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Orange Poland completes roll-out of country-wide OSS for FTTH

Annie Turner
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Orange Poland completes roll-out of country-wide OSS for FTTH

CIO says it will enable deeper automation within processes, often leveraging AI, as a major part of its growth strategy

Orange Poland has completed the roll-out of new OSS across the country.

It is designedto transform and automate network management and service delivery processes for FTTH, and facilitate the management of network resources and services.

Orange Poland also aims to reduce the time to deliver services to its customers and simplify how reported errors are dealt with.

The solution is structure around Comarch’s centralised, multi-vendor and multi-domain Inventory Management system. It manages more than 200 million Orange Poland resources, physical and logical.

The solution is complemented by Comarch’s Service & Resource Fulfillment and Comarch Service Assurance modules,

The modules are orchestrated by Comarch Service Order Management Integration – the customer management system is based on TM Forum’s Open APIs and reference architecture.

The Comarch system has:

• integral automation mechanisms to improve the delivery of products to end-customers; • API-based access to resource orders for sales and customer service systems; and • automatic preparation of work orders in the workforce management systems.

This solution serves more than 300 concurrent users and supports more than 5,000 field technicians.

Bertrand Grèzes-Besset, Chief Information Officer at Orange Poland, commented, “This implementation is a major component in the digital transformation of Orange Poland.

With the permanent support of Comarch throughout the last year, we have been able to establish a new foundation for our information systems. As a major part of our growth strategy, we will now be able to focus on even deeper automation in our processes, leveraging artificial intelligence in many cases”.

Vodafone appeals for pre-loved devices in technology for refugees scheme

Nick Booth
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Vodafone appeals for pre-loved devices in technology for refugees scheme

Brilliant to see telcos support our work says Refugee Council

The Vodafone Foundation has responded to the refuge crisis caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine by installing instant wi-fi and charging points in refugee centres in Romania and Hungary. Its Instant Networks Teams are having an immediate impact by helping people stay in touch with family and friends.

“We are working hard to prepare for the arrival of refugees from Ukraine and it’s brilliant to see companies like Vodafone supporting us,” said Tamsin Baxter, the Refugee Council’s executive director of fund raising and external affairs.

Now Vodafone has announced a new, longer-term plan to collect and distribute smartphones, devices and connectivity to all refugees, including those fleeing Ukraine. Vodafone has donated 3,000 smartphones, connections and 1,000 portable chargers to a new programme run along with The Refugee Council. Now it is extending its collection and distribution network to any citizen or corporations to find a new home for their pre-loved machines in its latest Tech Appeal.

This follows Vodafone’s recent announcement that it is offering free connectivity to 200,000 refugees arriving in the UK from Ukraine through its everyone connected programme. 

The Refugee Council is working with refugees and those seeking asylum in the UK. It provides resettlement and integration services, such as help with securing accommodation, finding English lessons, registering for a GP or opening a bank account. It also provides therapy to help address the trauma and mental health issues facing adults and children as they arrive in the UK as refugees.

“We are doing what we can to support those fleeing Ukraine with a focus on keeping people connected,” said Vodafone CEO Ahmed Essam, “free smartphones, tablets and connectivity will help people access vital support services and stay in touch with friends and family. We hope this will help make arriving in the UK a little easier. I urge anyone with an unwanted smartphone or tablet to donate it to our Tech Appeal so we can get it to someone who needs it.” 

When you have lost so much, connectivity to those you love is invaluable and these phones could make the difference between speaking to a loved one that’s been left behind, said Baxter at The Refugee Council, “That is absolutely a lifeline.”

Vodafone is offering customers free mobile calls and texts to Ukraine, waiving charges for customers within the country and is match-funding donations to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal through the British Red Cross. It is also offering fast track access to employment opportunities to suitably qualified candidates from Ukraine subject to visa requirements.

Adtran creates room for gigabits to zoom on DGA’s fibre to the home service

Nick Booth
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Adtran creates room for gigabits to zoom on DGA’s fibre to the home service

German altnet is booming and wholesaler mustn’t miss the gig

Deutsche Giga Access (DGA) has selected Adtran’s SDX Series of fibre access platforms in a crucial decision over which system it should trust to launch its fibre to the home (FTTH) services.  

DGA, a regional wholesale access supplier in Germany, helps service providers to connect homes and businesses with modern broadband services in the less exalted regions of the country. While it wants to meet Europe’s digital agenda objectives ensuring fair, open and secure digital environments it can only really do this under the ‘right conditions for digital networks and services to flourish’, said its official statement. The costs of mass distribution need to be carefully managed. 

