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Italian mast operator Inwit builds the first wooden mobile telecom tower

Nick Booth
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Italian mast operator Inwit builds the first wooden mobile telecom tower

What do you call a telecoms mast made of timber units? Element tree

Rome based mast maker Inwit has built Italy’s, possibly even the world’s, first wooden mobile telecommunications tower. With the help of partner Vodafone Italia it has complete the aesthetic installation on the A51 Tangenziale Est ring road in Milan, in the Municipality of Brugherio (MB).

The wooden tower, which blends in with the neighbouring Est delle Cave Park, will guarantee cellular network coverage and emergency telephone services in the area, which is bears the brunt of heavy motorway and, by extension, mobile data traffic.

The structure is built with glued laminated timber as a greener alternative to steel. Standing 40 metres high, it has four walkways from which to position the hosted operators’ antennas and radio links. Aside from the glued wooden pillars, the tower comprises totally recyclable and sustainable materials, in line with the objectives of the region’s 2021-2023 Sustainability Plan.

The wonder of lumber

This is an initiative with two objectives: the redevelopment of the park as a wildlife corridor, and achieving the best possible environmental and landscape integration of the infrastructure. The wooden structured mast replaces a steel predecessor, which is in the process of being dismantled and recovered.

“Our choice is to be responsible and sustainable,” said Inwit CEO Giovanni Ferigo. “An increasingly connected future will need more towers to support telecoms operators. So it is our duty to come up with alternative materials that reduce the environmental impact and are more harmonious with the landscape and urban surroundings. We are convinced that glued laminated timber is an excellent choice in this regard.”

In September 2021 Inwit was judged the second most environmentally conscious Italian company in Refinitive’s Diversity & Inclusion Top 100 index. It has been ranked in. the top 100 for three year’s in succession.

“This is how innovation and sustainability come together,” said Ferigo.

 

 

NEC and Xilinx working to create faster 5G radio units for O-RAN builders

Nick Booth
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NEC and Xilinx working to create faster 5G radio units for O-RAN builders

Radio Unit is a joyous experience for users and base station installers

Adaptive computing vendor Xilinx and NEC Corporation are collaborating on NEC’s latest 5G radio units (RUs) and the resulting fast, versatile and instalment friendly model of RU should appear in early 2022.

The productivity boost is thanks to the integration of Xilinx’s popular 7nm Versal AI Core series devices into NEC’s RUs.

These latest NEC 5G massive MIMO RUs use digital beamforming to improve communication and broaden bandwidth. The NEC RUs will support a wide range of 5G frequencies, including C-Band.

The Xilinx Versal AI Core series devices will introduce new open radio access network (O-RAN) options within the NEC RUs in addition to the inherent features of advanced signal processing and beamforming. The O-RAN interfaces make open and flexible 5G RAN installations possible and will significantly broaden the RU’s compatibility with products from different vendors.

Best RU option for base station builders

The bottom line should be more power to the user, with less fiddling for the network engineer and more options in the future, according to Liam Madden, executive VP and general manager of the Wired and Wireless Group at Xilinx.

“NEC’s new massive MIMO radios using Xilinx’s commercially-proven beamforming will improve the wireless end-user experience as use cases grow and evolve in future,” said Madden. NEC’s leadership in massive MIMO radio design and Xilinx’s versatile technology will create a compelling utility to the O-RAN buyers, he predicted.

The 5G base station market is notoriously brutal unless you present an alternative that is outstandingly different, according to Kenichi Ito, general manager at the 1st Wireless Access Solutions Division at NEC. The integration of Xilinx technology within NEC Rus will provide such a valuable advantage to NEC customers, Ito said.

Installers want highly-capable and feature-rich radio units that perform to order at the scale needed by any application said Ito: “The Xilinx Versal AI Core series delivers on its design promise for performance and scalability by using advanced signal-processing for massive MIMO antennas and beamforming.”

 

 

Mobile operators could end digital divide says Three CEO

Nick Booth
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Mobile operators could end digital divide says Three CEO

Be more inclusive and get the diversity dividend, mobile operators told

The telecoms industry could do so much more, the TM Forum heard from Robert Finnegan CEO of Three UK and Ireland, which claims it is currently ranked the most advanced 5G installer in the UK.

