Parallel Wireless, Inc., the U.S.-based Open RAN leader delivering the world’s leading All G, cloud-native Open RAN solution, is partnering with Inatel, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Brisanet, Claro, TIM, and Vivo to conduct a field trial enabling leading-edge 4G and 5G broadband communications throughout Brazil and other LATAM countries…

Parallel Wireless, Inc., the U.S.-based Open RAN leader delivering the world’s leading All G, cloud-native Open RAN solution, is partnering with Inatel, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Brisanet, Claro, TIM, and Vivo to conduct a field trial enabling leading-edge 4G and 5G broadband communications throughout Brazil and other LATAM countries.  

Inatel – National Institute of Telecommunications – is an education, research, and technology development center created in 1965 and located in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, southern Minas Gerais, also known as the Electronics Valley. It was the first institution of higher education in Telecommunications Engineering in Brazil.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations working together to accelerate the development and deployment of open, disaggregated, and standards-based technology solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity that the world needs – now and in the decades to come.

Parallel Wireless will provide an Open RAN network enabling All Gs (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G) utilizing Band 7 for the trial. This leading-edge network field trial will enable new services and applications for consumers and businesses.

Russell Ribeiro, Regional VP LATAM Sales at Parallel Wireless said, “We are excited to partner with Inatel and TIP to showcase our leading-edge cloud-native, O-RAN compliant, Open RAN solutions enabling 4G and 5G broadband connectivity, providing leading-edge applications for the citizens of Brazil and other LATAM countries. We are starting this Open Field program with 4G and will evolve to 5G later this year. We believe this program is a very good showroom for MNOs throughout Latin America to come and see our platform in operation in a real field environment.”

Gleyson A. dos Santos, Business Development Specialist at Inatel said, “I am thrilled to participate in this field trial with Parallel Wireless and TIP where we will showcase how Open RAN technology enables robust wireless telecommunications products with improved software quality, less maintenance, faster adoption of new technologies and better user experiences.” 

The test setup has Comba and Dell Technologies solutions. Mobile Network Operators Brisanet, Claro, TIM and Vivo are partners in the Open Field program. 
 

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Also in the news:

TIM and Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, have reached an agreement for the acquisition, by a consortium led by Ardian, of an additional 41% stake in the jointly owned holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30…

TIM and Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, have reached an agreement for the acquisition, by a consortium led by Ardian, of an additional 41% stake in the jointly owned holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30.2% stake in INWIT.

Once the transaction is completed, the Ardian consortium will hold a 90% stake in Daphne 3.

The agreement reached is based on a valuation of the INWIT share of EUR 10.75 (cum dividend) and corresponds to a consideration for TIM of approximately EUR 1.3 billion, in addition to the repayment of the loan of approximately EUR 200 million, granted by TIM to the Ardian consortium at the time of the initial acquisition in 2020.

The agreements have been structured not to give rise to any form of obligation to launch a public tender offer.

Following the closing, the Ardian consortium will have full and exclusive control over Daphne 3, while TIM will be granted minority governance rights, both in Daphne 3 and INWIT, in order to protect its investment, in line with the practice in transactions of this nature.

The closing of the transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent, including antitrust clearance, clearance under the Golden Power framework and the termination of the shareholders’ agreement with Vodafone Europe and Central Tower Holding Company.
 

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) has imposed a £90,000 fine on Jersey Telecom (JT) after technical issues caused a shut down of the network in the summer of 2020.
 
During the disruption, customers using the network could not access internet or mobile services, including calls to 999 and emergency services. Thankfully, it appears that no lives were lost as a result of the network issues…

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) has imposed a £90,000 fine on Jersey Telecom (JT) after technical issues caused a shut down of the network in the summer of 2020.

During the disruption, customers using the network could not access internet or mobile services, including calls to 999 and emergency services. Thankfully, it appears that no lives were lost as a result of the network issues.

The specific cause of the disruption has not been elaborated.

According to the regulator, the investigation into the network error had been “long and complex”, with Jersey Telecom complying with inquiries throughout the process.

« JT accepts the final decision made by the JCRA on this important issue. We take any matters like this exceptionally seriously and have worked closely and productively with the JCRA through the process,” said JT’s interim CEO John Diamond. 

« I would like to apologise again to our customers for the disruption, and to thank our teams who have carefully and collaboratively worked through the sequence of events which led to the problem in July 2020, to ensure it will not be repeated. »

This is not the first time JT has faced fines from the regulator over breaches of its licence obligations, which require it to ensure access to emergency services is always available. 

