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Can you introduce yourself and your role? 
My name is Norbert Westfal, and I am the president of BREKO, the leading German Broadband Association, since November 2014 and the managing director of EWE Tel since 2011. I have previously worked for companies such as Mannesmann, Arcor, and Vodafone in various capacities.
In my role as BREKO president, I represent over 410 member companies (including over 225 network operators) which are responsible for 80 % of the competitive fibre deployment (FTTB/H) in Germany…

Can you introduce yourself and your role? 

My name is Norbert Westfal, and I am the president of BREKO, the leading German Broadband Association, since November 2014 and the managing director of EWE Tel since 2011. I have previously worked for companies such as Mannesmann, Arcor, and Vodafone in various capacities.

In my role as BREKO president, I represent over 410 member companies (including over 225 network operators) which are responsible for 80 % of the competitive fibre deployment (FTTB/H) in Germany. In 2020 alone, BREKO members invested around €2.9 billion, thus making a significant contribution to the nationwide roll-out of fibre and to achieving the broadband targets of the German government.

How do you think Germany’s broadband landscape will evolve in the next year or so?

The outlook for Germany’s broadband landscape, especially regarding fibre deployment, is very promising. For the first time ever, the German government included a real fibre goal in their coalition agreement. This strong political commitment is mirrored by the efforts of our alternative network operators that are deploying future-proof fibre networks on a daily basis. 

Thanks to a great amount of economically viable deployment, combined with funding in those areas where it is absolutely necessary, we are constantly moving towards our infrastructure goal of bringing fibre to at least every building in Germany. Additionally, we are also connecting more and more mobile sites to fibre networks, which shows that Germany is on the right way for achieving its future connectivity.

Where do you see the role of alternative network operators for fibre deployment in Germany?

Even more than in other European countries, alternative network operators consisting of nationwide as well as regional carriers and municipal utilities among others, are indispensable for a fast, comprehensive and sustainable fibre deployment in Germany. Three quarters of current fibre deployment is being done by alternative network operators, mostly through privately financed deployment.

To keep up this momentum, we need the right political and regulatory framework. Above all, public funding programmes must focus on areas where economically viable deployment cannot be foreseen for the next years. Furthermore, we need faster and more efficient granting procedures. And we should support those companies who offer Open Access to their newly built fibre network. They should not be forced to allow co-deployment and overbuild. 

What are you most looking forward to about Connected Germany? 

I am mostly looking forward to making new connections and having exciting discussions about Germany’s future fibre deployment during one of the first big events for over two years. I am also thrilled to share our, the alternative network operator’s view on current fibre roll-out during my opening speech of day 2 and its subsequent panel discussion and to get in touch with BREKO’s numerous member companies that will be present during Connected Germany.

FTTH/B expansion is a huge topic at this year’s Connected Germany, with sessions covering everything from network deployment and optimisation to the rapdily evolving investment and regulatory landscapes. You can hear from Norbert and the rest of our incredible speaker line-up by following the link and registering your place for Mainz next week!

Back in October last year, Singtel announced that it had sold a 70% stake in its wholly owned mobile infrastructure subsidiary, Australian Tower Network (ATN), to Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, for $1.43 billion.
ATN’s assets comprised around 2,300 mobile network towers and rooftop sites. As part of the agreement, ATN also pledged to build a further 565 new towers in the coming three years…

Back in October last year, Singtel announced that it had sold a 70% stake in its wholly owned mobile infrastructure subsidiary, Australian Tower Network (ATN), to Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, for $1.43 billion.

ATN’s assets comprised around 2,300 mobile network towers and rooftop sites. As part of the agreement, ATN also pledged to build a further 565 new towers in the coming three years. 

Optus, Singtel’s Australian operator subsidiary, would continue to use ATN’s passive infrastructure to support their mobile services under the terms of a long-term lease agreement. 

Now, a consortium led by AustralianSuper and ATN has announced they have won an auction to purchase Macquarie’s Axicom for A$3.58 billion (US$2.68 billion).

Axicom is Australia’s largest independent mobile tower operator, operating roughly 2,000 sites in metro and outer-metro locations across Australia. Thus, following the deals conclusion, ATN will own around 4,300 towers in total. 

For comparison, Telstra’s InfraCo Towers, which became Amplitel last year, owns around 8,000 towers.

« This acquisition is a unique opportunity to scale up ATN’s operations and expand its customer base, » said Singtel Group’s Chief Corporate Officer, Lim Cheng Cheng. « It also reinforces Singtel’s commitment as a long-term investor in the Australian telecoms space. »

The purchase means that Singtel’s stake in ATN has been somewhat diluted; AustralianSuper will hold an 82% stake in ATN, with Singtel owning the remaining 18%.

