The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), which was setup by the previous government to help crowd-in private investment for infrastructure projects, has today committed £35m to help alternative network provider Wildanet accelerate their rollout of gigabit-capable full fibre broadband across South West England.

The provider, which originally started life as a fixed wireless ISP in the same area, has spent the past few years deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology across the region – mostly around rural parts of Cornwall. Back in January 2023 they also secured the £36m state aid fuelled Project Gigabit broadband contract to cover more than 19,250 premises in the county (here), which was followed in April 2024 by a £41.2m contract to connect 16,800 premises across the rest of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (here).

The big news today is that Wildanet has just secured an additional investment of £35 million from the UKIB, which is expected to “provide up to a further 20,000 homes and businesses with significantly faster broadband connections” (i.e. gigabit speed FTTP).

Interestingly, the Bank’s financing, alongside a revolving credit facility from Santander structured with the assistance of Deloitte, is specifically expressed as being intended to directly “support” Wildanet’s work in Cornwall as part of their two Project Gigabit contract awards for the region.

Ian Brown, UKIB’s Head of Banking and Investment, said:

“The nature of Cornwall’s location and its geography makes it one of the most difficult to reach places for internet providers and as a result has lower speeds than the UK average.

Our financing for Wildanet’s rollout will support communities and grow economies that would otherwise miss out on the benefits associated with improved connectivity.”

Helen Wylde-Archibald, CEO of Wildanet, said:

“Today’s announcement supports and accelerates our far-reaching roll out plans for Cornwall and unlocks growth in our own company as we continue our mission to transform connectivity and opportunities in Cornwall, at the same time as creating a dynamic, profitable and sustainable business.

Wildanet’s success in forging strong partnerships with both national and local government, with institutional investors and banks, is delivering new investment into Cornwall. We’re proud of these achievements and the leading role we are playing as a champion for digital inclusion and the creation of a modern digital economy in the South West.”

Customers of the service typically pay from £29 per month to receive a 200Mbps (40Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with free installation, which rises to £69 if you want their top 900Mbps (200Mbps upload) package. The provider also offers a Social Tariff for those on state benefits, which gives you 50Mbps (20Mbps upload) speeds for just £19 per month on a 12-month contract.

Consumer magazine Which? has today written to the CEOs of Virgin Media (O2), Scottish Power and British Gas in the hope of “urging them to improve their customer service“, which comes after a survey conducted by the magazine found all three to be the “worst broadband and energy firms for customer service.”

According to the Yonder survey of 4,101 nationally representative adults, which was conducted in May 2024 with the aim of identifying the worst firms for customer service and where they are falling short – consumers in the UK are “most satisfied” with financial services for overall customer service, which leads with a net satisfaction score of +72. But energy and broadband is a bit.. different.

By comparison, energy and broadband remained two of the worst performing sectors for customer service – with net satisfaction in customer service interactions in energy and broadband at +51 and +52 respectively. Sadly, Virgin Media was crowned the “worst performing broadband firm” – receiving +29 for overall customer service, which is well below the sector average of +52.

The survey itself asked respondents about several aspects of customer service, including how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help, the variety of contact options available, how seriously the customer service representative took an issue and how well the issue was resolved.

Sadly, Virgin Media received “dismal scores” across the board – scoring just +18 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +38 for both how well customers’ issues were dealt with and how well queries were resolved. By comparison, Plusnet appeared to do somewhat better in the survey, although annoyingly Which? didn’t include any results from the other major ISPs.

Some 50% of Virgin’s customers also experienced at least one customer service issue – most commonly waiting a long time on the phone to speak to an advisor (51%), being passed between departments without a helpful response (36%) and speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors (34%).

Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:

“Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service – with some companies simply not up to scratch.

Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst performing broadband and energy firms for customer service. It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.

We have written to all three firms about their consistently poor performance in our research. Which? is calling on them to give consumers the customer service they deserve and clearly communicate the steps they are taking to improve.”

The fact that Virgin Media has done so poorly in this survey probably won’t come as too much of a surprise to ISPreview’s readers. Ofcom’s separate Q4 2023 consumer complaints study (here) similarly found that the provider managed to attract the most gripes for broadband, phone and pay TV services (O2 also did the same for mobile).

