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HPE tackles 5G private network complexity head-on 

Simon Dux
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HPE tackles 5G private network complexity head-on 

The launch of HPE Aruba Networking Enterprise Private 5G will help enterprises and even telcos accelerate and simplify the deployment and management of private 5G networks

Hewlett Packard Enterprise surprised financial analysts this week after demand for its AI-optimised servers blew away their estimates at the company’s earnings call. The company forecast third-quarter revenue of $7.4 billion to $7.8 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $7.46 billion. The current AI boom helped its server revenue rise 18% YoY, to $3.9 billion in Q2 ended 30 April – more than doubling sequentially to $900 million, and with an order backlog in the billions. 

However, beyond the AI excitement, during the earnings call CEO Antonio Neri also pointedly highlighted how its HPE Aruba Networking unit’s latest Enterprise Private 5G launch this week could be the final piece of the 5G and wi-fi co-existence jigsaw for enterprises.  

“We announced significant new innovations during the quarter to align with HPE’s broader AI strategy. These solutions include generative AI capabilities to improve AIOps, and Wi-Fi 7 access points that capture edge data for AI inferencing,” he said. “In addition, last month we launched new security and AI observability tools to help fight AI cyber risks. And just yesterday, we expanded the most complete private 5G and wi-fi portfolio in the market with the launch of HPE Aruba Networking Enterprise Private 5G. All of this will be delivered through our HPE GreenLake cloud platform.” 

It is difficult to gauge exactly how big the private 5G opportunity may grow to, particularly as definitions vary widely. However, analysts are still prepared to take a stab. For example, SNS Telecom & IT’s “Private 5G Networks: 2024 – 2030” report predicts that annual investments in private 5G networks for vertical industries will grow at a CAGR of approximately 42% between 2024 and 2027, eventually accounting for nearly $3.5 billion by the end of 2027.

HPE Aruba Networking Enterprise Private 5G, simplifies the deployment and management of private 5G networks. More importantly, the solution integrates wi-fi and private 5G – with a coherent management roadmap – addressing connectivity challenges in large and remote environments such as manufacturing, healthcare, public venues and education. 

The platform includes a 4G/5G core, HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers, SIM/eSIM cards, 4G/5G small cells, and a dashboard. It provides cloud-native management, expanded AI data capabilities, and interoperability with shared spectrum. The system, built on the expertise from HPE’s acquisition of Athonet, delivers rapid deployment and configuration. 

Unifying private 5G and wi-fi management 

At first glance it looks like HPE has taken a big step to integrating the management of the private 5G infrastructure with HPE Aruba’s wi-fi management and if the company cracks that, enterprises will have a unified client experience when roaming between wi-fi and mobile. 

“HPE’s vision is one of unified connectivity,” HPE Aruba Networking head of wireless product marketing Gayle Levin (above) told Mobile Europe. “We are creating a unified management system in HPE Aruba Networking Central that supports common wi-fi and private 5G services and can be managed using a single pane of glass.” 

“The first step is to modify the Athonet cloud management dashboard to include radio management and to deliver a look and feel common to HPE Aruba Networking Central,” she said.  “We’re also developing the intelligence based on Passpoint and our work with Air Pass to allow devices that can run on both private 5G and wi-fi to use SIM identity for both so that they have the same level of access to resources on wi-fi and private 5G.” 

Another issue to resolve in deployments is whether the SIM or wi-fi certificate would be the primary identity for the device. “For devices that support both wi-fi and private cellular, the SIM will be the primary identity and that identity will be shared across wi-fi,” said Levin. “We’ve been working on seamless handoffs for some time, using Air Pass and the Passpoint standard to coordinate shared identity, access to resources, and more.” 

Management system integration 

She explained how the mobile management system and the HPE Aruba Central management system work together.  We’re integrating at the management level – HPE Aruba Networking Central will be the unifying function and single pane of glass across wi-fi, private 5G, wired and SD-WAN and it will also be supported in HPE GreenLake for financial and consumption flexibility with NaaS,” said Levin. 

“The small cells and wi-fi APs will remain physically separate since combining the small cell and AP would be cost prohibitive, complicate deployment and purchasing decisions, and constrain product development and life cycles,” she said. “However, we believe that the value is in integrating the Day 0 to Day N management and making it simple enough for network admins to manage without requiring deep cellular expertise. The same AI capabilities that we use for wi-fi will be extended to private 5G networks.” 

Not either-or technologies 

Levin emphasises that despite the work HPE Aruba has done to make the 5G and wi-fi as seamless as possible, the company sees the two technologies as complementary. “For example, at the 2023 Ryder Cup, wi-fi was used at the clubhouse for fan access while private 5G was used for wider area coverage at the far fairways to support video streaming and for wi-fi backhaul.” 

