Startup Stories

Tell us about your startup
At NATIX, we recognized that privacy was not the only hurdle preventing widespread camera use in public spaces. Another major barrier was the high cost of infrastructure. Installing, operating, and maintaining the 1 billion public and commercial CCTV cameras worldwide has cost more than $6 trillion. In addition, hardware or software maintenance can lead to downtime, resulting in costly or significant data gaps. To address these challenges, we developed NATIX Network with Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) in mind. Our goal is to provide a solution that addresses the cost of infrastructure and personal data privacy concerns that are associated with using cameras at scale. By combining our AI technology with the existing 45 billion cameras worldwide, NATIX Network creates the largest crowd-sourced camera network ever. Most smartphone cameras can run our AI software, collect metadata, and generate a Dynamic Map of the world that is constantly updated as new data is collected from the network.

What is your USP?
NATIX’s patent-pending AI technology guarantees top-tier privacy compliance, addressing concerns surrounding data privacy in a digital world. By using a crypto and blockchain-powered economy, NATIX is revolutionizing the industry with a cost-effective, efficient decentralized camera infrastructure network. With over 1 billion public and commercial CCTV cameras worldwide and expenses exceeding $6 trillion, decentralized Internet of Cameras can reduce costs and implementation time by 10 to 100 times. The integration of blockchain technology ensures security, transparency, reduced latency, and enhanced scalability. In summary, NATIX’s AI technology and crypto and blockchain-powered economy enable the creation of a more affordable, faster, and reliable decentralized camera infrastructure network compared to traditional surveillance systems, reshaping the industry for data users worldwide.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
The relationship between NATIX Network and the telecom sector is a symbiotic one. The telecom sector, particularly 5G network providers, plays a vital role in enabling NATIX’s solutions. In return, NATIX’s products and services can drive the demand for 5G connectivity, highlighting the benefits of this advanced network and encouraging wider adoption. By partnering with telecom operators, NATIX can leverage the extensive infrastructure and capabilities offered by the 5G network to:

1. Enhance the speed and efficiency of data transmission: The high bandwidth and low latency of 5G networks allow NATIX to process and transmit data from its decentralized camera infrastructure network in real-time, making the mapping process significantly more efficient and accurate.
2. Improve scalability: The increased capacity of 5G networks enables NATIX to scale its operations seamlessly, catering to a growing number of cameras and data points without compromising on performance.
3. Boost reliability and security: The decentralized nature of 5G networks and the enhanced encryption protocols they employ ensure that NATIX’s data transmission is more secure and less susceptible to disruptions or interference.
4. Facilitate edge computing: The 5G infrastructure allows NATIX to process data closer to the source, reducing latency and improving the overall performance of its real-time mapping solutions.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
Since our inception in 2020, we have focused on creating a computer vision platform that emphasizes privacy and security. Over the years, we’ve gained the trust of prestigious organizations like E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, and the City of Den Haag, which has helped us refine our offerings. Recognizing the potential of AI, decentralization, blockchain, and Web3 communities, we developed the AI-powered Drive& app. This app rewards users for contributing to real-time mapping by navigating streets and cities with their smartphone cameras. Users accumulate points that can be converted into our native token or redeemed for various products and services. We recently launched the Drive& app on Google Play, where it has been met with great anticipation and excitement from the user community. An iOS version of the app is also in the works and will be available soon, further expanding our user base and solidifying our position as a leading innovator in the computer vision and mapping space. Why did you establish the business? We established the business to empower cities and businesses to leverage smart cameras for public sensing, while addressing the prevalent concerns regarding privacy and infrastructure costs. Our mission is rooted in the belief that AI technology should augment people’s quality of life without sacrificing their personal privacy. By developing a computer vision platform that prioritizes privacy and employs innovative techniques to minimize infrastructure costs, we aim to make advanced public sensing solutions accessible and secure for a wide range of users. This approach ensures that the benefits of AI-driven surveillance and mapping can be enjoyed by communities and businesses alike, without the drawbacks often associated with traditional CCTV systems.

