‘Satelliten spielen bei der Versorgung des ländlichen Raums eine wichtige Rolle dort, wo der Ausbau des Glasfasernetzes langwierig oder nicht wirtschaftlich ist’


INTERVIEW

We had the pleasure of interviewing Volker Leyendecker from SES ahead of Connected Germany, being held in Mainz next week on December 6-7 2022.

  1. Can you introduce yourself and your current role?

Als Sales Director DACH bei SES Networks verantworte ich die Vertriebsaktivitäten im deutschsprachigen Raum. Mein Schwerpunktthema ist Datenkommunikation via Satellit. Seit Mai 2022 bin ich zudem Mitglied im Präsidium des Verbands der Anbieter von Telekommunikations- und Mehrwertdiensten (VATM).

  1. Where does SES sit within Germany’s broadband ecosystem?

SES ist mit seinem Angebot der Datenübertragung via Satellit unter anderem für terrestrische Daten- und Mobilfunknetze durch Zuführung von Bandbreite sowie als Fall-Back-Lösung interessant. Grundsaetzlich kann ueber Satellit jeder Ort kurzfristig mit Bandbreite versorgt und damit mit schnellem Internet erschlossen werden. Eine wichtige Rolle können unsere Satelliten außerdem bei der Versorgung mit Internet und Mobilfunk als Backup oder im Fall von Naturkatastrophen fuer Desaster Recovery einnehmen.

  1. Will satellite and other non-fixed solutions become a bigger part of the conversation around providing connectivity for Germany’s rural areas?

Satelliten spielen bei der Versorgung des ländlichen Raums eine wichtige Rolle dort, wo der Ausbau des Glasfasernetzes langwierig oder nicht wirtschaftlich ist. Mit unserer neuen O3b mPower Flotte können wir Bandbreitenzufuehrung fuer die Erschliessung mit Internet mit bis zu 10 Gbit/s und einer maximalen Latenz von 150ms selbst in entlegenen Regionen anbieten.

  1. What are you most looking forward to at Connected Germany

Ich freue mich vor allem auf den Austausch mit unseren Kund:innen und Kolleg:innen zum Jahresabschluss und auf spannende Gespräche über den Start unserer neuen MEO-Satelliten-Flotte O3b mPower, die in Kürze ins All startet und bald unseren Partner:innen für schnelles Internet aus dem All zur Verfügung stehen wird.

You can hear from Volker and the rest of our amazing speaker line-up by securing your place at next week’s Connected Germany – follow the link to book your pass!

Zain commits US$800m to Sudan upgrade

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Sending occasional e-mail from 3rd parties about industry white papers, online and live events relevant to subscribers helps us fund this website and free weekly newsletter. We never sell your personal data. Click here to view our privacy policy.

Cote d’Ivoire selling Orange stake in public offering

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Sending occasional e-mail from 3rd parties about industry white papers, online and live events relevant to subscribers helps us fund this website and free weekly newsletter. We never sell your personal data. Click here to view our privacy policy.

AMD and Viettel collaborate on 5G mobile network expansion

AMD and Viettel High Tech – a member of Viettel Group – have completed a 5G mobile network field trial deployment conducted by Viettel and powered by AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices.

Viettel High Tech has used AMD radio technology with prior 4G deployments and is now accelerating new networks via new 5G remote radio heads. Designed to meet the growing capacity and performance requirements of mobile users globally, the Viettel 5G mobile network is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

AMD is the exclusive radio unit silicon supplier for Viettel’s indigenous 5G radio development. After the successful completion of the first field trial, Zynq MPSoCs are now set to be extended to an additional 300 Macro 8T8R base stations and 900 5G 8T8R Macro radios. The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC was also chosen by Viettel for its first-generation 64T64R Massive MIMO radio which is currently being optimized for field trials. Viettel is developing the next generation of radios to also include Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC devices, to provide industry-leading integration and higher performance.

“Viettel is committed to advancing mobile technology leadership by working closely with AMD to incorporate its adaptable SoC technology into our new generation of 5G networks,” said Nguyen Vu Ha, General Director of Viettel High Tech. “Going from VHT’s history of making 4G BTS, this decision to scale for the growing demands of 5G was based on evaluating various factors including flexibility, simplification, design stability and the experience of engineers.”

“5G provides new opportunities to offer higher levels of performance, power efficiency and new services along with increased reliability required to meet the growing data demands of cellular networks,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, corporate vice president, APAC Sales, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “We are proud of our close collaboration with Viettel and remain focused on enabling its mobile network to deliver the optimal end-user experience as well as the flexibility to evolve and grow as Viettel’s user base and required bandwidth continue to increase globally.”