She added that to date, most of the adoption of private 5G has been in manufacturing, energy, and transportation to take advantage of its deterministic access, wider area coverage, traffic segmentation and high-speed mobility. “As private 5G becomes easier to deploy and manage, we believe that the market will grow and we’ll see more use in other areas such as mission-critical, back-of-office applications at public venues where wi-fi is used to deliver the ultimate fan experience and private 5G is used for optical ticket scanners or universities where private 5G complements wi-fi to backhaul safety video or provide connectivity for pop-up events,” she said.  

IS-Wireless to provide private 5G at Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut

Annie Turner
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IS-Wireless to provide private 5G at Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut

The deployment will be part of an initiative to foster the ecosystem for open 5G campus networks and Germany in Europe, CampusOS

The Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI – pictured), which researches and develops mobile and optical communication networks and systems, has chosen IS-Wireless to deploy a private 5G network. Fraunhofer HHI co-coordinates the CampusOS flagship project, which supports the development of an ecosystem for 5G campus networks in Germany and Europe.

The project’s consortium includes Bosch, Siemens, Rohde & Schwarz and Deutsche Telekom. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

The IS-Wireless installation is intended to contribute to designing high-demand, 5G-based campus networks that will be later be deployed commercially in the German market. The networks will support applications such as Industry 4.0, including the coordination of automated guided vehicle fleets (AGVs) and 3D mapping of storage areas to improve in-house transport processes.

Other potential use cases include connected construction sites and construction logistics. According to IS-Wireless the “near real-time coordination of distributed and partially mobile work processes is essential, based on digital twins of construction sites”. How did we ever build those pyramids?

It continues, “[In] such applications, the optimal placement of the data processing infrastructure, as well as mechanisms ensuring that unwanted interferences do not lead to a disruption of the existing sensors, are essential. IS-Wireless, with its Private 5G, addresses these issues.”

IS-Wirless will deliver its Open RAN Distributed Unit and Centralized Unit, and and near real-time RAN Intelligent Controller for indoor and outdoor installations at a Fraunhofer HHI site at Berlin’s Lanolinfabrik.

“In considering industrial applications, handling very large data volumes and ensuring very low latencies for communication and data processing are mandatory. We also focus on interference, either by preventing them from occurring or by using them to our advantage, thanks to the scheduler we’ve designed,” says Artur Chmielewski, Head of Sales at IS-Wireless.

Last summer IS-Wireless announced it was involved in a consortium to build a private 5G network at Werner-von-Siemens Center for Industry and Science in Berlin for the control of connected and autonomous mobile robots.

Johan Wibergh joins AST SpaceMobile’s board and planning party

Annie Turner
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Johan Wibergh joins AST SpaceMobile’s board and planning party

The former CTO of Vodafone Group says, “I am confident that my experience can help the company achieve its ambitious goals”

Johan Wibergh, the esteemed former CTO of Vodafone Group, has joined AST SpaceMobile’s board of directors. Wibergh has more than 35 years’ experience in the telecoms sector and retired from Vodafone in 2022. He was succeeded by Scott Petty who became group CTIO.

Wibergh formerly held several roles at Ericsson and sits on boards at technology companies including Bell Canada and Cohere Technologies. Wibergh will also chair AST SpaceMobile’s new network planning and spectrum committee for its satellite constellation.

AST SpaceMobile’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Abel Avellan, said, “[Wibergh’s] extensive experience in building and operating large-scale networks, coupled with his proven track record of success in driving innovation and growth, will be invaluable to us as we progress towards commercialization of our space-based cellular broadband network.”

The satellite company has had an eventful few weeks. Last week it announced a six-year deal with AT&T to provide space-based broadband services, followed this week by a strategic partnership with Verizon.

Wibergh said, “AST SpaceMobile’s technology has the potential to eliminate connectivity gaps and bridge the digital divide, making the world a more equitable place, and I am confident that my experience can help the company achieve its ambitious goals.”

You can’t have telco transformation without automation

Moshe Lavi, Michael McGroarty, Robert McIntyre & Francesco Sorrentino
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You can’t have telco transformation without automation

Partner content: The central issue for CSPs is that telecom technology has evolved more quickly than telco operations

The 5G revolution is well under way, though with more bumps in the road and progressing more slowly than most communication service providers (CSPs) had hoped. Ask CSP leaders why, and they’ll point to the lack of a “killer app” to monetize 5G investments as the biggest reason.

Next biggest: high ongoing operational costs, followed by painfully slow time-to-value for new services, with most CSPs still needing months to update their offerings. Look beneath the surface, however, and you’ll find a common problem underlying all these pain points: telco technology has evolved more quickly than telco operations.

Unlike with 4G/LTE, the true promise of 5G was never just about higher data rates. It was meant to catalyze telco transformation. Arguably, the real value was to enable new capabilities like API-driven service frameworks, network slicing, ultra-low latencies, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), and more, so that CSPs could create new differentiated services and rapidly bring them to customers. In that sense, 5G is less a solution than a next-generation toolkit for building new solutions.

