Interview

The EMEA submarine cable market continues to be a hive of activity. At the end of 2022, the region saw a new cable go into service; N0r5ke Viking. Anders Vik, Co-Founder of N0r5ke Fibre, the team behind the project, caught up with Total Telecom to share his insights into the first few months since the launch.

The N0r5ke Viking cable went live at the end of 2022; how have the first 4 months been?

We’re very pleased with how the build-out went and especially that we managed to finish the construction on schedule and within budget. Since finalising construction last December, we’ve been busy operationalising ‘N0r5ke Viking‘ and onboarding customers. We have also spent a lot of time on sales activities and getting our plans for a 1,650 km network expansion ready for execution.

Can you share more about the deployment process? Any key learnings and takeaways?

We have acquired a lot of experience and very valuable know-how during the ‘N0r5ke Viking’ deployment process; from the initial route planning and pitching to investors, to securing the necessary funding from new investors and building the 800km subsea cable network.

A decision we made early on was not to go for a turnkey solution, but rather that the N0r5ke team should have a hands-on approach in managing the project from the beginning. We did get most things right, especially selecting some very professional and specialised suppliers who delivered quality as promised. And of course, we had some challenges that needed extra time and focus to overcome.

One important takeaway is the RFQ process for selecting a subsea cable producer, subsea installer, and contractor for all terrestrial construction work. Although a time-consuming process, it was totally worth it and something we’ll make sure to include for all upcoming projects. We’ve also become proficient in how to approach Norwegian municipalities and apply for necessary permits – quite handy as our next project will pass through some 60 municipalities.

Why did you choose this route and landing stations for the project? What impact do you expect the cable to have for local communities in the region?

There are several reasons for choosing the Bergen to Trondheim route as our first build. Firstly, it is a route that previously had little to no available dark fibre for customers in need. Secondly, it is a region with a combined electricity production output of 50 Twh. Thirdly, Bergen and Trondheim are the second and third largest cities in Norway.

The N0r5ke Viking cable will therefore fill an important void on the Norwegian dark fibre map, by providing abundant dark fibre for lease between Bergen and Trondheim, a region with significant production of green hydropower. Along the cable route we ensure connectivity to regional and local fibre networks with our carefully chosen landing sites and ILA huts.

We believe that this region is now even more attractive for establishing data centres, as green power and redundant fibre is available and abundant.

What do the next 12 months look like for N0r5ke Fibre?

There is very good customer interest, so we look forward to onboarding additional dark fibre customers and focusing on operational excellence. If the financial markets are favourable, we do hope to be back in construction mode before year-end and to execute our ‘N0r5ke Viking II’ expansion plans from Bergen to Oslo, and terrestrial from Oslo to Trondheim. The result will be a dark fibre ring connecting the main data centre locations south of Trondheim in Norway, all international subsea and terrestrial fibre connections. We hope that this significantly improved fibre diversity could trigger the construction of more data centres in Norway.

What are you looking forward to at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023?

Submarine Networks EMEA in London is a great event and we really look forward meeting up with new and old friends in the international submarine cable community. This year we’ll also give a short update on ‘N0r5ke Viking’ and our plans to further expand our dark fibre network to both Oslo and Trondheim.

Join Anders and 800+ senior executives from the global subsea market at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023 on 31st May and 1st June. Head to the event website for more details on how to attend the region’s pre-eminent subsea conference.

Broadband ISP and UK network operator Connexin, which is currently building a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Hull and Yorkshire (here), has today announced the appointment of two “new” Tier 1 contractors to accelerate their full fibre network expansion to cover 500,000 premises. Until today, we still don’t know exactly how […]

VIEWPOINT

With the digital economy growing and becoming ubiquitous, nearly 80% of the 5G traffic is generated in the indoor environment. Furthermore, 5G allows Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to offer innovative use cases, like online gaming, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), smart factory and telemedicine, among others, which demand superior indoor coverage. It is then imperative that the CSPs ensure improved indoor coverage and experience as digital networks stimulate continuous traffic growth and support business diversification in vertical industries.

