This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Gerrit Jan Konijnenberg, Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF)
Over the next ten years, we must dramatically reduce carbon dioxide (or equivalent gases – collectively known as CO2e) levels or we will be unable to keep global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-Industrial levels. Passing that tipping point will make it incredibly difficult to bring climate change under control. … [visit site to read more]
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BT today announces the launch of the UK’s first Drone SIM to unlock the true potential of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOs) drone operation across the UK.
Designed to function at altitude using the EE network, Drone SIM offers unlimited data plans and continuous connectivity in the sky. Drone SIM is built to endure vibration, temperature and humidity extremes, supporting all-season drone use. BT business customers will be the first to benefit from the Drone SIM which has the potential to transform industries, from urgent delivery of medical supplies to infrastructure monitoring and transportation of goods.
Using BT Group’s EE network, Drone SIM benefits from high priority and ultra responsive connectivity, enabling safety, control, telemetry and realising ultra-high definition (UHD) video streaming at altitude. This enables drone users to capture detailed, survey quality imagery and video for a wide range of purposes, from search and rescue to infrastructure inspection.
Drone SIM is pushing the limits of drone flight. With the largest geographic coverage in the UK, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) can now fly significant distances at their full capability whilst remaining in constant communication with their remote pilots and safety systems; a dramatic shift from a world where they were limited by line-of-sight radio transmission or local Wi-Fi. This innovation presents a key opportunity across industry, from urgent delivery of medical supplies to infrastructure monitoring and transportation of goods.
Etc., the Digital start-up and incubation arm of BT Group, has demonstrated its role in innovating the drone industry through historic relationships, such as its £5 million deal with Altitude Angel to help build the UK’s first drone superhighway. The launch of Drone SIM follows a series of successful trials and development by the Etc. team. Trials include critical infrastructure inspection with drone technology provider sees.ai, plus the ability to test BVLOS mission safety standards in an integrated airspace with turnkey Uncrewed Aerial System providers Skylift. Drone SIM has also powered a UK-first drone medical delivery trial with aerial logistics specialist Skyfarer.
Dave Pankhurst, Director of Drones, BT, said, “Following the successful trials of our Drone SIM over the past year, this announcement is a huge stepping stone in bringing drone connectivity to businesses across the UK, unlocking potential for more efficient processes, business transformation and, with the ability to power search and rescue missions and medical deliveries, helping to save lives.”
Eduardo Aldaz-Carroll, Chief Technology Officer, sees.ai, states “It’s vitally important to inspect our critical national energy infrastructure. Drones offer significant benefits by increasing the speed, efficiency and consistency of data capture so we can predict the future state of the asset with reduced risk and environmental impact. It’s great to be working with BT Group to develop the technologies required to roll out BVLOS drone inspection and monitoring at scale.”
Nick Ruggles, Chief Technology Officer, Skylift states, “BT‘s Telecoms Grade C2 links have halved our deployment setup times. With recurring costs at just 14% of other systems and virtually zero infrastructure expenses, this is a game changer for us”.
Georgia Hanrahan, Chief Operations Officer at Skyfarer commented, “With the Drone SIM powering BVLOS flight, we can take a 20 minute flight between two hospitals and reduce this to a more direct 8 minute flight. Perfect for time-sensitive deliveries. We estimate a wider scale roll out nationwide could reduce our delivery time by 60% compared to road transport”.
Drone SIM is available today via www.bt.com/drones
What role will mobile connectivity play in unlocking the potential of the drone industry? Join the discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live from Amsterdam
Also in the news:
VEON closes the door on Russia
Telefonica considers stake sale of Telefonica Tech
FCC fines DISH $150,000 after failure to decommission satellite as planned
A few interesting items from EMEA and beyond: … [visit site to read more]
Industry leaders from Telefonica, Vodafone, China Mobile, Zain, MTN, AIS, EANTC, and Huawei gathered at the Summit and delivered keynote speeches focussing on AN. They spoke to an audience representing over 150 global operators, each seeking to learn the latest progress and achievements related to Autonomous Networks.
From conceptual consensus to deployment at scale, AN has made great progress after more than four years of development. Over 14 operators across the world have released their AN strategy of reaching Level 4 by 2025, with 70% expecting to reach Level 3 and beyond by 2025.
To drive the development and adoption of AN further, TM Forum released the AN Whitepaper 5.0 as a guide for all operators to implement AN, with all the speakers joining the Whitepaper launch ceremony at the Summit.
