Altrincham-based F&W Networks, which has so far managed to extend their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 360,000 UK premises (up from 250k in Feb 2023), appears to have become the latest alternative network to scale-back some of their build plans and notify staff of future redundancies. The operator, which was aspiring […]

The Comms Council UK, which represents the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has today revealed the winners of their 15th annual 2023 awards event. Eli Katz, Chair of Comms Council UK Council, said: “It’s been another fantastic CCUK Awards ceremony, and the fact that we are now at our 15th […]

A new report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF), which is a British cross-party think-tank, has recommended that companies providing essentials (broadband, energy, water and transport) are made to offer Social Tariffs to vulnerable customers “in a consistent manner” in order to ensure all eligible users can benefit. At the time of writing, the report […]

News 

Skylo’s network can help with filling coverage gaps around the globe, complementing existing terrestrial networks 

Telefonica Germany has signed an agreement with Skylo Technologies, a US-based non-terrestrial network (NTN) service operator, to offer satellite-based Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) connectivity across the world, beginning with Europe and North America in the first quarter of next year.  

Skylo does not operate its own satellite network directly, but rather partners with existing satellite players, coordinating with its partners’ various constellations to provide NB-IoT connectivity. 

As part of the partnership, Telefonica Germany use integrated SIMs (iSIMs) built into IoT device’s radio chip, which in the future, will be able to switch seamlessly between Telefonica’s terrestrial network and Skylo’s satellite non-terrestrial networks service.“In removing the gap that previously existed between cellular and non-terrestrial connectivity, we’re opening up new possibilities for the IoT market and allowing previously untapped use cases to be realized in the commercial and consumer space,” said Prasanna Iyengar, Skylo’s Director of Product Management in a press release. 

“Our cooperation with Skylo is an important building block,” said Karsten Pradel, B2B Director at O2 Telefonica. 

“Together with Skylo, we can now offer our customers IoT networking solutions from a single source, even in remote areas. This hybrid satellite-based IoT connectivity service complements our portfolio and demonstrates how we are driving digitalisation and providing seamless connectivity to businesses worldwide.” 

The commercial launch of NB-IoT services supported by Skylo will begin in the coming months, with availability expanded to cover other continents in future. 

Telefonica is not the only German carrier to involve itself with Skylo. Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom extended their existing partnership with Skylo to provide the satellite network for Deutsche Telekom’s converged cellular and satellite IoT connectivity offering.  

How is the German telecoms market evolving in 2023? Join the industry in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany conference live in Munich 

Also in the news:
Telekom Deutschland CFO Klaus Werner shifts to enterprise unit
Xavier Niel pledges €200m AI investment
Openreach CEO Clive Selley on the health of the UK broadband market 

Connected Britain Interview

We caught up with Duncan Hawkins, VP Sales – Europe, Middle East & Africa at Ericsson, at this year’s Connected Britain conference to discuss the state of 5G and its future in the UK’s enterprise segment

While UK’s 5G rollout continues to advance at a steady pace, monetisation for operators remains a problem, with consumers proving largely nonplussed by the new technology. In the enterprise segment, however, the transformative potential of 5G is far more visible, with exciting use cases being announced regularly around the world.

As such, at Connected Britain 2023, the topic of 5G private networks was a major talking point.

“[Regarding 5G] for enterprise, I put us up there with the leading markets in the world,” said Ericsson’s VP Sales – Europe, Middle East & Africa, Duncan Hawkins. “It’s been driven largely by the spectrum available. Ofcom’s been quite forward thinking in allowing enterprises both to have public spectrum and shared spectrum, so that means organisations can actively adopt and experiment with these technologies.”

“I was asked on the panel earlier to give some examples of private 5G and my mind was just exploding with use cases!” he added.

He noted that good support from the government was playing a significant role in helping make these projects a success, noting that discussions were now maturing as enterprises’ understanding of connectivity gradually improves.

“We need to go back to basics. What sustainability goals can this help us hit? What productivity goals will this help us hit? Once we’ve got those, we can start to overcome these challenges,” explained Hawkins.

You can watch the full Connected Britain interview from the link below.

News 

The auction is expected to begin in the final quarter of next year 

UK regulator Ofcom has confirmed plans to make mmWave spectrum in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands available for the nation’s mobile operators.  

