Interview

Total Telecom caught up with Tomasz Dylik, Director of Investment and Maintenance Department at EXATEL, ahead of his talk at Submarine Networks EMEA on how EXATEL is expanding into the subsea sector

EXATEL has a network in Poland and in Europe, but has not been involved in subsea investments so far. What is the reason for your interest in this direction?

For many years, EXATEL has mainly focused on transit services on the East–West line across Europe. We have plenty of interconnections with all our neighbours and have been increasing our international presence for last few years with new POP and Exchange hubs across the Europe. We believe that right now is time for us to grow not only on the North–South data axis but in the worldwide transit industry. This won’t be possible without getting involed more directly in subsea projects.

What other new projects are you planning over the coming years?

For 10 years, EXATEL has been growing in various areas of the telecommunications industry, from being a legacy fibre telco to also offering wireless and cybersecurity services. We have also developed satellite communication services and added them to our portfolio, and we are building our own solutions like TAMA (anti-DDOS) or SDN network based on our own equipment.  We are planning to continue developing new services that will allow us to grow with the telecom industry; e.g., we plan to launch a nationwide Public Protection and Disaster Relief network (i.e., a network for first responders) using spectrum in the 700MHz band.

What are your expectations for the Submarine Networks EMEA event?

We are looking for partners to get involved in our transit projects, anchor customers, and technological partners who are willing to participate in our investments to build a TransitHUB for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.

EXATEL are sharing their expansion strategy today at Submarine Networks EMEA. Join the discussion now using the hashtag #SubNetsEMEA

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A call reporting & analytics solution collects call data from a communications solution (PBX) and converts it into meaningful reports that support better business decision-making and efficiency. 

Call analytics reports translate information about call duration and hold times, missed and abandoned calls, transfers and queue activity, and more into insights on team productivity and customer satisfaction.

This data is invaluable for end users, making it a very lucrative add-on for communications resellers to offer.

Benefits of Call Reports & Analytics for Resellers

1. Meet market demand

The post-pandemic workforce in our current economy is interested in two things: money & people. Businesses today want to be more efficient with their spending and costs while still making customer experience a priority. Thus the demand for call reporting is extremely high, though many businesses do not yet know what it is called or how to ask for it. Be one of the first to address this pain point and meet the market demand.

2. Increase your revenue

Selling a call reporting solution can increase your monthly revenue in a few ways. The obvious way is by simply making more sales. A call analytics add-on will help you to close more deals. But an even easier way to increase your revenue is by upselling to your existing customers. As we said above, the unspoken demand for call reporting software is there and your customers may just be waiting for it to become available.

3. Increase your profit

Added-value solutions go beyond a simple increase in revenue. They also increase the value of each sale, increasing your bottom line at the end of the month. Adding innovative features and tools to your solution allows you to increase the price or create subscription packages with higher values. This means that even without making more sales, you will earn more from each customer.

4. Stand out from competitors

As customers shop around for a telephony solution, they will start to narrow down their options to similar products with similar price points. The tipping point will be in the details, like extra useful features or innovative add-ons. Bundling in call reporting & analytics will set your solution apart from the competition and show them that your company is aware of their needs and highly attuned to the industry.

5. Decrease customer churn

Meeting customer needs goes far beyond the sale. A well-rounded solution that evolves to include the latest trends will make your existing customers happier and give them confidence in your company. A product that actively supports their growth (like call reporting does) helps ensure their continued success. Take action now before other providers use call analytics as a door opener to start conversations with your customers.

6. Advertise with ease

Call reporting software is a highly marketable tool that enables end users to grow sales and reduce costs by making informed decisions, identifying and resolving issues, better managing resources, and enhancing customer experience. The next section outlines the lucrative benefits that you can employ in your marketing strategy to both existing and potential customers.

Benefits of CDR for End Users

1. Better resource management

One of the primary benefits of call reporting and analytics is that it enables management to make informed decisions on resources, staff, and costs. Having an understanding of calling trends like peak call times or the most selected IVR options helps supervisors know where to direct their resources, for example operating with less spending at certain times and investing more at peak times.

