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    Can 5G private networks breathe new life into healthcare systems?

    João Miguel Antunes, Celfocus
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    Can 5G private networks breathe new life into healthcare systems?

    Partner content: Healthcare is under tremendous pressure the world over and needs radical change, including being more efficient at adopting new solutions

    Healthcare is under tremendous pressure. There are several factors, but ageing populations, unhealthy lifestyles, pollution, and also, to some extent, the greater focus on preventative medicine and shocks like a major pandemic have led to an exponential increase in the demand for healthcare. This results in staff and resource shortages, ultimately increasing costs while making healthcare less accessible and affordable.

    In this scenario, to keep modern healthcare functioning properly, the industry needs to become radically different and more efficient in adopting new solutions. However, as we know, one cannot go about cutting corners in healthcare, so we should focus on finding smarter ways of working.

    What holds healthcare systems down?

    To understand how to help in such scenarios, let’s be specific about which current day-to-day situations might be holding healthcare back:

    • Unreliable communication – when mobile communications or Wi-Fi fail, the doctor is left without access to records, while operational coordination is disrupted, leading to negative patient outcomes.
    • Navigating complex hospital facilities – these are often confusing complexes full of people. Patients waste time getting lost, while staff also spends hours on basic wayfinding reaching people and/or critical equipment.
    • “Where’s that defibrillator?” Misplaced equipment is shockingly common. This isn’t just about keeping inventory costs down, it’s about potential delays in treatments when critical diagnostic equipment or critical sanitised tools aren’t available where and when they are needed.
    • Data in a silo – healthcare operations and the people who deliver and access them generate vast amounts of data, but this data is often not captured or used, making it a missed opportunity to improve efficiency, such as forecasting resources and staffing capacity, as well as process optimisation.
    • Security risks – patients’ data is highly sensitive. System breaches cannot happen as they threaten patient privacy and erode their trust in the healthcare system.
    • Can autonomous robots help us? Imagine small robots autonomously sanitising rooms and equipment or handing equipment to staff, freeing up medical staff from focusing on distracting non-critical activities. These activities imply robust connectivity and accurate positioning inside buildings that legacy systems cannot provide.

    How can 5G private networks help?

    So, how can an mobile private networks (MPNs), beyond traditional methods of providing connectivity (Wi-Fi, public cellular networks), meet the needs of modern healthcare?

    • Customised, fast, reliable network – tailored to specific healthcare needs, ensuring speed and dependability.
    • Enhanced security – ideal for safeguarding sensitive medical and patient information.
    • Support for innovation – mobile private enable the adoption of new technologies, processes, and methods, freeing up healthcare workers to focus on their core mission – patient care.


    That is why I believe 5G private networks can offer a new breath of life and hope for healthcare systems.

    Celfocus: our contribution focused on the main challenges

    There is certainly a long way to go before healthcare fully leverages all the benefits of 5G MPN. But we can start with the basics. At Celfocus we are already tackling two of the main pain points that hold back healthcare facilities from being more efficient:

    First, we need to start with secure and reliable connectivity that never lets people down. Common difficulties are:

    • Wi-Fi limitations when using shared spectrum, meaning that reliability is not guaranteed, thus making it unsuitable for critical medical data.
    • Limitations of public mobile networks, as 4G can be patchy indoors, especially in basement floors, and 5G signals have difficulty penetrating buildings.

    Secondly, we also want to provide accurate indoor location tracking. In this case, MPNs help us solve the following:

    • Tracking services are limited – they are expensive while failing to deliver multiple purposes.
    • Inflexible solutions – often tied to specific vendors and lacking pinpoint accuracy.
    • Precise accuracy – Wi-Fi’s 5–10-meter accuracy pales in comparison to 5G’s 30cm precision, enabling a whole new range of assistive technologies within healthcare facilities.[CP1] 

    The cost question

    5G offers exciting possibilities, but hospitals and healthcare systems are running on tight budgets. These are the strategies Celfocus is using to make MPNs financially viable:

    • Cloud homogenisation – implementing functions on the public cloud or with standardised telco cloud architectures that enable deploying and managing NFVs lifecycles from central to far edges.
    • Open standards’ compatibility – including O-RAN for more affordable private mobile access network implementations.
    • One-click deployment – making all of the required supported IT solutions components deployable with containerised “one-click”, both on public and private clouds.
    • Zero-touch operations – making the network autonomous, reducing the need for large operational teams to take care of the services and their underlying infrastructure.
    • Private Network-as-a-service (PNaaS) – Providing orchestrated services that automate, abstract, and enable self-serviced delivery and assurance.
    • 5G Monetisation – Enabling organisations to monetise both data and services available in their private networks.
    • Partnership ecosystems – Partnerships across different industries can drive cost-effective, industry-tailored solutions running on top of the private network.

    What benefits can we already achieve?

