Subscribe
Home Blog Page 289

Ericsson’s Irish developers to RAN the world  

Nick Booth
-
0
Ericsson’s Irish developers to RAN the world  

Athlone R&D will orchestrate the 5G product portfolio

Ericsson is to hire 250 people at its Irish Research and Development Centre in Athlone to help it create cloud-native products that orchestrate, automate and power its 5G portfolio. It’s looking for highly skilled software developers, data scientists, architects, cloud and mobile communication engineers at all career stages. This project is supported by the Irish Government through investment body IDA Ireland. The recruitment will run over the next three years and concentrate Ericsson’s R&D efforts around the workforce in Athlone, which will swell to 1,450 staff, it said.

OSS course

The 250 cloud natives will build RAN, management, automation and orchestration offerings for the world, according to Denis Dullea, Head of Research and Development at Ericsson Athlone, who hailed the strong ongoing partnerships with the IDA and the Irish Government. Ericsson has run research and development (R&D) in Athlone since 1979 and is now one of Ireland’s largest employers of software developers. The Athlone facility is the global R&D headquarters of Ericsson Digital Services OSS (Operations Support Systems) and currently employs 1200 people developing its OSS and Cloud RAN (Radio Access Network) portfolio. Ericsson employs an additional 200 staff at its Dublin base.

Cloud natives

Robert Troy, the Irish government’s Minister of State with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation welcomed the creation of highly skilled roles in software development, engineering and cloud technologies. The Irish Midlands have become a centre of excellence in the ICT sector and cloud technology, Troy said. Ireland established the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) to ensure there is a continued production line of software engineers. Ericsson is a well-established presence in Athlone and has invested heavily in its R&D Campus, according to the newspaper the Westmeath Independent. 

Athlone again, naturally

 “The next generation of technology developed at the Athlone facility will set the standard for the industry,” said IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan, “I wish Ericsson every success and I want to assure the team of IDA Ireland’s continued support.” The roles will be for cloud native engineers with competences including Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, HCP, together with core programming languages such as Java, C++, JavaScript, Python and Golang.

Vodafone tracks IoT Assets in Qatar World Cup

Nick Booth
-
0
Vodafone tracks IoT Assets in Qatar World Cup

A nation in digital transformation needs its IoT assets tracked

Vodafone Qatar has launched an Asset Tracking system that makes digital transformation (DT) less painful by making the Internet of Things (IoT) less wasteful. The new end-to-end IoT Asset Tracking solution gives instant feedback on issues that threaten to make cost escalate, like asset location and environmental conditions. It multi-tasks and tracks multiple assets at once as it both alerts and report to managers, reported Gulf Times. It is suitable to industries that might use heavy machinery, such as construction, mining or oil exploration. It is also ideal for those who deal in logistics such as freight, or public transport. Or indeed those who use both, such as air, ferry and shipping ports. There are many examples, but anything involving high value goods and movable equipment is a good yardstick. Or indeed, organising a World Cup which focuses the eyes the world on a nation.

Cost of footy

The upcoming World Cup in Qatar is presenting huge logistical issues for the construction, transport and comms industries. From November the tournament takes place at eight stadia, seven of which are new and one underwent a huge redevelopment to bring it up to capacity, according to Sky News. Ever since Qatar was controversially awarded the event by world football governing body FIFA in December 2010, the country has been developing an infrastructure that will be able to accommodate an anticipated 1.5 million visitors. The cost of the stadia and the cost of Qatar’s infrastructure development, including hotels, roads, public spaces and transport, is around $220bn, according to the country’s ambassador to Russia in October, as quoted by Russia’s Tass news agency. Doha-based Vodafone Qatar is offering to rationalise the operating costs. 

No DT without IoT

Vodafone’s IoT Asset Tracking system comes in two packages, one for large enterprises and one for smaller ones. They didn’t define at what stage an enterprise is defined as small. All users will manage their assets through a self-service IoT web portal and mobile application while monitoring remotely in the field. Both systems allow for tracking, dashboard access, reports and alerts notifications.