Aaron Boasman-Patel, the chair of the TM Forum AN Program, said in his presentation: “We recently launched the AN Manifesto to accelerate the adoption of autonomous networks and I am delighted to see 31 large CSP and vendor members become founding signatories in such a short time – this signifies the critical role autonomous networks is going to play in CSPs operations. Additionally, we launched the new the AN Whitepaper R5.0, which saw contributions by 64 partners. In this release, we renewed the Four Elements Methodology as the AN Framework (ANF), which will act as the AN Journey Guide for operators while adopting.”
Aaron Boasman-Patel, the chair of the TM Forum AN Program
Juan Manuel Caro, Director Autonomous Networks of Telefonica, said: “1) Agility, Intelligence, Efficiency, Quality, Sustainability are a set of Program Foundational Drivers guiding us in our Transformation journey, focusing on single autonomous use cases first and AI, then progressing to more complex , cross-domain use cases; 2) Defining an automation architecture (Network Brain Heart and ways of working) and hierarchy based in AI algorithms embedded in every layer 3) Established executive committee with our CTIO and we committed a 3-year plan with KPI based on autonomous network and the autonomy and sustainability goals and quality goals.”
Juan Manuel Caro, Director Autonomous Networks of Telefonica
“To operate the world’s largest network based on the principle of “service value and technological innovation, China Mobile is dedicated to improving endogenous network capabilities and end-to-end automatic NMS support capabilities, and to widely deploying more intelligent applications,” said Zhiyi Luo, Autonomous Networks director of China Mobile while sharing China Mobile’s best practice.
Zhiyi Luo, Autonomous Networks director of China Mobile
Boonchoung Tansuthepverawongse, Head of Network data and OSS Platform from AIS, said in his presentation: “After another year of great efforts, AIS is never wavering in the strategic goal of becoming a Cognitive Tech-Co to unleash digital customer experience excellence. Along this journey, AN have always played a significant role in forming the basis for enhancing network reliability, network quality, operation efficiency and most importantly, boosting AIS business growth.”
Boonchoung Tansuthepverawongse, Head of Network data and OSS Platform from AIS
Mohamed Salah, Head of network operation and transformation at MTN Group, said: “MTN continuously making innovation by value-base automation program under MTN’s PACE technical strategy. The scenarios (such as NPS improvement) are selected with “services-networks-value streams” 3-dimensional model. So, we can improve our AN level and capture the value autonomous networks during this evolution journey.”
Mohamed Salah, Head of network operation and transformation at MTN Group
Carsten Rossenhoevel, Co-Founder & CTO, EANTC said: “Realistic AN tests and assessments are an important success factor for the development of the TM Forum Autonomous Networks ecosystem. EANTC and Huawei jointly completed the first independent AN solution test in the IP domain.
Carsten Rossenhoevel, Co-Founder & CTO, EANTC
Sam Wang, General Manager of Huawei ADN Solutions said: “Practices and technologies are the two core drivers for Autonomous Networks. Huawei will continue to invest in the scenario-based solutions, root technologies such as foundation models, and enablement services to drive the industry forward. And the industry should be more open and cooperative to build a telecom foundation model to support richer business application scenarios.”
Sam Wang, General Manager of Huawei ADN Solutions
More and more operators are exploring AN,and actively sharing their implementation experience, helping to spread these important lessons across the industry. Undoubtedly, this kind of sharing, discussion and collaboration will inspire the real innovation and change for paving the way to highly Autonomous Networks.
Four projects from spots around the country to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]
CSquared has selected Adtran’s FSP 3000 open optical transport technology to bring high-speed broadband services to Togo.
The Adtran FSP 3000 open optical transport solution gives CSquared’s network a total transport capacity of 400Gbit/s. Featuring Adtran’s intelligent, compact and power-efficient FSP 150 Ethernet access devices, the backbone and metro networks ensure residential and business customers can expect reliable, symmetrical services ranging from 1Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s.
Enabling more automatic and flexible optical networking, CSquared’s scalable infrastructure caters to changing traffic demands quickly and efficiently. Google’s Equiano subsea cable is a key enabler of the new network, giving Togo 20 times more bandwidth than any other cable serving West Africa. With the network connecting to this cable, CSquared gains enough transport capacity to support faster services in the future.
“Leveraging Adtran’s optical networking technology, we can scale rapidly to connect some of Togo’s most underserved communities to high-quality broadband. Our new network guarantees widespread, affordable connectivity, ensuring no citizen gets left behind in the race to digitalize the global economy,” said Samuel Owusu Yeboah, West Africa CTO at CSquared.
“Harnessing our open, programmable and scalable technology, CSquared can get to work closing the country’s digital divide, enabling people to reap the economic and social benefits of our globally interconnected digital economy,” commented Stuart Broome, GM of EMEA sales at Adtran. “From where the Equiano subsea cable lands, CSquared is using our technology to scale its network in record time, connecting the people of Togo to each other, the rest of Africa and the world beyond.”
