Targeting an important market of which all Indian operators would no doubt like a slice, Vodafone Idea’s enterprise arm, Vi Business, and digital financial services provider PayU have entered into a strategic partnership to offer bespoke digital payment solutions to Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The two companies say the partnership will combine Vi Business’s digital transformation solutions and PayU’s expertise in digital payments and financial services solutions to offer a comprehensive suite of services designed to address the growing needs of MSMEs.

Vi Business and PayU say they will provide MSMEs with payment solutions, an offers engine, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options, and WhatsApp integration eliminating the need for redirection between apps or websites.

Vi Business, as part of its dedicated MSME programme, ReadyForNext is also offering an exclusive range of productivity and collaboration digital tools tailor-made for MSMEs at special prices. The products include location tracking, Google Workspace, personal cloud storage and mobile security solutions.

Vi Business, formerly known as Vodafone Idea Business Services, says it brings a range of enterprise-grade services and solutions to support the growing needs of its business customers ranging from small home offices to large multi-national companies.

Operating in more than 50 markets and home to 43 different nationalities, in addition to providing advanced e-commerce payment solutions for nearly half a million global merchants, PayU says it is  also one of the world’s top global fintech investors, as well as a leading provider of consumer credit solutions in emerging markets.

Some interconnection, some financing, and some 5G: … [visit site to read more]

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With the long weekend done here in the US, here’s a quick look at the news out to start the week: … [visit site to read more]

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With the US out for a long weekend, here’s a quick rundown on infrastructure news from elsewhere in the world: … [visit site to read more]

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) says it has embarked on a project with UAE operator group Etisalat by e& to build what it claims is the energy sector’s largest ever private 5G network, spanning 11,000 square kilometres.

According to a statement from ADNOC on Wednesday, the private 5G network will cover its onshore and offshore operations, providing (among other things) IoT connectivity for sensors embedded in more than 12,000 wells and pipelines.

The 5G-connected sensors will relay data to autonomous control rooms, which will be equipped with AI to crunch the data and make real-time recommendations to increase the lifespan of ADNOC’s field assets and ensure safety in the field.

ADNOC added that the network will also allow for the digitalization of wellheads and provide end-to-end visibility over operations, thereby driving productivity across the company’s entire value chain.

ADNOC also said the private 5G network ties into its broader strategy to integrate AI solutions at its most remote facilities to reduce costs through automation, as well as improve efficiency, minimize emissions and enhance workplace safety, and generally fulfil ADNOC’s ambition to become “the world’s most AI-enabled energy company.”

“Global demand is rising for both energy and AI, so by investing in cutting-edge connectivity across our operations, we can ensure that we continue providing secure, reliable and responsible energy to our customers,” said Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is both the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC’s MD and group CEO.

The project is due to be completed in 2025, and is expected to generate AED5.5 billion (US$1.5 billion) in value during its first five years of operation, ADNOC said.

The Philippine government’s new project to expand the reach of fibre broadband across the country will result in more lines deployed, but it won’t get more people connected if services are too expensive, says analyst firm BMI Country Risk & Industry Research.

Last week, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) approved the Philippine Digital Infrastructure Project (PDIP), which aims to improve and expand fibre broadband infrastructure across the country, especially for remote areas.

The PDIP includes building backbone, middle-mile and last-mile FTTx networks, as well as network security and project management. The NEDA has authorized a price tag of P16.1 billion (about US$274.4 million) for the project, which will be funded by loans from the World Bank.

However, according to local media outlets, a report from Fitch Group’s BMI earlier this week said that whether the project helps to boost the Philippines’ internet population will depend on whether the resulting services are more affordable than they are now.

BMI estimates that fibre connections in the Philippines will reach 1.58 million this year, and then grow to just 1.83 million by 2033. BMI stressed that the main obstacle to fibre uptake is cost, “particularly stemming from the elevated costs of rollout that are further increased by the Philippines’ archipelagic configuration.”

Much of the projected growth is expected to come from uptake in metro and suburban areas, driven in part by moved from PLDT, Globe Telecom and Converge ICT Solutions to offer low-cost fibre packages. Consequently, the BMI report said, “the PDIP may only provide marginal upsides to our outlook.”

That said, BMI reckons the PDIP could help by executing and managing the project in ways that encourage wholesale network providers and ISPs to lower the price of fibre packages, particularly “by extensively co-financing last-mile area rollout”.

According to 2022 figures from the World Bank, the Philippines is one of the most expensive fixed broadband markets in ASEAN, with prices more than double the regional average. 

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No prizes for guessing that AI stole everyone’s attention at Digital Transformation World in Copenhagen this year. In every keynote and session, the two letter acronym left the lips of every single person that took a stage.

It is no wonder that AI dominated the show after so much fanfare already this year. The much hyped technology promises so particularly to birth new use cases that can save costs and generate fresh revenues.

