This is an unexpected turn in a long-running dispute over taxes
Vodacom Congo has issued a statement saying that the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) officials sealed up its technical, commercial, and administrative offices on 6 and 7 December. The DGI has also frozen Vodacom Congo’s bank accounts, according to the statement which the operator said was issued in response to posts on social media.
Outstanding amounts
Vodacom said the action relates to an audit, instigated by the tax authority, covering 2016 to 2019, after which the operator was ordered to pay $243 million (£201 million €233 million).
Vodacom argued this was inaccurate, citing “relevant tax legislation” andthe authority reduced the bill to $165 million in August 2022.
However, the operator was not happy with this sum either and launched an appeal against it in November. The DGI responded by “initiated bulk actions of forced recovery of the unadjusted sum,”.
The operator said this action is “against all expectations” and claims that the freezing of its bank accounts and sealing of its premises is “in flagrant violation” of legal procedures. It also stated its intention to continue to contest the tax bill and other accusations against it via legitimate legal channels.
The operator has also been at pains to stress that it will ensure its networks and services are not disrupted by the DGI’s action.
An unhappy history
Vodacom is not the only operator engaged in a tax dispute with the Congolese authorities, but the disagreements have become more heated since the government introduced a new tax regime early in 2022. This imposes fees on data usage, messages and voice minutes.
The operators rejected this change and declines to pay the first instalment – a total believed to be some $180 million.
Reportedly, the government then confiscated the passports of some executives from Vodacom, as well as Africell, Airtel and Orange and had travel bans imposed on them.ory
Telecom Titans reports that previous disputes led to the jailing of Vodacom Congo, CFO, Oomar Chutoo in 2020 for four days, accused of forgery and falsification of financial statements.
A year later, a Vodacom engineer was jailed having been accused of fraud related to the L’Autorité de régulation de la poste et des télécommunications’ (ARPTC) controversial registry of mobile devices. The engineer allegedly had erased some files it had seized.
Vodacom said the arrest was “arbitrary” and amounted to intimidation.
The operator ended its statement pertaining to the closure of its premises and freezing of its bank accounts with a reminder that to “the public and all authorities that it is and remains a good corporate citizen, respectful of the laws and regulations in force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as its services always show a high sense of fiscal civic-mindedness and that it rigorously applies the policy of good governance, respect for the rule of law and transparency.”
Sponsored: Analysts urgently need solutions to understand illegal uses of Sidelink services and investigate resultant crimes
Mobile devices have long been capable of peer-to-peer networking using built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular radios. The technical term for this connectivity is Sidelink, but it is more widely known by the Apple iOS/macOS implementation, AirDrop (Nearby Share is the Android equivalent).
AirDrop (or equivalent) allows the sharing of files and messages to nearby devices using a phone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, without ever using a telecommunication provider’s cellular network. Therefore, the usual digital footprints collected by law enforcement as evidence are not available.
In recent months, news reports of people using AirDrop to distribute threats of violence and inappropriate material have caused school evacuations, leading to demands for criminal investigation and prosecution.
As governments around the world update laws to address AirDrop communications, the challenge for policy makers and investigators will be finding innovative solutions to capture the non-traditional information from these services and help analysts understand how they are illegally used and how to investigate such crimes.
What is Airdrop or Nearby Share?
AirDrop, Android Nearby Share, Windows Nearby Sharing, and other Sidelink platforms are implementations of a networking technology in the operating system of smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers. The capabilities were developed to enable fast, efficient sharing of information between physically close devices.
The idea was for you to share photos of a vacation, an article you are reading, your contact information, or a playlist with someone you are standing in front of on-the-fly, with one click, making sharing with others easier and faster.
The process generally begins by the transmitting device sending out a broadcast over Bluetooth. While Bluetooth is reliable, it is slow and consumes battery power quickly. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), however, is optimized for just such communications, using much less power and bandwidth. In the event of a BLE broadcast, any devices that are:
1) awake;
2) have Airdrop (or equivalent) turned on; and
3) are nearby, will respond with a hash identifying themselves.