    • 82% E2E network automation from issue detection to resolution
    • 34% Cost Reduction in E2E VNF lifecycle management
    • 80% Decrease on new hardware rack provisioning
    • 20% Less hardware using the telco cloud
    • 40x Quicker configuration of RAN equipment
    • 90% Configuration error decrease

    Beyond healthcare

    Healthcare is a compelling case study as its needs are urgent. However, the benefits of MPNs are broader than any single industry. Imagine factories where quality control is automated or warehouses where inventory is practically self-managed. Celfocus, by focusing on making MPNs practical and affordable, is laying the foundations for a more interconnected and efficient future across multiple sectors.

    About the author

    João Miguel Antunes is Head of Autonomous Networks Offer at Celfocus. Committed to the creation of data-driven solutions, Celfocus collaborates with CSPs to deliver the maximum benefits in Network, IT and Service Operations.

    João focuses on developing autonomous networks solutions, making synergies between advanced analytics and orchestration & automation to boost digital network transformation towards zero-touch.

    João has spent over 19 years designing and delivering solutions for the Telco industry, tackling different business challenges, and gathering comprehensive Telco business know-how mainly in CRM and OSS stacks.

    Email: joao.miguel.antunes@celfocus.com

    Can Orange Business make the numbers add up for its techco transition?

    Annie Turner
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    Can Orange Business make the numbers add up for its techco transition?

    Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO of the enterprise business unit since May 2022, talks to Annie Turner about her vision and its execution

    Aliette Mousnier-Lompré became CEO of what was Orange Business Services in May 2022 having been its interim head since January. Under the previous strategic plan, Engage2025, Orange Business Services’ strategic goal was to become an integrator, offering ICT to businesses seeking to digitalise by moving to the cloud and become more data-driven.

    And it made good progress: in 2015, digital capabilities had accounted for 29% of Orange Business Services’ activities which had risen to 44% in 2022, but revenues stagnated. Income from the new services was not making up for the erosion of the legacy ones, so in September 2022, Mousnier-Lompré announced her turnaround strategy.

    Her plans were expanded on at the Capital Markets Day in February 2023 when the group’s new strategic plan, Lead the future, was launched to take it to 2025.

    At that launch, Mousnier-Lompré pointed out at that the “operational execution challenges” involved in achieving strategic goals had translated into a 32% EBITDA decline for Orange Business Services over three years.

    Decisive overhaul

    Hence, she said, the situation “calls for a decisive overhaul of the Orange Business operating model”. The ‘Services’ was dropped from the unit’s name to signify “the simplification and the focus we want to achieve,” Mousnier-Lompré explained.  “We aim at being a leading and high-performing network and digital integrator. We clearly have the assets to do so, and we will adapt our operating model and cost structure accordingly. It will be done through a structured action plan on which we regularly report progress.”

    The annual earnings report released in February this year and the first quarter’s earnings report published in April show progress is on that front, but what about progress in operational terms and with the business model?

    Fundamentally, she wants to accelerate progress away from traditional telco’s product-oriented approach: “We need to move from this vertical model to a much more horizontal model, which is able to integrate connectivity and networks together with digital services to provide an end-to-end, digital transformation support to our customers,” she says. “Customers need this joint and integrated approach between infrastructure and digital services”.

    As she says, despite hyperscalers’ huge presence, offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service, “they don’t have the proximity we have with customers to understand [customers’] complexity, the end-to-end landscape between networks, cloud cybersecurity, data layer.

    “We make sure from the design phase that when systems are up and running, we can address specific issues, challenges and needs of those customers. Ultimately, we are very, very complementary to hyperscalers and there’s a lot we do together.”

    Enterprises want AI

    She also feels that developments in AI over the last 18 months confirms and strengthens her strategy. She says that enterprises want to use AI to improve productivity, their portfolios and customer experience, but many do not know where to start: “They are challenged at two levels. The first one is the quality of their data is not good enough to leverage AI. Secondly, their infrastructures are not ready for it because AI is not just an algorithm in the air, in isolation. It’s about how you put those algorithms onto clouds then how do you connect those clouds?”.

    She continues, “Our customers need partners and advisors to help them handle the infrastructure layer and the data layer, and that’s where we come in.” Indeed, just after this conversation took place, Orange Business launched new trusted GenAI offers to customers based in France.

    Many established AI use cases in operations that don’t need the generative variant, such as predictive maintenance designed to prevent incidents on the network. “Once we get an incident, GenAI capabilities can help the experts or agents to combine information from databases, from everywhere into the systems, identify the problem, and manage the incident,” Mousnier-Lompré explains.

    Source of growth

    Her view is, “The more we use [AI] internally, the more legitimate we are to advise and leverage it for customers. We use AI in three dimensions: for our own internal needs; to power up our own products and services, for instance, to improve quality of service in our networks and give customers better observability of their services; and we acquired key digital services companies in the past few years around the in the data and AI space, so we provide AI consulting solutions to our customers, especially in France and in Europe.”

