The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has today started inviting feedback to help them pick the shortlist for this year’s “Internet Hero” category as part of their 2023 internet industry awards event, which is due to take place on 9th November at the Old War Offices in Whitehall (Raffles London at the OWO Hotel). […]

Internet service provider YouFibre, which predominantly harnesses Netomnia’s growing UK Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based network (currently available to 600,000 premises), has today officially taken the wrappings off one of the country’s fastest 8Gbps (Gigabits per second) broadband packages for homes! Regular ISPreview readers won’t be surprised by this because the boss of YouFibre’s parent network, Jeremy […]

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As well as providing better connectivity for customers, TDC NET says the deal will also help it reach its goal of Net Zero Emissions by 2030 

Back in 2020, TDC NET launched the first non-standalone 5G network in Denmark, powered by Ericsson’s 4G core. 

Now, the operator  has continued its legacy of Danish firsts, becoming the first company in the country to launch a 5G Standalone (5G SA) network, enabled by Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G core. 

The 5G SA network will provide improvements in speeds, reliability, and bandwidth for TDC’s customers, as well as increase in security with features such as network slicing. 

“We were the first to introduce 5G in Denmark and now we are taking the next big step by switching on 5G Standalone,” said TDC NET Chief Technology Officer Jakob Dirksen in a press release. “This will offer consumers, enterprises and industries enhanced efficiency, safety, and a range of opportunities across everything from self-driving cars, remote work, healthcare, as well as mission-critical operations by authorities.”  

“In addition, 5G Standalone will also enable energy efficiency improvements thanks to more data being transmitted with the same amount of energy and faster access to content.”  

“By modernising legacy networks and then upgrading to 5G, communication service providers can lower operating costs thanks to greater energy efficiency and thus reduce total cost of ownership. And, at the same time, they can future-proof their networks for anticipated higher capacity needs and offer customers value through new services and capabilities,” said Niclas Backlund, Country Manager for Ericsson Denmark. 

5G SA launches are gradually taking place all over the world, with the operators hoping their networks upgraded capabilities will finally unlock new revenue streams and turn their 5G fortunes around. 

In the UK, for example, Vodafone launched their 5G SA network  in June, with the company suggesting 5G SA would be “transformational” for everything from smart health to manufacturing. 

How is the 5G Standalone market evolving in 2023? Find out at this year’s Total Telecom Congress, live from Amsterdam, 21-22 November 2023 

Also in the news:
Altafiber raises $600m in funding for fibre expansion
CityFibre’s network rollout passes 3 million UK premises
Vodafone to begin UK’s largest Open RAN rollout 

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Vodacom claims that the deal may help get South Africa’s load-shedding energy crisis under control 

Vodacom South Africa has signed South Africa’s first ever virtual wheeling agreement with state-owned utility firm Eskom. 

As per the terms of the deal, Vodacom will be able to access electricity from non-Eskom sources whilst still using Eskom’s transmission infrastructure and services.  

This move will not only help ensure a reliable power supply for Vodacom’s network, but will also reduce the direct strain on the country’s national grid. It will also help Vodacom reach its goal of getting all its power from renewable sources by 2025. 

Usually, wheeling involves a singular relationship between an independent power provider (IPP) and a buyer, using the national grid to carry the energy.  However, such a method is unsuitable for complicated and highly distributed organisations, such as Vodacom South Africa, which has 15,000 distributed low-voltage sites that are linked to 168 municipalities across the country. The new virtual wheeling solution will address these challenges, giving Vodacom access to energy from multiple IPPs.  

“Converting our existing fossil-fuel based electricity supplies directly with on-site renewables is limited by technical constraints that are difficult to scale. We explored a traditional wheeling option, but this had numerous limitations, which we believed could be overcome by reimagining the problem and using technology to solve the issue,” said Vodacom Group CEO, Shameel Joosub in a press release. 

“Vodacom had four objectives when we approached Eskom with this solution: one to remove complexity, two to use technology to solve legacy limitations, three to access renewable energy with a sound business case and lastly, encouraging private participation to help solve the energy crisis,” he added.   

Since 2007, the instability of South Africa’s national grid has resulted in imposed periods of temporary blackouts, known as load-shedding. South Africa is currently at load-shedding level four, which means that load-shedding is scheduled 12 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 12 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.  