In addition, Ofcom also have a number of investigations open with the provider, such as their probe into problems with customer cancellations (here) and digital phone migrations (here).

A Virgin Media spokesperson said:

“We are making real changes across our business to deliver customer service improvements and we’re already seeing tangible results that wouldn’t be reflected in this old survey from Which? that, incidentally, represents less than 0.01% of our customer base.

We have boosted the number of agents, including in specialist teams that handle the most complex issues, and are investing more money in customer-facing areas of the business. We’re also multi-skilling our teams, transforming our IT systems and improving our digital tools, including through new technology that will solve customers’ issues even before they report a fault.

While change can take time, this programme of targeted investment has already seen us reduce average call waiting times to just two minutes, and last year 95% of customer complaints were resolved first time. We’re continuing to focus on removing pain points and delivering the best possible service to our customers.”

Suffice to say that the provider is in danger of establishing a negative reputation within the market, which is something that can be very difficult to unpick once such experiences become ingrained within the consumer subconscious (TalkTalk has had similar challenges in the past). But it is good to see that the provider has been making practical improvements on this front. Hopefully we’ll see this effort being reflected in future surveys.

News

If given the green light, the deal would be the largest acquisition in Alphabet’s history 

Google’s parent company Alphabet is in late-stage talks to acquire cybersecurity company Wiz for $23 billion, according to a report published on Sunday from The Wall Street Journal. 

If it is completed, the deal would be the group’s largest ever deal, surpassing its previous record purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012 for $12.5 billion.  

Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the deal is still “weeks away from completion”, with some details still needing to be worked out.  

Only founded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Wiz is a cloud security platform that provides a suite of solutions for securing cloud environments. It has quickly gained prominence in the cybersecurity landscape, with huge name customers such as Salesforce, BMW, and Mars. In May, the company had a valuation of $12 billion. 

If a deal is ultimately agreed, it would face immense scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who have been cracking down on large tech companies buying startups. 

This is not the first cyber security purchase that Google has made in recent years. In 2022, it acquired notably cyber defence company Mandiant for $5.4 billion.  

“Cyber security is a mission, and we believe it’s one of the most important of our generation,” said Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia in March 2022. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said at the time that the deal would “make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.” 

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

News

Local media suggests that Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is being advised to consider Vodafone as an alternative route into Portugal

According to anonymous sources speaking to Jornal Económico, Saudi Arabia’s telecoms giant STC is considering acquiring Vodafone Portugal.

The news, which remains unconfirmed by both STC and Vodafone, comes following the collapse of discussions between STC and Vodafone’s local rival Altice Portugal last week.

STC began acquisition talks with Altice Portugal at the end of last year, seeing the deal as a way to further cement the company’s growing presence in Europe. At the time, Altice Portugal was notably struggling to find growth and was in the midst of a corruption scandal that is still being investigated today.

Earlier this month, however, reports indicated that discussions between the two companies had been shelved after they reached a bottleneck over pricing.

Previous reports suggested that Altice Group’s billionaire owner, Patrick Drahi, was hoping to raise €10 billion from the sale of its Portuguese unit, but STC believed the unit to be worth less than €8 billion.

With the Altice deal no longer an option, it should come as little surprise that STC is now considering Vodafone Portugal, which has itself been eying up M&A opportunities in recent years.

Back in 2022, Vodafone Portugal had announced its intention to acquire Cabonitel, parent company of its Portugal’s fourth-place mobile player Nowo Communications. Just this week, however, the deal was blocked by the national competition regulator, after an almost two-year investigation concluded that the deal could lead to price hikes for customers.

Thus, with both Vodafone and STC’s plans for Portugal being scuppered in recent weeks, it should come as no surprise that they would consider their options. The companies’ goals broadly align; STC wants a foothold in Portugal and Vodafone wants to bolster its market position.

If the acquisition does come to pass, it will be the latest step in STC’s increasing presence in Iberia. In September last year, STC acquired a €2.1 billion stake in Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, making them the companies largest shareholder.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

The new partnership was confirmed during a recent site visit from the LINX team to the Manchester site, former Equinix facility known as MA2, Reynolds House, acquired by the Lunar Digital team in February 2023.

