In May last year, a consortium led by Safaricom won a telecoms operating licence in Ethiopia for roughly $850 million, intending to break up the monopoly of existing state-backed operator Ethio Telecom for the first time.
Building out a mobile network from scratch is not something that can be done quickly. The company has already begun work on rolling out infrastructure in major cities, with a wider deployment to follow…

In May last year, a consortium led by Safaricom won a telecoms operating licence in Ethiopia for roughly $850 million, intending to break up the monopoly of existing state-backed operator Ethio Telecom for the first time.

Building out a mobile network from scratch is not something that can be done quickly. The company has already begun work on rolling out infrastructure in major cities, with a wider deployment to follow. In February, for example, Safaricom unveiled its first data centre in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, preparing itself for the surge of data that should accompany its successful commercial launch.

However, broader population coverage will remain a challenge for some time, leaving Safaricom Ethiopia forced to rely upon some form of infrastructure sharing agreement with Ethio Telecom, at least in the short term; indeed, just such an agreement being established was dictated by the licencing agreement itself. 

But reaching such an agreement has proven problematic. In fact, Safaricom Ethiopia was expected to launch commercial services this month, but delays in securing the deal with Ethio Telecom have prevented the launch from proceeding to schedule.

Now, it seems that the two companies have finally reached an agreement in principle, though a formal agreement has yet to be signed, according to sources. 

“The deal is very important and critical for our commercial viability and launch. Hopefully [we will launch] soon but we don’t have a date yet,” said Michael Joseph, Group Chairman of Safaricom. 

The prospective deal will see Safaricom Ethiopia gain access to cell sites, masts and other active elements such as network roaming.

“We have agreed in principle on power-sharing, interconnection and tower sharing but it is not concluded as we are yet to sign a final agreement,” Safaricom Ethiopia public relations and communications manager, Tewedaj Eshetu.

Safaricom Ethiopia is reportedly set to invest $300 million into the business this year, with the company suggesting that they will invest $2 billion in capital over the coming five years.

Earlier this year, the company has already signed a five-year infrastructure lease agreement with Ethiopian Electric Power. 

Whether or not Ethio Telecom and Safaricom Ethiopia will be joined by a third operator remains to be seen. The Ethiopian regulator had intended to make a third licence available during its auction last year, but the sole bid of $600 million from South Africa’s MTN was deemed too low and the process was aborted.

At the time, the regulator suggested that they would soon re-auction the licence, but ongoing civil unrest and disruption of the global economy has since seen the regulator postpone the auction indefinitely. 

As part of the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and the ITU have announced a new raft of digital aspirations for 2030, creating a framework through which to monitor progress towards universal, meaningful connectivity. 
 
This tweet below from the ITU clearly outlines the key universality targets for 2030…

As part of the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and the ITU have announced a new raft of digital aspirations for 2030, creating a framework through which to monitor progress towards universal, meaningful connectivity. 

This tweet below from the ITU clearly outlines the key universality targets for 2030, which include all homes and businesses using the internet, all children over 15 having a mobile phone and using the internet, and gender equality being achieved when it comes to internet usage, digital skills, and mobile phone ownership. 

In the ?? of 2030 we envisage, all households have Internet access, all businesses use the Internet & all schools are connected!
This & other targets, just announced by @UNTechEnvoy & @ITU to connect #theUNconnected & #LeaveNoOneBehind??. Discover more!https://t.co/V6XdowFeJB pic.twitter.com/tEDqC4v1p4

— ITU Development (@ITUDevelopment) April 19, 2022

More specifically for the technology deployment targets, the organisations said that they would target fixed broadband speeds to be at least 10 Mbps globally by 2030, with schools expected to have minimum speeds of 20 Mbps and each pupil having at least 50 kbps available to them. Each school is expected to have a minimum data allowance of 200 GB.

In terms of affordability, broadband internet should cost no more than 2% of monthly gross national income per capita, as well as not more than 2% of the average income of the bottom 40 percent of the population.

It is important to note here that these goals do not only encompass improving access to connectivity, but also aim to improve the way in which society interacts with the digital world by improving equality and digital education. 

« During the pandemic, digital technologies have kept societies functioning and people connected. But the pandemic has also highlighted a yawning gap in access to these tools, including vast gender disparities. The world entered the digital age decades ago, but a core challenge remains: closing the digital divide, » said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.

These targets were agreed following a broad range of consultations by both parties, with the initial assessment of progress towards these goals expected to be released at the ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in June, in the “Global Connectivity Report 2022″. 

