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Beware the seven deadliest customer experiences – Foundever

Nick Booth
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Beware the seven deadliest customer experiences – Foundever

Repetition, ratings and rude robots

You can tell a CEO who’s spent too much time ‘in the cloud’. They believe their own customer satisfaction surveys. Either that or they are deliberately gas-lighting us. To improve customer experience, Mobile Europe sought simple ‘people pleasing’ advice for telcos from people who really know the customer. In the first of an occasional series, Maria Harju, Foundever’s Chief Revenue Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, describes The Seven Deadliest Customer Experiences and how mobile network operators can avoid them.

Repetition.

Repeating your story to multiple people is enough to make 57% of Europeans hang up. Yes, some problems demand escalation, but if you’re moving your customer across an omnichannel platform it’s omni stupid not to move the information from channel to channel too. A CX should systematically do that. This averts another massive frustration, disregard for the customer’s history. How can you pretend to care about the customer experience when you show you are demonstrably oblivious to it? All the information across all channels is captured and should be correctly stored and retrieved so that your agents can do their best jobs.

Rate your experience.

OK, we need performance feedback, but customers are suffering from survey overload. Every trip to the toilet now involves an invitation to rate the experience. There are better ways to learn how customers feel about service and how they perceive your brand. Speech and text analytics are instant, less obtrusive and more accurate.

Chatnots.

If you don’t acknowledge your chatbot’s limitations, you’re setting your brand up for a CX failure. If your customer knows it’s an automated system, they’ll treat it as such and adjust their expectations accordingly. But when the bot goes beyond its domain intelligence it must hand off to a live representative and pass on the information shared up to that point.

Chats …. with delayed response. 
Chat’s rationale is about immediacy and accuracy but long wait times and vague unfocused responses will demolish that advantage. Immediate contextual support can help a customer take action or make a decision. Avoid the temptation to set high chat concurrency targets for agents. The more conversations they handle the less likely they are to resolve complex issues or satisfy each customer. Use your best pre-scripted responses in early conversational stages so that agents have more time to find a resolution. Cross train your CX staff so that they can work across channels based on peaks in demand.

Undervaluing CX

If each interaction doesn’t meet expectations it will damage your brand. So stress its value in your proposition. A superior customer experience should be reflected in the price of a product or service. If you’re cheap very hard to hold on to customers, especially in the current economic environment. Here is the value of CX. Three in four consumers will walk after a single disappointing customer experience, yet 42% would pay more for an identical product or service if it were supported by a superior CX. Being in the latter camp starts with understanding who your customers are, their wants, needs and expectations.

Treating vocal interaction like a necessary evil.

Test yourself before you test their patience. Voice is about people not managing processes, so IVR should solve customers’ problems, not stress test their patience and short-term memory on the altar of your management processes, said Harju. Most consumers are frustrated by complicated menus then agitated by the agent that takes over. A happy resolution is an uphill battle. An IVR should minimise menu options, as part of the identification or authentication process so that more of the conversation is focused on the customer and their issue, and use it to coach the customer. Rather than playing a message saying the call is important, a message asking if a person has the reference number or other relevant information to hand is going to make everyone’s life easier.

Network resilience is fundamental to Ukraine’s fight for survival

Michelle Donegan
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Network resilience is fundamental to Ukraine’s fight for survival

Kyivstar’s CEO and CTO talk about the power of grit and operators pulling together

In a small, quiet meeting room on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress with executives from Ukraine’s largest operator Kyivstar, the discussion was in stark contrast to what was going on at the show. While other European operators talked about fair-share politics and future immersive experiences, Kyivstar provided an update on how it has kept people safe and its network up and running after one year of war. 

Oleksandr Komarov, Chief Executive of Kyivstar, acknowledged having a somewhat “alien” feeling here as the operator has “very different challenges and priorities” compared to the rest of the industry.

In an interview with Mobile Europe, Komarov and Volodymyr Lutchenko, Chief Technology Officer at Kyivstar, shared how network resilience challenges have changed dramatically over the last year and how people have pulled together to preserve communications services. (Also see Telecoms in time of war)

National roaming

Cooperation among the country’s three operators – Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine, and Lifecell – has been “essential” for overall network resilience, and they have been “exchanging capacity and providing equipment to one another,” said Komarov.

Indeed, one of the first and most important steps the operators took after Russia invaded a year ago was to implement national roaming, so that if network services are down on one network, users are automatically switched to another. National roaming is unusual and difficult, but the Ukrainian operators were able to launch it in about three weeks with support from the national regulator.

The service is “working well to keep services going,” said Lutchenko. When the country suffered power blackouts in November last year, he said more than 2 million people per day used the national roaming service.

When the war started, the government also issued additional frequencies free of charge to the operators to give them extra network capacity. Meanwhile, equipment suppliers and local businesses have also rallied to help keep the networks going.

Komarov cited an example where Ericsson stepped up to support a “very big ambitious project to roll out a national core site in the western part of Ukraine … to mitigate the risks related to the potential loss” of other sites, he said. In peace time, such a project would take 12 to 18 months. But with everyone cooperating, he said they started the project at the start of 2022 and it was completed in early May, taking less than five months for a major deployment.

Moving targets for resilience

As the months of war have dragged on, the network resilience challenges have changed. In the first few months, Lutchenko said Kyivstar was engaged in “urgent activities” to keep the network going when the infrastructure was physically damaged by rockets, bombs, mines, and tanks, because the biggest problem is that it is often too dangerous to get to the sites to repair damages.

