News

The Connected Britain Awards recognise the most significant and innovative organisations, solutions, and programmes that are shaping Britain’s digital future. 

This year we’ve had a record number of entries across our 15 categories. 

Join us at the end of Day One at Connected Britain when the winners will be revealed! 

The full 2023 shortlist is as follows:  

B2B Service Provider of the Year Award – Sponsored by Digital Infrastructure 

Finalists: 

Gigabit Networks 

Giganet 

ITS Technology Group 

Pangea 

Truespeed 

Vodafone Business UK 

Broadband Provider of the Year Award – Sponsored by VETRO 

Finalists: 

Brsk Ltd 
Fibrus
Giganet 
Lightning Fibre
Truespeed 

Wessex Internet 

Wildanet 

Digital Skills Award 

Finalists: 

Dorset Council – Embedded digital champions 

Innovation Nottinghamshire – 5G Careers Programme 

Kent County Council (Digital Kent) 

Lloyds Banking Group and We Are Digital 

Vodafone Business & Enterprise Nation – business.connected   

Enterprise Solution of the Year 

Finalists: 

Eseye Infinity IoT Platform 

IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization (PSO) 

Jetty 

Qualcomm Technologies, Wi-Fi 7 Networking Pro Series platforms 

VETRO 

Vitruvi Software  

Project Rollout Award  

Finalists: 

CityFibre 

County Broadband Ltd 

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) and LCR Connect 

Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN) 

Openreach 

Truespeed 

The Access Innovation Award 

Finalists: 

Avanti Communications 

 DexGreen Ltd 

Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN) 

Norfolk County Council 

Scottish Water and Atos using Starlink 

The Barrier Removal Award  

Finalists: 

CityFibre 

Intelligens Consulting with with Renfrewshire Council 

Kent County Council – Kent Wayleave Toolkit 

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) 

Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN) 

Trenches Law 

The Community Improvement Award  

Finalists: 

Coventry City Council #CovConnects 

FullFibre – Fibre Heroes’ Community Investment Fund 

Get Online London 

Greater Manchester Combined Authority – Get Online Greater Manchester: for care leavers 

Ogi, ‘Cefnogi’ Community Fund 

Sunderland City Council’s local connectivity shapes communities fit for the future 

Three Discovery 

Wildanet 

The Full Fibre ISP Innovation Award – Sponsored by Calix 

Finalists: 

Brsk Ltd 

Gigabit Networks 

Giganet 

Hey! Broadband 

Hyperoptic 

TalkTalk Wholesale Services 

The Industrial Innovation Award 

Finalists: 

Dexgreen Ltd – Virtual Buddy Training App 

Neutral Wireless – Private 5G Network Deployed for King Charles III’s Coronation 

Prodapt OpenFibreXchange 

Vodafone – 5G SA Slicing 

Zeti Limited   

The Smart Places Award – Sponsored by ITS 

Finalists: 

Connected for Success: Welcome to Sunderland, City of Smart 

FarrPoint Western Isles IoT Project 

Living Map Ltd 

NYnet Ltd / North Yorkshire Council 

Virgin Media O2 Business and partners. Greater Manchester Local Full Fibre Network programme 

The Wireless Innovation Award 

Finalists: 

EdgeQ 

Freshwave and the City of London Corporation 

Jangala 

Neutral Wireless – Private 5G Network Deployed for King Charles III’s Coronation 

Quickline Communications 

Scottish Water, Blackspot Networks and Atos 

The Rising Star Award 

Finalists: 

Chris Founds, CJ Founds Associates 

Franck Courbon, Ethicronics 

Haseeb Ahmed, NETS International Ltd 

James Harris, Cable Giants Ltd 

Liam Ceaplen, Jetty 

Phil Bairsto, Freedom Fibre 

The Sustainability Award – Sponsored by euNetworks 

Finalists: 

FarrPoint Western Isles IoT Project 

iLOQ Oy – iLOQ 5 Series Battery Free Locking Solution 

KCOM 

Openreach 

Wildanet 

Zayo: Zeus 

Startup of the Year Award 

Finalists: 

Artifeel
AssetHUB
Emu Analytics
Groundhawk io
Inteliports
Jetty
Lumilinks
SecHard
Stacuity
Weaver Labs 

Who will win? Find out at the end of Day 1 of Connected Britain 2022!  