So why aren’t we seeing those new solutions in production? With few exceptions, CSPs have moved quickly in adopting next-gen technologies, but they haven’t yet adopted the next-gen operations needed to fully capitalize on them. The result is a growing number of 5G networks that have the potential to do amazing things but still mostly don’t, because network teams are struggling to operationalize them at scale.

There’s an important lesson here: CSPs can’t truly innovate without simplifying operations. In a software-driven, on-demand marketplace, this requires an automated services delivery framework that exists independent of any specific services or networks—with zero-touch provisioning, orchestration, CI/CD pipelines, and critically, observability and assurance. In short, effective telco transformation requires an automation-first approach.

Barriers to Innovation

Most CSP leaders recognize the need to adopt agile and cloud-native software practices such as infrastructure as code (IaC), Git repositories, CI/CD toolchains, and others from the world of IT. Indeed, many view these modern software approaches as central to making telco services as flexible and on-demand as other cloud services. So far though, very few CSPs have actually implemented them. We can point to several reasons why:

  • Short-term focus – Like all organizations, telcos have a tendency to focus on addressing immediate operational pain points. Sometimes though, short-term solutions end up delaying more substantive and necessary change. Consider network function virtualization (NFV). Most CSPs approached virtualization piecemeal, focusing first on NF deployment, then standing up infrastructure, and so on for each operational task. Very few took the opportunity to fundamentally rethink their operational approach—even though swapping dedicated appliances for dynamic software NFs absolutely warranted it.
  • Need for “carrier-grade” practices – While CSP operations can certainly benefit from IT methodologies, telco infrastructures are not the same as enterprise networks. In addition to being more heavily regulated (with stiff penalties for downtime), CSP networks must comply with a broad range of standards that are alien to enterprise IT. Specifications from 3GPP, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), TM Forum, and others demand stringent compliance. The challenge then is not just to bring IT methodologies to telecom, but to synthesize best practices from both worlds into a unified operating environment.
  • Lack of effective automation tools – Along the same lines, many of the most widely used IT automation tools are open-source. But while open-source software has its virtues, it can be a poor fit for the performance, security, and scalability requirements of CSP infrastructures. Too often, automation that’s good enough for web environments breaks down under the stringent demands of real-time communication services at scale. Given the complexity inherent in building and maintaining open-source automation, even many enterprises are beginning to pull back on this model.

Finally, CSP leaders tell us that it can sometimes be hard to get buy-in from internal teams due to fears that “operational transformation” is just a codeword for reducing headcount. Vendors share responsibility for this misconception, given our tendency to highlight cost savings as a benefit of automation. Advanced automation tooling does make individual tasks less expensive to perform, but it almost never reduces jobs. Typically, it creates new ones – just higher-level jobs.

In practice, automation simplifies more repetitive and redundant tasks, freeing network teams to spend more of their time engaged in higher-value work, such as advanced network optimization and performance tuning. In this sense, the biggest long-term economic benefit of automation is that it empowers teams to operationalize new technologies more quickly—a prerequisite for monetizing them. By automating, CSPs lay the foundation for ongoing innovation. Now, they can move more quickly, delivering software and services with more flexibility and consistency. Ultimately, they can experiment and iterate faster, exploring more ideas at a lower cost, with less risk.

Unlock true transformation

When telco operations evolve alongside telco technology—instead of trying to catch up after the fact —CSPs can do some amazing things. They can:

  • Capitalize on AI – Seemingly every business is currently investing in artificial intelligence (AI), including CSPs. For telcos, the biggest value of AI is its potential to take closed-loop actions in the network—accelerating deployments, optimizing capacity, detecting and fixing performance issues, even identifying new services that haven’t occurred to humans. But even the world’s smartest AI models can’t do those things in telco networks today, because too many network operations are still manual.
  • Improve sustainability – Automation, especially paired with AI, can enable greener operations. Forward-looking CSPs are already exploring new solutions to power down network elements when not in use, reducing power consumption and carbon footprint. Future CSP networks will be able to do things like dynamically land workloads in locations with the most available energy from renewables.
  • Overcome skills shortages – Even CSPs that prioritize automation have struggled to acquire network engineers with the requisite skillsets. By implementing automation using familiar IT models for CI/CD pipelines, cloud architectures, and agile software practices, telco operations now “speak the same language” as enterprise IT organizations worldwide. So there’s a much larger pool of talent with the relevant skills that CSPs can hire from.
  • Innovate with agility – Developing new telco services the traditional way takes months or years, often costing millions. With software-driven automation, CSPs can take ideas from conception to real-world trials in a fraction of the time. They can “fail fast,” identify what’s working and what isn’t, and change direction much more quickly and inexpensively.

When CSPs automate, they can begin to treat their infrastructures like other modern software applications, with all the agility and flexibility that implies. They can take the aspects of their business that no other player can duplicate – vast network footprints, proven quality and reliability, unmatched RF engineering expertise – and continually assemble differentiated, high-value offerings. This is the foundation for true telco transformation.

