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Telefónica ends 2022 with 5G covering more than 83% of Spain’s population

Annie Turner
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Telefónica ends 2022 with 5G covering more than 83% of Spain’s population

Telefónica also successfully bid for double the 2.6GHz spectrum in the December auction

Telefónica’s 5G coverage in Spain now exceeds more than 1700 municipalities and equates to coverage for more than 83% of the population.

The operator highlights that 300% more 700MHz nodes were installed in 2022 compared with 2021 after the frequency was made available by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation last February.

This exceeded its own coverage forecasts in the “so-called low band” which support wider coverage, including indoors, and some 5G characteristics like lower latency. Telefónica was awarded 1 block of 2×10 MHz in the 700MHz band for payment of €310.09 million.

The municipalities with coverage range in size from 100 to more than 20,000 residents.

Telefónica says its 700MHz band capacity perfectly complements its 3.5GHz band capacity which it has used to provide coverage to more than 300 municipalities, which saw an increase of 375% throughout 2022. The 3.5GHz-based services provide higher transmission speed, but across shorter distances and the signals are not so good at penetrating obstacles like buildings.

Final spectrum blocks

In December, Telefónica completed its 5G spectrum allocation by acquiring five blocks of 200MHz in the 2.6GHz band for € 20 million – winning double the spectrum of its next nearest rival at the spectrum auction.

Still, Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation only raised a total of €36.2 million from the auction, which was about 30% less than the €56 million it had initially expected. In the event, the national mobile operators only bid for nine of the 12 allocations on offer.

The Ministry also only received one bid for the 38 regional spectrum auctions.

The mobile operators had voiced concerns ahead of the auction that it was too soon as the 200MHz ecosytem is so immature.

The 200 MHz will be deployed in 2023 for use cases requiring high speeds and lower latencies, in consumer and industrial sectors.  

Javier Gutiérrez, Director of Network Strategy and Development of Telefónica Spain, comments, “In a way, we can say that we have reached “cruising speed” in the deployment of 5G in its dedicated bands”.

Azure to give 5G operators a better RAN for their money

Nick Booth
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0
Azure to give 5G operators a better RAN for their money

It’s all in the telemetry

Mobile network operators could soon be given better options for managing their Open RANs from cloud operator Azure. The engines of 5G networks on the telco cloud could be more finely tuned by more intelligent control of their Open radio access networks (O-RANs), thanks to better reporting on the state of the network.

The improvement comes as Microsoft Azure is editing its RAN intelligent controller (RIC) for Open RAN systems so that detailed internal states and telemetry can be instantly extracted by RAN software for new RAN control applications, reports TelecomTV. It gives telco cloud operators better monitoring and management options for managing their performance.

In his blog, Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president at Azure for Operators, claims this newly developed technology could be blended with detailed platform telemetry to make network monitoring better for operators, which could makes for better performance optimisation of their 5G networks. “[It would] enable new AI, analytics and automation options that were not possible before,” said Khalidi. 

Microsoft is working on RAN Analytics and Control technologies for virtualised RAN running on Microsoft Edge platforms. The goal is to empower any virtualised RAN system maker or mobile operator to get the best out of its disaggregated and programmable networks. “We aim to develop platform technologies that virtualised RAN vendors can use to gain analytics insights in their RAN software operations,” said Khalil.

Microsoft recently introduced flexible, dynamically loaded service models to both the RAN software stack and the cloud/edge systems hosting the RAN, to speed the pace of invention in Open RAN. According to the blog, the current standard effort of O-RAN by the O-RAN Alliance specifies the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) architecture that exposes a set of telemetry and control interfaces with predefined service models (known as the E2 interface). Open RAN vendors are expected to implement all E2 service models specified in the standard. Near-real-time RAN controls are made possible with xApp applications accessing these service models.

Last year Microsoft, Intel and Capgemini, jointly developed an analytics and control approach that was acclaimed by Light Reading editors as an outstanding use case for Service provider AI. The full blog is available here.

1&1 scrambles to launch commercial 5G FWA by year end

Annie Turner
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1&1 scrambles to launch commercial 5G FWA by year end

Fixed wireless access (FWA) available in two cities on 28 December…with data caps

Germany’s new national network provider, 1&1, just managed to meet its target of launching commercial 5G FWA services by the end of last year.

The service is called 1&1 5G zu Hause and launched in the cities of Frankfurt and Karlsruhe (pictured) and “will be gradually expanded and 1 & 1 5G at home will be available in other regions in the next few weeks,” according to the [translated] press statement.

