From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/
- Matthew Twomey, Head of Marketing, Anritsu
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | In conversation: Ensuring trust in autonomous networks: the role of AI in service assurance
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: How can AI help in IT and Network elements to and in the cloud, and especially automation?
From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/
- Moderator: Moderator: Adaora Okeleke, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason
- Diego Olerni, Principal Cloud Architect, Vodafone
- Nektaria Efthymiou, Network Platform Security Director, BT
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: Is AI really transforming the telecoms business?
From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/
- Moderator: Robert Curran, Consulting Analyst, Appledore Research
- Ayesha Temuri, Enterprise Data Officer, Telenor
- Eva Ulicevic, VP/Director of Architecture, Strategy and Analytics, Telefonica Germany
- Beatriz Ortega, EMEA Telco Business Development Manager, Red Hat
Swisscom launches NVIDIA SuperPOD system for corporates
The telco’s IT services business and Fastweb were the standouts in its nine-month results so why not accelerate them?
Swisscom has deployed what it claims is Switzerland’s first NVIDIA SuperPOD system which gives enterprises the chance to run AI applications in its data centres – essentially offering guaranteed data storage and processing in-country. The operator said it is already working with customers to test initial applications on the platform. It provides everything, from consulting to operation, from a single source. Swisscom will also offer platform and application services as the system is modular.
The operator argues that AI can only unleash its full potential when enriched with company data. This requires an independent AI infrastructure to guarantee complete data sovereignty across the entire processing chain, as well as data storage and processing in Switzerland, naturally. Swisscom said it is seeing high demand from the financial and public sectors for a secure environment for AI projects to guarantee compliance with the strictest data protection regulations.
Maximum “Swissness”
In its announcement, the operator emphasised, repeatedly, that the service was so sovereign it provides companies with AI infrastructure and applications offering “maximum Swissness”. Yes, it is a thing. The operator has been able to take advantage of a test tun too given its Italian subsidiary Fastweb announced almost a year ago that it will install 31 NVIDIA DGX H100 in its datacentres in Lombardy, powered by renewable energy. That system runs on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture and has 248 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs.
Swisscom wants to give enterprises choice so customers can choose between the Swiss AI Platform, infrastructure operated by global public cloud providers and integrated AI solutions in standard software applications. The Swiss AI Platform offers an AI infrastructure, platform and application services. The modular design gives customers this flexibility to select and combine components according to their requirements.
The operator outlined some of the offers. GPU as a Service gives companies access to high-performance processing power enables the processing of large volumes of data; for instance, for the training, fine-tuning and operation of models. Swisscom’s AI Work Hub is designed for data scientists and machine learning engineers who develop and train models and therefore analyse and process large data volumes. It supports the collaborative implementation of customer-specific AI applications.
GenAI Studio will be available from spring 2025. It gives companies easy access to generative AI services via API interfaces on the platform, which they can use to create their own AI solutions with the content they need in line with company-specific requirements. As an interim step, customers can access a range of Swisscom-operated Large Language Models (LLM), to implement a chatbot, for instance.
The NVIDIA infrastructure enhances Swisscom’s existing products. Swisscom is also using the platform to develop initial applications for its own use, such as automated responses to corporate customer enquiries or generating brand-compliant images for marketing campaigns.
Initial applications
Swisscom is already testing and implementing initial applications on platform. It is working with Thurgauer Kantonalbank (TKB) to test a chatbot to query internal instructions by bank employees. A system for automated responses to customer online enquiries is also being developed with TKB. Swisscom is collaborating with emergency organisations to test the automated transcription of emergency calls. The solution interacts with the operations control system. It automatically transcribes the audio recording of received emergency calls into text for legally required documentation and enriches it with additional information.
“The Swiss AI Platform is a Swiss solution for the Swiss economy,” said presumably Swiss-based, Swisscom head of business customers Urs Lehner. “Sensitive data is in good hands thanks to our powerful, trusted Swiss infrastructure. In addition, our 400 AI and data specialists, working alongside NVIDIA’s leading global industry experts, constitute a unique Swiss Center of Excellence, enabling us to support customers with tailored AI solutions.”
UAE tops Global Digital Powerhouse list, with Finland close second
New research ranks the world’s most connected countries: Italy is the only European country in the bottom 10
A new analysis finds that the United Arab Emirates (UEA) is cementing its position as a global digital leader. This is because it combines the fastest, most accessible and affordable internet with a tech-savvy population ready to harness the booming knowledge economy.