2. Focus on customer experience

Customer experience (CX) is a buzzword that all organizations should be aware of in 2023. Modern consumers expect quick, flexible, positive communication with companies. PBX call data can offer valuable insight into the customer experience with data on unanswered calls, returned calls, call transfers, and average ring times. This information can be used to identify problem areas and develop a customer journey map.

3. Improve team productivity

Awareness is the first step to increasing productivity. Call reporting presents data on individuals and groups to identify productivity and the conditions that support, or detract from, it. Perhaps the team with the later lunch break is missing more calls. Or the office with the fancy coffee maker has higher customer satisfaction rates. Identifying these scenarios enables businesses to increase productivity and, ultimately, sales.

4. Prevent abuse/misuse

Misuse of communications systems can be costly and waste valuable company time. A call reporting solution alerts management to unusually expensive calls, calls that last too long, and numbers that are dialed excessively. Identifying potential misuse of the system allows supervisors to take action before the issue escalates, thus reducing undesired spending and strengthening the team.

While the benefits for both resellers and end users is crystal clear, the high demand for call reporting & analytics is still not widely known. 

Do you want to be one of the first to enhance your solution with a call reporting add-on? Bicom Systems is partnering with Apex BI to offer a powerful, web-based call reporting platform that integrates seamlessly with PBXware.

Learn more at www.bicomsystems.com/bicom-systems-apexbi or fill out the form below to get started:

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Press Release

Liquid Dataport, a business of Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid) (https://www.Liquid.Tech), a pan-African technology group, has launched its newest fibre route connecting Mombasa, Kenya, to Muanda on the west coast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). This is the shortest route connecting East to West Africa, reducing data transmission latency by 20 milliseconds. The much anticipated 3,800km route marks a new era in East-West connectivity on the continent, adding to Liquid’s One Africa Digital Network, which now spans 110,000 km.

The fibre route connects Kenya and DRC, passing through Uganda and Rwanda and bringing more reliable and affordable broadband connectivity to over 40 million people living and working in all the major cities along the route. The latest route complements Liquid’s earlier achievement, already a first, in 2019, linking Dar Es Salaam to Muanda on the West Coast of  DR Congo via Zambia.

Hardy Pemhiwa, President & Group Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, said, “The real challenge today is closing the access-usage gap in Africa so that more Africans can use the internet technologies available to them, now and in the future. This East-West route which compliments our existing Pan Africa fibre network, is significant because it is helping to solve that problem – it not only brings global traffic to the continent but also improves the cost economics of Africa’s broadband Internet access.”

The new East-West route enables Liquid’s customers to take advantage of capacities ranging from 1Mbps to 100,000Mbps. It enables cloud supplier redundancy with access to multiple data centres and cable landing stations, ensuring maximum uptime. This is hugely beneficial to the many businesses in East, Central & Southern Africa that are embarking on their digital transformation journey.

In order for African enterprises to expand continentally and compete with their global counterparts, they need stable, reliable connectivity with low latency and access to numerous digital tools to optimise their businesses.

“We have a significant number of wholesale, enterprise and hyperscale customers along this route, and we fully support them in operating their global networks. The availability of our latest and shortest East to West route brings many proven economic and social benefits – from providing access to online educational resources to creating more jobs and driving the adoption of new technologies,” said David Eurin, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Dataport.

The Mombasa-Muanda route will help global organisations looking for Internet resiliency avoid the Red Sea and Europe routes which have become bottlenecks for global internet traffic, and will provide faster fibre connectivity to landlocked countries on the African continent, creating significant attractiveness for growing connectivity hubs in Kenya and DRC.

Three expansion projects of US local and regional interest and one new subsea landing item from the southeast: … [visit site to read more]

Smartphone shipments in Thailand and the Philippines continue to slide as South East Asian economies continue to grapple with macroeconomic pressure.

Analyst company IDC revealed the Thai smartphone market plunged 25.7% year-on-year in Q1 2023, only shipping 3.45 million units. High levels of inflation and economic pressures on disposable income were blamed.

Smartphones in the entry-level segment (under US$200) saw “steep declines” and now account for 51% of total shipments, down from 60% in Q4 (59% in Q1 2022).

The average selling price increased 26% to US$403 due to strong growth in the premium segment (above US$800), which now accounts for 19% of the market, up year-on-year from 11%.

