Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone have joined BAI Communications’ neutral host mobile network on the London Underground. They join EE and Three, who have already signed up.
The announcement means that customers of all four of the UK’s major MNO’s will be able to access 4G and 5G…

Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone have joined BAI Communications’ neutral host mobile network on the London Underground. They join EE and Three, who have already signed up.

In June 2021, BAI Communications was awarded a 20-year contract by Transport for London (TfL) to deliver mobile connectivity on the London Underground.

Progress towards delivering 4G connectivity across the Tube network is already being made. A previous pilot section on the eastern end of the Jubilee Line was successfully transferred to BAI earlier in 2022. A further 5 stations are expected to go live within the next 6 months.

BAI’s neutral host network will also host the new Emergency Services Network (ESN).

Billy D’Arcy, CEO of BAI Communications UK, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 to our network and to reach another key milestone in our work to build a backbone of connectivity across the capital. Staying connected is more important than ever, and we are proud to be working with our partners to offer 5G-ready connectivity which will transform the way people move and work in the capital, allowing them to travel more smartly, safely, and securely.”

Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at TfL, also commented: “Mobile connectivity across the stations and tunnels across the Tube network will help our customers stay connected more easily as well as work, shop and stay in touch on the move. I’m delighted that all four major mobile operators are set to provide high-speed, uninterrupted 4G coverage on the Tube. We are working hard with BAI Communications to get the next stations completed by the end of the year so our customers can benefit as soon as possible.”

Farice and Far North Digital (FND) have signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint marketing and sales agreement for fibre optic connectivity between Japan and Iceland.  Farice’s new IRIS submarine cable will provide connectivity between Iceland and Ireland, and FND’s new Arctic cable spans between Japan and Ireland…

Farice and Far North Digital (FND) have signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint marketing and sales agreement for fibre optic connectivity between Japan and Iceland.  Farice’s new IRIS submarine cable will provide connectivity between Iceland and Ireland, and FND’s new Arctic cable spans between Japan and Ireland. The parties have agreed to develop a connectivity exchange at their shared landing site in Galway, Ireland.  Through the exchange, customers will be able to buy direct connectivity between Japan and Iceland, linking the third largest economy in the world and Iceland, which has 100% green and sustainable electricity.  

The FND fibre route will be the first Arctic route connecting Asia with Europe through the Northwest Passage. The route follows an approximately great circle marine route, greatly reducing the optical distance between Asia and Europe, thus minimizing latency.  The FND fibre is scheduled for completion and operation by the end of 2026.

The IRIS project has been in development since 2019 and the system is planned for service early 2023.  Farice chose the landing in Ireland due to its short distance to Iceland with Dublin as one of Europe’s key network hubs. Direct connectivity between IRIS and FND fibre at the landing site minimizes latency for traffic between Iceland and Japan.

“We are very excited about the development of the new Arctic fibre cable that will bring the continents of Asia, Northern America and Europe closer together.  The landing of the cable in Galway next to our IRIS cable will drive the development of a new submarine network exchange, connecting Iceland to Asia, North America and Northern Scandinavia”, says Thorvardur Sveinsson, CEO of Farice.

“Farice is a terrific partner, and Iceland has the renewable resources to make the Internet greener”, says Guy Houser, FND’s Chief Technical Officer.  “Our combined system offers faster and more secure connectivity for the world and the North.  It is critical infrastructure in the information age.”

Lebanon has been going through a major financial crisis since 2019, the effects of which have only been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The value of the Lebanese pound has collapsed by around 90%, bankrupting the government and crippling the country’s electric grid, which is largely reliant on importing fuel and energy from neighbouring countries.
Naturally, this economic catastrophe has had enormous effects for the country’s telecoms industry, which have rapidly transformed from government-backed cash cows to skeleton operations struggling to keep their networks operational…

Lebanon has been going through a major financial crisis since 2019, the effects of which have only been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The value of the Lebanese pound has collapsed by around 90%, bankrupting the government and crippling the country’s electric grid, which is largely reliant on importing fuel and energy from neighbouring countries.

Naturally, this economic catastrophe has had enormous effects for the country’s telecoms industry, which have rapidly transformed from government-backed cash cows to skeleton operations struggling to keep their networks operational. 

Back in October last year, with the country was rapidly running out of fuel, the Parliamentary Media and Communications Committee warned that the country’s telecoms networks were on the brink of complete failure due to a lack of power.  

By January 2022, the situation was still dire, with the telcos “living day by day”, reporting that that they were having their expensive network equipment looted regularly and were unable to import replacements. 

Fuel remained a major problem, despite the government signing various deals with Syria and Jordan to help address the shortage. Having once accounted for roughly 9% of operating costs for the telcos in 2018, securing fuel now constitutes roughly 60%. 

Of course, in the last few years the telcos themselves have taken drastic cost cutting measures to try and provide some financial stability. Among other things, they have completely eliminated their marketing services, stopped providing additional added value services with third-party suppliers, negotiated lower rent at their physical locations, and frozen employee acquisition. In fact, roughly 20% of all employees at both mobile operators, Alfa and Touch, have already resigned.

