fraud protection and emergency response would not be disrupted.” 

    Verizon told Reuters it had worked to protect customers: When “one bad actor gained unauthorised access to information relating to a very small number of customers, we quickly and proactively cut off the fraudster, shut down the program, and worked to ensure this couldn’t happen again.” 

    Meanwhile, AT&T criticised the order as lacking “both legal and factual merit. It unfairly holds us responsible for another company’s violation of our contractual requirements to obtain consent, ignores the immediate steps we took to address that company’s failures, and perversely punishes us for supporting life-saving location services.” 

    No doubt the operators are smarting as they compare the fines dished out by the FCC to what happened to Google when its Street View cars collecting personal data from wi-fi networks in a number of countries. 

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