News

After receiving complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told the ISP that its adverts were “misleadingly implying that a sixth-generation mobile network existed and was able to be used by consumers”

This week, the ASA has announced that it has banned a number of adverts from UK ISP 6G Internet, after receiving a complaint that the company’s name could lead consumers to believe the company was offering non-existent 6G mobile services.

After an assessment, the ASA ruled that 6G Internet may no longer use its adverts in their current form, saying customers could easily be confused into believing 6G mobile services were being offered.

6G Internet said they were not aware of any complaints from consumers or regulatory bodies about the confusion, arguing that their adverts made clear that the service being offered was home internet, not mobile services.

Regardless, the company has agreed to comply with the ASA’s decision regarding their adverts and has made minor changes on their website to hopefully clarify their service offerings.

“We make clear in all of our advertising the download speeds of our services and that we provide home broadband, as opposed to mobile broadband delivered using generations of cellular technologies,” explained 6G Internet in a statement. “Whilst we have not found, or been presented with, any evidence that our advertising has caused confusion, it is never our intention to mislead customers.”

6G Internet, which provides home broadband services using fixed wireless technology connected to local wholesale fibre networks, was founded back in 2013, at a time when even 5G mobile services were still but a glimmer in the wireless industry’s eye.

Nonetheless, the company’s brand name was always going to draw comparisons to the future mobile technology 6G, which is gradually growing more prominent in the public consciousness despite being unlikely to mature until 2028 at the earliest.

For now, 6G Internet has not indicated any intention of changing its brand name but, when the 6G mobile era arrives towards the end of the decade, further confusion on the part of consumers seems inevitable.

Ultimately, UK broadband consumers still have a very poor understanding of what technologies are being used to provide services. Earlier this year, for example, Ofcom found that only 46% of customers who believed they were receiving ‘full fibre broadband’ actually had fibre-to-the-home available to them. As a result, the regulator is currently pressing operators to clarify their broadband offerings and be more careful with the terminology used in advertising.

Are the UK’s ISPs doing enough to ensure customers understand what they are paying for? Join the network operators, regulators, and the wider telecoms industry in discussion at this year’s upcoming Connected Britain conference   

Also in the news:
Sky Business considers buying up TalkTalk B2B unit
Australian govt launches Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation programme
SK Telecom to invest $100m in AI firm Anthropic  

News

The drafted legislation would see a mechanism created to share spectrum between the military, state security services, and commercial operators, even granting the military emergency powers to shut down networks

A new draft of Russian’s 2035 telecommunications strategy could see the Russian military gain significant powers over civilian mobile networks, including the right to disable them if a state emergency is declared.

According to a report from Kommersant, the new bill includes a new mechanism through which Russian military and security services can share mobile spectrum with commercial operators. This shared spectrum will reportedly be managed by a dedicated third party, which the report suggests could be Russian censorship agency Roskomnadzor.

For the mobile operators, this shared spectrum could provide a boost in service quality for customers, providing much needed additional capacity. On the other hand, it will give the military far greater influence over public networks, both in terms of monitoring and service provisioning.

The report notes that the new telecoms strategy will also enable the military to seize control of civilian networks if a state of emergency is declared. This includes the right to shut off networks entirely if desired.

Overcoming spectrum struggles

The Russian military’s relationship with civilian mobile spectrum is already a complicated one, particularly when it comes to 5G. Years of disjointed spectrum policy have left many of the prime 5G spectrum bands, including the so-called ‘golden band’ of 3.4–3.8GHz, partly occupied by state apparatus, including the Federal Protective Service (FSO), the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Defense, and the Russian space agency, Roskosmos.

Seeking to rectify this issue, the Russian mobile operators set up a joint venture in 2017, now known as New Digital Solutions, aiming to work together on 5G spectrum strategy and research.

“The lack of frequencies suitable for creating 5G networks in Russia is one of the most significant constraints. The JV has a very large amount of work ahead of releasing radio frequency resources, taking into account the whole range of issues – regulatory, organisational, technical, economic,” explained Rostelecom president Mikhail Oseevsky back in 2021.