Preparing for the next Killer App

CSPs are actively investing in enabling new business use cases to drive monetization of 5G. It’s time to recognize that in the modern digital services landscape, monetization must be built on a foundation of customer centricity, innovation, and effective risk management. If you’re part of a CSP organization, how should you prioritize your transformation and automation goals to maximize ROI, while managing the inherent risks of product and service innovation?

We believe there’s a clear answer: building a foundation for rapid innovation that will enable CSP teams to iterate faster. This starts with breaking down operational silos and building a foundation for modern software development. A horizontal platform approach obviates the need to maintain a patchwork of legacy tools, processes, and skillsets that often hamper innovation and slow teams down. Additionally, a horizontal approach simplifies end-to-end observability and assurance, which are prerequisites for successful 5G monetization and an essential foundation for 6G.

Wherever you begin, it’s worth investing in this agile services foundation even before you’ve identified the next killer app. Indeed, it’s only by embracing transformation on its own terms—building an operational model explicitly to facilitate ongoing change—that you gain the baseline for business agility. When you have that framework in place, and the next killer app does emerge, you can quickly pivot to exploit it, even as others are still beginning their own transformations.

Is there risk in investing in agile automation? Potentially, but there’s even greater risk in playing it safe. If and when new 5G/6G use cases emerge as true gamechangers, opening a path to transform from traditional telco to modern “tech-co,” it’s the leaders in the new software space who will be ready to help. Hang onto the old ways, and the partners invested in perpetuating them, at your peril.

About the authors

Moshe Lavi is Product Manager, Software-Defined Edge, VMware by Broadcom

Michael McGroarty, Business Development, Software-Defined Edge, VMware by Broadcom

Robert McIntyre, Business Development, Software-Defined Edge, VMware by Broadcom 

Francesco Sorrentino, Business Development, Software-Defined Edge, VMware by Broadcom

Swisscom unit to sell 4.5% stake in FiberCop to KKR

Annie Turner
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Swisscom unit to sell 4.5% stake in FiberCop to KKR

This is part of the disentangling process as major network assets in Italy change hands

Swisscom’s Italian subsidiary Fastweb is to sell its 4.5% stake in FiberCop to Optics Bidco, a subsidiary of KKR. FiberCop was established in 2021 by Telecom Italia (TIM), KKR and Fastweb to develop national fibre broadband infrastructure in Italy.

KKR will acquire all shares held by Fastweb in FiberCop for a cash consideration of €438.7 million, which is in line with the pro rata price paid by KKR to TIM for its stake.

Setting up the NetCo

KKR is in the process of acquiring TIM’s fixed network in a transaction worth about €22 billion. The deal was “unconditionally” approved this week by the European Commission and has the backing of the Italian government. The government retains the right to intervene in anything that affects the so-called NetCo as it is classed as critical national infrastructure.

The sales of its stake in FiberCop to KKR’s subsidiary is subject to the completion of the NetCo transaction by KKR, which is expected to close in Q3 2024. The transaction has no effect on the wholesale agreement between Fastweb and FiberCop, according to Swisscom.

Fastweb’s future

Meanwhile, Fastweb is in the throes of the approvals process to acquire Vodafone Italy for €8 billion which it hopes will be completed next year and will transform it into fixed-mobile operator.

In the announcement today, Swisscom stated, “Fastweb remains fully committed to its mission of driving innovation and connectivity in the country through investments in key telecommunications infrastructures.

“Fastweb will therefore keep making relevant investments to increase the coverage of its proprietary, end-to-end controlled fiber network and will continue to be a key provider of wholesale services to third parties, ensuring the availability of robust and competitive offerings in the market.”

Vodafone explores AI to automate Open RAN’s management

Annie Turner
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Vodafone explores AI to automate Open RAN’s management

The operator group has teamed up with i2CAT to help reach its target of having 30% of its masts in Europe using Open RAN by 2030

Vodafone and the i2CAT Foundation – a technology research centre – announced that they will use the improved automation offered by RAN jointly to build a responsive, multi-vendor management system. Its purpose will be to fix faults and respond to cyber threats faster and more cheaply.

The plan is to combine the strengths of i2CAT’s R&D in new digital technologies with Vodafone’s engineering expertise at its Innovation Centre in Málaga. They will use machine learning to manage and analyse logs from multi-vendor Open RAN. These logs provide vital information, such as successful login or failed access attempts, which can be used to improve security and detect threats.

The ultimate intention is that the system will provide Vodafone with a dashboard from which it can respond to and control Open RAN events over a big geographical area. This will support the company’s aim of having 30% of its masts across Europe using Open RAN technology by 2030.

Reducing operational costs

The management system should reduce operational costs by: automating the processing and analysis of multi-vendor logs; strengthening security by being able to quickly detect and mitigate threats across different suppliers; and simplifying compliance with appropriate regulations and industry standards.

The initial focus for Vodafone and i2CAT is on the design of a Security Information and Event Management system (SIEM) to flag potential security threats like unauthorised access, denial-of-service attacks, or man-in-the-middle interceptions.

