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Bouygues Telecom’s sales figures fall short of its Ambition 2026 targets

Nick Booth
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Bouygues Telecom’s sales figures fall short of its Ambition 2026 targets

Acquisition of Euro-Information Telecom (EIT) good but not enough to propel it up the French mobile league table

New figures suggest that Bouygues Telecom’s stated Ambition 2026 agenda to become the second-largest mobile player in France and a ‘major player in fibre’ still has some way to go, according to analysis in The Light Reading. 

The French mobile operator claims its mobile subscribers have surged to 14.5 million (excluding machine-to-machine) in the six months ending on July 1st 2021.

The newly acquired EIT unit, now known as Bouygues Telecom Business Distribution (BTBD), brought in 2.1 million customers at the beginning of 2021, while Bouygues Telecom itself gained 258,000 new customers in the first half of this year. Around 141,000 mobile subscribers were added from January to the end of March.

Orange France grew by 142,000 subscribers in the first half of 2021, its total of 22.87 million mobile customers giving it a lead of over 7 million subscribers. Currently in second place is Altice France-owned SFR, with 18.16 million subscribers, although the gap is narrowing as its numbers only grew by 105,000 in Q2. 

The disruptive mobile telecoms arriviste, Iliad’s Free Mobile, is in fourth place with 13.34 million subscribers, not far behind Bouygues, although it suffered a disruption of its own, having lost 36,000 net mobile customers in Q2. Bouygues is aiming to gain 4 million more mobile customers at the end of 2026 than it had at the time in 2020.

Gains fall short of target

There have been gains for Bouygues Telecom on the fixed line business, adding 346,000 new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers to a total of 1.9 million. This gives it a 15.6 per cent share of the national FTTH market for Q1 2021, according to figures from regulator Arcep Observatory.

Bouygues Teecom’s revenue grew by 14 per cent to €3.5 billion (US$4.1 billion) for the first half of 2021. However, its earnings before interest, tax and depreciation after leases (EBITDAal) margin was two points lower than in the first half of 2020. The operator attributed this to the dilutive effect of integrating BTBD, the changes caused by its emphasis on FTTH sales and a €10 million loss in roaming revenue.

Operating profit in the first half of 2021 was €335 million ($394 million), up €81 million year-on-year, a figure temporarily boosted by the sale of its data centres. 

In April, Bouygues said its 5G network was now present in 28 major towns and cities and confirmed its objective to achieve national coverage by the end of 2021. In June the regulator Arcep published figures that Iliad is way ahead of its rivals in deploying 5G, with 10,239 sites. Bouygues was second with 2,945 sites, followed by Orange (1,862) and SFR (1,751). So it has achieved second place in one market. 

MTN Ghana promises 5G next year, MTN Group quits Ethiopia and Syria

Nick Booth
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MTN Ghana promises 5G next year, MTN Group quits Ethiopia and Syria

MTN Ghana’s CEO Selorm Adavehoh says the operator should launch 5G services next year

MTN Ghana is planning a US$200 million overhaul of its network infrastructure in 2021 and hinted it could launch 5G services by the end of 2022. In what appears to be a consolidation, the South African-owned parent MTN Group announced a withdrawal from war-torn Ethiopia and Syria.

Since demand has risen due to the pandemic it is investing ‘substantially higher’ amounts than the initially planned $150 million investment, CEO Selorm Adavehoh told delegates at a recent MTN@25 Business Executive Breakfast held at the firm’s headquarters in Accra.

As part of this upgrade the operator expects to run 4G at all base stations in Accra before the end of 2021 and at all sites nationwide by the end of 2022, reports the Modern Ghana news site.

MTN Ghana’s never lost a technology race

If all goes to plan and if the current momentum is maintained MTN will be ready to launch 5G network in Ghana in 2022, according to Adavehoh.

“Innovation has been a key pillar of our growth. We are always trying to make sure we can be the first to launch the next technology first,” said Adavehoh. Since MTN was the first mobile operator to offer Ghana 2G, 3G and 4G, ‘hopefully’ it will be first with 5G next year, Adavehoh said.

As MTN Ghana celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, Mr Adadevoh said the MTN Ghana Foundation is keen on investing more in education, health, and economic growth.