The campus consisting of Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 has had a complete facelift in the last 12 months with a focus on modernization and sustainability.

Rob Garbutt of Lunar Digital commented;

“We are really pleased to now be able to offer the LINX peering LAN to our customers in our Manchester Lunar 1 & 2 data centres with 100Gig port availability for peering services and more. Having the LINX fabric present in our facilities will greatly improve our customers networking options. Welcome LINX!”

LINX Manchester is the regional hub of the London Internet Exchange. A neutral, interconnection platform providing peering services and more. Networks that connect into the LINX Manchester ecosystem  benefit from meeting a community of networks and keeping their online traffic local, lowering latency and costs, and increasing overall data control.

LINX Interconnection Specialist Colin Peckham comments;

“We have seen considerable growth at LINX Manchester over the last 12 months, an increase on average traffic of 100Gbps and regular peaks of over 450 – 550Gbps. The expansion of our network to Lunar Digital reflects the further growth we expect in the next 12 months.”

The growth at LINX Manchester is down to a combination of new to LINX networks looking to peer and keep their traffic local and existing LINX members upgrading or adding additional services to their ports in Manchester like the Microsoft Azure Peering Service (MAPS) for example.

Manchester continues its growth as a key digital hub for the UK. With the success of Media City and the creative content being made and distributed from the hub to the recent news of government investments for a new Manchester Digital Campus in 2026, the city is buzzing with increased connectivity potential.

Find out more about the LINX Manchester network

Link to Word Doc: www.wallstcom.com/Riedel/240711-Riedel-ATK_Esports_Championships.docx

Photo Links: www.wallstcom.com/Riedel/ATK_Esports_Championship.jpeg
Photo Caption: Riedel’s Artist and Bolero connect worldwide esports participants effortlessly.

WUPPERTAL, Germany — July 11, 2024 — Riedel Communications today announced that ATK Versacom, a Clair Global brand, has used a comprehensive suite of Riedel solutions to ensure seamless production and broadcast of an annual worldwide esports championship. By seamlessly integrating Riedel’s Bolero 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz systems with the Artist-1024 matrix, ATK Versacom was able to overcome the traditional limitations of wireless communication in dense environments, facilitating synchronous communication with local and international production teams, broadcasters, and the event’s technical crew.

“Working on a high-profile international esports championship was a fun and exciting challenge. The complexity and scale of the event required a robust and flexible communication system, and as always, Riedel’s solutions delivered exactly what we needed,” said Juan Gallardo, Director of Technical Operations at ATK Versacom. “By creating a high-density wireless environment that supported seamless communication across all production elements, we were successful in coordinating the efforts of our local and international teams, broadcasters, and the game’s producer. We are proud to have successfully executed such a prestigious global event and look forward to continuing our partnership with Riedel on other important occasions.”

First held in 2011, the annual international championship has evolved into a highly prestigious event on the esports calendar. The acclaimed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game event drew fans from around the world to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, where competing teams this season fought for the title of world champion and a share of a massive multimillion-dollar prize pool.

This year’s tournament marked a significant achievement in live event production thanks to the innovative use of Riedel’s state-of-the-art technology. As the production support specialist, ATK Versacom deployed an extensive Riedel setup, including 90 Bolero wireless beltpacks (26 operating on 2.4 GHz and the rest on 1.9 GHz DECT), an Artist-1024 digital matrix intercom frame with 256 ports, approximately 30 SmartPanels and legacy 1000 Series panels, up to 25 antennas for 1.9 GHz, and 20 antennas for 2.4 GHz. This equipment was installed and operational for both the semifinals at the Seattle Convention Center and the finals at the Climate Pledge Arena, enabling a quick breakdown and reassembly between venues. For additional flexibility, Riedel’s network- and IP-based system enabled ATK Versacom to run a cable or use the house fiber, adding a switch and then installing the panels, antennas, and beltpacks as needed.

