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Telefónica Mexico will move 70% of traffic onto AT&T infra by year-end

Annie Turner
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It is executing its five-point strategy announced in December 2019 to slash costs outside its four key markets.

Telefónica announced its strategy in November 2019, naming Brazil, Germany, Spain and the UK as its four key markets. It said it would strive to exit or reduce costs in other LatAm markets.

Telefonica Moviles Mexico was fast off the market in Mexico where it trades under the Movistar brand, signing an agreement with AT&T Mexico in November 2019 by which it would access capacity on the AT&T nationwide 3G and 4G networks, and on new access networks as they came onto the market.

The agreement allowed Movistar to give up its spectrum holding, and in the first quarter of 2020 it returned its 1900MHz and 2500MHz to the regulator for a refund of $100 million.

This also released Movistar from the coverage obligations of operators holding 2500MHz spectrum.

Movistar divided its Mexican territories into several regions for the migration. Movistar completed the first phase of it network migration initiative in January 2021, connecting subscribers across several states to AT&T Mexico’s network.

They included Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas – or Regions 1, 3 and 4, in Movistar’s plan.

Under that first phase, Movistar confirmed that 38 cities were connected to AT&T’s LTE network – among them Acapulco, Cordoba and Puerto Vallarta. This has provided a further 6.2 million Mexicans with access to 4G.

At the end of March 2021, Movistar had migrated 35% of its traffic from its own network to AT&T’s cellular network, and now Movistar has announced that its second phase is close to completion: 70% of its network traffic in Mexico will be carried on AT&T infrastructure by the end of this year.

Competitive 5G services on Ice in Norway after Oslo launch of NiceMobile

Nick Booth
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Competitive 5G services on Ice in Norway after Oslo launch of NiceMobile

Norway’s smallest mobile operator unveils no-frills plan to take on Nordic rivals

Norwegian mobile operator Ice has launched a digital-only no-frills sub-brand with ‘very aggressive pricing’, NiceMobil and a new commercial 5G service in Oslo.

In a statement Shiraz Abid, commercial director at Ice, said switching mobile operators in Norway has been too difficult and hinted that mobile operators are protecting fortunes. “The fact that someone put gold in their SIM cards is proof of how lucrative the Norwegian mobile market has been for some,” said Abid.

Ice is cutting price

Eivind Helgaker, chief executive of Ice Group, said that targeting the price sensitive end of the market will help Ice to “accelerate our subscriber growth”.

Ice’s short-term goal is to offer 5G in Norway’s four or five largest cities, but currently it reaches only ten per cent of the people in the Greater Oslo area and in the long term it aims to bring the technology to 75 per cent of the population.

“We do have a lot of 5G-ready equipment, but it’s also a meaningful investment for us to get to 75 per cent population coverage with 5G,” said Helgaker. By some estimates that would cost around 1 billion kroner (€101 million) on equipment, capacity and services and Ice allegedly has longstanding disputes with lenders. However, there are reports it has plans to find 2.5 billion kroner (€250 million) in equity.

All started with a Spectrum

The Ice Group first launched Ice into the Norwegian mobile market in 2019 by clinching the 700 MHz and 2.1 GHz frequencies at Norway’s first 5G auction, after Telenor and Telia Norway were handicapped by spectrum caps. Six weeks ago it added 3.6 GHz to its portfolio after another spectrum auction.

According to its this quarterly figures Ice had 677,000 smartphone subscribers at the end of September, compared to Telenor’s 2.8 million and Telia’s 1.2 million. The latters’ figures include connections to machines. With the launch of 5G services, Ice intends to grow its own subscriber base of machine-to-machine connections – albeit with eSIMs.

In November Telenor announced that its own global expansion plans would be jointly run with Google Cloud.

 

 

 

Nokia PSE-V records 400Gbps speeds on Orange’s Paris-Biarritz optics circuit

Nick Booth
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Nokia PSE-V records 400Gbps speeds on Orange’s Paris-Biarritz optics circuit

Successful trial means Orange France can upgrade its network

Nokia claims it has achieved the fastest ever data transmission speeds on fibre optic cable. Engineers from Nokia and mobile operator Orange France reported that a ‘faultless’ series of transmissions was achieved on the latter’s 914 km fibre optic network between Paris and Biarritz.

