Network operator Digital Infrastructure (DI), which is being supported by broadband ISP BeFibre, has today announced that they’ve signed a new multi-year partnership with global supply chain solutions provider Wesco Anixter to support their ongoing UK rollout of a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. The operator, which began its rollout in 2021 and aims […]

Fern Trading-backed UK ISP Giganet (Cuckoo) has today announced that they’ve completed the first phase of their £250 million deployment of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which aims to reach poorly served homes and businesses across parts of Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire in England. Just to recap. Back in 2021 the provider pledged […]

VIEWPOINT

Bahrain Network is carrying out several initiatives to ensure that it is able to achieve the objectives of Bahrain Vision 2030, which was established in 2008 to provide a roadmap for the industry to work around the pillars of sustainability, competitiveness and fairness. Bahrain Vision 2030 is working towards creating a foundation of robust and future-ready communication networks for businesses and people.

“We are targeting to complete the full island coverage by the end of the year, connecting 100% of businesses and over 95% of residences. We plan to place Bahrain at the number one rank in terms of broadband speeds and availability throughout the country,” says Ahmed Jaber Aldoseri, CEO of Bahrain Network (BNET). He was speaking in an interview with Shaun Collins, Executive Chairman of CCS Insight.

Focusing on Bahrain Vision 2030 has resulted in an average of 7% growth year-on-year of non-oil sectors in the country. Besides, telecommunications and ICT industries are contributing about 7% of the country’s GDP as of last year.

 

Raging Ahead

As per Bahrain’s fifth National Telecommunication Plan (NTP5), BNET was formed to accelerate the growth and economic diversification of the country’s telecom sector. In 2019, the network infrastructure of Batelco was transferred to BNET and the latter became the only fibre network infrastructure provider in the country, which is responsible for deploying and managing fixed wholesale broadband and domestic connectivity services to licensed operators and its retail arm.

The company faced several challenges as the entire process of division from the incumbent operator occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, which required us to complete the entire separation in two years, and I am happy to say that we concluded it successfully.

“BNET was built on the principle of equivalence of input. This means that after the separation of the incumbent operator, BNET had the exclusive right over the infrastructure in Bahrain and was required to ensure that everyone in Bahrain was treated equally, which meant that we had to transform the mindset of the employees to work in a customer-centric manner. This further required us to ensure that our products met with the expectations of everyone in the industry,” says Ahmed Jaber Aldoseri.

The company is also taking the lead in creating a best-in-class and future-ready communications infrastructure. BNET ensures that the network infrastructure adopts open standards in all possible ways. BNET is also the only private company from Bahrain to be a member of the ITU-T, which ensures that it always keeps abreast of the latest technological developments in telecom.

“We are a cloud-native company and the only one in the region with this status, which means that our adoption of new technologies is faster, more reliable, and more robust. We also ensure that BNET is available in most industry fora to participate and effectively collaborate with its key stakeholders for the benefit of Bahrain,” elaborates Ahmed Jaber Aldoseri.

BNET is also focusing on expanding in adjacent markets and growing the scope of services it offers while ensuring Bahrain has a competitive offering when it comes to telecommunications infrastructure regionally and internationally.

A best-in-class telecom network is crucial to helping businesses quickly digitally transform themselves and realize their potential in the digital economy. As the demands from communications networks continue to increase, BNET has adopted a proactive approach to building networks that will help Bahrain grow its profile in the digital economy. BNET’s approach to focus on Bahrain Vision 2030 will motivate other service providers to build networks that drive the region’s economy.

 

Contributed Article

Ghana is taking concrete steps to ensure power access to every citizen by 2025, in line with the country’s commitment to its Sustainable Development Goals 7 (SDG7). Nearly 43% of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity, but thanks to the efforts of the country’s administration, Ghana is on its way to achieving full access within the next 18 months.

Growing aspirations coupled with increased urbanisation and rising demographic requirements has led to a significant increase in power demand in Ghana in the last decade. Lack of reliable and equitable power access impacts the social and economic growth of the country. Severe electricity supply challenges are costing Ghana an average of $2.1 million in loss of production daily.

