A new ADVA-led initiative in the UK is driving integration of technology suppliers for open radio access network (RAN) solutions. Here’s what’s behind the UK 5G DU-Volution project.

It began with elements in the British government raising concerns about the supply chain for the country’s expanding 5G infrastructure. Specifically, there was anxiety around international vendors that could be considered high risk.

Then politics and practicalities aligned and it was decided that reliance on these vendors needed to be reduced by diversifying the UK’s 5G supply chain. Initiatives would be set up to create a more competitive supply base to unlock the full potential of 5G and give the UK telecoms sector a major boost. 

Now the British government is encouraging UK-based vendors to help build a disaggregated, vendor-neutral Open RAN (O-RAN) ecosystem that will accelerate the roll out of 5G architectures – both public and private – and pave the way for 6G services. But along the way, there are some key technical and logistical challenges to address. 

Achieving efficiency and scale 

On the technical side, enhancing spectral efficiency, improving power efficiency, reducing footprint and minimizing latency are all crucial. The best way to achieve these goals is to encourage innovation and collaboration. That’s why the UK government’s Department of Culture Media and Sport has created the Future RAN competition (FRANC). FRANC’s objectives are to:

• Accelerate the development of high-performance 5G Open RAN solutions that meet UK dense urban requirements by 2025
• Attract new 5G RAN suppliers to conduct R&D in the UK, and foster professional collaborations between potential new entrants into the UK’s public network
• Contribute to the delivery of the 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy’s objectives of disaggregated supply chains, open interfaces by default, and security being a priority in network deployment.

Read the full story here.

At OFC 2022, much was discussed about open optical networking and how it offers service providers more choice, faster innovation, and improved economics.

Another hot topic at the event was that of coherent pluggable optics and how they are increasingly deployed in a variety of environments, from routers and switches to 5G radio units and servers.

I would like to bring these two topics under a common lens and share with you my own personal experience from three very busy days meeting service providers and performing software automation demos at Infinera’s OFC booth.

Read the full story here.

SpaceX is sending another batch of Starlink terminals to Ukraine but experts have warned about potential targeting.

Ukraine has suffered intermittent connectivity as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion of the country. Some of the outages have been the result of damage to telecoms infrastructure itself, while others due to wider power outages.

Within the past few hours, NetBlocks – which tracks network disruptions and shutdowns – posted a particularly concerning update given the extra reprehensible shelling by Russian forces around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.

Read the full article here.

Cellnex has inked another deal to roll out a private 5G network for an enterprise customer, this one marking its entry into the automotive sector.

The fast-growing neutral host company will deploy a private 5G network for engineering group Segula Technologies at its test centre in Rodgau-Dudenhofen, Germany. The pair are talking up the usual advantages of private 5G, namely low latency, dedicated spectrum, enhanced security and so forth. These attributes will help Segula serve its car manufacturing customers and tier one suppliers, they said.

This is a valuable deal for Cellnex. Naturally, we can’t put an actual figure on it, but it forms part of a broader push by the firm, which was once thought of as exclusively a towers company, into the neutral host market, where – to be blunt about it – it is essentially eating the mobile operators’ lunch.

We have heard so much from mobile operators about the opportunities 5G affords, beyond the provision of ever-increasing data packages to smartphone users. The enterprise space in particular could be a money-spinner, but when it comes to private 5G networks, the telcos are not taking the impetus, leaving the market to others, including the big equipment makers and alternative service providers.

Cellnex’s Edzcom business, which will deliver the Segula contract, falls into the latter category, as a specialist provider of private networks and edge connectivity.

Read the full article here.

• Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hits satellite comms operator.
• Decision could delay service launch and have knock-on effect on distribution partner BT’s rural coverage vision.

OneWeb, the UK‑backed satellite communications operator and BT Group partner, cancelled all launches scheduled from the Russian cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, following a standoff between the UK government and Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The decision could delay the launch of OneWeb’s services later this year and cost the company in the region of $300m (£226m), according to the Financial Times. More generally, the move also signals the end of years of space collaboration with Russia as Western sanctions effectively isolate the country following its invasion of Ukraine.

OneWeb was due to launch 36 satellites on Russia’s Soyuz rocket from Baikonur on 4 March, and had five more launches planned before August this year to complete its low‑earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. Since 2019, the operator has put 428 of the planned 648 satellites into orbit, all of which were launched on Soyuz rockets (BTwatch, #321 and #330).

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The new joint venture (JV) would seek to cover an additional 7 million premises with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) in areas beyond Virgin Media O2 (VMO2)’s current footprint

Last week, rumours were emerging suggesting that the owners of VMO2 – Liberty Global and Telefonica – had entered into discussions with investors for the creation of a new JV to help accelerate the rollout of FTTP in the UK.

At the time, sources were suggesting that VMO2 would be looking to raise as much as £1 billion to help launch the new business, which would target areas VMO2’s FTTP network currently is not set to reach. 

Now, alongside announcing their financial results, VMO2 have confirmed that they are indeed in discussions with a number of potential investors to take part in a JV. This JV will aim to build a new FTTP network covering roughly 7 million premises by 2027, which will then be offered on a wholesale basis to UK operators. VMO2, naturally, will be an anchor tenant of the new network. 

