Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Contributed Article

The 100-strong fleet of autonomous electric mining trucks are set to improve both safety and efficiency at the Yimin open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia

This month marked a significant step in the development of intelligent mining, with Chinese energy giant Huaneng Group deploying the world’s largest fleet of unmanned electric mining trucks.

The 100 cabinless vehicles have begun operations at the Yimin open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China, each capable of loading and hauling up to 90 tonnes of material across the site.

Powered by electric batteries, this new fleet is carbon neutral and can operate continuously for 24 hours a day without human intervention.

Perhaps most importantly, these autonomous vehicles remove the need to expose human workers to the mine’s inhospitable environment, where temperatures can reach as low as -48.5°C and hazardous road conditions making driving dangerous.

According to Li Shuxue, Chairman of Huaneng Inner Mongolia Eastern Energy, the truck fleet has already demonstrated operational benefits over its human-operated predecessors, increasing their overall transport efficiency by 20%.

The deployment comes as part of a joint innovation project between China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. (China Huaneng), Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, Huawei, and State Grid Smart Internet of Vehicles. The partners intend to further expand the truck fleet in the coming years, aiming for 300 of the vehicles to be operational over the next three years.

5G Advanced to underpin more efficient mining operations

This rollout of the autonomous vehicle fleet would not have been possible without the deployment of a 5G Advanced network, providing uplink speeds of up to 500 Mbps and latency of just 20 milliseconds, both of which are crucial for enabling autonomous vehicles to make driving decisions in real-time.

5G Advanced, sometimes known as 5.5G, boasts significant improvements in performance compared to 5G, including better efficiency, faster uplink speeds, and greater capacity.

The benefits of 5G Advanced networks for industrial operations are becoming increasingly well known. Huaneng Group itself said it first identified the need for a 5G network in 2022 and quickly began working with China Mobile Inner Mongolia to explore its deployment. By April 2023, initial autonomous vehicle tests were underway, with the first vehicles working commercial shifts in March this year.

In addition to the 5G Advanced network itself, Huaneng Ruichi’s truck fleet is also supported by a range of cloud infrastructure solutions, including Huawei’s Commercial Vehicle Autonomous Driving Cloud Service (CVADCS). This solution combines data from each vehicle and across the mining site to provide precise, real-time location information to the fleet, enabling route optimisation and increased efficiency, even in low-visibility conditions that would pose a challenge to human drivers.

Modernising China’s coal industry

The launch of this electric fleet – the world’s largest at an open pit mine – marks a significant step in China’s drive towards building a greener energy base for the nation.

Despite a surge in renewable energy projects in recent years, coal undeniably remains the backbone of China’s industrial strategy. In 2023, China announced that work was underway to build new coal power plants with a combined capacity of 70.2 GW – more than 19-times that of the rest of the world combined. As a result, in 2024 China produced 476,896 million metric tons of coal, accounting for 52.6% of the world’s total.

This rise in coal production, however, coincides with a government drive to modernise the industry, aiming to make mining more intelligent, safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. To this end, last year China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) provided guidelines for the intelligent transformation of coal mines, promoting the use of AI and the latest wireless technologies. Looking ahead, the NEA is aiming to create a series of standards for the design, well construction, production, management, O&M, and evaluation of intelligent coal mines by 2030.

These efforts are already beginning to bear fruit. According to data from the 2025 National Energy Work Conference, intelligent production capacity now accounts for over half of China’s total coal production capacity, with nearly 1,000 mines having begun their ‘intelligent construction’ transformation.

A more intelligent future

The launch of China’s largest fleet of autonomous electric mining trucks, powered by 5G Advanced, is a significant milestone in the country’s journey towards smarter, safer, and greener coal mining. As intelligent mining becomes the norm, this initiative sets a powerful example of how traditional energy sectors can evolve for a more sustainable future.