Airgain’s Emerging Digital Powerhouse Index evaluated a range of factors including average mobile internet speeds, mobile penetration, digital skills and progress in deploying 5G, alongside affordability and educational indicators including enrollment in tertiary education.
The top 10 countries, led by the UAE, include two from the Middle East, four from Northern Europe and two from Asia, as well as the USA and Australia.
Here’s the Top 10
| Rank | Country | Total score |
| 1 | UAE | 440 |
| 2 | Finland | 431 |
| 3 | South Korea | 407 |
| 4 | United States | 406 |
| 5 | Denmark | 405 |
| 6 | Qatar | 401 |
| 7 | Singapore | 393 |
| 8 | Norway | 390 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 383 |
| 10 | Australia | 377 |
The UAE ranked highest for 5G connectivity and average mobile download speeds of 413Mbps compared to 350Mpbs in Qatar and 257Mpbs in Kuwait. The UAE also stands out for broadband affordability and a highly skilled digital workforce.
Ali Sadri, CTO of Airgain,said, “We conducted this research not just to understand which countries have the fastest internet. Critically we wanted to assess which countries also deliver the best access, most affordably and have an educated population with strong digital skills primed to take full advantage.”
He added, “These findings underscore the Middle East’s rapid technological progress and its growing role in the global digital economy, fueled by the adoption of cutting-edge technologies.
“Access to fast, reliable internet is a game-changer for any population. It doesn’t just boost connectivity – it fuels the knowledge economy, which now accounts for roughly 50% of global economic activity. When people have the tools to access, share, and create knowledge quickly, innovation thrives. Entire industries, from healthcare to education to technology, are transformed, opening up opportunities that were previously unimaginable.”
Italy is the only European nation in the bottom 10 of the ranking. Despite technological progress, emerging economies such as India and Indonesia still face challenges in digital infrastructure and education, placing them among the lowest-ranked countries.
The bottom 10 in the ranking
| Rank | Country | Total score |
| 28 | Italy | 271 |
| 29 | Chile | 229 |
| 30 | Thailand | 218 |
| 31 | India | 207 |
| 32 | Brazil | 183 |
| 33 | Philippines | 174 |
| 34 | Mexico | 170 |
| 35 | South Africa | 138 |
| 36 | Indonesia | 135 |
| 37 | Nigeria | 0 |
The report says that countries aiming to enhance their digital positioning should focus on improving digital literacy, infrastructure, and mobile technology investments. However, this is often a complex and gradual process rather than a quick fix.
It continues, “Readily available, easy-to-install technologies are crucial for boosting accessibility and promoting wireless growth. In some regions, starting with foundational education in digital skills could be an effective approach.
“As we look ahead to 6G, the demand for expertise in next-generation technologies and enhanced connectivity will only grow. While some nations may currently lag behind, emerging opportunities and resources present new avenues for them to close the gap, promising a more digitally inclusive future for citizens worldwide.”
Marc Allera to quit as CEO of BT Consumer division
Claire Gillies (pictured), currently President of Bell Canada’s Wireless and Consumer Divisions, will be new CEO from 1 April
Marc Allera has decided to step down as CEO of BT Group’s Consumer division and will leave on 31 March next year. Claire Gillies will become CEO-Designate and a member of its Executive Committee on 10 December.
Gillies will become CEO of Consumer on 1 April. She has more than 23 years’ experience in telecoms, having worked at Bell Canada since 2000 in various senior roles. Most recently, she was President of Bell Canada’s Wireless and Consumer Divisions where she ran a business generating CA$14bn (about £8 billion) in revenues with more than 8,000 staff and more than 20 million subscribers.
Previously, Gillies ran The Source, Canada’s largest consumer electronics retailer and has a BSC and MBA.
Allera has been with the group for nine years. Much of the commentary around his departure is “job done”. Group CEO Allison Kirkby said, “Marc has been an outstanding leader of BT’s Consumer unit, contributing significantly to the company’s growth, and to multiple key initiatives such as leading the team through the integration of EE into BT Group, the creation of the BT Sport joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery, and launching New EE as our lead consumer brand.
It’s hard to exaggerate how bad the integration of EE/BT systems was for consumers who we were forced to become EE customers for their broadband and access their broadband accounts via the EE portal. I was told by BT that the problems I’d experienced for months were an issue nationwide. And then there’s the inexplicable decision to stop issuing VAT invoices once an EE customer.
The joint venture BT Sport with Warner Bros Discovery was making the best of a bad job, offloading a turkey landed on the company by former CEO Gavin Patterson who lost the company a frightening amount of money with the venture into sports broadcasting.