The scale of this challenge is difficult to overstate. According to Doreen Bogdan-Martin, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, only 4.9 billion of the roughly 8 billion people on Earth are currently estimated to use the internet. Reaching all these people with affordable connectivity will be an enormous challenge, requiring cooperation from public and private sectors at a global level. 

What are the most exciting regions in the submarine cable industry right now and why?
Although there are existing things happening all over the world, with new submarine cables and technologies announced, Africa is at the forefront these days. 
Numerous cables have been announced that will encircle Africa unleashing unprecedented international connectivity to Africans, especially in coastal countries. These cables, which complement existing submarine cables already successfully providing international connectivity to Africa for many years, are massive in terms of both reach and capacity and will also provide flexible capabilities to the region, such as active Branching Units for increased traffic diversity, protection, and routing. Interest in deploying cables in the polar regions has grown recently …

What are the most exciting regions in the submarine cable industry right now and why?

Although there are existing things happening all over the world, with new submarine cables and technologies announced, Africa is at the forefront these days. 

Numerous cables have been announced that will encircle Africa unleashing unprecedented international connectivity to Africans, especially in coastal countries. These cables, which complement existing submarine cables already successfully providing international connectivity to Africa for many years, are massive in terms of both reach and capacity and will also provide flexible capabilities to the region, such as active Branching Units for increased traffic diversity, protection, and routing.

Interest in deploying cables in the polar regions has grown recently – why is this and what opportunities are there for these regions?

The same reason why cargo ships want to traverse the polar regions can be said for submarine telecom cables as well – the shortest distance between endpoints. Cargo ships save on time and cost (ex. fuel) while submarine cables save of cost (less fiber and repeaters) and time (latency). If polar submarine cables can reduce the distance between two endpoints, say between Japan and the UK, savings can be had related to cost and latency, which for time-sensitive applications, can be quite valuable. New routes, through polar regions or elsewhere, further improve submarine cable diversity, which is a key benefit. 

There are challenges related to polar cables, such as ice and international politics, that are being discussed besides just reducing distance and latency.

In recent years we’ve seen major investment in satellite communication networks, from SpaceX’s Starlink to the UK’s OneWeb. Is this impacting the submarine cable industry? Are satellites competing or complimentary with submarine cable services?

Satellite networks and submarine cable networks are complementary and are not intended to directly compete, in most cases. This is because satellite networks target the access part of the global network to connect things like homes, businesses, and cell towers primarily in locations that are not well-served by wireline networks, such as sparsely populated rural communities.  Submarine networks, on the other hand, are extremely high-capacity optical networks that interconnect countries, continents, and massive hyperscaler data centers. 

However, for small islands with no submarine cables, satellite networks are a viable and often the only alternative to connect to the global network. This is the case where small island populations cannot justify relatively expensive submarine cable investments. 

One can think of satellite networks as access ramps to highways with the highways being the high-capacity submarine networks.

What’s the next big breakthrough for submarine cable industry technology? What are you working on right now?

There are many new technologies being adopted and adapted by the submarine cable industry, such as aluminum wet plant conductors, active branching units, Spectrum Sharing, Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) cables, ITU-T G.977.1 Recommendation acceptance, machine learning, analytics, and much more. We’re aligned to these trends and are providing ongoing product enhancements to our unique GeoMesh Extreme submarine networking solution, where applicable. 

Ultimately, we’re driven by our intense desire to help submarine cable operators to maximise their spectral efficiency and reduce their overall costs for optimal return on submerged assets while constantly striving to reduce the associated carbon footprint.

Sustainability has become a key concern for the wider telecoms industry – how does this impact operations in the submarine cable space?

Sustainability is a hot topic of discussion in all industries and networks, and the data centers they interconnect, are no exception – and rightfully so. Energy consumption cannot scale linearly with network bandwidth growth from an economic, environmental, or practical perspective.

There are many ways to improve sustainability in the submarine cable space, and we’re providing practical solutions to help operators continually reduce their carbon footprint, where possible. Each new generation of Ciena’s Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) modem technology provides significant reductions in power, space, and cost per transported bit by leveraging the latest in silicon manufacturing alongside industry-leading advancements in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and optoelectronics that are continually optimised using software control and analytics-driven automation to optimise spectral efficiency, cost, and sustainability.

From an architecture perspective, our pioneering GeoMesh Extreme solution reduces, or outright eliminates, multiple optical-electrical-optical conversion stages to further reduce the overall carbon footprint of an end-to-end network that traverses submarine and terrestrial segments. By leveraging advancements from chip silicon to end-to-end architectures, cable operators can continually optimise their carbon footprint while still addressing growing bandwidth demands.

