A couple of expansions and a couple of customer wins to keep up with: … [visit site to read more]

News

The Finnish government has allocated Elisa €3.9 million to roll out the operator’s Distributed Energy Storage (DES) solution across its network

One of the major challenges associated with renewable energy sources like wind and solar is their intermittent nature. The sun is not always shining (especially in Finland) and the wind is not always blowing, potentially putting strain on the energy grid at times of high demand.

As such, the growing (and undeniably vital) use of renewable energy worldwide can represent an enormous management challenge for transmission system operators (TSOs), those companies entrusted with balancing the electrical grid and ensuring that supply meets demand.

Now, Finnish operator Elisa thinks it can be part of this solution using their newly developed DES solution.

The DES technology leverages AI and machine learning to intelligently charge and discharge the energy storage batteries located at mobile sites across the country. The system optimises the timing of electricity purchases to coincide with times when renewable energy is available, ensuring that the mobile network runs on as green energy as possible and reducing procurement costs.

But beyond delivering more cost-effective renewable energy for the mobile network itself, this solution can also provide significant support to the local TSO.

When balancing the electricity grid, TSOs send requests for power every few seconds. In response, the DES can dynamically adjusting the power consumption of Elisa’s base station across the country in real time.

Trials of the technology have already been completed at 200 base stations on Elisa’s network last year, with the technology already receiving the approval of Fingrid, the national TSO.

Once DES tech is completely rolled out across its network, Elisa says its network will have an expected capacity of around 150MWh, making it the largest virtual power plant in Europe.

“Achieving a fully carbon neutral economy in Europe is a tremendous challenge. DES helps to facilitate the further deployment of intermittent renewable sources of energy, such as wind power. Exponential growth is expected in renewable deployment in the coming years, but the intermittent and unpredictable nature of the source requires intelligent storage and management solutions such as DES to support and maximise their impact.  We believe that telecommunications industry can make a gigawatt hour-scale contribution with solutions like DES for accelerating the transition,” said Jukka-Pekka Salmenkaita, Vice President of AI and Special Projects at Elisa.

“By building out storage capacity in our network and managing it in a smart way, Elisa has not only improved network resilience but also saved energy costs and contributed to the zero-carbon energy transition by facilitating storage from renewable sources. It’s good for the network, good for business and good for the planet,” he added.

The Finnish government is helping to fund the rollout with a contribution of €3.9 million as part of the country’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is focussed on promoting the use of renewable energy.

Are operators doing enough to support the use of renewable energy throughout society? Keep up to date with the latest sustainability news from the telecoms sector with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
China Mobile and China Telecom withdraw from Sea-Me-We 6 project
CityFibre’s network up and running in Inverness
KDDI selects Samsung for its 5G Standalone core

A couple DWDM, some SASE data, and a bit of 5G testing: … [visit site to read more]

Startup Stories

Tell us about your start up
netElastic is an innovative software company that provides high-performance routing solutions for broadband service providers worldwide. netElastic developed one of the first software-based (or virtual) broadband network gateways (vBNGs) and has been a leader in vBNG technology ever since. netElastic CGNAT helps broadband providers conserve IPv4 addresses while ensuring a smooth transition to IPv6. And netElastic’s software-based CGNAT offers the lowest TCO in the industry.

What is your USP?
For broadband service providers that want to grow their subscribers, and not their costs, netElastic’s software-based BNG and CGNAT (Carrier-grade NAT) provide the scalability and flexibility they need with the lowest TCO in the industry.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
netElastic sells BNG and CGNAT software to broadband service providers / internet service providers.

Why did you establish the business?
netElastic was formed by experienced telecom executives that wanted to bring the benefits of network virtualization to the telecommunications industry.

What does the future hold for your business?
The future looks incredibly bright for netElastic. With governments worldwide spending millions (and billions) of dollars to provide internet access to all citizens, netElastic is uniquely positioned to help broadband providers grow with scalable, flexible, and cost-effective software-based BNG and CGNAT solutions.

COMPANY CV
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States
Number of employees: 10
Last funding type: Self-funding
Website url: www.netelastic.com
Founder: Jason Lu
CEO: Weixiao Liu

You can meet netElastic in the Startup Village at Connected America this March. Find out more here

Two FTTH projects, a middle mile upgrade, and some managed security: … [visit site to read more]

News

Orange is the first operator in Spain to launch 5G standalone (SA) in Spain, a move it hopes will give it a competitive edge over rivals

Today, Orange has announced the launch of its commercial 5G SA network in Spain, dubbing the new service 5G+.

Orange’s 5G+ service (not to be confused with AT&T’s 5G service of the same name, which is not 5G SA) will initially be available only in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Seville, with further locations expected to be added later this year.

In these initial four cities, coverage exceeds 90%.

Customers will not face any additional charges for using the 5G+ service but will require a compatible device.

According to Orange, 5G+ will come with numerous benefits for customers, including improved indoor coverage (due to the use of native 5G bands), lower latency, longer device battery life, and improved security.

In addition, the technology will also enable network slicing capabilities for the first time, allowing the operator to create virtual ‘slices’ of spectrum for customers, which can be modified to meet their needs.

Despite the enormous hype generated by the mobile industry around the advent of 5G, the technology has thus far proved difficult to monetise for telcos.

This has been largely related to the type of network being deployed, with initial 5G deployments being deployed over non-standalone (NSA) architecture, coupling 5G RAN equipment with an LTE core. While this offers a considerable increase in speed and capacity compared to existing 4G services, it lacks the ability to deliver the ultra-low latency and high-capacity connectivity needed for some of 5G’s most highly anticipated use cases, like extended reality (XR) and autonomous driving.

Without these exciting new capabilities, consumers have proven reluctant to pay a premium for a 5G service they largely view as little more than a speed boost.

5G SA, on the other hand, replaces the LTE core with a 5G core (in Orange’s case, using technology from Ericsson, Nokia, and Oracle Communications), delivering the major improvements to latency and capacity required to unlock some of these more exciting use cases.

As such, 5G SA has been marketed by some in the industry as ‘real 5G’, finally delivering on the promised hype. Indeed, in its press release, Orange itself suggests that its 5G+ network will allow for the ‘full exploitation of all 5G capabilities’.

The operator hopes that these more advanced capabilities will naturally allow for novel 5G monetisation opportunities in both the consumer and enterprise segments, helping to enable everything from industrial XR to cloud gaming.

But despite the hopes pinned upon 5G SA to deliver ‘real 5G’, the wider telecoms industry has been slow to make the switch to the new technology. While many operators hoped to have the transition completed in 2022, recent research from Dell’Oro Group showed that only 39 operators worldwide have so far deployed 5G SA.

So why the delay?

The answer is both technical and economic in nature. The move from NSA to SA 5G architecture is incredibly complex – seemingly more so than initially anticipated by operators around the world. In the UK, for example, BT’s CTO Howard Watson described the shift as a “sea change in the underlying architecture” late last year, telling journalists the company would take their time to ensure a smooth transition.

Meanwhile, the global economic situation is making network rollouts more expensive and reducing customer spending, leaving operators unsure if they will be able to get a quick return on investment.

As a result, we are left with a mobile industry in no major hurry to upgrade to 5G SA, but is instead happy to bide its time and wait to learn lessons from early adopters ­– including Orange.

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Also in the news:
China Mobile and China Telecom withdraw from Sea-Me-We 6 project
CityFibre’s network up and running in Inverness
KDDI selects Samsung for its 5G Standalone core