Vodafone and i2CAT will test how to differentiate diverse types of logs, classify and manage them according to the specific threat. The intention is then to integrate the SIEM with the main Open RAN components, such as the RAN Intelligence Controller (RIC), which controls and optimises the radio access network functions.

The two organisations will also run proofs of concept (PoCs) that include log management of automated rApps, which are used for applications such as steering traffic or conserving energy.

The results of this collaborative project, named Holistic ORAN Logging & Metrics Security Shield (HOLMES), will be shared with the O-RAN Alliance to enable vendors to contribute and adopt new standardised approaches to log formats.

Vodafone is committed to working with leading academic and research institutions and for example, has worked with the University of Oxford to guard against risks arising from AI developments.

Francisco Martin, Head of Open RAN at Vodafone, said, “Vodafone’s partnership with i2CAT…will enable us to automate more manual tasks associated with traditional networks to respond even faster to fluctuations in demand, manage energy consumption more effectively, launch new features quicker and keep ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape.”

Not a moment too soon

Massimo Fatato, Head of Networks at NTT Data UK&I, commented, “Vodafone’s collaboration with the i2CAT Foundation is a key indication of the direction the industry is taking…towards the evolution of telecommunications infrastructure – and not a moment too soon.

“The development of an automated Open RAN management system is a fundamental component to fulfil Open RAN’s promise of interoperability and flexibility in the access network. It will be a critical enabler as we move towards more dynamic and resilient network architectures. It will also aid Vodafone immensely in having 30% of its masts using Open RAN technology by 2030.”

He continued, “We can see this as part of a larger movement towards intelligent, software-defined networking” and telcos’ need to cut costs. “Leveraging AI in automating the management of Open RAN will not only improve operational efficiency but also accelerate the deployment of new services and features, ensuring that networks can adapt quickly to changing demands.”

Orange and Georgia’s Silknet announce strategic alliance  

Simon Dux
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Orange and Georgia’s Silknet announce strategic alliance  

Although the two have worked together for a decade, the new partnership is targeted at developing Silknet’s service portfolio

Orange has formed a new strategic partnership with Georgia’s leading fixed and mobile network provider Silknet which will cover that telco’s service capabilities in the business, consumer and ICT markets. The partnership is part of Orange’s Alliance program which launched in 2014 in French Polynesia and Portugal.  

The timing is interesting given in March, the Georgian operator had a data leak impacting “up to 2000” users, although local media reports speculate that up to 33,000 were impacted with ID card copies appearing on the internet. The incident is still under investigation, but Orange Cyberdefense is certainly a part of the service portfolio Silknet may find attractive.  

As part of the agreement, Silknet will gain access to Orange’s reservoir of knowledge and experience in the telecom and ICT sectors. One of the initial focuses of this alliance will be on enhancing B2B ICT services. Orange said it will provide substantial support to Silknet to “transform the telecom landscape”.  

“Silknet has a 10-year history of successful cooperation with Orange, and I am happy that it has now grown into a strategic partnership,” said chairman of Silknet’s supervisory board George Ramishvili. “It marks a new era in the development of Silknet’s digital ecosystem enabling it to offer cutting-edge products and services. We are delighted that this global European conglomerate will help Silknet introduce its innovations to the Georgian and regional telecoms markets.” 

“Orange is pleased to confirm and strengthen its relationship with Silknet through the Orange Alliance program,” said Orange EVP and CTIO Bruno Zerbib. “Leveraging Orange expertise, products and platforms will create value for Silknet on the Georgian market. Building scalable platforms and opening them to partners is at the core of our innovation strategy.”  

Looking ahead, Silknet and Orange stated they are committed to expanding this partnership by exploring new avenues for cooperation and further integrating their operations.  

An expensive market 

Silknet launched 5G services last December in the capital Tbilisi. According to the Georgian Communications Commission, 100Mbps fixed broadband is 136% more expensive the the average in Euorpean countries while mobile internet with 10GB speed and 1795 minutes of talk time is 35% more expensive than the average price in Europe. The study by Strategy Analytics was based on prices for services of the two major Georgian operators, Magticom and Silknet, as these companies own more than 70% of the Georgian telecommunications market. 

According to the survey results, low-volume and low-speed services in Georgia are almost similar in cost or cheaper than in Europe and Britain. However, prices for high volume and high-speed services are significantly higher than the European average. High prices for volume and high-speed services are particularly problematic because, according to 2022 data, mobile internet consumption is growing dramatically, reaching an average of 12GB. 

“As long as high prices for high-speed and volumetric internet remain high in Georgia, consumers will continue to be forced to choose low-speed and low-volume services or pay significantly higher, premium prices,” concluded the Communications Commission. 

Low-volume mobile service packages for individual subscribers in Georgia, such as 5GB and unlimited minutes, are 1% more expensive than in Europe, and the price of 5GB internet and 577 minutes is 23% higher. One of the most consumed optical internet packages for individual subscribers, 25Mbps in Tbilisi, is 5% cheaper than the average price of similar services in European countries, and 17% cheaper in the regions. 