There are three options, each with a maximum download speed is 500Mbps and upload 40Mbps, with prices depending on data caps: the cheapest package is €19.99 a month for 50GB, then €29.99 for 100GB per month with the top offer of €39.99 for 250GB a month.

Once the data limit is reached, the service defaults to “an unlimited data volume with bandwidths of up to 384 kbps to the end of the month”.

It’s hard to see how this is lives up to 1&1’s boast of being “a replacement for conventional DSL, fiber optic or cable internet connections”.

There is a provisioning cost of €39.99 and see the statement for more info about the equipment and cloud storage options, and their prices.

1 & 1 claims to be building the most modern 5G mobile network in Europe, based on innovative OpenRAN technology. Rakuten Symphony is contracted to carry out the planning, construction and management of the brand new infrastructure.

MTN Nigeria winning 3m subscribers a month – NCC report

Nick Booth
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MTN Nigeria winning 3m subscribers a month – NCC report

November was good for Airtel, Glo and even 9mobile

Active telco service subscriptions to the mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile rose to 218.6 million in November 2022, according to the latest figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The increase was driven largely by MTN Nigeria, which recorded the highest gain of 3.1 million subscriptions in November 2022. The 4 GSM operators recorded a combined 4.2 million increase in subscriptions in November as the country’s active mobile subscription database stood at 214.3 million in October, reported Nigerian analyst Nairametrics.

Teledensity growth

The data showed the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, also jumped from 112.47% in October to 114.07% in November 2022. According to NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million.

Telco stats

The NCC’s statistics show that the operator with most subscribers, MTN, gained 3.1 million new subscriptions in November. This brought its total active customer database to 86.4 million from the 83.2 million it recorded in October. Meanwhile Airtel Nigeria added 713,865 new subscriptions but the gain was not enough to displace Glo from second position. Airtel’s active customer database rose from 58.6 million in October to 59.3 million at the end of November. 

Glo with the flow

However Glo just did enough to stay ahead, recording a 312,274 increase in subscriptions in the month to maintain its position as the second-largest operator. The new activations on the network brought Glo’s total subscriptions to 59.9 million from the 59.6 million it recorded in October. In last place 9mobile had the consolation of arresting its losing streak as it gained new subscriptions for the first time in several months. The company’s subscriptions database increased by 69,812 to 12.8 in the month under review.

Is MTN network slowing?

MTN customer Idowu Akintunde said that while his supplier is ‘gaining weight’ the word among the customer base MTN service levels are ‘dropping’, in terms of internet network speeds in comparison with Airtel. “My appeal to MTN is to check the slow internet of their network. I Subscribed for 3 MTN’s and the three are performing slowly despite upgrading” said Akintunde.

They want BT to go in rebrand but update’s slow, slow, slow

Nick Booth
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0
They want BT to go in rebrand but update’s slow, slow, slow

Mobile operator EE is to be the new flagship

UK telco BT wants to make its mobile operator unit EE its flagship brand for consumer customers, according to insiders close to ISP Review. From February to April 2023 a number of marketing campaigns will attempt to change the perception of the UK’s biggest broadband service provider, which was once part of the UK’s civil service and known as the GPO (General Post Office). The public must be persuaded that BT-EE is an agile shape shifter capable of fast moves. However, while most see it as the daddy of network infrastructure, it moves accordingly, lacking agility and often pulling up short due to backbone problems. The rebranding will start with the launch of its new Smart Hub 3 (SH3), with the router being presented as an EE product rather than a BT box.

In April 2022 BT announced a major shake-up of its branding, as landline and mobile networks converged. The number of would-be broadband subscribers who can’t get access to fibre could be fudged as BT and EE’s networks fused and the mantle of flagship brand was passed onto the newer mobile operator division. “So far we’ve only seen limited movement on this,” said ISP Review’s Mark Jackson. The disappearance of the Plusnet brand was successfully executed but creating new offerings has proved harder. 

BT is the main brand associated with its broadband consumers, while EE is associated with mobile operations. However, insiders have told ISP Review that some of BT’s existing products are being placed on a “stop sell” and others, such as BT TV, re-branded to EE which will continue its responsibility with all mobile business. However, a ‘big launch’ is needed, with the push being flanked by other feature and product excursions in support. One of those will be the introduction of BT’s long-awaited and Wi-Fi 6 equipped Smart Hub 3 (SH3) router, which has been delayed by development and supplier issues. The long-awaited launch has now been supported by branding planners looking for an EE product bandwagon to jump on.