Around a year ago, the JCRA issued JT a £675,000 fine, as well as issuing rival Sure a fine of £135,000, for a series of repeated failures from both operators between January and April 2020. Network outages on two occasions had left customers without access to emergency services, while on four other occasions Jersey police had to step in and handle all incoming emergency calls.

JT said at the time that it had “identified and resolved” the relevant problems, as well as the specific circumstances that had led to the incidents. Sure, similarly, said they had reviewed procedures and made changes to ensure that such disruption does not happen again. 

In more positive news, the island of Jersey is finally looking like it may get access to 5G spectrum this year, with the JCRA last month launching a consultation, seeking to assess ‘interest and demand’ in 5G services. The 5G spectrum auction process had been paused back in 2020 as a result of both the coronavirus pandemic and infrastructure security concerns. 

“We’re pleased to be restarting the process for licencing 5G spectrum for Jersey, and enabling future benefits for local mobile users. As the pandemic’s impact recedes and the situation with network security requirements becomes clearer, we believe that now is the right time to pick up this matter again and look forward to re-engaging with interested parties and islanders about 5G,” said the JCRA.

Earlier this year, Ericsson announced that an internal investigation had revealed the company had potentially paid bribes to the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq as early as 2011. 
While the investigation is ongoing and the final recipient of many of these payments is unclear, it appears that the vendor had paid off terrorist organisations to secure their transport routes throughout the country…

Earlier this year, Ericsson announced that an internal investigation had revealed the company had potentially paid bribes to the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq as early as 2011. 

While the investigation is ongoing and the final recipient of many of these payments is unclear, it appears that the vendor had paid off terrorist organisations to secure their transport routes throughout the country. 

The immediate results of the revelations saw the company’s stock price collapse by around a third, with some analysts suggesting that the company risked become “uninvestable”.

Now, Ericsson says it is bracing itself for the inevitable fallout from the investigation, saying that it will likely be fined by the US Department of Justice for its handling of the investigation.

CEO Borje Ekholm said the company could not effectively estimate the size of financial penalties that may be applied but “Deu”was engaging with US authorities to resolve the situation.  

Any fine would be in addition to a $1 billion fine paid by Ericsson to the DoJ back in 2019 to settle bribery cases in various international markets.

Ultimately, however, a fine may be the best result that Ericsson can hope for, with other possible sanctions – even excluding Ericsson from the US market entirely – also being considered.

It also remains to be seen on whom the blame for the scandal ultimately falls.

In Ericsson’s Annual General Meeting last week, the company’s board of directors tabled a motion to grant a discharge of liability for five members of the board over the scandal. However, shareholders, including Cevian Capital and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, voted down the motion, meaning that CEO Ekholm and other board members remain at risks of being found individually responsible and facing personal repercussions.

In related news, Ericsson earlier this week said it was suspending its business in Russia ‘indefinitely’, placing its roughly 600 staff in the country on paid leave. Their rival Nokia, a day later, also announced that they were withdrawing from the Russian market entirely, saying a continued presence in the country “would not be possible”.

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Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.
Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.
Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive…

Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.

Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.

Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive, a Seoul-based company that specialises in computer systems design and three-dimensional motion graphics. 

The two companies have entered into a strategic cooperation agreement that will see SK Telecom buy an undisclosed stake in Morph Interactive, as well as collaborating to develop new functions the Ifland platform. 

These new functions will include allowing user avatars to interact with props and introduce minigames that can be played individually or with other users in the same virtual space.

Yang Maeng-seok, head of SK Telecom‘s metaverse business, described the investment as the foundation for “providing Ifland users with more fun factors”. 

By the end of the year, other features added to the platform will include the inception of Ifland’s own digital economy in the form of crypto currency and the launch of a virtual shop, which will allow users to purchase outfits for their avatars. 

« We will do our best to make Ifland a means of communication that gets closer to the daily lives of many users and can be actively used in corporate business, » commented Morph Interactive CEO, Kim Jung-youl.  

In a demonstration of Ifland’s viability as a medium for business, the contract between SK Telecom and Morph was itself enacted through a virtual ceremony held on Ifland platform, with the two companies’ executives signing this contact with their virtual avatars.

In related news this week, SK Telecom continues to enhance its own multimedia capabilities, announcing the development of an AI Post Production platform that uses AI technology to detect and remove subtitles, copyrighted music, and embedded graphics from video content. This will help the content to meet the distribution standards of global platforms like Netflix and Amazon, thereby making it easier for companies to export Korean content overseas.