Track back

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an enterprise that is going through a digital transformation must be in want of an asset tracker, according to Mahday Saad al-Hebabi, Vodafone Qatar Business Services director, “businesses should not spend precious time figuring out which technologies are best suited to them. They need IoT solutions that are easy to deploy, accessible and affordable, so that they can shift their focus and efforts towards achieving their business goals.”

TIM and CDP agree plan for long awaited single network

Nick Booth
-
0
TIM and CDP agree plan for long awaited single network

La Pazienza È la Virtù dei Forti

Telecom Italia (TIM) and national investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) are close to an agreement to merge the phone group’s fixed network assets with those of state-backed rival broadband firm Open Fiber, Reuters three sources said last night. The pact would create the single broadband network that TIM CEO Pietro Labriola has tried to mastermind since being mooted a chief executive by the board. Labriola’s turnaround plan was built on splitting the group’s landline grid from service operations.

Ad Maiora Semper

The boards of directors of TIM and CDP met to approve a framework agreement and negotiate a binding deal on a network tie-up with Open Fiber with a deadline for completion of October, a Reuters source said. The agreement would see CDP control the combined network. It is TIM’s second largest investor with a 10% stake and holds a 60% stake in Open Fiber. Italy is keen to create a single broadband network champion and to expedite the fibre optic roll-out that could digitalise the economy. 

Ride Bene Chi Ride Ultimo

Debt-laden TIM plans to hive off its landline grid, an asset that analysts value at €20 billion at most. As the final structure of the deal with Open Fiber is not yet decided, there are options under discussion including an outright sale of TIM’s landline grid, two separate sources told Reuters.

The framework agreement has the backing of infrastructure funds Macquarie and KKR, which hold minority stakes in Open Fiber and in the TIM network respectively. KKR, which spent €1.8 billion on a 37.5% stake in TIM’s last mile network unit FiberCop and attempted a €10.8 billion takeover bid for TIM, has cast doubt on how these plans fit the regulation and valuation issues related to the single network plan.  

Zain Bahrain gets 5G by street light

Nick Booth
-
0
Zain Bahrain gets 5G by street light

Kingdom’s first 5G streetlight deployment is in Bahrain Bay

Zain Bahrain and systems integrator LSS Technologies are collaborating on a 5G by streetlight (5GBS) system to connect Bahrain Bay, a first for the Kingdom, reports Trade Arabia. Zain said it will add comms to the infrastructure without affecting the delivery of electricity. In a statement it promised to install Zain 5G broadcasting units by blending seamlessly with the city’s electrical infrastructure. “We worked together to design these new compact enclosures, 5G sites in the smallest form factor,” said LSS Technologies general manager Sandeep Ahluwalia.

Beauty and the broadband

The new system could boost both 4G and 5G coverage and provide reliable connectivity for a great end-user experience, it stated. The solution contributes to Zain Bahrain Sustainability Strategy that aligns with the Kingdom’s own Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Goal 9 alludes to industry, innovation and Infrastructure. Goal 11 is about sustainable cities and communities and Goal 12 offer directives on responsible consumption and production. Zain Bahrain says its strategy is centred around digital transformation leadership and is committed to building a secure and resilient 5G network. It will continue to expand its 5G network progressively with the latest innovative solution across the Kingdom.

Now Zain can advance

“We are thrilled to be the first telecom operator in the kingdom to complete the innovative 5G street system in Bahrain Bay’s luxurious development,” said Zain Bahrain CEO Duncan Howard, “we can now deploy more advanced 5G sites across the Kingdom.” Zain has completed a system that suits high-end development and expands network coverage while seamlessly integrating with existing streetscapes, according to Bahrain Bay CEO Gagan Suri. “The deployment highlights Zain’s latest innovation and with 5G it will help transform Bahrain Bay to a smart city.”