    She says, “So we have close to 4,000 experts in data and AI,” and “we plan to ramp up this activity, which…is growing fast and the profitability is pretty good. It’s one of our growth engine for the future.”

    Which uses case will be critical? Mousnier-Lompré says all thinking about AI-related use cases within Orange Business is around, “What kind of value do [customers] want to create? We ideate around those use cases then we bring the right advisory and consulting services to help them to structure the data and protect the data, to bring those use cases to life at the data layer.”

    Modular future

    In tandem, Orange Business is adopting a modular approach to products using microservices as part of its horizontal platform strategy, “and to have all those microservices in the right architecture with the right APIs in the right containers, so that we gain agility from that shift to cloud native”.

    Accelerating that shift is a key focus for Mousnier-Lompré. Hriday Ravindranath was appointed CTIO of Orange Business in May 2023, joining from BT. As of the beginning of January this year, the business unit had halved the number of products on offer. She says, “We are rethinking really deeply, [not only our] product portfolio, but the full IT and digital architecture.”

    Another key aspect of being more agile is shorter lifecycles for product development. “One concrete example is we have virtualised our global backbone in the past year. Now we can open it to partners, and host their technology on our backbone,” she states. They manage the releases of their solutions themselves using APIs.

    Previously this created huge amounts of work for Orange Business’ engineers, now it’s done much faster within a fully managed package. Partners include Cisco, Palo Alto and Fortinet.

    Legacy challenges

    Legacy technology remains challenging, “We have a lot to do internally in terms of changing the skills, changing the culture or changing our pricing models. It’s a very long journey. We are in the middle of it,” she says.

    There are still many vertical stacks and “we have an extreme variety of applications and IT systems. It’s as if each product manager built their own IT stack and its own ordering and billing systems, quotation tools and so on. What we are doing now with Usman [Javaid, PhD, who joined the unit as Chief Products and Marketing Officer in April last year] is a product portfolio reshaping.

    “We want customers to come onto our portals and have the right experience when asking for a quotation…then ordering and having all the information available. It means we need a unified IT stack, with one reference in mind – the customer journey.

    “We have designed this, done the theory, now we are moving to practice. We’ve launched a series of RFPs to the market to reshape everything we do. We’ll go with some big SaaS players and we’re working with an IT integrator to rebuild a modular, greenfield IT stack. We’ll need probably need two or even three years to rebuild all of this in the right way.

    But won’t it be legacy by then? “The whole challenge of readying of the entire company is to make sure that we build something which is future proof – modular and open – so that it will not be legacy in three years.”

    API leader?

    APIs are key to this modularity. Is Orange Business ahead of the pack in its use of APIs? Mousnier-Lompré stresses her company’s participation in TM Forum’s API initiative and CAMARA, but thinks in some areas it is ahead, such as in their use outlined above with the virtualised global backbone, using open source on commoditised hardware for voice by decoupling the architecture and in secure B2B connectivity.

    She cites Gartner’s long-standing recognition of its leadership concerning secure B2B connectivity in its Magic Quadrant and adds, “We are improving over time in terms of differentiating versus our competition”.

    She stresses that 5G Standalone is an inherent part of that platform vision. Mousnier-Lompré muses, “We are slowly but surely getting to the more major phase of the growth and return on investment for clients…although we had all those question marks around 5G. It’s not about technology, it’s about use cases, it’s about the value you create.

    “We see a lot of the so-called smart industries or industrial 5G cases coming, but it’s not about 5G alone, it’s 5G combined with cloud at the edge, combined with IT and OT and cybersecurity, combined with AI, combined with the ability to integrate all of this into a single project encompassing all those technologies.

    “So we see our pipe[line] picking up. We are working with customers at the moment to create value by combining various technologies.”

    In conclusion

    She concludes, “We describe ourselves as a network and digital integrator, having this legitimacy to orchestrate the infrastructures across what we call the three C’s – connectivity, cloud and cybersecurity – and orchestrating those infrastructures together with a data layer on top. We help our customers structure the data to get fit for purpose networks to address their needs.

    All of this requires a huge transformation, in terms of operating models, culture and skills, but after now, almost one year and a half after launching our strategy and the Lead the Future plan, we are absolutely on track maybe even a bit ahead of the plan. I am very, very optimistic for the future.”

    SES announces O3b mPOWER constellation is ready for service

    Simon Dux
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    SES announces O3b mPOWER constellation is ready for service

    However, the European satellite operator is still grappling to overcome the power issues impacting its fleet

    In what should have been a big day of celebration, SES announced that its medium Earth orbit (MEO) O3b mPOWER software-enabled satellite constellation was now operational and ready to provide connectivity services around the globe, ranging from tens of Mbps to multiple gigabits per second.  