Ciena are a Title Partner for Total Telecom’s Submarine Networks EMEA event, bringing the subsea community together to discuss the latest trends and technologies.

On Day 1, join Ciena’s Industry Consultant, Ed McCormack as he explores the subsea industry’s dynamic evolution in his ‘Reflections and predictions – my optimism for the future’ keynote presentation.

On Day 2, Ciena’s Thomas Soerensen, Senior Consultant, Global Submarine Sales joins a keynote panel of industry leaders to discuss the ‘Developing and growth areas in the EMEA and beyond‘

Want to have your say on how the industry is changing? Ciena will be hosting a Workshop on Day 2 from 14:00 – 17:00 discussing ‘Tomorrow’s Submarine Networks – Ciena’s Vision of the Future‘

Check out our website for more information about Submarine Networks EMEA’s exciting agenda

Today, Telekom Malaysia (TM) Wholesale and Telin, the carrier subsidiary of PT Telkom Indonesia, have announced the signing of a new MoU that will see them collaborate more closely on submarine cable projects. 
The new partnership will see both parties gain capacity on each other&’…

Today, Telekom Malaysia (TM) Wholesale and Telin, the carrier subsidiary of PT Telkom Indonesia, have announced the signing of a new MoU that will see them collaborate more closely on submarine cable projects. 

The new partnership will see both parties gain capacity on each other’s submarine cable systems, helping to meet the region’s increasing demand for connectivity. 

« This collaboration allows us to gain immediate submarine capacity in response to the growing demand for high bandwidth services, » said TM Wholesale’s executive vice president Amar Huzaimi Md Deris. « It also gives us more diverse connections and alternative routes connecting Malaysia to the rest of the world, while optimising our existing submarine capacity.”

Beyond this exchange of capacity, the partnership will also see the companies explore potential opportunities for co-investment in future systems.

“[The agreement] will enable us to begin exploring the most cost-effective approach for future submarine cable investment projects that will benefit both parties and this region, » said Huzaimi. 

Telin and TM, unsurprisingly given their proximity, have a long history of working together on subsea projects, from joint efforts as part of broader consortiums to direct system co-ownership, such as in the case of the 5,300km Indonesia Global Gateway System.

More recently, Telin announced in February that they had joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 consortium, which also includes TM, aiming to connect Indonesia to the burgeoning cable system. SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore to France, connecting to 10 countries en route.

In total, TM currently owns and leases 30 submarine cable systems spanning over 320,000km, while Telin has 22, reaching over 222,260km.
 

How is the submarine cable market evolving in 2022? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Submarine Networks EMEA conference 

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Parallel Wireless, Inc., the U.S.-based Open RAN leader delivering the world’s leading All G, cloud-native Open RAN solution, is partnering with Inatel, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Brisanet, Claro, TIM, and Vivo to conduct a field trial enabling leading-edge 4G and 5G broadband communications throughout Brazil and other LATAM countries…

Parallel Wireless, Inc., the U.S.-based Open RAN leader delivering the world’s leading All G, cloud-native Open RAN solution, is partnering with Inatel, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Brisanet, Claro, TIM, and Vivo to conduct a field trial enabling leading-edge 4G and 5G broadband communications throughout Brazil and other LATAM countries.  

Inatel – National Institute of Telecommunications – is an education, research, and technology development center created in 1965 and located in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, southern Minas Gerais, also known as the Electronics Valley. It was the first institution of higher education in Telecommunications Engineering in Brazil.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations working together to accelerate the development and deployment of open, disaggregated, and standards-based technology solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity that the world needs – now and in the decades to come.

Parallel Wireless will provide an Open RAN network enabling All Gs (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G) utilizing Band 7 for the trial. This leading-edge network field trial will enable new services and applications for consumers and businesses.

Russell Ribeiro, Regional VP LATAM Sales at Parallel Wireless said, “We are excited to partner with Inatel and TIP to showcase our leading-edge cloud-native, O-RAN compliant, Open RAN solutions enabling 4G and 5G broadband connectivity, providing leading-edge applications for the citizens of Brazil and other LATAM countries. We are starting this Open Field program with 4G and will evolve to 5G later this year. We believe this program is a very good showroom for MNOs throughout Latin America to come and see our platform in operation in a real field environment.”

Gleyson A. dos Santos, Business Development Specialist at Inatel said, “I am thrilled to participate in this field trial with Parallel Wireless and TIP where we will showcase how Open RAN technology enables robust wireless telecommunications products with improved software quality, less maintenance, faster adoption of new technologies and better user experiences.” 

