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Telefónica sends Prisa stake back

Nick Booth
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Telefónica sends Prisa stake back

Presented to private investor Global Alconaba

Spain’s flagship telco group and creative start up nurturer Telefónica has agreed to sell a 7.08% stake in the media group Prisa, the publisher of iconic Spanish newspaper El Pais, for €34 million.

According to Reuters, Telefónica agreed to divest itself of the investment with a 17% premium over the closing price on Wednesday to privately held Spanish firm Global Alconaba. Telefónica will retain a 1.95% stake in Prisa, it said in a filing to the stock market regulator.

Prisa has recently posted a small quarterly profit after posting losses in 2021. Its main shareholder is activist fund Amber Capital, led by French investor Joseph Oughourlian, with a 29.84% stake, according to Refinitiv Eikon. French media group Vivendi, subject of a power struggle over Telecom Italia (TIM) has a 9.94% stake in Prisa.

Viva Dúrcal!

Meanwhile Telefónica has claimed it is the lead investor, through its Telefonica Ventures vehicle, in an €8 million funding round for Spanish startup Durcal, the company behind the oldie-focused telecare app of the same name. Durcal is a free app which aims to connect older people and save them from alienate from their families. The newspaper El Pais was probably their favourite way of connecting with the world, but this app, though a reinvention of the existing Safe365, offers new features. Do older people want new features? Durcal is named after the singer Rocío Dúrcal and the Granada municipality of the same name (Dúrcal) which makes it easy for we older people to remember. 

Orange urges Europe to Re think

Nick Booth
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Orange urges Europe to Re think

Only one in a hundred phones is recycled

Orange Group is telling its European divisions to refurbish, return, reuse and, most important of all, recycle mobile devices. They have until the end of 2022 to introduce schemes to encourage recycling, re-use and reduction of carbon footprints. The operator group launched the ‘Re’ campaign across its businesses at the 2022 ChangeNOW international summit. It claimed that successful launches in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Poland had encouraged it to extend it to the eastern territories of Moldova, Slovakia, Romania and Spain in coming months.

Inspiring youth

Meanwhile Orange is training young people, gratis, at its Solidarity FabLabs. To provide inspiration, in April it issued an international challenge to young people entering the world of work, which can be weirder and more daunting than the most scary online game they’ve encountered. The challenge requested projects that tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goal to: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Agrimaker

The Orange Foundation has now considered the ideas presented by 15 AgriMakers shortlisted from 10 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  Three team projects were then chosen by an online audience and jury. The final selection will be put to a public vote on ChangeNOW’s main stage tomorrow (Friday 20th)

ChangeNow

Since its inception in France in 2020 the Re programme has raised the recycling and returns of used mobile phones from 13.4% in 2020 to 22.3% in 2021, according to Orange. This has resulted in the return and recycling of around 1.9 million devices. Orange wants to increase that rate to 30% by 2025. Orange says only one in a hundred of the world’s phones are being recycled. Since 1,500,000,000 phones are manufactured each year, that means that 1.35 billion more machines are leaching their chemicals into a landfill sites by the end of each phone contract.

Re cycle

Orange said it now recycles phones that no longer work or have no cash value. It will also reward each device recycler with a discount or credit voucher for a returned device. It plans to sell refurbished phones in its shops and will repairs devices. The Re initiative will support the general public with their responsible actions, said Orange Deputy CEO, Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière: “We offer a true toolbox to help limit the environmental impact of mobile phones.”

Nokia

In October Orange and Nokia agreed to user more refurbished kit in the networks they build. The refurbished Nokia network equipment will be offered to Orange subsidiaries via BuyIn, the procurement alliance of Orange and Deutsche Telekom. Initially the procurement system will offer radio access network (RAN) hardware but there are medium and long-term plans to include other types of kit. The refurb offer is part of Orange’s carbon emissions reduction strategy but Orange and Nokia say they also want to offer a competitive and reliable alternative to network operators. The second hand RAN meets EU and ITU directives and recommendations.

Who wants old kit?

However, analyst John Strand of Strand Consult was not impressed. “Old comms equipment can’t be recycled for many reasons,” said Strand. “There is a lot of software in a mobile network and when you buy it you do not buy the software but a right to use it. This means that you cannot resell any software or hardware. Operators in emerging markets prefer to get new equipment anyway, so the recycling interest is not as great as some might think.”