By comparison, a previous Smart Hub 2 launch in 2018 was much better supported alongside FTTP and G.fast based ultrafast broadband products which were not a radical departure from previous incarnations, says ISP Review. BT’s new top end router needs a more significant update. “As the UK’s largest broadband provider, we continually review new, innovative ways to deliver the best in-home connectivity,” said a BT spokesperson, “our customers will be amongst the first to hear when we launch something new.”

2022 ends with a whimper, not a Christmas cracker, for Musk and SBF

Annie Turner
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2022 ends with a whimper, not a Christmas cracker, for Musk and SBF

The $44bn dollar purchase on a whim and an “old school” embezzlement bring a landmark year to a close

The year started with a lot of hype about the metaverse and an increasingly digital future. It ends with two men who personify disruptive business and the digital world – Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried – looking rather less invincible in an era of inflation.

Elon Musk asked Twitter users to vote on whether he should replace himself as CEO. More than 57% said yes, unsurprisingly after his chaotic time at the helm. It looked like posturing when he agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion early in the year – he does like to tease – but then discovered that reneging on the deal wouldn’t be so easy, and it finally went through in October.

Having fired the board and half the staff – no doubt numerous lawsuits to follow – he has alienated many big advertisers and some high profile tweeters have quit the platform. Most recently he banned then reinstated certain journalists’ accounts, then issued a policy saying he intended to stop users from sharing links on rival social media platforms like Facebook. After yet another terrific backlash, there was yet another U-turn.

In November Musk said Twitter was losing $4 million a day. It’s hard to see how it’s not a lot more now and an Insider Intelligence report published today predicted that users would fall to 50.5 million in 2024, the lowest level since 2014.

Steady hand at the wheel required

Clearly it is time for someone at the top to steer a steady course. Whether Musk would be able to resist grabbing at the wheel remains to be seen, but shareholders at Tesla and SpaceX, where Musk is also CEO, will be relieved.

They need his attention. This year Tesla’s share price has dropped more than 60%, underperforming Ford and General Motors. Musk has three times cashed in Tesla shares since April to raise cash for Twitter, having broken his word that he would not cash in any more after the first time.

Having landed Twitter with $13 billion debt, raised to help fund its purchase, he is now liable for $1 billion annual interest payments and has warned that Twitter might become bankrupt.

This probably didn’t play too well when those investors who bankrolled him were approached for more funds last week. Apparently his office was offering to sell them Twitter shares at the same price Musk paid for them ($54.20) before interest rates and inflation caught fire. Maybe this is why owners of social media platforms are so keen on other types of reality.

The irrepressible Mr Musk might find 2023 somewhat less fun as a number of inflated chickens come home to roost.

Fried bankman

Now to Sam Bankman-Fried. It would be hard to think up a better surname for someone who has left 1 million creditors in the lurch, losing $32 billion of their money. He has been living a high old life in the Bahamas, spending other people’s cash lavishly on real estate, political parties and bestowing gifts on his parents and employees, and personal loans to himself and staff.

Investors believed their money was going into FTX Trading, a crypto trading platform, but since May 2019 at the inception of FTX, it was syphoned off into a privately-held, crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC for the activities outlined above. Indeed, FTX supplied it with an unlimited line of credit.

Then investors got increasingly twitchy after things started to look wobbly in Crytoland in May, and wanted their money back. Eventually revealed a multi-billion-dollar hole in FTX where their money should’ve been and bankruptcy ensued In November.

From under that distinctive, boyish mop of dark curly hair that charmed the great and the good the world over, the 30-year old Wunderkind expressed his surprise it has all gone so wrong so fast. He assured people that “he never meant to commit fraud” but acknowledged “A lot of mistakes” and not paying enough attention operationally.

“Plain old embezzlement”

It turned out transactions and decisions were ‘recorded’ via Slack and the company used the Quikbooks accounting package designed for small firms, not multi-billion dollar businesses.

SBF is now behind bars in the Bahamas, denied bail as he’s viewed as too much of a flight risk, and has decided not fight extradition to the US where a long charge sheet awaits him in the South New York court which is also handling various cases against one Donald Trump.

John Ray III has been called in to mop up the mess. He is best known for his handling of Enron after the accounting scandal there. In testimony to the US Congress he said of FTX that despite his long history of untangling fraud and other criminal activity, he had never “seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organisation, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance”. 

He has also said, “This isn’t sophisticated whatsoever. This is just plain old embezzlement. Old school.”