The application will then establish a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection between the sender and each receiver. Wi-Fi is used because of its power efficiency and high-speed data transfer capability. Once the transfer completes, the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections are torn down.
AirDrop settings do allow users to control which, if any, of their devices can be discovered for sharing. They can be seen in expanding circles of discoverability:
1) Users can turn off the capability completely (in which case they would never see the BLE broadcast);
2) Users can have the capability on, but limit their device being discovered only by their contacts; and,
3) allow any device to discover them. Users can also change how they appear when discovered or when sharing by changing their contact name and/or photo.
Why off-network file sharing matters
Since restricting the AirDrop or Nearby Share via settings on a device may impact the intended advantages of Sidelink communications, users sometimes leave their device fully discoverable. As a result, unknown parties may place content of their choice – even criminal threats – on other people’s devices, without the benefit of network-based mediation to identify its source.
For example, pushing obscene material onto other people’s devices without their knowledge or consent may be harmful and/or criminal regardless of whether their device settings permit it. Those actions can be particularly malicious when they target children or other vulnerable parties, moving beyond harassment to causing or awakening trauma.
The potential for the misuse of Sidelink applications can take many forms. On a number of occasions, airplane passengers have used AirDrop communications to interfere directly with flight safety, delivering everything from bomb threats to terrorizing images of plane crashes to other passengers in mid-flight.
The potential danger of a panic reaction among plane passengers is obvious, and it extends to larger contained areas with crowds of people as well, such as stadiums or schools. In such instances, the communication itself constitutes a crime that must be investigated, but it can also incite a potential public emergency that authorities must assess and react to immediately.
The perceived anonymity that Airdrop provides to the sender and recipient coupled with the lack of traditional intelligence data from the cellular network means that those investigating such crimes hit a quick, dead end. SS8, working with our law enforcement partners, is currently developing solutions to help fill those gaps for investigators. We look forward to sharing more as
About the author Kevin McTiernan
Kevin has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications and network security industries. At SS8, he is VP of Government Solutions, responsible for leading the vision, design and delivery of SS8’s government solutions, including the Xcipio® compliance portfolio. Learn more about Kevin from his LinkedIn profile by clicking here.
This “simplifies and restructures” existing deal to deliver annualised savings of £65m by the end of 2025
BT Group has announced a new partnership for its Digital division intended to “transform the business’ approach to its legacy IT estate as part of its modernisation and simplification programme”.
The new partnership is a recasting and extension of the deal BT already has in place with Tata Consultancy Services to deliver an annualised £65 million saving by the end of the financial year 2025 as part of BT’s goal of achieving £3 billion in gross annualised savings in that period. This saving is expected to rise to £145 million a year by 2027.
Now TCS will work with BT to manage and “ramp down” more than 70% of Digital’s legacy technology estate to help deliver Digital’s goals of boosting its capacity and building its strategic technology architecture faster to support the Group’s growth.
According to BT, it will also de-risk and accelerate the Group’s transition from legacy systems which is structured into the deal.
Shedding 400 staff
Also as part of the deal, some 400 BT Group employees worldwide “will have the opportunity to join TCS”. BT states, “TCS has an excellent track record of transitioning colleagues with these skills into transformative roles, and they will shape the team that will deliver the acceleration of our legacy decommissioning.
“In addition, colleagues moving to TCS will gain the opportunity to build long-term sustainable careers in an exciting technology business.”
Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, BT Group said: “This is yet another transformative move to greatly simplify the BT Group legacy estate. It removes complexity and intensifies our strategic focus on delivering the leading-edge tech to meet our customers’ needs and drive growth.”
In addition to the specifics of the deal, BT Group and TCS have agreed to work together to develop joint go-to-market propositions in the coming months.
