Today, the UK government has announced that it has given the greenlight to ‘Project Skyway’, a plan to create a ‘drone superhighway’ between the Midlands and the Southeast.  
The proposed drone corridor will be the longest in the world, spanning around 165 miles and connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby. It will be built and developed over the coming two years, with plans to extend the corridor all the way to Ipswich and Southampton if early trials prove successful…

Today, the UK government has announced that it has given the greenlight to ‘Project Skyway’, a plan to create a ‘drone superhighway’ between the Midlands and the Southeast.  

The proposed drone corridor will be the longest in the world, spanning around 165 miles and connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby. It will be built and developed over the coming two years, with plans to extend the corridor all the way to Ipswich and Southampton if early trials prove successful. 

One completed, the corridor will allow for various drone trials on a scale unattainable anywhere else in the UK.

The project is led by UK-based drone specialist Altitude Angel, who is working alongside UK telecoms operator BT and numerous tech start-ups. 

Altitude Angel will provide their Unified Traffic Management (UTM) solution, a holistic system for drone management during flight, similar to an automated air traffic control system.  

UTM hardware from Altitude Angel and the rest of the Skyway consortium will be deployed along the planned route, being integrated with BT’s mobile network infrastructure assets where possible.

BT, meanwhile, will provide the mobile connectivity over which the drones communicate. 

In essence, this will allow for a ‘superhighway’ of network of sensors that will provide real-time location data about everything in the local airspace and direct the drones their location.

This is the reverse of current drone flight, which typically requires an operator to pilot the drone using cameras on the drone itself. 

“Cellular connectivity, and a secure, resilient 4G and 5G mobile network, will continue to enable the rapid growth of the drone market. Through our EE network, BT is providing the UK’s largest and most reliable network to Project Skyway, to keep drones connected to ARROW® so they can receive greater situational awareness and tactical collision avoidance instructions from the autopilot system, and stream key video feeds such as search and rescue footage back to control rooms,” explained BT’s Director of Drones, Dave Pankhurst.

This reliance on relatively ubiquitous mobile connectivity and a largely autonomous UTM system should allow unpiloted drones to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), a crucial step in preparing for services like drone delivery, private drone fleets, and long-distance search and rescue operations.

“The social and economic potential of drones is immense and requires close industry collaboration to fully unlock these opportunities in a safe and responsible way. It’s an exciting time to be part of such a powerful consortium. Project Skyway will be crucial to showcase how the UK can not only lead the creation of new jobs and public services, but form the backbone of how we integrate drones into our daily lives,” said Pankhurst.

Of course, there remain a myriad of logistical and legal challenges to be overcome before commercial drone services take to the skies, but the creation of a testbed of this size is nonetheless a huge asset for the advancement of drone technology. 

Will mobile networks be the backbone to the drone services of the future? Find out how the operators are utilising drones at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:
Planes, trains, and automobiles: Starlink gets FCC greenlight for moving vehicle internet
KDDI network outage hits almost 40m people
TIM to shift almost half its Italian staff into NetCo

Today, a report from Sky News suggests that Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has approached TalkTalk with an offer of £3 billion to takeover the UK ISP. 
Sources suggest that the indicative bid was submitted over the last few weeks…

Today, a report from Sky News suggests that Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has approached TalkTalk with an offer of £3 billion to takeover the UK ISP. 

Sources suggest that the indicative bid was submitted over the last few weeks, with ongoing discussion being held on a ‘non-exclusive basis’.

TalkTalk Is the fourth largest ISP in the UK, with around 4.2 million subscribers, roughly 2.4 million of which are for fibre broadband. For VMO2, the acquisition would make them and even greater rival to BT in the broadband space, leaving Sky in a distant third place.

TalkTalk was taken private in 2020 and, ever since then, has been the subject of much speculation in the UK telecoms industry. Earlier this year, multiple reports suggested that TalkTalk had received takeover interest from both Vodafone and Sky, though no deal ultimately materialised.  

It was around this time that TalkTalk announced it had appointed investment bank Lazard to review their options with regards to any potential suitors. 

Now, it remains to be seen whether this new interest from VMO2 will inspire Vodafone or Sky to relaunch their own takeover bids for TalkTalk.
 

How would this acquisition of TalkTalk by VMO2 reshape the UK telecoms market? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain event   

Also in the news:
Planes, trains, and automobiles: Starlink gets FCC greenlight for moving vehicle internet
KDDI network outage hits almost 40m people
TIM to shift almost half its Italian staff into NetCo

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider today announced successful trial of India’s first 5G Private Network at Bosch Automotive Electronics India Pvt Ltd (RBAI) facility in Bengaluru.
Airtel’s on-premise 5G Captive Private Network was built over the trial 5G spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Airtel has implemented two Industrial grade use cases for quality improvement and operational efficiency at Bosch&’…

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider today announced successful trial of India’s first 5G Private Network at Bosch Automotive Electronics India Pvt Ltd (RBAI) facility in Bengaluru.

