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News

Dish Network and T-Mobile have jointly asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reallocate the 800MHz spectrum, but Dish wants more time to pay for it

This week, Dish has confirmed to the FCC that it intends to purchase spectrum in the 800MHz band from T-Mobile, saying that it will play a key role in accelerating their 5G network coverage.

“As Dish continues to deploy and increase coverage with this first-of-its-kind network, it will expand the availability of competitive services offered to both consumer and business customers,” said Dish in the filing. “The 800MHz spectrum licenses contemplated by this transaction will substantially enhance Dish’s ability to do so.”

The purchase relates to the Sprint–T-Mobile merger back in 2020, with Dish having agreed to build out its own 5G network and become a national mobile operator as part of the deal to appease regulatory authorities. As part of this process, the mobile newcomer was given the option to pay T-Mobile $3.59 billion for a 13.5MHz block of nationwide spectrum in the 800MHz band.

If Dish instead decided not purchase these spectrum licences from T-Mobile, it will owe the latter $72 million.

While unable to offer the same level of 5G performance as mid-band (C-band) spectrum, this low-band spectrum was nonetheless seen as invaluable for rolling out services due to its long-range.

The prearranged deadline for Dish to make its decision on the spectrum passed earlier this year, with the two companies locked in negotiations for many months.

Now, the filing from both Dish and T-Mobile to the FCC indicates that the spectrum purchase will indeed go ahead, though the exact financial details of the deal have not been revealed.

However, there is a catch: Dish is asking the US government that it be given ten more months to make the requisite payments to T-Mobile.

The company argues that the global economic downturn has made paying for the spectrum more difficult than anticipated.

“The dramatic increase in interest rates has made it significantly more expensive for Dish to finance a purchase of the 800MHz Spectrum Licenses, rendering its ability to responsibly do so within the timeline provided by the Final Judgment substantially more difficult than Dish – or other parties to the Final Judgment – ever could have anticipated,” Dish told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Indeed, Dish’s finances have been strained for some time, with the company currently carrying around $21 billion in debt.

The company recently announced that it would merge with its previous parent company EchoStar, in a move largely seen as an effort to bolster the company’s balance sheet.

T-Mobile has not said whether it will oppose the requested extension.

How will the growth of Dish’s 5G network impact the US wireless market? Join the operators in discussion at Connected America 2024 live in Dallas, Texas

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  

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Press Release

Ericsson revs up the tempo on 5G Carrier Aggregation by combining six component carriers to set a record download speed of 5.7Gbps for the world’s first 6CC (component carrier) data call

The data call was achieved using three FDD (frequency division duplex) bands combined with three TDD (time division duplex) bands in sub-6GHz, enabled by Ericsson RAN Compute hardware, state-of the-art carrier aggregation software, and innovative Advanced RAN Coordination functionality.

The 3FDD + 3TDD carrier aggregation testing was carried out in an Ericsson lab with a user equipment (UE) simulator. By combining FDD spectrum with TDD spectrum, more users can benefit from carrier aggregation gains.

In total, 400MHz of bandwidth was aggregated with FDD bandwidths ranging 20MHz to 50MHz to achieve the 5.7Gbps throughput. With six-component carrier capability, communications service providers can optimize use of network and spectrum assets to deliver higher data speeds and capacity that improve the experience of downlink-heavy applications. This can mean better audio and video quality for streaming users, faster file downloads, and a better working environment for digital nomads.

Sibel Tombaz, Head of Product Line 5G RAN at Ericsson Networks, says: “We are keeping the momentum on carrier aggregation by continuously stretching its potential to boost capacity and speed. Our successful 6CC data call shows how versatile our solution is and that we are poised to work with ecosystem partners to make this new band combination a reality. Our goal, as always, is to help customers meet end users’ growing appetite for high-capacity, ultrahigh-speed 5G.”

“Carrier Aggregation is crucial to getting the best possible 5G performance out of scattered spectrum assets,” Tombaz adds. “And with 6CC, service providers will be able to maximize use of allocated spectrum and optimize the combined bandwidth for superior mobile experience.”