Orange France says it means it can now proceed with planned upgrades. Orange had originally helped to develop the prototype.

The trial tested the performance of Nokia’s fifth generation range of digital coherent optics (DCO), known as the PSE-Vs, to see if it supported end-to-end 400Gbps services across its network.

Higher data speeds over longer distances 

The PSE-Vs have high-capacity transponders, packet-optical switches, disaggregated compact modular and subsea terminal platforms. They use a technique called generation probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) to make continuous baud rate adjustments in order to create higher wavelength capacities over longer distances.

This all means that theoretically they can achieve speeds of 400Gbps over any distance, using the spectrally efficient 100GHz WDM channels. These efficiencies would help them transmit at speed while cutting network costs and saving on power consumption.

This was the proving ground. Having successfully tested the circuit Orange can now proceed with a planned upgrade of its long-haul backbone networks to support new high-bandwidth 400 Gbps services. Engineers are now confident that Orange can expand its fibre capacity to 600Gbps. The network’s performance in the tests achieved a 50 per cent rise in spectral efficiency on capacity in its long-distance network. 

Uses less power, runs faster  

The trial was performed in real-world conditions using Nokia PSE-Vs super coherent optics in production-ready optical transport hardware. This comes 16 months after the first lab prototype trial was conducted on Orange’s live network.

The 914km Paris-Biarritz fibre circuit consisted of 13 spans of Orange’s existing network. It was run through multiple cascaded reconfigurable optical add/drop multipliers (ROADM), using 100GHz WDM spectrum channels.  

Validating Nokia’ super coherent optics gives Orange spectral efficiency and network deployment options, according to Jean-Luc Vuillemin, Orange’s VP of international networks and services. In addition, it will cut the power consumption by half.

James Watt, head of Nokia’s optical networks division said Nokia was “delighted”.

 

Orange Business Services fires up Safran Aircraft Engines with IoT

Nick Booth
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0
Orange Business Services fires up Safran Aircraft Engines with IoT

15,000 sensors create an Internet of tools tracked by 250 antennas

Orange Business Services (OBS) has cracked a new problem for manufacturers with the Internet of Things (IoT) – industrial scale management of tools.

The geolocation and digitisation project it built for Safran Aircraft Engines (SAE) has created a system that could be adapted for use comms service providers in many other industries according to Emmanuel Routier, VP of Industry 4.0 at Orange Business Services. There were lessons learned on the comms side too, according to Routier, as the service provider overcame a challenging environment for setting up signals.

Lesson learned on the comms

The new OBS-built system now manages 15,000 tools in SAE’s two giant factory plants in Villaroche and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, which spread over 55,000 and 20,000 square meters respectively. In the factory each complex stage of engine production has to be precisely orchestrated and involves multiple teams, supplies of components and the application of conditioning materials such as air and liquid cooling systems.

Missing items can cause painfully expensive delays and tools are variables the most likely to be lost or faulty. The SAE plants have 15,000 tools and 75,000 square meters of space for them to get lost in.

Downing tools would be fatal

When OBS was commissioned to track and manage the tools its plan was to tag each of the 15,000 tools with a sensor (tracker) to pinpoint their location using 250 antennas. However, the factory plants create a harsh environment for signalling on certain wavelengths, according to Emmanuel Routier, VP, Industry 4.0, Orange Business Services.

OBS uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) between the trackers on the tools and the antennas in the Safran factories. The backhaul technology from the antennas is a mix of fixed Internet, wi-fi and cellular. 

Each tool is tagged with a tracker, associated with a customer reference ID. As the signals are sent out from each tool the antennas calculate the precise location, to within 3 meters, based on the angle from which the signal arrives.

Ubisense management system

The reference IDs for each tool are managed through a Ubisense service platform that OBS customised, which says exactly where each tool is at any moment. The customised service platform also provides a dashboard which enables SAE’s engineers to monitor all the tools for preventive maintenance.