Speaking at the Digital Transformation World Series, Finnegan joked that connectivity has become such a human necessity it is outranked only by food, shelter, electricity and water. 

However he said there is a serious point that the telecoms industry’s efforts in the last 18 months should be recognised. Recently it has surpassed expectations and its benefits to society would be unimaginable thirty years ago, he acknowledged. “I think we always do better but I think we can always be more”.

Finnegan told telecom’s industry delegates. “In the last 18 months we have become a kind of cornerstone of society.”

However, there are misconceptions about network coverage that need to be cleared up, so there are still people being left behind in cities Finnegan said. 

Society divided by connectivity

“We tend to think that the developing countries need help but I saw stories where children in Dallas were sitting in Starbucks using Zoom [as that] provided the only way for them to connect with their school network. That broke my heart,” said Finnegan.

Mobile operators helped society stay connected during the pandemic and Three is going further by helping disadvantaged children. “We gave out tens of thousands of SIM cards to children in deprived areas,” said Finnegan.

Though mobile operators have done an ‘amazing job’ they should be vigilant about not making the digital gap even larger. “The biggest fallacy is that it’s a rural issue,” said Finnegan, “it’s a geographic issue and it’s developing into a major problem in key cities.”

Though Three has been lauded as the UK’s top 5G operator – thanks to the help of installation partners Ericsson and Amdocs – it still has challenges such as cutting latency and improving tariffs.

Like all mobile operators it could find itself being a competitor with fixed line companies for broadband service provision in the urban areas.

B2B wants Three

Three and other mobile operators would be better value as broadband providers because they have a lower cost of providing the customer with the service than DSL network owners, according to Finnegan. “Reports predict that 75 per cent of broadband usage will be in the B2B sector so that’s going to be an opportunity for us,” said Finnegan.

Security and human resources are two big challenges mobile operators will have to confront. In response Three is trying to foster a culture of creativity through its labs, partners and its graduate recruits.

The security options provided by eSIM technology exemplify how Three is approaching these problems.  “E-sim is a technology not many people are talking about,” said Finnegan.

But Three can feed this into the IT lab it shares with T-Mobile and Microsoft where dozens of partners come together and cross fertilise ideas for everything from security, through the IoT to mobile edge computing, said Finnegan. 

Youth holds truth to developer

Meanwhile Three introduced its undergraduate programme into the UK last week. Finnegan told a story from the programme that exemplified how inclusivity brings a Diversity Dividend.

Three was in the initial stages of developing a voicemail system. It had a conference with its graduates and one brave soul gave a rather brutal appraisal of the potential brand offering: “The options are to leave a message and to listen to a message. We never leave a message and we never ever listen to the message.”  

Three saved a lot of time and money thanks to making that connection and the open exchange of intelligence, said Finnegan. Now the challenge is to cast its 5G net wider. 

Finnegan was speaking at the TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Sessions.

 

 

Nokia building first 10Gbps FTTH in Slovenia for Telekom Slovenije

Nick Booth
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Nokia building first 10Gbps FTTH in Slovenia for Telekom Slovenije

Nokia claims to be the world’s first vendor that can upgrade to 25Gbps

Nokia is supplying the broadband equipment for Telekom Slovenije’s 10Gbps fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, with construction starting in 2021. The system can be upgraded to 25Gbps as needs must which only Nokia can achieve, claimed the vendor. 

Slovenian network builders will install the Nokia ISAM FX series in place of existing nodes. The new equipment’s Quillion chipset has the processing power to pump data across a FTTH network which will cover the entire country, Nokia says. 

Telekom Slovenije (TS) currently covers 400,000 Slovenian households, which is over half of the entire total, making TS the country’s biggest telco.

Nokia said that once the kit is installed, tuned and tested Telekom Slovenije will have the capacity for 10Gbs services for residential and business customers. Much of the growth in demand will come from the rise in home working, says the telco.

The equipment provides continuity with an upgrade path to a 25Gb/s passive optical network (PON) for those needing advanced services. The symmetrical 10Gb/s passive optical network (XGS-PON) is designed to cope with upgrades to 25Gb/s with the same hardware.

Is Covid broadband’s salesman on the year

The COVID-19 pandemic made the installation of ‘highly capable and stable remote connections’ an imperative, according to Mitja Štular, Telekom Slovenije’s CTO.