In a transaction that reflects the changing landscape of internet infrastructure, Akamai and Lumen announced a transaction yesterday. Lumen has sold ‘select Content Delivery Network service contracts’ to Akamai. The deal enables Akamai to consolidate more revenue onto its platform and allows Lumen to refocus further on connectivity. … [visit site to read more]
Nokia today announced it has set two new world records in submarine optical transmission, both of which will shape the next generation of optical networking equipment.
The first sets a new optical speed record for transoceanic distances. Nokia Bell Labs researchers were able to demonstrate an 800-Gbps data rate at a distance of 7865 km using a single wavelength of light. That distance is two times greater than what current state-of-the-art equipment can transmit at the same capacity and is approximately the geographical distance between Seattle and Tokyo. Nokia Bell Labs achieved this milestone at its optical research testbed in Paris-Saclay, France.
The second record was achieved by both Nokia Bell Labs and Nokia subsidiary Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), establishing a net throughput of 41 Tbps over 291 km via a C-band unrepeated transmission system. C-band unrepeated systems are commonly used to connect islands and offshore platforms to each other and the mainland proper. The previous record for these kinds of systems is 35 Tbps over the same distance. Nokia Bell Labs and ASN broke the record at ASN’s research testbed facility, also in Paris-Saclay.
Nokia Bell Labs and ASN presented the scientific findings behind both records on the 4th and 5th of October at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), held in Glasgow, Scotland.
Making lasers that blink faster
Nokia Bell Labs and Alcatel Submarine Networks were able to achieve both world records through the innovation of higher-baud-rate technologies. “Baud” measures the number of times per second that an optical laser switches on and off, or “blinks”. Higher baud rates mean higher data throughput and will allow future optical systems to transmit the same capacities per wavelength over far greater distances. In the case of transoceanic systems, these increased baud rates will double the distance at which we could transmit the same amount of capacity, allowing us to efficiently bridge cities on opposite sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the case of C-band unrepeated systems, higher baud would allow service providers connecting islands or off-shore platforms to achieve higher capacities with fewer transceivers and without the addition of new frequency bands.
The research behind these two records will have significant impact on the next generation of submarine optical transmission systems. While future deployments of submarine fiber will take advantage of new fiber technologies like multimode and multicore, the existing undersea fiber networks can take advantage of next-generation higher-baud-rate transceivers to boost their performance and increase their long-term viability.
Sylvain Almonacil, Research Engineer at Nokia Bell Labs, said: “With these higher baud rates, we can directly link most of the world’s continents with 800 Gbps of capacity over individual wavelengths. Previously, these distances were inconceivable for that capacity. Furthermore, we’re not resting on our achievement. This world record is the next step toward next-generation Terabit-per-second submarine transmissions over individual wavelengths.”
Hans Bissessur, Unrepeated Systems Group leader at ASN, said: “These research advances show that that we can achieve better performance over the existing fiber infrastructure. Whether these optical systems are crisscrossing the world or linking the islands of an archipelago, we can extend their lifespans.”
The submarine network landscape is evolving. Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest subsea cable event
Also in the news:
VEON closes the door on Russia
Telefonica considers stake sale of Telefonica Tech
FCC fines DISH $150,000 after failure to decommission satellite as planned
American Tower Corporation a leading independent owner, operator and developer of wireless and broadcast communications real estate, has released its 2022 sustainability report in which it says it has decreased its direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1) by 11% from 2019.
As for its African operation, the company says that through investment of more than US$350 million in renewable energy deployments, sophisticated energy storage solutions and energy reduction initiatives in Africa since 2018, ATC has decreased its on-site diesel consumption by an estimated 43.5 million litres annually when compared to business-as-usual operations. This equates to roughly 117,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) avoided.
To achieve such goals, ATC Africa has deployed on-site solar power and lithium-ion batteries and has adopted advanced technologies to drive energy efficiency at its tower sites. The company last year launched a Green Sites initiative in Africa to ensure that all newly built sites meet American Tower’s Green Site specifications, which require the sites to generate less than four MTCO2e per year.
In addition, the company, through its Kenya operations, plans to substitute 30% of its diesel fuel with biodiesel, which has, through a successful proof of concept, already delivered an approximate 16% reduction in GHG emissions when compared to traditional diesel.
As of 2022, over 45% of sites in American Tower’s global portfolio – more than 100,000 sites – have achieved ISO 14001 certification. ISO 14001 is an internationally agreed standard that sets out the requirements for an environmental management system.
The company is working to increase this, with additional markets in Africa and Latin America pursuing certification by 2025.