The test setup has Comba and Dell Technologies solutions. Mobile Network Operators Brisanet, Claro, TIM and Vivo are partners in the Open Field program. 
 

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TIM and Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, have reached an agreement for the acquisition, by a consortium led by Ardian, of an additional 41% stake in the jointly owned holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30…

TIM and Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, have reached an agreement for the acquisition, by a consortium led by Ardian, of an additional 41% stake in the jointly owned holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30.2% stake in INWIT.

Once the transaction is completed, the Ardian consortium will hold a 90% stake in Daphne 3.

The agreement reached is based on a valuation of the INWIT share of EUR 10.75 (cum dividend) and corresponds to a consideration for TIM of approximately EUR 1.3 billion, in addition to the repayment of the loan of approximately EUR 200 million, granted by TIM to the Ardian consortium at the time of the initial acquisition in 2020.

The agreements have been structured not to give rise to any form of obligation to launch a public tender offer.

Following the closing, the Ardian consortium will have full and exclusive control over Daphne 3, while TIM will be granted minority governance rights, both in Daphne 3 and INWIT, in order to protect its investment, in line with the practice in transactions of this nature.

The closing of the transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent, including antitrust clearance, clearance under the Golden Power framework and the termination of the shareholders’ agreement with Vodafone Europe and Central Tower Holding Company.
 

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) has imposed a £90,000 fine on Jersey Telecom (JT) after technical issues caused a shut down of the network in the summer of 2020.
 
During the disruption, customers using the network could not access internet or mobile services, including calls to 999 and emergency services. Thankfully, it appears that no lives were lost as a result of the network issues…

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) has imposed a £90,000 fine on Jersey Telecom (JT) after technical issues caused a shut down of the network in the summer of 2020.

During the disruption, customers using the network could not access internet or mobile services, including calls to 999 and emergency services. Thankfully, it appears that no lives were lost as a result of the network issues.

The specific cause of the disruption has not been elaborated.

According to the regulator, the investigation into the network error had been “long and complex”, with Jersey Telecom complying with inquiries throughout the process.

« JT accepts the final decision made by the JCRA on this important issue. We take any matters like this exceptionally seriously and have worked closely and productively with the JCRA through the process,” said JT’s interim CEO John Diamond. 

« I would like to apologise again to our customers for the disruption, and to thank our teams who have carefully and collaboratively worked through the sequence of events which led to the problem in July 2020, to ensure it will not be repeated. »

This is not the first time JT has faced fines from the regulator over breaches of its licence obligations, which require it to ensure access to emergency services is always available. 

Around a year ago, the JCRA issued JT a £675,000 fine, as well as issuing rival Sure a fine of £135,000, for a series of repeated failures from both operators between January and April 2020. Network outages on two occasions had left customers without access to emergency services, while on four other occasions Jersey police had to step in and handle all incoming emergency calls.

JT said at the time that it had “identified and resolved” the relevant problems, as well as the specific circumstances that had led to the incidents. Sure, similarly, said they had reviewed procedures and made changes to ensure that such disruption does not happen again. 

In more positive news, the island of Jersey is finally looking like it may get access to 5G spectrum this year, with the JCRA last month launching a consultation, seeking to assess ‘interest and demand’ in 5G services. The 5G spectrum auction process had been paused back in 2020 as a result of both the coronavirus pandemic and infrastructure security concerns. 

“We’re pleased to be restarting the process for licencing 5G spectrum for Jersey, and enabling future benefits for local mobile users. As the pandemic’s impact recedes and the situation with network security requirements becomes clearer, we believe that now is the right time to pick up this matter again and look forward to re-engaging with interested parties and islanders about 5G,” said the JCRA.

Earlier this year, Ericsson announced that an internal investigation had revealed the company had potentially paid bribes to the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq as early as 2011. 
While the investigation is ongoing and the final recipient of many of these payments is unclear, it appears that the vendor had paid off terrorist organisations to secure their transport routes throughout the country…

Earlier this year, Ericsson announced that an internal investigation had revealed the company had potentially paid bribes to the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq as early as 2011. 

While the investigation is ongoing and the final recipient of many of these payments is unclear, it appears that the vendor had paid off terrorist organisations to secure their transport routes throughout the country. 

The immediate results of the revelations saw the company’s stock price collapse by around a third, with some analysts suggesting that the company risked become “uninvestable”.

Now, Ericsson says it is bracing itself for the inevitable fallout from the investigation, saying that it will likely be fined by the US Department of Justice for its handling of the investigation.