    However, the day was tinged with some disappointment given the constellation has been dealing with power module issues on its Boeing satellites, leading to a delayed go-live of around four months.  

    In its third quarter 2023 results call last October, SES noted that the electrical “trip-offs”, first noticed in August, in the existing fleet had increased with a few becoming non-recoverable events, according to Via Satellite. As a result, the initial satellites would see a “significant reduction” in their expected lifetime and available capacity, according to the company.  

    SES went to work with Boeing to upgrade the five yet-to-launch satellites and the two companies agreed to add two further satellites to the constellation – after agreeing to share the risk and the capex. No doubt nervous satellite insurance brokers and watching closely to see what impact the power issues will have on the longevity of the constellation.  

    To date, SES has launched six out of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites, which together with strategically located satellite ground stations, enable SES to serve customers across multiple market segments around the world. With the O3b mPOWER system now operational, SES strengthens its unique MEO network capabilities by complementing its O3b constellation. SES expects to launch the next two O3b mPOWER satellites in late 2024. 

    The operator likes to point out that it now offers GEO, MEO and low Earth orbit (LEO) solutions – the latter through strategic partnerships.  

    “We are very excited that O3b mPOWER is now ready to serve our customers around the world. Over the last few years, our SES team, along with our technology partners across space and ground segments, have worked tirelessly to bring our O3b mPOWER system online. I’m proud to say that all the core infrastructure is deployed, tested and ready on a global basis,” said new SES’s CEO Adel Al-Saleh (above).  

    “The demand for O3b mPOWER solutions is very high, and this moment has been long-awaited by our customers. Over the coming weeks we will work with our mobility, government, enterprise and cloud customers on O3b mPOWER onboarding plans,” he said. We’re eager to empower their operations with reliable, high-performance, and secure services.” 

    Swisscom slams regulator’s decision on its fibre rollout 

    Simon Dux
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    Swisscom slams regulator’s decision on its fibre rollout 

    The telco finds COMCO’s decision “incomprehensible” and says it will lead to higher fibre rollout costs

    Swisscom has defended its decision to adopt a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) topology between the exchange and local cable duct (manhole), which it began using in 2020, as “the right one”. The announcement came after Swiss regulator Competition Commission (COMCO) fined Swisscom CHF 18 million for what it deemed unlawful conduct in the optical fibre expansion.  

    In addition to the fine, COMCO imposed “clear guidelines” on Swisscom for the expansion of its fibre optic network: “so that third parties can jointly use the fibre optic network infrastructure.” 

    At the start of 2020, Swisscom changed the way it built its fibre optic network. With this new network design, COMCO said competing companies would no longer have direct access to the network and would only be able to sell Swisscom services under their own name. By changing its network construction strategy, Swisscom prevented competing companies from accessing the fibre optic network and thus violated cartel law.  

    Since December 2020, COMCO has been investigating the extent to which P2MP topology impedes competition. Alongside the investigation, it ordered precautionary measures, preventing Swisscom, other than in a few exceptional cases, from putting any P2MP connections into operation and marketing them. Swisscom challenged these measures before the Federal Court, which, in its judgement of 29 November 2022, nevertheless upheld the measures imposed by COMCO. 

    It is COMCO’s view that Swisscom’s expansion of the fibre-optic network should only be permitted to continue in point-to-point (P2P) topology. Swisscom said the consequence of COMCO’s decision is that the expansion will take “much longer and involve significantly higher costs, especially in rural areas.” It added it found the decision “incomprehensible.” 

    P2P or not P2P? 

    COMCO subsequently prohibited Swisscom from making this modification from the end of 2020. The regulator said Swisscom would otherwise have modified the existing market structure and would have “created a de facto monopoly”. It stated: “Competing companies would have been deprived of a large part of their innovation possibilities and commercial opportunities, and consumers as well as commercial customers would have been severely limited in their choice of supplier and in the diversity of products.” 

    Not so, said Swisscom, arguing that all competitors would have been able to “obtain a data stream from Swisscom for a specific connection on non-discriminatory terms, enabling them to continue to offer a full and competitive range of services, including telephony, Internet and TV.” 

    In Swisscom’s view: “P2MP is the most efficient and cost-effective way for FTTH to be rolled out in Switzerland. Moreover, P2MP topology is the prevailing architecture for the FTTH rollout in most EU states. It is accepted by the regulatory authorities and considered compliant with anti-trust law. It is for this reason that Swisscom considers its conduct fair under competition legislation.” 

    More work needed 

    As previously announced in October 2022, to counteract the stalled optical fibre expansion and ensure that third-party providers have the layer-1 access required by COMCO, Swisscom will install new fibre connections as before, using the point-to-point (P2P) architecture endorsed by COMCO and convert existing P2MP connections to P2P. 