Earlier this month, Recently MTN announced it is ending its involvement in Ethiopia and Syria. Ralph Mupita, Group CEO of the international operator MTN Group, confirmed to analysts that it won’t now submit a bid for the second operator licence in Ethiopia. The bidding for this auction was originally scheduled to open at the end of August.

MTN forgoes financial services option 

MTN Group had been interested in bidding for rights that included license to operate mobile financial services. The war in the north of Ethiopia is thought to have been a factor in the withdrawal. However, Mupita offered an alternative explanation. It would be difficult for MTN to enter the market as a number three operator, Muita said, because the third operator “always battles to make the returns work”. Repatriating cash out of Ethiopia will be challenging, Mupita said.

The MTN Group exit from Syria comes after 15 years of operating in the country. MTN had already planned to exit the Middle East in the medium term, but regulatory actions and licence payment demands had now made it ‘intolerable’ to operate in Syria, according to Mupita.

Damascene conversion over Syria

MTN Syria had been placed under guardianship by a court in Damascus in March over allegations that it had violated the terms of its licensing contract, which it has denied. The Syrian court has demanded $40 million from MTN.

Minority shareholder TeleInvest, which specialises in telecoms investment worldwide, had planned to buy MTN Group’s 75 percent stake in MTN Syria. However,  MTN claims TeleInvest hasn’t met MTN’s compliance demands.

MTN Group is one of 50 mobile operators and GSMA members to disclose their climate impacts.    

 

Mavenir demonstrates ‘world’s first’ containerized architecture for 2G

Annie Turner
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0
Mavenir demonstrates ‘world’s first’ containerized architecture for 2G

The company says this paves the way for incorporating 2G into Open RAN standards.

Mavenir announced containerized GSM 2G architecture which is ready for commercial deployment. It uses an enhanced fronthaul interface between the multi-radio access technology (MRAT) remote radiohead unit (RRU) and the distributed unit (DU).

The company says it demonstrates “full frequency hopping, multiple transmit/receive (TRXs)*, multiple codecs, ciphering and handovers in readiness for commercial deployments”.

Disaggregated infrastructure

It adds that the development of this tech is driven by operators wanting to swap legacy network elements for greater operational and cost efficiency as they disaggregate networks and diversify the supply chain.

Mavenir combined the 2G technology from acquiring ip.access almost a year ago and containerised the GSM layer 1, 2 and 3 protocols of 2G in the DU microservices architecture. It can be run in parallel with and on the same platform as the 4G/5G network architecture.

The vendor has developed a 2G interface based on an MRAT protocol to sit on top of the Common Public Radio Interfaces (eCPRI) interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance.  Mavenir claims this ‘enhancement’ was achieved with “minimal adaptation” and will make this combined interface openly available to the O-RAN Alliance in the hope of it becoming part of the standard for the fronthaul interface for 2G.

Platform partner

This containerised solution can be scalable with Mavenir Webscale Platform and other webscale platforms.

Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO of Mavenir, commented, “This milestone enables us to readily support operators in making a complete swap from proprietary…RAN solutions to open interfaces, and virtualised web-scale architectures.”

The Mavenir solution is claimed to bring the advantages of Open RAN lower layer split (LLS) mode to the DU Architecture which enables operators to centralise the 2G DUs, freeing up space and lessening complexity at the tower site. This enables pooling of the central processing unit (CPU) resources across several sites.

* We asked for clarification. This is what Mavenir said, in clearer English, we trust: multiple TRX is important because it gives operators scalability if they still have significant phones that don’t support VoLTE.

Each GSM TRX has 8 timeslots that can support eight simultaneous (full rate) calls (or 16 half rate calls). Being able to deploy multiple TRX will give incumbent operators much greater flexibility while migrating GSM users to VoLTE (and/or eventually VoNR – voice over New Radio) with all bearers running from a single common network architecture. This would be useful in urban/suburban areas where large numbers of subscribers are still dependent on GSM for voice.

 

China races ahead as rest of world dithers over standalone 5G

Nick Booth
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0
China races ahead as rest of world dithers over standalone 5G

Dell’Oro Group says operators’ fear of move to standalone 5G stunts growth of mobile core networks

Research from the Dell’Oro Group claims that operator reluctance to move from non-standalone 5G to standalone 5G is restricting growth in the mobile core network market. 