A1 Telekom Austria buys Bulgaria’s Stemo

Nick Booth
-
0
A1 Telekom Austria buys Bulgaria’s Stemo

Telco pushes penetration, funds Stemo’s national ambitions

A1 Telekom Austria has acquired Bulgarian ICT company Stemo for an undisclosed fee. Stemo has been a privately held company since it was founded by four computer specialists in 1991 to develop software and deliver computer equipment. It is now recognised by analysts as a leader in telecoms infrastructure. 

Following the acquisition, Stemo will still operate independently but will be offering its knowledge of finance, technical infrastructure, sales and customer service to its new owner A1 Bulgaria. A1 Group will finance the transaction, subject to merger control clearance, via existing cash flow.

Natural step

The A1 Group said the deal is a natural step in the development of its IT expertise and allows it to solve more complex technological problems for the private, public and government organisations it services. “Our experience in software services, infrastructure services and cyber security combined with Stemo’s expertise will lead to development of technology solutions that benefit the whole country,” said Alexander Dimitrov, chairman of the management board and CEO of A1 Bulgaria.
The deal with A1 Group will help Stemo to help more international clients, according to its co-founder and CEO Georgi Tihov. “I am sure that the cooperation will improve the level of technological development of Bulgaria,” said Tihov.

Ukraine: Big Tech tells EU what to do

Nick Booth
-
0
Ukraine: Big Tech tells EU what to do

European mobile operators lectured over humanitarian cause

US tech companies turned political lobbyists are dictating policy to the European Commission (EC), according to a report by news site Bloomberg. A congress of American IT vendors told the EC that it should ‘boost’ donations of telecom and data centre equipment to Ukraine. The self-appointed officiators are collectively claiming the EC is failing to provide the coordination and funding that the US corporations might expect.

Grandstanding opportunity

The lecture was delivered by the European lobby group DigitalEurope, which represents nearly 100 companies including the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. It claims that while attention has been focused on humanitarian aid and weapons, “the Russian armed forces are also destroying vital radio and telecoms equipment – critical infrastructure for a modern state to function,” according to a letter seen by Bloomberg.

Stronger role

“There is an urgent need to boost the supply of equipment for telecommunications and data centre infrastructure,” DigitalEurope and eight national digital associations wrote to Commission officials including Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. “The Commission has the potential to play a much stronger role, to streamline the process and focus the many requests for equipment in a centralized process,” it said.

Mighty Musk

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has donated more than 12,000 Starlink dishes to provide broadband to areas where the internet has been knocked out. Meanwhile Alphabet is providing spare laptops for ‘remote education’ and Meta Platforms (a Facebook division) used its mobility data to help human rights groups to track refugees.

Platform

Tech companies have donated thousands of laptops, servers and cybersecurity software to Ukraine but now they seem to want more say in governing compassion and expect to tell the EU what to do. It started with a lecture on better coordination and funding for more donations as Ukraine’s needs become more complicated and expensive. According to the Bloomberg report, DigitalEurope wants Europe’s mobile operators to carry out more servicing and rebuilding of drones and data centre infrastructure. 

Lyca Mobile launches CLTV in Europe after pilot show numbers impressed

Nick Booth
-
0
Lyca Mobile launches CLTV in Europe after pilot show numbers impressed

The Flytxt CVM Accelerator raised revenue per user by 1.3%

Artificial intelligence (AI) can definitely make customers more profitable, claims mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Lyca Mobile, which is launching the Flytxt’s CVM Accelerator in the US and Europe after a successful trial. In a one-month pilot programme, it increased the average revenue per user (ARPU) by 1.3%, the MVNO claims. Now Lyca Mobile aims to use this tool in its seven most lucrative markets: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the US and the UK.