They will work on the next phase of the government-backed programme
Working with Ofcom, Digital Catapult says nine companies have signed up to accelerate the development of Open RAN products. They have joined the next phase of the SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC) Labs’programme, funded by the government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The companies a combination of domestic and overseas, and some – India’s VVDN, SOLiD with headquartered in South Korea and ASOCS based in Israel – are new to the UK market. The other six joiners are Accelleran, CableFree, Effnet, Phluido, Radisys and VMware.
They will work with Digital Catapult to integrate their Open RAN products into working, end-to-end systems and conduct indoor interoperability and performance testing.
The programme encourages new solution providers to enter the telecoms supply chain in the UK to boost the adoption of Open RAN and the supplier ecosystem. The first five companies to join the SONIC Lab programme were announced in July.
This phase of the programme will focus on system integration, exploring the maturity of the Ran Intelligence Controller (RIC) and investigating ARM-based Open RAN implementations.
ASOCS, Accelleran and Radisys will act as system integrators, responsible for benchmarking end-to-end interoperability, wider benchmarking and experimenting with “swapability”. The system integrators will lead installation of software and firmware, and capture optimisation and performance improvement measures.
All nine Open RAN vendors will:
• share best practices around the implementation of Open RAN standards,
• solve specific Open RAN integration problems,
• collaborate with new partners to create knowledge, and
• have the chance to demonstrate their products to potential customers and end-users.
Analyst predicts 9.2% CAGR in global coherent optical equipment market to 2030
At $971 million, Ciena’s Q4 revenues were a little down on last year’s, which broke the $1 billion mark, but still beat market expectations.
The vendor’s President and CEO, Gary Smith, attributed this to “some favourable supply chain developments in the second half of this quarter,” and added, “Looking ahead, we expect to deliver outsized revenue growth in fiscal 2023 given our significant backlog and continued signs of gradual supply improvement.
“And, we remain confident that the durability of secular demand drivers and our strategic investments to expand our addressable market position us to deliver strong revenue growth over the next several years.”
Ciena reported revenues of $3.63 billion for the full year, just up from last year’s, pushing its share price up 18.2%.
Analyst view
A report published by Acumen Research and Consulting, Coherent Optical Equipment Market and Region 2022-2030 predicts the global market will reach to reach at $98.3 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 9.2%, “owing to rapid digitization and modernization across all industries” and “increasing internet penetration [driving] the coherent optical equipment market value”
Sponsored: Realising the true business value of 5G requires telcos get to grips with the ‘core’ of the technology
With 5G, the opportunity for positive societal transformation is greater than anything we’ve seen before.
From sustainable smart manufacturing and efficient transport networks through to personalised healthcare and accessible education, the commercialisation of 5G promises to change our world for the better.
5G will disrupt business models, enhance public services, even reimagine entire industries. But to achieve this, one vital industry needs to transform first – the telco operators’ own.
First to Market vs. Full Features
5G is the fastest-deployed mobile generation in history and coverage continues to grow rapidly – Ericsson’s 2022 Mobility Report forecasts that 5G mobile subscriptions will surpass one billion in 2022.
Due to a need to keep costs low and a desire to be first to market, many operators began their 5G journey by building on non-standalone (NSA) architecture. Using existing 4G LTE radio equipment and spectrum to support new 5G services, this approach enabled much faster deployment.
However, there is an inbuilt limitation to this approach. By relying on the previous generation of technology, it’s not possible to receive the full range of capability enhancements an operator can expect on a standalone 5G network.
The most innovative new applications and business cases depend on significantly improved speed, latency, robustness, security, and positioning – benefits that are reliant on 5G standalone and 5G Core – as well as the enablement of capabilities like end-to-end network slicing.
Supporting Emerging Business Models
Unlike an NSA network, 5G Core for standalone is a core network – the infrastructure responsible for establishing reliable, secure connectivity to the network and access to services – built from the ground up using technologies specifically designed to support next-generation services.