Global cybersecurity market up 16% in Q3 despite worsening economy

Annie Turner
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Global cybersecurity market up 16% in Q3 despite worsening economy

Network security was the largest category, representing US$5.1 billion and growing 14.8%

The worldwide cybersecurity market grew 15.9% year on year in Q3 2022, to $17.8 billion (€16.92 billion), despite deteriorating economic conditions, though vendors saw a tightening in the small- to medium-sized businesses (SMB) sector. 

This is something of a worry as SMBs are often more vulnerable as they lack the resources of their larger counterparts, but the move to subscription-based models (see below) might help address this decline.

Winners and losers

The research found that Palo Alto Networks was the top vendor in the quarter, growing 24.9% year on year and increasing its market share to 8.4%, up from 7.8% a year earlier. Cisco was the second largest, with growth of 16.7% and a flat market share of 6.9%. Fortinet came third with growth of 29.9% to reach a 6.7% market share, up from 6.0% a year ago.  

Endpoint security was the fastest-growing category, up 18.7% year on year at $2.7 billion. Network security was the largest category, representing $5.1 billion and growing 14.8%.  

Shift to subscription model

The technology sector faces deteriorating economic conditions, increasing uncertainty and greater scrutiny of IT spending, factors that most vendors considered in their forecasts. Falls in new business, reductions in spending commitments and delays to subscription start dates were worse than expected, which will filter into future results.  

“Many cybersecurity vendors have shifted toward subscription-led business models, which also helped to shield them from the immediate impact of the economic slowdown,” said Matthew Ball, Chief Analyst at Canalys.

“The move to subscription-based platforms and increased focus on upselling existing accounts will sustain revenue growth for cybersecurity vendors over the next 12 months.”  

Cybersecurity Market Share Q3 2022

TIM, Google Cloud launch first 5G edge cloud for smart mobility

Annie Turner
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TIM, Google Cloud launch first 5G edge cloud for smart mobility

The solution is active at the Modena Automotive Smart Area, providing faster connections for Rome

TIM and Google Cloud have announced the launch of the first platform in Italy to enable smart mobility running on TIM’s Edge Cloud 5G technology.

The solution will support new applications for connected cars, intelligent transport and other digital services.

The platform combines Google’s Distributed Cloud Virtual software with the telco cloud infrastructure and TIM’s 5G network in the areas of Bologna and Modena. The Modena Automotive Smart Area (MASA) and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia will try out new solutions that require dynamic, low latency communication between vehicles and road infrastructure, and integration with smart city systems.

Google and TIM hope the platform will also be used by public administration, companies, entrepreneurs and start-ups to accelerate digital transformation.

The project is part of TIM’s Smart City provided by the operator’s newly formed TIM Enterprise unit and includes the modestly named Tim Urban Genius. This is a virtual control cabin, equipped with digital technologies that presents an intelligent, sustainable city model.

Syria’s new operator, Wafa, has hidden links to Iran

Annie Turner
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0
Syria’s new operator, Wafa, has hidden links to Iran

The connection to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard was unearthed by two non-governmental organisations

Wafa Telecom, which was given a licence to operate in Syria in February has been found to have links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This is according to research carried out by the Organised Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Observatory of Political and Economic Networks (OPENSyr).

The awarding of a third mobile operating licence for Syria was massively delayed by the civil war and was originally scheduled for 2011.

The main operator, Syriatel, has more than 11 million subscribers – the country’s population is around 17.5 million. The second operator, MTV Syria, has operated in the country for 15 years, but reportedly took the decision to pull out of the market last year after various regulatory shenanigans and demands for licence payments.

Wafa was set up in 2017, when the Syrian government said the firm was domestically owned, but little was made public about its ownership. Later it become known that Wafa was owned by a Syrian businessman with connections in the Assad government, and was allowed to buy kit from Iranian vendors, which are under an international trade embargo.

Formal partnership?

Now investigations by OCCRP and OPENSyr reveal that several international businesses linked to the IRGC are among Wafa’s shareholders. It quotes an anonymous source identified as a Syrian businessman and former government official claiming Wafa is “a partnership between the Syrian government and the Revolutionary Guard.”

The report says that 48% of shares in the state operator were held by Wafa Invest, a domestic firm co-founded by Yasar Ibrahim – a former aide to Assad who faces US and EU sanctions for acting as his financial proxy. At some time later, Wafa Invest’s stake in the operator fell to to 28%, with state-backed Syria Telecom gaining ownership of the 20%.