Adtran’s Combo passive optical network (PON) technology and software-defined network (SDN) can create those conditions, according to DGA CTO Andreas Bamberg, who made the crucial technology buying decision. “DGA wanted to run an FTTH network into Lower Saxony, quickly, and Adtran provided the right combination of tech, products, support and domain experience,” said Bamberg.

Dare to be PONcey

PON and SDN are the differentiators that create 1G and 10G FTTH networks on the same point-to-multipoint fibre optic distribution network. They do this from a single optical splitter (OLT) port which makes scaling up a lot quicker. In doing so, this hardware invention sent DGA to market. Adtran’s outstanding new software feature is an SDN-based network controller that supports ultra-short micro-release schedules, which speeds things up for the service provider and cuts DGA’s building and operation costs. 

Local support crucial

Adtran also lets DGA deliver proactive support and services from an open, cloud-based system which brings the requisite adaptability, security and updates at scale. As a result, DGA can cut the support tickets and improve customer satisfaction. “We chose Adtran because its approach allowed us to build a new, open-access wholesale network for future-proof services that can be controlled by an end-to-end automation management system,” said Bamberg.

Altnet is booming

This creates tremendous operational savings for the wholesaler which will be invaluable when demand takes off, said Bamberg.The German altnet market is growing rapidly as operators look to bring fibre broadband to every household in Germany, according to Stuart Broome, EMEA sales VP for Adtra. Local and regional operators will need a reliable wholesale network supplier that gives local support and unlimited capacity. They have the means of production with Adtran’s Combo PON, because one port can supply many fibre strands. “This gives DGA the most cost-effective solution to operate via a fibre network,” said Broome. 

Kenya finally moves closer to slashing mobile termination fees

Annie Turner
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Kenya finally moves closer to slashing mobile termination fees

Safaricom, the country’s biggest operator, will suffer most: income from termination rates will fall from over €27m to under €1m

The on-going tussle over mobile termination rates (MTRs) in Kenya is to go to tribunal and submissions against the proposed changes must be submitted in April. A review will follow.

Kenya’s IT Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru addressed the country’s Senate last week, explaining that the MTRs should have been reduced by almost 90% – from KES 0.99 to KES 0.12 – last December, but Safaricom appealed against it.

MTRs are fees operators pay each other to cover costs of terminating calls on another network.

“We have observed that due to the current imbalance of off-net traffic volume in a quarter, about [KES] 1 billion is paid out amongst operators as interconnection fee. The net beneficiary is Safaricom which received KES. 883 million,” said Mucheru.

The Cabinet Secretary continued to defend Safaricom against claims of market dominance, claiming the operator has reaped the rewards of innovation and investment.

He said the proposed MTR changes would encourage greater competition in the market and lower barriers to entry.

Winners and losers

When the change comes into operation, Airtel Kenya will save about KES 2.97 billion (€23.4 million) and Telkom Kenya about KES 404 million, while Safaricom’s income from the fees will drop from KES 3.5bn to KES 106m.

Mucheru acknowledged that the rates had been “artificially high” over the past five years, adding, “Termination rates are not meant to be income‑generating streams but cost‑recovery mechanisms”.

Safaricom has argued that the Competition Authority of Kenya had erred in law and fact by applying the benchmarking method as opposed to Network Cost Study.

It further stated that the authority breached the constitutional requirements on public participation and fair administrative action.

The Authority responded that its analysis of the impact of termination fees on operators was based on their revenues, levels of profitability, and sustainability. It also stated that the change to termination rates would lower fees for consumers, a claim backed by consumer groups.

Market numbers

Safaricom has about two-thirds of the Kenyan mobile market and its mobile payments service, M-Pesa, accounts for close to 99% of mobile money transfer subscriptions. The total number of active mobile money subscriptions in Kenya amounted to 31.79 million in the third quarter of 2020. M-Pesa had 31.42 million mobile money subscriptions in the same quarter. Vodafone Group owns the M-Pesa platform, which is arguably its greatest innovation beyond traditional services.

Ownership of Safaricom is shown below, taken from its website.

Safaricom is owned by

Inmarsat asks Sandvine to tighten control over its cloud service to telcos

Nick Booth
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Inmarsat asks Sandvine to tighten control over its cloud service to telcos

As OpenStack V25, Yoga, stretches out it’s still too stiff in places

Satellite service provider Inmarsat has appointed Sandvine to run its application and network intelligence system to fine tune its OpenStack private telco cloud. 

OpenStack, a massive open source infrastructure service, gives telcos the option to run their own clouds on their own premises. Opinion is divided on its use because it’s regarded as a powerful tool that’s dangerous in the wrong hands. Open source advocate Canonical once issued pamphlets and ran webinars warning of its dangerous complexity to the uninitiated.