The Ghana Government would need to procure an additional generation capacity of 225 MW by January 2024 and an additional 200 MW by January 2025 to address the growing demand-supply gap. The Government is now focusing on renewable energy sources to meet this challenge.

A crucial element in the Ghana Government’s vision to provide universal power access and to grow the Bui Hydro-Solar PV Hybrid (HSH) system. Significantly, Bui HSH uses a combination of solar and water power to ensure that the power supply is reliable and affordable. In total, the renewable power output of Bui HSH contributes around 6-7% of the power generated in the country and is likely to bring down Greenhouse Gas emissions by more than 47,000 tons per year. This is in line with Ghana’s National Energy Plan’s aim to achieve a 10% penetration of renewable energy by 2030.

“Bringing the Bui Hydro-Solar PV Hybrid system online enables us to connect more customers to achieve our universal access target of 90% by 2024, way ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to electricity by 2030. It also contributes to delivering on the promise in our National Energy plan to increase the renewable energy installed capacity in our energy mix to 10% by 2030,” said Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister for Energy, Ghanaian Government, at the groundbreaking project.

The Bui Power Authority (BPA) has also commissioned a 5 MW Floating Solar Plant, the first of its kind in the sub-region, ensuring the sustainable utilisation of its reservoir.

eLTE broadband private network to enable real-time communication

Even as Bui HSH plays a crucial role in addressing the energy gap, its operations and management were hindered by a lack of communication between the workforce in the underground area and other locations. The plant needed a communication solution that was able to penetrate the thick concrete walls of the dam.

In addition, network signal is typically weak in an underground environment, so the solution needed to be robust enough to address this issue. Complex building structure further added to the challenge of setting up a network. The lack of real-time communication between the staff negatively impacted the efficiency and led to several issues, including insufficient security dispatch or delayed emergency landing.

Bui HSH deployed Huawei’s eLTE broadband private network to address these challenges. Huawei’s solution is able to penetrate the thick concrete barriers to provide voice, video and data services that enable real-time communication between the control room and maintenance staff at the plant.

This is the first such installation in the hydroelectric industry by Huawei. The eLTE-based network seamlessly covers the indoor and outdoor environment and provides features like `push-to-talk’ and group calls, to enable employees to communicate effectively across the plant. This has led to more collaboration and more efficient management of the plant.

Huawei’s eLTE broadband private network solution is enabling more effective collaboration between the workforce leading to improved management of the plant, to quickly realise its goal of providing universal power access by 2025 in Ghana.

What does the future hold for the evolution of private networks and Industry 4.0? Join the discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

Also in the news:
EU and Japan sign deals for subsea cables and semiconductors
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Ofcom probes VMO2 as customers complain about contract cancellation

VIEWPOINT

Unlike previous standards, 5G offers an incredible opportunity to service providers to go beyond offering basic voice and data services. The combination of ultra-high-speed and extremely low latency, enabled by 5G, allows carriers to provide innovative and exciting use cases and a truly differentiated experience to their subscribers. This is also crucial for faster monetization of their 5G investments.

Service providers across the globe are also leveraging emerging traffic value-based operations to monetize their investment in the 5G. Chinese service providers have taken the lead in developing creative and traffic value-based operations to maximize the revenue-generating potential of 5G. Over the last few years, they have introduced several applications and business models to monetize the differentiated experience offered by 5G.

Further, an increasing number of service providers in Europe and the Middle East have successfully adopted the business model of rate-based charging. Apart from Elisa in Finland, Sunrise in Switzerland has also adopted rate-based experience-based charging. Similarly, Etisalat in the UAE has also introduced a new rate-ranked package based on the existing traffic package mode to provide a rate-limited and unlimited package for the users. This also offers new opportunities to service providers to monetize their 5G investments.

Live broadcasts, cloud gaming and more

Based on 5G’s capability to ensure large bandwidth, ultra-high speed and extremely low latency, the telcos are able to provide several new use cases like mobile cloud applications and improved HD video experience to their subscribers. 5G also allows users to experience high-dynamic video and three-dimensional audio.