Amdocs sends SaaS on operation VMO2

Nick Booth
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Amdocs sends SaaS on operation VMO2

Out of the cloud and into the streaming service

Telco software vendor Amdocs is to integrate Virgin Media O2’s streaming services to be more manageable for the cable operator as it attempts to transform into a communications service provider. The project’s objective is to make it easier for consumers to add entertainment subscriptions to their monthly bill or enjoy them as part of a bigger bundle with their existing broadband, mobile or entertainment packages. The lack of cohesion in VMO2’s customer service has made it Britain’s most complained about telecoms provider. 

Oft complained about

Surveys by UK regulator Ofcom have shown that Virgin Media O2 runs the most complained about service in the UK. Part of the problem, according to systems integrator sources, is that the telco originally grew by acquisition of small cable companies and inherited systems that were incompatible with each other. To date this does not seem to have adversely affected its profitability. In May Virgin Media O2 told CityAM that it’s on track to ‘fork out’ £1.6bn to its shareholders this year. Its financial results for the first quarter of 2022 revealing profit had climbed to £91.9m, up 5.3% on the same period last year.

Bumper profits

“The cash distribution to shareholders is anticipated to be £1.6 billion including cash from recapitalisations,” the company wrote, reiterating guidance for 2022. There are questions about the company recording net free cash outflows of £319m. Virgin Media O2 did add 478,100 mobile customers over the first three months of the year as its commitment not to reintroduce roaming charges set the firm apart from its rivals.

VMware intervention

In March Virgin Media O2 asked VMware to integrate its IT systems, from the cloud, using the application moderniser VMware Tanzu for Telcos. which is a ‘Kubernetes cluster’ (a type of sealed off system) in order to build a proficiency in offering ‘Containers as a Service (CaaS)’. CaaS, in layman’s terms, allows developer to bundle entire systems up into one virtual container (or silo), with software partitions defining its perimeters. The Container strategy will help Virgin Media O2 to add more virtual network functions to its service, said VMware. 

Amdocs challenge

Integrating VM O2’s internal systems could be challenging as the company grew by acquisition and has multiple disparate databases, using different file formats and proprietary management systems. Amdocs’ software service may have to pull all these incompatible systems together and streamline them. The new MarketONE system provided by Amdocs runs from the public cloud to deliver the new digital and OTT (over the top) subscription service offerings. The ‘future-proof, turnkey solution’ promises to allow new OTT partners to be easily added by Virgin Media, after which its customers have the flexibility to add multiple subscription services.

Questions

The announcement raises many questions, which we have put to Amdocs’s Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy Anthony Goonetilleke. In the meantime, Amdocs has issued a company statement. “This is an exciting project that highlights Amdocs’ role at the heart of the ever-growing communications and entertainment ecosystem,” said Goonetilleke. “With our MarketONE SaaS platform, we are bringing together industry-leading capabilities to help Virgin Media O2 grow its media and entertainment business while providing end-users with a centralized and frictionless experience.”

Fibernet tears Finland a new altnet with Adtran

Nick Booth
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Fibernet tears Finland a new altnet with Adtran

Trenching and Adtran expedites the XGS-PON

Finland’s alternative network (altnet) Fibernet is building its high-bandwidth network with three time saving techniques it has helped to pioneer. It has invented an efficient new trenching technique, a meticulous time planning system for the brutal short Finnish cable laying season and equipment that can move gigabits of data by the second. Fibernet invented a micro-trenching technology that lets it build its fibre network faster than everyone else, it claims. While established service providers extend their expensive fiber networks at glacial speed, Fibernet claimed its network laying techniques and its use of the Adtran 10G Fiber Access Platform has connected 50,000 customers in a fraction of the time.

Content is King

Those 50,000 connections were just the first phase of creating an XGS-PON fiber network, an updated version of the classic passive optical network, only with four times the upstream bandwidth. Though much of Finland can access 4G mobile broadband there is huge demand from consumers and businesses for high-quality, competitive broadband services for internet, IPTV, telehealth and other image-related systems, according to Janne Ahola, CEO at Fibernet. Fibre is the only way to supply fast and reliable network connections that can scale with subscriber demands and Adtran kit provides an immediate solution and offers continuity, according to Ahola.

Continuity is Queen

“While Fibernet is new to this market, our leaders have deep experience in implementing superior broadband networks. We selected Adtran because of its experience in both the fibre access and altnet markets and we are extremely pleased with the support that Adtran has provided in our startup phase,” said Ahola.

The Adtran 10G Fiber Access Platform uses the symmetrical upload and download speeds of XGS-PON technology, which future-proofs the network against growing demand for high-bandwidth cloud and streaming services. Adtran’s supply availability is also a differentiator for Fibernet. In Finland, the ground is frozen for five months each year. The long winters require well-planned building seasons and hardware deliveries must be on schedule during the warmer months. 

