STACK Infrastructure has unveiled new plans for a major colocation campus in the Frankfurt metro area. The data center builder and operator is preparing to develop a 17-acre property 20km west of downtown Frankfurt am Main into its first data center in this key European data marketplace. … [visit site to read more]

STARTUP STORIES

We’ve met Net AI before but things have moved on for this startup spun out of the University of Edinburgh, including attending MWC earlier this year.

Tell us about your start up
Net AI is a network intelligence company whose mission is to develop a market-leading deep traffic analytics platform that can drastically reduce CAPEX/OPEX/TCO for mobile operators and enable new high-margin revenue streams.
Our customers are mobile network operators, telco OEMs, and professional services companies with a global presence.

What is your USP?
Net AI has developed a family of cloud-native software solutions that build on years of research at the intersection of mobile networking and artificial intelligence conducted at one of Europe’s leading computer science research centres, the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh.

Our key differentiator is a combination of a patent-pending stream decomposition and analytics framework and an AI-based prediction engine, which facilitates real-time and predictive insights into per-service network usage on a real-time basis, fuelling the automation of network and compute resource management. Our products are fully automated, scalable, encryption-agnostic, and deployable with emerging Open RAN and 5G architectures.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
We are engaging with 1) mobile network operators who seek to meet their customers’ demand in a cost-effective way using intelligent solutions; 2) cloud computing companies that recognise their customers face new challenges that can be tackled with AI solutions, but AI may not be their core business; and 3) system integrators that seek to understand what services are relevant where, how to automate operations, and how to mitigate high customer churn.

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How have you got to your current stage of development?
We raised £750,000 pre-seed investment in October 2021, led by Techstart Ventures, with Nauta Capital, Creator Fund, Old College Capital, and Edinburgh Technology Fund also participating. We also received support through grants from Innovate UK and Scottish Enterprise, and we were part of the AI Post-covid Accelerator funded by the Scottish Funding Council and hosted by the Bayes Centre.

Why did you establish the business?
As networks are increasingly built-in software, we believe real-time and predictive traffic analytics can revolutionise the management and monetisation of mobile networks. In addition, AI-driven traffic insights can drastically improve energy efficiency of mobile infrastructure, which already contributes an important fraction of the global carbon emissions. Not least, we believe everyone should have equal job and education opportunities and affordable mobile connectivity can enable this, which is another reason for establishing our business.

I am an engineer by training and have been a faculty member at the University of Edinburgh for the past 9 years, where I have pioneered the use of deep learning for tackling challenging problems in the mobile networking space. This line of research can bring important commercial and societal benefits, and that’s why I decided to spin-out Net AI.

Who inspired you?
In similar measures: Nikola Tesla (pioneer of the alternating current electrical system and wireless communications), Robert Moog (inventor of the synthesiser), and Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

What does the future hold for your business?
We plan to take a share of the global network automation market, which is expected to exceed $28bn by 2028.

COMPANY CV
HEADQUARTERS: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 8
LAST FUNDING TYPE: pre-seed
URL: https://netai.tech
FOUNDERS:
Paul Patras
Mark Chapman
Marco Fiore

Net AI will be in the Startup Village at Total Telecom Congress in London on the 1-2 November 2022. Meet them there by requesting your ticket

PRESS RELEASE

EdgeConneX has announced the formation of a joint venture with Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC), the infrastructure arm of the Aboitiz Group, one of the Philippines’ leading conglomerates, to address considerable and rising data usage in the Philippines. The joint venture will leverage Aboitiz’ century-long local market expertise and its groupwide land and power assets with EdgeConneX’ global data centre platform, build, and operational capabilities.

The exclusive partnership focuses on building a network of hyperscale data centres across the Philippines. The first two data centres focus on the Manila metro area, with a connectivity-focused facility adjacent to the local internet exchange (IX) and a secondary hyperscale campus facility also located in the greater Manila area. The partnership will look to tap AIC’s land bank of 1,400 hectares of prime industrial real estate and AboitizPower’s diversified renewable energy capacity, which the company aims to triple by 2030.

“There is great excitement about the partnership and the incredible market opportunity the partnership enables,” commented Cosette V. Canilao, Aboitiz InfraCapital President and CEO. “The Philippines is underserved and seeing high domestic data demand growth relative to Southeast Asia. Our market size, favorable demographics, and proliferation of subsea cables make the Philippines an ideal destination for data centre investments. We also have access to prime real estate in both city centres, such as Manila, as well as emerging economic hubs like Batangas. We’re thrilled to have a premier global data centre partner in EdgeConneX.”