As the service integrator for SAE, OBS project managed three main partners. Ela Innovation provided the tracking devices and expertise, Quuppa provided the antennas and Ubisense created the management system.

Though this ‘Industry 4.0’ system was customised for Safran, it could be readily adapted and applied to other manufacturing and industrial companies, said Routier.

Orange’s commitment was crucial

“The Orange teams’ commitment throughout the implementation of the entire project was crucial,” said Christophe Blayo, head of tooling for commercial engines assembling at Safran Aircraft Engines. 

“With our dual expertise as a carrier and an integrator, we draw on our ecosystem of partners to bring market-leading technologies together, allowing us to best meet our customers’ needs across the entire value chain,” said Routier. 

 

 

 

 

Big five want Open RAN to be industrial priority in Europe

Annie Turner
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0
Big five want Open RAN to be industrial priority in Europe

Recommendations from DT, Orange, TIM, Telefónica and Vodafone for building an Open RAN ecosystem for Europe.

Today five of Europe’s biggest operator groups – Deutsche Telekom (DT), Orange, Telecom Italia (TIM), Telefónica and Vodafone – have published  five recommendations based on findings in new report from Analysys Mason.
 
The report concludes Europe is lagging behind the rest of the world in Open RAN for 5G which is likely to impact its influence and innovative use of 6G. Hence the European Union should make Open RAN a pillar in its Industrial Policy and Digital Compass Strategy and underpin it with the right policy framework.

Europe is lagging and lacks

While Europe has 13 major Open RAN players, the rest of the world has 57, and European operators that are committed to Open RAN are mostly at an early stage of development and have not yet secured commercial Open RAN contracts, while vendors from other regions are moving ahead.
 
Analysys Mason predicts that Open RAN global suppliers’ revenues could be worth €36.1 billion by 2026, with hardware and software accounting for €13.2 billion and the rest being split between the broader RAN platform, including chips, services, development and cloud.
 
However, European vendors are not present in all six major technology and service categories that comprise the Open RAN value chain, such as cloud hardware. Where they do have a presence, like in semiconductors, they are outnumbered by non-European players.
 
The operators are calling upon European Union member states, policy makers and industry to elevate home-grown, smaller vendors and boost European leadership in this vital technology while having a positive impact on adjacent industries such as cloud and microelectronics, and industry sectors like such as telemedicine and smart factories.

Failure to act

If this does not happen, and in 2026 Europe’s operators and industries have no choice but to look elsewhere for Open RAN tech, Analysys Mason reckons €15.6 billion of potential European industry revenues and global influence will be at risk.
 
To ensure that Europe continues to play a leading role in 5G, and in the future, in 6G, the five operators have published five recommendations:
 
• To ensure high-level political support for Open RAN Europe needs to talk with a common voice and identify Open RAN as a strategic priority.  


• The European Commission should create a European Alliance for Next Generation Communication infrastructures and a roadmap for innovation as it did for cloud and semiconductors.       


• Policymakers need to provide funding and tax incentives to operators, vendors and start-ups to support the development of European solutions along the entire Open RAN value chain, based on public-private partnerships, testbeds and open labs.       


• Promote European leadership in standardisation to contribute to globally harmonised standards that ensure openness and interoperability.      


• Work with international partners to promote a secure, diverse, and sustainable digital and ICT supply chain.        


Caroline Gabriel,  Research Director at  Analysys Mason, comments, “Policy in the US and Japan, among other countries, already strongly backs Open RAN. The US has earmarked more than $1.5 billion to fund Open RAN, and Japan offers financial incentives and tax benefits for companies which develop, supply, and deploy related equipment.
 
“While there are some positive examples at national level, for example Germany, today, the European Union as a whole is falling woefully short of providing the necessary support for Open RAN, putting at risk the future viability of a European ecosystem able to compete with other regions in the world.”

