Three bits of M&A in three different geographies, two in the FTTH space and one data center: … [visit site to read more]

News

Supply chain issues resulted in Germany’s newest mobile network operator only narrowly meeting its goal of launching 5G services in 2022

This week, new German mobile operator 1&1 has announced the expansion of its 5G coverage with the activation of 50 additional 5G sites in Hamburg, Essen, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Munich, and Freiburg. These new sites will be used to make 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services available to customers in those locations.

These new sites join the three already activated in Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe in the final days of December last year – three sites which crucially allowed 1&1 to claim to have met its goal of launching commercial 5G services by the end of 2022.

Mobile 5G services, however, will have to wait until later in the year, with 1&1 in fact lagging significantly behind its initial 5G rollout plans.

1&1 was originally aiming to have rolled out 1,000 5G mobile sites by the end of the 2022, as per its regulatory obligations, but in September the company moved to rein in these expectations, blaming a then-unnamed partner for delays that could take up to six months to resolve.

The partner in question was subsequently revealed to be Vodafone’s recently spun-off mobile tower company Vantage Towers.

As a result, in an update this week, the company said that just 235 sites are currently under construction, though CEO Ralph Dommermuth said he was confident that the company could still reach its obligated coverage target of 50% of all households ahead of its 2030 deadline.

Achieving such targets will reportedly require “around 12,600 radio masts and over 500 regional datacentres,” according to Dommermuth.

In the nearer term, 1&1 is required to have passed 25% of the German households by the end of 2025.

It is worth noting here that 1&1 is one of the few operators in the world building a network entirely on Open RAN architecture, with its network being build and managed by Open RAN specialist Rakuten Symphony.

Other vendors involved in various parts of the network include Dell, Supermicro, Cisco, Mavenir, Altiostar, NEC, and Communications Components (CCI).

As such, the performance of 1&1’s network will be closely scrutinised by the international telecoms community, with Open RAN advocates surely hoping it will prove something of a European trailblazer for the burgeoning technology.

How is the German telecoms industry evolving in 2023? Join us at this year’s Connected Germany conference to hear the experts discussing the industry’s hottest topics

Also in the news:
Resilience in the face of war: Kyivstar talks challenges and collaboration
BT seeks £100m in savings by merging global and enterprise units
Connected Britain Keynotes: CXO Spotlight

News

Government-run 5G wholesaler Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) says it has exceeded its original plan to cover 40% of the country’s populated areas with 5G

On Monday, DNB kicked off the New Year with an announcement that it’s growing 5G network now covers just under half (47.1%) of Malaysia’s populated areas. The state-operated 5G wholesaler said that it had 3,900 sites operational across the country by the end of last year, serving roughly 15 million people.

This puts DNB somewhat ahead of schedule, having only originally planned to reach 40% coverage by the end of last year.

However, today this claim is being challenged by the Malaysian Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who noted that these figures had yet to be independently verified by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

I think @DNB_Official must explain how they arrived at these figures.@MCMC_RASMI has not yet verified this info.

Next time I don’t think DNB should publish prior to verification. https://t.co/JHjCipq6LJ

— Fahmi Fadzil 🇲🇾 (@fahmi_fadzil) January 3, 2023

Indeed, these figures from DNB do seem somewhat strange. Last year the company said it was aiming to deploy 4,018 5G sites to attain its original target of 40%. However, by December the company said that supply chain issues and difficulties in attaining approvals from local councils meant that it would not be able to deploy all of the planned sites by the end-of-year deadline.

Instead, DNB explained that it would reallocate equipment to other locations originally planned for deployment in 2023, saying they were confident they could still reach their 40% target using 500 fewer 5G sites than originally planned.

Based on the figures DNB announced this week, it would seem that they have managed to achieve 47.1% coverage using over 1,000 fewer sites than anticipated.

DNB says its next target is to expand its 5G coverage to 80% of the country’s populated areas by the end of 2024.

The news comes at a time when DNB is facing significant scrutiny from the new government under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was sworn in in November and immediately announced a plan to review the country’s single 5G network model.

The creation of DNB has always been deeply controversial in Malaysia. The country’s mobile operators had long argued that they would be able to rollout their own 5G networks more efficiently than the government wholesaler, which, they say, would make the 5G market competitive and create better value for customers.

They also complained about the business’s lack of transparency, bemoaning possible government corruption.

The government, on the other hand, disagreed, arguing that the single network model would prevent overbuild and allow more rapid deployment.

Over a year after the company’s official launch, none of the country’s mobile operators had signed up for DNB’s 5G services, with the government even threatening to offer its 5G services to foreign companies if the domestic players refused to play ball.

After much negotiating about the prospective ownership structure of DNB, all of Malaysia’s mobile operators – except Maxis – finally agreed to take a stake in DNB in August last year.

Maxis is awaiting shareholder approval for the 5G Access Agreement with DNB, which is expected to be granted later this month.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world? Register now to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Resilience in the face of war: Kyivstar talks challenges and collaboration
BT seeks £100m in savings by merging global and enterprise units
Connected Britain Keynotes: CXO Spotlight

It took 15 months, but GTT has finally emerged from the Chapter 11 doghouse. Yesterday the global managed network provider celebrated the start of 2023 by unveiling its newly revitalized fiscal and operational structure. … [visit site to read more]