Cityfibre has announced that they’ve begun construction work on their £30m project to cover the large Greater Manchester (England) town of Wigan with their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network, which aims to “reach … almost every home and business“. Construction work on the new full fibre network in Wigan is being […]

News

Jim Fagan will join Aqua Comms as CEO effective from 1 May 2023.

Dublin-based Aqua Comms is a subsea connectivity provider who currently offers services on seven subsea fibre cables connecting North America to Ireland, the UK and northern Europe. The company will also soon open a new route from southern Europe to India.

Jim will join Aqua Comms from GCX where he has been working as Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer since 2020. He has previously held senior roles at Telstra, Pacnet and Rackspace and has been based in Asia, EMEA and the USA.

Current CEO, Nigel Bayliff, will leave the business on 30 April 2023. Nigel joined Aqua Comms in 2016 and key achievements include having led the company through its acquisition by D9 Infrastructure in 2021.

In a statement announcing the changes to the company’s leadership, Alan Harper, Chairman of Aqua Comms said: “Nigel has achieved great success turning AC into a customer focused and profitable business with an enviable industry reputation. I thank Nigel for his enormous contribution to the success of Aqua Comms and wish him well on his next move in the industry.”

To keep up to date with the latest developments from across the EMEA submarine cable market, join us in London at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023 on 31st May and 1st June. Head to the event website for more details on how to get involved.

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has this morning announced that their ultrafast 5G (mobile broadband) network is now being deployed to cover a further five airports, such as the George Best Airport in Belfast and Newcastle International Airport. All were installed by Exchange Communications. The two deployments mentioned above have already been completed, but Vodafone and […]

VIEWPOINT

At the Global Telecom Awards (GLOTEL Awards) ceremony held in London, United Kingdom on 1 December 2022, China Mobile, China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei won the “Automation Initiative of the Year” award for their innovation and practice in autonomous core networks.

This is a remarkable achievement for China Mobile Zhejiang being the first operator in China to receive this award, as GLOTEL Awards, instituted by the ICT research group Informa, recognize innovation and excellence in companies involved in advancing and transforming the telecoms industry. China Mobile’s cloud-based core network O&M transformation and Huawei’s autonomous driving network (ADN) solution for core networks have received good reviews from across the industry and significantly contributed to automated and intelligent O&M for core networks.

China Mobile Zhejiang features China Mobile’s regional cloud-based core networks with wide coverage, large network management capacity, and complex network architecture. It faced great challenges in O&M of its regional cloud-based core networks. It became difficult to ensure the running of a secure network just by increasing manpower or by using expert experience.

Guided by China Mobile’s autonomous network policies, China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei’s cloud core network ADN team jointly carried out a series of innovative practices for autonomous core networks. These practices built an intelligent end-to-end fault defense system for core networks, covering fault prediction, detection, demarcation, and recovery, and realized three key O&M transformations for the regional cloud-based core networks.

Risk prevention and fault detection: The O&M mode changed from passive response to proactive risk prevention. Capabilities such as intelligent KPI anomaly detection and multi-dimensional incident aggregation were developed to realize sub-health detection and prevent issues from escalating.

Fault diagnosis: Manual analysis transformed into automatic machine diagnosis. By using intelligent clustering and reasoning algorithms, HTTP link and KPI deterioration faults are accurately demarcated within 10 minutes, greatly improving troubleshooting efficiency, user experience, and network stability.

Fault recovery: Manual switchover based on expert experience replaced by real-time visualized intelligent DR based on automatic simulation. Based on the HEBO algorithm used by intelligent DR evaluation, optimal flow control policies for the entire network are generated quickly, ensuring 100% success of DR fault recovery. In addition, a large screen clearly displays the DR service processes, facilitating control over the switchover. Currently, four cross-region DR switchover drills involving millions of users have been successfully conducted.

China Mobile Zhejiang’s O&M transformation project for regional cloud-based core networks sets a good example for joint industry innovation, provides valuable technical and practical experience for the industry, and will effectively drive the transformation towards digital and intelligent O&M of global telecom networks. In the future, China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei will carry out extensive and in-depth cooperation, continue to build top autonomous core networks, and work with global operators and industry organizations to evolve towards higher-level autonomous core networks.