 
 

Colt-led 5G pilot to show benefits of private net in La Défense

Annie Turner
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0
Colt-led 5G pilot to show benefits of private net in La Défense

Private 5G network trial seeks to better understand the value 5G tech can bring to enterprises.

Colt Technology Services, Icade, ADVA, Airspan Networks, Athonet, Accedian and Tibco have launched a private 5G enterprise connectivity pilot.

The incubation project is one of the first to test end-to-end private 5G in premises using disaggregated architecture.

The consortium will provide private 5G networks to the PB5 La Défense building in Paris (pictured), enabling the exploration of varied use cases for the co-working space environment managed by Imagin’Office, an Icade subsidiary.

Immersive and other use cases

This field lab ecosystem will test 5G use cases, including creating immersive experiences for the future workplace for a variety of industries.

Coordinated by Colt, the pilot represents a step for enterprise connectivity, understanding and unlocking the benefits of 5G for business verticals such as property, construction, retail and healthcare.

As the sole Open Radio Access Network (RAN) provider, Airspan will provide the radio units (RUs), 5G modems and software.

Athonet will provide its Griffone 5G-SA mobile core. ADVA will provide the underlying infrastructure components, including hosting of virtual functions.

Accedian will provide performance monitoring and analytics solutions to assure the digital experience of the 5G service: to deliver the performance 5G promises requires synchronicity and cooperation across the end-to-end service, which all the members take seriously.

According to Colt, the benefits of 5G use cases in the PB5 Building in La Défense include:

• High-density connectivity for a heightened employee working experience and increased productivity

• Simplified and accelerated private network deployment, with complete network management for service providers, including design, deployment and monitoring

• Reliable high-performance thanks to Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

• Increased asset value for the building owner

• An immersive experience to enrich the future of work within flexible work spaces.

Jaya Deshmukh, Colt’s Executive Vice President (EVP) of Strategy and Transformation, said. “Innovation is in Colt’s DNA. Investigating the value 5G technology can bring to enterprises, this pilot will also pave the way for new innovations in Colt’s On Demand connectivity services, network edge and business vertical propositions such as smart office and smart manufacturing.

“It’s through driving projects such as this that we can enable enterprises to transform and thrive in tomorrow’s connected society digitally.”

 

Vodafone Group CEO eyes Orange or DT for possible towerco merger

Annie Turner
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0
Vodafone Group CEO eyes Orange or DT for possible towerco merger

Vantage Towers’ CEO say Vodafone UK wants to buy O2 out of Cornerstone

At the reporting of Vodafone Group’s H1 results, its CEO Nick Read said the group is looking to acquire tower assets in Europe and/or a larger partner to form a merger. He said Orange’s towerco, Totem, or Deutsche Telekom’s tower assets would be suitable candidates for a merger.

Vodafone spun off its 82,000 radio towers in Germany and nine other European countries to form the Düsseldorf-based company, Vantage Towers, last year and listed some of these assets on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in March 2021 as an initial public offering.

Game of two-halves

In H1, Vantage’s consolidated sales rose by 2.5% to €494 million: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after leasing (Ebitda aL) rose by almost 1% to €268 million.

The company recorded 570 new leases and an occupancy rate of 1.42 leases per location in H1.

Vivek Badrinath (pictured), CEO of Vantage Towers said in a statement, “We have concluded significantly more leases in the last few months and have entered into promising new partnerships” and said the firm was progressing well towards its goal of a medium-term occupancy rate of more than 1.5.

Since then Badrinath has confirmed Vantage Towers’ interest in buying O2’s 50% stake in their joint venture, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd (CTIL). It was set up in 2009 between Telefónica UK (which trades under the O2 brand in the UK) and Vodafone UK.

This gave CTIL the unusual and huge benefit of having two mobile operators as anchor tenants. The company manages some 14,200 macro and 1,400 micro sites.

Vodafone transferred its 50% holding to Vantage Towers.

Liberty looking to sell?

Earlier this year, O2 UK merged with Liberty Global’s Virgin Media – which offers fixed infrastructure in the form of cable and fibre in the UK – to form Virgin Media O2.