On the Flytxt

AI can inform customer value management (CVM) systems and give mobile operators like Lyca Mobile insights into their customers’ transactions with the network, according to Flytxt. The goal is to get the maximum value from every ‘personalised customer interaction’ through customer experience (CX) systems like Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Personalise

Somehow these cold, anonymous and clinical machine-processed interventions produce a Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) maximization of personalised human interactions. The CVM Accelerator uses Flytxt’s analytics and AI, which have been trained to using ‘real-world insights’ and patterns from more than a billion consumers and trillions of data points. They didn’t provide any examples of these insights or patterns might be, however. If a customer is watching a Youtube video on their mobile phone, the network might automatically offer the customer better options.

Know your customer

It works, that’s the main thing, according to Jogan Satkunanathan, Chief of Pricing and Product Management at Lyca Mobile. “We wish to place customers and digital capabilities at the centre of our business strategy,” said Satkunanathan. Flytxt’s pioneering AI system is perfect for helping Lyca Mobile understand its customers’ needs better and give them high quality customer experiences, Satkunanathan said.

Blind data

Communications service providers are all data and no experience, according to Flytxt CEO Dr Vinod Vasudevan. However, customers will get a better feeling about their phone service if “well-trained AI” intervenes. The CVM accelerator can achieve this, he said. “Our unique solution will significantly boost the outcomes of their customer experience initiatives.” 

It works

“Flytxt’s CVM Accelerator brings in a deeper understanding of customers’ usage behaviour and predicted needs,” said Ankit Rai, Lyca Mobile’s Head of Retention, “the pilot project proved that.”

Alibaba and stc to launch cloud services in Saudi Arabia

Nick Booth
-
0
Alibaba and stc to launch cloud services in Saudi Arabia

Partnership involves SCAI, SITE and eWTP Arabia

Saudi Arabian comms operator stc has invested SR894 million ($238 million) to create a cloud service for the nation’s capital Riyadh. The online computing is to be created in a partnership with the Alibaba Group, eWTP Arabia for Technical Innovation, the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) and the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE).

According to stc’s statement, its joint investment with Alibaba will provide cloud computing services to Riyadh. This reflects the company’s future vision and its ‘great role’ in pushing digital transformation efforts in Saudi Arabia. It wants to forge strong partnerships with the world’s top technology companies in line with the Kingdom’s 2030 vision.

Alibaba

Alibaba Cloud services include proprietary servers, chips, elastic computing, storage, network, security, database and big data. It uses these to compute various verticals with industry-specific problems, including financial services, telecoms, retail and industrial applications. As of March 31, 2022, Alibaba Cloud is selling computing services in 27 regions globally, adding new local Internet data centres in Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Germany in 2022.

Alibaba Cloud’s advantages are its proprietary technology for full-stack cloud infrastructure design, covering data centers, network technologies and proprietary hardware. In early 2022, it unveiled its proprietary server series Panjiu, which comprises a high-performance computing series, large-scale storage series and high-performance storage series. 

According to the November 2021 Gartner Solution Scorecard for integrated infrastructure as a service and platform as a service (Iaas+PaaS), Alibaba Cloud was the third highest scored system among all the global vendors evaluated. In a Gartner report in April 2022, Alibaba Cloud was ranked the biggest IaaS player in Asia Pacific and the third largest globally as measured by revenue market share in 2021. 

More BT, Altice?

Nick Booth
-
0
More BT, Altice?

UK government worried about ownership of British telco

The UK government is to probe into the French billionaire Patrick Drahi’s swelling share of control over BT as a matter of national security. On Thursday it posted a statement on its web site saying that the acquisition by Altice of 6% of shares in BT has been called-in for a full national security assessment by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. “The government has powers under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 to scrutinise and – if necessary – intervene in qualifying acquisitions on national security grounds,” it said. “The government has 30 working days (extendable by up to a further 45 working days) to carry out that assessment. That process is underway.”

Altice

Mr Drahi’s company, Altice, increased its investment from 12% to 18% in December, prompting speculation that BT could face a takeover bid. The business secretary will now probe the move using his new powers under the National Security and Investment Act. BT said it would co-operate with the review. BT has-been hastily transforming itself signing deals with the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in a bid to become more marketable. By the end of financial year FY24, BT has said it will have saved £2 billion by retiring legacy applications, associated infrastructure and data centres. It has a modernisation programme that aims to save £2 billion a year by January 1 2025.