But despite some progress in clearing certain spectrum bands, challenges in this area persist, with a Beeline (VEON) spokesperson last year noting that there was still “significant technical limitations in the use of existing radio services using the main spectrum band for the development of 5G mobile networks over the 3.4–3.8GHz band”.

Now, the new telecoms strategy is seeking to overcome this challenge by simply banning commercial operators from the 3.4–3.8GHz band, reserving it for state usage and pushing the commercial network operators towards alternative frequencies.

“Explicitly, the draft strategy will include a ban on the use of the golden band,” explained Maxut Shadayev, head of Russia’s Digital Development Ministry. “We will develop 5G. There are other available bands for 5G, for example, 4,400-4,990MHz.”

Challenges extend beyond midband

The Russian operators’ spectrum woes are not confined to the mid-band. Russian operators theoretically hold the rights to use the valuable 700MHz low-band spectrum for 4G and 5G services, but these bands are currently occupied by broadcasters. In fact, backed by a number of regulatory rulings, the broadcasters have proven loath to migrate their services away from these frequencies, attempting to charge the mobile operators exorbitant prices in exchange for doing so.

The government’s sympathy for the broadcasters in this battle may be wearing thin, however, with the government was now considering ordering the broadcasters to vacate the spectrum.

“They believe that the operator must pay. They made an assessment, received some estimated amount, and the number was quite high; the operators are not ready to pay that much for it,” explained Shadayev, noting the government was exploring the possibility of “removing the spectrum in principle”.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Sign up to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox

Also in the news:
Sky Business considers buying up TalkTalk B2B unit
Australian govt launches Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation programme
SK Telecom to invest $100m in AI firm Anthropic  

News

The operator has gained access to all of the spectrum it purchased at auction roughly four months ahead of schedule

Back in 2021, Verizon paid a whopping $45.5 billion at auction for 5G spectrum in the C-band, planning on using it at the backbone of their national 5G network.

However, there was a catch: some of the spectrum was currently being used by satellite operators, like Intelsat and SES, to provide video and radio services.

Thankfully, this issue had been foreseen well in advance by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which had introduced a plan in 2020 offering the satellite players incentives totalling almost $10 billion to clear the C-band spectrum quickly by December 2023. Since then, most satellite operators have moved swiftly to migrate their services off the C-band and therefore collect the sizable payouts.

Now, the roughly four months before the deadline for the satellite players to shift their services, Verizon has announced that the migration process is complete, and it now has access to the entirety of its C-band spectrum holdings.

As a result, it will begin to rollout the additional spectrum across the country, noting that this will allow 5G customers in some parts of the country double or even triple the current bandwidth.

“Early access to the remainder of the C-band spectrum puts us another four months ahead of schedule from our original projections. This additional spectrum will make 5G Ultra Wideband available to even more Americans and will open up more availability of our home and business broadband solutions,” said Joe Russo, EVP & President of Global Networks and Technology for Verizon. “The more spectrum we deploy on our network, the more capacity we add for our customers to connect.”

Making use of the newly freed-up spectrum is seemingly a simple task, with the operator’s existing 5G RAN only requiring a simple software update to integrate the additional airwaves.

Verizon had initially deployed 60MHz of C-band spectrum across 46 markets in 2022, a total that slowly expanded as the satellite operators gradually migrated away from the C-band. Now, full access to the company’s C-band holdings means the operator can provide a minimum of 140MHz of spectrum across the contiguous US, with an average of 161MHz.

In 158 markets in the US ­­– covering almost 40 million people – customers will have access to the full 200MHz of spectrum.

What impact will additional C-band spectrum have on 5G consumers in the US? Join the discussion at Connected America 2024, live in Dallas, Texas

Also in the news:
Cisco to buy-out Telenor from Working Group Two JV
Poland’s ‘largest ever’ broadband subsidy draws 300 applications
Italian government signs MoU to take minority stake in TIM’s NetCo 

News

The partnership will see HCLTech become Verizon Business’s “primary Managed Network Services (MNS) collaborator”

This week, Verizon Business has announced a major partnership with Indian ICT firm HCLTech that onlookers suggest could be worth up to $2.1 billion.