Ultimately, seeking partners for additional network investment should come as little surprise, with VMO2 having said last year that it would prefer not to fund the rollout of FTTP to another 7 million on its own. In the past few years we have seen numerous rumours related to UK ISPs that could potentially have joined forces with Virgin Media to facilitate this joint build, though until now they have never been confirmed.

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Ericsson has found evidence of “corruption-related misconduct” in its Iraq operations and cannot rule out that payments were made to terror groups, including ISIS.

The Swedish telecoms giant says that it launched an internal investigation in 2019 following unusual expense claims dating back to 2018. Ericsson says that its investigation covered the period 2011-2019 and included the conduct of its employees, vendors, and suppliers in Iraq.

In a media statement, Ericsson said the investigation “identified evidence of corruption-related misconduct” including:

• Making a monetary donation without a clear beneficiary.
• Paying a supplier for work without a defined scope and documentation.
• Using suppliers to make cash payments.
• Funding inappropriate travel and expenses.
• Improper use of sales agents and consultants.

Ericsson says that it also found violations of the company’s internal financial controls; conflicts of interest; non-compliance with tax laws; and obstruction of the investigation.

Furthermore, the firm uncovered payment schemes and cash transactions that created the risk of money laundering and “identified payments to intermediaries and the use of alternate transport routes in connection with circumventing Iraqi Customs, at a time when terrorist organizations, including ISIS, controlled some transport routes.”

Orange Group has revealed its participation in the SeaMeWe-6 consortium for the construction of a new express submarine cable system aiming to directly connect Marseille in France to Singapore. Orange will act as the landing party for the system in France and will host the cable in its landing site in Marseille. Jean-Luc Vuillemin, Director of International Networks at Orange, said: ‘We are delighted with our participation in this new system in order to offer a new high-speed and high-performance “express” connectivity solution between France and Asia and to support the growing needs of our customers over time. This new link will also allow us to secure our existing traffic and allow better throughput to our locations in the Indian Ocean.’ Orange Group’s global network currently features more than 40 submarine cables, including its investments in the SeaMeWe-3, SeaMeWe-4, SeaMeWe-5, IMEWE and SAFE systems. Recent projects include Amitie and Dunant in the Atlantic Ocean and PEACE Cable in the Mediterranean.

Read the full article here.

Following its Benefits of Brexit Policy Paper and the Plan for Digital Regulation the UK Government’s Post Brexit approach to regulating the digital economy is taking shape

The tech sector is the UK’s modern economic success story, the most recent DCMS data showed that the sector added £150.6bn to the UK economy in 2019 [1], supporting 1.56 million jobs.[2] UK tech is on a rapid expansion path, the sector grew by over 25% in the decade from 2010 to 2020[3] and 2021 was the best year ever for investment in UK tech start-ups[4]. Research from DCMS suggests that if digital ecosystems across the UK are effectively supported, they could add another 678,000 jobs by 2025 across the country.[5]

As digital technologies and services have become ever more ubiquitous to the way we live our lives regulation of the sector has grown. The 2020’s will be a major moment for this with new rules on competition, data protection, online safety, artificial intelligence and telecommunications being introduced in the UK, but also around the world.

This global shift brings with it a debate on how best to regulate the digital economy. What is the right balance between protecting consumers and citizens while also enabling the benefits, economic and social, that digital connectivity and services bring.

Following its exit from the EU the UK is aiming to define its own path and seeking to navigate between the global trading giants like the EU and the USA.

As the UK charts its approach to regulating the digital economy what we are seeing is a third way between the more laissez faire approach of the USA and a comparatively proscriptive approach from the EU. The UK model is seeing legislation from the Government set objectives at a high level and the UK’s regulators being tasked to deliver detailed guidance, generally in the form of codes of conduct or standards for the industry.

This approach aims to strike the right balance between identifying clear outcomes such as boosting competition in digital markets or making the UK the safest place to be online while maintaining flexibility so regulators can be adaptive in their enforcement as well as modifying guidance as new technologies emerge. This trend will also likely see supplementary duties being set for regulators to consider the economic implications of intervention as well as having due regard for innovation.

Regulation is enormously important for the UK tech sector, around 96% of tech sector output and 81% of exports is in services, where regulation is vital for the research, development and then deployment of digital services. Increasingly regulation is cited by techUK members as important for investment decisions and the comparative advantage of the UK economy. In our recent Digital Economy Monitor Survey members highlighted that good regulation can be a driver of demand and stability, but that contradictory regulations or differing approaches may frustrate growth plans.

Read the full article here.

If you could look into a crystal ball and view the future of the telecommunications industry in 2022 and beyond, what might you see? Our experts at Comarch have some ideas – as they have applied their in-depth knowledge and industry expertise to predict key developments in telco in the coming year.

One key area in which advances are expected is that of customer experience and care. In the business to consumer (B2C) sector, artificial intelligence (AI) will help telcos monitor and get to know their customers better. The results should be quickly apparent in terms of higher satisfaction among customers who perceive that they are treated not only as individuals, but also as unique and valued. In business to business (B2B), we can also expect changes. Enterprise portals and the Internet of Things (IoT) will give new capabilities to non-telco sectors that rely on telecommunications for their operations, bringing best practices from telco-retail partnerships into play.

Of course, 5G will continue to have a major and expanding influence on everything that telcos do in terms of products and services. Advances in automation and autonomy, driven by 5G, will impact the entire telecommunications landscape – from autonomous network management and maintenance to optimization of factories transitioning to Industry 4.0.

Read the full article here.