ATK Versacom was able to integrate the Bolero 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz systems into the Artist-1024 matrix seamlessly, enabling communication across different frequency bands without direct interaction. This setup allowed ATK Versacom to create a high-density wireless communication network capable of supporting up to 90 beltpacks simultaneously, overcoming the typical DECT limitation of 50 beltpacks. Moreover, the integration facilitated communication in at least four different languages — including Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish — and included Dante. The adaptable system seamlessly integrated with third-party interfaces to establish connections with broadcasters across different countries, thus ensuring seamless global transmission.

“The complexity of this international championship highlights the power and flexibility of Riedel’s solutions to meet the unique communication demands of live global esports events,” said Patti Gunnell, Vice President, Key Accounts – Western U.S. at Riedel Communications. “While our 2.4 GHz Bolero system was originally designed for countries outside the U.S., its ability to assist in creating high-density wireless systems proves invaluable when pushing the limits of the DECT band. Once again, the combination of Riedel’s Artist and Bolero proves vital in allowing this prestigious esports tournament to connect participants from around the world effortlessly. We are thrilled to support ATK Versacom in taking on this ambitious challenge and delivering a truly global experience for this passionate community.”

Further information about Riedel and the company’s products is available at www.riedel.net.

# # #

About ATK Versacom
For over 30 years, ATK Audiotek has consistently pushed technological boundaries to create some of the most ambitious concepts in the production world. ATK Versacom creates wired, fiber, and wireless communication systems, placing complex, multi-channel networks seamlessly under the control of our live, broadcast, and televised events clients. In 2022 ATK was acquired by market-leading sound reinforcement specialist Clair Global, expanding Clair’s worldwide reach into broadcast audio, communications, and integration while simultaneously offering ATK’s loyal customers a long-term, sustainable path within the event technology sector.
www.atkaudiotek.com/atk-versacom

About Riedel Communications
Riedel Communications is a leading provider of live production tools in the worlds of media, sports, and entertainment. The company’s hard- and software solutions span from distributed video and audio networks over intercom and replay solutions to WAN and MPLS applications. Thanks to Riedel’s holistic approach, its two business units — Product Division and Networks Division — can leverage powerful synergies to provide flexible infrastructures, tools, and services for both fixed and temporary installations around the globe, enabling Riedel customers to run even the most complex projects on-site, remotely, or in the cloud. Riedel is locally headquartered in Santa Clarita, California, with its global headquarters in Wuppertal, Germany. Riedel employs over 1,000 people in 30 locations throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas.

All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

DALLAS — July 10, 2024 — Black Box®, a leading IT solutions and consulting services provider to businesses worldwide, today announced that Australian media company Nine Network is using a Black Box Emerald® IP KVM solution to ensure reliable, flexible signal extension across offices and studios at its 1 Denison Street location in Sydney. Black Box Emerald 2K and 4K transmitters and receivers, along with the Boxilla® KVM Manager, are deployed in a redundant KVM architecture over an existing copper-based IP network to guarantee users continuous remote access to centrally located systems supporting critical tasks such as graphics creation and video editing.

“Reliable connectivity is a must within a media operation, especially one such as Nine Network, where teams collaborate to create a high volume of live content, day in and day out,” said Tom Fitzgerald, Black Box KVM product manager. “With management centralized and simplified by our Boxilla system, Black Box Emerald KVM devices integrate readily onto existing IP networks and operate seamlessly with key broadcast systems to support vital operations.”

The Black Box Emerald IP KVM system forms an integral part of the Nine Network broadcast production and studio environment used for creating 12 to 14 hours of live television each day, as well as promotional content. Capable of transporting data over standard IP networks, with redundant connections using physically different paths/networks and equipped with redundant power, the Emerald KVM solution addresses Nine Network’s top requirement: reliability. With this multi-level redundancy, the KVM system can tolerate various types of connectivity failure between transmitters and receivers, in turn preventing interruption of operators’ work.

An API integration of Boxilla with Nine Network’s LAWO VSM IP broadcast control and workflow solution allows the company to control the active connections for its new Emerald KVM receivers. Operators can switch between multiple systems for day-to-day operations, or quickly swap to backup systems in the event of a failure. Support for custom USB HID/control peripherals enables studio operators to switch between different host devices and operate them using the same custom USB devices they use to deliver live news bulletins.

