News

The consortium, including both telecoms and satellite specialists, will bid to jointly operate the European Commission (EC)’s burgeoning IRIS² low-earth orbit satellite constellation

Satellite communication networks have seen a meteoric rise in recent years, buoyed by the steady growth of Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, which now comprises almost 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Soon, the expansion of similar constellations, such as the UK government-backed OneWeb and Amazon’s nascent Kuiper Project, will see the sky above our heads soon filled with orbiting devices capable of beaming down connectivity to hard to reach areas.

For a number of years, the European Union (EU) has expressed its wish to join this emerging space race, saying that the creation of its own LEO satellite network would be crucial to ensuring the region’s digital security and sovereignty.

Last year, these ambitions finally began to take shape with the announcement of the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) constellation, the EU’s €6 billion satellite project.

According to the EU’s plans, IRIS² will seek to cover the entirety of Europe and Africa, providing connectivity for governments, businesses, and citizens.

To achieve this, the project will require the launch of around 170 new LEO satellites, which will be incorporated with various existing orbital assets in Low, Medium, and geostationary orbits. The EC aims to launch the first of these satellites in 2024, with the entire constellation completed and ready for service in 2027.

The public tender process for the right to build and operate IRIS² was launched last month, with the EU having agreed that €2.4 billion in public funding would be provided, with the rest of the €6 billion to be provided by the private sector.

Now, this week has seen the formation of a new consortium that aims to bid for the IRIS², touting their collective expertise in both the satellite and telecoms sectors.

The consortium is to be led by Airbus Defence and Space, Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES, and Thales Alenia Space, with a wider ‘core team’ that comprises Deutsche Telekom, OHB, Orange, Hisdesat, Telespazio, and Thales.

The consortium is reportedly open to additional members, with startups and SMEs encouraged to join and build ‘amore innovative and competitive European space sector’.

“The integrated team aims to foster collaboration among all European space players across the whole connectivity value chain with a view to enabling EU’s strategic autonomy through the delivery of sovereign, secure and resilient government services to protect European citizens,” said the group in a statement. “The team will leverage synergies between government and commercial infrastructures. The teaming partners are also well positioned to provide commercial services to bridge the digital divide across European territories and to increase Europe’s global outreach and competitiveness as a space and digital power on the global market.”

Each members specific contributions to the project have yet to be revealed.

The EC is set to evaluate initial proposals until May 25, after which it will seek more detailed proposals. A final decision on the winner of the contract will be decided by the end of the year, with an official announcement expected to be made in late January 2024.

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News

With the Malaysian government reviewing its 5G equipment tender process, representatives from both the US and EU warned that Huawei should not be allowed to participate in the country’s growing 5G network

Today, a report from The Financial Times says that both the EU and US have sent letters to the Malaysian government urging them to disallow Chinese equipment vendor Huawei from participating in the country’s national 5G network.

According to the report, the letters from both parties raised this issue of national security, as well as suggesting that allowing Huawei to supply network equipment could impact international investment within the country.

“Senior officials in Washington agree with my view that upending the existing model would undermine the competitiveness of new industries, stall 5G growth in Malaysia, and harm Malaysia’s business-friendly image internationally,” said the US ambassador to Malaysia, Brian McFeeters, in a letter seen by The Financial Times. “The US and other countries prioritise a fair and transparent review process and contract sanctity, as does the international business community. Allowing untrusted suppliers in any part of the network also subjects Malaysia’s infrastructure to national security risks.”

The US banned Huawei from its own 5G networks back in 2019 and has lobbied governments across the world to do likewise. The EU, on the other hand, has taken a less prohibitive approach, rejecting an outright ban but encouraging telcos to steer clear of ‘untrusted suppliers’.

The news comes as the Malaysian government prepares to finalise a review of its 5G equipment tender process, which saw Sweden’s Ericsson win a $2.5 billion contract to provide 5G kit back in 2021.

Malaysia’s 5G journey has been more colourful than most. Back in 2021, the Malaysian government decided to forego the traditional 5G spectrum auction, instead setting up Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), a state-owned vehicle to build its own wholesale 5G network.

This decision was immediately controversial, with the country’s operators saying they would not buy services from DNB, arguing they could roll out 5G networks more efficiently themselves. It took over a year of threats and coercion from the government to finally bring the nation’s mobile operators to heel, who finally agreed to split a 70% stake in DNB between them in August 2022.

While these discussions with the domestic telcos were ongoing, DNB was wasting no time with the buildout of its 5G network.

The state-owned company announced that it had selected Ericsson as its key partner for its 5G project towards the end of 2021, with the Swedish equipment vendor agreeing provide a suite of 5G solutions, including the network core, radio access network (RAN), a various supporting services. The ten-year contract was valued at roughly $2.5 billion.

Since then, DNB has made considerable progress with its 5G rollout, saying at the start of the year that it had already covered just under half (47.1%) of the country’s populated areas.

However, the rollout was about to hit a bump in the road when, in November 2022, a snap general election led to a change of national government. This new government, led by Anwar Ibrahim, quickly launched a review into the Ericsson 5G tender process, citing transparency concerns.

This review process, which was due to be completed by the end of March, presented an opportunity for Ericsson’s rivals, including Finland’s Nokia and China’s Huawei, to restate their claim to a major role in Malaysia’s 5G future. Both companies duly began lobbying the government, arguing that they should be allowed to participate in DNB’s 5G network.

Potential outcomes of the review could include DNB’s privatisation, the creation of a second national 5G network, or that DNB hands over part of its current network build to another 5G equipment vendor.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter straight to your inbox

Also in the news:
ECTA calls on the European Commission to think again
Research claims FTTH reduces internet CO2 emissions by a third
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