A previously little-known company with the interesting name of Natural Environment Solutions (NES) has announced that it has launched a 5 MW data centre in Pune, India, marking its entry into the country’s fast-booming data centre industry.

The company says it plans to scale up to over 100 MW of data centre capacity across the country in the next three years, capitalising on the country’s fast growth in digital infrastructure and regulatory support for data centre investments (which has been reported here a number of times).

NES says it is dedicated to revolutionising data centre infrastructure development, optimising efficiency and cost-effectiveness through advanced automation and digitisation.

NES founder and CEO Umesh Sahay is quoted by India’s Economic Times as saying that the company is actively securing long-term power supply agreements with utility generators, ensuring cost-effective, environmentally responsible operations aligned with stringent sustainability standards.

He also says that the company’s modern data centres adhere to global regulations, integrating cutting-edge security measures to protect data integrity against evolving cyberthreats and that the company’s focus on edge computing “responds to the growing demand for ultra-low latency and high bandwidth solutions crucial for hyper-personalised customer experiences and the rapid adoption of 5G and new-age applications”.

India’s data centre capacity has doubled between 2020 and 2023, highlighting its emergence as a prime hub for technological advancement, according to the company, about which little information seems so far to be available.

However, Umesh Sahay is also a founder and CMD of Entrepreneurial Facilitation Centre, a leading real estate enterprise offering managed office space solutions for entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and large corporations.

News 

Nokia and Telefonica have announced an agreement to drive the development of the 5G private network market in Spain 

The agreement will last three years and will allow Telefonica to offer customers up to 100 solutions, including the company’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC), Modular Private Wireless (MPW), MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) solutions, and Industrial devices. These, the company’s say, can be deployed in a wide variety of industries, including ports, manufacturing, and logistics, to improve productivity and safety in the workplace. 

Nokia has so far deployed mission-critical networks to over 2,600 enterprise customers in various industries, as well as 730 private wireless customers. 

“This collaboration with Nokia aligns with our vision of empowering the industry with cutting-edge technology in a new era where Artificial Intelligence and the use of data lead the way forward,” said Adrián García Nevado, Business Director at Telefónica Spain in a press release. 

“This strategy is preceded by more than 90 use cases with real customers for exploring the capabilities of 5G,” he continued. 

“This collaboration with Nokia aligns with our vision of empowering the industry with cutting-edge technology in a new era where Artificial Intelligence and the use of data lead the way forward. This strategy is preceded by more than 90 use cases with real customers for exploring the capabilities of 5G,” echoed Rolf Albrecht, Head of Enterprise Campus Edge Business Europe at Nokia. 

The use of private 5G networks is growing, as telcos seek to better monetise their investment in 5G. It is hoped that private 5G network use cases will help deliver a faster ROI. 

Currently, private 5G networks are mainly used in logistical areas, such as shipping, airports etc. “Over the next 10-15 years, 5G will trickle down to private businesses and become the wireless standard for any environment that demands flexibility and reliability,” says Nokia. These wireless networks are not vulnerable to issues such as cut cables. 

The companies have also recently partnered to explore new 5G Standalone (SA) opportunities to support developers in creating new use cases for consumer, enterprise, and industrial customers. 

Here, Telefonica will be able to access Nokia’s Network Exposure Function (NEF) solution to offer developers access to its 5G network capabilities. This access will enable functions such as precise device location services, enhanced connectivity-based notifications or edge discovery. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Dutch operators finally get their hands on midband 5G spectrum
Virgin Media O2 completes first stage of Shared Rural Network
Xavier Niel’s $4.1 billion bid for Millicom is too low, company says

Press Release

• Virgin Media O2 has completed the first phase of its Shared Rural Network (SRN) rollout, bringing reliable 4G coverage to 227 rural communities across the UK
• The final partial not-spot site built by Virgin Media O2 is at Glencoe Mountain Resort, which became the highest mobile mast in the UK, standing 1,108 metres above sea level
• The operator will now turn to the second phase of the programme, bringing 4G connectivity to areas with no existing mobile service

Virgin Media O2 has completed its share of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme and built more shared sites than any other operator to improve mobile coverage in 227 partial not-spot areas across the UK.

Glencoe Mountain Resort became the 227^th site to benefit from improved 4G coverage as the operator delivers its company-specific build target in time for the June 30^th deadline. The mountainous site is over a kilometre above sea level, making it the highest mobile mast standing in the United Kingdom today.

While these 227 sites are controlled by Virgin Media O2, customers of Three and Vodafone are also benefitting from the operator’s extensive rollout of shared sites. Considering upgrades delivered by all operators, Virgin Media O2’s customers can now benefit from reliable 4G services in more than 300 former coverage black spots.