The heart of a 5G mobile network, a 5G Core for standalone is cloud-native by design, meaning that it is agnostic when it comes to underlying cloud infrastructure, ensuring greater responsiveness, scalability, resiliency, and higher deployment flexibility.
While this approach is widely recognised as the foundation for achieving the full benefits of 5G, there are several barriers that operators must overcome when it comes to deployment. How can migration be managed to minimise disruption? Can the technology integrate with existing systems? What is required to upskill employees and update processes?
Understanding Your Environment
To ensure a smooth transition to 5G Core for standalone, it is important to first understand what 5G functionality is required to enable the use cases and business models operators want to support. For example, it is likely that some functionality will only be required in certain geographic areas, such as manufacturing parks or airports.
These kinds of variables mean there is not one optimum model for deployment. Transformation paths can vary significantly depending on market realities and business needs. But there are some common approaches that will consistently deliver results.
A dual-mode Core is an effective way to ease the introduction of new 5G Core network architecture, as it allows an efficient co-existence with 4G. For example, Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core is built on cloud-native, microservices-based technology, and combines Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and the new 5G Core (5GC) network functions into a common multi-access platform that supports 5G and previous generations.
An optimised cloud architecture is also critical. Ericsson has long been a leader in this space, creating a set of five key design principles to help organisations take full advantage of cloud-native technology.
Perhaps most important of these principles when it comes to optimising cloud architecture for 5G concerns orchestration and automation. Highly automated network operations paired with automated service orchestration drive huge efficiencies for service providers. This will allow service providers to focus on how 5G can be applied to address the business needs of specific customer organisations or industries, while optimising their operational costs.
Securing a Slice of the Action
New low latency 5G use cases are amongst the most promising for industries, enabled by more distributed networks and technologies like network slicing. Network slicing means service providers can segment a single end-to-end network into distinct virtual slices, each providing customer specific, dedicated resources and capabilities depending on their needs.
This will enable new business model innovation and will be critical to opening up new 5G-enabled revenue streams for service providers.
The automotive sector, and the self-driving cars it is developing, for example, represents a huge opportunity for operators. Demanding constant connectivity and superior quality of service, getting these vehicles to market will depend on manufacturers obtaining a dedicated network slice capable of delivering on a Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiated with the operator.
It is in these kinds of mission critical capabilities that 5G will provide the benefits that operators are looking for. By gaining access to these benefits, commercial and enterprise customers will increasingly see these operators as a critical partner in the next stage of their evolution, instead of just another service provider. Aside from opening new revenue streams, operators can also expect 5G to result in higher levels of consumer satisfaction and loyalty.
Ericsson is already working with leading organisations around the globe to facilitate the migration to 5G Core for standalone. In some regions we are already seeing some brands beginning to reap the benefits.
Breaking the Generational Cycle
Around the world, the telco industry has successfully navigated the important first phase of 5G’s roll-out, with a broad deployment of both networks and devices across regions. We are now well into the next stage, where the global industry is steadily transitioning to 5G standalone, with the Core network to support it. It is time to build on these early successes, expanding and scaling the technology among service providers to realise the real value of 5G for society, businesses and for network operators themselves.
One thing we learned from 4G is that those organisations that launched and invested in the technology early and led in its deployment are the ones who ultimately retained the largest market share. Similarly, service providers that lead the transition to 5G Core for standalone will find themselves as the real winners of the 5G era, positioned at the centre of an incredible period of transformation, driving innovation across industries to fundamentally disrupt the way we deliver and consume digital services.
They will also be the operators that break the generational cycle of high CAPEX, low returns and elevate themselves in the eco-system beyond a utility into true partners for digital transformation.
Vendor’s tech will be a key part of four new automated metro lines which will carry up to 2 million passengers daily
Société du Grand Paris (SGP) will deploy Nokia’s 5G-ready IP/MPLS multiservice, mobile core and RAN solutions to support the massive expansion of Paris’ metro system.