The deal will combine Verizon’s networking power and solutions with HCLTech’s MNS capabilities, with HCLTech leading post-sale implementation and ongoing support for Verizon Business customers. This includes helping them incorporate new technologies like 5G, SD-WAN, and SASE into their own operations and consumer offerings.

“HCLTech is a widely recognized industry leader for Managed Network Services, and with their IT service expertise and ongoing support of our enterprise networking deployments, Verizon Business can modernize our service delivery and simultaneously heighten our focus on helping customers incorporate next-generation technology like 5G, SD-WAN and SASE into their operations and their own customer offerings,” said Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business. “IT/OT convergence is the future of data-centric business operations, and with the fast-accelerating pace of digitalization, customers need a well-coordinated delivery framework to realize that future.”

As part of the deal, a number of Verizon’s Business Global Customer Operations will officially join HCLTech to oversee operations.

For Verizon, this deal is seen as a way to revitalise the sluggish results of its fixed line business, offering the company’s business customers a modernised, flexible, and ultimately more attractive delivery framework.

According to Verizon SVP Scott Lawrence, the deal will begin to “unlock value” as early as the end of this year, with grater integration expected from 2024 onwards.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest developments in the US telecoms sector? Join the industry in discussion at Connected America 2024

Also in the news:
Polish operators line up for 5G spectrum auction
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom to share mobile networks 

News

Cisco is set to pay Telenor $150 million for its 44.6% in the business 

This week, Cisco has signed a $150 million deal to acquire Norwegian company Working Group Two (WG2) from Telenor Group.  

Core network software specialist WG2 was spun out as a separate entity from Telenor in 2017, with the Norwegian operator retaining a significant stake in the business. At the time, additional investors included telecoms equipment specialist Cisco and digital infrastructure investor Digital Alpha.  

Now, six years later, Telenor is selling its entire 44.6% stake in the business to Cisco, which will become WG2’s sole owner. 

WG2 is a cloud-native mobile service platform provider, which offers mobile operators a cloud-based core network to increase product innovation and reduce time to market through authentication, provisioning, voice, messaging, and data services. 

According to Cisco, the acquisition will help them further develop their recently announced Mobility Services Platform. The Platform combines 5G, edge, and cloud technologies to deliver an as-a-service option for service providers, to help them build and manage new Internet of Things (IoT) networks. 

“Built for simplicity, innovation, and efficiency, WG2’s platform uses the web-scale playbook and operating models, which makes it a natural fit with our Mobility Services Platform,” said Cisco Senior Vice president Masum Mir 

“And with WG2 and the Cisco Mobility Services Platform, we’ll be able to boost our service edge deployment and API first strategy for application development partners, enterprise customers and service provider partners.”  

The acquisition is subject to standard regulatory approval and is set to close in Cisco’s first fiscal quarter of 2024. 

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

Also in the news:
Polish operators line up for 5G spectrum auction
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom to share mobile networks 

News 

The government hopes to use a combination of public and private funding in order to shrink the nation’s digital divide 

According to a statement from the Polish Ministry of Digitalisation, 307 applications have been submitted for a portion of the PLN  9 billion ($2.22 billion) of funding available for national broadband projects.  

Of these, 64 are applications to cover 187 areas of Poland that the government has declared ‘white spots’ – areas that have no internet access at all. 

Alongside the EU-linked government funding, the private sector is expected to contribute at further PLN 750 million ($185.2 million) to fund the broadband projects. 

According to the Polish government, this will be on the country’s largest ever investment in broadband expansion.  

Poland launched the Operational Programme Digital Poland (POPC) in 2014, which carries out public broadband funding, and since then has covered more than 2 million households with broadband. In addition, over PLN 4 billion ($990 million) has been invested into broadband coverage for underserved communities. 