Mobile operators can’t bear to let go of the non-standalone 5G networks that rely on the LTE Evolved Packet Core, the report says. A move to a standalone (SA) 5G, which runs on a new cloud-native core network, would stimulate market growth. 

Only the Chinese operators are displaying the boldness needed, according to Dell’Oro Group, which reports that in the Asia Pacific region 70% of operator investment goes on 5G core equipment. 

Overall, the research firm found that growth in core network spending has slowed, from a double digit year-on-year rate rise to a 6% growth rate this year. 

Dell’Oro Group research director David Bolan attributed the slowdown to the sluggish uptake of 5G standalone networks. Bolan called on mobile operators to make up their minds.

No shortage of NFV Options

“CSPs [Comms service providers] need to decide which direction to take for 5G SA deployments. CSPs have several options to mull over, with new choices that were not available during the switch from 3G to 4G,” said Bolan.

It is a huge decision which could decide the fate of network function virtualisation infrastructure (NFVI) Bolan conceded. However the CSPs are blessed with a variety of options. “NFVI can be procured from a 5G core vendor, a third-party, the public cloud or another platform like the Rakuten Communications Platform,” said Bolan. 

Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Mavenir are the top mobile core network equipment vendors, according to Dell’Oro Group. Its research also found that 4G core spend is in continual decline, but still makes up 70% of the mix between 4G and 5G.” 

Standalone 5G on trial across Europe

The upsurge in spending could be imminent as there is plenty of relevant trial activity and planned deployments, reports Dell’Oro Group. The ultimate goal is to create ‘zero touch’ operations and the delivery of cloud-native 5G’s flagship feature – network slicing.

Nokia recently signed a single-vendor deal with A1 Telekom Group to deploy standalone 5G in Serbia and Slovenia. Vodafone Spain has selected Ericsson for pre-commercial standalone 5G support, including cloud-native 5G core and future network applications. In France, Orange is evaluating standalone 5G in tandem with related tech, including artificial intelligence and Open RAN.

In a blog post on the website of German operator Deutsche Telekom CTO Walter Goldenits (see our recent interview with him here) said the launch of its 5G Standalone (SA) network depends on use cases and the availability of devices.

“If the first use cases are still available in 2021, then 5G Standalone will come in 2021. Otherwise we will jump in 2022 at the latest,” said Goldenits.

 

OneWeb, StarLink and AAC Space Africa launches spark satellite fever

Nick Booth
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OneWeb, StarLink and AAC Space Africa launches spark satellite fever

OneWeb launches 34 satellites, StarLink opens Czech service and AAC Space unveils African division 

August has seen major activity in the space wars as satellite launches ranged from new companies to services to infrastructure.

Satellite comms operator OneWeb has launched 34 news satellites into low orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In Europe Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite internet operator has obtained obtained regulatory approval to provide its comms services in the Czech Republic and pledged to launch a service ‘soon’. Meanwhile, a satellite company launch by AAC Clyde Space saw it unveil Space Africa, a service catering for the growing market demand for satellites and space services in Africa.

OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) service, jointly owned by India’s Bharti (telecoms) group and the UK government, now has a total in-orbit constellation of 288 satellites. These form part of OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet that promises high-speed, low-latency global connectivity. European mobile operators, such as BT, are increasingly  using satellite to bulk up their infrastructure.

“OneWeb is seeing huge demand for its services from global customers,” said CEO Neil Masterson. Clients include telcos, ISPs and governments wanting to bring high network speeds to those with low access.

OneWeb received a $300 million equity boost from South Korea’s Hanwha Systems for an 8.8 per cent stake, bringing total equity investment to $2.7 billion since November 2020, with no debt issuance. The fresh investment is expected to be completed in the first half of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals.

Inmarsat criticises LEO expectations

Bharti Group-backed OneWeb is readying to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. Critics at UK-based satellite comms provider Inmarsat have dismissed the competitive service offered by LEO operators, such as Starlink and OneWeb, saying they “lack fundamental capabilities” of providing secure and comprehensive fast broadband coverage.

According to Czech server lupa.cz end services might be available to Czech users as early as September 1, 2021 but this date is more likely to mark the beginning of connection testing.