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Also in the news:
Charter and Cox reveal agreement to combine companies
BT in final talks to sell 50% stake in TNT Sports to Warner Bros Discovery 
BT creates standalone international unit as strategic restructuring continues 

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The CEO of ISP Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has today shared a new interview with the CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, which touches on everything from how they’d “love to” participate in the future consolidation of alternative networks (but not for a while) and the way that building a more valuable asset via FTTP broadband may compensate for having a smaller UK market share.

In case anybody has been living under a rock for the past few years. The BT Group is currently, via network access provider Openreach, investing up to £15bn on rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the United Kingdom. The effort has already covered 18.3 million premises, and they aim to reach 25 million by December 2026, which is followed by an ambition for up to 30m by 2030.

The BT Group is currently “investing £4.8bn this year, and we did that last year as well,” said Allison, before adding that a “large chunk of that is in the fibre upgrade” via Openreach. This is all in service of helping to create a “new asset for the next 40-50 years.” But despite building at an incredible rate of over 1 million premises passed per quarter, and growing take-up to 36% at the same time, Openreach is still rapidly losing broadband lines to a new generation of rival networks.

Openreach lost 707,000 such lines to rivals in 2024 and line losses reached 243k in just the last quarter to March 2025 (here), although most of these tend to come from the areas where Openreach have yet to build their new FTTP network (i.e. areas on their slower copper-based lines, where rivals may have built something better before them). Hence, the need to build ever faster.

However, Allison said she recognises that, in the future, “we’ll have a smaller market share, but it’ll be a more valuable modern-day asset that delivers a much better customer experience … even with that lower market share” (i.e. cheaper to operate, better experience and more loyal customers = better product that she says will still get a return on their investment). But equally, BT’s boss noted that they’ve still “got to be competitive, rather than just accept that every line we can lose forever“.

Allison pointed out that the company itself is similarly having to evolve with the market. “BT needs to transform. We need to be a more modern day, more nimble company that moves faster … We were about half the productivity of our peers .. that’s what we had to address,” which she said is coming through various stages of modernisation (inc. copper retirement, redundancies, significant fault reduction within their Openreach network etc.).

BT’s CEO also expects Ofcom to deregulate as the market evolves. “My retail businesses do not have monopolistic, you know, incumbent market share positions. I’ve got just under 30% retail market share in mobile, I’ve got about 35% broadband market share in retail. It’s only in the wholesale business of Openreach where we had the 75% market share. But in the future there are now two, sometimes three, providers of fibre access and so over time those areas should definitely be deregulated.. is my view,” said Allison. Ofcom has already indicated that any big changes on this front may have to wait until 2031 or later (here).

The interview then moved to focus on the often-tedious question of consolidation, particularly with respect to the markets many alternative broadband networks. “It’s pretty clear that it will not make sense for the UK to served by a hundred different fibre providers in the future. I don’t think it would be necessarily good for the country’s resilience and not all of those providers will make an economic return on their investment, it’s just not going to happen, it’s a very competitive market,” said Allison.

Most industry folk would probably agree that more consolidation is inevitable, although they might not agree with how BT’s CEO sees things ending up. “The way it’s playing out over here, I think there will only be one nationwide wholesaler in the end. So I think large parts of Openreach will probably stay regulated. I think there will be one, possibly two, other alternative wholesalers across the country, but they might not be everywhere. And then you’ll have a concentration around the city areas with some of the alternative networks, but there will need to be consolidation,” added Allison.

However, Allison notes that consolidation is currently going slower than she expected, which she attributes to a lot of investment having already gone into the ground and high value expectations of those assets, which she thinks are “unlikely to materialise“. BT’s boss said altnets need to get more realistic about the value of their networks, which she believes will “start to play out in the next 2-5 years.. but I think we will be in to the next decade before we really see the end state” of this market.

On the subject of consolidation and whether the BT Group might get directly involved, Allison noted that Openreach is “not planning to build everywhere” itself (i.e. their target is up to 30m by 2030, but that still leaves c.4 million) and “there will definitely be partnership opportunities in the future, but it’s not here at the moment” (i.e. they’re focused on their own Openreach fibre build for now).