“[The sites] could be in occupied territory or on the front line. The area could be under fire or the fields can be mined so that without supervision from the military, you cannot get there … That’s why your network should be very reliable and still work with multiple damages like ours,” said Lutchenko.

Later in the summer, the resiliency work shifted to “stabilisation” projects. By September, Kyivstar’s network performance KPIs remarkably were “almost on a pre-war level.” Apart from occupied areas where Kyivstar had no access to sites, “the network was really good,” he said. 

Attacks on energy pose new threats

The communications resiliency landscape changed in October when Russia started attacking the country’s energy infrastructure. Lutchenko said the challenge is now “really huge” and the “new reality.” In late October, about 20% of Kyivstar’s base stations were affected by power outages. Lutchenko said the worst day was November 24, 2022, when 65% of Kyivstar’s network was without electricity.

In response, Kyivstar has strengthened energy resilience by adding longer-life backup batteries and diesel-powered generators.

Here again, cooperation has been vital. In Kyivstar has “crowd-sourced” access to power generators from local businesses, such as a petrol station located near one of the operator’s cell sites. “We asked businesses and invited people to help us with keeping the network up and running,” said Lutchenko, and now more than 600 sites are connected to diesel generators.

But this is one area where Komarov feels help from the government has been “limited”. Of Kyivstar’s 1500 generators, he said about 40 were provided by the government and the rest were either procured by the operator or acquired from third parties that have “extra power capacity on hand located nearby our sites.” Kyivstar said it has invested around US$5 million just on generators and diesel fuel. 

Fighting on two fronts

Kyivstar’s network is under threat from cyberattacks as well as physical attacks. “The Russians want to destroy us not only physically, but virtually as well, so that means we have to fight on two front lines,” said Lutchenko.

The operator took measures to protect its network by relocating certain equipment away from areas that were likely to come under Russian control. Komarov explained that in occupied territories there was a cyber defense effort underway to ensure that despite not having control of all its network, the operator was not “vulnerable to extra threats.”

“We streamlined the architecture of our core infrastructure to minimise the number of potential vulnerabilities,” he said. In Kherson, for example, Kyivstar had “just a media gateway and RAN network” and this “decreased the risk of penetration,” he said.

Restoring liberated areas

As territories are liberated, Kyivstar works on repairing the destruction to its network. Lutchenko said that about 18% to 20% of the telecom infrastructure in formerly occupied regions is “totally destroyed,” meaning “there is nothing from an equipment or infrastructure point of view.” About 30% to 35% is “heavily damaged” and about 40% has “minor damages.” Kyivstar says it can repair nearly 90% of the network in those areas.

“We’re waiting for our military to liberate more territory and we are ready to restore everything,” said Lutchenko.

Losing more than infrastructure

Kyvistar is worried about losing more county’s critical communications infrastructure: it is also working to keep its 3,800 employees and their families safe. In the initial months of the war, the operator provided instructions for where people could go for safety and converted regional offices into temporary homes with showers and washing machines for displaced families.   

Around 140 Kyivstar employees have been drafted into the army and thousands volunteer to help the army in various roles. The operator has lost three of its employees in the war and two are missing.

Kyivstar relies on maintenance and construction suppliers, but their situation is “very much worse” because they cannot protect employees “with the same efficiency as Kyivstar” due to its critical infrastructure status, explained Komarov.

Lutchenko joined Kyivstar in November 2021 and has been in the telecom industry in Ukraine for more than 25 years. “I don’t think anyone can plan for stuff like this. The most important thing is we have the greatest team in the world.”

Asked how the war has affected the operator’s business, Komarov said the operator was “in the green” and there is “extremely high pressure on our networks.”

“But let’s face it, it’s less about business and much more about survival,” he said.

More techcos step up to support Ukraine

Annie Turner
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More techcos step up to support Ukraine

Microsoft, VMware, Intel, AMD and OneWeb are the latest to stop trading with Russia – and some with Belarus too

Last week Google blocked Russians’ access to Google Pay and Apple did likewise with its wallet product and product sales in Russia.

Some have criticised Apple’s move, pointing out it could push people towards using Android phones made in China that are more susceptible to hacking and surveillance.

However, Apple made the moves after a direct appeal to its CEO, Tim Cook, by the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Vice

Now more big tech firms are following their lead.

Microsoft has suspended all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.

The chips are down

Chip giant Intel said in a statement that it, “condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and we have suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus.

“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this war, including the people of Ukraine and the surrounding countries and all those around the world with family, friends and loved ones in the region.”

Another chip giant, AMD has also stopped shipments to Russia and Belarus.

VMWare is suspending all its business activities in Russia and Belarus due to the unprovoked attack by Russia. It published a statement that read, “We stand with Ukraine, and we commend the bravery of the Ukrainian people. The human toll is devastating and like other global businesses, we are committed to supporting our Ukrainian team members, customers and partners.”

It added, “We are also seeking to support non-Ukraine-based employees with family members located in Ukraine with information to access available resources. We continue to support our employees in Russia, as they are adversely impacted by the consequences of their government’s actions.

“The suspension of operations includes suspension of all sales, support, and professional services in both countries in line with VMware’s commitment to comply with sanctions and restrictions.”

The board of directors at satellite operator OneWeb has voted to suspend all launches from Baikonur, the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Social media battles

Meanwhile social media sites are continuing their battle with Russian authorities, which are keen to control the flow of information and the narrative surrounding the war.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have acted to prevent Russia’s state media making money from ads on their sites. In response, Moscow has said will restrict access to Facebook after its parent company Meta refused to stop fact-checking some Russian media companies’ output.

TikTok has limited access to Russian state-controlled media accounts in the EU and Reddit has stopped users posting links to Russian state-sponsored media.

