Home Blog Page 251

Orange’s new CEO shapes her top team

Annie Turner
-
0
Orange’s new CEO shapes her top team

CTO Michaël Trabbia picks up short-term responsibility for Wholesale & International Networks division

Christel Heydemann (pictured) took over from Stéphane Richard as Orange’s group CEO in April and has now put her own stamp on her senior team. Richard is still non-executive chair of the group.

Rapid riser Michaël Trabbia, who became the group’s Chief Technology and Innovation Officer in September 2020 (formerly CEO of Orange Belgium) and joined the executive committee in February, will take on the Wholesale & International Networks division from 15 September as an interim measure, when Jérôme Barré leaves the company.

Stéphane Vallois, the current Deputy CEO at Orange Bank will become CEO from 1 October, replacing Paul de Leusse, who is leaving the company. Orange Bank has nearly 2 million customers in Europe. Orange Bank Africa, launched in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020, has 800,000 customers. No doubt M Vallois will be under pressure to accelerate growth.

There will be a new EVP for Human Resources starting on 1 December, when Vincent Lecerf takes the baton from Gervais Pellissier, who will assume a management team advisory role, whatever that means. At the moment, Lecerf heads up HR for the industrial minerals congolmerate Imerys.

Béatrice Mandine, EVP of Communications, Brand and Engagement, will step down on 30 September ­– no replacement has yet been named.

In May, Aliette Mousnier-Lompre was confirmed as CEO of Orange Business Services after six months as acting CEO, following the exit of Helmut Reisinger who is now CEO, EMEA & LATAM,  at Palo Alto Networks.

Mavenir gives DT cores for continuity from 2G to 5G

Nick Booth
-
0
Mavenir gives DT cores for continuity from 2G to 5G

Open design of 5G SA is first for converged packet core

Deutsche Telekom (DT) and network software specialist Mavenir have released details of the cloud-native 5G Core they built together in Germany. DT asked Mavenir to configure the software to run on DT’s existing Kubernetes system, taking an open design approach to a pre-existing legacy. During the installation, a Converged Packet Core (CPP) was integrated with DT’s existing multi-vendor access network and other system components.

Dr Abdurazak Mudesir, DT’s Group CTO, talked of being “on a path towards a fully automated network” that can fulfil any need and invent some services that the customers didn’t realise they need. A CPP expedites the conversion of a network to 5G by refusing to burn bridges as the structure takes shape. Instead of dictating future decisions throughputs intransigence, it sets up a flexible evolutionary path with minimal risk, unlimited scale and greater speed, security and reliability, according to Mavenir. This fully-contained, cloud-native CPP system supports every generation from 2G to 5G on one network that will run on any cloud.

DT’s new Converged Packet Core supports data, voice and messaging services. Its support for network slicing is initially focused on live video broadcasting but is expected to take on much greater significance as the network evolves. The deployment has been successfully certified against devices from all the major terminal vendors, says Mavenir.

The Mavenir system automatically conducts software and network upgrades so the CPP services and associated network functions can run in minutes by using DT’s automation framework. This means the entire lifecycle of each application is closely shadowed and platform can automatically synchronize resources and configure coding changes. This makes testing and deployment less prone to human error.

“The Mavenir system is the foundation for new applications and services that will need low latency and network slicing,” said Pardeep Kohli, Mavenir’s President and CEO.

Norway’s BankID is likened to totalitarian telecom

Nick Booth
-
0
Norway’s BankID is likened to totalitarian telecom

New biometric feature is a snoop too far, say critics

The new biometrics feature in Norway’s BankID system has an ominous overtone, according to privacy watchdog Reclaim The Net. Could this be the last step in the surveillance society’s secret plan to impose a form of digital ID on the public? In a report the human rights campaigner reports on the wider implications of the omnipresence of BankID which works with all banks in Norway and is currently used by 4.3 million people, out of a population of 5.5 million.

A partnership with OneSpan will provide BankID with additional features, namely additional security, to help Norwegian banks meet compliance standards and prepare BankID for international use. The worry for privacy protectors stems from the fact, as reported in Biometric Update, the partnership also provides digital signing, user authentication, transaction security and mobile identity provisioning.