“In terms of participating in consolidation, we’d love to. I think it’s problematic at the moment, certainly in wholesale … [yet] priority is not making acquisitions, for the moment“. But clearly there’s a hint that Openreach may look to acquire some rival networks, albeit seemingly only those that cover those in the final c.4m of hardest to reach premises (there’s not likely to be many of those and some, like B4RN, are community benefit societies that cannot easily be acquired).

Finally, on the subject of the BT Group’s dramatic 50% increase in share price over the past year or so, Allison explains that this is more about how they’ve given the market a clearer roadmap: “BT’s share price is very much linked to the free cashflow that it throws off. When we were throwing off £3bn in cash our share price was about £3, when we were at peak investment phase on fibre and were throwing off about £1bn we were about £1.”

Allison explained how she “inherited a guidance to the market” that BT Group were going to get back to the £3bn mark by the end of the decade, but the market “wasn’t giving them any credit” for that. So she “mapped out how they were going to grow” to that target, showing the market a path that it could then give them credit for as progress is made (i.e. in fibre build, company modernisation etc.).

The full interview doesn’t contain any earth-shattering revelations, but it does offer a unique insight into the group’s strategy and that’s relevant for many of those in our wider readership – including consumers, retail ISPs and physical network operators alike.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Customers of ASUS’ popular WiFi and broadband routers have been advised to ensure that they’re on the latest firmware (software update) after security researchers at GreyNoise published a new vulnerability, which has already allowed attackers to gain “unauthorized, persistent access” to thousands of devices exposed to the public internet.

The situation, which reminds us of a similar issue with DrayTek‘s routers that occurred earlier this year (here and here), sees attackers exploiting CVE-2023-39780 (severity score of 8.8 out of 10) – a command injection flaw – to execute system commands. But it’s a bit more complex than that, as some of the related exploits have yet to be given a designation.

Initial access to an affected router is gained via brute-force logins (i.e. trying masses of different combinations of logins/passwords) and two previously undisclosed authentication bypass vulnerabilities (neither have been assigned CVEs, yet). Once authentication has been bypassed, that’s when the attackers harness CVE-2023-39780 in order to take over your router.

GreyNoise Statement

The tactics used in this campaign — stealthy initial access, use of built-in system features for persistence, and careful avoidance of detection — are consistent with those seen in advanced, long-term operations, including activity associated with advanced persistent threat (APT) actors and operational relay box (ORB) networks. While GreyNoise has made no attribution, the level of tradecraft suggests a well-resourced and highly capable adversary.

‍The attacker’s access survives both reboots and firmware updates, giving them durable control over affected devices. The attacker maintains long-term access without dropping malware or leaving obvious traces by chaining authentication bypasses, exploiting a known vulnerability, and abusing legitimate configuration features.

As of 27th May 2025, nearly 9,000 ASUS routers are said to have been confirmed as compromised, based on scans from Censys, and the number of affected hosts is growing. The good news is that ASUS recently released new firmware for their routers to protect against the problem.

However, the bad news is that the attacker’s SSH configuration changes are NOT removed by firmware upgrades. Put another way, if a router was compromised before updating, the backdoor will still be present unless SSH access is explicitly reviewed and removed.

The research team thus recommends that owners of affected devices block the attacker(s) IP addresses (101.99.91.151, 101.99.94.173, 79.141.163.179 and 111.90.146.237) and then perform a full factory reset, then reconfigure manually. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting this one.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has joined the new UK Government backed Fair Payment Code (FPC) and, in the process, just became the largest information technology business to achieve a Silver Award under the scheme. The FPC is overseen by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC).

For those who may be unfamiliar with this. The FPC recently replaced the previous Prompt Payment Code (PPC) and is a system of awards – Gold, Silver, and Bronze – offered by the OSBC to encourage UK businesses to improve their payment practices.

The aim is to tackle the problems that often get caused by late payments between businesses, which it does by setting expectations for how quickly invoices should be paid. The awards themselves thus reflect payment performance by a company.