All told, these cuts have served to reduce operating costs by around half in most cases; Touch, for example, reported that its operating costs had shrunk from $530 million to $254 million, with further cuts still to come. 

But despite these drastic measures, the future of these operators was still jeopardy. With the crisis pulling at consumers’ purse strings, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the mobile sector has plummeted to an all-time low, currently around just $1.2, compared to $26.2 prior to the crisis. 

Combined with shrinking value of the Lebanese pound, and Touch made the equivalent of just $45.5 million in 2021, compared to roughly $850 million in 2018.

Relief for the sector finally arrived on May 20, with the government approving the operators’ request to hike up prices for consumers. 

Tariffs had previously been pegged to the old exchange rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, but the new rules would allow a switch to the flexible exchange rate of the Lebanese central bank’s Sayrafa platform. All subscriptions are to be paid in dollars, with customers told to calculate their new rate by dividing their existing package by three and multiplying it by the Sayrafa rate (now around 29,000 pounds to the dollar). 

In effect, most mobile customers will be billed around five-times what they were previously paying for mobile data, while fixed line customers can expect a 2.5-fold increase in costs from state-run broadband provider, Ogero. 

These price hikes went into effect last Friday, 1 July, with customers and digital rights organisations already launching complaints, saying that many people will simply be priced out of mobile services.

“Lebanon will become a place where no one will be able to use telecoms except those who are privileged,” explained Mohammed Najem, co-founder of Beirut-based digital rights organisation SMEX to The National. “The prices have increased at least five times what they were. A lot of people can’t afford these prices, which means many people will either use much less internet or they will go totally offline.”

Until some lasting solutions can be devised for Lebanon’s economic crisis, it seems the country’s telecom sector will continue to just barely cling to life, at least for the short term. 

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Today, MTS has become the latest mobile operator to join New Digital Solutions, taking a 25% stake in the business alongside its mobile rivals Rostelecom, MegaFon, and Vimpelcom.
The move means that all four of Russia’s largest mobile operators are now equal partners in the JV, which aims to explore the viability and availability of various spectrum bands for 5G services.
The history of New Digital Solutions begins back in 2017, when MegaFon and Rostelecom first set up a working group to explore the future of 5G technology in the 3…

Today, MTS has become the latest mobile operator to join New Digital Solutions, taking a 25% stake in the business alongside its mobile rivals Rostelecom, MegaFon, and Vimpelcom.

The move means that all four of Russia’s largest mobile operators are now equal partners in the JV, which aims to explore the viability and availability of various spectrum bands for 5G services.

The history of New Digital Solutions begins back in 2017, when MegaFon and Rostelecom first set up a working group to explore the future of 5G technology in the 3.4-3.6GHz and 26GHz frequency bands. 

A year later, the pair formed a JV, Digital for Business LLC, saying that it would continue the companies’ 5G frequency research, ultimately aiming to build its own 5G that would then be offered to other Russian operators on a wholesale basis. 

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) had approved the formation of the JV on the condition that it would allow non-discriminatory access to radio frequencies for all participants in the Russian mobile market, therefore maintaining healthy competition. 

Digital for Business LLC was renamed as New Digital Solutions in 2019.

At the start of 2021, Vimplecom joined the JV, taking an equal stake in the business, saying that Russia was lagging behind the global 5G trend and that “even large operators cannot solve these problems alone”.

“The lack of frequencies suitable for creating 5G networks in Russia is one of the most significant constraints. The JV has a very large amount of work ahead of releasing radio frequency resources, taking into account the whole range of issues – regulatory, organisational, technical, economic,” explained Rostelecom president Mikhail Oseevsky at the time. 

“The result of the work of the [JV] should be an objective full-fledged picture of the frequency resource available for the construction of fifth-generation networks in Russia. These data will allow for more informed decisions both for the state at all levels of regulation and for mobile operators to build an effective business based on new generation networks.”

This left MTS, Russia’s largest mobile operator, as the only significant mobile player without a piece of New Digital Solutions, something which it quickly indicated it would seek to rectify. Now, with all four operators on board, New Digital Solutions should have all the expertise it needs for better understanding the future of Russian 5G spectrum.

So far, however, despite roughly four years of research by the new JV, launching nationwide 5G services in Russia remains something of a technical quagmire, with much of the optimal spectrum already occupied by various other services. 

In December 2019, Rostelecom, MegaFon, VimpelCom, and MTS agreed to clear the spectrum in the 700 MHz, 3.4–3.8 GHz, 4.4–4.99 GHz, and 24.25–29.5 GHz bands in preparation for reassignment for 5G services. However, many of these spectrum bands are contentious; for example, the Security Council of the Russian Federation says that part of the 3.4–3.8 GHz band is currently used for government services, while portions of the 4.4–4.99 GHz band are currently used by the Federal Protective Service (FSO), the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Defense, and the Russian space agency, Roskosmos.

As a result, the JV’s focus has been largely on testing for electromagnetic compatibility, conducting research on frequencies suitability for delivering 5G services, and clearing existing spectrum bands. 

It remains unclear whether New Digital Solutions still intends to rollout its own network infrastructure in future.  

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