Poland’s national broadband plan, which was updated in 2020, aims to achieve broadband speeds of at least 100Mbps for everyone in the country, and at least 1Gbps for socio economic drivers such as schools and transport hubs. It also seeks to ensure 5G connectivity is available on all major communication routes and in major urban areas. 

In tandem with the POPC, the country has launched for the Nationwide Education Network, which aims at providing all schools in Poland (about 19,500 locations) with free internet with speeds of at least 100 Mbps. 

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

Also in the news:
Polish operators line up for 5G spectrum auction
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom to share mobile networks 

News

All four of the nation’s mobile network operators – Play (P4), Polkomtel (Plus), Orange Polska, and T-Mobile Polska – have reportedly submitted their initial bids for 5G spectrum licences

Polish telecoms regulator, the Office of Electronic Communications (Urzad Komunikacji Elektronicznej, UKE), has announced this week that it has received opening bids from all four of the nation’s mobile operators, who are seemingly hungry to get their hands on the long-awaited 5G spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.

Poland is one of just two countries in the EU (the other being the Netherlands) not to have made spectrum in the highly sought after 3.5GHz band available to operators, though this was not by design; plans to auction this spectrum band were first announced back in 2020 but, like so many spectrum auctions at the time, the process was delayed significantly by outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Further delays were later caused by the uncertainty around the Polish government’s amendments to the Act on the National Cybersecurity System, which could potentially limit the operators’ choice of 5G vendors.

Today, these amendment discussions are still ongoing, but the UKE has decided to push forward with the auction process anyway, arguing that Poland is at risk of falling far behind its neighbours in terms of 5G capabilities.

The regulator launched an initial public consultation in December 2022, followed by a second in April this year. As a result, the amount of spectrum being made available for each licence was increased from 80MHz to 100MHz, while the reserve price per block remained unchanged at PLN450 million (roughly $108 million).

Now, the auction is finally taking place, with the process expected to conclude in the next few weeks.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Charlie Ergen’s Dish and Echostar set to merge
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
Rakuten Mobile CEO Tareq Amin makes unexpected exit

News 

The company follow in the footsteps of MTN Uganda, the country’s largest telco, which recently celebrated its first anniversary as a publicly listed company 

Mobile operator Airtel Africa has announced that its Ugandan subsidiary, Airtel Uganda,  will soon be floated on Ugandan Securities Exchange (USE) exchange. 

The firm plans to sell a 20% stake – roughly 8 billion shares – as part of its initial public offering (IPO). 

“The offer is expected to result in meaningful local ownership of Airtel Uganda Ltd, with preference to be given to Ugandan investors, and to contribute to the development of the capital markets in Uganda,” said Airtel Africa. 

If the move gets approval from the Capital Markets Authority of Uganda, the shares will be offered to investors both via traditional channels and through the Airtel Money platform, with the aim of increasing retail participation. 

The firm have chosen Absa Bank Uganda as its lead transaction advisor for the process, which it hopes will be completed by the end of the year. 

In 2019 the Ugandan government mandated that all telecom companies operating in the country must list at least 20% of their shares on the USE within two years of the issuing of a license, with the aim of to increasing local ownership and boost the national economy.

The government claimed that the move would ensure that the capital would therefore be kept within the country and not be taken back to each telco’s country of origin. 

Airtel Uganda were expected to list on the USE by December last year, but the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) allowed the company to delay the listing, as they cited they were not ready due to unfavourable economic conditions. 

Uganda is not alone in its thinking, with other African countries such as Malawi, Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria taking similar action.

How is the African telecommunications market evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live from Amsterdam. 

Also in the news:
Airtel launches first 5G fixed wireless access service in India
Airtel Business passes 20 million IoT connections
Airtel Rwanda launches its own 4G network 

News 

The merger will see the two firms reunify for the first time since EchoStar was spun off from Dish 15 years ago 

Reports from the Wall Street Journal earlier today suggesting that US firms Dish Network and EchoStar are close to finalising a merger deal have since been confirmed.  

Earlier last month, Total Telecom reported that the two firms had hired advisors to iron out the details of the merger, which is now set to be completed by the end of the year. 