The share of 5G smartphones increased year-on-year from 33% to 45% driven by the boost in demand for premium smartphones.

Samsung was the largest shipper with 23.8% of the market equating to 822.7 million units but this was a decline of 35.7% for the Korean manufacturer. Oppo was a close second with 22.3% and 769.8 million units a decline of 9.7%.

Apple saw the largest rate of growth in Thailand with 19.4% of the market, 668.4 million units, an increase of 34.9%. Xiaomi’s shipments grew marginally from 433.1 million units to 438.7 million units, leaving it 12.7% of the market.

Taking up fifth place was Chinese vendor Realme with 14.2% market share equating to 7.7%, a drop off of 12.5%.

IDC Thailand market analyst Apirat Ratanavichit: “The Thai smartphone market is expected to continue to decline in 2023. However, as the market is increasingly maturing, volume will be largely driven by the premium segment. There are some signs of economic recovery, and consumer confidence is increasing due to a pickup in tourist arrivals which should translate into increasing consumer spending in the smartphone market; however, political uncertainty still looms overhead.”

Philippines 

As for the Philippines, shipments declined 11% year-on-year to 3.5 million units in the same quarter.

Chinese vendor Transsion, which owns the Tecno and itel sub-brands, ended Realme’s hold on the top spot by taking 19.5% market share, whereas Realme held 18.7%. In third was Oppo (15.5%), Vivo fourth (13.1%) and finally Xiaomi (11.9%).

“The last time shipments hit below 3.5 million records was back in 1Q20 when the pandemic just started and the first lockdown was implemented,” said IDC Philippines client devices senior market analyst Angela Medez.

“Though it seems that the market has finally bottomed out and is on its road to recovery with inflation finally slowing down, IDC anticipates shipments to remain flat in 2023 as vendors will remain cautious with inflation still above comfortable levels.”

Press Release

The record uplink speed was achieved in an interoperability development test at an Ericsson lab. The test was performed with RAN Compute Baseband 6648 and a mobile device using MediaTek Dimensity 9200 flagship 5G smartphone chipset. The Uplink Carrier Aggregation combination involved a frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) channel, in a frequency range widely deployed in today’s 5G networks.

More precisely, the combination used was 50MHz FDD n1 and 100MHz TDD n77. By aggregating these two bands, communications service providers can considerably increase their uplink speeds, resulting in better network performance and user experience.

Sibel Tombaz, Head of Product Line 5G RAN, Ericsson, says: ”Super-fast uplink speeds make a big difference in the user experience. From lag-free live streaming, video conferencing and AR/VR apps, to more immersive gaming and extended reality (XR) technologies.”

“The 440 Mbps upload speed achieved by Ericsson and MediaTek will help make that difference,” she adds. “We are also continuously designing innovative solutions for optimizing 5G networks so our customers can make the best use of their spectrum assets.”

Service providers are seeking innovative ways of boosting capacity while using existing spectrum efficiently to meet growing demands for wireless data and applications. This is where carrier aggregation comes in, optimizing the service provider’s spectrum assets to bring to users better coverage, increased capacity, and higher data speeds.

HC Hwang, General Manager of Wireless Communication System and Partnership at MediaTek, says: “The successful result of combining Ericsson’s state-of-the-art 5G Baseband and MediaTek’s flagship smartphone chip has achieved another 5G industry milestone, and paves the way for superior mobile experiences to benefit users every day.”

Uplink speed is becoming more crucial with the expected uptake of gaming, XR, and video-based apps. For example, as AR devices gain popularity with larger augmentation objects, rendering becomes more demanding. This increases the demand on networks to deliver higher throughput and lower latency.

Also in the news:
BT targets education, healthcare, and more with Immersive Spaces
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Vodafone launches dedicated healthcare unit

The biggest vendor names in the network space are those who provide the optical platforms and routers.  But in between those areas at the intersection of different vendors, technologies, and designs there has long been space for independent innovation.  One company making its play there in recent years is Precision OT, which focuses on transceivers and related passive components.  With us today to talk about their approach, new tech like 400G ZR, and today’s supply chain ecosystem is Keith Habberfield, SVP of Sales & Marketing for Precision OT.  Keith joined the company three years ago after stints at CommScope, Comcast and Adelphia.   … [visit site to read more]