The Grand Paris Express, which will extend the metro into Greater Paris, is the largest metro rail project in Europe. Some 220km of new track will be constructed for four new lines (15, 16, 17 and 18) and an extension of line 14. Also, 68 new metro stations are to be built, with the idea of developing neighbourhoods around them to foster new urban centres.
Nokia previously deployed an LTE network systems to provide critical communications across three of the new Paris metro lines.
The private mobile radio solution is designed for operational communications and indoor/outdoor connectivity across all Grand Paris Express stations, lines and depots.
Mission-critical application requirements across the four lines will be supported by the multi-service IP/MPLS network carrying communication between the centralised control centre and the automated stations, lines and depots it supervises.
There will be real-time video surveillance inside the trains so that centralised operations teams can quickly identify and flag issues and threats, accelerate response times and assure greater safety for passengers, emergency response teams and employees.
The new communications system promises is improved levels of service for passengers such as intuitive ticketing and more accurate travel information.
Matthieu Bourguignon, Vice President Enterprise Europe Sales at Nokia, said: “These projects provide critical high-speed connectivity and performance at all points within the new Grand Paris metro and its operations, giving SGP the highest levels of confidence in its end-to-end Nokia network.
“We are incredibly proud to be selected by SGP as a supplier and excited to deploy our world-leading wireless access, IP/MPLS routing and mobile core solutions as a part of this ambitious project to digitally transform one of Europe’s largest rail systems.”
The operator wants faster onboarding of applications, and simpler operations and management of product lifecycles
The UK’s Virgin Media O2 chose Canonical’s Charmed OSM (open-source MANO) system as its production-ready orchestration platform for automated hybrid workload management. The platform is Canonical’s upstream distribution of ETSI’s open-source management and orchestration (MANO) software stack for virtualised network deployments.
OSM offers a generic approach to managing network functions and orchestration in physical, virtual, containerised and hybrid environments. It is intended to reduce the complexity of service lifecycle management and minimises errors and operating costs.
Canonical claims that by operating cloud workloads with Charmed OSM, Virgin Media O2 will benefit from greater agility and scalability, and optimised migration to network functions virtualisation (NFV).
Less complexity and cost
Charmed OSM should help Virgin Media O2 reduce costs from the start by providing through its approach and simplifying initial configuration and daily operational tasks.
Alex Boyd, Head of Telco Cloud at Virgin Media O2 said, “Telco Cloud is our strategic, on-premise platform that hosts core network functions, like 5G. Telco Cloud enables us to provide the best services for millions of Virgin Media O2 customers.”
Canonical describes Charmed OSM as a carrier-grade, model-driven OSM, with enterprise support and long-term security updates, for the open source community, partners, and telcos. It accelerates migration to NFV by automating production and covering the end-to-end lifecycle of network services by orchestrating service and resource.
Canonical supports Charmed OSM on a subscription basis, with telco-grade service level agreements. It can be deployed in a highly available mode, is resilient against failures, and allows telcos to meet their digital transformation goal, according to the software house.
Virgin Media O2 has onboarded telco workloads with Charmed OSM and is managing the lifecycle, including virtualised and containerised deployments by multiple vendors like Mavenir and Oracle. To reduce integration efforts between vendors, Charmed OSM consumes open published information and data models aligned with ETSI’s NFV standards.
Other partners
Mavenir implemented its signalling firewall and is in the process of deploying its cloud-native virtualised(IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) for its fixed deployment with the operator using Charmed OSM.
Minsait deployed the project, intregating multiple Charmed OSM sites and onboarding network services from different vendors. Charmed OSM’s model-driven architecture enabled Minsait to deploy the MANO infrastructure rapidly.
Francisco Rodriguez. NFV Projects Manager at Minsait, noted, “OSM is becoming a key enabler of the deployment of 5G for our clients. The compliance with standards, maturity and independence of any network function vendor make it the best fit to the current needs of telco operators. OSM.”