To be awarded by the FPC, businesses must provide not only evidence of their payment data but also their payment practices as they commit to the Code’s principles of being Clear, Fair and Collaborative with their suppliers.

Johnny McQuoid, MD of Group Business Services at BT, said:

“As the UK’s digital backbone, at BT, we’re working with suppliers in all sectors, of all sizes, and we know how important timely payment is for their cash flow. We’re very proud to hold the Fair Payment Code Silver award. As well as a mark of trust for our suppliers, it’s an important recognition of the hard work our teams across BT are doing to be clear, fair and collaborative with our supply chain.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new Point Topic study of all major standalone and bundled fixed broadband operators and their tariffs across the EU, UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland – reflecting a total of 31 countries and 200 operators – has revealed that the United Kingdom ranked a respectable 12th in the table (median average tariffs) and 4th for entry level package tariffs.

The report, which also compared the average subscription charges and corresponding bandwidths for different broadband technologies across Europe, presents the latest tariff benchmarks to the end of March 2025 and also compared them to the same sort of data gathered in December 2024. All prices are quoted in US dollars at PPP (purchasing power parity) rates.

The application of PPP is important because there can be huge differences between countries in terms of things like taxation, size of the state and monthly salaries (i.e. $1 will go many times further in some countries than others). But using PPP allows you to weight against this for a hopefully more balanced comparison.

Overall, older copper-based residential broadband tariffs were found to still be the cheapest ($51 PPP or £41), but on the flip side they also offered the lowest average download speed of 22Mbps, which is up from the previous quarter’s 16Mbps. This helps to underline the importance of “value” to what you pay, which doesn’t really come across all that much in the ranking table itself.

The average monthly tariffs for cable-based (hybrid fibre coax) technologies increased by 2.7% to $65 PPP (£48) up from $63 PPP (£47) at the end of 2024. Fibre-based tariffs (FTTP/B) remained the most expensive of the technology accesses, yet its cost was relatively static at $69 PPP (£51) and you will of course get significantly faster speeds via full fibre lines.

Average cable-based tariff speeds dropped by nearly 11% to reach 544Mbps, although it’s worth noting that many of those providers (e.g. Virgin Media) are in the process of upgrading to faster full fibre networks. Speaking of which, full fibre-based tariffs offered the highest average download speed at 725Mbps, up ever so slightly from 724Mbps in the previous quarter.

However, as hinted above with that mention of “value“, it’s incredibly difficult to produce a true apples-to-apples price comparison between countries and packages because of how much each package can vary in terms of its various service features (e.g. the quality of router bundled, setup/install charges, service speeds, static or dynamic IP addresses, special offers/discounts etc.).

Suffice to say that a table like this can’t reflect everything, although Romania is clearly the country to go for the cheapest fixed broadband tariffs, while Norway and Iceland are currently competing to be the most expensive countries.

ISPreview took a quick look at one ISP in Romania called Digi, which appears to be offering a gigabit (1Gbps) package for a standard price of 80 LEI (excluding discounts), which works out as just £13.25 per month. By comparison, the large Norwegian ISP Altibox appears to be offering the same broadband speed for the equivalent of around £100 per month.

Similar gigabit packages in the UK tend to hover around the £40-£50 mark, albeit with a few networks being a lot cheaper and some being a lot more expensive.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today announced a new partnership with debt advice firm Money Wellness, which aims to improve the support they’re able to offer to “financially vulnerable customers” who many be experiencing financial difficulties.

The partnership will see the new service first being rolled out to the team that handles the most complex payment management-related issues. As part of this, Money Wellness will send advisors to spend the day with the O2 team on the first day, and the two companies will continue to work closely together ahead of a wider rollout, including for Virgin Media customers, over the weeks that follow.

