VIEWPOINT

EXA continues to expand and enhance its network and is committed to being the industry trailblazer by building the connectivity that underpins the digital economy. EXA Infrastructure VP Network Investments Steve Roberts

In 2023, EXA’s capex investment will continue to grow, with 20 approved investment projects which encompasses 10,940kms of new footprint, increasing EXA’s network size to 125,000 kms. EXA’s investment focus is all about serving the needs of new and existing customers, and providing high quality, reliable and scalable infrastructure.

EXA is leading the way in terms of large-scale network expansion projects, further diversifying network routes, ensuring customer requirements for resilient connectivity between data centres and cable landing stations.

As a dedicated owner and operator of digital infrastructure, EXA is not only investing in its network expansion but also improving performance and capability by implementing the latest innovations in the optical layer, passing these enhancements and improvements directly to our customer base.

Providing critical connectivity to our existing and new customers is what drives us as we continue to lead the investment across the industry. This drive is being powered by the demand in data traffic but also as we continue with our promise to become the undisputed data centre to data centre connectivity provider.

 

We will be in touch – contact us – EXA Infrastructure

Network access provider Openreach (BT) today claims to have launched a “game changer” new Ethernet product – OSA 100G Single (Optical Spectrum Access), which is designed to provide businesses or broadband ISPs with a dedicated, secure and always-on 100Gbps fibre optic data link that comes at a fairly attractive price point. The OSA 100G Single […]

News

In total, Vodafone will have raised around €5.4 billion from the spinning off and sale of Vantage Towers

Today, Vodafone Group has announced that it will continue to divest of its stake in Vantage Towers, today noting that it has received an additional €500 million from a consortium of infrastructure investors.

Vodafone spun off its European tower assets as Vantage Towers back in the summer of 2020, arguing that the move would simplify its portfolio, monetise its valuable passive assets, and provide vital capital for its 5G and fibre rollouts in various markets.

Shortly after announcing the spin off, Vodafone announced it would float Vantage on the Frankfurt stock market, with the subsequent IPO raising almost €2.6 billion and leaving Vodafone with a 82% stake in the business.

The company’s time on the stock market did not last long, however. After just over a year, at the end of 2022, Vodafone announced that it was selling part of its stake in Vantage towers to a pan-European towerco to a consortium of investment firms KKR & Co., Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP,) and The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF). As part of this ‘landmark moment’, Vodafone said that it would also form a joint venture with the consortium partners, to buy-out the minority shareholders.

This joint venture was named Oak Holdings and today owns an 89% stake in Vantage Towers.

Now, Vodafone’s latest dealings will see it reduce its ownership in Oak Holdings from 64% to 60%, while the private equity consortium will increase its stake to 40%. In total, the exchange will see Vodafone receive an additional €500 million, taking its total proceeds from the sale of Vantage to €5.4 billion.

The number of shares changing hands may not stop here, however, with the agreement allowing the consortium to purchase additional shares to increase their stake in Oak Holdings up to 50% by the end of 2023. Following this period, Vodafone will have a year to sell down its stake to 50% if it so chooses.

Vantage Towers owns and operates roughly 84,600 towers in ten European markets, making it a highly attractive long-term investment for private investors.

For Vodafone, meanwhile, the cash injection could not come at a better time, with the company’s last financial results dubbed “not good enough” by new CEO Margherita Della Valle.

How is the tower infrastructure market evolving in 2023? Join the telecoms ecosystem in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live in Amsterdam

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

Press Release

EllaLink, a leading submarine cable operator, today announced a strategic reorganization of its sales division to better align with market demand and capitalize on its expanding volume of opportunities.

The company will be creating two distinct units: a Subsea Infrastructure Development unit and a Global Sales Unit. Whilst the Subsea Infrastructure Development Unit will concentrate efforts on expanding EllaLink footprint, the Global sales unit will focus on attending the growing demand for capacity and infrastructure services on our existing routes.

Under the new structure, Vincent Gatineau is appointed as Senior Vice-President of Subsea Infrastructure Development, assuming responsibilities for driving the company’s efforts in expanding EllaLink’s subsea cable network, ensuring the infrastructure meets the evolving requirements of global connectivity. He will lead a team of dedicated professionals who will focus on the strategic planning, design, and execution of submarine cable projects, as well as strengthening relationships with key partners and stakeholders.

Simultaneously, Vlad Ihora is joining EllaLink as Senior Vice-President of Global Sales. Vlad will be at the helm of a dynamic sales team, tasked with nurturing existing client relationships and cultivating new business opportunities worldwide. His primary objectives will include developing and executing sales strategies, identifying potential markets and customers, and ensuring consistent revenue growth for the organization. He brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of driving sales success in the industry.

To reinforce the Global Sales Unit, EllaLink has nominated Cidália Tavares as Customer Service Manager serving as a liaison between customer, sales, and production; managing escalations and assuring quality standards; and focusing on continuously improving our service levels.

 

 

According to Philippe Dumont, CEO at EllaLink, “The decision to reorganize the Marketing & Sales division comes as a response to the evolving needs and demands of the market. With the rapid growth of digital connectivity, the submarine cable industry has witnessed an unprecedented surge in demand to expand into new routes and serve with improved latency and resilience new geographies. By realigning its resources and expertise, EllaLink aims to enhance its ability to deliver innovative solutions and exceptional customer experiences while maximizing business opportunities.”

Want to learn all of the latest developments in the subsea cable industry? Join the ecosystem in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest subsea telecoms event

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

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has today announced that they’ve begun to deploy Ericsson’s new single Interleaved AIR 3218 antenna, which aims to increase the mid-band (radio spectrum) capacity of their 5G (mobile broadband) network and without creating any additional antenna footprint at their various network sites. The new antenna, which brings Massive MIMO (massive multiple-input […]

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
Home Office lambasted over Emergency Services Network delays
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.