“The willingness and ability of the Black Box development teams to work with us throughout deployment to resolve issues and include required features in the lifecycle was very reassuring,” said Matt Benson, group enterprise architect, Information Technology at Nine Network. “This collaboration helped to ensure that the Emerald KVM system could meet all of our needs. As we expand our Sydney site and redevelop other news production facilities around Australia to replace aging systems, the Emerald IP KVM system is a proven solution that we can deploy consistently to ensure essential performance and reliability.”

Information about Black Box and its full product portfolio is available at www.blackbox.com.

# # #

About Black Box
Black Box® is a trusted IT solutions provider delivering cutting-edge technology solutions and world-class consulting services to businesses across the globe. The breadth of our global reach, continuous innovation, and depth of our expertise accelerate customer success by bringing people, ideas, and technology together to solve real-world business problems. Our IT infrastructure solutions, services, and products enable secure, flawless connectivity and meaningful collaboration for businesses in every major market across six continents.

To learn more, visit the Black Box website at www.blackbox.com. Follow the company on X, formerly known as Twitter @BlackBox_ns. Black Box® and the Double Diamond logo are registered trademarks of BB Technologies, LLC.

All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Link to Word Doc: www.wallstcom.com/BlackBox/240710-Black_Box-Nine_Networks.docx

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/BlackBox/BlackBox-NineNetworks.jpg
Photo Caption: Australia’s Nine Network Collaborates With Black Box, Deploying Emerald IP KVM to Ensure Reliable Signal Extension

Research Nester’s recent market research analysis on “6G Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2036” delivers a detailed competitor’s analysis and a detailed overview of the global 6G Market in terms of market segmentation by vertical, application, deployment, communication infrastructure, component, and by region.

Growing adoption of cloud-based services to promote the global market share of the 6G market

The global 6G market is estimated to grow majorly on account of the growing need for digital frameworks to manage data storage and the growing adoption of cloud services for improved organizational workflow. The growing adoption of cloud computing in industries like automation, healthcare, telecom, BFSI, etc., has fuelled the 6G market expansion. A report estimated in 2023 that, 60% of manufacturers will rely on digital platforms by 2020, which could result in a 30% drive in their overall bottom line. Moreover, there is widespread adoption of 6Gs in IoT systems owing to their affordability, compact size, and energy efficiency. It acts as a communication channel between the external environment and IoT devices.

Some of the major growth factors and challenges that are associated with the growth of the 6G market are:

Growth Drivers:

Adoption of data-driven technologies

Challenges:

The presence of concerns related to the high infrastructure requirement for the expansion of 6G, a major factor restraining this market value, is building the infrastructure, as it requires significant spectrum allocation and investments in network deployment along several equipment lines. 6G deployment also requires extensive planning, collaboration, and coordination with several stakeholders which demands regulatory challenges.

Access our detailed report at:

By vertical, the 6G market is segmented into manufacturing, agriculture, educational and entertainment, and public safety. The manufacturing segment is estimated to garner a significant market share over the forecast period. The segment’s growth is attributed to the seamless integration of a large number of IoT devices into manufacturing facilities. This includes smart devices, sensors, and actuators that collect and transmit data in real-time, enabling predictive maintenance, asset tracking and inventory management. Research Nester reported that in 2022 the global IoT connections showed a significant growth rate of 18.0% and achieved more than 14 billion active IoT endpoints.

By region, The North America region is expected to generate the highest revenue by the end of 2036..   The substantial growth of the market in the region is led by the presence of major key players in the telecommunication industry. These organizations are making progress in 6G research, development, and deployment, driving growth and advancements in the market. Telecom companies in the United States such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have signed billion-dollar agreements with network equipment providers such as Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson to expand its US 6G network infrastructure.

Consult our expert analysts at: info@researchnester.com or contact us at: https://www.researchnester.com/contact for any customized report.

This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the 6G market which includes Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Nokia Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Ericsson, Qualcomm Incorporated, Intel Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Apple Inc., Deutsche Telekom, Sony Group Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, INC., Toshiba Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, NEC Corp., and many more.