However, China Mobile alone runs a vast OpenStack system that’s measured in central processor unit (CPU) cores, of which the telco has amassed 6million in its cloud. At least 180 public cloud data centres now run OpenStack. But even as it released version 25 of its software, dubbed Yoga, on March 31, there are many challenges that make this DIY building project a money pit. Like all large open-source projects, OpenStack has gone through its ups and downs and the problem with maintaining continuity gave rise to the condition known as stuckstack, caused by a lack of orchestration between all the different software updates of each components of the software stack.

This is what Inmarsat is aiming to avoid with the appointment of Sandvine, said its CEO Lyndon Cantor, in a press release. “Our relationship with Inmarsat started with network policy control in 2015, and has since evolved towards new 5G network architecture for emerging 5G and satellite services,” Cantor said.

Migrating to Sandvine’s ActiveLogic Hyperscale Data Plane, means Inmarsat can roll out new services in response to changing market demands. Sandvine can manage network optimisation, ‘heavy users’, video streaming, wholesale and peering links and usage-based services on behalf of the satellite service which supplies infrastructure options to mobile operators.

The Open Infrastructure Foundation, the body behind OpenStack and other projects like Kata Containers, said OpenStack now manages over 25 million CPU cores in production and that nine out of the world’s top 10 telcos now run OpenStack. 

The three-year Sandvine deal will support Inmarsat’s work in building out its Orchestra network, which offers a service for global mobility and government customers. Orchestra is a dynamic mesh network combining Elera (L-band) and Global Xpress (Ka-band) satellite networks, with terrestrial 5G as well as targeted low earth orbit (LEO) satellite capacity.

The deal extends an existing seven-year relationship for network policy control between the two companies, the new contract spans Flexible Policy and Traffic Management and use cases for satellite networks. It also includes Sandvine’s ScoreCard monitoring system, Insights exports, a cloud-optimised Active Logic Hyperscale Data Plane and the Maestro Policy Engine.

Sandvine said that offering its machine learning-based application classification and single-pane visualisation in the cloud allows Inmarsat to improve its traffic management and customer experience at less expense.

Meanwhile after 25 releases in 12 years, the OpenStack community is still adding new features, fixing bugs and running those perilous updates. With more vendors involved it must find resources to support all the additional hardware. Nvidia is now a major contributor to OpenStack, so there is new support for SmartNIC DPUs, that can offload network processing to specialised cards in OpenStack’s core networking and computing services. New mass storage hardware, such as NVMe/TCP and NEC V Series Storage, appeals to large operators such as telcos and will need to be catered for somehow.

“It’s great to see all hardware makers directly involved in OpenStack to make sure that we correctly support and expose the features in their hardware,” said the Open Infrastructure Foundation general manager Thierry Carrez.

Vodafone mobilises intelligence to improve road safety in Europe

Nick Booth
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<strong>Vodafone mobilises intelligence to improve road safety in Europe</strong>

Safer Transport for Europe Platform is a big step

Vodafone has created a new system to connect road users with each other and the transport authorities to make the roads safer for everyone. The new Safer Transport for Europe Platform (STEP) aims to address the problem of data fragmentation and information silos that stop connectivity from improving road safety.

The system provides safety information, hazard warnings and traffic updates to be shared instantly on any device or in-vehicle system they are using. The idea is that better intelligence makes us act less stupidly. 

Vodafone claims the system is compatible with all third-party apps and in-vehicle navigation systems. It achieved this by collaborating with multiple partners to bring the technology to road users and now it plans to share the system within its own Vodafone Automotive apps later this year. 

Transport authorities today are often limited to delivering safety updates through the road infrastructure, such as motorway gantries that warn you about congestion once you’re already stuck in a ten mile tailback. Variable-messages and matrix signs are no better, says Vodafone. The limited number of technologies developed by independent manufacturers, such as in-vehicle navigation systems, are another failing. 

STEP will solve these problems, says Vodafone, by bringing everyone in the sector together. Its cloud-based STEP system is built on open industry standards and unites a community of participants with a common purpose. Governments, transport authorities, vehicle manufacturers, mobility service providers and other mobile network operators are now working together to improve road safety across Europe, according to Joakim Reiter, Vodafone’s chief external and corporate affairs officer.

“Improving road safety is still a major challenge for Europe,” said Reiter, “We believe that open platforms for faster, more efficient data sharing can play a significant role in prevention needless fatalities and injuries happening on our roads each year.” 

STEP is designed to be compatible with all map apps and in-vehicle navigation systems developed by partner organisations. Users will benefit from free access to the system and its safety features, said Vodafone.