    As a result of the decision, Swisscom said the expansion is still mostly assured in line with the Swisscom network strategy, even though the expansion with P2P is more laborious, will involve more civil engineering work and will bring delays – especially for rural communities. “Proceeding with P2P means that, by 2030, up to 10% fewer households will have optical fibre access than would have been possible with P2MP, and the FTTH expansion will be completed several years later than originally planned,” stated the carrier. 

    However, COMCO believes that the financial and time savings are not sufficient to compensate for the “elimination of competition over several generations”. The regulator scathingly pointed out: “Until now, the most significant innovations and price reductions in the fibre-optic network have come from competing companies, not Swisscom. This would not have been possible in the future.” 

    The telco said its financial outlook for the 2024 financial year remains unchanged as it had factored COMCO’s ruling into its planning and made appropriate provisions. Swisscom reserves the right to appeal the decision before the Federal Administrative Court. 

    T-Mobile US enters fibre JV to acquire Lumos, extend footprint

    Annie Turner
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    T-Mobile US enters fibre JV to acquire Lumos, extend footprint

    Assuming the transaction clears all the necessary hurdles, the operator expects to invest $1.45bn in deploying fibre infrastructure by 2028 via the JV

    T-Mobile US and investment house EQT have entered into a joint venture with EQT’s Infrastructure VI fund (EQT). The JV will acquire FTTH platform Lumos from EQT’s predecessor fund, EQT Infrastructure III.    

    Lumos’ infrastructure reaches 320,000 households having deployed some 7,500 miles of fibre and home Wi-Fi service in the Mid-Atlantic. After the transaction is completed, it will adopt a wholesale model with T-Mobile as the anchor tenant.

    T-Mobile is Deutsche Telekom’s US subsidiary, which helped propel the former German incumbent to a market capitalisation above €100 billion in January 2023. It is the first European operator group to breach that threshold.

    Once complete

    At closing, T-Mobile is expected to invest about $950 million (€886.4 million) in the JV to acquire a 50% equity stake and all existing fibre customers. The funds invested by T-Mobile will be used by Lumos for future fibre builds.

    The next capital contribution by T-Mobile out of an additional commitment of about $500 million is expected between 2027 and 2028. The JV will focus on identifying and choosing markets, network engineering and design, network deployment and installations for customers.

    The combined investments should allow Lumos to pass 3.5 million homes by the end of 2028.

    The transaction is expected to close in late this year or early next, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

    Current customer base

    T-Mobile provides connectivity to homes and businesses across through fixed wireless access on its 5G network. The service is available to more than 50 million households and businesses nationwide and serves over 5 million customers.

    It also operates T-Mobile Fiber which has begun deployment in parts of 16 US markets. This has revealed the demand for the reliability and speed of fibre-based broadband.

    With this transaction, EQT Infrastructure VI is expected to be 35-40% invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication) based on target fund size and subject to customary regulatory approvals.

    High demand for fibre

    Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile said in a written statement, “As the demand for reliable, low-latency connectivity rapidly increases, this deal is a scalable strategy for T-Mobile to take a significant step forward in expanding on our broadband success and continue shaking up competition in this space to bring even more value and choice to consumers.

     “With EQT and Lumos, T-Mobile is building on our position as the fastest growing broadband provider in the country in a value-accretive way that complements our sustained growth leadership in wireless.”

    New phase

    Jan Vesely, Partner within EQT’s Infrastructure Advisory Team commented, “We are proud to have partnered with Lumos over the past six years to rapidly scale the company and roll out fiber to underserved markets, and we look forward to continuing to leverage EQT’s considerable digital infrastructure and fiber expertise to support the significant fiber buildout ambitions of T-Mobile and the JV.

    “This new effort will build critical fiber broadband infrastructure that will enable remote work, education, and healthcare use cases across the country. We have worked with T-Mobile as a customer across many of our existing digital infrastructure investments and are delighted to build on that relationship and partner with T-Mobile on this opportunity to roll out fiber to underserved Americans.”

    Brian Stading, CEO of Lumos, added, “With the support of our private equity partner, EQT, and leveraging the strength of the T-Mobile brand and unrivaled customer experience, Lumos is set to expedite our network expansion. This joint venture will amplify our ability to change lives through the transformative power of fiber optic internet.”

    Cellnex sees Spanish consolidation ahead as Q1 net loss halves 

    Simon Dux
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    Cellnex sees Spanish consolidation ahead as Q1 net loss halves 

    The towerco also has opportunities after the arrival of MásOrange and Digi Spain’s subsequent market approach

    Cellnex Telecom has posted revenues of €946 million (+7%) and its adjusted EBITDA grew to €778 million (+7%) with a clear drive from its PoPs (Points of Presence) organic growth (+10.7%) in Q1 2024. The towerco saw a net loss of €39 million, however this represented a €52 million improvement over the first quarter of 2023 (-€91 million), reflecting the growth in the Group’s EBITDA.