Book your ticket here 

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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.

ZTE has partnered with Thailand’s AIS (Advanced Info Service) on the world’s first dynamic RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface) trial in an mmWave network at the AZ centre in Bangkok.

This collaboration explores new possibilities in the field of millimetre-wave communication, offering a low-cost, low-carbon solution for deploying millimetre-wave networks at scale.  

RIS is an innovative multi-antenna technology that utilises electromagnetic metamaterials. RIS enables the extension of base station coverage by intelligently reflecting or transmitting base station signals, resulting in improved coverage at a low cost and with low carbon emissions. By incorporating dynamic functionality, ZTE’s RIS technology achieves beam sweeping and user tracking, effectively enhancing the coverage range of base stations and ensuring an optimal user experience even when the user is on the move.

During the trial, ZTE adopted the dynamic RIS product in the AIS millimetre-wave network with a 400MHz bandwidth. This implementation led to a substantial enhancement in millimetre-wave signal coverage. Users were able to consistently maintain a peak downlink rate of over 1.6Gbps and an uplink peak rate of over 260Mbps while moving within an office room larger than 400 square metres. This performance was more than three times that achieved without RIS under obstructed circumstances.

Millimetre-wave, as a crucial frequency range in 5G networks, offers the advantages of large bandwidth and capacity. However, due to its transmission characteristics it encounters significant challenges in terms of long-distance transmission and penetration through obstacles. Through the collaboration between ZTE and AIS, dynamic RIS technology has been successfully implemented in millimetre-wave networks. This technology effectively overcomes propagation obstacles and enhances coverage range and transmission speed. 

This collaboration represents an important milestone in the field of millimetre-wave communication, signifying a significant stride in the commercialisation of dynamic RIS technology. The implementation of this groundbreaking technology will usher in revolutionary changes to the global communication industry, establishing a stronger network foundation for the development of future smart cities, industrial IoT, and other domains.

Wasit Wattanasap, Head of Nationwide Operations and Support Business Unit of AIS, stated, “As Thailand’s leading mobile network operator, we are committed to advancing communication technology and popularising 5G networks. Our collaboration with ZTE has provided us with the opportunity to explore the application of RIS technology in mmWave communications. We believe that this technology will accelerate the arrival of the 5G-A era and deliver unprecedented communication experiences to users.”

Lumen is bringing on some more talent, and by talent I mean AI. They have teamed up with Microsoft to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to empower its 30K employee base in a beta test under Microsoft’s Early Access Program.. … [visit site to read more]

Latin American markets also saw smartphone shipments fall as the region experienced a 14% year-on-year drop to 27.9 million units in Q2, but is showing signs of recovery according to analyst company Canalys.

“Subdued consumer demand has led to an increase in vendors’ smartphone inventories. This has led to companies adopting a more cautious approach, targeting specific market segments that could bring them better returns,” said Canalys senior consultant Miguel Perez.

LATAM’s top-selling vendors Samsung, Motorola and Xiaomi were hit by double-digit year-on-year declines, noted Perez, adding vendors had to be conservative to avoid overstocking and increase profitability.

Samsung shifted its focus away from devices in the sub-US$200 bracket, while Motorola and Xiaomi pushed efforts towards their low to mid-tier devices.

The Korean smartphone giant remained the top shipping vendor with 9.4 million units and 34% market share, however, this was a decline from 11.6 million units and 36% market share.

Motorola took 21% of the market with 5.7 million units, a drop from 22% and 7 million units. Chinese vendor Xiaomi saw 4.6 million shipped for 17% market share, a loss from 5.3 million units and 17% year-on-year.

Transsion, the owner of smartphone brands Tecno, Itel, and Infinix, ranked fourth as it saw growth with 2.1 million units up from 1.3 million, and growing market share from 4% to 7%. Perez noted this was due to its wide portfolio of entry-level devices and popularity in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 

Apple was ranked fifth maintaining its 5% market share with 1.4 million units, down from 1.5 million.