Trends for Indoor Target Network in 5G era

From coverage-oriented to experience-oriented

As our dependency on communication networks grows, there is an urgent need to reimagine the indoor experience strategy adopted by the telcos. The inferior quality indoor experience not only impacts the uptake of the services but also leads to churn.

As personal services become mobile, HD, and diversified, the requirements for gigabit network capabilities have expanded from hotspots to all scenarios, including subways, railway stations, airports, and stadiums. 5G gigabit capabilities with universal continuous coverage are required as the basis. 5G allows service providers to go beyond traditional voice and data services. The telcos must evolve from coverage orientation to experience orientation as the customer requirements evolve with 5G.

From adding module for more bands to adding bands without adding more modules

With the continuous development of MBB networks, global operators have obtained more and more spectrum resources. In addition, multiple spectrums make network construction difficult, and indoor scenarios face difficulties such as admission permission. Similar to outdoor scenarios, the simplified deployment of multi-RAT and multi-band integration must be considered to meet the ultimate experience of indoor users.

Even as the service providers acquire new capabilities to improve the indoor experience, to maximize the full potential of the spectrum resources, it is a good idea to deploy high integrated module with selected bands but not with all the bands. And of course, energy efficiency is also an important factor. The telcos must adopt more sustainable practices and transition from the conventional strategy of adding modules for more bands to adding bands without adding more modules.

From one network with one usage to one network for multi-services

The growing device diversity, including the growing number of IoT devices, further adds to the challenge. The indoor coverage now must meet the growing demand for massive Internet of Things, extreme reliability and availability besides high speed and low latency. The new use cases like warehouse management, smart parking and unmanned logistics have put more requirement on network and equipment.

“Positioning has become a rigid need for digital and intelligent transformation of the industry. Compared with traditional indoor positioning technology, 5G positioning has inherent advantages. In the practice of 5G fully connected factories, it can be seen that from the initial stage of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ultra-Wide Broadband multiple positioning overlay to 5G positioning. Multi-dimensional capabilities such as uplink experience, full-scenario positioning, and hundreds of billions of passive IoT brought by digital 5G networks will become the cornerstone of the development of the smart world, helping industries accelerate digitalization and releasing new 5G business opportunities.” says Eric Bao.

Digital Indoor System Innovating to Meet the Diversified Indoor 5G Requirements

“The development of indoor networks presents three major trends: gigabit experience, green and simple, and multi-function in one network. Digitalization has become an inevitable choice for 5G indoor network construction,” says Eric Bao, President of Huawei’s Digital Indoor System (DIS) Product Line.

Elaborating on these trends, Eric Bao says, “The industry has moved from a “community-centric” technology route to a “user-centric” ubiquitous gigabit technology route. Huawei’s Distributed Massive MIMO technology has brought a four-fold increase in network capacity, opened up a new direction for indoor 5G user perception and network capacity evolution, and has helped global operators deploy in various scenarios on a large scale, becoming the standard for ubiquitous gigabit experience.”

Huawei has been at the forefront of helping CSPs provide exceptional network experience to their customers. For instance, at the Saudi LEAP exhibition 2023, operator Zain through Huawei’s LampSite and Distributed Massive MIMO, demonstrated the ultimate experience of downlink 3Gbps speed based on 200MHz in the exhibition hall. Further, in 2022, the Queen Sirikit National Convention and Exhibition Center in Thailand demonstrated a 1.1Gbps ubiquitous gigabit experience based on 80MHz.

“Huawei LampSite continues to innovate and builds leading competitiveness. From the release of the industry’s first 4/5G integrated module to the LampSite 5.0 solution, 3G/4G/5G multi-band and multi-standard integration meets most mainstream frequency band demand scenarios. The highly integrated design achieves a 25% reduction in weight and volume; in terms of power consumption, with the help of hardware capabilities improvement and pRRU deep dormancy feature, the pRRU power consumption can drop from the original 10 watts to 1 watt, and the power consumption of the entire station is reduced by 40%.” says Eric Bao.

“For single-operator scenarios, Huawei LampSite Pro adopts a full-band and full-bandwidth design with the highest integration in the industry and supports Sub3G+C-Band. LampSite Sharing solution supports multi-operator co-building and sharing, and has the industry’s only 400M C-Band (3400~3800MHz) ultra-large bandwidth.

