News 

The move, which could raise up to $1 billion, aims to take advantage of the global demand for data infrastructure 

Japan’s NTT Group is reportedly considering launching a billion-dollar Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in Singapore that would hold up to $3 billion-worth of data center assets, according to a Bloomberg article. 

The article states that the company is working with financial advisors to finalise the assets that will be included in this high-profile listing.  

According to reports, the listing could happen in late 2025 and would be expected to raise around $1 billion. 

If successful, listing would be the largest in Singapore since 2017, potentially revitalising the city-state’s sluggish IPO market 

NTT’s move would align with its broader strategy to optimise its assets while addressing the increasing global demand for data infrastructure.  

The company’s decision comes amidst rising global investments in data centers, driven by the need for expansive digital infrastructure to manage growing demand for storage and computing capacity. If successful, NTT’s REIT could set a precedent, encouraging other large firms to explore similar offerings in the region. 

When contracted by Bloomberg, a representative confirmed that “the company is considering a REIT,” but did not elaborate further.  

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News

The airline says its planes will be upgraded gradually to support the satellite connectivity

This week, Air France has become the latest airline to strike partnership with SpaceX’s low Earth orbit satellite subsidiary Starlink for in-flight WiFi.

The deal will see Air France’s fleet of aeroplanes gradually fitted with Starlink technology, allowing them to provide customers with a “ground-like” WiFi experience, with customers able to connect numerous devices at once.

The exact connectivity speeds expected to be available were not revealed, but Starlink has previously said that it’s constellation could provide in-flight WiFi speeds of 40–120Mbps.

Starlink equipment will begin being installed on the aircraft from 2025.

Once completed, the resulting WiFi service will be free to access for customers on Air France’s ‘Flying Blue’ loyalty programme (which is itself free to join).

In-flight Wi-Fi has long been a key use case for communications satellites. Starlink itself already has similar deals in place with numerous other airlines, including United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JSX, Qatar Airways, and Air New Zealand.

The largest of these, United Airlines, says it plans to have Starlink installed on over 1,000 planes next year.

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Interview

In a tough economic environment like the UK, going over budget when building a network is not an option

At Connected Britain, the Total Telecom team spoke to Vitruvi Software’s As-built Consultant Felix Wright to discuss how the company is streamlining network deployments and why leveraging new technologies like AI and digital twins could hold the key to delivering networks on time and on-budget.

Check out the full interview here!

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Interview

At this year’s Connected Britain, Total Telecom caught up with Rajiv Datta, CEO of Nexfibre, to discuss the company’s fibre rollout progress since hitting 1 million premises, investor tensions around market consolidation, and what a competitive broadband market will ultimately look like. 

Check out the full interview here! 

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News

Swisscom first announced the €8 billion deal back in March, and notified the EU in August  

The European Commission has given the green light to Swisscom’s acquisition of Vodafone Italia, without conditions. The clearance, granted under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, is a crucial step toward finalising the transaction. 

The Italian Competition Authority is still reviewing the deal, having launched a deeper investigation earlier this month to assess the transaction’s impact on market competition, Swisscom noted. 

Swisscom expects the deal to be finalised by the first quarter of 2025. 

Once completed, Swisscom plans to merge Vodafone Italia with its Italian subsidiary, Fastweb, creating Italy’s second-largest fixed-line broadband provider, behind market leader Telecom Italia.  

The merger is expected to save around €600 million through synergies related to increased scale and efficiency, Swisscom says. 

Swisscom’s CEO, Christoph Aeschlimann, called the merger a “strong strategic fit”, saying it will add significant value to both companies.  

Vodafone will also continue to provide services to Swisscom for the next five years as part of the deal. 

The transaction forms part of Vodafone’s broader strategic efforts to streamline its European footprint in recent years. This shift has involved selling off or merging various business units across Europe, including the sale of its Spanish business and a merger with Three in the UK. 

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

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News

A key focus of the fund will be on enhancing the digital skills of young people 

UK incumbent BT has launched a £4 million Apprenticeship Fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), charities, and public sector organisations across England.  

The funds will be delivered over the next four years, helping these organisations to recruit and train apprentices. 

Since 2017, companies in the UK with an annual wage bill over £3 million have been required to pay an ‘apprenticeship levy’, with 0.5% of the company’s annual wage bill being paid to the government to support various apprenticeship programmes. Larger businesses such as BT can transfer up to 50% of their levy to other companies directly, which is what BT is doing here.  