However, Starlink’s Irish branch has notified the Czech Telecommunications Authority of the commencement services. The beta version of the service is already available in 12 countries, including Germany and Austria, with some countries conducting private tests. Starlink has launched 1,701 satellites into orbit, and it estimates that 1,400 are fully functional. Founder Elon Musk said he wants to run tens of thousands of LEO satellites.

African space race

AAC Space Africa will design, build and deliver space missions to the continent from its Cape Town base in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The new subsidiary will also be the group’s centre of competence for advanced radio communication. Its management team claims to have 40 years of small satellite experience, having pioneered the African CubeSat industry through several missions and launched the first CubeSat on the continent.

The African Space economy will be worth $10 billion by 2024, according to AAC Space Africa. Previously AAC Clyde Space had to track ocean currents with earth observation technologies run through its European companies’ hubs.

“We see great potential for small satellites to provide timely, accurate and targeted data for weather forecasting, ocean monitoring, agricultural planning and land management,” said AAC Clyde Space CEO Luis Gomes.

Beyond connectivity – SKT announces T Universe subscription brand

Annie Turner
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Beyond connectivity – SKT announces T Universe subscription brand

Korea’s SK Telecom aims for 36 million subscribers by 2025 with partners including Google, Amazon, Starbucks and AIA Insurance so far.

SK Telecom held a press conference today to announce its plans to expand into the subscription market with a new subscription brand T Universe. 

SKT said it expects to reach 36 million T Universe subscribers and KRW 8 trillion (€5.834 billion) in annual gross merchandise value by 2025.

The idea, as the name suggests, is that it will be a ‘subscription Platform for All’. The operator is to work with partners – from SMEs and start-ups to global companies – with the aim of converting all its customers into T Universe subscribers.

More partners will be added over time. The service will launch on 31 August.

SK is working on:

  • online and offline shopping with Amazon, 11st, Emart and others
  • food & beverages with Starbucks, Paris Baguette, Baedal Minjok, and more
  • digital services with Google One, Wavve, Flo, V Coloring, Xbox Game Pass, Spoon Radio, and others
  • mobility services with T Map, Modoo Shuttle, among others
  • cosmetics with Toun 28
  • flower subscription with Kukka
  • pet products with About Pet,
  • insurance with AIA Insurance
  • nutritional supplements with Biopublic and
  • education with DoBrain). 

It is in talks with around 100 other companies to offer subscription services. 

Many variations on the theme

SK claims that its Universal Pass, which groups together various subscription products centred around Amazon Global Store on 11st will offer “exceptional value and benefits to customers”.  

The monthly subscription will cost KRW 9,900 (€7.20) a month, including free international delivery with no minimum spend for Amazon Global Store products on 11st 

It will also provide KRW 3,000 worth of 11st points, Google One Membership with 100GB of cloud storage and one additional subscription product worth from KRW 8,000 to KRW 10,000. 

More details of the offers and alternatives here. 

A new revenue universe?

“T Universe aims to create a new universe of subscription services that benefits both customers and business partners,” said Park Jung-ho, CEO of SKT. “By launching the subscription business that goes beyond the realm of telecommunications, we will suggest a brand new subscription lifestyle for our customers.” 

SK plans “to nurture over 1,000 consultants to provide specialized care and assistance for subscription customers”. SKT’s customer care centre already handles more than 100 million customer calls per year.

Customers will also be able to sign up for the subscription products via online channels of SKT (T World) and its subsidiaries (11st, etc.) that boast a combined total of 50 million monthly active users.

 

GSA: 5G growth booms but industries must be left to their own devices

Nick Booth
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GSA: 5G growth booms but industries must be left to their own devices

Report finds 461 operators in 137 countries are investing in 5G trials, licences, planning, network trials and soft launches.

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has released its latest intelligence on the progress of 5G networking across the world.

According to its report 4G and 5G Devices, Networks, Technologies and Spectrum, 166 operators in 67 countries have launched 3GPP-compliant 5G mobile services, while 63 operators in 34 countries had launched 3GPP-compliant 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) or home broadband services. These figures don’t include five (unnamed) operators that are to run soft launches of their 5G networks to a select audience, GSA said. 

Commercial progress

Thirteen operators have launched commercial public 5G standalone (SA) networks, while 45 others are embarking on 5G SA for public networks. Meanwhile there are 23 operators in the pipeline that are involved in tests and trials. In August ABI Research suggested that mobile operators have missed their opportunity to exploit private 5G networks. 