Expect yet more big techcos to act soon.

Vodafone partners Zinia to offer flexible handset financing

Simon Dux
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Vodafone partners Zinia to offer flexible handset financing


Many users are content with their existing devices as new devices are not drastically different in terms of the experience they offer meaning operators need to get creative

In 2023, the global smartphone replacement cycle recorded a high of 43 months in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research, and continuing economic headwinds mean users are going to need to be coaxed to part with their existing handsets. While handset sales are returning to some growth, if operators are going to sweat their 5G networks, they need more people using the latest the phones on their networks.

Vodafone has teamed up with Zinia, the Santander Group’s digital financing platform, to launch an offers for its customers in Germany that provides more flexibility when purchasing smartphones. They now decide for themselves when and how to pay for their desired smartphone. This means that anyone who purchases a smartphone from Vodafone in conjunction with a GigaMobil or GigaMobil Young mobile phone plan can now pay for it in instalments over 12, 24, or 36 months. 

Users can now pay in a few larger instalments or in smaller instalments with a longer term. In addition, customers receive a discount on the mobile phone plan for the entire term of the instalment payment. The operator also points out that users can get everything from a single source: mobile phone, instalment payments via Zinia, tariff, trade-in and insurance.

Previously, Vodafone’s mobile phone financing was limited to 24 months. With the new model, Vodafone Germany is separating the costs of the plan and the smartphone for the first time. This ensures maximum transparency and gives customers more flexibility in deciding when and how often to purchase a new smartphone. 

The new mobile phone financing model is part of a framework agreement between Vodafone and the Santander Group. The offer is seamlessly integrated into the ordering process in Vodafone’s online shop, and customers can rely on Santander’s security.

“Our customers now benefit twice: they can freely decide when and how to pay for their desired smartphone – and at the same time, they save on their mobile phone plan,” said Vodafone managing director of private customers Matthias Lorenz (above). “Whether it’s a mobile phone, instalment plan, plan, insurance, or trade-in…our customers get all smartphone-related services from a single source.”

“We are continuing to expand Zinia, our digital consumer finance platform, through strategic partnerships with renowned companies like Vodafone,” said Zinia general manager Ramón Billordo. “We are pleased to deepen this collaboration and will continue to offer our customers flexible financing options – with the security and expertise of a leading financial group like Santander.”

Discounted mobile phone tariff

The amount of the discount on the mobile phone plan when paying in instalments depends on the selected smartphone and the plan. For example, with the GigaMobil M plan, customers can save €90 over the entire minimum contract term when they combine a 12-month instalment plan for the new entry-level iPhone 16e. With the GigaMobil XL plan, customers can save a total of €180 through the discount on the mobile phone plan when they combine the Samsung flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra with a 36-month smartphone financing plan.

Orange partners F-Secure to tackle cyber-threats

Simon Dux
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Orange partners F-Secure to tackle cyber-threats


The cyber security solutions will be added to Orange Cyberdefense to protect European customers

Orange has announced a strategic partnership with Helsinki-based cyber security firm F‑Secure for the provision of cyber security solutions, which the operator wants to use to protect its customers from an ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. The capabilities will be rolled into Orange Cyberdefense, which provides cyber security services in Europe, and will be used to develop innovative in-house solutions. 

The unit boasts a community of more than 3,100 multidisciplinary experts, and 36 detection centers located around the world. Building upon the initial announcement of the agreement on 1 April, this partnership means Orange will include F‑Secure’s Total solution in its value proposition to provide to its millions of subscribers across Europe. 

The services developed by Orange Cyberdefense will get extra technical features like: Device Security; Scam Protection; Privacy Protection; Identity Monitoring; and Parental Controls.

“This partnership with F‑Secure means we will be making the highest level of security accessible to customers in Europe,” said Orange Europe EVP and CEO Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière (above). “Not only is F-Secure truly a partner-first company, but their state-of-the-art threat protection, combined with Orange Cyberdefense’s threat intelligence and Orange’s innovation expertise, will ensure that Orange customers across Europe can navigate the digital landscape with confidence, security, and peace of mind.”

“Orange Cyberdefense combines an intelligence-led managed services approach with best-of-breed technologies, experts, and processes to help customers stay ahead of threats,” said Orange Cyberdefense EVP and CEO Hugues Foulon. “The partnership with F-Secure, a European-based technology provider, will allow to extend to Orange European countries a holistic protection, with the expertise and the simplicity of F‑Secure end users’ features.”

“Securing significant strategic partnerships is a cornerstone of F‑Secure’s ongoing mission to make every digital moment more secure for everyone, as well as our growth strategy.” said F-Secure president and CEO Timo Laaksonen. “Our partnership with Orange is one that we are immensely proud of and will be crucial in ensuring more consumers globally are protected against scams and other cyber threats.”  

F‑Secure said its newest scam protection capabilities block digital threats around-the-clock for its customers, with collected data showing: 500,000 per day detections and blocks of malware; 700,000 per day AI-driven detections and blocks of suspicious activity; 1,000,000 per day banking transitions protected; and 8,000,000 per day breached personal records detected. 

According to Global Anti-Scam Alliance managing director Jorij Abraham the scale of online scams is staggering. “Nearly $1.026 trillion was lost by consumers worldwide last year,” said Abraham. “In our global study, 78% of participants experienced at least one scam in the last 12 months. However, 59% didn’t report the scam to authorities – 24% believed reporting it wouldn’t make a difference”.

According to F-Secure data, 77% of people worry about their online safety, with 7 in 10 unsure whom to trust. And there’s good reason for this: GASA found that 45% of people experienced more scams in the last 12 months than the year before.