The bespoke training that VMO2’s agents receive should enable them to better spot signs of potential vulnerability (aka – “Money MOT“). Customers who are identified as experiencing such issues may then be either transferred directly to a Money Wellness expert who can provide specialist help (at a time of their choosing) or will be sent a secure link to begin a support journey online.

Through Money Wellness, VMO2 hopes that related customers will benefit from tailored advice and support that extends beyond their mobile or broadband contract – for example a comprehensive financial health check, support with maximising their income, or budgeting etc. The service is also designed to be used by those who suffer from speech, sight, language and hearing difficulties.

Alan Stott, Director of Customer Contact at VMO2, said:

“We know that many families have been struggling with the rising cost of living over recent years, and our agents can sometimes find themselves speaking with customers struggling to pay their bills.

We’re committed to helping and supporting all of our customers, including reviewing payment options and signposting customers to debt charities, but we know this still places the onus on the customer to seek help. Now, through this new partnership, our agents can better identify and support customers, including by offering a warm transfer direct to a Money Wellness advisor who can provide more comprehensive support that goes beyond just their mobile or broadband bill.”

We should point out that all of this is on top of the support that VMO2 already offers, which includes a range of low-cost social tariffs across mobile and broadband, providing free mobile connectivity through the National Databank, supporting customers to set up flexible payment plans (where appropriate), signposting customers to charities who may be able to help, zero-rating a number of debt charities and ensuring vulnerable customers are exempt from price hikes.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A Japanese team has today set a new world record for long-distance high-capacity transmission in optical fibre communications, which saw them achieve a data speed of 1.02Pbps (Petabits per second) over a distance of 1,808 km using a 19-core optical fibre cable with a standard 0.125mm cladding diameter.

The feat was achieved by a joint team of researchers from Sumitomo Electric Industries and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NIICT) in Japan. Sumitomo was responsible for the design and manufacture of a coupled 19-core optical fibre that features a standard cladding diameter, achieving a reduction in optical fibre losses across multiple wavelength ranges (the C-band and the L-band) by optimizing the structure and arrangement of the cores.

Meanwhile, NICT was responsible for building a transmission system that maximizes the performance of the fibre, as well as developing and demonstrating an optical amplification relay function capable of simultaneously amplifying signals from all 19 cores.

Faster data transmission speeds have of course been achieved before, using the same wavelength bands (C and L). The same team managed to hit a data rate of 1.7Pbps back in March 2023, but that was over a distance of just 63.7km, and the new achievement smashes that distance into the ground.

The new record pushes this technology closer to the realm of practical and economic viability for long-range optical communications, which could be used to upgrade existing links between countries (i.e. easily growing capacity as demand rises). But it’s worth noting that longer subsea fibres, such as those that run from Cornwall in England to New York in the USA (3,292 miles or 5298 km) would of course deliver slower, albeit still impressive, speeds.

Just to be clear. The World Record claim reflects that “capacity-distance product” (1.86 exabits per second – km) measurement when using a standard cladding diameter optical fibre, although given the pace of improvement in this field it probably won’t stand for long.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

INDIANAPOLIS (May 28, 2025) – Comcast announced the kickoff of construction of its next-generation network in Fayette, Rush, Delaware, Boone, Shelby, Morgan and Miami counties. Upon completion, more than 10,000 residents and businesses will have access to the full suite of Xfinity and Comcast Business services, including built-in cybersecurity, affordable Internet plans, and a robust video offering spanning TV and streaming.

The multi-million-dollar joint investment is the latest from Comcast in partnership with the State of Indiana’s Next Level Connections Broadband Grant Program, which has invested $350 million toward improving broadband access and adoption in the state.

“We are working to ensure that every Hoosier has access to high-speed, reliable, affordable broadband,” said Steve Cox, Indiana’s Chief Broadband Officer. “Connecting every corner of our state will provide economic mobility and connect residents and businesses to a better quality of life. With this partnership, Comcast is helping us make that happen.”

Overall, Comcast has invested more than $80 billion in the last 10 years to grow and evolve its expansive fiber-rich network across the company’s service footprint nationwide, including nearly $600 million the company has invested in its network in Indiana over the last three years.