The majority (52%) shareholding in Wafa Telecom was held by Arab Business Company (ABC), which the Syrian government maintained was locally owned. The reports found that the Malaysian-registered Tioman Golden Treasure has substantial connections through both current and past owners and officials to both companies and individuals linked to the IRGC –many of which are subject to international sanctions.

Before Wafa was granted the operating licence, Iran was pressurising Syria to allow an Iranian-owned operator into Syria’s market as Tehran was keen to gain some return for its support of the Assad regime. It looks like maybe it succeeded.

Vodafone UK’s mobile network gains a digital twin

Annie Turner
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0
Vodafone UK’s mobile network gains a digital twin

The 3D network representation involved mapping more than 40 million features like buildings and trees

Vodafone has created a 3D digital twin of its UK mobile mast network so its engineers can visualise and plan network improvements or expansion. “It will allow them to make instant decisions to improve services to customers without leaving their desks,” the statement says.

In Ofcom’s Q2 report, published in October, concerning the most complained about operators, Vodafone’s score was average for mobile.

The digital twin was produced by mapping more than 40 million features like buildings, hills, valleys and trees, using software from Esri. It gives engineers a 360-degree virtual view of the network from their laptop or mobile device over a secure connection.

They can plan where to position new mobile sites more effectively and identify which ones need upgrading or repositioning to meet increases in customer demand, or to compensate for the construction of new buildings or tree growth.

De-cluttering

Dr Rebecca King, Geographic Information System (GIS) Lead at Vodafone, explained: “A customer’s mobile phone might cut out due to what we call clutter.

“This is usually down to the construction of new buildings or seasonal tree growth interfering with the signal strength. We like to visualise these in a digital format so that we can better plan the expansion of our network around them.”

Approximately 500,000 network features such as antennas, along with billions of rows of network performance data can be presented visually. Engineers can inspect a component of a mobile base station remotely before deciding if truck roll is necessary.

The company is looking to test a digital twin service in other markets, such as Germany and Turkey, and is exploring options for an intelligent online replica of both mobile and fixed broadband networks.

Minecraft for data scientists

Boris Pitchforth, Lead Architect at Vodafone, said: “The digital twin gives us an unprecedented understanding of our entire UK mobile network – it is like Minecraft for data scientists.

“We can be smarter and faster about how and where we add new 5G features, and target capacity increases with greater precision. There’s also the added benefit of being able to reduce our carbon footprint as our engineers won’t need to make as many site visits, especially to masts in remote areas.”

Working with the UK arm of Esri, a global leading Geographic Information System (GIS), location intelligence and mapping company, Vodafone used satellite data to map the terrain, including land use such as crops, transport links and height data of neighbouring objects.

“The digital twin doesn’t need to exactly replicate objects in the real world such as the individual bricks of a building, only its dimensions, so that we can angle the signal to give customers the best possible connection. The simpler the map is, the faster it loads,” added Boris Pitchforth.

Large-scale digital twin
Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise platform combines web mapping, image exploitation, real-time data handling, large-volume batch analysis and spatial data science.

“Using ArcGIS Enterprise has allowed us to add the spatial dimension to a lot of data we were already working with, resulting in new levels of location intelligence,” continued Dr Rebecca King. “Through our digital twin, data can now be visualised in 3D and shared easily with multiple teams.”

In addition to introducing the digital twin to other countries, Vodafone also plans to use it to support the rollout of new network features such as Massive MIMO – providing more capacity at a single cell site – to meet the proliferation of connected devices, which are predicted to grow globally to 30 billion by 2025.

“A few years ago, a national digital twin of this type simply wasn’t possible,” said Boris Pitchforth. “But the combination of ArcGIS Enterprise in AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud means large-scale digital twins can be a reality, providing a secure, scalable cloud option for enterprise data visualisation and geospatial analytics.

“Similar projects in the utilities sector, for example, traditionally focus on smaller areas but we wanted a national model in line with our network.”

Vodafone Tech 2025 strategy

The move forms part of Vodafone’s Tech 2025 strategy to automate large parts of its pan-European network to be able to rapidly respond to customer demand where it is needed most. About 70% of the company’s core European network runs on Vodafone’s own, on-premise cloud.

This will increase to 100% by 2025 and give Vodafone a software-driven platform from which to launch universal products in many markets at the same time, as well as predict and dynamically meet future demand.

A common data ocean connecting all Vodafone markets uses advanced AI and Machine Learning to empower tens of thousands of its employees. They can plan and operate the networks, intelligently manage data centre cooling, and dial-down the power at mobile sites during off-peak times.

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