Glencoe became the latest site to benefit from improved mobile connectivity after Virgin Media O2 used helicopters to deliver a new 4G mast to the top of the mountain, standing 1,108 metres above sea level. The new mast will deliver reliable mobile coverage to Glencoe Mountain Resort, Scotland’s oldest ski centre, greatly improving safety and convenience for its many visitors.

The operator faced significant challenges building the remote site, with extreme weather conditions making delivery exceptionally difficult. On top of this, Glencoe is a National Nature Reserve and home to endangered species, including golden eagles and ptarmigans. Virgin Media O2 worked closely with build partner, WHP Telecoms, to overcome these challenges and deliver the site in just five weeks.

The SRN is a £1billion joint initiative between mobile network operators and the UK Government to extend 4G connectivity to 95% of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2025. The first phase of the programme required each operator to build a set number of new and upgraded sites by the end of June to tackle Partial Not Spots. The upgrades provide customers with faster and more reliable mobile data and higher quality voice calls, transforming coverage in areas that previously suffered from patchy or slow services.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “We are absolutely committed to bringing reliable mobile connectivity to more rural communities and have now completed the first phase of our SRN rollout. Our 227^th site at Glencoe is now the highest mast in the UK and one of the most impressive to date, standing over a kilometre above sea level and providing connectivity to the nearby ski resort. This work is vital in tackling the urban-rural digital divide that exists in the UK.”

India’s big three private operators, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have put up their tariffs. This is the first time in three years they have done so. It was, however, widely expected.

Reuters reports that Bharti Airtel plans to raise tariffs by 10% to 21%, Jio by 13% to 27%, and Vodafone Idea by 10% to 23% across a number of prepaid and postpaid plans, starting on 3 July for Jio and Airtel and 4 July for Vodafone.

Massive investment in 5G rollout is one obvious reason for the price rises. Spectrum auctions and infrastructure spending probably made some sort of price correction inevitable. Reuters quotes an analyst estimate that 5G rollout alone would have cost the companies around US$18 billion, with only a modest return on investment likely to date. Indeed, India’s Economic Times says that Jio and Airtel have been offering free 5G services in a bid to attract customers to 5G.

Of course Vodafone Idea hasn’t reached 5G rollout stage yet, though it has outlined an aggressive capex plan to expand 4G and roll out 5G.

Another important factor has been the Jio-led price war that forced competitors to keep prices low. This has made India very cheap for subscribers but has hit operator ARPU.

The predicted rises in ARPU as a result of the new tariffs will undoubtedly help. At the moment Vodafone Idea is behind with ARPU of 146 rupees (US$1.75) in the first quarter of the year compared to Jio’s 182 rupees (US$2.18) and Airtel’s 209 rupees (US$2.50). Reuters says Airtel’s higher ARPU is a result of its recent strategy to focus on higher-paying subscribers. 

India’s Economic Times adds that an analysis of the post-tariff-hike prices shows that Reliance Jio’s popular prepaid plans are as much as 20% more affordable than the similar prepaid plans offered by its competitors. It also seems to have an edge in the postpaid segment.

Nevertheless, the hope is that a united front on tariffs will ease pressure on the operators’ balance sheets, notably that of Vodafone Idea, which has quite a lot of spending to do to catch up with its rivals in 5G – and 4G – provision.

Insight 

On day two of this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, we heard from Li Peng, Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service at Huawei, as he shared his insights on how AI can be used to help monetise the 5G experience

Providing differentiated and personalised offerings is essential to be able to monetise 5G properly, but this is the same with monetising any industry. Li highlights how we can draw useful insights from the aviation industry… 

Back in 1970, after the introduction of the Boeing 747, the aircrafts were now able to seat 350 passengers instead of the previous 150. However, this only led to a 22% increase in airline revenues, despite passenger capacity more than doubling. Li highlights how we can draw useful insights from the aviation industry, introducing business-class and first-class service for better growth. 

These notions can be applied to the 5G industry – “high-quality supply is a key driver and creator of new demand,” says Li. 

Since the 2G era, the mobile industry has made huge developments though innovation and continuous technological evolution in the 3G, 4G and 5G eras. 5G advanced can help meet consumer demand for improvement, but, says Li, “to realise the healthy and rapid growth of the mobile communications industry, we urgently need innovative supply to stimulate new and untapped demand of users.” 

“Therefore, business model innovation is particularly urgent,” he confirmed. 

Driving the innovation of 5G advanced technology and the network-cloud-AI synergy is essential here. Li presented the audience with some potential scenarios for this:

1. Creating different packages for different consumer preferences

Users have many different types of requirements for their individual network experience. For example, business travellers who prioritise download speed, live streamers focusing on upload speeds, and gamers who focus on latency. As 5G advanced improves bandwidth capability tenfold, these different customer experiences can be supported by the network. More personalised services to the individual will allow higher prices to be charged, and mean the customer is more likely to be retained. 

