Interview

Antonella Faniuolo, Head of Network Planning, Demand, Delivery and Transformation at Vodafone shares her insights into Vodafone’s transformation story from Telco to TechCo.

Can you tell us about your role at Vodafone?  

I lead Vodafone’s Network Planning, Demand, Delivery & Transformation team at a European level. We are responsible for translating Vodafone’s overall network strategy into actionable market plans to meet our commercial ambition across 12 European markets. In short, we look at the big picture and make sure that can be delivered at network level. 

What does it mean to be a modern telco according to Vodafone?  

At Vodafone we are currently undergoing a transformation to diversify from our traditional position as purely a telco and transform into a Tech Comms company. At the heart of that strategy, we are bringing teams and markets together to create One Technology team to better enable us to leverage our geographical scale. We are also investing in technologies beyond what would be considered the norm for the telecoms industry. 

For Vodafone, a modern telco is one that retains the connectivity proposition at the core of the business but offers a range of products and services above and beyond while operating with the agility and borderless mindset of a technology company. The objective is to offer value to our customers beyond what we traditionally offer. 

As the Head of Network Planning, Demand, Delivery & Transformation for Europe. What is the main challenge you face right now?  

We are transitioning to a new way of working that is build once and deploy many. Digital transformation programmes like this do not happen overnight; telecoms operators are complex organisations. This programme will have huge benefits for the business, leveraging our scale across multiple European markets and removing duplication of effort. As well as organisational, this is a cultural transformation, which is challenging, but hugely rewarding, allowing us to fully leverage our international pool of talent. 

You joined a panel at Total Telecom Congress on Open RAN and the future of 5G. From your perspective, what key challenges still need to be addressed for telcos to make the most Open RAN? 

At Vodafone, we view OpenRAN as a catalyst for change. We are asking our team to think differently as to how you build and manage networks, but also addressing common challenges. And by building a network with interoperability embedded at the foundation, we are creating the opportunity to work with new suppliers that may not be in the traditional telecoms ecosystem. These programmes are supported in parallel by two R&D labs opened over the last twelve months in Newbury and Malaga. 

The integration of these new companies, and adapting to new ways of working is incredibly challenging, but also perhaps the most exciting element of OpenRAN.  Bringing in new people, new ideas and more innovation can only be beneficial to the telecoms industry. 

Another significant challenge for OpenRAN is incentivising this nascent ecosystem. At Vodafone, we have made a commitment to transform 30% of mobile sites across Europe to OpenRAN technology by 2030. 

This is a significant commitment by Vodafone, and we look forward to seeing others in the industry make similar plans. The growth and maturity of the OpenRAN ecosystem will accelerate when there is incentive. A commitment of 30% of our European network provides a commercial target for OpenRAN companies to invest in themselves and to attract external investment in their operations.  

If others in the industry can provide the same incentive, the OpenRAN industry will go from strength to strength. 

Why do you attend events like Total Telecom Congress?  

After a few years of very limited in person events – I’m still really enjoying the opportunity to get out and meet old and new colleagues from across the industry. It really is the best way to get a sense of new developments in the sector.  

Total Telecom Congress took place in London this week. Next year’s edition will be moving to Amsterdam and will be held on 21st and 22nd November. Keep up to date with what’s happening via the event website.

A bit of M&A, some federal funding, and a product launch: … [visit site to read more]

VIEWPOINT

The 5.5G is all set to become a reality over the next two-to-three years and will last till 2030, when commercial 6G networks are likely to be launched. This was revealed during a panel discussion on 5.5G and Intelligent World 2030 at the recently held Huawei MBBF 2022.

The 3GPP Release 18, which will give out specifications for 5G Advanced or 5.5G deployment, is likely to be finalized in 2024Q1. This will pave the way for the first 5.5G commercial deployments in 2024, as predicted by Alex Sinclair, CTO at GSMA.

“While 5G will meet the basic coverage and bandwidth needs, 5.5G will be required to support new and innovative use cases and the specific needs of the consumers and enterprises. It will be a bridge technology between 5G and 6G and will provide a downlink speed of 10 Gbps and an uplink speed of 1 Gbps. It will also be able to support 100 billion Internet of Things (IoT) connections and become natively intelligent,” said Gao Quanzhong, 5.5G General Manager at Huawei Wireless Network, during the panel discussion.

Around 230 service providers worldwide have launched commercial 5G services. The telecom industry has already installed more than three million 5G base stations to cater to more than 700 million users. Even as the 5G ecosystem expands, it will soon not be enough to meet the growing demands of subscribers and enterprises.

5.5G is needed not just to support innovative use cases but also to enhance user experience and drive the services’ uptake. For instance, new-age use cases like metaverse, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) and 5G to business services demand high uplink speed and high-precision positioning, which is not possible with 5G. Further, the growing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) based use cases means that current 5G networks will not be able to meet the ever-increasing needs of consumers.

Further, the digital transformation of enterprises in all geographies will require networks that support use cases like digital twins and increased usage of robotics applications, which cannot be supported by 4G or 5G. 5.5G will be able to address this gap since 6G is likely to become a reality only by 2030.

A key use case of 5.5G is metaverse which promises to open up new and exciting revenue opportunities for the carriers. “While Metaverse means different things to different people, there is no denying that 5.5G is extremely important for the growth of the metaverse ecosystem,” says the Metaverse expert Moon Jerin, Aeindri CEO. 5.5G will also drive the digital transformation of enterprises from different business verticals

Another reason why 5.5G is crucial is that it will allow service providers to offer new and hitherto unknown use cases to their users and enterprise customers. “It [5.5G] will enable service providers to offer a better quality of network which will not only drive usage but also lead to the emergence of new applications,” says Walid Mathlouthi, Head of Future Networks & Spectrum Management, ITU.

The panellists also called upon strong collaboration and partnership between the industry stakeholders to develop the 5.5G ecosystem. Further, there is a need for the standards to be open to ensure compatibility and interoperability between the systems. This will go a long way in promoting collaboration.

Strategies to drive 5.5G ecosystem

A crucial component required for the growth of the 5.5G ecosystem is regulatory support. “The regulators need to consider assigning spectrum of ultra-wide bandwidth for 5.5G networks. In 5.5G, the spectrum bands, which were difficult to use in the past, will now become helpful. Further, the industry needs to start working on developing devices for 5.5G to unlock the full potential of this technology,” says Gao Quanzhong during the panel discussion.

Technology innovations are key to help service providers transition from 5G to 5.5G. For instance, an Extremely Large Antenna Array (ELAA) enables high-band networks to provide the same coverage as C-band so that service providers can deliver 10 Gbps to all users, irrespective of their location. Furthermore, ELAA Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is also important as ultra-large bandwidth is essential to mobile networks, requiring all sub-100GHz resources, including FDD spectrum, C-band, 6GHz and millimetre Wave (mmWave) to be fully utilized. Higher performance terminals are also necessary to achieve 10Gbps downlink and 1Gbps uplink by providing more transmitters and receivers.

As the number of 5G networks and subscribers continues to grow worldwide, service providers will need more than 5G to address the growing requirements.