Here’s what the man Allera himself had to say about his exit in the press release: “I’m proud to have led an incredible team through enormous change in the market, and the evolution of the company for the past nine years. In that time we have transformed every aspect of our operations to deliver great service to our 25m customers across the UK, with everything they need for our fast-moving world of technology.
“We’ve created a fantastic platform for growth, and I wish Claire the very best for the future. While I’m looking forward to the next chapter, I’ll be leaving with great memories of my time at BT and EE, and want to thank every single one of my colleagues who has contributed to our success together.”
BT Consumer plans to sell fridges and other stuff to non-BT customers from next year.
DT, Skylo and Qualcomm text to and from smartphone via GEO satellite
An interesting development given that direct-to-device comms are usually associated with low-Earth orbit satellites
Deutsche Telekom (DT), Qualcomm and Skylo, a pioneer in Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) communications, have completed a trial of sending and receiving SMS to and from a smartphone via GEO satellite. They say this is the first time in Europe that an operator’s terrestrial mobile network has been integrated into a satellite network to enable texting based on the 3GPP Release 17 specifications for direct-to-handset (D2H) connectivity.
Technical set-up
The proof of concept was conducted in Greece at Deutsche Telekom’s Cosmote subsidiary. In the test, the SMS was sent from a device with a Cosmote SIM card via Skylo’s satellite network in Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) spectrum based technically on 3GPP Release 17 specifications. The device was equipped with the Snapdragon X-80 5G Modem-RF System and integrated NB-NTN satellite connectivity.
To enable seamless roaming between the 5G terrestrial networks and satellite networks, Skylo’s commercially available NTN was integrated into Cosmote’s production network. The key advantage of dedicated, licensed MSS spectrum for connectivity is that it can be used on a pan-European basis, circumventing the challenges of coordinating international cross-border spectrum.
It should also ensure ubiquitous coverage for customers in rural or rugged areas with white spots and support emergency communications or disaster response scenarios.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the trail used a geostationary, rather than a low-Earth, satellite for the direct-to-handset trial. LEOs, not GEOs, are more associated with the DTH technology.
Into the hands of customers
Antje Williams, SVP Business Creation, Group Technology at Deutsche Telekom, said, “We aim to bring this technology into the hands of our customers. The successful effort of our team together with our partners to integrate the satellite and cellular network is just the beginning.”
Parthsarathi Trivedi, CEO and co-founder of Skylo Technologies, said, “Soon, subscribers won’t have to think twice about coverage before texting, whether they’re on a remote island in Greece or venturing in[to] regions without cell coverage – it’ll be a part of their cellular service. The future of satellite connectivity is strong integration into carrier networks.”
“Together, we achieved NB-NTN direct-to-handset messaging using a device powered by the Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System, strengthening the use of smartphone satellite connectivity,” said Dino Flore, Vice President, Technology at Qualcomm Europe, Inc.
Mobile data usage growth rates down 65% in 1H 2024
Tefficient said usage growth rates decelerated in most markets and for the first time several markets have the end of the S-curve in sight
Scandinavian consulting and research company Tefficient said mobile data usage grew in every country year-on-year, with Saudi Arabia remaining the usage leader. However, growth rates have decelerated – Portugal saw the highest increase at 32%, while Croatia and Finland posted just 5%. The stats came in its latest public analysis of mobile data trends covering 39 countries – its 43rd report.
Data-only subscriptions, while limited in market share, continue to define average usage. Latvia led with 164GB per month in 2023, followed by Austria with 136GB per month in the first half of 2024. In pure FWA, Australia led with 498GB per month in 2023, followed by Sweden with 316GB in 2023 and Ireland with 313GB in the first half of 2024. Unlike data-only subscriptions, 5G’s impact on traffic remains limited, except in South Korea, Austria, and Saudi Arabia.
However, less-intense price competition and price rises across multiple countries seem to be having an impact on stabilising revenues for MNOs. Tefficient found that mobile service revenue per gigabyte continued to decline but at a slower pace, with Luxembourg seeing the sharpest drop, 22%.
Inflation-affected Turkey, however, again saw its revenue per gigabyte skyrocket. But this time Finland had an increase too – a first-ever for the country. “Encouragingly, 70% of markets saw ARPU growth aligned with higher data usage – a positive outcome in line with our previous edition of this analysis,” wrote the analysts.
Data usage
Tefficient omits M2M traffic – and explains in detail why – but noted that data usage is still growing year-on-year in all countries. A few countries flipped rankings but overall, the report suggests that for most markets, there was little usage growth in the first half of 2024. The markets with the lowest data usage in Figure 2 are New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Czechia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Hong Kong. There are only maximum twelve countries left with a usage lower than 10 GB per month among Tefficient’s 39. Some of these, like Portugal, showed faster usage growth, 32%, than e.g. the UK with just 11%.