“BankID is, and will continue to remain, a central part of our users’ daily lives,” explained Jan Bjerved, head of Norway’s BankID, who likened the technology to alchemy. “We are strong believers in creating magic for the users in terms of experience, with as little friction as possible and users feeling safe and secure when using our services. Our trust in OneSpan is based on their proven solutions that ensure we provide the highest level of security to our entire population,” said Bjerved.

The new application’s supports for biometric authentication has a more ominous outcome, claimed Reclaim The Net: it could be used as a digital ID. It’s all perfectly innocent, according to the banking industry. “The new app will allow better communication with the users, and the ambition is to develop the app to become a digital identity wallet that offers a range of value-adding services in the future,” said Bjerved.

OpenSpan’s CEO Matthew Moynahan backed Bjerved’s assertion that BankID is being used purely for social harmony through seamless digital identity. “In a world where the highest levels of assurance are required to establish users’ identities, our partnership with BankID lays the foundation for the future,” said Moynahan. Whose future? The technology’s it transpires. BankID underpins “secure digital identity platforms” and “unlocks a new world of experiences that can now include cross-border transactions.”

IFC stakes $160 million on Safaricom Ethiopia

Nick Booth
-
0
IFC stakes $160 million on Safaricom Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s now the world’s fastest growing economy

The World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has announced a plan to inject €158 million ($160 million) of equity into telecoms firm Safaricom Ethiopia to help fund its capital expenditure. The Kenya-based parent company Safaricom has ramped up its fundraising since the start of 2022 when plans for data centres in the capital Addis Ababa were first unveiled. 

Safaricom Ethiopia, partly owned by Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom, started phased operations in August in the country’s Dire Dawa city and Haramaya this month. Safaricom led a consortium that also includes South Africa’s Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone which secured Ethiopia’s second operator licence in May 2021 for $850 million reports Nasdaq. 

“The proposed IFC transaction comprises an up to $160 million equity investment in the company to help fund … capex requirement,” IFC said in a statement on its website, adding that: “A separate debt package is also being discussed.” 

The Safaricom consortium is financially backed by British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo. Safaricom Ethiopia has said it planned to have its network active in 25 cities by April 2023. It will be a competitor to state-owned Ethio Telecom, whose proposed sale of a 40% stake as part of a broader government plan to open up the economy was put on hold in March. In May the national flagship operator EthioTelecom launched a 5G service in Addis Abababa. 

With about 115 million people (as of 2020), Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa and still the fastest growing economy in Africa, with 6.3 percent growth in FY2020/21. However, it is also one of the poorest, with a per capita gross national income of $890. Ethiopia aims to reach lower-middle-income status by 2025. In the last 15 years, Ethiopia’s economy has been among the fastest growing in the world, averaging 9.5% per year. Its growth was led by capital accumulation, in particular through public infrastructure investments, says the World Bank.

The government has launched a new 10-Year Development Plan, based on the 2019 Home-Grown Economic Reform Agenda, which will run from 2020/21 to 2029/30. The plan aims to sustain the remarkable growth achieved under the Growth and Transformation Plans of the previous decade, while converting it to a private-sector-driven economy. Central to those plans, says the World Bank, are the energy, logistics and telecoms industries. 

European ‘paradise’ as fibre roll out keeps going gang busters

Annie Turner
-
0
European ‘paradise’ as fibre roll out keeps going gang busters

Europe still lags the US and Asia with only about a third of homes having access to fibre connectivity

Wendell Weeks, CEO of the world’s biggest fibre manufacturer, Corning, warned in an interview with the Financial Times [subscription needed] that Europe lacks a sufficiently robust fibre supply chain. He described Europe as a ‘paradise’ for fibre makers, as three Europe’s biggest markets – Germany, Italy and the UK – continue to play catch-up, having delayed investment in fibre infrastructure for years. And of course 5G relies heavily on fibre backhaul.