BT has partnered with Babington, a leading apprenticeship training provider, to manage the fund and guide applicants through the process.  

Eligible organisations can apply for funding and, if successful, will be matched with appropriate training providers within 20 days. The fund could support up to 550 apprentices and is expected to generate a £21 million economic impact. 

“SMEs make a significant contribution to our economy, but their uptake of apprenticeships is low,” said Chris Sims, Managing Director for Small and Medium Business at BT in a press release. 

“By sharing up to £4 million from our apprenticeship levy funds, we’re giving these businesses the financial support they need to invest in talent. This not only helps create a more skilled, diverse, and competitive workforce, it also provides SMEs with additional resources to grow and scale their business,” he continued. 

The fund is available to SMEs, charities, and public sector organisations across England, including the NHS. It focuses on apprentices aged 22 and older and seeks to support local economic growth, reduce the digital divide, and enhance social mobility. 

As one of the UK’s largest employers, BT is already a major player in the UK’s apprenticeship landscape, having recruited around 3,000 apprentices and graduates in the past five years. 

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

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Press Release

Nokia today announced the launch of a new sustainability calculator for private wireless networks for enterprises. This tool helps companies estimate the environmental and social benefits of using private wireless networks and the new Industry 4.0 applications they enable. Notable benefits include improved operations, reduced costs and carbon emissions, and fewer workplace accidents.

Nokia commissioned PwC UK to support the development of a Private Wireless Sustainability Calculator, based on Nokia’s extensive experience in deploying private wireless networks for more than 760 industrial customers worldwide. Nokia’s tool, initially created for mining, manufacturing and port industries, aids businesses in leveraging private wireless to reach their environmental and social objectives, catering to the growing demand from investors for transparency.

Digitalization is key to accelerating industry sustainability and enabling enterprises to achieve long-term growth. Private wireless networks provide high-performance connectivity for digitalization, enabling new applications such as drone inspections, digital twins, and real-time environmental monitoring. These applications, when combined with private networking and edge computing, improve operational efficiency and contribute to sustainability goals.

Industry 4.0 applications powered by private wireless networks offer significant improvements for businesses.

• Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A GlobalData and Nokia report found 79% of surveyed enterprises saw a 10% or greater reduction in emissions after deploying private wireless solutions like drones, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and digital twins.
• Improved Worker Safety: Medium-sized chemical manufacturing plants utilizing private wireless networks can save approximately EUR 1.4 million in societal costs (assuming consistent production volumes) and witness an average 35% decrease, on average, in health and safety incidents. Societal costs refer to the economic and social burdens associated with accidents, injuries, and illnesses, including healthcare expenses, lost productivity, and the impact on families and communities. This is due to factors like remote machine control, which reduces worker exposure to hazardous environments.
• Improved Efficiency: Autonomous trucks powered by private wireless networks results in a 7% reduction in fuel consumption and wear and tear. Additionally, operations became 10% more efficient, leading to reduced energy consumption and improved worker safety.

The Nokia Private Wireless Sustainability Calculator draws on PwC UK’s expertise in measuring and valuing impacts, and its Total Impact Measurement and Management (TIMM) framework to develop the environmental and social impact methodologies for private wireless networks. TIMM is rooted in impact pathways, going one step further than most other methodologies to translate the costs and benefits to society in monetary terms.

The Nokia calculator uses data from multiple sources, including previous quantifications in other projects and network models to provide a comprehensive understanding of the private networks’ impact. From there, the model’s insights support users to identify opportunities to enhance business operations, including improving equipment lifecycles, reducing transportation downtime and fuel consumption, and improved worker health considerations. Through this process, the Nokia Private Wireless Sustainability Calculator offers enterprises vital findings and insights to improve their business – from improved operational efficiencies, worker health and safety, potential reductions in costs and environmental footprint.

Subho Mukherjee, Vice President of Sustainability at Nokia, said: “Many physical industries are heavy emitters of greenhouse gas and haven’t had the opportunity to reap the full potential of digital technologies yet. To reach our climate goals, we need to speed up their digital transformation through the power of networking, AI and cloud. Nokia is helping industries go digital to become smarter, more automated, sustainable, and efficient. Our new Private Wireless Sustainability Calculator is the first of its kind, showing our private wireless networks can help businesses be more environmentally friendly. It’s a strong step towards quantifying what Nokia believes in, that there is no green without digital.”