Openreach (BT) has today issued an update to their £15bn rollout of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network, which “reformats the existing exchange areas already announced” and adds another 12 new locations (towns and villages) to their deployment plan – covering an additional 184,806 homes and businesses. So far the rollout, which has […]

Homes in the Cathedral City of Chester in Cheshire may be pleased to learn that Cityfibre has resumed their build of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network. Work came to a halt in the summer (here) after the operator ended their relationship with local civil engineering partner Telent. Back in August 2022 we […]

A few months ago Starlink (SpaceX) announced (here) that it had teamed-up with T-Mobile to launch a new global space-based 4G and 5G mobile network, which would be supported by the former company’s mega-constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based broadband satellites. More details on the network have now been revealed. The Starlink network currently […]

A recent report from banking giant Credit Suisse has warned that the availability of “cheap financing” for UK broadband infrastructure, which is helping to deploy a new generation of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks, might be facing a growing squeeze that could impact future builds. For some time now we’ve been highlighting the growing expectation of […]

PRESS RELEASE

Wyld’s game-changing new satellite IoT service launches today, enabling IoT applications to be deployed across remote locations without the need for terrestrial connectivity.

Only 15% of the world’s surface has access to the internet. According to McKinsey, it is this lack of global connectivity that is holding back the growth of the Internet of Things from adding US$2-3 trillion to the global GDP over the next ten years. Wyld Connect solves this problem by allowing business and governments to connect their IoT devices anywhere in the world using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.

Wyld Connect heralds a new era in remote connectivity. For example, utility and energy companies can monitor systems and equipment without costly site visits, data can be collected for vital agriculture and environmental management, and goods and assets can be tracked on sea or land across global supply chains.

CEO of Wyld Networks, Alastair Williamson, says: “We are delighted to announce the launch of Wyld’s satellite IoT network. This has been the culmination of over three years of continuous development activity. We look forward to delivering connectivity to meet the fast-growing demand in the 85% of the Earth’s surface with little or no current service.”

With applications and positive upsides for agriculture, the environment, supply chain, and the energy and utilities sectors, satellite connected IoT is on a significant upward trajectory. Low earth orbiting satellite constellations have been launched by Wyld Networks’ satellite partners with further satellite launches throughout 2023, enabling Wyld to satisfy more use cases with its customers. Data from anywhere is becoming a reality – from condition monitoring on remote pipelines to forestry management, soil monitoring for agriculture and container tracking across oceans.

“The Launch of the Wyld satellite IoT network service, will enable us to connect data at low power to LEO satellites and delivering that data to the customers that need it,” adds Williamson.

Improving sustainability and operational efficiency is essential for companies in the business sectors Wyld is targeting. Wyld strongly believes the launch of its satellite IoT network service will enable customers to meet these crucial goals more easily.

Furthermore, developments in big data analytics are driving the need for more data from sensors on the ground. Big data platforms are hungry for the type of information Wyld’s satellite IoT can deliver.

With the launch of the satellite IoT network Wyld can address in part the satellite IoT market demand, which according to a forecast by Rethink IoT (RIoT), will be worth US$5.9bn by 2025.

 

NEWS

OneWeb, the satellite operator, which was rescued from bankruptcy by the UK Government, who remain a part-owner has successfully launched satellites via new partner SpaceX.

Previously OneWeb used Russia’s Soyuz rockets for launches, but their programme was thrown into jeopardy by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, forcing them to seek new partners.

On Thursday, at 5:27 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched the OneWeb 1 mission with a Falcon9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida (USA) with 40 of OneWeb’s compact Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based ultrafast broadband satellites aboard

The mission represents the next step in OneWeb’s plan to provide global broadband coverage via a constellation of 648 small LEO satellites. Prior to the launch 462 of the 150kg satellites had been launched, each orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km above the Earth. The aim is to complete the constellation by late 2023.

OneWeb CEO, Neil Masterson said “We are thankful for the support of other leaders in the space industry allowing us to quickly restart our launch campaign and we are delighted to work with SpaceX today for our first-ever launch from Florida, the home where our satellites are manufactured.

As we look to our final ‘Three to Global Reality’ launches in the first half of 2023, we are thrilled to see our connectivity footprint dramatically expand from today, and to soon activate our network globally to reach remote and under-served areas of the world.”

OneWeb chief commercial officer Stephen Beynon explained that it will take about 100 days for the satellites to reach their intended destinations and begin services, expanding the operator’s constellation into the southern hemisphere while improving the density of coverage to the north. This will enable coverage across “a substantial part” of North America, according to Beynon, where OneWeb has a distribution agreement with AT&T.

As well as SpaceX who also operates rival LEO network, Starlink, OneWeb also agreed a launch partnership with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) – the commercial arm of India’s space agency – who may be utilised for 2023 launches.

Related content:
OneWeb’s space race: from bankrupt to billions
OneWeb to launch satellites from India in new deal