Badrinath said it is up to Virgin Media to decide if it wants to sell and if so, on what terms: according to TelefónicaWatch, Telefónica has long signalled its willingness to sell its share of CTIL.

The operator reportedly engaged Goldman Sachs to identify potential buyers in September – the same month that Liberty Global said it was looking to spin off some wireless assets, including CTIL. The proceeds could be used to help fund its ambitious fibre build-out in the UK.

Badrinath also said his company is open to negotiations with Liberty Global to acquire other assets in Europe, such as VodafoneZiggo’s towers. VodafoneZiggo is a JV between Liberty Global and Vodafone in the Netherlands, and Vantage Towers does own any towers in the Netherlands.

For the time being at least, Vodafone Albania and Vodafone Turkey also still own their own towers.

TIP and WBA to create new 6GHz Wi-Fi backhaul options for mobile

Nick Booth
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TIP and WBA to create new 6GHz Wi-Fi backhaul options for mobile

When fibre falls short of the base station, there is another route

New software being created for wi-fi devices could give mobile operators extra spectrum options for creating backhaul networks.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) have announced a new joint mission to rationalise the 6GHz band and make better use of this precious resource. Their solution is to automate the coordination of frequencies, allowing outdoor equipment to operate in the 6GHz band without affecting native users. 

The announced plan includes jointly developing software that creates a cohesive frequency allocation system for Wi-Fi devices.

WBA helps mobile operators with Wi-Fi 

One of the WBA’s stated aims is to help mobile network operators integrate and provision Wi-Fi. Its participation in TIP’s Open AFC Software Group could speed the creation of a reference open-source version of an automated frequency coordination (AFC) system, it’s claimed.

The 6GHz band, approved for Wi-Fi use by 41 countries, currently lacks co-ordination of its various frequencies. Cohesion is needed, otherwise outdoor devices could disrupt the functioning of fixed microwave links that are already actively using the spectrum.

These links are used by public safety systems, utilities and mobile network operators. The latter will often them as an option for backhaul base stations and other sites lacking access to fibre. 

Unfettered OpenRoaming

The collaboration builds on a recent adoption of the WBA’s OpenRoaming standard by TIP. The system lets users roam across Wi-Fi networks without logging in or supplying passwords.

AFC’s OpenRoaming makes it easier to use outdoor access points in the 6GHz band and lends itself to TIP’s OpenWiFi initiative, which aims to use open-source code to create a culture of interoperability between equipment. Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said Open AFC will benefit networks that have adopted OpenRoaming. 

Wi-Fi can be great outdoors 

“AFC is critical to the future of 6 GHz Wi-Fi,” said Chris Szymanski, TIP Open AFC Software Group Co-Chair and Broadcom’s director of technology strategy, “Wi-Fi devices can operate at higher powers, provide greater coverage and operate outdoors. This fits well within the focus area of the WBA, an organisation that is highly focused on improving operator provisioned Wi-Fi.”

The WBA Board includes Airties, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, Broadcom, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom AG, Google, Intel, Reliance Jio, SK Telecom and Viasat.

 

New Nokia SaaS platform to launch CSPs into the cloud fully fit for 5G

Nick Booth
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New Nokia SaaS platform to launch CSPs into the cloud fully fit for 5G

Network functions on demand and beefed-up security too

Nokia claims it has re-worked its network operations and re-engineered its software applications to make it easier for CSPs to run its systems in any environment, be it edge, public or private.

The comms equipment maker says its newly unveiled software as a service (SaaS) for CSPs offering is a natural progression to ‘everything-as-a-service’ and a key element in its strategy to boost mobile operators along the ‘customer-centric pathway’.

CSPs want software online, not in a box

Nokia says the demand for software services among CSPs and enterprises will be worth $3.1 billion between 2021 and 20205, with an annual growth rate of around 25 per cent. It’s in talks with CSPs around the globe who want to use its SaaS services, it says.

Nokia is combining these independent services into three suites focused on, respectively, Digital Engagement, Marketplaces and Networking. Some SaaS services within these suites, such as security, will cross over into all domains.

