The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published the results of their latest quarterly Rolling National Open Market Review (NOMR) process, which reveals that 2,866,478 premises across England are currently classed as being unlikely to get a gigabit-capable broadband ISP network within the next 3 years. Just to recap. The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband […]

Network operator LilaConnect, which is a subsidiary of Swedish provider VXFIBER that is busy deploying a new “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband network across several cities and towns in England, has today launched several business packages for those in areas where they’ve been deploying. The two new business packages available will include speeds of 500Mbps at […]

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Zzoomm is reportedly through to the second round of bidding to acquire its fellow altnet, which has also drawn attention from the likes of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2)

With the glut of investment in the UK fibre market finally beginning to dry up due to challenging economic conditions, consolidation appears to be on the horizon for the country’s altnet community.

Last month, reports suggested that altnet Trooli, which covers over 275,000 UK homes with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), was being put up for sale.

It did not take long for the move to draw the attention of some of the market’s biggest players, with VMO2 being named in media reports.

Now, further reports from Sky News suggest that one of Trooli’s altnet peers, Zzoomm, could be interested in a merger. According to sources, Zzoomm has made it through to the second round of an auction being conducted by bankers at Lazard.

Zzoomm currently has roughly 100,000 premises passed by its own fibre network and has ambitions of expanding this total to one million.

Any deal for Trooli is likely to be valued at over £100 million.

In related news, last month we saw altnet consolidation already underway, with Fern Trading Limited, owner of Jurassic Fibre, Swish Fibre, Giganet, and AllPoints Fibre, merging the four networks into a single FTTH player.

How is the UK fibre landscape evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected North conference

Also in the news:
Viasat–Inmarsat merger gets provisional greenlight from CMA
Verizon shuffles executive team in search of growth
Ericsson to pay DoJ $206.7m over bribery scandal

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The purchase of the communications equipment maker will help expand Jio’s 5G and broadband service offerings

This week, Jio Platforms, parent company of India’s largest mobile operator Reliance Jio, has announced the purchase of US-based telecoms equipment maker Mimosa Networks for $60 million.

The deal will take place via Jio’s wholly owned subsidiary Radisys Corp make the purchase from Mimosa’s parent company, Airspan Networks Holdings Inc, on a debt free, cash free basis.

Mimosa’s product portfolio focusses primarily on point-to-point and point-to-multi-point products based on WiFi 5 and the WiFi 6E technologies, which will provide a significant boost to Jio’s fixed wireless access and backhaul capabilities.

“Acquisition of Mimosa will further accelerate Jio’s innovation and leadership in the production of telecom network products that deliver value to consumers and enterprises across the globe with cost-effective, rapidly deployable fixed and mobile broadband,” said Mathew Oommen, President at Reliance Jio, who also sits on the board at Airspan Networks, in which Jio is a shareholder.

Following the purchase, Mimosa’s product development, manufacturing, and sales teams of 56 employees will continue to work with Mimosa.

How is the US telecoms market evolving in 2023? Join the discussion at this year’s live Connected America conference in Dallas, Texas later this month

Also in the news:
Viasat–Inmarsat merger gets provisional greenlight from CMA
Verizon shuffles executive team in search of growth
Ericsson to pay DoJ $206.7m over bribery scandal

News

Dish Wireless will conduct 5G tests using spectrum in the 800MHz band before making a decision on whether to purchase the spectrum from T-Mobile later this year

This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given formal permission for Dish Wireless to begin 5G tests using a portion of T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum.

The spectrum in question comprises 13.5 MHz of airwaves in the 817–824 MHz and 862–869 MHz bands, which Dish has the option to purchase from the magenta giant later this year if it so chooses.

The tests themselves will take place in Yuma, Arizona, with the FCC authorising a test period from March 5 to September 30.

Dish’s option to purchase the spectrum from T-Mobile exists as a result of the merger between the latter and Sprint back in 2020, with the FCC ordering T-Mobile to divest of the spectrum as part of the approval process. More specifically, these T-Mobile is required give Dish the option to buy the spectrum for $3.59 billion by April 1 this year, exactly three years since the merger closed.

If Dish prefers not to make this purchase, it will be required to pay T-Mobile $72 million, as well as $360 million to the US government, though the operator could avoid the latter payment if it meets certain deployment parameters.

Over the past couple of years, with Dish rapidly rolling out its greenfield 5G network, there has been much speculation about whether the company would move forward with this purchase or not.

One the one hand, the operator already makes heavy use of 600MHz spectrum for its 5G services, which offers similar coverage and latency to the 850MHz band, potentially making the purchase somewhat redundant.

On the other, spectrum is an inherently scare and ergo valuable resource and the price is potentially attractive. In a recent earnings call, the company has hinted that it could be leaning towards the purchase after all, with CFO Paul Orban saying that “the probability that we would exercise [the purchase option] has increased.”

Some analysts speculate that Dish may be in discussions with a third-party that could help fund the spectrum acquisition.