Adtran fiber gets gigs

“Fibernet has a key advantage with its micro-trenching technology that lets it build its fibre network much faster. With Adtran in its network, Fibernet can match that innovation with a 10G fiber access system,” said Stuart Broome, Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Adtran. “The ease of scalability will enable Fibernet to increase capacity and scale services beyond its traditional residential subscriber base to support the connectivity needs of local small- and mid-sized businesses as well.”

Africell leapfrogs Movicel into second place in Angola

Nick Booth
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Africell leapfrogs Movicel into second place in Angola

It’s got 2m subscribers, $300m in funding and Nokia

Africell, the US-funded entrant to the Angolan mobile market, has already overtaken Movicel to move into second place. The news was unwittingly broken by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman who, according to Agence France-Press, concluded a multi-country African tour, with an online briefing on the only US-backed mobile operator in Africa.

“This is a company that has been in business for one month and has 2 million subscribers. They are going to bring capability to everybody in Angola,” said Sherman. If the figures presented by Sherman are correct, Africell is now the second biggest mobile operator in Angola. Africell is funded by the US International Development Finance Corporation. 

There is plenty of room for growth in this developing economy. Mobile penetration is relatively low, by African standards, in Angola. Around 47% of the population had a mobile at the end of 2021, roughly half the African average, which is around 90%. Angola had 14.91 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2021, up from 14.65 million twelve months earlier.

As a pan-African telecom group Africell has hit the ground running, according to Pete Bell’s blog for telecoms research firm TeleGeography. It broke Angola’s long-standing mobile market duopoly with its launch in April.

Angola’s mobile sector is dominated by Unitel, which is backed by state-owned oil company Sonangol. At the end of 2021, Unitel had roughly 90% of all subscriptions. Before Africell arrived, its only competition came from Movicel, whose main shareholders include GAFP Investimentos e Participacoes and Angola’s national social security body, INSS.

Movicel had 25% of the market in 2016 but its share fell back to 10% in five years. The state-owned fixed line incumbent Angola Telecom (AT) holds a Unified Global license covering all mobile/fixed voice/data/TV services but has not pursued its plan to enter the mobile sector. A pact with Egyptian-backed firm Angorascom in November 2019 offered AT a route into the market, but the partnership was abandoned seven months later. AT has an 18% interest in Movicel.

In July 2019, the Lebanese/US-backed group Africell promised access to $300 million in funding to enter the Angolan market. The UK-headquartered group had a track record in Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Africell also had a mobile network in Uganda, but ceased operations in late 2021.

In March Africell was revealed as the sole remaining bidder for Angola’s fourth unified communications license. The group was invited by the government to submit a formal financial and technical proposal.

On July 6, 2020, the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication (Ministerio das Telecomunicacoes, Tecnologias de Informacao e Comunicacao Social) confirmed Africell’s selection. However, protracted negotiations over license conditions meant that final contracts were only signed in February, 2021.

Africell initially set a mid-2021 target for its entry into the mobile market, but its commercial launch was delayed to December 2021, then bumped back to April 2022. Africell’s failure to negotiate an interconnect contract with Unitel was a sticking point.

Africell launched its first commercial mobile service in the capital, Luanda, on April 7, 2022. Its initial service range included free on-net calls and mobile data bundles, at “up to 50% cheaper” prices than rivals, it claimed. Unitel and Movicel responded by introducing their own tariff promotions.

As the upstart’s network rolled out across Luanda, it beat its planned deadlines for expansion. Within eight years it plans to cover at least 60% of urban zones, building a 5G-ready network with equipment Nokia.

Two Ericsson execs go in reshuffle as it creates new Enterprise Wireless unit

Nick Booth
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Two Ericsson execs go in reshuffle as it creates new Enterprise Wireless unit

Cradlepoint CEO will run new unit for enterprise wireless

Equipment supplier Ericsson has released details of its restructure plans, in the wake of shareholder disquiet over the way it was being run. Its operating units will now focus on mobile infrastructure and business customers. As part of the re-organisation two senior executives will leave the company.

A new Ericsson business unit has been created by blending the existing digital services and managed services divisions, reports Reuters. The plan is to improve its cloud expertise and build products for automation and artificial intelligence.

The unit will be led by Per Narvinger, who has been at Ericsson since 1997.

A new unit for enterprise wireless business will be led by Cradlepoint CEO George Mulhern, which will develop 5G-related products designed to solve the problems of industrial scale businesses. Ericsson bought Cradlepoint in September 20 for $1.1 billion in a bid to strengthen its portfolio of 5G products. its speciality is to invent ways of using wireless edge and wireless WAN equipment to network enterprise and public sector customers with cellular networks without sacrificing the power of cable connectivity.