Further, to meet the diversified requirements of toB business scenarios, Huawei LampSite EE (Enterprise Edition) provides IoT, large uplink, and meter-level positioning capabilities. Further, Huawei DIS will also superimpose the 800MHz millimeter wave capability on the pRRU of 1.8G+C-Band. The domestic actual measurement can reach 10Gbps, supporting the future 5.5G 10 Gigabit experience.

A case in point is Jingzhou Midea’s 5G Fully Connected Factory, which won the GSMA GLOMO award in 2023 in the category of “5G Industry Challenge Award in collaboration with the GSMA 5G Hub,” a tripartite cooperation project between Midea Group, China Mobile and Huawei.

“It uses Huawei’s DIS solution to support the connection of 2,500 5G communication points, meeting the application of 15 types of scenarios in production, logistics and other links. Uplink bandwidth can reach Gbps level, the delay is stable below 30ms (99.99% scenarios), and the network reliability reaches 99.99%, and finally realizes a 17% increase in production capacity, which has been listed in “5G Network Construction and Application Guidelines in the home appliance industry in Hubei Province,” says Eric Bao.

The industry needs innovative products, like LampSite, to help CSPs provide a truly differentiated user experience and to help enterprise customers realize their digital transformation vision. It will play a crucial role in helping CSPs grow their revenue.

Network builder MS3 has today launched a new tool on their website, which allows users to compare and purchase broadband packages from its ISP partners. The provider is currently rolling out a new 10Gbps capable FTTP broadband network to cover 500,000 premises across the North of England by the end of 2025 (here). The operator, […]

Mobile operator O2 (VMO2) has today confirmed that they’ve so far deployed “reliable” 4G based mobile broadband coverage across a total of 50 rural sites in the United Kingdom, which forms part of their commitment under the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project with the Government. In case you forgot, the SRN – supported […]

The Shropshire Council in England has confirmed the completion of their final contract under the £36m (state aid) “Superfast Broadband” (30Mbps+) rollout programme, which over the last 10 years has signed deals with various operators (e.g. Openreach, Airband) and extended coverage from 24% to 98.5% of premises. Just to clarify, much of that increase in […]

Alternative network provider Country Connect, which since 2021 has been building a new gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in South Wales (here), has confirmed that their relatively small and rural-focused network now covers 3,709 premises (up from 2,750 in April 2022). The ISP first started building across the village of Ponthir and town of […]

News

Swedish infrastructure fund EQT will own 60% of the newly formed company, with the remaining 40% held by Wind Tre’s owner, CK Hutchison

Today, private equity firm EQT have announced a new deal that will see them acquire a 60% stake in a newly formed company, set to own and operate Italian operator Wind Tre’s fixed and mobile network assets.

The new company will take ownership of all Wind Tre’s radio antennas, base stations, transport network, and associated contracts, offering the network to customers on an independent wholesale basis. Wind Tre will retain access to the infrastucture as an anchor tenant of the new business.

Estimates suggest the deal’s enterprise value is around €3.4 billion.

According to Wind Tre, this deal will allow them to focus on serving their retail customers, as well as generating new revenue streams beyond their core fixed and mobile offerngs.

“This is part of our Group’s ‘asset light strategy’ for us to recoup the cost of our network investment. At the same time, Wind Tre will benefit from having a partner to own and maintain a state-of-the-art network which will benefit our customers while having certainty on its cost base for OPEX and CAPEX,” explained Canning Fok, Group Co-Managing Director of CK Hutchison. “Our partner EQT is a renowned investor in this infrastructure investment space, and we look forward to working with them for a very long time.”

As always, this deal will be subject to regulatory approvals, with the company’s hoping to close around the end of the year.

Italy has been a highly competitive telecoms market for many years now, with the introduction of Iliad Italia to the market in 2018 causing an aggressive price war in the mobile sector that still rumbled on to this day. Since then, the operators have been struggling to produce sustainable growth, particularly given their expensive network rollouts and the punishing global economic landscape.