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  

VIEWPOINT

The Asia Pacific stop of Huawei Network Summit (HNS) 2023 was held successfully in Jakarta, Indonesia. With the theme of “Innovations Never Stop”, HNS attracted more than 800 customers and partners from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and many other Asia Pacific countries.

At HNS, Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled “Innovations Never Stop”, shedding light on how Huawei’s Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution takes network quality to new levels. Specifically, Huawei further enhances its CloudCampus, CloudFabric, and CloudWAN solutions from the perspectives of experience, intelligence, and convergence, respectively. On top of that, Huawei unveiled many groundbreaking products, including a first-of-its-kind experience assurance card (used on flagship campus switches), CloudEngine 16800-X (a 400GE data center network switch), NetEngine F8/M14 (converged transport routers), and iMaster NCE Network Digital Map. All of these offerings empower networks with innovations and unleash digital productivity at an accelerated pace.

Launching Huawei’s groundbreaking network innovations

Leon Wang pointed out that Asia Pacific countries attach great importance to digital transformation and therefore greatly accelerate digital transformation across diverse industries. Against this backdrop, data communication networks — a cornerstone for digitalization — need to constantly innovate to meet diversified needs of industries. For example, as governments accelerate digital transformation, there is a huge demand for HD video conferencing to ensure seamless communication experience. Likewise, the finance industry is digitally evolving to Bank 4.0. As such, multi-cloud and multi-vendor become the new norm, requiring data center network operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities to be constantly upgraded. Another example is the Internet service provider (ISP) sector. ISPs need to provide high-quality network support capabilities to assist enterprises as they enter a period of rapid growth and increasingly demand stable services and bandwidth growth.

Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, delivering a keynote speech

In response, Huawei constantly innovates its Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution by enhancing CloudCampus, CloudFabric, and CloudWAN from the perspectives of experience, intelligence, and convergence, respectively.

• CloudCampus 3.0 + Experience: Huawei’s high-quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus solution focuses on user experience and stands out with four unique features: ultra-high-speed access, simplified architecture, ultimate experience, and simplified O&M. This solution is a great fit for public service, education, finance, transportation, and other industries, where it can help to build a non-blocking office network. The resulting benefits include smooth video conferencing, 50% lower network construction costs, and fast fault recovery in minutes.
• CloudFabric 3.0 + Intelligence: Huawei’s CloudFabric data center network solution becomes more intelligent than ever, and takes on three distinctive features: ultra-powerful performance, ultra-fast deployment, and ultra-intelligent O&M. In diverse industries like finance, public service, and education, this solution can improve AI training efficiency by 20%, provision services across clouds and data centers in minutes, locate network root causes for application exceptions with one click, and demarcate faults in minutes.
• CloudWAN 3.0 + Convergence: Huawei’s converged CloudWAN solution creates new value for customers through converged networks, converged devices, and converged management. Leveraging Huawei’s solution, customers in industries such as ISP, urban rail, and energy can reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by 65% and capital expenditure (CAPEX) by 50% while increasing O&M efficiency by 60%.

Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to innovate and overcome technical bottlenecks through more R&D investments. Furthermore, Huawei will keep aligning best-in-class products and solutions with customers’ future business development. Doing so will help a wide range of industry customers to bridge technical divides and stay ahead of the competition. Huawei’s extensive training and communication platforms help customers gain fresh insight into leading products and solutions, and explore unique ways to unleash digital productivity.

Vincent Liu, President of Huawei’s Enterprise Network Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, announcing the IP Club member program

At HNS, Vincent Liu, President of Huawei’s Enterprise Network Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, announced the kick-off of the first IP Club member recruitment program in the Asia Pacific region, recruiting more than 350 members during the event.

IP Club is an IP industry peer communication platform initiated by Huawei. IP Club members can enjoy diversified member-only activities, such as in-person technical workshops, face-to-face meetings with industry experts, IP Club Carnival, and peer interaction in the online community. The IP Club program helps build an IP industry community in the Asia Pacific region that unites more IP industry experts and opinion leaders. To date, Huawei has brought together over 2800 IP Club members worldwide.

A US Trade and Development Agency-funded feasibility study for Nigeria’s Hotspot Network Limited has led to the issuance of financing for the deployment of 120 solar-powered rural telecommunications base stations across 22 states in Nigeria.