Investor appetite for mobile tower infrastructure has been enormous over the past few years, with firms viewing these assets as reliable sources of steady long-term growth. Enormous deals are being made all over the world, perhaps most notable among them Cellnex’s purchase of all of CK Hutchison’s European towers in 2020 for roughly €9 billion.

For AustralianSuper, it seems that this surge of investment is highly likely to continue, with the company targeting additional digital infrastructure businesses for M&A over the coming years.

« AustralianSuper is looking to double its infrastructure portfolio over the next five years from its current A$31 billion, » said AustralianSuper’s head of infrastructure, Nik Kemp. « We believe that there will be significant growth in demand for digital infrastructure and will actively consider future opportunities in this space. »

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Also in the news: 
Startup Stories: We are the future of loyalty
« The introduction of 5G capabilities in real production are enabling new connected mobility services »
FCC places Russia’s Kaspersky on US security risk list

Tell us about your start up Sytronix is a high-performance computing company specializing in the designing and manufacturing of storage and compute servers. The main products we manufacture are NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers for data storage and GPU (graphics processing unit) servers for high intensity computational workloads. Our NAS servers allow for storage of large amounts of data, collaborative working and will provide security to prevent loss of data, making them perfect for business environments, places where stored data is critically important or power users such as video editors…

Tell us about your start up
Sytronix is a high-performance computing company specializing in the designing and manufacturing of storage and compute servers. The main products we manufacture are NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers for data storage and GPU (graphics processing unit) servers for high intensity computational workloads.

Our NAS servers allow for storage of large amounts of data, collaborative working and will provide security to prevent loss of data, making them perfect for business environments, places where stored data is critically important or power users such as video editors.

The GPU servers can be used for computational workloads such as deep learning, AI, video rendering/compression or engineering and physics simulations. These servers can also be rented out to others who require the computational power for their own work, allowing the owner to generate a passive income which makes these products very appealing to investors.

The majority of our customers are based in the North West of England as our clients being local to us allows us to provide fantastic in person tech support very quickly when required.

What is your USP?
We offer fully customisable storage servers bespoke to our customer’s needs. We allow customers to buy pre-built machines, configure their own specification if they are aware of what they need, or simply talk to us and tell us about their requirements and we will go away and design the perfect server for them, minimising the amount of time a customer must spend researching. Most other NAS suppliers only sell pre-built servers with no buying advice which leads to many customers purchasing devices unsuitable for their needs. Sytronix ensure that a customer never purchases a product unsuitable for their requirements.
Decentralised computing is an emerging technology that has only began challenging contemporary computing methods in recent years. We are the first company in the UK that is selling a decentralised computing server that will generate passive income. There are other high performance machines that generate passive income such as cryptocurrency mining rigs, however they can only be used for that one purpose. Our servers are built to perform a multitude of different revenue earning tasks, prolonging the profitability of the machines in future. Sytronix GPU servers can also perform various tasks simultaneously, providing multiple income streams from one server which is yet to be offered in other products such as mining rigs.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
Networks with high reliability and fast speeds are critical to our core products, whether it be for accessing and transferring data stored on our NAS servers or performing complex computational workloads over a network with our GPU servers. It is vital that Sytronix as a company as well as our customers have a network provider that provides a high quality service.

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How have you got to your current stage of development?
Sytronix’s Managing Director has decades of experience working within the high-performance computing sector and is highly respected amongst industry professionals. His experience has helped Sytronix analyse the tech industry effectively to outline areas with substantial opportunities to take advantage of. His knowledge has aided the design process of our products, allowing us to create IT equipment that can outperform our competition, while still maintaining an affordable cost.

Why did you establish the business?
We knew there were areas of IT in the UK with serious skill shortages and technical deficiencies regarding certain types of computing which have also been highlighted by the government as areas in need on upskilling. We plan to provide hardware and support to these growing industries and help the UK become a front runner in the decentralised compute market which is currently dominated by the US and China.

What does the future hold for your business?
Decentralised computing is a massively growing industry that has begun seriously challenging contemporary centralised computing (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, etc.) in recent years. Our aim is to be at the forefront of the decentralised computing revolution and be a leading company in the industry that is considered the go-to supplier of decentralised computing hardware.

HEADQUARTERS: Manchester
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 4
LAST FUNDING TYPE: Government grants
WEBSITE URL: www.sytronix.co.uk
FOUNDERS:
James Walsh 
Jordan Harris 

You will find Sytronix in the startup zone at Connected North in Manchester – 25-26 April 2022. Book at www.totaltele.com/connectednorth