Axiata Group CEO and Executive Director, Dr Hans Wijayasuriya said in his keynote that the telecoms industry can double its size to US$2 trillion dollars if it can “move from connectivity to a world where we sell end-to-end solutions”. He pointed to AI being a key technology to digitally transform operators into technology companies with this sort of scale and capability. He warned MNOs that do not jump on AI with haste, will be left behind to languish. 

On the same panel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison President Director and CEO Vikram Sinha and Jio Platforms boss Kiran Thomas pointed to how AI can generate GDP growth for Indonesia and India respectively.

TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts pointed out in his speech that only a handful of MNOs are seeing bottom line increases from AI, but added many operators are still early in their digital transformation journeys. 

Autonomous networks

In the telecoms space, automation of networks has been viewed as an eventuality to cut down costs but also create new services, and is a key use case for AI in telecoms.

Bradley Mead (pictured, right), Ericsson Head of Managed Network Services, said “autonomous networks is ultimately where we need to go” as an industry, but acknowledged it is a long journey but “starting it is vital”.

The ultimate goal for all sectors tapping into AI is to achieve ‘Level 5’ said Mead, which means full automation. This is considered the ‘holy grail’ for all automation projects, regardless of industry – Level 5 is akin to a fully driverless car with no need for a steering wheel, or a network that runs completely by itself with no engineer.  

“Hopefully it [Level 5] will unlock new revenue streams for operators because ultimately, that’s what we all need for the industry to be successful,” said Mead.­

Sunil Gupta (pictured, left), Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB)’s Head of Digital Delivery, spoke about the challenges and opportunities of navigating autonomous networks in Malaysia’s singular 5G network.

Malaysia has a rather unique telecoms landscape, as the government decreed all six MNOs must equally share a single 5G network run by DNB, which was set up in 2021 to handle the deployment.

Gupta explained this is a Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) set-up, a key innovation in 5G that enables multiple operators to share common infrastructure while maintaining individual services and brands.

The idea was that this would cut down on expensive deployments, reduce rollout time and of course adapt to new technologies such as AI at speed. But in the time that Malaysia’s government has taken to strike deals with its operators, peers in Asia-Pacific such as Thailand and Indonesia have launched commercial 5G services.

The government had been steadfast in its strategy, betting there will be long-term returns from of its unique plan.

Gupta stressed that having operators share the same infrastructure and keeping their wealth of data private from each other was a key challenge.

To tackle this, DNB with its exclusive vendor Ericsson pushed through with the network being a “machine or data driven operation,” said Gupta. Through using AI technology, DNB was able to predict in real time where problems on the network would arise – one example was finding out why calls were being dropped in a particular location – and safeguard against it to maintain high levels of service.

Gupta revealed two main targets with its AI-boosted network: to provide enterprise network slicing and autonomous network energy management.

Levels of AI

At another stage, Telkomsel’s Director of Networks Indra Mardiatna (pictured, above) hailed the Indonesian operator’s successful implementation of autonomous network technology, highlighting benefits such as customer complaint handling, reduction of manual tasks, and improved NPS scores.

Mardiatna detailed how Telkomsel’s dive into automating its network has made processes smoother.

He pointed out the “legacy” way of handling a customer complaint had too many steps for subscribers, taking up valuable time. Now, Telkomsel customers only have to answer two questions, with analysis of their query coming “automatically from the network” including the root cause.

From this, Mardiatna claimed user complaint handling had improved by 88%, and that Telkomsel’s NPS score is 20% above the industry average.

Mardiatna noted that Christmas, Ramadan and New Year’s were three recent events when Telkomsel experienced heavy network traffic. These special days on the calendar used to require a lot of manual tasks to be completed to ensure the network ran smoothly.

“Previously when we experienced a push in threshold level, someone would have to execute manually an automation request, but now this can be done by machine,” said Mardiatna.

Telkomsel’s network was “90% automated” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan for crowd management, as worshippers gathered daily at Mosques to pray. Mardiatna stated this worked six times better than having an engineer manually divert traffic to other parts of the network. This led to a 20% decrease in customer complaints, noted Mardiatna.

Looking ahead, Telkomsel is aiming to achieve level 4 AI automation in 2025. But Mardiatna acknowledged a few key challenges must be overcome to hit the target of having a “zero touch network” – a network that can heal and adjust itself based on the data it collects.

The first challenge that many operators have highlighted is quality of data and improving data validity. Mardiatna said due to poor data in the early days of using AI, the operator saw results that were a complete “disaster”.

Second, was cost for equipment such as GPUs to install into data centres to tap into AI software. Finally, third was reskilling staff, as the operator has “a lot of legacy telco people” who need convincing an autonomous network is the way forward.

“Despite all of these challenges, we believe autonomous networks will unlock all possibilities. We can achieve more and we believe also we move forward together,” concluded Mardiatna.