Can’t run 5G on legacy

No CSP can fully exploit 5G without ditching its legacy practices, says Nokia. Customised software for analytics, security and network management doesn’t sit well with on costly, complex, on-premise infrastructure, it says. The lifeblood of any system, the data, has been congealed in legacy systems.

The Nokia Data Marketplace (NDM) aims to simplify and secure the CSP’s access to data. It was launched earlier this year ‘as a service’ says Nokia but it’s now available with better automation, efficiency and scalability to CSPs. The data relates to a variety of industry verticals, including energy, public sector, transportation and smart cities.

5G needs tight security

With 5G creating more access points in networks, CSPs are asking for automated security that will solve multiple problems. They need to shrink the ‘dwell time’, the period it takes to eject a cyber attacker once detected, minimise their manual tasks and quicken their responses. Nokia’s answer, the NetGuard Cybersecurity Dome, will available from early 2022. The machine learning service Nokia Anomaly Detection, which uses Nokia Bell Labs technology, will be available early 2022 along with ‘other’ unspecified services. This webinar might offer more details.

Nokia said it has ‘other’ SaaS for CSP services that will be announced in early 2022.

Pay as you grow or you’ll be too slow

“SaaS is nascent in the telco market today but our research shows that leading operators are waiting for vendors to respond,” said Caroline Chappell, Research Director at Analysys Mason, “It is good to see a mainstream vendor like Nokia making an early move into SaaS-based delivery.”

This will position Nokia well to serve operators that need to switch to cloud technologies like 5G, IoT, edge computing and AI. CSPs must transform themselves to capitalise on these technologies and Nokia’s SaaS model will help them, Chappell said.

Nokia has been laying the groundwork and its SaaS delivery framework is in a very strong competitive position, according to Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia. “This is a multi-year journey and we are going at it aggressively,” said Sahgal.

 

 

American Tower to Acquire CoreSite for $10.1 bn

Annie Turner
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0
American Tower to Acquire CoreSite for $10.1 bn

The towerco craze continues on both sides of the Atlantic

American Tower Corporation and CoreSite Realty announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for American Tower to acquire CoreSite for $170.00 per share in cash.

The total consideration for the transaction, including the assumption and/or repayment of CoreSite’s debt at closing, is about $10.1 billion (€8.837 billion). The transaction was unanimously approved by both boards of directors of both companies.

CoreSite’s assets

As of Q3 2021, CoreSite had 25 data centres, 21 cloud on-ramps and over 32,000 interconnections in eight US markets and generated annualised revenue and Adjusted EBITDA of $655 million and $343 million, respectively, in Q3 2021.

CoreSite has averaged double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years and apparently its “seasoned management team…has established leading positions and a critical presence with cloud service providers, positioning the business well for future organic growth”.

American Tower expects “to leverage its strong financial position to further accelerate CoreSite’s attractive development pipeline in the US, while also evaluating the potential for international expansion in…data center[s].”

American Towers hopes the transaction will transform its mobile edge compute business ahead of the proliferation of 5G low-latency applications throughout the cloud, enterprise and network ecosystems.

The plan is to establish a converged communications and computing infrastructure with distributed points of presence across multiple edge layers.

Greater scale

With greater scale and a more comprehensive offering, American Tower and CoreSite expect the combined company will be well placed to address evolving customers’ needs including network and cloud providers, service integrators and enterprise customers.

Tom Bartlett, American Tower’s CEO, stated, “As the convergence of wireless and wireline networks accelerates and classes of communications infrastructure further align, we anticipate the emergence of attractive value creation opportunities within the digital infrastructure ecosystem.”

CoreSite’s CEO, Paul Szurek, piped up, “The combined company will be ideally positioned to address the growing need for convergence between mobile network providers, cloud service providers, and other digital platforms as 5G deployments emerge and evolve.

He continued, “We expect the enhanced scale and further geographic reach to provide a platform for the combined company to accelerate its growth trajectory and expand into additional US metro areas, as well as internationally, leveraging American Tower’s extensive presence across the globe.

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