    Cellnex announced on 5 March the sale of its business in Ireland to Phoenix Tower International for €971 million, equivalent to a multiple of 24x EBITDAaL. The company expects non-binding offers for its Austrian business in May. Saudi Arabia’s stc Group and sovereign fund PIF may bid for Cellnex’s Austrian unit, El Economista newspaper reported, citing unidentified industry sources.

    Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano said the towerco was making “good progress” on its “next chapter”. “Having obtained our investment grade rating by S&P much earlier than originally planned, we confirm an unconditional commitment to maintain this credit rating level both by S&P and Fitch,” he said.

    “From the leveraging perspective we’re making remarkable progress thanks to the disposal of the sites in France, our agreement in the Nordics and our recently announced exit from Ireland. This closest process is on track, we presented all the documents, the relevant documents to the antitrust and leverage will be reduced by €971 million when completed and paid,” he added.

    He also confirmed progress on forming “LandCo”, a new Spanish company dedicated to holding all of Cellnex’s land assets as part of an effort to maximise value. “We are trying to start to evaluate if it could be appropriate to transfer existing portfolios into the newly created LandCo or not. This depends very much on the tax efficiency of this process,” he said.

    Spanish consolidation will happen

    Speaking on the company’s analyst call, Patuano said it was not a question of “if” the Spanish tower market will consolidate but “when and how.”

    “Obviously, American Tower invested a very significant amount in Spain in their acquisition of the tower from Telefonica. So my base case is that American Tower will be a long-term player. And we are here since ever and so this is our home market, and we know it fairly well,” he said.

    “I think that the Spanish Tower market is four tower operators, and in a while, there will be more tower operators than operators, which means that this is something that possibly is going to happen. Then I ask myself if this will be a game of combination or a game of someone exiting from the market. I don’t exclude that it could be a combination game,” he added.

    MásOrange network redesign

    Patuano said that the MásOrange merger has raised two questions from a network standpoint – with the entire Spanish market becoming way more interesting.

    “…Please don’t take as being offensive with anyone, [but] the network quality of Másmovil was not at the standard of the network quality of Orange. But on the other side, the network quality of Orange is not capable to receive the entire customer base of Másmovil,” he said.

    “What is clear is that MásOrange should make a fairly, I don’t want to say complicated, but fairly big project of the network redesign,” he said. “We are talking with the MásOrange CTO in order to understand how we can support them in making efficiency in the periphery of the network, where the network can be optimised.”

    He added: “Possibly, there are sites and antenna both from Másmovil and Orange, and it’s not necessary to have both, but to densify the network where the density of the clients is higher.”

    “In this, there is the big question mark,” he said. “You know that Orange had a RAN sharing with Vodafone in the so-called jumping network. The territory of Spain was divided in two areas. Let’s make a proxy. The coastline was covered by Orange with the exception of Catalonia, and Catalonia and the inner land was covered by Vodafone with their network.”

    He added: “So, also, Vodafone passed through a change of control or better, it’s passing through a change of control, and so the future evolution of this joint venture is in a delicate moment because of all the changes at the proprietary level.”

    Patuano said it was unclear with Digi is going to do, adding that Cellnex is discussing options with the telco. “What is almost sure is that there are two points that are almost sure,” he said. “One is that they are not going to make a nationwide network, so the vast majority of their coverage will be through a RAN sharing, and the second is that in order to keep the frequencies, they have to use the frequencies, otherwise they lose the frequencies. So, this means that they have to do – they will do some RAN sharing and some new emplacement.”

    Polish evolution

    Patuano told analysts the towerco continues to look closely at its Polish operations. “It’s not a mystery that we are looking towards the evolution of Poland. The evolution of Poland is we have a potential opportunity to consolidate the active market in Poland,” he said. “If this would be the case, it would be appropriate for us to welcome a co-investor who can work with us. This can turn into some capital repatriation, so there is – there are many projects.”

    He pointed out Poland could readily be densified in terms of passive infrastructure. “There is a quite significant lack of coverage when you go out of the major cities and there is the RAN component, both in terms of existing relation with [Polsat Plus] and the possibility of having a partnership also with Play,” he said. “So, this is a big project. It is something that we’re looking at. Is there interest? Yes, there is interest. So, we are working with some counterpart who could be focused on this.”

    Business lines in detail

    EBITDAaL stood at €535 million (+9%) showing a disciplined approach to Opex and lease management. Free cash flow was €103 million vs -€139 million from the same period of the previous year, due also to proceeds from the second tranche (€152 million) of the sale of sites in France, in accordance with the remedies established by the French Competition Authority (FCA) following the purchase of Hivory in 2021.

    For better transparency, Cellnex began reporting revenues from its four business lines. Towers accounted for 82% of revenues, with €776 million (c.+5%). DAS, Small Cells and RAN as a service contributed 6% of revenues, with €59million (c.+21%). Fibre, connectivity and housing contributed 5% of revenues with €47 million (c.+24%) while broadcasting contributed 7% of revenues with €64 million (c.+2%).