 The comparative analysis of the combined offers showed that for more than half a million families living in Tbilisi and the regions, the cost of the cheapest Internet and TV packages is lower than the European average. 

Microsoft takes axe to Azure for Operators team

Simon Dux
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Microsoft takes axe to Azure for Operators team

In hindsight, the company’s announcements at MWC signalled that the pivot to AI-over-all was already irreversible

While Microsoft’s decision to cut hundreds of jobs at its Azure cloud unit was reported widely as a general tech malaise, the focus areas of the cuts signalled a pivot in how it was approaching the telco market. According to the reports, first raised by Business Insider, Microsoft’s Azure for Operators layoffs would reportedly involve up to 1,500 jobs.  

The other impact area was the mixed reality Mission Engineering team which is not too much of a surprise given the real world has triumphed over the metaverse, at least in enterprise terms. Korea Telecom is only the latest to quietly withdraw from enterprise metaverse.

With Azure for Operators, Microsoft wanted to build an ecosystem of partners that could run AI-driven networks on a carrier-grade, hybrid cloud platform. But carrier networks are littered with legacy tech so the efforts to integrate multiple, diverse partners to apply multiple diverse back-office solutions to multi-diverse operators would always live and die by its unit sales.  

Microsoft’s acquisition of Affirmed, plus AT&T moving its 5G core network into Azure, were clear milestones the cloud provider understood how to shift packet core workloads to the cloud. But while Affirmed gave it the ability to extend cloud-based software defined networking into the world of 5G connectivity, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and the Open RAN proponents were on the similar paths and have the incumbency.  

AI-over-all 

In a follow up story, Business Insider [subscription required] confirmed that Microsoft was pivoting to AI for pretty much everything – Microsoft has announced billions in data centre/AI investments globally in the past couple of months alone. Business Insider reported a leaked memo from exec Jason Zander suggesting the layoffs were a direct result of its AI investment.  

The memo reportedly also confirmed Microsoft would halt previews for Azure Operator 5G Core (AO5GC) and Azure Operator Call Protection. In addition, some remaining team members in Azure Operator Nexus are heading off to Microsoft’s Azure Edge and platform product line teams. Given the fact that Azure Operator Nexus had been described by some in the industry as the new operating system for telcos, it is easy to discern the complete change in thinking around what telco OSS/BSS/orchestration and so on is going to look like. 

MWC hints 

The public preview of Azure Operator Call Protection, the service that uses AI to help protect consumers from scam calls, was literally only previewed at Mobile World Congress. At the time, Microsoft announced BT was trialling the service which used real-time analysis of voice content, alerting consumers who opt into the service when there is suspicious in-call activity.  

E& UAE was named as a customer of Azure Operator Nexus hybrid cloud platform that enabled operators to run workloads on-premises or on Azure. AT&T was also cited although the latter moved its 5G core to Microsoft’s Cloud. Three UK was mentioned as a user of Azure Operator Insights.  

Microsoft also launched Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC), which provides a unified, standard interface across operators’ networks and seamless access to Open Gateway for developers to create cloud and edge-native applications that interact with the intelligence of the network. This will presumably be wound up.  

One service that will probably survive in a different form – only had a limited preview at MWC – was Microsoft’s Copilot in Azure Operator Insights which allows engineers to use Copilot to interact with network insights using natural language and receive simple explanations of what the data means and possible actions to take. That said, this is pretty similar territory to the Global Telco AI Alliance.  

Too niche? 

The point is that many operators are deeply embedded with Microsoft already – they are past the point of accepting that their compute workloads need to run in the cloud. And its Microsoft’s OpenAI work that operators can not only embed in their back-office processes but can potentially monetise as well. In Match, for example, Deutsche Telekom signed up its first Business GPT customer.  

Telefónica evolved its digital framework for the creation of advanced services, Kernel, by adding new Microsoft Azure AI services to power every relevant use case with generative AI capabilities at scale. Meanwhile, Vodafone said it will apply Microsoft Azure OpenAI to deliver frictionless, real-time, proactive and “hyper-personalised” experiences across all Vodafone customer touchpoints, including its digital assistant TOBi (available in 13 countries). 

Operators are going to continue to embed AI wherever they can get a cost benefit, regardless of whether Azure for Operators exists or not. Microsoft’s decision to cull in this area just reminds operators that sorting out their back-office IT stack is not straightforward and certainly not yet standardised. And it does not diminish the impact Microsoft will have with AI in telco environments.  

Hyper-personalisation: moving from B2C to B2me

Luís Coelho, Celfocus
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Hyper-personalisation: moving from B2C to B2me

Partner content: Why does personalisation matter so much?

While personalisation is not an entirely new topic, there is currently massive hype around it. This is due to service providers having realised that they need to be more cost-effective in engaging with their customers and because customers now demand to be treated individually and in a personalised way.