Once that substantial user base of remote-workers has faster and better connections, they may find they want new TV and video services, then their tastes will run to increasingly high-quality video technologies such as the 4K technology and virtual reality, according to Stular. “High-capacity fibre networks complement our mobile network and strengthen our position in the upcoming 5G world.”

This time around TS has the capacity to protect its bandwidth hungry consumers from bill shock, TS has promised. 

This is in line with a pattern of global consumption patterns in which FTTH complements the business model for mobile operators, according to Sandy Motley, Nokia’s president of fixed networks.

“The global investment in fibre highlights the competitive advantage that ultra-fast networks bring,” said Motley. With its leadership in 10Gb/s symmetrical PON, Nokia is currently the only vendor in the world that can move telcos smoothly on to 25G speeds, claimed Motley. 

 

 

  

Huawei’s CFO could be allowed to return to China shortly

Annie Turner
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Huawei’s CFO could be allowed to return to China shortly

Reports suggest the US Justice Department has struck a deal with founder’s daughter.

Meng Wanzhou (pictured in Italy in 2018) has been under house arrest in Canada since 2018 after she was detained during a stopover in Vancouver in response to a request for her to be extradited to the US.

The US Justice Department accused Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, of misleading US authorities and HSBC about her company’s relationship with Skycom Tech and Huawei Device USA, which sold equipment to Iran in defiance of international sanctions against the country at the time.

The extradiction request was made on the grounds that in her role as the company’s CFO, she is personally implicated in lying to US authorities regarding illegal sales to Iran and defrauding the bank.


President Trump reinstated and increased sanctions against Iran which had been withdrawn by the Obama Administration.



Reassessment

During the Trump Administration, Meng had turned down a similar offer to admit some wrongdoing in return for deferred prosecution and being allowed to return to China, avoiding prosecution in the US.

in summer, a Canadian judge ruled that documents from HSBC could not be submitted as evidence, which was a blow to her argument, and as the extradition date drew closer, she apparently reconsidered her options.
 
Her arrest and the US extradition request were part of the escalation of a trade war between the Trump Administration and China, with Huawei caught up in the eye of the storm.

Accusation of espionage

The US has accused Huawei as being an agent of the Chinese state that could use the equipment deployed in countries’ networks for state espionage and banned from the US and other markets on security grounds.
 
The Trump Administration also pressured other governments to follow suit.
 
Huawei has also been accused of industrial espionage.

It seems unlikely that Meng’s release will do much to improve Sino-American relations.

Satellite connectivity and video players could double their money in 10 years

Nick Booth
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0
Satellite connectivity and video players could double their money in 10 years

Only achievable by tight integration into terrestrial networks a new report from Euroconsult reckons

If satellite operators could widen their trajectory the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation will have a market value $30 billion by 2030, according to Satellite Connectivity and Video Market, a new report by analyst Euroconsult.

The rise in market valuation was based on rising NGSO capacity in the next decade. In the supply based forecast NGSO accounts for 90 per cent of the new capacity expected in the next five years. Euroconsult’s figures show global capacity surging from 3.7Tbps in 2020 to 23Tbps in 2022. It is then projected to reach more than 50Tbps in 2026, on the condition that more constellations are put into service.

There is another caveat in the report. In order to meet those expectations, the satellite operators (SatOps) must fuse much tighter integrations with terrestrial networks, warned report author Dimitri Buchs, a senior consultant at Euroconsult. 

“Digitisation will be the key to network convergence,” said Buchs. Unless this ‘smartification’ can improve network efficiency aspirations for new user applications and markets in underserved areas will be unattainable.

Market for connecting the unconnected

“NGSO constellations continue to gain momentum, as the past year’s new satellite orders and launches demonstrated,” said Nathan De Ruiter, MD of Euroconsult Canada. Starlink began commercial service and both OneWeb and Telesat Lightspeed secured additional investment, De Ruiter added.

The big market opportunity is in reaching the unconnected by reaching remote areas and people on the move, creating cellular backhaul and community hotspots. Much of this moveable target market comprises the 250,000 commercial vessels and aircraft that operate beyond the reach of terrestrial networks. Only 15 per cent of these currently use satellite for broadband connectivity.