“Comcast is proud to continue its commitment to rural Hoosiers by kicking off construction work and ensuring even more homes have access to faster and more reliable Internet,” said Joni Hart, vice president of Government Affairs for Comcast Indiana. “Through our network that delivers 99.9% reliability, residents can participate in services like e-learning, utilize healthcare online, and rely on broadband access in their communities.”

Comcast’s more than 49,000 miles of fiber-rich network infrastructure across Indiana allows the company to offer Internet speeds faster than a gigabit to residential and business customers in its service footprint. In addition, Comcast has more than 65,500 WiFi hotspots in Indiana and more than 23 million nationwide.

A Network You Can Trust to be Reliable, Fast and Secure
Comcast’s state-of-the-art network is built to enable residents and businesses to thrive in today’s constantly connected world. Additional homes in Fayette, Rush, Delaware, Boone, Shelby, Morgan and Miami counties join 64 million homes and businesses across the country to have access to a network that is trusted by essential community organizations like hospitals, schools, transportation systems and first responders. It delivers multi-gigabit Internet speeds, 99.9 percent reliability and security built in from the ground up to keep customers safe from cyber threats.

Introducing Xfinity for Consumers
Comcast’s residential services are marketed under the Xfinity and NOW brands and consumers in the company’s Indiana footprint can take advantage of Xfinity’s and NOW’s full suite of products, including Internet, video, mobile, voice and home security. With multi-gigabit Internet speeds, powerful WiFi that reaches every corner of the home, and super-responsive connections with low lag available with its plan, customers have a great experience using their connected devices to stream their favorite sports and entertainment content, video chat with coworkers and friends, learn from home or simply surf the web.

For local businesses, Comcast Business offers a suite of connectivity, communications, networking, cybersecurity, and managed solutions to help organizations of all sizes achieve their business goals. Industry analysts and associations have consistently recognized Comcast Business as a leader and innovator in flexible, scalable options as well as one of the fastest-growing providers of Ethernet services.

What it Means for Residents
Comcast’s commitment to communities goes beyond building the network and aims to increase economic mobility for the local community and its residents. That’s why Comcast created Internet Essentials, a broadband adoption program that offers eligible households low-cost, high-speed Internet and affordable computers. The program has helped more than 772,000 Indiana residents connect to the Internet since its launch in 2011.

# # #

About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit https://www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

About Comcast Indiana
With more than 1,100 local employees, Comcast Indiana (https://indiana.comcast.com/) has served customers in Indiana for more than four decades. In the last three years, we’ve invested more than $1.3 billion in Indiana, including capital expenditures, employee wages and benefits, taxes, charitable giving, and infrastructure upgrades. “Like” Comcast Indiana on Facebook by visiting @Comcast. “Follow” Comcast Indiana on X at @ComcastIN.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Startup Stories

Summarise your business in one sentence: 

A local, open-source hardware and software company building smart home and environmental sensors that prioritise privacy, performance, and community-driven innovation.  

Introduce your startup: 

Apollo Automation designs and manufactures smart IoT sensors for home automation, including motion, air quality, and plant health monitoring devices. Our sensors are open-source, fully local (no cloud required), and integrate seamlessly with platforms like Home Assistant and Homey. We aim to make reliable, privacy-respecting smart home technology accessible to everyone while keeping production and innovation rooted in the USA. 

What was your inspiration for founding the company? 

We started Apollo out of frustration with the lack of high-quality, transparent, and locally made sensors on the market. What began as a weekend hobby project quickly gained traction in the open-source community. After seeing the response, we decided to take the leap full time and build a company focused on doing things differently. 

Tell us about your business’s journey so far. What have been the biggest challenges and biggest successes? 

Apollo began in a small workshop in Kentucky in 2023 and has since grown into a full-fledged operation with multiple product lines and a global customer base. Our biggest challenge has been scaling manufacturing while staying local and transparent. Our biggest success has been building a passionate community of users and contributors who genuinely care about our mission and help shape our products.