A1 Bulgaria and Vodafone Germany demo first interoperator 5GSA roaming

Annie Turner
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A1 Bulgaria and Vodafone Germany demo first interoperator 5GSA roaming

“An important step forward in being able to offer commercial 5G SA roaming, supporting high quality voice calls…picture messaging, video streaming and fast data services”

Vodafone, A1 Group and Ericsson carried out what they say is the first 5G Standalone (5G SA) international roaming connection between two operator groups. The connection was between Vodafone in Germany and A1 Bulgaria.

The parties say the demo is “an important step forward in being able to offer commercial 5G SA roaming, supporting high quality voice calls and picture messaging, video streaming and fast data services.

‘It also opens the door to new applications like dedicated network slices to control industrial robots and autonomous vehicles at factories and warehouses, as well as simultaneously connecting many AR/VR headsets for use at major events, whether in-country or across multiple markets.”

Indeed, just last week, the Nokia, Telia and the Finnish Defense Forces conducted what they claimed to be the first seamless 5G Standalone (SA) slice handover between countries in a live network demo across national boundaries.

Bulgaria to Germany

This new collaboration allowed a mobile subscriber to A1 Bulgaria roaming on Vodafone Germany’s 5G SA network using a standard device, supported by generally available core network software that complies with the latest 3GPP standards.

The teams also demonstrated that “superior voice roaming” was possible. The parties apparently expect this plus immersive surround sound will be supported by smartphones in future. 

Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone Group, said: “Vodafone Germany was the first operator to launch a commercial 5G SA network in Europe. Now, we are taking our expertise overseas with the world’s first 5G SA roaming demonstration.

“Ultimately, 5G SA roaming will enhance the customer experience at international events like football championships and provide the same consistent fast connectivity at a company’s warehouses and factories across many markets.” 

Roaming in so many words

Todor Tashev, Senior Director Competence Delivery Center for A1 Group, A1 Bulgaria, added, “The world first international 5G SA roaming connection between two operator groups is a key technological milestone and we are proud to partner with Vodafone and Ericsson to achieve this.

“A1 is investing resource and expertise in delivering the best experience to our customers across all A1 Group countries, and the completion of this initial connection is an important step toward providing European citizens and tourists’ high-quality connectivity on the go. We are looking forward to working with our joint teams to bring this capability to subscribers in a live network environment.” 

Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Core Networks, Ericsson, noted, “There are now over 60 live or deployed 5G standalone networks worldwide, with Ericsson Core and radio solutions supporting more than 40 of them. As more 5G SA networks go live, users globally will expect the superior service and high standard of security they receive on their home network to be offered seamlessly when travelling.

“Roaming for 5G standalone is an essential part of the future of telecoms in a world where service quality expectations are high, and we are looking forward to working with collaborators like Vodafone and A1 Group to make it happen.”

Saudi’s Tawal chooses Nokia for multi-tenant Open RAN rollout

Simon Dux
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Saudi’s Tawal chooses Nokia for multi-tenant Open RAN rollout

The Saudi Arabian-based towerco has been working for a while with Nokia on shared connectivity infrastructure

Saudi neutral-host provider Tawal and Nokia have completed what they claim is the world’s first live demonstration of a multi-tenant, shareable Open RAN edge-cloud platform, allowing mobile operators and large enterprises to launch high-performance 5G services. The announcement follows the two companies’ work in March which saw them partner up with Zain KSA, and conduct the a 5G standalone (SA) millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum-sharing trial. 

In that trial, utilising 800MHz bandwidth in the 26 GHz band, the trio demonstrated the feasibility of multiple operators sharing the same active radio network infrastructure without compromising performance, reliability, or security. The work comes on the back of Tawal’s significant partnership with Nokia to expand its 5G network infrastructure. The partnership encompasses comprehensive turnkey services provided by Nokia, covering project management, civil engineering tasks, power supply enhancements, and the relocation and reinforcement of towers. 

The two claim the showcase proves how Tawal can offer active infrastructure as a service while operators enjoy significant savings and futureproof their networks with open, cloud native flexibility.

Across Saudi Arabia, demand for widespread 5G connectivity is increasing as smart city giga projects gather pace. Yet traditional single operator rollouts risk duplicating infrastructure, driving up capex and delaying service availability. By adopting a neutral host model, Tawal reckons it can pool spectrum agnostic, Open RAN baseband and radio assets so multiple service providers share the same edge cloud platform, reducing energy consumption, freeing spectrum and shrinking the digital divide. 

“Neutral hosts must add value beyond steel and concrete,” said Tawal chief commercial officer Abdulrahman Al Moaiqel. “By partnering with Nokia, we can offer Saudi operators an on demand, pay as you grow 5G platform that cuts their TCO and accelerates digital transformation for the Kingdom’s giga projects.”

Open interfaces

Nokia said its anyRAN solution, built on open interfaces, cloud agnostic software and high performance AirScale radios, is designed precisely to unlock these efficiencies. “Moving from a tower company model to a fully-fledged network company demands technology that combines openness with proven performance,” said Nokia SVP Middle East and Africa Mikko Lavanti. “Our anyRAN approach lets Tawal mix and match vendors at the cloud layer while still guaranteeing the ultra-reliable, low latency experience operators and end users expect.”

During the live demonstration at LEAP 2025 in Riyadh, Nokia 5G AirScale Indoor Radios were connected to Dell PowerEdge XR8000 servers hosting virtualized CU/DU software in Nokia’s anyRAN framework. The open, cloud‑native platform supports multi‑operator RAN sharing and can host third‑party RAN software, giving Tawal full vendor flexibility while “maintaining carrier‑grade performance”. Nokia argues the solution’s compact footprint and reduced power draw make it ideal for smart‑city edge nodes and enterprise campuses.