Broadcasters will ditch satellite links 

Meanwhile enterprise networks and consumer broadband will provide the main growth in demand in the next decade. Video distribution is being taken off satellite networks as cheaper methods of distribution emerge and 5G becomes an option. As compensation there is more money to be made from mobility. With the shipping and aeronautics industries demanding connectivity, revenues from satellite coms are projected to reach $3bn by 2030.

The report covers 13 world regions and reviews market trends for six segments: video distribution and contribution, cellular backhaul and trunking, enterprise networks, mobility, milsatcom and consumer broadband.

NTT DATA and Mavenir to collaborate globally on 5G Open RAN-based networks

Annie Turner
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0
NTT DATA and Mavenir to collaborate globally on 5G Open RAN-based networks

Details are sketchy so far, but they cite wanting to extend their collaborative work for NTT DoCoMo.

NTT DATA, a global digital business and IT services firm, and Mavenir Systems will collaborate globally to provide products, solutions, systems and integration services for 5G networks based on cloud native, open architecture-based systems, including Open RAN.

The companies will combine IT and telecoms services, including integration services provided by NTT DATA worldwide, with Mavenir’s Open Virtualized RAN (vRAN) solutions and Converged Packet Core to support the adoption of Open vRAN by operators, and digitalisation of enterprises and telecom operators using 5G.

The two say they will prioritise and work closely together on pioneering projects to drive open architecture-based approaches to enable bigger and broader ecosystems to unlock the potential of 5G.

NTT DATA and Mavenir have deployed one of the first cloud-native 5G Standalone (SA) campus networks at Ensō – The Space for Creators in Germany.

NTT DOCOMO’s Open RAN Ecosystem has also selected NTT DATA as a system integrator and Mavenir as a RAN software provider and is working to realize Open vRAN in telecom operators.
 
NTT DATA’s global delivery and Mavenir’s solutions will be combined to meet the needs of operators around the world as they build or transition to open and virtualized 5G networks.

NTT DATA and Mavenir will also contribute to the digitization of regions such as rural areas that have little or poor digital connectivity.

Sierra Wireless and Ericsson unveil 5G New Radio and Massive MIMO 5G boosters

Nick Booth
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Sierra Wireless and Ericsson unveil 5G New Radio and Massive MIMO 5G boosters

New infrastructure kit will extend the reach and boost the power of services on 5G

Infrastructure vendors Ericsson and Sierra Wireless have launched new kit that makes 5G services easier to build and richer to experience.

Equipment maker Sierra Wireless (SW) claims its new EM9191 5G New Radio (NR) module will improve video performance over 5G and present a more convincing case for live video production services.

Meanwhile Ericsson unveiled the latest addition to its Massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) range, an ultra-light antenna-integrated radio AIR 3268, which it says will make 5G mid-band easier to fit into densely populated urban areas.

SW’s module is integrated into mobile video encoders from Aviwest, which makes live and recorded video contribution systems. The EM9191 gives Aviwest’s PRO360-5G and AIR320e-5G mobile video encoders less latency and better 5G connectivity, which has been a snag for broadcasters with ambitions to stream high-definition IP video live from news and entertainment events. If they can shrink all this broadcasting power into small radio units it may save broadcasters on the expensive logistics of manpower, travel and lodging costs, outside broadcasting trucks and satellite transmission, according to Ronan Poullaouec, CTO at Aviwest.

News is coming live on 5G

“5G will fundamentally transform live video production, making the job simpler and the entertainment more immersive,” said Poullaouec. The extra point-of-view cameras it enables can create a wider experience for users. This is in the gift of 5G operators but only if SW and Aviwest can squeeze data along the 5G network through mobile video encoders.

Telefonica-owned telecommunications provider Movistar used the Aviwest AIR320-5G to remotely broadcast live high-definition video from the 2021 Copa del Rey basketball tournament. Broadcaster Cosmote TV completed Greece’s first live television broadcast through a 5G network using AIR320-5G units and robotic cameras to transmit audio and video of the final game of the Greek Cup. 

Ericsson’s Massive MIMO

Ericsson claims its latest invention for improving 5G logistics, the AIR 3268 is the lightest and smallest Massive MIMO radio in the industry.