Ericsson executives, Arun Bansal, currently executive vice president, and Peter Laurin, head of business area managed services, will leave the company. The resignation was first announced in April however, and was described as a chance explore new opportunities. Laurin will take over as CEO of production automation specialist Piab. 

The resignation comes after a shareholder revolt at Ericsson’s AGM in which shareholding activist Cevian Capital voted against granting discharge to either Ericsson’s board members or its president Börje Ekholm.

Cevian has previously complained about the way the company is run but the outstanding issue is alleged liability for Islamic State payments based on “unusual expense claims in Iraq” dating back to 2018. At the time, Laurin was Ericsson’s head of business area managed services. As a result of this decisions over payments, top execs could be held personally liable under Swedish law.

The new organisation will take effect June 1.

BT’s new Atomic Radio Frequency kit could be quantum leap for 5G

Nick Booth
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BT’s new Atomic Radio Frequency kit could be quantum leap for 5G

New antenna are 100 times more sensitive and less needy

UK telco BT has discovered a way to make ‘excited atoms’ work as ultra-sensitive 5G receivers for use in very low power passive mobile networks. They could minimise 5G running costs while maximising coverage.

Though still in its infancy the technology has proved itself 100 times better than normal radio frequency (RF) receivers. The magic ingredient is a new ‘hyper-sensitive quantum antenna’ technology that uses excited atomic states to make 5G and IoT networks perform better.

It could be used to create smaller but more powerful versatile antennas that run on minimal power. The quantum antennae offer a tuneable operation from very low frequencies, can detect both analogue and digital modulation and need less power to run their much simpler electronics.

Miniature receivers with massive capacity city than can run on minimal energy would give BT’s EE network powerful impetus, according to Howard Watson, CTO of BT. But these are early days for the technology. “We’re proud to be playing an instrumental role in developing cutting edge science,” said Watson.

The new ‘Atomic’ Radio Frequency (ARF) receivers can detect much weaker signals than conventional receivers than convention radio wave listeners can pick up. The receiver works by using a quantum effect, electromagnetically induced transparency, to form a highly sensitive electric field detector.

The technology breakthrough was made at BT Labs in Martlesham, where a digitally-encoded message was received on a 3.6GHz (5G) carrier frequency. Until now, simple audio has been received using much higher frequencies but this trial is the first industrial demonstration to use digital modulation that fits within one of mobile operator EE’s main commercial 5G frequency ranges.

Researchers at BT Labs in Martlesham are now working to miniaturise the equipment and find the optimum RF modulation and signal processing for potential use in future generations of radio networks.

“BT’s investment in cutting edge R&D plays a central role in ensuring the UK remains a network technology leader,” said Watson.

BT holds multiple patents associated with the atomic RF receiver and it’s the first company to make use of the technology to send a message at 3.6GHz. Earlier this year, BT also had its first external publication on its atomic RF Receivers accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of Lightwave Technology.  

Latvian 5G engineers played games on phone while driving lorries and using apps

Nick Booth
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Latvian 5G engineers played games on phone while driving lorries and using apps

5G-Routes consortium tests cross-border mobility

The practical cross-border mobility of 5G has been tested at the Bikernieki race track in Riga, Latvia as part of the 5G-Routes project. The testbed imitates cross-border connectivity, which is crucial for testing connected and automated mobility inventions before they’re launched in Europe and their users find themselves crossing many borders and mobile operators.

Latvia’s cross-border 5G mobility space was launched as a part of the 5G-Routes project, an EU-funded future mobility initiative to develop innovative and commercially exploitable CAM (connected and automated mobility) use cases and ensure cross-border automated mobility. The testbed has been developed by the Latvian mobile innovator LMT, in close collaboration with Estonia’s Telia. 

When implementing CAM in a cross-border environment, the main challenge is ensuring seamless connectivity. Cross-border connectivity in Europe has been addressed by several EU-funded projects, including 5G-MOBIX, which focuses on developing 5G use cases in transportation, emphasizing cross-border functionality. “The biggest challenge in testing innovations over the 5G network in a cross-border setting is finding a safe environment for undisturbed testing in realistic conditions,” said Artūrs Lindenbergs, Mobility Innovation Lead at LMT. 

Four test cases

Four cross-border use cases were demonstrated in total by multiple project partners. The Latvian Institute of Electronics and Computer Science showcased dynamic vehicles platooning, an arrangement in which multiple ‘autonomous vehicles’ communicate with each other and attempt to synchronise their movements. Sort of synchronised lorry driving. They are all led by a manually controlled vehicle, which in the tests was sending and receiving synchronising instructions  over a commercial 5G network. The VEDECOM Institute for the Energy Transition and Tallinn University of Technology (TTU) tested two interconnected use cases, a vulnerable road user (VRU) collision avoidance and connected maintenance.