What does the future hold for your business? Where do you see the company a year from now? 

We’re continuing to grow our product lineup and expand into commercial and industrial sensing. In a year, we see Apollo Automation as a recognised name in privacy-first smart sensors and a trusted partner for integrators and builders looking for flexible and local alternatives to cloud-dependent solutions. 

What are you most looking forward to about exhibiting at Broadband Communities Summit? 

We’re excited to connect with others who are building the future of connected spaces. We look forward to sharing what we’ve built, learning from other innovators, and exploring opportunities to bring our sensors into broader commercial and residential use cases. 

HQ location: Versailles, Kentucky, USA 

Number of employees: 6 (4 full-time, 2 part-time) 

Funding situation: Bootstrapped 

URL: https://apolloautomation.com 

Founders: Justin Bunton, Trevor Schirmer 

LinkedIn Address: https://www.linkedin.com/company/102172757 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

In recent years, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure like transportation, energy, and communications have escalated across Europe—and Germany is no stranger to the sabotage. That’s why government ministries and businesses alike have made protecting essential infrastructure a top priority. To this end, upstart telecommunications service provider OneFiber Interconnect Germany is building a 1.6 Tb/s fiber network (‘Active-Network’) for highly secure digital connectivity in Germany—and is utilizing Ciena’s optical networking technology to provide high-speed data transmission services.

To provide this high level of performance, OneFiber is leveraging Ciena’s industry-leading WaveLogic 6 Extreme, which offers unparalleled bandwidth capacity to meet increasing digital demands. 

Security-minded innovation: OneFiber’s campus network

At the Bahn-Technologie-Campus (BTC) Havelland near Berlin, OneFiber operates a state-of-the-art campus network, powered by Ciena, which enables its large enterprise and administrative/government customers to develop and test their solutions in a real-world traffic environment. Within this setting, OneFiber’s customers can tailor solutions for diverse applications and validate their products and components under realistic conditions, proactively identifying and addressing any shortcomings or potential vulnerabilities.

Crucially, OneFiber’s high-performance campus network provides an ideal platform for users to conduct in-depth security analysis and explore enhanced data security measures using the latest technologies—including quantum key distribution (QKD)—to mitigate the threat that quantum computing poses to today’s cryptography. Ciena’s Waveserver platform offers proven 800 Gb/s optical encryption capabilities and supports standard open APIs to communicate with any external QKD system, making it possible for OneFiber to ensure confidentiality of its customers’ sensitive data across the network. 

On the fast track: Driving digital transformation alongside nationwide carrier lines

OneFiber is in the process of deploying a highly agile and resilient fiber-optic network that spans more than 5,500km and encompasses up to 300 access points. This network will provide gigabit services through a comprehensive range of options, including spectrum, 10 Gb/s–1.6 Tb/s wavelengths, and up to 800 gigabit Ethernet in an open access model. Notably, the network leverages Ciena’s programmable photonics to address ever-increasing bandwidth demands with the ability to double fiber capacity by supporting wavelengths across the C- and L-bands.

A solid foundation

OneFiber’s network is supported in the access by Ciena’s Coherent Routing solution, including the 5000 and 8000 families of routers and WaveLogic 5 Nano 100G–400G coherent pluggable transceivers. With this converged IP/optical solution, OneFiber benefits from simplified multi-layer operations, dynamic scalability, and unmatched sustainability.

Thoughts from OneFiber’s CEO

Remarking on the collaboration, OneFiber’s CEO Kay Euler said, “Our work with Ciena represents a significant milestone in our commitment to securing Germany’s critical infrastructure. By leveraging Ciena’s innovative technology, we are empowering our customers with the highest levels of network performance, reliability, and data security—attributes especially important to our government agencies.” 

“Together, we are driving digital transformation and enabling a new era of secure and resilient connectivity in the country.” 

To learn more about OneFiber, visit: https://onefiber.de/