    As of 31 March, Cellnex had a total of 112,247 operational telecom sites: 23,861 in France, 22,559 in Italy, 16,227 in Poland, 13,341 in the United Kingdom, 8,770 in Spain –the Group’s five main markets–, and a total of 27,489 sites in the rest of the countries in which it operates (6,571 in Portugal, 5,498 in Switzerland, 4,639 in Austria, 3,979 in the Netherlands, 3,158 in Sweden, 1,652 in Denmark and 1,992 in Ireland); in addition to 1,892 Broadcasting & Others sites and 10,252 DAS and Small Cells nodes.

    Organic growth of points of presence at sites was +10.7% compared to the same period of 2023, 7.5% from new colocations in existing sites, with a total of 3,390 – with Italy and Portugal standing out in this field – and 3.2% from the rollout of 1,454 new PoPs during the period due to the progress made in the BTS (Built to Suit) programmes in France, Italy and Poland.

     

    Kenyan city builder launches Fahari Link to deliver high-speed internet 

    Simon Dux
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    Kenyan city builder launches Fahari Link to deliver high-speed internet 

    New town Tatu City builder Rendeavour pledges to connect its neighbours, as Kenya announces fibre rollout acceleration

    Rendeavour, the builder, owner and developer of Tatu City – a 5,000-acre new city on Nairobi’s doorstep – has created a new service provider, Fahari Link, to deliver high-speed internet connectivity to thousands of currently underserved residents in nearby towns and informal settlements.

    Fahari Link has invested heavily in acquiring wholesale bandwidth from global internet service providers to extend its reach to areas beyond Tatu City, including the informal communities of BTL, OJ and Rutoro. Rapidly growing Ruiru, the sixth fastest growing town in Africa, will be served, as well as the communities of Oaklands, Murera, Kamakis and other parts of Kiambu County. In total, Fahari’s services will be available to close to one million people.

    Fahari Link will provide low connection fees, daily internet plans, reliable internet connectivity and technical support to citizens of Kiambu County, including those earning subsistence wages. In addition to connecting homes, Fahari Link will deploy wi-fi internet connections in public spaces such as shopping centres and sports fields, ensuring that digital access is available to all, including mobile users.

    “With Fahari Link, we are not just connecting people; we are connecting aspirations, opportunities, and futures,” said Rendeavour deputy country head Alex Kahu. “By expanding affordable internet and broadband services to our neighbouring community, Tatu City is ensuring that no one is left behind in Africa’s digital future.”

    According to Rendeavour, more than 3,000 homes and apartments are occupied or under construction in the city and 4,500 students study at Tatu City’s schools. The city is also home to around 75 local businesses. German-based cleaning equipment manufacturer Karcher has announced an approximate €3 million investment in building a regional distribution centre at Freight Forwarders Solutions (FFS) in Tatu City, located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on Nairobi’s doorstep.

    The city already has its own telecom provider, Tatu Telecom, which has laid more than 40km of fibre optic cables and currently serves over 1,000 residential and commercial customers, including schools and local, regional, and multinational companies within Tatu City. Tatu Telecom has also built an open-access network, allowing multiple internet service providers to serve Tatu City residents and businesses.

    Rendeavour currently has 30,000 acres of urban-build projects in across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Kenya accelerates its fibre rollout

    The arrival of Fahari coincides with cabinet secretary for information, communications, and the digital economy Eliud Owalo announcing the nation has changed its rollout model and now believes it can deploy 100,000 kilometres of optical fibre to underserved areas in two years rather than the original five planned.

    To achieve this the country was switching away from burying cables to using existing infrastructure from the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). Needless to say, this isn’t a new approach in Kenya. For example, in 2017 Liquid Telecom Kenya announced a 10-year partnership with Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) to operate KETRACO’s Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) fibre cables and expand the internet network across East Africa.

    But Owalo, speaking at the Digital Transformation in East Africa conference, signalled the government was backing the plan to accelerate its rollout. “If we go that route, which is now work in progress, it is our estimation that as opposed to the five years within which we are envisaged to roll out 100 000km, we will now be able to roll out the 100,000km of fibre within the next two years,” he said.

    He added that since the resumption of the fibre rollout last year, Nia Fibre, which was contracted by the government, had laid 10,000 kilometres. As the fibre build continues, the government said it would also roll out 25,000 wi-fi hotspots across the country.

    Safaricom’s fibre training commitment

    Elsewhere, Safaricom, in partnership with Kenya’s ICT Authority has launched the Connect Academy, a training programme designed to address the shortage of skilled fibre optic technicians in Kenya. As part of the Presidential DigiTalent Programme, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the academy will focus on skill development, mentorship, training, certification, and fostering innovation in the ICT sector.