Vodafone deploys conical 5G antennas to hit dead spots in tunnels

Simon Dux
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Vodafone deploys conical 5G antennas to hit dead spots in tunnels


Road and rail tunnels can be difficult areas to cover with 5G so the operator has tried some new multi-band antennas to help out 

Vodafone Germany has commissioned a new type of conical multi-band mobile antenna for more stable 5G coverage in tunnels. The operator has deployed five of these antennas in the 1,400-meter-long Arlinger Tunnel near Pforzheim, improving mobile reception. Ericsson’s mobile antenna supports multiple frequency bands and is specifically designed for use in tunnels.

Interestingly, the antennas are cone-shaped and the form factor makes it particularly wind-resistant and therefore robust, according to the operator. The antenna covers all low band and midband spectrum for all mobile generations and is quite unique with respect to the 2×2 MIMO capability (XPol) which is required for 5G services. They also transmit multiple 5G and LTE frequencies simultaneously, reducing the need for multiple antenna types and improving efficiency.

“Closing dead spots in tunnels is particularly challenging for structural reasons alone. Passing cars and trains set large air masses in motion in tunnels, which can cause vibrations in the antenna technology and thus impair the transmission and reception performance of mobile phone antennas,” said Vodafone head of network development Marc Hoelzer. “This places special demands on the wind resistance of the antennas used and their installation.”

He added: “For drivers and passengers, the commissioning of the new antenna generation will result in fewer dropped calls and more stable data rates.”

In Germany, there are over 270 road tunnels with a total length of 270 km on federal highways. There are 420 tunnels on rural, district, and urban roads with a total length of over 350 km. The Deutsche Bahn rail network comprises 761 tunnels with a total length of more than 600 km. Vodafone plans to use the wind-resistant conical antenna in construction projects in an initial 20 additional tunnels.

In smaller tunnels, mobile phone antennas at the entrances and exits are often sufficient for mobile phone reception along the tunnel route. In deeper and longer tunnels, optical amplifiers (repeaters) are used, which transmit the mobile phone signal to numerous tunnel antennas installed in the tunnel and then return the signal to the mobile phone cell at the end. 

Implementation also presents many challenges. Cables must be laid and technology installed. This usually requires the tunnels to be closed by Deutsche Bahn or the Autobahn GmbH. Therefore, network expansion in mobile phone tunnels usually takes place as part of renovation or maintenance work. 

To avoid every mobile network operator having to install its own cables and technology, there is usually a responsible network operator for each tunnel and the other providers connect their technology to the infrastructure.

Boldyn’s hold-my-beer

Overcoming the unique radio propagation characteristics in tunnels has been a conundrum for operators and vendors alike. In places like the Nordics and Australia, it has resulted in some interesting developments in underground mines. 

While Vodafone’s deployment of this antennas is helping over what you could argue is shorter distances, spare a thought for Boldyn Networks which signed a 20-year partnership with Transport for London (TfL) to provide high-speed mobile coverage across the London Underground network. Once done, customers of all the UK’s mobile network operators (MNOs) Three UK, EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2, will be able to access high-speed mobile connectivity while travelling on the Tube.

To overcome the lengths and twists of the Tube, specially designed radio units will be installed throughout the stations and concourses to beam the cellular signal to phones. Meanwhile, a 175mm-diameter radiating cable is installed on the tunnel walls at train window height to provide signal to passing Tube services. 

This is known as a leaky feeder as it has gaps or slots in its outer conductor to allow the radio signal to leak into or out of the cable along its entire length – both are compliant with current regulations. For longer tunnels, a high-power radio unit is installed every 500m to amplify the signals. 

Orange initiates in-person listening to customers in 17 MEA countries

Annie Turner
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Orange initiates in-person listening to customers in 17 MEA countries

The operator despatched 10,000 employees from all functions to meet 15,000 customers in 120 cities and villages, on the same day, to gain a better understanding of what they want

Orange has launched an initiative called My Customer, My Boss simultaneously in its 17 subsidiaries in Middle East and Africa. The intention is to improve listening to customers at all levels of the organisation, by sending more than 10,000 employees from all functions to meet 15,000 customers in 120 cities and villages, on the same day.

The initiative was piloted in Sierra Leone and, Orange says, “marks a new stage in the management culture of Orange Middle East and Africa, making every employee an actor of customer satisfaction, whatever their role in the company”.

Employees listened to customers in large cities and more remote areas, including individuals and companies, Orange Money users and partners “to better understand their expectations and uses”.

The initiative is set to become an annual event. How successful it proves to be depends on how well the telco acts on the feedback it garnered, which will, of course, be analysed using AI and “transformed into concrete actions during internal hackathons organized in each country”.

There’s an app for that

The Gofiled app was used for data collection, developed by a startup from Orange Digital Centre in Tunisia. According to the press statemet, this “collaboration illustrates Orange’s desire to combine local innovation, social impact and business performance, by mobilizing its entrepreneurial ecosystem to meet the needs of the field”.

Brelotte Ba, Deputy CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, comments, “Customer experience is everyone’s business, every employee, without exception, is committed to meeting our customers’ expectations with excellence.

“With My Customer, My Boss, we demonstrate that our commitment to serve is collective, concrete and forward-looking by organizing for the first time, on a continent scale, a collective mobilization of this magnitude. I would like to thank all the employees who volunteered to meet our customers and partners with professionalism, listening and enthusiasm.”