Storm in a BT cup

BT is in the middle of a transformational programme to build a national broadband fibre network, a strategy crucial both to the company and the government, which says it wants to boost regional growth. Shares in BT fell more than 4% in morning trading in London. Mr Drahi, who also owns auction house Sotheby’s, first began buying BT shares last June. His purchase of just over 12% of the company, worth £2.2bn at the time, made him the largest shareholder. Drahi now owns 18% of BT – 12% short of 30%, the point at which takeover rules would force him to make an offer for the whole company.

Totogi charges into Europe, Middle East and Africa

Nick Booth
-
0
Totogi charges into Europe, Middle East and Africa

Cuts meetings, man hours and monetisation gap

Telco cloud app maker Totogi has claimed its new ‘show me the money’ accounting app can expedite the progress of a new service from concept to cash flow. In some cases telcos could be charging for services in a tenth of the time they used to be kept waiting, the company claims. Totogi recently announced that its Totogi Charging System (TCS) is available to telcos in Africa, Europe and Middle East. The web service is available in any of the 26 regions in which Amazon Web Services (AWS) are available. Totogi claimed its software service is the first in the world to help mobile network operators (MNOs) and their virtual counterparts (MVNOs) instantly raise the average revenue that telcos make on each transaction. 

TCS on AWS

Danielle Royston, acting CEO of Totogi, explained how telcos would make their money back on the software investment through tangible productivity gains. “It takes telco marketing teams months to get new plans to market, after accessing data and analytics from the IT department, analysing it for trends to act on, building the new plan and, finally, instructing the IT teams to deploy plans onto the network,” said Royston. Those five processes typically take a minimum of four weeks. Then there are endless meetings between Marketing and IT, which necessitate the saving of data for each plan devised. There will be notes for processes such as data analysis, plan requests, IT specs, testing and then, finally, Going Live. During this time the number of meetings between teams can easily exceed 15-20 per month depending on the size of the telco, Royston explained. A cloud app bypasses these stages and stimulates instant action.

Charge engine

The TCS has a charging engine at its core that allows a service provider to instantly charge a subscriber for services. Supplied simply as a cloud app, this ‘online charging system (OCS) handles the subscribers account balance, rating, charging transaction control and correlation. With the OCS, a telco operator ensures that credit limits are enforced and resources are authorized on a per transaction basis. The bottom line for any telco buying an administration tool is the time and money it will save. Acting CEO Royston gave Mobile Europe a breakdown.

Decimate costs

A typical ‘rapid’ on-prem charging system deployment from a legacy vendor takes at least six to twelve months to deploy with an expensive professional services engagement. So telcos would take between 350 and 450 days. That would cost them 2,800 to 4,400 manhours. Totogi claims it can cut these project times to 6-8 weeks, or up to 450 to 700 man hours. At its best, the system could slash the labour costs from 4,400 man hours to roughly a tenth, 450. Apart from being quicker and cheaper to install, the Totogi OCS gets working immediately to rake the money in for the client. “Traditional online charging systems charge the customer after a service is rendered,” said Royston.

No Capex

The Totogi Charging System needs no capital outlay and the vendor claims it can be set up in days, allowing for any CSP to try it as an initial free pilot, after which it starts at $50 per million transactions. Totogi’s approach to plan design is the game-changer, according to one anonymous European Mobile virtual network operator. It allowed the MVNO to bundle popular OTT partners such as streaming and travel offers in minutes. “For decades, operators have been trapped with the incredibly slow project timelines and exorbitant cost of other telco charging offerings. With the availability of the TCS on AWS, we have shortened the deployment time frame from 6-12 months down to a few weeks,” said Royston.

1...288289290...1,641Page 289 of 1,641
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP
DOWNLOAD OUR NEW REPORT

5G Advanced

Will 5G’s second wave deliver value?

DOWNLOAD REPORT