Last week Corning opened one of the world’s largest fibre plants in Poland, which aims to meet 30% of demand in Europe over the coming year.

A spokesperson for Europe’s biggest fibre supplier, Prysmian Group, refuted claims of shortages, telling the FT there is a “temporary  tightness” in the market caused in large part by higher input costs.

Perhaps Corning is hoping that Europe’s biggest operator groups will take a leaf out of their US counterparts’ book and get Corning to build them dedicated manufacturing facilities to guarantee supply, as it has for Verizon and more recently AT&T.

Meanwhile, at the sharp end…

EXFO says the UK ISP Gigaclear has selected its remote fibre testing and monitoring solution to support its ambitious expansion. EXFO specialises in test, monitoring and analytics.

Gigaclear focuses on rural areas, as the first fibre provider in those locations. The monitoring is intended to increase the level of right first-time deployments thereby reducing fault-finding efforts and truck rolls during operation. Identifying faults once fibre is in service will be done a few strategic, central locations within its network using on fixed Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR).

Using optical switching, the solution automates and speeds up the execution of tests throughout phases of the network lifecycle, from deployment to operation so the condition of fibre optic installations is checked constantly. Degradations or breaks are pinpointed within minutes of occurring.

Country matters

Gigaclear’s network is present in over 650 rural communities in more than 22 counties across the south-east and south-west England and the Midlands, more than 300,000 premises are connected to its FTTP network.

It plans to expand its network to thousands more premises in the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire over the next few years. 

To meet the government’s deployment targets, UK fibre providers must accelerate build times from 1.5 million homes passed per year (in 2019), to 6 million homes passed by 2025, installing more than 500,000 kilometers of fibre in the process.

James Harrison, Chief Engineer, Gigaclear, commented, “It isn’t often that you see an opportunity to do something both faster and better…Combined with our proprietary and tightly integrated test and network data management systems, EXFO’s fibre monitoring technology and iOLM [intelligent optical link mapper] test units ensure our planned network is built accurately and to the quality standards we expect. We’re also able to proactively monitor our network, helping ensure a reliable, dependable service for customers.”

Nokia’s new AVA cuts data wrangles and expedites earnings

Nick Booth
-
0
Nokia’s new AVA cuts data wrangles and expedites earnings

Automate, visualise, analyse it tells partners

Nokia has announced a new software strategy that, it claims, will organise projects much more efficiently and save at least 40% of the time that developers waste thanks to disorderly data. The comms vendor claims it is directing its software forces to help mobile network operators secure, automate and ‘monetise’ their assets more effectively. 

The whole portfolio of software commands that Nokia has produced will be organised under its AVA (Automation, Visualization, Analytics) brand. The intention is to direct the powers of operational and business support systems (OSS and BSS) and security software into a single Open Analytics framework. This should make it easier for operators to expedite artificial intelligence projects.

Nokia has complemented this initiative with the launch of IGNITE, a ‘digital ecosystem programme’ aimed at fostering a spirit of invention among project collaborators, be they telcos, technology partners or customers. It’s all about the ‘time to value’ from telecoms networks, said a Nokia statement. “We look forward to partnering with our CSP and enterprise customers along with application developers,” said Hamdy Farid, Senior Vice President, Business Applications at Nokia.

The AVA Open Analytics (AVA OA) framework, for example, will simplify the way that data is stored and used. Currently data scientists can waste 40% of their time on data wrangling and repetitive tasks that should be automated, according to industry sources, such as the Anaconda state of data science survey 2021. AVA OA’s alternative framework liberates customers from the monolithic, centralised data lakes and moves them to a hybrid data enclosure that avoids technical complexity and focuses the data scientists on their use cases. Nokia expects the framework to be fully commercially available in 2023.

The IGNITE Digital Ecosystem unites customers and application partners with an ‘ecosystem enabler‘. This somehow streamlines collaboration through secure access to the resources needed to unlock value. Nokia didn’t explain this part very clearly. The upshot is ‘on-demand product sandboxes’ in which experiments and integration can take place. More than 20 projects are already under way between customers and application providers, including the development of new machine-learning models, automation and cybersecurity incident detection and response.