Can Dish rise to the challenge of becoming the fourth nationwide wireless operator in the US? Join the telecoms industry in discussion at this year’s live Connected America conference in Dallas, Texas later this month

Also in the news:
Viasat–Inmarsat merger gets provisional greenlight from CMA
Verizon shuffles executive team in search of growth
Ericsson to pay DoJ $206.7m over bribery scandal

CityFibre has today announced the completion of their £5m “primary build” in the Cambridgeshire (England) town of March, which has extended their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 8,500 premises (around 80% of the town’s residential properties), including most businesses. The build, which was conducted by civil engineering contractor Granemore Group, began around […]

The Labour MP for Hull North, Dame Diana Johnson, has presented a petition to parliament – signed by residents of Hull North – that urges the government to make it a requirement for new telecoms poles to apply for local planning permission and consult residents before being built – risking delays to the gigabit broadband […]

As the 5G ecosystem continues to expand, there is an urgent need to start preparing the networks for the upcoming network evolution of 5.5G so the telcos continue to provide exceptional customer experience and are able to introduce pathbreaking use cases. There is a growing consensus in the industry that 5.5G is a crucial step to improving network capabilities to provide different kinds of digital services.

More than 230 5G networks have already been deployed and now serve more than one billion users and devices. However, the growing number of users coupled with the popularity of immersive experiences and the emergence of new use cases, like Metaverse, mean that the 5G networks will soon be insufficient to cater to the exponential growth. Therefore, the adoption of 5.5G is critical for the industry to prepare for the upcoming tsunami.

“The year 2023 will be crucial to the development of 5.5G. This year will see the introduction of the 3GPP Release 18 standards. Further, the device ecosystem is also fast maturing and the spectrum is also prepared for ultra-large bandwidth. With such developments, the commercial deployment of 5.5G is likely to start from 2024,” says Gan Bin, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Wireless Solutions at Huawei. He was speaking at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2023, the largest telecom event on the planet.

The 5.5G technology is emerging as the technology of choice to help telcos cater to the growing demands of the network. The industry’s vision is that 5.5G will be able to provide a downlink speed of 10Gbps and will be able to connect 100 billion connections. Further, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is likely to grow exponentially. 5.5G is a crucial milestone for the telcos to improve network capacity before 6G becomes a reality in 2030.

5.5G enables telcos to deliver ubiquitous gigabit-per-second performance. It utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to improve customer experience and autonomously optimize resources, thus helping telcos bring down expenses and energy consumption.

Moving confidently towards the 5.5G era

“Ubiquitous 10Gbps experience is now closer to becoming a reality. Large bandwidth spectrum mmWave and the 6GHz spectrum can be used by the service providers for 5.5G,” elaborated Gan Bin. A significant development is the release of mmWave Chipset. MediaTek chipset offers a downlink of 7.67 Gbps and an uplink speed of 3.76 Gbps. On the other hand, Qualcomm Snapdragon’s chip for 5.5G offers 10 Gbps speed with 10CC carrier aggregation on mmWave and 5CC carrier aggregation on sub-6GHz. Apart from that, more than 25 countries, including South Korea, Thailand, Italy and Qatar, among others, have already allocated mmWave spectrum.

Further, innovations and technological breakthroughs like Extremely Large Antenna Array (ELAA) are helping the industry rapidly move towards 5.5G. The new ELAA-upgraded MetaAAU is lightweight and provides improved coverage with enhanced energy efficiency. He further mentioned that Huawei recently tested ELAA in the combination of 800MHz in mmWave and 200MHz in the sub-6GHz spectrum. The test recorded a peak throughput of 10 Gbps.

The 6GHz spectrum band is crucial to deploy 5.5G and is helping the industry accelerate its journey to 5.5G. 3GPP has already licensed 6425-7125 MHz bands for 6GHz and it is expected to be identified as IMT band in WRC-23. Further, 5.5G is supported by two regions through the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations and Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG). 5.5G is also supported by Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC). These are indications that the telecom industry is realizing the growing relevance of 5.5G and will quickly adopt it to gain new capabilities.

The increased adopted of 5G use cases in industry verticals like healthcare, manufacturing, mining, steel, oil and port has made the demand for Gbps uplink common and regular. The use of IoT is only going to increase in the coming few years, underscoring the need for 5.5G.

All this indicates that the industry is set to fast-track to 5.5G to ensure that they are always able to provide the best-possible experience to the customers and are able to maximize the revenue potential from the emerging market opportunities.

 

 

 

 

Mobile operator Vodafone has today issued an update on their deployment progress under the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which reveals that it has already rolled out 4G (mobile broadband) connectivity across 57 rural locations in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland under the programme. The SRN is an industry-led scheme – supported by […]

Uswitch.com has unveiled the winners of their annual 2023 Telecoms Awards event, which among things saw Plusnet named as the best LARGE broadband ISP of the year, while Hyperoptic took the same award for smaller providers. Meanwhile, BT was named as the most reliable broadband ISP and giffgaff came top for mobile. The comparison site […]