USTDA’s focus is the export of US goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies. In this case the project will utilize renewable energy to provide last-mile mobile connectivity to underserved rural communities that lack the requisite power infrastructure for reliable telecommunications.

Hotspot is a telecommunication infrastructure and solar-powered rural telephony network provider, using renewable energy and climate-smart technology in operating telecom sites in off-grid rural parts of Nigeria.

Co-financing the project are Nigeria’s Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) and the Climate Finance Blending Facility, funded by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). This co-financing attracted matching investments from nine Nigerian institutional investors.

USTDA’s feasibility study, announced in 2021, assessed Nigeria’s rural telephony market, defined the project’s technology, cost and revenue options, and recommended financing and implementation plans.

USTDA’s support for this activity results from a memorandum of understanding (MoU), also in 2021, with InfraCredit to jointly identify infrastructure projects in Nigeria that could benefit from project preparation funding and subsequent credit enhancements. The sectors of cooperation highlighted in the MoU include clean energy, information and communications technology, transportation, agribusiness and healthcare infrastructure.

News

The mobile money platform, the largest in Africa, will take on incumbent operator Ethio Telecom’s own fintech service, Telebirr

This week. Kenyan operator giant Safaricom has launched their M-Pesa mobile money platform in Ethiopia.

The move marks a key part of newcomer Safaricom’s Ethiopian strategy, seeking to replicate the success that their M-Pesa already enjoys in numerous markets across the African continent.

M-Pesa was first introduced by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007. Since then, the service has grown almost exponentially, expanding into six additional African markets and processing transactions worth over three times Kenya’s GDP every year.

Safaricom grows Ethiopian subscriber base

The consortium now known as Safaricom Ethiopia (at the time called ‘The Global Partnership for Ethiopia’) first entered the market back in 2021, having paid the government $850 million for a mobile operating licence.

Since then, the company has been racing to rollout mobile infrastructure, as well as signing a network sharing deal with incumbent Ethio Telecom in April 2022 to begin offering services across the country.

Today, the company’s own infrastructure covers over 21 cities, with the company having attracted over two million subscribers.

The path to launching their own mobile financial services, however, has been less clear.

A rivalry brewing with Ethio Telecom’s TeleBirr

Launching M-Pesa in Ethiopia was one of the key attractions for Safaricom in battling for a mobile operating licence, with the country’s population of 120 million presenting extraordinary potential for revenue growth. However, the company was restricted from launching M-Pesa immediately, with the Ethiopian government forcing them to wait a year in order to give incumbent Ethio Telecom a chance to launch their mobile money platform first.

This Ethio Telecom did in 2021 in the form of TeleBirr, allowing customers to make cashless transactions using their mobile device, including sending and receiving money, depositing and withdrawing cash from selected locations, paying bills, and receiving cash sent from abroad.

With no local competition, TeleBirr quickly racked up customers in Ethiopia’s mobile money space, earlier this year reporting roughly 34 million active users of its platform. In the six months from July 2022 to January 2023, the platform reportedly processed roughly $3 billion in transactions, generating around $1.5 million in revenue for Ethio Telecom.

The scale of TeleBirr’s lead in the Ethiopian market should not be underestimated – M-Pesa’s entire user base across all seven of its existing markets is roughly 53 million users.

Nonetheless, the addressable market in Ethiopia continues to grow at an impressive pace, with Safaricom noting M-Pesa’s role as a key enabler for expanding financial inclusion, just as it has done in Kenya.

“M-Pesa is known to be a game-changer for financial inclusion,” said Stanley Njoroge, Safaricom Ethiopia’s interim CEO. “We will continue to broaden the services our customers receive from the M-Pesa platform.”

Next steps for Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government is only part way through its telecoms liberalisation journey, with plans to sell off a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom recently drawing attention from major international operators, including Orange and e&.

The government has also indicated that it still has plans to relaunch an auction process for an additional telco operating licence in the country, potentially increasing the number of national operators from two to three.

However, both the stake sale and the licence auction have been delayed numerous times, both by the global economic situation and civil unrest in the country’s Tigray region. Even now, with the economy somewhat more settled and the cessation of hostilities, no concrete timeline has been proposed for either process.

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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