“Telcos are searching for more intelligent ways to monetise their network data and Nokia is redoubling its efforts to drive innovation,” said analyst Ahmad Latif Ali, Associate VP of European Telecom Insights at IDC, who mooted that this could bring ‘5G value for CSPs and enterprises’.

Ooredoo connects Maldives, sells Myanmar division

Nick Booth
-
0
Ooredoo connects Maldives, sells Myanmar division

Providing fibre to the atolls in the Indian Ocean

Qatari telecoms firm Ooredoo has sold its Myanmar division to the Singapore company Nine Communications, according to a company announcement. The transaction had an enterprise value of €568 million ($576 million) and a total equity consideration of €160 million ($162 million).

Ooredoo said the sale is part of its ‘strategic decisions to focus on markets where Ooredoo is leading’ and promised to ensure a smooth transition with the least possible disruption ‘adhering to all local requirements’. The timing of closing will depend on regulatory approvals and the financial impact is expected to be ‘non-material’ at Ooredoo Group level, it said.

Meanwhile, in the Arabian sea region of the Indian ocean, Ooredoo Maldives has expanded its ‘SuperNet’ fibre-optic broadband service to Kudarikilu, an inhabited island of Southern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll, according to global telco news specialist Telegeography. Customers will now get fixed broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps, it said.

The national regulator, the Communications Authority of the Maldives (CAM) awarded an Internet Service Provider licence to mobile operator Ooredoo in August 2015 and the firm launched commercial fixed voice and broadband services in the capital Male in May 2016, notes TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database. Since then, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services have been expanded to over 75% of the country, including Olhuvelifushi in Lhaviyani Atoll, Kanditheemu in Shaviyani Atoll and Dhanbidhoo in Laamu Atoll, all of which gained coverage last month, and most recently Baarah in Haa Alif Atoll.

Telia Finland’s Nokia creation blends carrier aggregation and FWA to create a smörgåsbord of network slices

Nick Booth
-
0
Telia Finland’s Nokia creation blends carrier aggregation and FWA to create a smörgåsbord of network slices

A suite of cloud gaming and alternate realities follows

Nokia and Telia Finland claim they have built the world’s first commercial 5G standalone (SA) network with network slicing for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services. Telia is introducing 5G SA into its 5G FWA home broadband services and as a result it has a rich smörgåsbord of broadband deals to offer customers in Finland. The network slicing means that each deal comes with guaranteed levels of service. The deployment is underway, said Nokia, in a release.

Nokia will upgrade Telia’s entire 5G Radio Access Network infrastructure with 5G slicing using equipment from its AirScale portfolio of radio and baseband products. The 5G AirScale network portfolio makes the transition to 5G standalone networks easy for operators, claims Nokia and in no time customers are using cloud gaming and extended reality. It should also give the operator a self-managing network without undermining any service level agreements.

Telia said it can balance the traffic between FWA and mobile users more adeptly and categorise applications by the slices they need, which helps them differentiate the levels of speed, latency, and data quality each customers an expect from their broadband deals with guaranteed service levels based on their needs. Nokia 5G FWA gateways and Carrier Aggregation technology are included in the deals offered to customers. Nokia said this will help Telia improve its coverage for each region. 

“We were one of the first operators in Europe to introduce a 5G standalone and Core network and with the encouraging feedback of our customers, we are now deploying this new technology commercially,” said Jari Collin, CTO at Telia.

Telia’s networks are home to some of 5G’s most creative applications and we can expect many more to be built on its 5G network. “We want to keep Finland at the forefront of its development as this technology matures,” said Collin.

The introduction of 5G Fixed Wireless Access services will deliver ‘super-fast’ home broadband services to Telia’s customers in Finland, said Ari Kynäslahti, Head of Strategy and Technology at Nokia Mobile Networks. 