McKinsey & Company[1] states that 71% of consumers expect personalisation, while 76% of those same consumers get frustrated if they cannot find personalisation in the brands they interact with, leading to churn. The study also claims that 75% of consumers switched to a different brand because they weren’t satisfied with the experience they were getting. This is even more critical in the aggressive market service providers face today.

The study concludes that personalisation pays off, as brands that capture more value from personalisation will grow faster and can earn 40% more revenue from personalised marketing actions or tactics.

Although some service providers are already delivering hyper-personalisation use cases to their customers, most businesses are still experiencing segmented personalisation. Nevertheless, regardless of the adopted approach, it is easy to understand that, as service providers become more mature in personalisation, it is possible to improve the response rates, increase the conversion rates and lift the customer lifetime value. But one question remains: are they taking action to harvest all the available benefits?

Yes, but not enough!

Several market trends have been adopted in recent years, bringing service providers to the level where they currently stand:

  • Customers are segmented into groups by their similarities and offered similar value propositions and experiences. However, what is suitable for the group might not be good for the individual.
  • Customers’ deflection to non-assisted channels brings efficiency and allows them to reduce operational costs. Nonetheless, all the interactions are detached, impersonal, and less human.
  • Service providers are automating sequential journeys, ignoring the fact that sequential journeys are dead! The new way customers interact with their brands is through a set of non-linear moments and different touchpoints that need to be correlated and orchestrated.

The previous trends already brought benefits and were applicable in a particular context. Today, new approaches are required for service providers to progress, improve, and move to the next level.

Market challenges
Achieving a hyper degree of personalisation can be challenging – it requires investment, time, and the right strategy. Furthermore, it is not a straightforward path, and it’s essential to understand the business and technical challenges that service providers must address and overcome to succeed. Challenges for which Hyper-Personalisation is the answer.

Service providers face intense pressure to deliver superior customer experiences to differentiate from competitors. With products, services, and prices being similar across the board, customer experience becomes the key differentiator. Lack of differentiation leads to increased competition and pressure to retain customers, making customer satisfaction, loyalty, and trust critical. Additionally, service providers need to boost annual revenue in a saturated market, which demands cost-effective marketing strategies. Mass marketing investments often yield low returns, highlighting the need for more precise and efficient customer engagement.

Large customer bases

Although the telecommunications industry has the advantage of having large customer bases and data, the challenge lies not in data availability but in extracting actionable insights from it.  Telcos face the technical challenge of creating a unified customer profile from disparate information sources. This requires integrating online and offline data to achieve a real-time, comprehensive view of customer knowledge while minimising reliance on third-party data.

A critical aspect of this challenge is the ability to correlate digital behaviours with customer intent. By anticipating and predicting customer intentions, service providers can proactively engage with customers, meeting their expectations with differentiated services. Furthermore, transforming this data and intent into relevant, actionable insights is essential for delivering personalised services. These insights must be generated in real time due to the rapidly changing nature of customer behaviour, ensuring that the information remains accurate and useful.

The hyper-personalisation approach

Figure 1 – Hyper-personalisation platforms

The hyper-personalisation approach must bridge Digital with Data and Cognitive capabilities to deliver unique, in-context and highly relevant experiences to individuals.

This approach requires three main platforms as the foundations of the solution:

  1. Customer Data Platform is the backbone of the customer profile. Customer-related data collect different and relevant real-world events.
  2. Data Insights Platform represents the decision engines that run on top of the customer data to provide relevant and actionable insights, with two primary responsibilities — campaign management and AI & ML.
  3. Digital Experience Platform, used to activate and deliver the experience in the digital channels as per the insights from the Data Insights Platform.

Most of the industry is still focused on segmented personalisation, delivering experiences and recommendations to grouped users considering predefined rules. This can be seen as the starting point or the primary solution, but it depends on the maturity level of each service provider. Usually, it is the domain in which most of them are working.

With hyper-personalisation, service providers can scale up the personalisation leveraged by AI & ML to deliver experiences and recommendations in real time to individuals, creating a one-to-one personalisation.

To achieve this, these one-to-one engagements must be tailored to specific micro-moments. One of the most used frameworks is that of Google[2], which identifies three main micro-moments:

  • “I want to know” – Related to the market. When the customer wants to find something.
  • “I want to buy” – Related to the selling moment. When the customer wants to buy something.
  • “I want to do” – Related to engaging or with the care moment. When the customer needs to do something or solve a specific issue.

For each of these specific micro-moments, service providers can instantiate a hyper-personalisation solution that addresses the particularities of each moment with a greater focus on the customer’s specific intent:

  • Smart Content Experiences: Delivers tailored and behaviour-driven personalisation leveraged on continuous data collection to provide unique content according to customer intent in real time, leveraged by the Digital Experience Platform.
  • One-to-one Recommendations: Delivers contextualised one-to-one products and offers recommendations based on customers’ real-time interaction history & preferences, leveraged by Campaign Management or AI & ML models.
  • Cognitive Care: Uses AI & ML to predict customers’ intentions and recommend the best experience to engage with them proactively.