    The initial cohort of 200 participants will begin training in May. They will receive full-day sessions every Friday for three months led by Safaricom engineers. “Our target is to grow a world-class broadband connectivity talent pool for public and private sectors in partnership with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. This will create employment and a career path for Kenyan youth who lack higher education,” said Safaricom chief consumer business officer Fawzia Ali-Kimanthi.\

    Pictured (left to right) Frank Mosier, chairman, Rendeavour; Alex Kahu, country head, Kenya, Rendeavour; John Njogu, Gitothua Ward MCA; and Linda Nyaseda, head of city management, Tatu City.

    AI-based automation: Wait or act now? | White paper by CORTEX

    admin
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    AI-based automation: Wait or act now? | White paper by CORTEX

    Orange boosted by on-going, double-digit growth in Middle East and Africa

    Annie Turner
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    Orange boosted by on-going, double-digit growth in Middle East and Africa

    Elsewhere progress is less dramatic but appears to be going to plan, if not fast enough for the stock market

    Orange Group CEO Christel Heydemann was pleased with the first quarter’s earnings, reported yesterday. She highlighted the completion the 50:50 merger of Orange España and MásMóvil to form Spain’s biggest operator by subscriber numbers and the strong growth in its Middle East and African opcos (MEA).

    Orange’s revenues in the MEA region had double-digit growth in revenues for the fourth consecutive reporting period, up by 11.1% year on year to to €1.85 billion. More specifically,

    mobile data revenues rose in the region by close to 16%, fixed broadband by 20.6%, mobile money by 23.5% and B2B by more than 14%.

    Orange achieved less dramatic results at home in France where revenues rose by 0.8% to €4.3 billion, but was still the star turn in Europe, apart from Spain, as the total revenues from the other European market fell by 2% to €1.7 billion.

    The company said this was due to a deliberate reduction in low-margin sales and the fall was somewhat offset by ongoing growth in retail.

    Means business

    Orange Business reported a 0.3% decrease in revenues to €1.9 billion, in large part due to a fall in income from legacy fixed voice services, However, the good news is the accelerated growth in IT and integration services revenues, which rose 7.5% to €937 million.

    Orange Cyberdefense is making a hefty contribution to Orange Business, as laid out in the Lead the Future strategic plan, with accelerating growth. “Orange Business continues to execute its transformation plan with several important milestones achieved this quarter, notably the implementation of the cost-reduction plan,” stated Heydemann.

    Overall, Orange’s group revenues were up 2.1% year on year to €9.9 billion, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and adjusted loss (EBITDAaL) up 2.3% to €2.4 billion.

    Investors were not as encouraged by the results as Heydemann: the group’s share price fell nearly 4% (to €10.60) on the Paris stock exchange (pictured) giving Orange a market cap of €28.2 billion.

    Zain pilots ‘world-first’ signal overlay to secure Saudi networks

    Annie Turner
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    Zain pilots ‘world-first’ signal overlay to secure Saudi networks

    With Enea, the operator could help extend the capabilities and architecture of signalling firewalls to improve protection for virtual, cloudified and physical infra

    Zain KSA, which provides mobile and digital services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is to trial what Enea says is world’s first signalling overlay on a mobile network. The technology is designed to extend the signalling firewall’s capabilities and the trial is expected to start this year on Zain KSA’s network.

    Enea says the pilot programme could be expanded to other markets and customers.

    The patent-pending tech was conceived in Enea’s Technology Research unit last year. It takes advantage of the signalling firewall’s techniques for detection and protocol correlation, using “transport layer-aware distributed ingestion” across virtual, cloudified and traditional network infrastructure.

    Deep insights, greater protection

    This gives the operator deeper insights into network events and helps defend against “emerging threats”. Anders Lidbeck, CEO of Enea, elaborates, “The emergence of cloud and virtualized infrastructures, along with the proliferation of private networks and APIs, has introduced new complexities and vulnerabilities in mobile networks, significantly increasing the risk of sophisticated cyberattacks.

    The Kingdom aims to be at the forefront of 5G development as part of Saudi Vision 2030’s goal to become an ICT leader and transform into a sustainable digital economy.

    Threats on and to telecom networks are escalating globally, hence network security is a high priority for Zain KSA, which has consistently invested in security for signalling and messaging to safeguard its digital ecosystem.

    Acceleration

    The intention is that this pilot will accelerate innovation and the deployment of next-generation signalling security for complex and more sophisticated attacks on networks.

    Eng. Abdulrahman Al Mufadda, COO of Zain KSA, commented, “By being the first to test this promising technology, we are cementing our position at the forefront of telecom innovation, furthering our commitment to providing secure and cutting-edge solutions to our individual and business customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

    Lidbeck added, “This partnership builds on our long-standing relationship with Zain KSA, and emphasizes our shared commitment to enhancing network security and embracing innovation.”

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