Take the case of China’s dynamic trillion-dollar live broadcast industry. With about 515 million users or around 48% of China’s population, as of December 2022, e-commerce is the most popular type of live streaming in the country. The total revenue of China’s livestream streaming e-commerce is likely to touch RMB 4.9 trillion (US$720 billion) in 2023, says the same report. 5G, with its uplink capabilities, is providing an upswing to this industry.

To leverage this massive opportunity, China Unicom Guangdong recently launched a 5G live broadcast package to provide more traffic, ultra-high uplink rates and VVIP priority services for users watching and conducting live broadcasts. Since its release at the end of October 21, China Unicom has developed a significant user base of 200,000 users.

Several examples from different geographies demonstrate that 5G-enabled traffic value-based operations are enabling carriers to grow their business. For instance, China has demonstrated that it is possible to monetize 5GtoC traffic. On the other hand, carriers in Europe and the Middle East are focusing on Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services. While South Korean and Japanese carriers are innovating in the Augmented Reality /Virtual Reality segment, and Europe and the US are developing industrial internet applications and solutions.

A growing number of 5G applications  

5G allows telcos to offer truly pathbreaking and innovative use cases, like 5G calls, cloud phones, Naked-Eye 3D and Extended Reality (XR). A case in point is the recent launch of China Mobile’s cloud mobile phone, a virtual phone that runs on the cloud. It leverages China Mobile’s computing network and allows applications to run on the cloud, thus offering users a “lighter, faster, more secure and more convenient” experience. However, 5G-powered low latency is a key factor for its wider adoption.

China Mobile has also launched 5G New Calling, which promotes 5G video calling (VoNR) and can be used directly with the native dial pad of the smartphone. With ultra-HD, intelligent, and interactive capabilities, 5G New Calling builds platform products based on content operation, AI ecosystem, and interactive innovation.

Naked-eye 3D application is also becoming more mature in terms of end-to-end optical display, terminal R&D, content processing and user experience. It allows users to enjoy an immersive 3D experience without wearing any external device. 5G and 5.5G can accelerate the large-scale adoption of Naked-eye 3D applications and make immersive experiences accessible to a greater number of people.

Another segment which is benefitting from 5G is the gaming industry. In 2022, China’s cloud games market touched 4.5 billion yuan with 96 million monthly live users and a growth rate of 20%, according to iiMedia Research. It is likely to grow to 180 million by 2025. The service providers can monetize this boom in cloud gaming, mobile gaming and game streaming by building 5G networks designed to ensure a best-in-class gaming experience. The growth of the gaming industry depends on the quality of the user experience. Any short lag can mean the difference between win and loss. 5G allows carriers to ensure a superior gaming experience even when the number of users is high.

A case in point is Hutchison’s 3 Hong Kong recent launch of the 5G game acceleration package for gamers and the 5G stock king package for financial investors leveraging extremely low latency and ultra-high speed offered by 5G. Both the game acceleration 5G Supreme package and 5G Stock King package ensure a differentiated experience for game users.

5G has been commercially available in the mass consumer market for over four years now, and in this period, it is helping service providers grow Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) by providing a truly differentiated experience to their users. The 5G ecosystem is expanding and moving from strength to strength and the service providers must focus on traffic value-based operations to monetize 5G effectively. This is also crucial for carriers to go beyond basic services, add new revenue streams and develop new business models. The Chinese service providers are inspiring their counterparts in all geographies to leverage traffic value-based operations to use the 5G technology to provide pathbreaking use cases to people as well as businesses to ensure faster 5G monetization.