Mukherjee said the new Nokia tool underscores the company’s commitment to addressing climate change and resource efficiency in its value chain. Nokia has committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, accelerating its previous target by 10 years. This places Nokia ahead of the Paris Agreement goal to reach net zero by 2050. This initiative is part of Nokia’s broader strategy to integrate sustainability benefits into its solutions for industries and develop Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) as a competitive advantage.

Tom Beagent, Sustainability Partner at PwC UK, said: “Technology has a huge role to play in tackling social and environmental challenges. It is great to see Nokia using its expertise to support its customers to see the potential of private wireless in tackling issues such as health and safety and carbon emissions. Monetizing impacts with frameworks like TIMM really help decision makers to understand the social and environmental return on investment and the role technology can play in delivering on their sustainability goals.”

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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Interview

Is the new Labour government’s approach to digital infrastructure going to be effective?

In this Connected Britain interview, Simon Miller, Director of Public and Regional Affairs at Virgin Media O2, describes the “encouraging” discussions with government so far and how the UK’s digital infrastructure landscape is shifting in 2024.

Check out the full interview from the link below:  

News

The operator says it is the first in the country to launch 5G standalone (SA) on a “national scale”

This week, French mobile network operator Free, owned by telecoms giant Iliad Group, has announced the launch of 5G SA services.

“Today, Free is announcing that it has deployed 5G SA (Standalone Access) on the 3.5 GHz frequencies of its public network on a national scale. By doing this, it has become the first mobile operator in France to offer this technology to its subscribers,” reads the company’s translated press release.

More specifically, the operator says it has switched on 5G SA at 6,950 of its 20,000 5G sites across the country, with customers able to access the new technology on compatible devices at no extra cost.

The new SA architecture will provide customers with higher speeds and lower latency, as well as unlocking a host of potential new use cases, from extended reality to network slicing.

“5G SA is the final phase of the development of the 5G network, enabling faster speeds, lower latency, and higher reliability,” explained Free. “Its large-scale deployment will allow the full potential of 5G technology to be realized through the massive take-up of new services and 5G applications in many domains, ranging from industry, health, education, and entertainment through to smart cities.”

It should be noted that while the announcement claims the standalone deployment to be at a “national scale”, this is presumably not the same as ‘nationwide”. Free says its 20,000 5G sites provide coverage of coverage of roughly 95% of the French population, which would suggest that there are still many thousands of sites left to upgrade before truly national coverage can be achieved.

This is the second major 5G SA announcement this month, with EE (BT) having announced the launch of the new technology in 15 cities a few weeks ago. Interestingly, EE’ 5G SA network will only be available to customers via new premium packages and will not be accessible for customers on existing plans.

This is in contrast to rivals Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone, both of whom will allow existing users to access the new network at no additional cost.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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News

The savings come as part of a partnership with data centre software specialist EkkoSense

According to Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), working in partnership with EkkoSense across 20 of the company’s UK data centres has led to an average saving of 15% in data centre cooling energy usage.

In environmental terms, this means reducing the company’s carbon footprint by around 760 tonnes per year. In financial terms, it’s a reduction in energy bills of over £1 million a year.

These savings have been achieved through better understanding the data centres’ existing energy usage, leveraging various monitoring and analytics solutions from EkkoSense. These include using IoT sensors, AI analytics, and digital twin technology.

“With our software collecting thousands of data points every five minutes – adding to the millions of data points already collected, we’re able to continually refine the effectiveness of our machine learning algorithms for Virgin Media O2,” said Dean Boyle, EkkoSense’s CEO. “Having access to this level of real-time insight means that Virgin Media O2’s operations team are able to track how their data centres are performing from a cooling, power and capacity perspective. They are also able to identify further energy optimisation opportunities in terms of cooling energy usage and overall savings.”

This additional insight from EkkoSense has allowed VMO2 to adjust its energy usage in real-time to meet demand, enabling them to run more efficiently.

“In partnership with EkkoSense, we’ve optimised our data centres so they operate efficiently, using real-time data so we can make airflow and cooling improvements, resulting in significant cooling energy savings,” explained Adrian Lazenby, Head of Technical Site Engineering and Delivery at VMO2.

In recent years, the data centre industry has experienced a surge in growth, much of which is related to the ongoing boom in AI. However, providing energy – particularly renewable energy – for these power-hungry data centres, remains a major challenge. Indeed, we have even seen data centre projects rejected recently due to fears that the local energy grids could not support the additional demand.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models
Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion
CMA questions Vodafone–Three merger after second probe