Starlink stalls in South Africa despite progress elsewhere on the continent

Annie Turner
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Starlink stalls in South Africa despite progress elsewhere on the continent

Regulations in Elon Musk’s native country insist overseas firms must have 30% South African ownership, which the US-based billionaire says are “a barrier”

Starlink, the satellite-based internet service created and run by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has so far failed to strike a deal in South Africa where he was born. Starlink’s parent company is SpaceX and South Africa is the continent’s most industrially advanced nation. Its President, Cyril Ramaphosa, also seems keen to strike a deal, meeting Musk in New York last year.

The sticking point is that South African regulation stipulates that an oversea company must grant 30% ownership by groups that have been historically disadvantaged, which overwhelmingly means South Africa’s black population. In March Musk claimed via his social media platform X, “Starlink can’t get a license to operate in South Africa simply because I’m not black”.

This has been rebutted, most notably by Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s foreign ministry, who replied in a post also on X, “Starlink is welcome to operate in South Africa provided there’s compliance with local laws. This is a global international trade and investment principle. There are over 600 US companies investing and operating in South Africa, all complying and thriving. Microsoft just announced additional investments yesterday.”

Success elsewhere in Africa

Nigeria was the first African country to grant Starlink an operating licence in January 2023 and it now operates in about 20 African countries, having recently added Guinea-Bissau, Somalia and, earlier this month, Lesotho.

Lesotho granted Starlink a 10-year licence to operate a satellite network and provide satellite internet services. This was in the wake of Lesotho being hit by a 50% tariff on imports to the US by President Donald Trump. The President backtracked and said the tariff would be lowered on a temporary basis.

On 5 March 5, the US President suggested in a speech to Congress that Lesotho is a country “no-one has heard of”. SpaceX submitted its application for an operating licence in Lesotho a year ago but it was opposed by a number of civil activist groups. One of their chief objections was relying on a service that was entirely owned by an overseas company.

Aljazeera has drawn a parallel with another larger-than-life South African, Joshua Norton, who was determined to be part of the US’ story. In 1859 Norton declared himself “Emperor of the United States”. He made zero progress in his bid to assume power, but he didn’t provoke a backlash either. Instead “he was way ahead of his time on human rights issues,” according to John Lumea, founder of the Emperor Norton Trust.

Smartphone shipments stutter as tariff impacts loom

Simon Dux
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Smartphone shipments stutter as tariff impacts loom


The tech sector shock looks set to rumble on as supply chains realign and European companies rethink cloud suppliers

Global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2025 grew 3% YoY, according to preliminary data from Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service. The global smartphone market, which grew in 2024 after a dip in 2023, started off on a positive note in 2025 as well, driven by growth in markets like China, Latin America and Southeast Asia. 

However, the US Administration’s capricious will-they-won’t-they approach to replacing global trade with protectionist tariffs could already be having an effect on the handset market killing off any big recovery. Already, Nvidia has headed off to Beijing as the unintended consequences grow.

“The Q1 growth fell short of our earlier projection of 6% as uncertainty started building up around tariffs towards the end of the quarter and as a cautious inventory buildup was seen at OEMs,” said Counterpoint senior analyst Yang Wang. “Uncertainty still looms in the market, which will affect the situation going forward. As a result, our previous forecast of 4% growth in 2025 seems hard to achieve. We may even see zero to negative growth this year.”

Taiwanese analysts TrendForce revealed today that the implementation of the US “reciprocal tariffs” on 9 April – followed by a 90-day grace period for most regions – has prompted semiconductor memory chip buyers and suppliers to adjust their strategies in response to policy uncertainty. Senior research vice president Avril Wu noted that with both sides rushing to complete transactions and shipments within the grace period to mitigate future policy risks, memory market activity is expected to pick up notably in 2Q25.

She said the grace period has temporarily eased concerns about demand loss due to new tariff barriers. However, lingering uncertainty over the direction of US trade policy has driven memory buyers to adopt a more defensive stance—actively raising DRAM and NAND Flash inventory levels as a buffer against supply risk. 

Wu concluded that ultimately, the future course of US tariffs will be the key factor shaping memory supply-demand dynamics and pricing trends in the second half of the year. Needless to say, anyone in the tech industry could substitute the word memory with whatever flavour of tech the US policies will impact this year.

Clouds on the horizon

In the latest FAFO news, OVHcloud CEO Benjamin Revcolevschi said, in a quarterly earnings statement: “In the current geopolitical context, we are seeing a shift in the concerns of private companies and public organisations in Europe. Questions of strategic autonomy are now on CEOs’ agendas.”

He added: “The choice of a cloud provider is no longer just a technical matter, but also a strategic issue.” The sentiment will no doubt be noticed by the three US-based hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, which dominate the market. OVHcloud competitor Iliad, via its subsidiary OpCore that operates the group’s 13 data centres, is set to invest €3 billion in AI infrastructure and data centres. With OVHcloud pointing out the obvious, the next phase in Europe’s data centre investments may involve a dose of schadenfreude-as-a-service. 

Back at the global handset market

Outside the whacky world of tariffs, Counterpoint said the global smartphone market’s shipments grew 3% YoY during Q1 2025, driven by growth in markets like China, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Samsung secured first place, beating Apple by a narrow margin. Unsurprisingly, Huawei was the fastest-growing brand due to its strong growth in the Chinese market.

Based on preliminary data, Xiaomi continued its momentum and held on to its third place with 2% YoY growth. This performance largely came from a strong comeback in its home market China, supported by the brand’s retail and portfolio expansion. OPPO and vivo captured fourth and fifth positions respectively, separated by a narrow margin. Both brands gained from their strong performance in the mid-tier price band and from government subsidies in China.