The DabaDoc will see you now – Orange connects a video-medicine service for families across African diaspora

Nick Booth
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The DabaDoc will see you now – Orange connects a video-medicine service for families across African diaspora

Orange has now created 14 long distance locums for Africa

DabaDoc and Orange are launching DabaDoc Consult, a new service that lets Africans in Europe and the US create instant video medical consultations for their relatives back home.

The launch was inspired by a common concern among émigrés: taking care of the health of their loved ones in their homeland. Now Orange and Dabadoc are giving them access to a video medical consultation wherever they are.

DabaDoc and Orange Link teams jointly developed a simple process where the customer, from the diaspora, offers a DabaDoc Consult sign in to the Orange Transfert Pays (country transfer) platform. They then choose the amount they wish for the consultation and pay for the service by bank card. The beneficiary of the DabaDoc Consult then instantly receives a code that they can use as payment for the video consultation on the platform.

The system was first launched by DabaDoc in Morocco in March 2020 in mid-pandemic. The video medical consultations were soon adopted by both patients and doctors as a timely alternative to spreading Covid. The health crisis played a catalytic role in the adoption of video consultations all over the world and saved time for consultants in many fields. Few need the physical presence of the patient. Video surgeries save time, are discrete and ensure confidentiality. They also provide much greater patient options, granting them access to one of the 10,000 healthcare providers listed on DabaDoc.

In Africa there is a ratio of one doctor per 1,000 inhabitants, according to the GSMA. Orange and its partners have developed 14 e-health services in seven African countries, offering advice and remote monitoring of patients, requests for home care and monitoring of child vaccinations.

DabaDoc and Orange signed a strategic partnership in June 2021 aimed at benefiting from Orange’s technological expertise and payment systems so more long distance locums can address  the entire African healthcare ecosystem.

No amount of money will tempt women to work in telco cybersecurity – BT survey

Nick Booth
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No amount of money will tempt women to work in telco cybersecurity – BT survey

Too techie, tedious and testoxic, say 99 per cent of women

UK mobile operators will struggle to protect their clients because they can’t sell cybersecurity as a career even to the most desperate British jobseeker, says a new study by BT. 

Despite the British public’s love of crime dramas, few are attracted into a career where you can fight criminals every day from the safety of an office chair. Neither are they attracted by the lucrative salaries offered by a career in IT. 

BT’s research found that only 4 per cent of the population would consider a career in cyber security, even though 69 per cent of the same survey sample would consider a career change if given the opportunity. Only one per cent of women would want the job.

The cyber security industry is still seen as male-dominated with 54 per cent of the survey sample imagining a cybersecurity professional to be male while only 18 per cent thought they would be female.

However, the idea that cybersecurity is characterised by bearded engineers shivering in a chilled comms room is as outdated as the cliché of hackers in hoodies sitting in a basement, said Ciara Campbell, senior security engineer at Tenable.    

“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Campbell. “Most of us work remotely once the installation is complete and not as much time as you think is spent shivering in the comms room. Although, it can happen from time to time and it is cold there. I have to say that the culture has changed a lot over my career. Many years ago I was told I couldn’t think of working in that position as I had a family to consider. There is no way anyone would say that to me now,” said Campbell.

According to BT’s survey, there is a widespread perception that telco cybersecurity is for those with technical skills with few realising that soft skills, such as empathy and communication, are valuable. To help tackle these perceptions and the cyber skills gap, last week BT and CAPSLOCK announced a new cyber reskilling programme that will retrain current BT employees and equip them with the skills needed to pursue a new career in security. The training is also open to members of the public.

Telcos are missing a trick with their unimaginative recruitment policies that undersell the joy of cybersecurity, according to Tenable’s Campbell. “I have always said to my son, do what you love and it will all fall into place and you will have a great career because you are happy. It won’t feel like work. If you want to work in an exciting and fast changing environment with huge opportunities for growth then Security is the industry to be in,” said Campbell. 

“I can’t honestly think of any other industry I would rather work in. Even if you think the technology is not up your street there are so many other jobs in this area that make it really exciting. It doesn’t always have to be a technical position and you will still be excited about the industry and learn something new every day,” Campbell said.

Edgnex starts its $1 billion infrastructure  rollout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Nick Booth
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Edgnex starts its $1 billion infrastructure  rollout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Expanding to telcos in Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East

Saudi Arabia is now the most exciting and dynamic ICT markets in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Niall McLoughlin, SVP of the property company the Damac Group, which created digital infrastructure company Edgnex in August 2021 with the intention of ‘disrupting the datacentre market’.