Who inspired you?
We were inspired by innovative companies like Helium, which have successfully built large-scale telecommunication networks through crowd-sourced and crypto-enabled business models. Helium’s approach to decentralized networking showcased the immense potential of harnessing collective resources and the power of blockchain technology, which ultimately influenced our own strategies and product development. Their success in transforming the telecommunications landscape motivated us to explore similar opportunities in the realm of computer vision and mapping.

Company CV
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Founded: 2020
URL: https://www.natix.io/
Founders:
Alireza Ghods
Omid Mogharian
Lorenz Muck

NATIX will be one of the participants in the Startup Village at Total Telecom Congress, taking place on the 21-22 November at The RAI, Amsterdam. There is still time to join up and discover how you can compete to become Startup of the Year at the 25 World Communication Awards.

News

The Commission said the deal could be directly harmful to market competition, leaving Broadcom’s hardware rivals with only limited access to crucial VMware software

VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom was first announced in May 2022, with the $61 billion megadeal immediately ringing alarm bells for various regulatory bodies.

By December that year, the European Commission was already signalling its disapproval, launching an in-depth investigation into the deal’s potential impact on market competition.

Now, the Commission has issued a formal statement outlining the results of this probe, suggesting that the deal could directly harm market competition for various hardware components.

“As a result of this in-depth investigation, the Commission is concerned that Broadcom may restrict competition in the global markets for the supply of FC HBAs [Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters] and storage adapters by foreclosing competitors’ hardware by delaying or degrading their access to VMware’s server virtualisation software,” said the Commission in a statement.

“Broadcom is the leading supplier of FC HBAs and storage adapters. The markets are very concentrated. If the competitors of Broadcom are hampered in their ability to compete in these markets, this could in turn lead to higher prices, lower quality and less innovation for business customers, and ultimately consumers.”

More specifically, the Commission said that the move could stifle the development of SmartNICs (Network Interface Cards) by Broadcom competitors.

They also fear that Broadcom could begin to bundle VMware software with its own, stopping to offer VMware software as a stand-alone product.

Despite these regulatory misgivings, Broadcom continues to be confident that regulators will eventually give the deal the green light, suggesting that they are aiming to close the deal in the 2023 fiscal year.

The Commission must make a final decision by 21 June 2023.

The European Commission is not the only regulatory hurdle the VMware–Broadcom deal will need to clear in the coming months to get this deal over the line.

Just last month the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said that they were considering launching their own in-depth investigation into the deal, noting that the deal could not only drive up prices for UK businesses but also jeopardise commercially sensitive information from rival companies that have a pre-existing relationship with VMware.

The deal will also require approval from the US Federal Trade Commission, which is currently performing its own investigation into the deal.

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News

After months of rumour, the UK altnet has seemingly a majority stake to newly formed Agnar UK Infrastructure Ltd

For months now, the future of UK fibre altnet Trooli has been uncertain. Rumours have suggested that numerous parties were potentially considering a takeover bid, including the including rivals Virgin Media O2 and Zzoomm, with analysts suggesting such a deal could be worth over £100 million.

More recently, at the end of last month, the Financial Times reported that two infrastructure firms, Vauban Infrastructure Partners and Axione, had entered into discussions with Trooli over a possible acquisition.

This week, however, it seems that the successful suitor will be none of the above. As reported by ISPreview, an update to Trooli’s Companies House records shows that the altnet is now over 75% owned by a newly formed company called Agnar UK Infrastructure Ltd.

This deal is not entirely out of left field; Agnar is recorded as having two French directors – Maxime Buisson and Elie Nammar – both of whom have ties to Vauban Infrastructure Partners.

In the same filing, it was also noted that all Trooli’s original UK directors have resigned.

It is unclear what this acquisition will mean for Trooli’s ongoing rollout, which is currently seeking to pass one million UK premises with fibre-to-the-premise by the end of 2024.

