Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces the activation of spectrum capacity on Monet submarine cable system connecting Brazil to the United States. With this addition…

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces the activation of spectrum capacity on Monet submarine cable system connecting Brazil to the United States. With this addition, Sparkle enhances its regional backbone providing five diversified routes between North and South America.

Monet is a new generation cable spanning 10,556 km and connecting Boca Raton, Florida, to both Fortaleza and Sao Paulo in Brazil. With the new cable, Sparkle increases the overall redundancy of its backbone that now provides five diversified routes between North and South America thanks to its extensive submarine infrastructure that includes three undersea “digital highways”: Monet and Seabras-1 in the Atlantic and Curie in the Pacific.

With the addition of Monet to its assets in the Atlantic, Sparkle further enhances its Tier-1 Seabone global IP transit service and its capacity solutions, catering the huge data demand driven by new technologies, media platforms and cloud-based services that require omnipresent internet connectivity.

With Monet, Sparkle continues the expansion of its American fiber optic network, which now counts 56 Points of Presence across US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, a capillary presence in Brazil and a new open landing and connectivity hub in Panama.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest developments in the submarine cable industry? Join the experts in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023

Also in the news:

Today, Belgian operator Telenet has announced a new agreement with utility company Fluvius to form a joint venture (JV) to deploy full fibre throughout Flanders. 
 
Telenet will own 66.8% of the JV, while Fluvius will own the remaining 33.2%.
 
The JV, with the working title of NetCo, will focus on combining the partners hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network infrastructure and upgrading it to full fibre, aiming to reach 78% of their combined footprint in Flanders by 2038. In some areas, NetCo will instead be upgrading the HFC network with DOCSIS technology…

Today, Belgian operator Telenet has announced a new agreement with utility company Fluvius to form a joint venture (JV) to deploy full fibre throughout Flanders. 

Telenet will own 66.8% of the JV, while Fluvius will own the remaining 33.2%.

The JV, with the working title of NetCo, will focus on combining the partners hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network infrastructure and upgrading it to full fibre, aiming to reach 78% of their combined footprint in Flanders by 2038. In some areas, NetCo will instead be upgrading the HFC network with DOCSIS technology, with the ultimate goal being to ensure that all customers have access to gigabit-capable broadband.

“Using a mixture of both HFC and fiber technologies, we have a roadmap to offer all our customers speeds of 10 Gbps. With Fluvius as a strong partner, we will continue to develop our HFC infrastructure and implement as well new fiber technology, mainly in the last parts of our network, from the street into the homes,” explained Telenet’s CEO John Porter.

A fibre-focussed tie-up between the two companies has been in discussion since at least Junee 2020, not long after Fluvius launched its first pilot fibre network in 2019. 

Fluvius is the Belgian grid operator for electricity and natural gas in Flanders, as well as owning and operating a wholesale full fibre network in the region. Telenet is already a key customer for Fluvius, already provides services over Fluvius’s existing network. 

However, the partners stated that they are open to further expanding the JV’s membership with new strategic or financial partners for the JV.

Fibre JVs are becoming hugely popular in Belgium. Proximus, for example, has already formed two such companies targeting medium-population areas: Fiberklaar, covering Flanders, and Unifiber, covering Wallonia. According to the operator, the two JVs have already partnered with 37 internet service providers, with more discussions currently underway.

Regardless of the investment structure, it is clear that Belgium needs all the help it can get when it comes to putting fibre into the ground. The nation currently has one of the worst levels of FTTH penetration in all of Europe, with only around 17% of homes having access to fibre. As a result, the operators and the government have been rapidly scaling up their rollout efforts in the past two years, with Belgium today seeing the fastest fibre deployment rate in Europe. 

Beyond its fiberisation efforts, Telenet is also advancing its mobile ambitions. Last month, Telenet secured 5G spectrum in the 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 3.5 GHz bands at the national spectrum auction, spending €264.3 million. 

Telenet first launched commercial 5G back in December 2021 using temporary 5G spectrum allocated by the regulator. 

Also in the news:

Today, the UK government has announced that it has given the greenlight to ‘Project Skyway’, a plan to create a ‘drone superhighway’ between the Midlands and the Southeast.  
The proposed drone corridor will be the longest in the world, spanning around 165 miles and connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby. It will be built and developed over the coming two years, with plans to extend the corridor all the way to Ipswich and Southampton if early trials prove successful…

Today, the UK government has announced that it has given the greenlight to ‘Project Skyway’, a plan to create a ‘drone superhighway’ between the Midlands and the Southeast.  

The proposed drone corridor will be the longest in the world, spanning around 165 miles and connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby. It will be built and developed over the coming two years, with plans to extend the corridor all the way to Ipswich and Southampton if early trials prove successful. 

One completed, the corridor will allow for various drone trials on a scale unattainable anywhere else in the UK.

The project is led by UK-based drone specialist Altitude Angel, who is working alongside UK telecoms operator BT and numerous tech start-ups. 

Altitude Angel will provide their Unified Traffic Management (UTM) solution, a holistic system for drone management during flight, similar to an automated air traffic control system.  

UTM hardware from Altitude Angel and the rest of the Skyway consortium will be deployed along the planned route, being integrated with BT’s mobile network infrastructure assets where possible.

BT, meanwhile, will provide the mobile connectivity over which the drones communicate. 

In essence, this will allow for a ‘superhighway’ of network of sensors that will provide real-time location data about everything in the local airspace and direct the drones their location.

This is the reverse of current drone flight, which typically requires an operator to pilot the drone using cameras on the drone itself. 

“Cellular connectivity, and a secure, resilient 4G and 5G mobile network, will continue to enable the rapid growth of the drone market. Through our EE network, BT is providing the UK’s largest and most reliable network to Project Skyway, to keep drones connected to ARROW® so they can receive greater situational awareness and tactical collision avoidance instructions from the autopilot system, and stream key video feeds such as search and rescue footage back to control rooms,” explained BT’s Director of Drones, Dave Pankhurst.

This reliance on relatively ubiquitous mobile connectivity and a largely autonomous UTM system should allow unpiloted drones to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), a crucial step in preparing for services like drone delivery, private drone fleets, and long-distance search and rescue operations.

“The social and economic potential of drones is immense and requires close industry collaboration to fully unlock these opportunities in a safe and responsible way. It’s an exciting time to be part of such a powerful consortium. Project Skyway will be crucial to showcase how the UK can not only lead the creation of new jobs and public services, but form the backbone of how we integrate drones into our daily lives,” said Pankhurst.

Of course, there remain a myriad of logistical and legal challenges to be overcome before commercial drone services take to the skies, but the creation of a testbed of this size is nonetheless a huge asset for the advancement of drone technology. 

Will mobile networks be the backbone to the drone services of the future? Find out how the operators are utilising drones at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

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