Vendor acknowledges unable to overcome market fragmentation and “only tapped into a limited part of the value chain”
Ericsson and Aeris Communications have signed an agreement for the transfer of Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses.
The transaction includes the transfer of Ericsson’s assets and employees in its IoT business to Aeris. Ericsson also intends to support Aeris with transition services and will acquire a small stake in the company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
Fragmentation and losses
The IoT business, with 2022 full year forecasted net sales of SEK 0.8 billion (€73,430,216), has been the key driver of the losses in Business Area Technologies and New Businesses in Ericsson’s Enterprise segment.
The transaction will eliminate quarterly losses of SEK 0.25 billion. Ericsson said in a statement, “The divestment, related cost and other portfolio optimizations will lead to a negative one-time EBIT impact of SEK 1.1 billion in Q4 2022, of which 80% being cash and the majority occurring in Q1 2023.
“The IoT business will be transferred to Segment Other in Q1 2023 in anticipation of closing of the transaction, with an expected EBIT loss of SEK 0.25 billion during the first quarter.”
Åsa Tamsons, Head of Business Area Technologies & New Businesses at Ericsson, said, “Despite significant investments to address the fragmentation of the IoT market, Ericsson has only tapped into a limited part of the value chain, limiting the returns of such investments. The combined business will offer an unparalleled IoT platform for enterprises and new revenue streams for communication service providers, ultimately benefiting Ericsson’s customers. Aeris is a good home for our IoT business.”
What’s up for transfer?
Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator is used by more than 9,000 enterprises to manage more than 95 million connected devices with 22 million eSIM connections globally. These enterprises and connections plug into Ericsson’s ecosystem of more than 35 network operators that provide global cellular IoT connectivity.
Ericsson claims that its “Connected Vehicle Cloud is the most complete connected car platform on the market today, with frontrunners in automotive IoT using it to connect six million vehicles and counting across 180 countries”.
Aeris specialises in providing businesses with “intelligent” cellular IoT connectivity. Its solution stack is brought to market through channel partners, network operators (including Softbank, Vodafone and AT&T) and direct sales organizations.
Its Intelligent IoT Network targets industry sectors such as transportation, energy, automotive and healthcare, offering network operators the opportunity to make money from new services on top of connectivity enabled by IoT Accelerator.
Combined Aeris’ and Ericsson’s IoT platforms will connect over 100 million IoT devices worldwide, covering 190 countries. Ericsson says this will make Aeris a market leader in IoT, generate strong market synergies, and further simplify IoT for 9,400 enterprises by providing them with a global platform with secure, reliable, and intelligent IoT solutions.
Operator named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed IoT services worldwide for three consecutive years
The global IoT provider and telecom operator Telenor has passed the milestone of 20 million SIMs for IoT. The unit has experienced rapid growth over recent years, putting it in the top three IoT operators in Europe and among the top IoT operators in the world – see Gartner’s Magic Quadrant below.
The operator says the growth came from both new and existing customers and is expected to continue as more industries invest in digitalisation.
Mats Lundquist, CEO of Telenor Connexion and Head of Telenor IoT, said, “The surge in demand for connectivity from Telenor IoT customers is very positive, and only a ripple of what is happening on a global scale.
“Smart product and sensor manufacturers need to be assessing and updating their technology for a wave of development that is already happening around us.
“We look forward to continuing to facilitate the growth of our customers via an extended global network and new technological advancements in the coming years.”
Local and global
Telenor IoT manages international deployments for global customers in some 200 countries and operates more than 20 million connected devices to enterprises such as Volvo, Scania, Hitachi, Verisure Securitas Direct and Husqvarna.
The IoT solutions are offered to national customers in the Nordics through the local Telenor operations in each country. On a global level, Telenor Connexion provides solutions for large, international enterprises that need customised offers with advanced support.