Airtel’s on-premise 5G Captive Private Network was built over the trial 5G spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Airtel has implemented two Industrial grade use cases for quality improvement and operational efficiency at Bosch’s state of the art manufacturing facility, utilising the trial spectrum. In both the cases, 5G technology such as mobile broadband and ultra reliable low latency communications drove automated operations ensuring faster scale up and reduced downtimes.

The private network set up on trial spectrum at the Bosch facility has the capability to manage thousands of connected devices along with delivering multi- GBPS throughput.

The Private 5G network provides greater reliability, enhanced security and huge flexibility, freeing the operations from wire-dependency to enable Bosch in achieving the benefits of automated operations. In any manufacturing set up, quality and efficiency are very important tools to measure.

With Airtel 5G Captive Private Network, Bosch Manufacturing Execution System was able to significantly reduce the time taken to asses the quality through Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) of surface mounted devices.

The process was made efficient by ensuring faster transfer of data over highly reliable and secure network to an AI/ML server for real-time decision making by Bosch Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

The blazing fast, low latency, high speed, Airtel 5G also helped Bosch shop floor managers and operators identify and resolves issues in real time thus reducing the Mean Time To Repair ( MTTR ) and Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF).

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO – Airtel Business said, “Airtel is committed to India’s digital transformation and supporting the development of its enterprise as they seek to acquire global scale. We believe that Airtel has the world class infrastructure, partnerships and expertise to deliver Captive Private Network Solution in any part of the country and to enterprise of any size.”

Subhash P, Head of Technical Functions, Bosch Automotive Electronics India states: “The low latency and reliable connectivity provided by the Airtel Private 5G network at our facility which was experienced during the proof of concept is enabling us to enhance our efficiency and our productivity .Usage of 5G will significantly reduce IT wired infrastructure and enhance the operational effeciency.”

Airtel is spearheading the 5G technology in India, testing various vertical industry use cases with multiple partners and at several locations as a part of its #5GforBusiness.

Last year, Airtel successfully demonstrated India’s first 5G experience over a live 4G network in Hyderabad. It has also demonstrated India’s first rural 5G trial as well as the first cloud gaming experience on 5G. As part of #5GforBusiness, Airtel has joined forces with leading global consulting and technology companies and brands to test 5G based solutions.

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscribe to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here
Also in the news:
Planes, trains, and automobiles: Starlink gets FCC greenlight for moving vehicle internet
KDDI network outage hits almost 40m people
TIM to shift almost half its Italian staff into NetCo

Today, MTN Group has announced it has entered into negotiations to acquire Telkom South Africa, telling shareholders to ‘exercise caution’ when dealing with the company’s securities until further announcements have been made.
Financial details of the potential takeover have not been announced…

Today, MTN Group has announced it has entered into negotiations to acquire Telkom South Africa, telling shareholders to ‘exercise caution’ when dealing with the company’s securities until further announcements have been made.

Financial details of the potential takeover have not been announced, but MTN says it is seeking to purchase the entirety of Telkom, either by offering equivalent shares in MTN or by a combination of shares and cash.

MTN has been interested in purchasing Telkom for many years. Back in 2014, the South African Competition Commission had blocked an offer from MTN to buy Telkom’s radio access network due to its impact in reducing market competition, and since then murmurs of a takeover have been rife. Most recently, rumours were circulating in November 2021, with sources suggesting that Telkom had rejected a takeover offer.

Since then, however, Telkom’s chief executive has changed, with former MTN executive Serame Taukobong replacing the outgoing Sipho Maseko. This perhaps explains Telkom’s apparent willingness to engage in overt talks with MTN.

Nonetheless, MTN and Telkom were quick to stress that negotiations are only just beginning, with no deal yet finalised.

“Discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty that the transaction will be consummated,” said the companies in a joint statement.

The merger would create a new mobile market leader, combining MTN’s 31% market share with Telkom’s rapidly growing 15% share. Current market leader, Vodacom, dominates the market with a 42% share.

As a result, the South African competition regulators would be sure to heavily scrutinise any potential deal and would likely impose strict conditions to ensure that healthy competition is maintained within the sector.
 

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscribe to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here
Also in the news:
Planes, trains, and automobiles: Starlink gets FCC greenlight for moving vehicle internet
KDDI network outage hits almost 40m people
TIM to shift almost half its Italian staff into NetCo