With 200W output power, 32 transceivers and passive cooling, the radio weighs 40 per cent less than earlier models, making installations easier on towers and rooftops, poles and walls.

Ericsson developed the AIR 3268 in partnership with BT to address 5G challenges, according to Greg McCall, BT Group’s MD of service platforms. “The 3.5 GHz band Massive MIMO is  less than half the size and weight of our current kit, and its wind resistance could get it into new locations.”

Liberty Global Venture partners for German FTTH joint venture

Annie Turner
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Liberty Global Venture partners for German FTTH joint venture

Its partner is InfraVia Capital: they will “assess opportunities available in building out FTTH greenfield networks

In the first phase Liberty Global Ventures, the investment arm of Liberty Global, and its partner Infravia Capital will target a small number of under-served German municipalities, with InfraVia Capital Partners to evaluate wider investment in Germany based on its success.

InfraVia Capital Partners is an independent private equity firm that specialises in infrastructure and technology investments.

50:50 joint venture

The joint venture, which is 50:50, is subject to regulatory approval. Assuning that is forthcoming, the JV will take a modular approach, and if the first phase is successful measured against defined criteria, then the two will look for further opportunities.

Robert Dunn, Managing Director, Connectivity Investments, Liberty Global, comments: “Liberty Networks Germany offers an exciting opportunity to leverage our expertise in deploying critical broadband infrastructure in a market we know very well.

“We’re also excited by the attractive returns offered by greenfield fibre network deployment in a country where millions of homes don’t yet have access to fast
and reliable broadband. We look forward to working in partnership with InfraVia as we take a controlled approach to the opportunity as we move forward.”

Liberty Global operated Unitymedia for a decade in Germany, which included working closely with municipalities and regional authorities as Unitymedia expanded its network in the country, which reached 13 million homes passed and 7.2 million customers by the time of its sale to Vodafone in 2019.

Germany was cited as one of the fastest countries making the fastest progress in building out fibre infrastructure by the FTTH Council Europe’s latest research published last week, but at only 8.1% penetration in 2021 (expected to rise to 59.9% in 2026), there is a huge potential market.

 

ETSI gives European operators new F5G spec for fifth generation of fixed networks

Nick Booth
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ETSI gives European operators new F5G spec for fifth generation of fixed networks

Required reading on future of augmented, virtual and ETSI reality

ETSI’s 5th Generation Fixed Network group (F5G ISG) has just released its new specification, ETSI GS F5G 003, reports Vanilla Plus.

The F5G Technology Landscape specification examines technical requirements, existing standards and imagines 10 different use cases in the home, enterprise or industry.

The ETSI GS F5G 003 use cases include PON (passive optical network) on-premises and passive optical LAN. In the hypothetical PON it examines, the system connects end devices such as HDTV, HD surveillance cameras and VR/AR helmets and creates a higher data rate, better coordination and latency than current Ethernet and Wi-Fi mesh.

The high-quality-private-line use case speculates on the use of optical transport networks (OTN) for governments, large companies, financial and medical institutions who need a variety of conditions to be met. The scenario involves guaranteed bandwidth, low latency, five-nines availability, a totally secured network, access to cloud services and intelligent operation and maintenance of their connectivity. PON offers high quality but cheap private lines for SMEs and offers higher performance, lower cost, better industrial adaptation and easier operation for the industrial customers, says the report.

Less latency, no more wait and see 

As an integrated fixed network, F5G can hypothetically support broadband and multiple access aggregation over PON (MAAP), varying its services to multiple types of customers on the same network and guarantee the SLA for each service. 

Other use cases describe remote attestation digitised ODN/FTTX. Telemetry-driven performance monitoring in intelligent access network can sustain high bandwidth and latency sensitive services such as augmented and virtual realities and online gaming to end users. This means network operators can monitor traffic variation by the second and re-configure the network accordingly. 

In the Cloud Virtual Reality use case the network has to support cloud-based virtual reality gaming and video.

This new cornerstone in F5G work is the basis for future F5G standards on architecture, end to end management, security and all the aspects related to specific applications of fibre optic borne broadband, claims says Luca Pesando, chair of ETSI F5G ISG.

“Fibre and fibre-based optical networks are the key technical enablers of our society’s green and digital transitions,” said Pesando.

 

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