The industry tracker also reports of 938 announced 5G devices in existence, up by over half (350) the amount reported six months ago, when there were 588 pieces of 5G kit. Of the reported 938 5G devices, 608 are commercially available, is a rise of around 66 per cent in six months. The GSA has identified 450 5G phones available, up from 351 in January 2021.

GSA has given a breakdown of the rise in private 5G networks, with 45 countries reporting that exclusive LTE or 5G broadcasts were enabled by an exclusive network spectrum licence. Now GSA says it is tracking 370 companies across the globe that have taken up the option to ring fence their next generation network.

Of those 370 would be 5G companies, many are still at the stage of exploring how to use their 5G suitable spectrum licences and currently at various stages of planning, testing, trials and pilot schemes. Only in a minority of cases is 5G alone being used and LTE still accounts for the majority of private mobile networks deployments.

The ratio of LTE to 5G is reversing

While LTE is used in 64 per cent of the identified private mobile networks, that is down from 81 per in October 2020. By contrast 5G which is now being deployed (or planned for deployment) in 44 per cent of private mobile networks. In the networks being built 8 per cent are both LTE and 5G.

The manufacturing sector has the most early adopters of local area private mobile networks. This sector, which is an enthusiastic pioneer of the Internet of Things to slash costs and raise productivity, has 79 companies that have either reserved spectrum, run pilot schemes or, in rare cases, actually use private networks now. Mining and shipping ports complete the top three private network pioneers.

 

LG demos 6G terahertz breakthrough in German research labs

Nick Booth
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LG demos 6G terahertz breakthrough in German research labs

Proves that transmission and reception of data on wireless terahertz (THz) frequency is viable for potential 6G standard.

Korea’s LG Electronics and Germany’s research lab Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have successfully proved one of the central concepts of 6G networks. Though 6G systems do not technically exist without a standard, their potential came one step closer to reality.

Terahertz frequencies, electromagnetic waves with frequencies between 100 GHz and 10 THz, or wavelengths between 3 mm and 30 μm, were used in a networking experiment and managed to transmit data over 100 meters in an outdoor setting.

It was the first time this has been done but hopefully not the last if a 6G standard is upheld.

The demonstration took place on 13 August with the test data traveling between the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) and the Berlin Institute of Technology. LG attributes the success of the demo to its collaboration with Germany research lab Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Koreans investing heavily in 6G futures

One of the biggest challenges for wireless 6G will be the need for power amplification. Terahertz frequencies have short ranges and suffer from power loss during transmission and reception between antennas. This calls for the generation of a stable signal across ultra-wideband frequencies. The power amplifier was developed by Korean network equipment maker LG, with independent texting conducted by Fraunhofer HHI and Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF).

The power amplifier can generate a stable signal output of up to 15 dBm in the frequency range between 155 to 175 GHz. To this end LG claimed it also demonstrated adaptive beamforming technology successfully. The beamformer alters the signal’s direction in accordance with changes to the channel and receiver position. This employs a technique involving high-gain antenna switching, which combines output signals of multiple power amplifiers and transmits them to specific antennas.

“This test means we are ever closer to the successful application of terahertz radio communication spectrum in the upcoming 6G era,” said Dr. I.P. Park, president and CTO of LG Electronics.

In 2019, LG established the LG-KAIST 6G Research Center in partnership with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). This year, LG and KAIST partnered with US test and measurement firm Keysight Technologies to research future 6G technologies.

6G and the ambient internet of everything

All LG’s partners have agreed to develop technologies related to terahertz frequencies, the key frequency band for 6G communications which has not been standardised. The partners aim to complete 6G research by 2024. LG predicted that 6G’s faster data speed, lower latency and higher reliability will create the Ambient Internet of Everything (AIoE), which provides enhanced connected experience to users.

Last year, the government of South Korea said it aims to launch a pilot project for yet to be standardised 6G mobile services in 2026. The Korean government expects 6G services to be commercially available in Korea between 2028 and 2030. The Korean government will invest $179.2 million to secure basic 6G technology by 2026.

Djibouti Telecom doubles capacity of DARE1 submarine infra to 400GB

Annie Turner
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0
Djibouti Telecom doubles capacity of DARE1 submarine infra to 400GB

The east African operator has deployed Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme to upgrade its DARE1 network.