Canalys noted despite varied socio-political landscapes, LATAM’s economic stability is fostering a favourable climate for the smartphone market. Inflation is largely in control and region economic leaders Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are seeing growth.

The analyst company is expecting a 2% decline in full year 2023 but 6% growth in 2024, and further growth up to 2027.

News 

As the war in Ukraine continues, Vodafone is heavily investing in the preservation of its infrastructure 

Vodafone Ukraine increased its capital investments by 75% in the first half of this year, spending over UAH 2 billion ($54.2 million) on repairs and winter preparations. 

As the Russia–Ukraine war continues, Vodafone Ukraine engineers continue to restore destroyed infrastructure, repair equipment, develop and expand the network, and prepare for potential blackouts in the winter. 

According to the company, over 9,000 base stations have been refitted with new batteries, which are adapted to operate in harsh conditions. They are also less sensitive to power surges and frequent power outages, with 2.5–3 times faster charging speeds than the old batteries. 

Additionally, Vodafone Ukraine has supplied a further 1,124 network technical facilities with stationary generators and prepared 522 mobile generators.  The company says it has a sufficient back-up supply of fuel for the winter, backed up by solar power plants and microturbine generators at a number of facilities.  

The firm also reported half-year revenues of UAH 10.4 billion ($283.3 million), a 5% year-on-year increase. 

Last winter was a very difficult period for Ukrainian network operators, which saw their infrastructure targeted alongside the national power grid by a coordinated Russian artillery assault. The attacks saw huge disruption to telecoms services, leaving the operators scrambling to restore and buttress their networks against further attack.  

In a Total Telecom interview with Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov last December, Komarov noted two noted major problems facing the Ukrainian telcos. The first concerned recovering and restoring sites located in occupied areas of the country, while the second was ensuring the existing sites remains operational during power outages. 

According to Komarov, the main targets of the Russian attacks are generating and transmission facilities of the Ukrainian Energy market, which when they occur, cause huge energy disbalances, resulting in blackouts, which get wider longer with every attack that occurs.  

At the time, Komarov said that up to  25% of the network would be out of operation because of energy supply issues, resulting in 30% of the country being entered into a temporary blackout. 

As such, with winter approaching once again, it should come as no surprise that the operators are turning their attention to reinforcing their power infrastructure by adding new energy solutions and a horde of new generators. 

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

Also in the the news:
T-Mobile to cut 5,000 US jobs 
US government announces $3.5 million in grants to Tribal Communities 
Dish seeks extension for purchase of T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum 

Four bits of network expansion news, both domestic and international. … [visit site to read more]

Analyst company Canalys reported smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia fell 15% year-on-year in Q2 to 20.9 million units, the lowest total since 2014, macroeconomic conditions continue to dampen consumer confidence.

In a statement, Canalys said the low shipments have led to an increase in old stock, the stifling of new initiatives and inventory from smartphone manufacturers, and a lacklustre festive season. This was also the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline.

“Brands maintained a cautious approach to the quarter and focused on strengthening channel positioning for long-term share sustainability,” said Canalys analyst Le Xuan Chiew.

Samsung was the highest shipping vendor in Southeast Asia with 4.2 million units, taking a market share of 20%, despite a year-on-year decline of 26%. Chinese vendor Oppo was in second with 3.4 million shipped and 16% market share.

Xiaomi and Transsion both shipped around 2.9 million units taking 14% of the market each, through key device launches and market expansion, respectively. Realme reclaimed the fifth spot with 2.6 million units (12% market share).

“The market is expected to gain momentum in H2 2023 as channel inventory returns to healthier levels,” said Canalys analyst Sheng Win Chow.

 “The ramp-up of incentive programs and new high-end launches should increase retail sales Q3 2023 onward. The long-term outlook for Southeast Asia is intact and Canalys expects mid-single-digit growth in 2024.

“Expansion of the online channel will contribute largely to future growth as investments from e-commerce operators improve infrastructure, and timely payment and logistics will enable e-retailers to scale more efficiently.

“Increased marketing expenditure will spur demand by enabling more aggressive discounting. In addition, the region’s increasing disposable income from an expanding middle-class and young population entering the workforce are strong reasons to expect an improved landscape.”