PRESS RELEASE

Many of the telecoms industry’s biggest names took to the stage at TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks (AN) Summit in Copenhagen to discuss the taking autonomous networks to Level 4

Industry leaders from Telefonica, Vodafone, China Mobile, Zain, MTN, AIS, EANTC, and Huawei gathered at the Summit and delivered keynote speeches focussing on AN. They spoke to an audience representing over 150 global operators, each seeking to learn the latest progress and achievements related to Autonomous Networks.

From conceptual consensus to deployment at scale, AN has made great progress after more than four years of development. Over 14 operators across the world have released their AN strategy of reaching Level 4 by 2025, with 70% expecting to reach Level 3 and beyond by 2025.

To drive the development and adoption of AN further, TM Forum released the AN Whitepaper 5.0 as a guide for all operators to implement AN, with all the speakers joining the Whitepaper launch ceremony at the Summit.

Aaron Boasman-Patel, the chair of the TM Forum AN Program, said in his presentation: “We recently launched the AN Manifesto to accelerate the adoption of autonomous networks and I am delighted to see 31 large CSP and vendor members become founding signatories in such a short time – this signifies the critical role autonomous networks is going to play in CSPs operations. Additionally, we launched the new the AN Whitepaper R5.0, which saw contributions by 64 partners. In this release, we renewed the Four Elements Methodology as the AN Framework (ANF), which will act as the AN Journey Guide for operators while adopting.”

Aaron Boasman-Patel, the chair of the TM Forum AN Program

Juan Manuel Caro, Director Autonomous Networks of Telefonica, said: “1) Agility, Intelligence, Efficiency, Quality, Sustainability are a set of Program Foundational Drivers guiding us in our Transformation journey, focusing on single autonomous use cases first and AI, then progressing to more complex , cross-domain use cases; 2) Defining an automation architecture (Network Brain Heart and ways of working) and hierarchy based in AI algorithms embedded in every layer 3) Established executive committee with our CTIO and we committed a 3-year plan with KPI based on autonomous network and the autonomy and sustainability goals and quality goals.”

Juan Manuel Caro, Director Autonomous Networks of Telefonica

“To operate the world’s largest network based on the principle of “service value and technological innovation, China Mobile is dedicated to improving endogenous network capabilities and end-to-end automatic NMS support capabilities, and to widely deploying more intelligent applications,” said Zhiyi Luo, Autonomous Networks director of China Mobile while sharing China Mobile’s best practice.

Zhiyi Luo, Autonomous Networks director of China Mobile

Boonchoung Tansuthepverawongse, Head of Network data and OSS Platform from AIS, said in his presentation: “After another year of great efforts, AIS is never wavering in the strategic goal of becoming a Cognitive Tech-Co to unleash digital customer experience excellence. Along this journey, AN have always played a significant role in forming the basis for enhancing network reliability, network quality, operation efficiency and most importantly, boosting AIS business growth.”

Boonchoung Tansuthepverawongse, Head of Network data and OSS Platform from AIS

Mohamed Salah, Head of network operation and transformation at MTN Group, said: “MTN continuously making innovation by value-base automation program under MTN’s PACE technical strategy. The scenarios (such as NPS improvement) are selected with “services-networks-value streams” 3-dimensional model. So, we can improve our AN level and capture the value autonomous networks during this evolution journey.”

Mohamed Salah, Head of network operation and transformation at MTN Group

Carsten Rossenhoevel, Co-Founder & CTO, EANTC said: “Realistic AN tests and assessments are an important success factor for the development of the TM Forum Autonomous Networks ecosystem. EANTC and Huawei jointly completed the first independent AN solution test in the IP domain.

Carsten Rossenhoevel, Co-Founder & CTO, EANTC

Sam Wang, General Manager of Huawei ADN Solutions said: “Practices and technologies are the two core drivers for Autonomous Networks. Huawei will continue to invest in the scenario-based solutions, root technologies such as foundation models, and enablement services to drive the industry forward. And the industry should be more open and cooperative to build a telecom foundation model to support richer business application scenarios.”

Sam Wang, General Manager of Huawei ADN Solutions

More and more operators are exploring AN,and actively sharing their implementation experience, helping to spread these important lessons across the industry. Undoubtedly, this kind of sharing, discussion and collaboration will inspire the real innovation and change for paving the way to highly Autonomous Networks.

CSquared has selected Adtran’s FSP 3000 open optical transport technology to bring high-speed broadband services to Togo.

The Adtran FSP 3000 open optical transport solution gives CSquared’s network a total transport capacity of 400Gbit/s. Featuring Adtran’s intelligent, compact and power-efficient FSP 150 Ethernet access devices, the backbone and metro networks ensure residential and business customers can expect reliable, symmetrical services ranging from 1Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s.

Enabling more automatic and flexible optical networking, CSquared’s scalable infrastructure caters to changing traffic demands quickly and efficiently. Google’s Equiano subsea cable is a key enabler of the new network, giving Togo 20 times more bandwidth than any other cable serving West Africa. With the network connecting to this cable, CSquared gains enough transport capacity to support faster services in the future.

“Leveraging Adtran’s optical networking technology, we can scale rapidly to connect some of Togo’s most underserved communities to high-quality broadband. Our new network guarantees widespread, affordable connectivity, ensuring no citizen gets left behind in the race to digitalize the global economy,” said Samuel Owusu Yeboah, West Africa CTO at CSquared.