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has named Glenrothes engineer Lee Carmichael (40), who installs full fibre (FTTP) broadband around Fife in Scotland, as their ‘Engineer of the Year 2023‘ for his repairs, installs, out-of-the-box thinking and support for colleagues. As well as being presented with the award, the 40-year-old, who has been with the company […]

As expected, BTSport’s Pay TV service has today officially been rebranded to TNT Sports throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland. The move follows last year’s deal between broadband giant BT and Warner Bros. Discovery, which resulted in a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) company between BT Sport and Eurosport UK. In addition to the launch […]

A new report from the Digital Connectivity Forum (DCF), an industry think-tank, has found that UK’s rollout of gigabit-capable broadband and 5G mobile connectivity would benefit from improvements in communication, collaboration and consistency between local authorities and the telecoms industry. At present, over 76% of UK premises can already access a fixed gigabit-capable broadband ISP […]

News

The standalone 5G (5G SA) solution will allow devices to connect to both private and public networks simultaneously using a single SIM card

Orange Business has announced the launch of a new hybrid private mobile network solution, allowing simultaneous access to a private network deployed by Orange as well as the company’s public commercial network.

The “two-in-one” 5G SA solution uses a router from Cradlepoint that connects to both networks and directs data flows to the desired network based on the application or use case.

The solution also relies on network slicing, edge computing, and local break outs across the overlapping public and private 5G networks to ensure network security and guaranteed low latencies.

The solution has been successfully tested at Orange’s facilities in Arcueil, Paris.

Orange says that the hybrid network will have many uses, particularly in industrial settings, where it can be used to connect industrial equipment, objects, smartphones, tablets, human-machine interfaces, or even autonomous vehicles.

As well as providing secure connectivity for a site’s critical activities, it will also allow for connection to subcontractors and remote sites, host third parties, and provide coverage for users beyond the site’s boundaries, such as forklift drivers and freight travelling by road, river or rail.

“Companies in all sectors face modernization, competitiveness and resilience challenges. The evolution of existing networks towards a hybrid private model promises major benefits in terms of production optimization, improvement of the experience of actors in the field and technology management. Orange mobilizes its dual expertise as operator and integrator to support its customers in their transformations,” explained Valérie Cussac, Orange Business’s Senior Vice-President of Smart Mobility Services (statement translated from French).

Earlier this year, Orange announced the launch of a 5G SA network in Spain, but in other markets, including France, the company has yet to make the upgrade to the more advanced technology.

What impact will the arrival of standalone 5G have on the wider telecoms ecosystem? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress

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News

The Belgian operator will purchase a 57.56% stake in India’s Route Mobile, a move they say will create the world’s third-largest Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offering

Today, Proximus has announced a major push into the global CPaaS market, agreeing to purchase a majority stake in India’s Route Mobile for €643m.

The acquisition is being made via Proximus’s enterprise-focussed subsidiary Proximus Opal, which itself is the parent company of Proximus’s CPaaS business Telesign.

The deal will see Proximus Opal take a 57.56% in Route Mobile, with the Belgian operator explaining they will move to combine Route Mobile with Telesign to create what they claim is the third largest CPaaS company globally by messaging volumes.

Combined, the two businesses will generate an annual revenue of around €900 million, with Proximus saying that Route Mobile’s footprint in the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America perfectly complements Telesign’s presence in Europe and North America.

“With a vastly expanded customer outreach. Proximus’ CPaaS portfolio will be significantly extended through adding Route Mobile capabilities, notably in omnichannel, which will help capture value from the ongoing – generative AI-based – revolutions in customer engagement,” said Proximus in a company statement.

Rajdip Gupta, the current CEO of Route Mobile, will head up the combined company’s CPaaS operations, while Joe Burton, the current CEO of Telesign, will lead their digital identify activities.

Alongside the initial stake acquisition, Indian regulatory law means that Proximus Opal will also be obligated to offer to purchase up to a further 26% of outstanding shares in Route Mobile at the same price; if all shareholders agree to this additional offer, Proximus’s final stake in Route Mobile would sit at just under 75% and its total spend to around €1 billion.

As part of the agreement, Route Mobile’s founding shareholders, represented by Clear Bridge Ventures, will subsequently re-invest up to €300 million in Proximus Opal, taking a stake of up to 14.5%.

The deal is expected to be closed in the next six months, pending regulatory approval.

How is the CPaaS landscape changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress event

Also in the news:
EU and Japan sign deals for subsea cables and semiconductors
Home Office lambasted over Emergency Services Network delays
Ofcom probes VMO2 as customers complain about contract cancellation