CEO Borje Ekholm said the company could not effectively estimate the size of financial penalties that may be applied but “Deu”was engaging with US authorities to resolve the situation.  

Any fine would be in addition to a $1 billion fine paid by Ericsson to the DoJ back in 2019 to settle bribery cases in various international markets.

Ultimately, however, a fine may be the best result that Ericsson can hope for, with other possible sanctions – even excluding Ericsson from the US market entirely – also being considered.

It also remains to be seen on whom the blame for the scandal ultimately falls.

In Ericsson’s Annual General Meeting last week, the company’s board of directors tabled a motion to grant a discharge of liability for five members of the board over the scandal. However, shareholders, including Cevian Capital and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, voted down the motion, meaning that CEO Ekholm and other board members remain at risks of being found individually responsible and facing personal repercussions.

In related news, Ericsson earlier this week said it was suspending its business in Russia ‘indefinitely’, placing its roughly 600 staff in the country on paid leave. Their rival Nokia, a day later, also announced that they were withdrawing from the Russian market entirely, saying a continued presence in the country “would not be possible”.

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Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.
Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.
Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive…

Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.

Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.

Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive, a Seoul-based company that specialises in computer systems design and three-dimensional motion graphics. 

The two companies have entered into a strategic cooperation agreement that will see SK Telecom buy an undisclosed stake in Morph Interactive, as well as collaborating to develop new functions the Ifland platform. 

These new functions will include allowing user avatars to interact with props and introduce minigames that can be played individually or with other users in the same virtual space.

Yang Maeng-seok, head of SK Telecom‘s metaverse business, described the investment as the foundation for “providing Ifland users with more fun factors”. 

By the end of the year, other features added to the platform will include the inception of Ifland’s own digital economy in the form of crypto currency and the launch of a virtual shop, which will allow users to purchase outfits for their avatars. 

« We will do our best to make Ifland a means of communication that gets closer to the daily lives of many users and can be actively used in corporate business, » commented Morph Interactive CEO, Kim Jung-youl.  

In a demonstration of Ifland’s viability as a medium for business, the contract between SK Telecom and Morph was itself enacted through a virtual ceremony held on Ifland platform, with the two companies’ executives signing this contact with their virtual avatars.

In related news this week, SK Telecom continues to enhance its own multimedia capabilities, announcing the development of an AI Post Production platform that uses AI technology to detect and remove subtitles, copyrighted music, and embedded graphics from video content. This will help the content to meet the distribution standards of global platforms like Netflix and Amazon, thereby making it easier for companies to export Korean content overseas. 

In August last year, reports were beginning to come to light that Canada’s Shaw Communications was building a submarine cable landing station in Port Alberni, on the country’s West coast, despite no new cable systems being formally announced at the time.
 
Now, it seems that Google has solved the riddle of the mysterious cable project…

In August last year, reports were beginning to come to light that Canada’s Shaw Communications was building a submarine cable landing station in Port Alberni, on the country’s West coast, despite no new cable systems being formally announced at the time.

Now, it seems that Google has solved the riddle of the mysterious cable project, announcing the creation of the Topaz system, the first submarine cable set to link Canada directly to Asia.

The Topaz cable will take a short hop from Vancouver, Canada, to Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, before travelling West across the Pacific to Japan, where it terminates at the cities of Shima and Takehagi. 

In both Port Alberni and Takehagi, landing stations for the cable will need to be built from scratch. Vancouver, on the other hand, having housed the now defunct copper-based Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, built back in 1963, already has a historic landing station available for the project. This facility will be upgraded to meet the needs of the Topaz cable.

The final stop, Shima, is already a major hub for submarine cable activity, with three local cable landing stations collectively connecting to around 17 subsea systems.

The Topaz system will comprise 16 fibre pairs with a total capacity of 240 Tbps. It will also make use of Wavelength Selective Switch technology, a software-defined solution that allows greater flexibility when routing traffic on individual fibre pairs.

Google says its intention with the system is not only to allow for low latency access to its own services, like Google Cloud and YouTube, but also to offer capacity for network operators in Canada and Japan.

The company also reportedly intends to swap fibre pair capacity with other submarine cable operators on similar routes, thereby increasing what the company calls “the intercontinental network lattice for network operators”.

The cable will be ready for service in 2023.

Google’s interest and investment in submarine cable projects in recent years cannot be underestimated. The company has announced participation in 20 submarine cable projects, connecting 29 cloud regions, 88 zones, 146 network edge locations across more than 200 countries and territories.

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