NVIDIA’s CEO accepts invitation to Beijing after billion dollar losses

Annie Turner
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NVIDIA’s CEO accepts invitation to Beijing after billion dollar losses

The fallout from weaponising tariffs and trade restrictions is a series of unexpected consequences, which don’t look likely to benefit the US ultimately

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA (pictured) which is one of the world’s most valuable companies, has made a well-publicised trip to Beijing after losing billions his company’s lost billions.

Note that Huang’s firm accounts for the lion’s share of AI chips, which ever assessment you believe: reports from Mizuho Securities the investment bank, stated Nvidia’s AI accelerators account for between 70% and 95% of the market for AI chips. Tech Insights reckons it ‘owns’ 65% of the data centre chip market.

Images of Huang meeting tech leaders, including DeepSeek’s founder, and China’s Vice-Premier, are a refreshing contrast with more usual ones of the coterie of US tech billionaires acting like a Trump fan club. Reportedly, Huang discussed new chip designs to meet Chinese customers’ needs during his visit.

Sudden changes damage commerce

NVIDIA’s multi-billion losses arise from turmoil in stock markets, triggered by President Trump’s tariff ‘policy’ and the escalating trade war with China. A new, surprise restriction prevents NVIDIA from exporting its H20 chip to China – the H20 was designed specifically to accommodate previous trade restrictions by the US Administration. Also, it seemed the H20 would remain exempt from restrictions after Huang had a meeting with Trump earlier this month.

On Tuesday, NVIDIA warned that it could lose as much as $5.5 billion in earnings as a result of the restrictions that ban it from selling to major Chinese clients such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance. Last year NVIDIA’s sales in China were $17 billion.

Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, an independent financial advisory organisation, stated Trump’s actions are “a masterclass in the law of unintended consequences”. He added, “This is a stark example of how the current US trade stance is pushing countries and companies further toward China, not away from it – financially, economically, politically and diplomatically.

“Trump’s aggressive and often unpredictable trade policies are eroding trust, triggering realignments, and accelerating the shift to a multipolar economic order that is likely to increasingly sidelines the US.”

Dropping a brick

In response to this unpredictability, countries are diversifying reserve holdings, expanding local settlement networks and establishing bilateral trade deals to bypass the dollar.

According to deVere, China’s yuan is being adopted in more cross-border transactions and the BRICS nations are increasingly settling trade outside the US dollar. BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation comprising 10 countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Collectively BRICS represents around 45% of the world’s population and 35% of global GDP (based on purchasing power parity) and it seems likely more countries will join. deVere found Brazil and Saudi Arabia, which is yet to formally accept its invitation to join BRICS, have expanded their holdings of Chinese currency

Green claims, “By weaponising trade controls and blindsiding key US firms, the administration is encouraging global actors to build parallel systems and deepen ties with Beijing. We’re seeing a steady, serious pivot. Business leaders are making pragmatic decisions to maintain access to the world’s second-largest economy – with or without Washington’s blessing.

“Jensen Huang showing up in Beijing with a smile, just after taking a multibillion-dollar hit from a White House directive, speaks volumes. It’s not defiance – it’s realism. Business is being done where there’s opportunity and continuity. Right now, that’s increasingly outside the US sphere,” Green concluded.

New Asian powerhouse?

Due to the West’s preoccupation with the Trump Administration’s antics, the meeting on 22 March between top diplomats from Japan, China, South Korea attracted less attention that it would otherwise have done.

As Reuters said, they seeking common ground on East Asian security and economic issues amid escalating global uncertainty, although there is also some more localised horse trading going on. While China said the countries together can exert international influence, Japan asked China to lift its ban on Japanese food imports, and Seoul and Tokyo asked for Beijing’s help to ‘denuclearise’ North Korea.

“Given the increasingly severe international situation, I believe we may truly be at a turning point in history,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said at the start of the meeting in Tokyo with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul.

The journey towards fully autonomous networks

Inês Rocha, Marketing Consultant at Celfocus
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The journey towards fully autonomous networks

Partner content: Celfocus follows TM Forum’s model and Gartner’s guidelines to help CSPs reach Levels 4 and 5, integrating AI and automation for better customer experience and operational efficiency

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) have been undergoing a paradigm shift towards autonomous networks, aiming to increase operational efficiency, service reliability and cost-effectiveness. TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks (AN) framework provides a structured model for this evolution, categorising automation maturity into five levels – from basic manual operations (Level 0) to fully autonomous and self-governing networks (Level 5).

However, the transition to higher levels of autonomy is not only a technological challenge, but it also requires a strategic transformation of Operations Support Systems (OSS). As Gartner highlights in its research on The 4 Phases of OSS Transformation for Autonomous Network Operations, achieving full autonomy demands a multi-phase approach, addressing system modernisation, AI integration, and closed-loop automation.

TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Levels

TM Forum defines five levels of autonomous networks:

  • Level 0 – Manual Operations: Processes are fully manual, therefore human intervention is required for all network management tasks.
  • Level 1 – Assisted Operations: Basic automation is introduced, but humans are still responsible for all important decisions.
  • Level 2 – Partial Autonomous Operations: AI and automation begin handling repetitive tasks, reducing human workload.
  • Level 3 – Conditional Autonomous Operations: The network predicts and resolves certain issues with minimal human oversight.
  • Level 4 – High Autonomous Operations: Self-optimising capabilities emerge, but human intervention is still available as a fallback.
  • Level 5 – Full Autonomy: The network operates independently, self-configuring, self-optimising, and self-healing in real-time.