Viettel is the largest telecom operator in Vietnam, serving more than 130 million mobile customers.

MORE ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN…

Maximising Voice Margins: Strategies for Managing OBR and Stopping Bill Shock

Origin-Based-Rating (OBR) is being rolled out in a growing number of markets globally, creating new challenges for voice service providers and MNOs. They are being challenged to maintain and grow margin as new surcharges are appearing on their bills often six months or more after a service has gone live. … [visit site to read more]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Andrew Whitelaw, CEO of Springboard

Origin-Based-Rating (OBR) is being rolled out in a growing number of markets globally, creating new challenges for voice service providers and MNOs. They are being challenged to maintain and grow margin as new surcharges are appearing on their bills often six months or more after a service has gone live. … [visit site to read more]

Ekinops and World Mobile plan new connectivity options for Africa

Optical fibre and satellite are driving two very different business models from Ekinops and World Mobile which could, potentially, boost African connectivity.

Ekinops, an optical transport and network access specialist, has been selected by telecom infrastructure provider Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group (BCS), a pan-African wholesale telecom infrastructure provider, for its network backbone upgrade, which, the partners say, will enhance connectivity throughout Africa. 

The project involves long-distance regional optical transport networks capable of 1Tbps capacity across Africa, and urban connectivity upgrades through 44 metro ring deployments, offering 10G traffic from points of presence and towers to the network hub.

Supplying its Ekinops360 optical transport portfolio, Ekinops says it will increase BCS’s backbone capacity with both single and dual fibre capabilities, aggregating low-capacity circuits to high bit rate protocols to deliver speeds ranging from 1Gbps to 1 Tbps. The solution also accommodates future demand for backbone capacity increases through the company’s FlexRate coherent channels, to extend the network’s reach and capacity throughout the region. 

Meanwhile, World Mobile, which aims to provide affordable connectivity to rural and remote areas worldwide via its blockchain-based mobile network, says it is expanding its network across the African continent following a series of successful pilot tests using low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the US and UK. 

Using innovative satellite and relay technology with stratospheric balloons, its first efforts are looking to provide connectivity in hard-to-reach areas within Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria.

World Mobile pilot tested the use of Starlink’s satellite network as a backhaul option for providing internet to World Mobile’s AirNodes (or internet access points). The company says it expects further tests with other LEO satellite systems will enable services to roll out more efficiently across sub-Saharan Africa.

MORE ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN…

Booming broadband and the journey to become an ISP


Interview

In this interview, CTO of Giganet, Matthew Skipsey discusses the UK’s rapidly accelerating fibre rollout, as well as the company’s strategic shift to become a consumer ISP

In recent years, the UK fibre industry has been hard at work, transforming the country from one of Europe’s worst fibre performers to one in a far more competitive position. This has been facilitated, in no small part, by the enormous amount of funding pouring into the industry.

“I believe [the UK fibre industry] now has funding committed to cover 84 million premises, which is obviously far in excess of the number of properties we have in the UK. But this will give consumers real choice when it comes to their provider,” explained Skipsey.

In fact, Giganet themselves have pivoted to take advantage of this vibrant funding landscape, transitioning to deploy their own network and sell services directly to consumers. Since then, the business has gone from strength to strength, last year receiving £250 million in funding from Fern Trading to further their rollout.

Giganet is now in the process of expanding its full fibre network to quarter of a million homes in the south of the UK.

[embedded content]

But despite the positive investment landscape, the global economic climate is beginning to ask questions of the UK telecoms industry.

“We’re experiencing a complete storm of factors here, with interest rates being hiked, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, political challenges – there are a lot of headwinds here,” said Skipsey. “But the reassuring thing for consumers is that, as Ofcom have been tracking, if you look at broadband and fixed connectivity, it has mostly stayed flat or even decreased in terms of the pricing.”

This kind of pricing stability has not been seen with other utilities, with commodities like water, electricity, and housing seeing huge jumps in price, particularly over the last year.

But this is not to suggest that the telecoms industry is immune to these macroeconomic pressures, with the telecoms supply chain being hugely impacted by the economic climate.

“We’re doing as much as we can to insulate our customers from those factors,” said Skipsey.

To watch the full interview, please use the link above

How is the rapid rollout of full fibre infrastructure impacting the North of the UK? Join the telecoms industry in discussion in Manchester next year for the second edition of our Connected North conference

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

Court rules against Swisscom in FTTH expansion case


News

The Federal Supreme Court has rejected Swisscom’s appeal, leaving the operators fibre expansion

At the end of 2020, the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) announced the launch of an investigation into Swisscom’s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion using point-to-multipoint (P2MP), suggesting that this topology was a risk to market competition.