The benefits

One of the main benefits of using highly personalised experiences is that service providers can maximise the value of each customer throughout their lifecycle.

Figure 2 – Improving customer lifetime value through hyper-personalisation

This improvement isn’t achieved by engaging with customers only at the beginning and end of their lifecycle, as does the classic CVM approach, but constantly throughout it all. Following this strategy maximises the Customer Lifetime Value and optimises internal costs, especially acquisition and retention costs.

Additionally, according to McKinsey & Company[3], hyper-personalisation instantiation can result in clear and tangible business benefits:

  • Engaging directly with customers and avoiding mass campaigns can reduce up to 50% of acquisition costs. This, paired with direct savings from the reduction in marketing investments, enables 10–30% better cost-effectiveness.
  • The buying process becomes more natural when directly targeting customers’ emotions and addressing their preferences, interests, and tastes. This approach allows up to 2.5x better conversion rates. Besides this, continuous and closed engagement during the care period, even if representing a slight increase in investment, delivering contextualised and relevant up-sell and cross-sell recommendations, contributes 5–15% uplift revenues.
  • Proactively engaging with customers during the care period enables predicting and preventing possible customer service issues. This type of engagement allows up to 30% improvement in customer retention. This proactive care approach can increase the Net Promoter Score by up to 20%, enabling a better overall customer experience.

Article originally published by Henry Stewart Publications in the Journal of Digital Banking,
Volume 8, Number 3.

About the author (pictured above)

Luís Coelho is Head of Hyper-Personalisation Offer at Celfocus and a Senior Manager at Celfocus Offer Development & Innovation team. He has a long experience in IT projects’ delivery and pre-sales activities for the Telco & Financial Services industries, gathered from more than 20 years’ real-life and hands-on practice delivering mission-critical solutions.

Currently, Luís is the Head of Hyper-Personalisation Offer with a focus of providing business and technical solutions to extract value from data for successful digital enablement. This is achieved by bridging digital, data and cognitive capabilities to deliver unique and highly relevant experiences to individuals, allowing service providers to reach customers more efficiently.

Tel: +351 911 036 853; E-mail: luis.coelho@celfocus.com   

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/marketings-holy-grail-digital-personalization-at-scale

[2] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-journey/micro-moments-understand-new-consumer-behavior/

[3] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying

DT kits out RTL mediaco with private 5G in time for Euro footie

Annie Turner
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DT kits out RTL mediaco with private 5G in time for Euro footie

Meanwhile, the German government offloads €2.5bn of DT shares (a stake of about 2.2%) to raise cash for the country’s neglected railway

Deutsche Telekom (DT) has installed a private 5G Standalone (5G SA) campus network for RTL Deutschland, just in time for the European Football Championship. The entire infrastructure, from the antennas and active system technology to the core network, comes from Ericsson and is installed locally on the site in Cologne-Deutz.

The 5G campus network is installed in two RTL studios and the so-called mall, plus RTL’s visitors’ car park in Cologne-Deutz has 5G. Altogether the network covers an area of more than 35,000 square meters for uninterrupted coverage indoors and outdoors. DT says the private network will ensure “a flawless live broadcast”, even if the mobile cells of the public network are busy.

DT and RTL have already successfully tested live broadcast via the public Telekom 5G SA network with network slicing for reporting on the move.

All data traffic remains in the local campus network. A total of six antennas were installed for the campus network at RTL Deutschland: two outdoors, one of which is used on a temporary basis, and four more indoors. 

The upload capacity is about 500Mbps are for live productions – the delay rate must not exceed 25 milliseconds. The 5G SA network operates on frequencies reserved for RTL Deutschland in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz range; up to 100MHz bandwidth is exclusively available to the broadcaster.

RTL Deutschland can adapt the private network and manage various functions on-demand. For example, specific applications’ data traffic can be prioritised as required. The local core network has a redundant architecture ensuring the network continues reliably even in the event of an interruption to the cloud-based management portal.

Selling DT to fund rail

Germany’s government has sold a €2.5 billion stake in DT. The country’s media reports this the latest such move by the government to raise cash from selling off corporate holdings.

The German state-owned bank KfW offered institutional investors 110 million shares on Monday. The combined holding of KfW and the government is now 27.8%. They remain DT’s largest shareholders.

DT responded saying it will increase its share buyback programme by €600 million. The programme was launched in November as a means of paying back shareholders after DT raised funds to increase its stake in its US subsidiary, T-Mobile.

Need to raise funds

The Finance Ministry said the net proceeds will be used to increase the government’s equity of state rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, and expand the country’s rail infrastructure. Deutsche Bahn itself Deutsche Bahn is looking for bids for its DB Schenker logistics unit, which could bring in more than €15 billion.

“Due to the receptive stock market environment, the placement was successfully completed,” the Ministry said in a statement. top court last year.

According to The Business Times, “Berlin is trying to come up with savings measures without compromising efforts to lift Europe’s biggest economy out of a slump or modernise and expand the armed forces after years of neglect.”

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