Last year, there were over 300 load-shedding periods, creating a very difficult environment for network operators and their energy-hungry networks. 

In the past financial year alone, Vodacom South Africa has spent over R 4 billion ($213.5 million) on back-up power solutions and R 300 million ($16 million) on operational costs such as generator fuel. These huge costs impact the firm both financially and sustainably. 

“Vodacom’s partnership with Eskom is transformational in that our virtual wheeling solution will enable South Africa’s private sector to participate in resolving the energy crisis which continues to impact the country’s economy,” said Joosub.  

“It also provides a blueprint for other South African corporates to adopt, as we pool our collective resources with the common objective of bringing an end to load shedding. The virtual wheeling solution has the potential to be fast-tracked, depending on the available licensed capacity of IPPs.”  

The pilot phase of the virtual wheeling project finished last year and, after further testing, the co-developed solution is now accessible to both the public and private sector, allowing Vodacom to add more capacity to the grid. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Huawei and South Africa begin broadband initiative
Italian government to take 20% stake in TIM’s NetCo
Deutsche Telekom launches new London network connection 

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The rollout will begin in Devon, replacing the “high risk” infrastructure from the now banned equipment vendor Huawei 

Vodafone has completed the testing phase of its Open RAN programme and is moving onto the ‘volume deployment’ phase, which aims to deploy the technology at 2,500 sites across rural Wales and the South-West of England by 2027. 

The operator has been conducting Open RAN tests for some time, both both lab experiments and live network trials, to ensure that the technology is a feasible alternative to the traditional RAN equipment. 

The most recent of these tests saw 14 Open RAN sites deployed in Exeter and Devon. Referred to as the “Golden Cluster”,  the live deployment tested Open RAN’s suitability for different consumer and business cases, and finding that Open RAN outperformed the traditional RAN in every instance. 

In addition to the Golden Cluster, Vodafone has already deployed Open RAN tech in numerous UK locations, spanning across Hampshire, Wales, Yorkshire, and County Durham. 

“The rapid innovation we have seen in the OpenRAN ecosystem is truly remarkable. The industry only started working on this concept in 2016 in earnest, so to see KPIs align to traditional technology is a testament to the work which has been done,” said Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone. 

In 2020, under the new Telecoms Security Bill, the UK government banned the use of Huawei 5G equipment, with operators given until 2027 to remove and replace existing products. This has presented a major opportunity for Open RAN, which has been positioned as a more secure alternative to the “high risk” Huawei due to allowing software and equipment from numerous vendors to coexist and interoperate.  

“The UK government is determined to strengthen the security and resilience of vital network infrastructure by protecting technology critical to the future digital economy and boosting competition and creativity within the telecom supply chain,” said the UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Sir John Whittingdale. 

“This is an important step in doing just that – these deployments from Vodafone across Wales and the South-West of England are supporting the UK’s vision for a more open and innovative 5G market.” 

Details and timescales of the roll-out plan have not yet been released. 

How is the deployment of  OpenRAN technology changing the UK telecoms landscape? Find out from the experts themselves at this year’s live Connected Britain event 

Also in the news:
Altafiber raises $600m in funding for fibre expansion
CityFibre’s network rollout passes 3 million UK premises
Deutsche Telekom launches new London network connection 

Broadband ISP and communications provider BT has announced that it’s adopting new technology from network automation firm Infovista that could help to more rapidly identify the root-cause of customer or service disruptions, which it hopes will improve both “operational efficiency and customer satisfaction“. Under the deal, Infovista will leverage their existing assurance solution, the Ativa™ […]

Broadband ISPs from across the industry have said that they saw a UK internet traffic surge yesterday (30th August 2023), which appears to have been driven by the release of both the latest ‘Call of Duty‘ Season 05 Reloaded update and the start of preloading for Bethesda’s hotly anticipated game ‘Starfield‘. Some smaller network operators […]

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Internet benchmarking firm Ookla, which operates the popular broadband and mobile network performance testing service Speedtest.net, has revealed that 5G based mobile broadband download speeds have fallen across most regions of the UK over the past year. But despite this, overall data speeds (4G + 5G) have increased. The latest study looked at speed testing […]