“In AIC, we have the ideal partner in the Philippines,” said Randy Brouckman, CEO of EdgeConneX. “They possess the local assets and expertise required to build out critical digital infrastructure that can best support our customers across the entire country. We look forward to investing in the digital economy of the Philippines and meeting our customers’ needs throughout the region. They complement our capabilities required to successfully capture this market opportunity.”

“Asia is a major focus area of investment and growth for EQT and EdgeConneX,” stated Jan Vesely, Partner at EQT Partners. “The data usage in Asia is expected to grow exponentially over the coming years, meaning that the underlying digital infrastructure must scale-up to meet increasing demand, thus creating compelling opportunities for investments. Whether through M&A or joint ventures such as this one with Aboitiz, we look to continue steadily building out the EdgeConneX global platform in Asia in collaboration with leading local partners.”

“The Philippines has consistently flown under the radar until just the last few years,” stated Jabez Tan, Head of Research, Structure Research. “The conditions are ripe for colocation providers to jump in and win business. In the last 12-18 months, data centre operators, real estate developers, and investors have circled the market in anticipation of the expected demand. And the underdeveloped competitive landscape leaves the door open for tremendous opportunities and long-term growth potential.”

Interested in this story? You might enjoy the Playing the data game sessions at Total Telecom Congress – Find out more here

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Press release

GSMA has released its 2022 Mobile Economy Report for Europe.

Mobile technologies and services contributed Eur757 billion to European GDP in 2021, but Europe’s ambitious Digital Decade goals remain threatened by slower 5G rollout compared to competitor markets, a new report by the GSMA revealed today.

The 2022 Mobile Economy Report Europe shows that at the end of June 2022, 108 operators in 34 markets across Europe had launched commercial 5G services, with consumer take-up continuing to grow steadily, now reaching 6% of the mobile customer base. Norway leads in adoption of the technology, with 16% now using 5G, but positive momentum is also evident in Switzerland (14%), Finland (13%), the UK (11%) and Germany (10%).

However, tough market conditions are leaving Europe trailing its global peers. The report predicts that by 2025, the average adoption of 5G across Europe will hit 44%, with the UK and Germany expected to have the highest 5G adoption rates in Europe at 61% and 59% respectively. However, that rapid growth is outpaced by other world economies, with South Korea expected to hit 73% in the same time period, whilst Japan and the US are likely to achieve 68% adoption.

The pace of 5G coverage expansion across Europe will be a key factor in the transition from 4G to 5G, an important step towards the achievement of Europe’s Digital Decade goals. Although 5G network coverage in Europe will rise to 70% in 2025 (from 47% in 2021), nearly a third of the population will remain without 5G coverage. This compares to 2% or less in South Korea and the US.

Meeting Digital Decade Goals

In 2021, the European Commission (EC) set out its vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030 in the Digital Decade framework. The strategy promised to deliver tangible benefits for EU economies through the development of digital skills, digital transformation of business, sustainable digital infrastructures and the digitalisation of public services.

As economies digitalise, the lynchpin to ensuring success is the acceleration of 5G in Europe for traditional industry and manufacturing to remain competitive. To meet the EC’s 2030 goals, it is vital for policymakers to create the right conditions for private infrastructure investment, network modernisation and digital innovation.

Daniel Pataki, GSMA Vice President for Policy & Regulation, and Head of Europe, said: “Europe is adopting 5G faster than ever before, but greater focus on creating the right market conditions for infrastructure investment is needed to keep pace with other world markets. This should include the implementation of the principle of fair contribution to network costs”.

Industry Impact

The report also examines how European operators are progressing with the rollout of stand-alone (SA) 5G networks, noting that 5G SA services in Europe are now available in Finland, Germany and Italy. Further deployments are expected in the next few years. The added functionality enabled by 5G SA is key to delivering on the 5G promise of fully supporting advanced 5G use cases.

European operators are also at the forefront of cutting-edge, energy-efficient technologies and the use of renewables, with many already reaching 100% renewable electricity use across their footprints, powering their network infrastructure, data centres and other sites.

A few bits of network news from around the globe to close out the week: … [visit site to read more]