Djibouti Telecom is implementing Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme to upgrade its Djibouti Africa Regional Express1 (DARE1) network to increase digitization in East Africa.

The region is currently underserved regarding international connectivity.

Hub for East Africa

Located on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa, Djibouti is situated on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—one of the world’s busiest shipping routes serving the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

The nation is a connectivity hub for East Africa, made possible by state-owned network provider Djibouti Telecom.

As part of a consortium of telecoms operators, Djibouti Telecom operates eight submarine cable systems, including DARE1, which crosses Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.

The 5,000 km network, which connects the countries to data centres and content providers around the world, offers businesses and citizens access to internet, mobile, and global cloud services.

Faced with growing traffic driven by widespread remote work and learning, Djibouti Telecom set out with Ciena to upgrade DARE1.

Life line

“Submarine cable networks are our lifeline to the connected world, especially with more people relying on the internet than ever before,” said Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, General Manager of Djibouti Telecom.

“The DARE1 upgrade lets us bring much-needed connectivity and content closer to more users, faster – priming our area for economic growth today and for years to come.”

Djibouti Telecom is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution, which uses the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by the WaveLogic family, allowing a doubling of line rates to 400Gbps.

Spectrum Sharing capabilities enable the partitioning of submarine optical spectrum to different end users for more efficient use of undersea assets. The network is managed via Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.

“Leveraging Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, Djibouti Telecom expands the capacity of DARE1 to make possible dynamic new 10G, 100G, and Spectrum Sharing services for an increasingly digital world,” said Ian Clarke, Vice President of Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena.

Vodafone to teach small firms survival skills for the age of digital disruption

Nick Booth
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0
Vodafone to teach small firms survival skills for the age of digital disruption

Cybersecurity and remote connectivity are top priorities in the pandemic and small businesses want to get up to speed 

Mobile operator Vodafone and training partner Udemy have created a new digital training programme for the UK small businesses in response to the disruption created by the pandemic. The move follows closely on an initiative by Telefonica which teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s ATCSC to offer cyber security.

The programme was launched in response to revelations in the SME Cybersecurity report, a Vodafone study of the effect of skill shortages. The study showed that companies have been rendered vulnerable to cyber attacks and panic buys in the desperate search for digital know how.  

Lessons and useful intelligence will be passed on via The Vodafone V-Hub in a mission to improve the speed, safety and efficiency of daily operations for Britain’s small businesses. Vodafone pledged there will be no sign-up fees or complicated downloads, with a simple log in providing access to 150,000 fee and ‘premium’ courses.

Vodafone claims it launched the programme after a joint study with Enterprise Nation revealed that a significant portion of British businesses don’t have the skills for the digital economy. The report on the business.connected study, released in June, claimed that a third of SMEs aren’t clear on which digital tools they need. Many are so desperate they lose all sense of proportion and two thirds of SMEs would hire a ‘digital native’ with no work experience over a ‘digital novice’ with maturity, experience and a wider perspective of business.

Cyber attacks will be fatal for SMEs 

Following this, Vodafone claims, it devised a scheme to address the skills shortage by training 100,000 SMEs in digital skills. 

Courses range from design and development, through Excel and audience management to software tutorials and strategy, says Vodafone. The courses range in scope from beginners to advanced. V-Hub users will get free access to advisers, by phone or webchat.

Cybersecurity is a priority, says Vodafone, since its own intelligence showed that a quarter of UK SMEs (around 1.3 million) would be put out of business if hit by a cyber-attack, even though the average cost is £3,230. According to Vodafone’s SME Cybersecurity report, only a third have a cybersecurity strategy and basic cybersecurity protections in place, claims Vodafone, though 40% have experienced a cyber attack in the pandemic.

“Staying connected and protected online are both consistently high on the agenda,” said Andrew Stevens, Vodafone UK’s director of small & medium business. “Many business owners don’t feel they have the experience to navigate today’s increasingly connected business environment.

“Across the 130,000 businesses who accessed V-Hub support over the past 12 months, cybersecurity skills and remote working connectivity ranked as the top two topics respectively. A big part of staying safe and staying connected is of course having the right tools in place.”

In other news, Vodafone Ukraine, the second-biggest mobile carrier in the Ukraine market, has announced plans to enter the fixed broadband market.

 

 

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