Research Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting. We aim to provide unbiased, unparalleled market insights and industry analysis to help industries, conglomerates, and executives make wise decisions for their future marketing strategy, expansion, investment, etc. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided the right guidance at the right time is available through strategic minds. Our out-of-the-box thinking helps our clients to make wise decisions to avoid future uncertainties.

Source: https://www.researchnester.com/reports/6g-market/6269 

Telecoms giant BT has released some new internet traffic statistics from the final UEFA Euro 2024 football match between England and Spain (8pm) on Sunday 14th July 2024, which saw a 142% increase in customers streaming the game compared to England’s semi-final against the Netherlands.

Most of the big matches that involved England during Euro 2024 typically took place outside of normal working hours, which meant that many people ended up watching the action via a traditional TV broadcast rather than broadband (i.e. the event didn’t stress fixed line ISPs too much). But plenty of streaming did still take place.

The big demand from football fans also caused both the BBC and ITV to consistently break into the list of top 3 content providers across BT Group’s entire broadband network – with more people using these platforms than the likes of Netflix, Facebook and YouTube during home nations matches.

Apparently, the highest peak in broadband traffic during the final came as Cole Palmer equalised for England just after 9.30pm, although the chart that BT has provided is a little on the basic side.

The provider also noted that more than 11.5 million homes across the UK streamed at least one home nations match at Euro 2024 using BT Group’s broadband network. Scottish and English fans consumed more than 11,000 TB (TeraBytes) of broadband data in the last four weeks streaming their team’s matches, with download traffic from the BBC or ITV more than 30 times higher than an average week.

Outside of the final, England’s perfect penalties against Switzerland in the quarter-final – in which Palmer, Toney, Bellingham, Saka, and Alexander-Arnold all scored – was the next individual moment with the highest peak in broadband traffic out of all the home nations games.

Greg McCall, Chief Network Officer at BT Group, said:

“History was made last night. While Southgate’s men were proudly tackling the challenge on the pitch, our broadband network stood up to the challenge off it – seamlessly streaming one of the most anticipated events in years to homes in every corner of the country.

It’s moments like this that bring people together and create memories that last a lifetime, and we’re honoured that our robust and reliable network meant fans of all ages got to live and breathe every moment.”

News 

The ban eases worry in Brussels and the US, where Germany was perceived as slow to act on ‘high risk’ Chinese equipment vendors 

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has taken a decisive step in its 5G network rollout by banning critical components from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE.  

The move reflects growing global concerns about security risks associated with Chinese telecom equipment providers. 

The ban aims to enhance the security and integrity of Germany’s communication infrastructure and will be implemented in two stages. By the end of 2026, German telcos must remove Chinese equipment, mainly supplied by Huawei and ZTE, from their core networks, including in their data centers. By the end of 2029, the wider network components from these manufacturers in 5G access and transport networks must be replaced. 

“We are protecting the central nervous systems of Germany as a business location — and we are protecting the communication of citizens, companies and the state,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser last week. 

“We must reduce security risks and, unlike in the past, avoid one-sided dependencies,” she continued. 

China’s embassy in Berlin has hit back at the ban, saying “there is no evidence indicating that these Chinese companies are a danger to any country,”  according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. “The so-called ‘network security risks’ are just an excuse by certain countries to maintain technological hegemony and suppress competitors,” continued the statement. 

“Whether Germany can handle this issue fairly and justly will be a touchstone for its own business environment.” 

For the past four years, Germany has famously refrained from implementing a full-scale ban on Chinese telecoms equipment suppliers, preferring instead to implement stricter security recommendations and leave the decision to the network operators themselves. By introducing a formal ban, Germany is finally following in the steps of many of its European peers in banning, who are also in the process of excising Huawei and ZTE from their networks. 

The UK has banned Huawei in 2020, ruling that equipment must be entirely removed from the UK’s 5G networks by the end of 2027. Other countries also banning the equipment outright include Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  

It should be noted, however, that many other European countries – including Spain, Portugal, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, and Finland have opted not to implement a similar ban and still rely significantly on Huawei equipment in their mobile networks. 

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’