Uncategorized
BT offers to spend up to £600M on rural broadband in the UK
BT has offered to spend up to £600M to connect the final 1M homes and businesses in rural areas of Britain to a broadband connection suitable for most needs. The telecom company said every home and business in the UK would have a broadband speed of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbits/s), fast enough to stream movies, video conference and browse the web.
Broadband endpoints will either be connected via the Openreach network through fiber-optic cables, a network of copper lines via xDSL, or through the fixed broadband wireless system, where connections use radio and, in some cases, satellite signals.
BT’s plan is for 99% of the UK population to be able to obtain a broadband service of at least 10 Mbit/s by 2020. That speed meets the needs of a typical household, according to UK regulatory authority Ofcom, but is less than the 2015 FCC broadband speed minimum of 25M bit/s (downstream).
About 93% of the UK population can already access a service of at least 24 Mbit/s, according to the UK government, but there has been concern about a growing “digital divide” as rural communities miss out on the broadband revolution.
The government said it was weighing BT’s proposal against a regulatory approach. “We warmly welcome BT’s offer and now will look at whether this or a regulatory approach works better for homes and businesses,” said Culture Secretary Karen Bradley in a weekend statement. “Whichever of the two approaches we go with in the end, the driving force behind our decision making will be making sure we get the best deal for consumers.”
Actual network construction is not due to finish until late 2021 or 2022, because of work on the rollout of fixed network technologies.
The UK government said rollout would take longer under a regulatory approach but highlighted the pricing implications of BT’s plan for rivals and broadband consumers.
“It is also proposed that BT would fund this investment and recover its costs through the charges for products providing access to its local access networks,” it said. “The approach to recovering these costs will be considered in Ofcom’s current wholesale local access review.”
Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT, said:“ We are pleased to make a voluntary offer to deliver the Government’s goal for universal broadband access at minimum speeds of 10Mbps. This would involve an estimated investment of £450m — £600m depending on the final technology solution.”
At the top end of this range, the investment would equal about 2.5% of BT’s revenues in its last fiscal year (to end-March 2017) and about 17% of overall capital expenditure across the Group.
BT said it would look to recover the cost of its investment by leasing the rural networks to its rivals. The offer will also be reflected in Ofcom’s current review of how to regulate the market for super fast, fiber-based networks of the future.
Capex soared by about £3.5 billion ($4.6 billion) at BT last year, largely because of spending on broadband roll outs. BT is planning several major investments in the coming years: it plans to extend all-fiber networks to around 2 million UK premises by 2020, and connect another 10 million homes and businesses to a xDSL technology called G.fast, which boosts connectivity speeds over last-mile copper loops. (See BT to Cover 2M Homes With FTTP in $8.7B Plan.)
Earlier this month, BT CEO Patterson said he was considering the viability of a much more ambitious fiber roll out that would benefit around 10 million premises by 2025. (See BT Rejigs Consumer Biz as Profits Hit by £225M Italy Payout.)
He has also indicated that BT will participate in an upcoming auction of airwaves that could be used to support new 5G services. Operators made crippling payments for spectrum licenses during previous auctions, although experts do not expect a 5G auction to generate a similar windfall.
References:
https://www.ft.com/content/a4ba67a4-73b0-11e7-aca6-c6bd07df1a3c
http://www.itproportal.com/news/bt-unveils-600m-scheme-to-bring-broadband-to-every-rural-uk-home/
J.D. Power: SMB a Growth Opportunity; Telecom ARPU Falling in Every Region
J.D. Power Report Highlights:
Enterprises with 500 or more employees are more likely to be satisfied with their telecom service, according to a report from J.D. Power, which sees the small- to medium-size business market as a growth opportunity for telcos. Medium-size businesses had an average satisfaction score of 787, J.D. Power said in a press release.
The J.D. Power report, which grades larger telecoms and cable companies, gives Verizon and AT&T the highest marks.
Verizon exceeded the average satisfaction level and topped the rankings for all three categories of businesses – small, mid-size and large. The company’s overall scores were 762, 816 and 821, respectively, for small, mid-size and large companies.
AT&T came in second place and exceeded the average score in the mid-size and large categories, with scores of 792 and 820, respectively. But Cox came in second among the smallest businesses, with a score of 744. AT&T followed at 730.
Cox was the only cableco to have a score above the average in any of the three categories. Among the telcos, CenturyLink also failed to have a score above the average in any category – a situation that company will want to address whenever its merger with Level 3 closes and the company becomes the most enterprise-focused of all the major service providers.
J.D. Power attributes the higher satisfaction level of the larger businesses to several factors, including higher satisfaction levels with communication, cost of service and customer service. Those companies with an account representative assigned to their business have notably higher overall satisfaction, researchers noted – and larger companies are more likely to have account representatives assigned to them.
Service providers in general have been emphasizing the business market in recent years and that emphasis seems to be yielding positive results. Scores for all the categories of companies were higher than for a similar study that J.D. Power conducted in 2015. Scores for 2015 were 783 for large companies, 747 for mid-size companies and 715 for small companies.