In the past year, Trooli had been seeking to raise an additional £200 million via an equity share release for their ongoing deployment, so this takeover could provide some much needed funds to keep the fibre reel turning.

More details about the deal will presumably be shared by Trooli and Agnar in due course.

How is the UK altnet landscape evolving in 2023? Join the ecosystem in discussion at next weeks Connected North conference live in Manchester

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News

Nine of the ten poorest scoring councils were located in the North of the UK, while all 10 of the highest scoring were situated in affluent parts of the South

This week, the UK government announced its new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, promoting the use of the latest technology to turn the UK into a “digital superpower”. But, looming in the background of all this talk of 5G innovation and 6G progression, is the stark reality that connectivity is far from a given for many in the UK. The digital divide is very real and, according to new analysis from Uswitch.com, appears to largely mirror the North–South economic divide.

Using a composite ‘digital divide’ score derived from broadband speed and accessibility data combined with home working statistics, Uswitch’s latest analysis explores the digital divide as it relates to UK councils.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best performing councils – with the lowest digital divide score – are largely from the South of the UK, with Rugby council the only (arguably) Northern local authority to make it into the top 10.

Table 1: The ten councils with the smallest digital divide (smallest to greatest)

Data from Uswitch.com

By contrast, the ten highest scoring ‘digital divide’ councils are primarily from the North, Scotland, and Wales. Indeed, of the 25 most digitally divided regions recorded, 12 were in Scotland and Wales.

The city of Edinburgh (15.6%) and the Vale of Glamorgan (17.3%) were the only councils from Scotland and Wales, respectively, to make it into the top 25 least digitally divided regions.

The ten councils with the greatest digital divide (greatest to smallest)

Data from Uswitch.com

The severity of the digital divide for some of these councils should not be underestimated. For the poorest performing council, Argyll and Bute, only 5.8% of premises have access to full fibre, the median download speed is 26.7Mbps, and less than a fifth (18%) of people work from home.

“Our digital divide report shows that regions with a poorer internet connection have less access to digital technology overall, with lower work from home rates and less reliable connections to the internet. Meanwhile, British councils with the smallest digital divide have higher percentages of their workforce able to work remotely,” said Uswitch.com fibre broadband expert Max Beckett.

“With the UK government recently committing £3.5 billion towards their ambition of becoming a scientific and technological superpower, including ‘levelling up’ more areas of the UK to foster better paid jobs and opportunities in these sectors, it is important to ensure people of all backgrounds will benefit from this investment in digital tech.

That the digital divide should closely correlate to the economic disparities in the UK should come as no surprise to anyone. Nonetheless, this analysis serves as a timely reminder that, even as major progress continues to be made in 5G and fibre, there are many parts of the country that are still woefully lacking quality connectivity.

Is the government doing enough to tackle the digital divide in the North of the UK? Join the connectivity industry in discussion live in Manchester next week at Connected North

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VIEWPOINT

With an average age of only 30.2, and explosive growth of unicorns, Asia Pacific has entered the golden time of digital economy and ICT infrastructure development, driven by sustained demand for ICT infrastructure and abundant digital content for consumers.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has sped up digitalization in Asia Pacific. Since the gradual opening up, major countries in the region are expected to maintain good recovery momentum in 2023, with GDP growth forecasts over 4%, leading to an upgrade in telecom consumption.

The communications industry is expanding at an incredible pace in the Asia-Pacific. The need for connectivity in ICT infrastructure is growing rapidly as businesses and industries advance their digital transformation initiatives and millions of devices become connected thanks to 5G. While this change has given businesses many new opportunities, it has also presented several challenges.

In certain 5G areas, where breakthroughs and deployments are showcasing increasingly fascinating application scenarios and metaverse applications, 5G development is gaining even greater traction. With the advent of 5G, telcos will have a tremendous opportunity to fully realize the promise of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge and develop new sources of revenue.