Endangered pedestrian

In the demo, a pedestrian received alerts from a connected electric vehicle that had detected faults via sensors, warning the pedestrian of a potential collision and providing crucial seconds to remove themselves from danger. The VRU and the electric vehicle were each connected to a different mobile operator, testing the cross-border connectivity. The fourth cross-border connectivity use case demonstrated multiuser gaming on the go hosted by games company Brainstorm. It showcased the 5G non-standalone (NSA) network capabilities by testing multiplayer gameplay with gamers connected via a 5G-enabled smartphone and laptop. 

Saudi Arabia leads on 5G rollout – GSMA

Nick Booth
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Saudi Arabia leads on 5G rollout – GSMA

You can hear it in person at Mobile 360 Riyadh

Saudi Arabia is leading the rollout of 5G in the Middle East and North Africa, says the GSMA’s news Mobile Economy Report for the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) 2022. The revelation is one the one of the many conversations to be had at Mobile 360 Riyadh, a two-day conference hosted by the GSMA. The event is also significant for being the first, post-Covid in-person gathering of the telecoms industry in the MENA region.

The report also explores how Saudi Arabia has evolved into a digital hub and a leader in the regional transition to 5G, a position enabled by positive regulation, government funding and projects such as stc’s MENA HUB – a $1 billion investment in regional connectivity and infrastructure that will support Saudi Arabia’s rapidly expanding digital and cloud sector.

The report predicts that the dominant 4G networks of today will peak in 2023 as consumers transition to 5G. By 2025, 5G will account for nearly a fifth of total mobile connections in MENA but currently there are around 15 million 5G connections eight MENA countries. Meanwhile, the number of mobile internet users in MENA swelled to over 300 million in 2021.

In Saudi Arabia, 60 of the 136 governates were covered by 5G services as of mid-2021, up from 30 just one year earlier. In addition, the telcos stc and Zain have built commercial 5G Stand Alone (SA) networks in Saudi Arabia to cater to the most demanding industrial scale use cases. The operator stc has also launched 5G SA in Kuwait.

“Covid-19 made mobile networks instrumental for social and economic activity. Now it’s time to drive economic recovery and promote sustainable development,” said Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA. 

The key themes at Mobile 360 Riyadh will be Expanding the Boundaries of Technology; Urban Innovation in Action and Digital Policies for a Digital Future. Additional debates include a discussion on What Next for the Mobile Sector and dedicated sessions on FinTech, Smart Cities, Spectrum and Sustainability.

Mobile 360 Riyadh is hosted by sponsor stc. Other sponsors include Neom, Cisco, Ericsson, Evina, Huawei, Digis Squared, Ookla, Protei, PXS, SES, Syniverse, Technotree and Viavi.

CityFibre overtakes Virgin Media in FTTP stakes

Nick Booth
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CityFibre overtakes Virgin Media in FTTP stakes

Thrusting Vodafone along road to 8 million homes

CityFibre has been declared as the second largest full fibre network in the UK, having measured its fibre footprint at 1,083,888 premises. This accelerates it past Virgin Media, which is has a more static total of 1,076,721 premises on the fibre-o-meter. Race observers were expecting an overtake to take place on Thursday or Friday this week but, after a ‘very good day auditing locations’ of where CityFibre was live, it reported on Monday that it had added 11,555. This number dwarfs the radio frequency over glass (RFOG) / fibre to the premises (FTTP) additions made by Virgin Media, whose vans trundled at relatively glacial speed to 210 premises.

Driven by Vodafone

Vodafone is the largest retailer on the CityFibre network and has an ambition to be the largest retailer of full fibre in the UK. It has set itself an ambitious target to sell FTTP to 8 million premises by the end of Spring 2022. Think Broadband has released details of its most recent audit, which concentrated its checks on the areas in which CityFibre is active and which Vodafone is known to be targeting. It reported that “there are still CityFibre areas without Vodafone as an option”.

Openreach

However, based on its figures it made the prediction that the overlap between Openreach and CityFibre full fibre shows there would be 7,881,493 premises with FTTP connections, according to its database. In addition, Openreach should contribute another 200,000 premises to that total. However, its figures have not been audited for five weeks. Nonetheless, said Think Broadband’s Internet Service Provider report, “it is clear the 8 million figure is very close and Vodafone may reach it before summer officially starts even without all CityFibre towns and cities having Vodafone available.”

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