Vodafone changes kit, code and combustion in bid to cut consumption

Nick Booth
-
0
Vodafone changes kit, code and combustion in bid to cut consumption

Deadline for Net Zero brought forward to 2027

Britain’s Vodafone Group has announced more measures across its divisions as it seeks the Holy Grail of infinite sustainability and brought forward its target for reaching Net Zero to 2027. The actions include equipment upgrades, training a specialist youth wing of green coders and deploying new combustion techniques for off-grid power generation. 

In the UK older energy burners, like servers and cooling systems, will be replaced with less consumptive equipment that could save 167 million kilowatt hours of electricity, removing 15,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. The old equipment is to be recycled. Meanwhile a move to an entirely electric car and van fleet across its European network is being rolled out. “At Vodafone UK we’re committed to achieving our net-zero carbon emissions by 2027 across the entire UK operations. It is a hugely ambitious target, one we’re committed to achieving and confident we will achieve,” said Vodafone UK network and development director, Andrea Dona.

In Romania, a hot-bed of programming talent, the Vodafone Romania Foundation is creating a Green School of the Future with a brief to help 6-14 year-olds use their burgeoning digital skills to solve green problems. They will be put into a sustainability-themed competition where they use a Scratch app to illustrate a solution to an environmental problem that concerns them. At the end of the competitions, both the children and the libraries they represent will receive prizes totalling €8700 (42,500 Romanian Leu). The programme was designed by Vodafone Spain Foundation in collaboration with the University of Salamanca.

In rural Romania, Vodafone is using Ammonia, one of the most effective and energy-dense carbon-free hydrogen carriers, to generate electricity at its mobile telecoms towers. The technology is managed by GenCell Energy, a specialist provider of hydrogen and ammonia power solutions and SIMTEL Team, Romania’s top rooftop photovoltaic installer. The system complies with strict zero-emission sustainability objectives, according to GenCell CEO Rami Reshef. “Alkaline fuel cell technology can help operators implement renewable power solutions directly at mobile sites, even when they are located in remote locations and the toughest climate conditions” said Reshef. 

Telenor Satellite pushes Ku-band service in the Middle East

Nick Booth
-
0
Telenor Satellite pushes Ku-band service in the Middle East

Dialog gives Middle East higher speed, wider bandwidth

Telenor Satellite (TS) has made its THOR 10-02 Ku-band service available to clients in the Middle East. The satellite service subsidiary of Norwegian telco Telenor, TS runs the service on a Newtec Dialog system from ST Engineering iDirect. 

The company is a major supplier of satellite connections to the broadcast, maritime and land-based vertical markets in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EMEA), reports Ship Management International. The introduction of the Dialog service means the company can offer its clients in the Middle East the much faster speeds and bandwidths that were previously only available on its THOR 7 Ka-band services for its maritime and offshore energy customers.

This is particularly important for the company’s land-based oil and gas clients whose high-tech sophisticated operations need the higher performance offered by the Dialog platform, said Ship Management International. The benefits to clients include an efficient, scalable and flexible service which comes with DVB-S2X performance, advanced waveforms, Mx-DMA shared bandwidth return channel technology and more sophisticated quality of service (QoS) and of experience (QoE) features.

“The Dialog system’s coverage into the Middle East at the faster speed, bandwidth and flexibility ensures that our clients will receive the best possible performance from their satellite communications,” said Jan Hetland, Director of Data Services at Telenor Satellite.

The majority of Telenor Satellite’s Middle Eastern clients require a fixed service, but the company also supplies connectivity to offshore facilities and their support vessels, who will need full mobility. TS is offering Middle Eastern businesses a service using a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) for data transmission that fits with many types of data management and high-frequency trading.

The TS VSAT platform can address multiple markets by optimising the usage of infrastructure and satellite capacity, said Chris Insall, Head of Maritime Market Development at ST Engineering iDirect. “With the Dialog platform, Telenor Satellite can select the best transmission technology for its needs, harnessing the industry’s most efficient, dynamic return technology to share satellite capacity more efficiently over a group of satellite terminals,” said Insall.

1...250251252...1,637Page 251 of 1,637
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP
DOWNLOAD OUR NEW REPORT

5G Advanced

Will 5G’s second wave deliver value?

DOWNLOAD REPORT