For many CSPs, the goal is to achieve Level 4 or 5. Nevertheless, Gartner’s analysis states that most of them are still in Level 1 or 2, struggling with fragmented legacy systems and limited AI readiness. To progress, CSPs must rethink their OSS strategies, following a structured transformation process.

Gartner’s Model for OSS Evolution

Gartner outlines a four-phase transformation model for evolving OSS into Autonomous Operations Systems (AOS), a critical step in achieving network autonomy.

Phase 1: Clean-up and Modernisation

In this phase, before automation can scale, legacy OSS systems must be streamlined.

It involves:

  • Eliminating redundant applications and consolidating OSS functionalities.
  • Upgrading outdated systems to cloud-native architectures.
  • Creating a target OSS blueprint that enables closed-loop automation at multiple levels (network, service, and order).

For TM Forum, this phase is essential for CSPs moving from Level 1 to Level 2.

Phase 2: Building the AI Foundation

Once OSS systems are modernised, the next step is to integrate AI and automation.

It involves:

  • Establishing a centralised data platform for real-time analytics.
  • Developing Machine Learning models to detect patterns and optimise performance.
  • Mapping full network topologies to support AIOps (AI-driven operations).

For TM Forum, thisaligns with CSPs aiming for Level 2 to Level 3, where AI-driven predictive capabilities become viable.

Phase 3: Closed-Loop Automation

With AI models in place, the focus shifts to implementing automated and self-regulating processes.

It involves:

  • Domain-level closed-loop automation (e.g., optimising radio access networks).
  • Resource and service-level automation, aggregating key performance indicators (KPIs) for real-time decision-making.

For TM Forum, this corresponds to Level 3 to Level 4, where networks can proactively detect and resolve issues.

Phase 4: Full AI-Driven Autonom

The final step is enabling self-configuring, self-healing and self-optimising capabilities, transforming networks into truly autonomous systems.

It involves:

  • Expanding automation to order management and service experience.
  • Integrating Digital Twins to simulate network behavior and predict failures.
  • Continuously refining AI models through business process reengineering.

For TM Forum, this phase supports CSPs reaching Level 5, where the network functions without requiring human intervention.

The Role of AI and Digital Twins in Enabling Autonomy
AI enables predictive maintenance, real-time traffic optimisation, and automated fault resolution, ultimately forming the backbone of autonomous networks. Gartner emphasises that Digital Twins – virtual replicas of physical networks – are becoming a key enabler of self-governing networks.

As Gartner states, “Transforming OSS into an Autonomous Operations System (AOS) will revolutionise network automation, orchestrating complex processes with minimal human oversight.” This aligns with TM Forum’s vision that higher automation levels require intelligent, AI-driven OSS architectures.

What should CSPs do?

So, to successfully transition towards fully autonomous networks, CSPs should focus on the following strategies:

  1. Develop a structured automation roadmap: align network automation goals with business objectives and customer needs.
  2. Invest in AI-ready OSS platforms: adopt cloud-native, API-driven OSS architectures that support real-time analytics.
  3. Leverage Digital Twins: use network simulation models to improve decision-making and reduce operational risks.
  4. Adopt closed-loop automation: shift from reactive to proactive network management, ensuring better service quality.
  5. Collaborate with technology partners: engage with leading AI and cloud providers to accelerate OSS modernisation and AI adoption.

The journey towards autonomous networks is complex but achievable. By integrating TM Forum’s automation maturity model with Gartner’s phased OSS transformation, CSPs can create a structured and AI-driven roadmap to achieve full autonomy. As AI and Digital Twins continue to evolve, CSPs that strategically modernise their OSS will gain a competitive edge, enabling seamless and intelligent network operations.

At Celfocus, we have been helping clients progress to Level 4 and Level 5 for several years now, integrating AI and automation to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency. However, as networks become increasingly complex, achieving full autonomy requires greater visibility into network resources and new approaches to data representation.

Celfocus approaches digital network transformation by first tackling process and solution design with an E2E holistic perspective covering the entire CSP lifecycle (from planning to assurance). To do this, we focus not only on the network-centric process itself but also on business interactions and their value by using our proprietary facilitation maps technology, bringing all the information together to be discussed by multiple teams. This approach allows us to break existing silos and increase synergies between business, engineering, and operations teams, while also working towards reducing the complexity and overlapping of solutions. With the process and solution design in place, our vision is to achieve a fully digital network experience for customers powered by a digital network management platform that contains all the right technological foundational capabilities to boost teams’ efficiency and TTM while delivering automated processes that return value to both business and operations.

Our approach is inspired and refined from our long-term collaboration with CSPs, including deployments in 12+ countries on a global level. It leverages large amounts of data produced by CSPs, combining advanced analytics, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI & ML) and orchestration & automation solutions combined, to enable operators to automate planning, readiness, fulfilment, and assurance with minimum human intervention.

Following TM Forum’s model as well as Gartner’s guidelines, we are embracing a new wave of innovation, collaborating with partners and clients to bring greater intelligence to network operations and management. Our solutions have already proven instrumental in enhancing service impact analysis and root cause identification. Yet, this is just the beginning – Digital Twins unlock new possibilities that will drive even greater value for operators in the future.

Learn more about Celfocus’s Autonomous Networks Approach here.

About the author

Inês Rocha is a Marketing Consultant at Celfocus with over seven years’ experience in content strategy and creation. With a strong focus on Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Transformation, she specialises in crafting impactful narratives that inform, inspire, and support business impact. She holds a degree in Communication Sciences from NOVA University Lisbon and a postgraduate qualification in Storytelling.

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