“Harnessing our open, programmable and scalable technology, CSquared can get to work closing the country’s digital divide, enabling people to reap the economic and social benefits of our globally interconnected digital economy,” commented Stuart Broome, GM of EMEA sales at Adtran. “From where the Equiano subsea cable lands, CSquared is using our technology to scale its network in record time, connecting the people of Togo to each other, the rest of Africa and the world beyond.”

Press Release

Nokia today announced it has set two new world records in submarine optical transmission, both of which will shape the next generation of optical networking equipment.

The first sets a new optical speed record for transoceanic distances. Nokia Bell Labs researchers were able to demonstrate an 800-Gbps data rate at a distance of 7865 km using a single wavelength of light. That distance is two times greater than what current state-of-the-art equipment can transmit at the same capacity and is approximately the geographical distance between Seattle and Tokyo. Nokia Bell Labs achieved this milestone at its optical research testbed in Paris-Saclay, France.

The second record was achieved by both Nokia Bell Labs and Nokia subsidiary Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), establishing a net throughput of 41 Tbps over 291 km via a C-band unrepeated transmission system. C-band unrepeated systems are commonly used to connect islands and offshore platforms to each other and the mainland proper. The previous record for these kinds of systems is 35 Tbps over the same distance. Nokia Bell Labs and ASN broke the record at ASN’s research testbed facility, also in Paris-Saclay.

Nokia Bell Labs and ASN presented the scientific findings behind both records on the 4th and 5th of October at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), held in Glasgow, Scotland.

Making lasers that blink faster

Nokia Bell Labs and Alcatel Submarine Networks were able to achieve both world records through the innovation of higher-baud-rate technologies. “Baud” measures the number of times per second that an optical laser switches on and off, or “blinks”. Higher baud rates mean higher data throughput and will allow future optical systems to transmit the same capacities per wavelength over far greater distances. In the case of transoceanic systems, these increased baud rates will double the distance at which we could transmit the same amount of capacity, allowing us to efficiently bridge cities on opposite sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the case of C-band unrepeated systems, higher baud would allow service providers connecting islands or off-shore platforms to achieve higher capacities with fewer transceivers and without the addition of new frequency bands.

The research behind these two records will have significant impact on the next generation of submarine optical transmission systems. While future deployments of submarine fiber will take advantage of new fiber technologies like multimode and multicore, the existing undersea fiber networks can take advantage of next-generation higher-baud-rate transceivers to boost their performance and increase their long-term viability.

Sylvain Almonacil, Research Engineer at Nokia Bell Labs, said: “With these higher baud rates, we can directly link most of the world’s continents with 800 Gbps of capacity over individual wavelengths. Previously, these distances were inconceivable for that capacity. Furthermore, we’re not resting on our achievement. This world record is the next step toward next-generation Terabit-per-second submarine transmissions over individual wavelengths.”

Hans Bissessur, Unrepeated Systems Group leader at ASN, said: “These research advances show that that we can achieve better performance over the existing fiber infrastructure. Whether these optical systems are crisscrossing the world or linking the islands of an archipelago, we can extend their lifespans.”

The submarine network landscape is evolving. Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest subsea cable event

Also in the news:
VEON closes the door on Russia
Telefonica considers stake sale of Telefonica Tech
FCC fines DISH $150,000 after failure to decommission satellite as planned

American Tower Corporation a leading independent owner, operator and developer of wireless and broadcast communications real estate, has released its 2022 sustainability report in which it says it has decreased its direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1) by 11% from 2019.

As for its African operation, the company says that through investment of more than US$350 million in renewable energy deployments, sophisticated energy storage solutions and energy reduction initiatives in Africa since 2018, ATC has decreased its on-site diesel consumption by an estimated 43.5 million litres annually when compared to business-as-usual operations. This equates to roughly 117,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) avoided.

To achieve such goals, ATC Africa has deployed on-site solar power and lithium-ion batteries and has adopted advanced technologies to drive energy efficiency at its tower sites. The company last year launched a Green Sites initiative in Africa to ensure that all newly built sites meet American Tower’s Green Site specifications, which require the sites to generate less than four MTCO2e per year.

In addition, the company, through its Kenya operations, plans to substitute 30% of its diesel fuel with biodiesel, which has, through a successful proof of concept, already delivered an approximate 16% reduction in GHG emissions when compared to traditional diesel.

As of 2022, over 45% of sites in American Tower’s global portfolio – more than 100,000 sites – have achieved ISO 14001 certification. ISO 14001 is an internationally agreed standard that sets out the requirements for an environmental management system.

The company is working to increase this, with additional markets in Africa and Latin America pursuing certification by 2025.

A few interesting items worth catching up on: … [visit site to read more]

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News

VEON have announced the closing of the sale of its Russian operations to members of the senior management team of PJSC VimpelCom, led by VimpelCom CEO Alexander Torbakhov.

There is no buy-back arrangement and so this is a complete exit from the Russian market for VEON leaving the company to focus on its operations in Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

VEON Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu commented “I am pleased to note that we are now in a much stronger position to deliver our strategic priorities. We would like to thank all our stakeholders and regulatory bodies, including U.S. Treasury, who have supported our Company through this process.”

Amsterdam, headquartered VEON now provides connectivity and digital services to nearly 160 million customers representing around 7% of the world’s population.

VEON will be joining the lineup for Total Telecom Congress in Amsterdam this November, with Lasha Tabidze, Group Chief Digital Operations Officer and Ana de Kok Reyes, Group Diversity & Inclusion Officer speaking. To join them, register at totaltele.com/congress