P2MP topology involves building on the existing network, with a single fibre line running from the exchange to the local cable duct before branching off to serve multiple customers.

This is opposed to point-to-point (P2P) topology, where each customer is connected to the exchange directly with their own fibre line.

Swisscom argues that this P2MP topology is very efficient and less complex, allowing them to rollout networks more economically, even in remote regions. They note that P2MP topology has “gained international acceptance in recent years” and is “only criticised in Switzerland, which we cannot understand”.

COMCO, on the other hand, holds that Swisscom’s rollout strategy centring on P2MP will make it difficult for smaller providers without their own network to compete effectively.

As a result, COMCO prohibited Swisscom from marketing its P2MP connections until the investigation is complete. This has effectively frozen the roughly 500,000 P2MP access lines the operator currently has installed – a figure that has been increasing by roughly 70,000 each quarter.

Swisscom challenged this decision in court, having their first appeal rejected by the Federal Administrative Court last year.

Since then, the company has escalated its complaints to Switzerland’s highest court, but this week they too have rejected the appeal.

“The Federal Supreme Court rejects Swisscom’s appeal in connection with the precautionary measure imposed by the Competition Commission (WEKO) for the expansion of the fibre-optic network. The decision of the Federal Administrative Court, in which it confirmed the provisional WEKO ban, is not arbitrary,” said the court in a statement.

In a statement, Swisscom says they accept the ruling, noting that they had already begun reassessing their fibre network expansion strategy to reduce their reliance on P2MP topology.

Following this strategi shift, Swisscom has subsequently lowered its targets for FTTH coverage to 50–55% of homes by 2025 and 70–80% by 2030.

Rollout capex will remain unchanged.

The final ruling by COMCO on the legality of Swisscom’s use of P2MP topology is expected to be announced early next year.

Also in the news:
SKT takes its Ifland metaverse platform global
CMA probes Apple and Google over browser “duopoly”
Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

Openserve Set to Launch Range of FTTR Products in 2023


Contributed Article

At the 25th AfricaCom (AfricaCom 2022) themed “Driving Inclusive, Sustainable Growth Through Tech Investment”, Openserve and Huawei jointly unveiled the new home networking solution — fiber to the room (FTTR). In addition, Openserve outlined its plan to put FTTR products into commercial use in the near future, aiming to provide optimal fiber broadband experience for users across South Africa.

As a subsidiary of Telkom SA, Openserve is the largest fixed network operator in South Africa, and is committed to providing premium broadband networks for home and enterprise users. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, home office, online learning, and entertainment activities have surged, placing greater demands on bandwidth and online experience. Openserve believes that the FTTR solution can give them a competitive edge in the broadband market and significantly improve end users’ home network experience.

During the AfricaCom exhibition, Motlalepula Ramaisa, Executive of Commercial Products & Innovation of Openserve, spoke with Matthew Reed, Chief Analyst of Omdia, and described the commercial FTTR pilot projects carried out by Openserve and Huawei in South Africa. He noted how well the FTTR network was received by pilot users. According to one user: “Even in a large house, I can enjoy an optimal Internet access experience with high-speed Wi-Fi coverage at every corner.”

FTTR consists of one master FTTR unit and several slave FTTR units connected by optical fibers, realizing indoor all-optical networking. The Master and Slave communicate with each other through optical fibers, which avoiding Wi-Fi signal interference and attenuation in distant rooms. In this way, full Wi-Fi signal coverage and seamless roaming can be achieved throughout the house, providing consistent Wi-Fi access and premium service experience anywhere in the home. Compare with Wi-Fi Mesh (Wi-Fi cascading to expand network coverage) solution, which Internet access rate may be impacted due to attenuation and interference when signals penetrate walls, but it is still an alternative way of Wi-Fi connection.

Moreover, the FTTR solution lets users manage the network themselves. Users can use a mobile app to easily manage their home networks anytime and anywhere, including checking the network status, device connection status, and Wi-Fi signal coverage, as well as performing a speed test, parental control, and one-click optimization or rectification of common network faults.

The FTTR solution was well received in the pilot projects. Owing to the high-speed Wi-Fi coverage, seamless roaming handover, and intelligent and visualized home network management, it provides users with an ultimate Wi-Fi experience. Building on the success of the cooperation with Huawei, Openserve plans to launch commercial FTTR products in 2023 to provide an optimal home broadband service experience across South Africa.