In a statement released yesterday, Ofcom outlined its plans to auction 15-year fixed term licenses for 26GHz and 40GHz spectrum covering 68 UK towns and cities. There will also be an assignment of more localised licenses within these areas under the shared access licensing framework. 

But while Ofcom has now confirmed than an auction will be held for the spectrum, a timeline to do so is less clear, with regulator saying it will delay the process until after the UK Competition and Markets Authority makes a decision on the potential Vodafone–Three merger. 

Announced back in June, the merger would reduce the number of mobile players in the market from four to three, potentially giving the combined entity a significant advantage when it comes to spectrum holdings. As a result, Ofcom is looking to avoid giving away the mmWave spectrum early and exacerbating this disbalance.  

The design of the auction will be released later this year, with Ofcom expected to issue a statement and initiate a further consultation on the process. 

Mobile operators’ appetite for mmWave spectrum is likely to be mixed. These higher frequencies are  attractive due to their higher speeds and capacity, compared to low- and mid-band 5G spectrum, as well as being able to deliver lower latency.  However, these benefits come at the cost of high propagation losses and a relatively short effective range, making the spectrum broadly unsuitable for covering large areas in all but the most densely populated of locations.  

Instead, mmWave has proven much more suited to a number of more specific deployments, such as for private 5G mobile networks for industries and enterprises, and providing consumers with fixed wireless access broadband. 

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here    

Also in the news: 
Telekom Deutschland CFO Klaus Werner shifts to enterprise unit
Xavier Niel pledges €200m AI investment
Openreach CEO Clive Selley on the health of the UK broadband market 

PRESS RELEASE

[Copenhagen, Denmark, September 28, 2023] At the Digital Transformation World (DTW) 2023, Huawei and China Mobile jointly released the Green Management White Paper. Themed “Together, Greener”, the paper makes the case for carriers to standardize green management and promote the cooperation between the ICT sector and vertical industries in order to implement sustainable development.

Olga Martynov, chief financial and sustainability officer of TM Forum, interviews Zhou Yu, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Network Consulting and System Integration Services Dept., during the white paper’s launch event on Sept. 19.

As one of the pillars of digitalization, operators play an important role in supporting the carbon neutral and green sustainable development of the whole society. However, there isn’t yet a systematic governance framework, model, and indicator system that would support carriers in effectively managing, planning, and implementing green strategies. This white paper provides a roadmap for the green development of communications networks.

Key concepts in the paper include:

Green management framework: Build a three-layer management framework from “green governance”, “green planning”, and “green execution” to fully support the implementation of carbon reduction initiatives.
Green standard system and baseline: Build a complete green network evaluation index system based on six indicators and baselines (NCIe, NEE, SEE, TEE, RER, and VEI).
Green operation platform: A platform to support detailed operations such as green strategies, measurement, and solutions.

Zhou Yu, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Network Consulting and System Integration Services Dept, said, “In the process of green network transformation, operators should focus on core issues such as service growth, cyber resilience, and return on investment (ROI), and operators should systematically plan the three-layer architecture of Green Infrastructure, Green Network, and Green Operation. This needs to be supported by end-to-end digital capabilities. The communications industry should cooperate extensively to build a green management framework, green governance model, and green standard system to support the greening of the communications industry and enable all industries to reduce carbon dioxide.”

The paper can be downloaded here: https://www.huawei.com/en/huaweitech/industry-trends/green-management-white-paper

Opensignal has published their latest biannual Mobile Network Experience Report for H2 2023, which benchmarks the 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services from all four primary UK mobile operators – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three UK – to find which ones deliver the best performance. Overall, EE and Three UK seem to fair the best. […]

The European Commission has published their annual ‘Broadband Coverage in Europe’ study, which reveals how the EU’s fixed broadband and 5G mobile networks compare across all of its 27 countries, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. We take a closer look to see how the UK is fairing. The EU’s main goal for […]

European satellite operator Eutelsat has today announced the completion of their all-share combination with London-based broadband satellite operator OneWeb, which had been partly owned by the UK Government but will now become a subsidiary of the Paris-based operator. Just to recap. OneWeb has already launched 634 of their small (c.150kg) first generation (GEN1) Low Earth […]