It becomes imperative that 5G networks continue to advance and evolve in order to meet this challenge because rapid development also places increasing demands on the network’s capabilities. Here, based on region-specific 5G network deployment stages, global telco solution supplier Huawei has been closely collaborating with the sector and assisting Asia-Pacific telcos in getting ready for a new era of connectivity.

Diverse deployments

The features offered by 5G enhance the secure remote execution of mission-critical communications (such as industrial automation and remote healthcare), high-speed video streaming and connecting a vast number of sensors. However, the challenge for telcos is all regions of Asia Pacific are at different stages of 5G deployments.

While some are working to increase 4G speeds and services, others have jumped into 5G deployments to expand coverage. There are many who, while waiting for favourable government policies and rising customer demand to build the 5G infrastructure, nevertheless wish to enhance 4G LTE capabilities.

“The challenge for the industry, is that various countries are at different stages of 5G deployment; some are further along than others. Some nations are still utilizing 4G technology and are working to increase the network’s capability. Although 5G is popular, operators must contend with varying levels of device penetration,” says Abel Deng, President, Carrier Business Group – Asia Pacific Region, Huawei. He was speaking in conversation as part of a roundtable at Mobile World Congress 2023.

Deng continues by stating that there are three ways to the 5G installations. Massive base station deployments for 5G are part of it, and other nations are still building 5G-ready networks and LTE, respectively.

Development of 5G and 5.5G

It is essential that 5G networks continue to develop and advance if they are to completely realize their potential and satisfy the continuously expanding connectivity needs of users. To completely improve network connectivity, switch from connectivity-based development to full-service enablement, and working with industry partners to transition to an intelligent society, Huawei has been actively working on the concept of 5.5G Core, which may significantly boost new application scenarios and services.

” broadband  speed acceleration and latency reduction are one of the important features of 5.5G.  5G and 5.5G will enable the industries digitalization. For example, to get the automation going, low latency is important, which need 5G or even 5.5G to get higher precise manufacturing; M2M requires high uploading rates, which 5.5G can perfectly meet this demand;” Deng says.

The evolution to 5.5G, which will be characterized by improvements in enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), and Massive Machine-Type Communications (MMTC), as well as new capabilities for sensing, passive IoT, positioning, and intelligence, is being driven by emerging 2C and 2B applications, which call for further advancements in 5G capabilities.

But is 5.5 G a whole new network? “The idea is to upgrade the existing network but will need to be done on a case-by-case basis,” Deng clarifies.

Improving the infrastructure for connectivity

Several cutting-edge products and services have been offered by Huawei (H) to the Asia Pacific region. It sets aside over 25.1% of its 2022 annual income for R&D. The company’s market-leading technologies, such as Blade AAU and META AAU, which have been used by some of its most significant clients, may increase customer satisfaction and capacity while reducing energy usage by up to 30%.

It is helping APAC telcos gradually evolve from traditional networks to “autonomous networks” to achieve high-quality 5G development and intelligent O&M (NSOC O&M Mode).

Huawei, one of the few in the market to offer a full suite of ICT solutions with ‘cloud-pipe-device’ synergy, combining the physical and digital worlds, has established more than 160 Smart Cities in more than 100 nations and regions. Particularly in the Asia Pacific, its solutions have assisted Pattaya in reducing traffic bottlenecks by more than 30%, increasing travellers by more than 10%, and boosting operators’ profits through high-value connections.

Another example for Asia-Pacific is its collaboration with SCG, a leading conglomerate that runs its operations in accordance with ESG criteria to create autonomous driving systems using 5G technology. The self-driving capability has helped SCG reduce energy consumption by more than 50% and improves transportation efficiency by 8%.

Deng asserts that utilizing digital technologies, especially 5G, is expanding prospects. The industry must always consider how things will be in ten years, and Huawei is taking steps to modernize our networks and embrace the chances. “We are working with various carriers to build amazing 5G application cases. ” says Deng.