Indeed, Italy’s largest operator TIM has been attempting to similarly monetise its network assets for many months now, with new CEO Pietro Labriola penning a plan to spin off the company’s infrastructure unit into a separate business.

Currently, TIM has received offers from both KKR and a partnership of the CDP Equity and Macquarie for a stake in this spun-off NetCo, with TIM announcing a formal competitive bidding process back in March.

The bidders have until June 9 to submit improved offers.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox!

Also in the news:
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Bell partners with Air Canada for in-flight Wi-Fi
Virgin Media O2 and Good Things Foundation launch apprenticeship scheme

Press Release

KDDI Corporation, Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company and Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that the three companies have concluded a new roaming agreement as of April 2023

In order to contribute to the promotion of fair competition among mobile network operators in Japan, KDDI committed to providing roaming services through its au network to Rakuten Mobile from the launch of fourth generation (4G) mobile communication service until the end of March 2026. As Rakuten Mobile has expanded its own 4G network area to achieve 98% population coverage since its full-scale commercial launch in April 2020, KDDI and Rakuten Mobile came together to review their roaming agreement.

Under the new agreement, KDDI will provide roaming services to Rakuten Mobile in areas not covered by the previous roaming agreement including select high-traffic shopping districts in Tokyo’s 23 wards and the cities of Osaka and Nagoya, as well as continue to provide roaming services for select indoor locations (subways, underground shopping centers, tunnels and other indoor facilities) and rural areas. The new roaming agreement comes into effect in June 2023 and extends to September 2026.

Utilizing these roaming services allows Rakuten Mobile to provide subscribers with a more convenient service by improving network connectivity rapidly and efficiently, while at the same time limiting its financial burden. Additionally, by promoting the shared use of its infrastructure, KDDI will drive both the effective use of its 4G infrastructure and the rollout of its 5G network.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox!

Also in the news:
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Bell partners with Air Canada for in-flight Wi-Fi
Virgin Media O2 and Good Things Foundation launch apprenticeship scheme

News

The UK competition regulator said that the $7.3 billion acquisition will not substantially reduce competition in the satellite communications sector

This week, Viasat has moved one step closer to completing its acquisition of fellow satellite communications specialist Inmarsat, with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) granting unconditional approval for the deal on Tuesday.

The deal, first announced back in November 2021, would see the companies combine their satellite assets, which currently include around 20 geostationary devices providing services in the Ka-, L- and S-bands. An additional ten geostationary spacecraft are planned for launch until by 2024, with Inmarsat also seeking to deploy 150–175 low Earth orbit satellites as part of its ORCHESTRA project.

The scale of the merger immediately set alarm bells ringing for regulators around the world, many of whom quickly launched probes into the deal’s impact on market competition. The CMA was particularly concerned that the deal would lead to pricier in-flight Wi-Fi services, launching an in-depth investigation in October last year.

By March 2023, the CMA had provisionally cleared the takeover, pending the results of its Phase 2 investigation.

Now, this Phase 2 probe is complete, with the CAM finding that the merger should not have a negative impact on market competition, due largely to the expanding nature of the satellite communications sector and the emergence of new players.

““The satellite communications sector is evolving at rapid pace – new companies are entering the market, more satellites are being launched into space, and firms are exploring and entering into new commercial deals. All the evidence has shown that the sector will continue to grow as the demand for satellite connectivity increases,” said the CMA’s Richard Feasey, who chaired the investigation into the merger. “After carefully scrutinising the deal, we are now satisfied that, following the merger, these developments will ensure that both airlines and their UK customers will continue to benefit from strong competition.”

This marks the latest in a number of hurdles for the deal to clear, including permissions to proceed from both the Foreign Investment Review Board of Australia and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.

However, even larger hurdles are still to come, most notably from the European Commission and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which are both currently conducting their own independent investigations into the merger.

The European Commission is expected to announced its decision on June 29, but the FCC’s investigation could take longer still, following complaints by rival satellite players, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox!

Also in the news:
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Bell partners with Air Canada for in-flight Wi-Fi
Virgin Media O2 and Good Things Foundation launch apprenticeship scheme