2. Monetisation through B2B scenarios

The faster upload and download speeds and low latency of 5G advanced mean that it can upgrade the 30,000 private networks that already exist. Using this example in the train industry, this results in additions such as AI vehicle detection applications being added. Therefore, more intelligent operation and maintenance of the entire train line can take place, improving overall efficiency by 30%.  These value-added scenarios for businesses can be packaged up and monetised. 

The session concludes by emphasising how carriers are able to provide differentiated experience services for users to be able to be fully monetise 5G advanced, and lead the industry in the development of mobile AI. The movement is taking off – over 60 carriers and partners have announced 5G advanced commercial plans, and over 30 have competed technical verification. 

“Huawei is willing to work with global carriers and partners to embrace 5G-A, accelerate capability convergence and model innovation, and stride to a new era of experience monetization,” concluded Li. 

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Insight

Since that first summer in 2019, 5G has become the fastest-growing mobile communications technology in the world. According to David Wang, Executive Director of the Board and Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board at Huawei, speaking on stage at Day 0, there are currently around 320 5G network services worldwide, covering around 1.8 billion users. This is three times the growth rate of 4g in the same time period.

Alongside mobile subscriptions, 5G has proved revolutionary for fixed wireless access (FWA), with over half the world’s 5G network operators now offering commercial 5G FWA services. Now, this year, 5G is set to evolve yet again, with 3GPP’s Release-18 – featuring the first standardised version of 5G Advanced – being finalised on the 18 June.

5G Advanced, said Wang, represents a major opportunity for operators worldwide, promising to deliver considerable opportunities for monetization and revenue generation.

5G Advanced: New business opportunities in toC (consumer), toH (home) and toB (business)

To Consumer:

One challenge in the consumer sector is that there has been a sharp slowdown in traffic growth.

1. The user penetration rate of 5G packages reached 80% by the end of 2023. In the future, traffic growth due to 5G user migration will not be as great.
2. The OTT bit rate is continually reduced. Wang gives the example of OTT whose bit rate in 2023 was reduced by 27% on 2022.
3. The average time mobile users spend on their devices is thought to have peaked, and now flatlined at around 160 hours per month.

Firstly, there will be a shift from user-generated content (UGC) to AI-generated content (AIGC), meaning the amount of content produced will rapidly grow. For context, AI has produced 15 billion images in 18 months, more than the total number of photos taken by humans since photography began. That’s just since the start of 2023!

Secondly, AI will enable device interaction in multiple forms (such as voice, touch, and video), which is expected to extend consumer interaction time, up from the current average of 5.3 hours per day that the average person spends on their phone.

Finally, there will be an increase in AI mobile phones and AI wearable devices, which are expected to become ubiquitous. 5G Advanced will be needed to meet the requirements of these higher-rate and larger-capacity devices. The proportion of these device shipments is expected to increase from 11% in 2024 to 90% in 2030.

To Home:

5G Advanced will allow FWA customers to have a fibre-like experience, increasing making 5G a mainstream choice when it comes to home broadband technologies.

In the era of 4G, the average data rate of FWA was around 20 Mbps – enough to be a supplementary choice for the home broadband market.

“Three years after the commercial use of 4G networks, just 30% of 4G operators released FWA services  Now, three years into the 5G era, around 50% of 5G operators have put the FWA service into commercial use,” said Wang. “In the 5G Advanced era, we predict that 70% of 5G operators will commercialise FWA services by 2026. FWA is changing from a supplementary choice of home broadband to a mainstream choice.”

To Business:

One example is in the IoT (Internet of Things) market. 5G IoT deployment has faced two large challenges: that the terminals are expensive and difficult to expand, and the solution relies on an active power supply and is not applicable to high-density deployment scenarios.

5G Advanced will help solve both of these problems through its RedCap and Passive-IoT technologies:

– RedCap: the device price of RedCap is more than 60% lower than that of 5G NR, which can promote the rapid increase of connections in high-value scenarios such as video connections.

– Passive-IoT: Passive-IoT provides 10 times more coverage  than the RFID technology. The cost of labeling can therefore remain within one yuan. It also provides location services. In the future, the number of potential connections will reach 100 billion.

2024: The year of 5G Advanced?

Concluding his Day 0 speech, Wang emphasised his optimism that 2024 will soon be viewed as the start of a new era for 5G. “The standards, technologies, ecosystem, and business elements are all ready,” he said.

“Huawei looks forward to working with the industry to build a healthy 5G-A ecosystem, promote 5G-A standard upgrade, and share the dividends of 5G-A development,” concluded Wang.