While Portugal had the fastest growth in mobile data usage, Qatar is the number two in growth with 25%. Luxembourg is number three with 22%, closely followed by Lithuania with 21%. The mature markets of Croatia and Finland only saw 5%, while South Korea and Spain managed 6-8%.
The key here is that 15 of 23 countries (65%) had decelerating growth rate which Tefficient puts down to the end of the S-curve in mobile data usage development coming into sight. Its analysis showed strong correlation between the data-only share of a country’s SIM base and the average data usage.
“Finland, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, and Latvia are the data-only powerhouses of the world,” wrote Tefficient. Finnish statistics show that mobile networks carried 41% of the total data traffic in the first half of 2024, with fixed networks handling 59%. With that, Austria overtook Finland since the split there was 43/57% in Q1 2024, the latest reported quarter. Unlike Finland, mobile’s share of traffic is still increasing in Austria.
5G questions
While the report struggles with dealing with the ad hoc way regulators and operators report 5G numbers, but the analyst house gleaned that 5G coverage doesn’t drive data usage. Tefficient added several caveats given 5G coverage needs to keep growing and overcome difficulties like in-building coverage.
Some European countries – Romania, Germany, and Belgium – struggle with 5G traffic take-up having achieved just 1.6% to 6.3% in 2023. Spain, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, and Austria are all above 10%, at least in 1H 2024. There has been good growth in 5G’s proportion of traffic between 2023 and 1H 2024 in Spain, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Finland, and Austria.
A bright spot they saw for 5G was FWA. “Since each FWA subscriber consumes so much more traffic than the average mobile data user, even a small amount of 5G FWA customers will move the needle. Through stand-alone and slicing, 5G also offers the possibility to set monetisable thresholds for the speeds and quality of FWA,” they conclude.
Tefficient said that regardless of ‘G’, increased data-only penetration, particularly through fixed line substitution, has the potential to elevate data usage. However, a prerequisite for this, and for high data usage in general, is maintaining a low total revenue per gigabyte. “Countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, China, Poland, Taiwan, Finland, and Turkey exhibit this characteristic, while New Zealand represents the opposite end of the spectrum,” they state.
Despite variations in data usage, market ARPU does not consistently correlate with usage levels. Norway, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Ireland, and South Korea boast higher ARPU, though the first three do not have high usage. Tefficient did however conclude on a brighter note, stating that 14 of 20 markets could grow ARPU on the back the data usage growth which means that the positive ARPU trend continued from its previous edition of this analysis.
DT chooses Nokia for 3k sites as part of multi-vendor, Open RAN roll-out
The contract has been awarded for Germany and “marks Nokia’s return as a supplier to Europe’s largest network”
Nokia announced it has been awarded more than 3,000 sites by Deutsche Telekom (DT) as part the operator’s multi-vendor Open RAN commercial network deployment Germany. The deal includes Fujitsu. The two vendors ran a successful trial in Germany last year after an MoU was announced at MWC.
They began commercial roll-out in the ‘O-RAN zone’ – the Neubrandenburg area of Northern Germany (pictured) – late last year after what seemed like considerable uncertainty by DT about its Open RAN strategy. Somewhat surprisingly, it did not opt for Mavenir which had been the most visible in its Open RAN plan.
Nokis is keen to stress that “the new deal formally marks Nokia’s return as a supplier to Europe’s largest network and will see Nokia replace the incumbent vendor in the area covered in the agreement”.
That incumbent is China’s Huawei, although unlike operators in many other countries, DT has not outright renounced the use of the Chinese vendor’s equipment in 5G networks due to national security concerns.
Technology matters
Under the deal, Nokia will supply equipment from its O-RAN-compliant 5G AirScale portfolio based on its ReefShark System-on-Chip technology. This includes modular, high-capacity baseband solutions and high-performance Habrok Massive MIMO radios.
Nokia says its solutions integrate with DT’s multi-supplier Open RAN environment where Fujitsu will supply its O-RAN-compliant mid-band remote radio head products. The deal will also see Nokia support DT with network modernisation alongside existing suppliers.
The Finnish vendor will also deploy its intelligent AI-powered MantaRay NM solution to improve network monitoring and management. It will provide AI-based services, including digital deployment, optimisation, and technical support.