Edgnex has just selected has selected the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as its first foray into the market with a colocation data centre less than 20km away from centre of the capital Riyadh and 47km from the airport. It is set to offer telcos “low-latency access to the entire KSA market” alongside “high-fibre density and connectivity.”

The facility will have a maximum IT load of 20 megawatts (MW) and will cover an area of 17,720 square metres. It’s expected to go live in Q3, 2023.  The company has a budget of $1 billion and reportedly it plans to establish more of these power houses in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East in ‘the near future’.

The region is the “ideal hub for connecting Asia, Africa, the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] and Europe”, said McLoughlin and the telcoms market is “a hyperconnected crossroads and one of the most strategic locations for data centre investment in the region.”

“We want to help attract hyperscalers and innovators from around the world and give them a foundation for growth in the Kingdom. This is a tremendous opportunity to serve growing local demand while offering world-class facilities to players from across the globe,” said McLoughlin.

The facility is aimed at local customers, hyperscalers and other wholesale colocation requirements, such as mobile operators, to save them having to build their own facilities, the company said.

Another factor for the company’s decision to invest in Saudi Arabia is growing data usage in the region, fuelled by the use of bandwidth-hungry applications and services. It is estimated that more than half of the country’s population (33.4 million people) is under 30 years old, explaining the increasing growth in the use of digital services.

Edgnex said its data centre will also support KSA’s Vision for 2030 – a strategic framework seeking to diversify the country’s economy. It would do so by “providing a foundation for local and regional digital transformation and innovation, while aiming to attract global multi-nationals to the country.”

DigitalBridge to buy Telenet’s towers for €745m

Nick Booth
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DigitalBridge to buy Telenet’s towers for €745m

March is TowerCo spring when telcos shed their infrastructure

Belgium now has its first dedicated tower building and management business DigitalBridge, which promises to bring more efficiency to infrastrcutre management so that Belium’ mobile operates can get on with the intellectual challenges involved in creating core network software and services. The dedicated tower company was created after mobile operator Telenet agreed to sell its tower business division in a bid to divert funds to its 5G network roll out.

On Monday DigitalBridge Group announced that an affiliate, DigitalBridge Investments, now referred to as DigitalBridge, has agreed to acquire the mobile telecommunications tower business, named TowerCo, belonging to Telenet Group in an all-cash transaction valued at €745 million ($820 million). The transaction is debt and equity financed, with a commitment from DigitalBridge of €470 million ($517 million).

To avoid confusion, Telenet’s TowerCo division was not actually an independent company that could be classified as a generic ‘TowerCo’, in the sense that DigitalBridge will be, since the latter has no involvement in creating software for core networks or the applications that will run over the networks.

The transaction gives DigitalBridge complete ownership of Telenet’s passive infrastructure and tower assets, including TowerCo’s nationwide footprint of 3,322 sites in Belgium, comprising 2,158 owned sites and 1,164 third-party sites.

DigitalBridge says it will capitalise on the unique opportunity of being the first independent towerco in Belgium with an expansive footprint, a total tenancy ratio (the number of operators with antennae or active devices on site) of 1.2x and a tenancy ratio of 1.6x in towers. The transaction means DigitalBridge can benefit from Telenet’s increased participation in 5G expansion and meet the growing coverage needs of all telcos.

DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi

“This transaction helps [telcos] unlock embedded value in their networks via creative solutions built on long-standing relationships and a proven track record of successfully operating assets,” said DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi, “We see significant headroom for growth in the Belgian telecom market through the enhancement of mobile penetration and data usage and we look forward to meeting and exceeding Telenet’s increased coverage needs.”

Under the terms of the agreement, DigitalBridge will enter into a long-term Master Lease Agreement with Telenet, which includes an initial period of 15 years and two renewals of 10 years each. The agreement also includes a build-to-suit commitment to build a minimum of 475 additional new sites. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022 and needs no regulatory approvals.

This has been a mad March for tower deal makers. In Africa Helios bought Airtel’s towers for €50 million. Telecom Italia is suffering a boardroom battle over the decoupling of its infrastructure from its service creation efforts. The biggest possible development would be in Germany. On March 10th it was announced that Deutsche Telekom is scheming to sell its portfolio of 40,600-towers in Germany and Austria. American Tower, Spain’s Cellnex, Vodafone Group’s Vantage Towers and Orange’s Totem are all potential buyers. Private equity investors are also thought to bidding. DT’s advisor Goldman Sachs says the German telecom can expect $19-$22 billion for its towers, according to Reuters. It will use the money to cut its debts of $143 billion and buy back control of its lucrative US mobile operator T-Mobile.

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