Chairman and founder of both companies, Charlie Ergen, said the move will provide Dish Network with the financial freedom it needs to build a nationwide wireless network that is able to compete with the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.  

“This is a strategically and financially compelling combination that is all about growth and building a long-term sustainable business,” said Ergen. 

In recent years, Dish has been rapidly evolving from a pure satellite television operator to a major player in the wireless market. Dish agreed to purchase Sprint’s pre-paid mobile brand Boost as part of the mega-merger between T-Mobile and Sprint back in 2020, in a bid to become the country’s fourth national mobile network operator. Since then, the company has won 5G spectrum at auction and has been busy rolling out infrastructure across the US.  

Dish has said that it will invest up to $10 billion to deploy its 5G wireless network. 

Now, this new merger will combine EchoStar’s satellite communications structure with Dish’s pay-TV business and 5G network. 

Dish network is valued at around $4 billion, and Echostar at $2 billion. Dish is notably laden with debt, while EchoStar is not, hence the merger appears primarily motivated by the financial support it will lend the mobile operator in continuing to finance its rollout of 5G infrastructure. 

Ergen currently owns 60% of EchoStar shares and over half of Dish’s. Under the terms of the new deal, EchoStar shareholders will receive 2.85 Class A shares from Dish per share of Echostar with the exchange ratio representing a 12.9% premium on EchoStar’s shares closing valuein early July, when reports of the merger first surfaced. 

“Ergen has been trying to win back investor confidence in his wireless strategy. Dish shares have hit lows not seen in more than two decades this year as analysts question whether his project will pay off before billions of dollars of debt come due in the coming years,” the Wall Street Journal article states. 

Dish shares have been trading at their lowest level since 1999 and are down 41%, while EchoStar shares are up 41%. 

After the signing of the deal, Erik Carlson (CEO of Dish) is set to depart, leaving current EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan to take over as current CEO and president of the combined company. 

You can hear more about US mergers at next year’s Connected America – secure your place here 

Also in the news:
Rakuten Mobile CEO Tareq Amin makes unexpected exit
Pair of subsea cables severed off the west coast of Africa
Could triboelectric nanogenerators be key to powering the IoT? 

News

The West African Cable System (WACS) and South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) submarine cables were reportedly damaged by a submarine landslide in the Congo Canyon

According to a report from MyBroadband, both the WACS and SAT-3 cables have experienced breaks off the coast of West Africa.

Reports suggest that the breaks took place on the cable sections situated between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, likely due to a submarine mudslide around the Congo Canyon.

Congo Canyon is a steep submarine valley carved into the seabed around the mouth of the Congo River. The area is well known for cable disruption, with huge aquatic mudslides occurring when the Congo River floods heavily. This was the case in early 2020, when the Congo River saw its worst flooding for half a century, resulting in an underwater avalanche that heavily disrupted both WACS and SAT-3.

Now, it appears that similar activity has once again impacted these cables, with Telkom SA’s wholesale fixed-line division Openserve confirming that both cables have been severed.

The company also noted that service disruption from the event should be low due to the availability of alternative data transport routes.

“The impact on our network is limited to customers on the international private leased circuits (IPLC) services,” explained Openserve in a statement. “The Openserve network remains robust due to our investment in other international cable capacity, hence all Openserve IP Transit services (WebReach) traffic have been automatically re-routed, ensuring our customers stay seamlessly connected.”

The two cables in question are follow a similar route, travelling roughly 14,500km up the west coast of Africa and connecting South Africa to Portugal, with numerous international branches along the way.

SAT-3 is by far the older cable, coming into service in 2002, while WACS was activated in 2012.

The task of repairing the cables has already been allocated to the cable ship Leon Thevenin, but the process is likely to take some time; according to reports, the ship has only recently arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, and hence will travel south, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back up the west coast of Africa to reach its destination.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest submarine cable news? Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest submarine cable industry event

Also in the news:
CEF Digital programme highlights Global Gateways projects at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023
What’s hot in the submarine networks industry today?
Ciena talks trends, technology, and transformation at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023