Multi-vendor Open RAN
Abdu Mudesir, Group CTO and Managing Director of Technology Germany at Deutsche Telekom commented, “This deal is further evidence of our significant commitment to multi-vendor Open RAN and ensuring we have greater supplier choice for radio access networks.
“The network performance in the already implemented area is delivering the best customer experience. And now together with Nokia, we look forward to scaling up Open RAN in Germany.”
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, added, “While others talk about doing Open RAN, Nokia is actually doing it and doing it on a grand scale. This is a significant deal for Nokia as we have been selected by the largest network operator in Europe to extend our partnership.
“We are proud to have been chosen because of our technology leadership, innovative product portfolio, and open approach. We look forward to expanding our partnership further in the future.”
Orange Business launches managed GenAI for businesses
Operator has road-tested ‘Live Intelligence’ with 50,000 staff this year and wants to expand the service beyond France to Europe
Orange Business has launched a new multi-LLM solution it calls ‘Live Intelligence’ which it believes will help enterprises and government entities adopt AI more readily due to its ease of operation. The so-called “plug and play” service has been used internally by the operator and while it is initially targeting organisation in France, it says the service will be available “soon” across Europe.
The operator is keen to emphasise the sovereign nature of the service pointing out secure data remains hosted and managed in Europe – in contrast to many US-based rivals – meaning European organisations won’t need to compromise to adopt AI. In March, the Orange Business launched two trusted generative AI (GenAI) offers covering the infrastructure layer (IaaS) and applications (SaaS) bundled with a service wrap on professional services.
To launch these services, the operator partnered LightOn, a French start-up specialising in GenAI solutions. LightOn provides a “complete solution” with LLMs and intuitive business interfaces, which makes it extremely easy and understandable for average users to use and optimise. Orange Business emphasised at the time the services were supported by very high bandwidth servers and GPUs, hosted in Orange data centres in France on the trusted Cloud Avenue platform and operated by it.
‘Live Intelligence’ – which is available in SaaS mode – addresses the growing phenomenon of “Shadow AI,” which refers to the uncontrolled adoption by employees of free online solutions, exposing companies to the risk of sensitive data leaks.
Beyond the data sensitivities Orange is touting the service’s simplicity which it believes will accelerate adoption. This is pretty important if companies want to prove a return on investment for AI investments. In Australia, the government – a large Microsoft Copilot user – found in a survey that only a third of trial participants across classifications and job families used Copilot daily, despite users liking it.
Orange says users will get – via “a straightforward and intuitive interface” – access to a library of pre-set prompts, enabling them to address the most common use cases: analyse or summarise a document, extract important information from an email chain, write meeting minutes, draft an agenda, prepare interviews or edit articles.
The solution allows companies to monitor the deployment and use of GenAI, such as the type of LLM, the number of users, and a consumption dashboard which is important to prevent cost blowouts.
“Supporting business innovation through digital services is at the heart of our strategy,” said Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier-Lompré. “Live Intelligence enables all businesses, regardless of their size or sector, to leverage the power of GenAI to improve operational efficiency and customer experience without compromising the security of their data. AI is more than just a technology; it represents a fundamental shift in how we envision future applications.”
Expanding African language models
Somewhat overshadowed by the ‘Live Intelligence’ launch but by no means less important, Orange announced that it will partner with OpenAI and Meta to fine-tune AI Large Language models (LLMs) to understand regional languages across Africa that today are not understood by any GenAI model.
This project aims to develop custom AI models capable of allowing customers to communicate naturally in their local languages with Orange for customer support and sales. These open-source AI models will also be provided externally by Orange with a free license for non-commercial use such as for public health, public education, and many other services. Orange intends to help drive AI innovation in these regional languages including by collaborating on these new AI models with local startups and other technology companies.
The initiative, commencing in the first half of 2025 will initially focus on incorporating regional languages, namely Wolof and Pulaar, spoken by 16 million people and six million people, respectively, in West Africa. Orange’s long-term goal is to work with many AI technology providers to enable future models to recognise all African languages spoken and written across Orange’s 18-country footprint in the region.
By fine-tuning leading AI models such as OpenAI’s ‘Whisper’ speech model and Meta’s ‘Llama’ text model with diverse examples of these languages, the partners reckon they will enable them to better understand these regional languages.
In addition to this regional African language recognition project, OpenAI and Orange have signed an agreement that will provide Orange with direct access to OpenAI’s models, available for the first time in Europe with data processing and hosting in European datacentres, enabling Orange to work on improving existing solutions across its footprint. Furthermore, this new partnership will also facilitate early access to OpenAI’s latest and most advanced AI models, including key use cases such as AI-based voice interactions with Orange customers.