The business market has been a particularly strong focus for cable companies, which do not have wireless businesses but do have modern fiber network infrastructure. The J.D. Power results suggest cable companies still have a way to go in gaining business customers’ loyalty and trust, however.
The J.D. Power results suggest opportunities for service providers that can excel at serving SMBs – and tier two service providers such as Windstream and Frontier have been focusing on that market for a long time. So was TW Telecom (which was acquired by Level 3, which is in turn being acquired by Century Link) and XO Communications which was acquired by Verizon.
Tier two telcos were not included in the J.D. Power report.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Telecom ARPU Falling in Every Region
Closing Comment:
Perhaps, the negative growth in telecom is causing telcos to merge to acquire scale and to go into other businesses (like Orange investing in on-line banking instead of its core telecom business).
Fierce Telecom reported on July 24th:
CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream suffer worst 3 quarters in history
CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream have continued to see pressure over the past three quarters as shares at each of these companies dropped dramatically due to issues at each company.
“Shares in the wireline ILEC/RLEC space (CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream) have endured the worst three consecutive quarters in industry history, with shares plummeting an average of -20% in 4Q16, -21% in 1Q17, and -24% in 2Q17 (we note another -5% in 3Q17 thus far), mostly from Frontier and Windstream as CenturyLink shares are being supported by the Level 3 acquisition,” Cowen said in a research note.
Overall, the three companies face the industry-wide challenge of balancing strategic service growth with ongoing legacy service declines and losing market share to cable operators.
Additionally, each of these companies has been dealing with specific headwinds in their businesses. Frontier has been challenged by integrating the properties it purchased from Verizon in California, Texas and Florida, while CenturyLink is dealing with a raft of lawsuits over alleged consumer fraud issues and Windstream is seeing declines in its legacy TDM-based wholesale business sector.
References:
http://www.jdpower.com/sites/default/files/2017108.pdf
Microsoft White Spaces Plan would bring 2 million Americans online by 2022
Microsoft today announced a project to bring broadband internet access to rural parts of the U.S. using TV white spaces, unlicensed and unused spectrum. Microsoft President Brad Smith unveiled details about the initiative at a Tuesday event in Washington, D.C. as a way to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
Microsoft’s ambitious plan, dubbed the Rural Air-band Initiative, will begin in 12 states, where the company said it will invest in broadband connectivity alongside local telecom services. The company said that it does not intend to enter the telecom business itself or profit directly from the initiative. Instead, Microsoft said it will supply the upfront capital required to expand broadband coverage, then recoup that cost by sharing in the revenue with local operating partners.
The company is calling for a combination of private and public investments to get about 2 million rural Americans online in the next five years. Microsoft plans to partner with telecommunications companies that serve rural counties in 12 states: Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, New York and Maine. It’s also asking for regulatory support from the Federal Communications Commission.
Mr. Smith will also urge President Donald Trump and his administration to ensure that unlicensed white space is available in all U.S. markets. “As a country, we should not settle for an outcome that leaves behind more than 23 million of our rural neighbors,” Smith wrote in a blog post.
“To the contrary, we can and should bring the benefits of broadband coverage to every corner of the nation,” he added. Smith said the TV white spaces provides powerful bandwidth to allow wireless signals to travel over hills and through buildings and trees.
“Today, 34 million Americans still lack broadband internet access, which is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a 25 Mbps connection,” Smith posted. “Of these, 23.4 million live in rural parts of our country. People who live in these rural communities increasingly are unable to take advantage of the economic and educational opportunities enjoyed by their urban neighbors.” Smith said Microsoft wants to eliminate the rural broadband gap by July 4, 2022.
“Our goal is to serve as a catalyst for market investments by others in order to reach additional rural communities,” he stated in his blog post.
Microsoft company faces many hurdles with the technology. For one, few manufacturers are making devices compatible with white-spaces technology, and some devices that can be used with the technology cost more than $1,000 each. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group, said that only 800 devices that worked with white-spaces technology had been registered with regulators.
“White spaces has tremendous opportunity to help with broadband coverage in rural areas, but it’s hard to justify the cost to device makers who don’t see economies of scale in rural areas,” said Doug Brake, a senior analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a research organization that is sponsored by tech companies including Microsoft.
Mr. Smith said that he would demonstrate four devices that work with white-space technology at Tuesday’s event, adding that prices for such gadgets would fall below $200 by next year.
Another challenge is a battle with television broadcasters who have long argued that devices on the unused airwaves can interfere with the broadcasts run on neighboring channels. This week, the National Association of Broadcasters filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing against Microsoft’s request for one nationwide channel to be set aside for white-spaces use.
“Microsoft has been making promises about white-spaces technology for well over a decade,” Patrick McFadden, an associate general counsel for the association, wrote in comments to the commission. “At what point do we finally conclude that the white spaces project is a bust?”
References:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dynamic-spectrum-and-tv-white-spaces/
http://whitespaces.microsoftspectrum.com/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/11/15953310/microsoft-rural-airband-broadband-strategy
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/tech/2017/07/11/rural-broadband-microsoft/103618818/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/networking-over-white-spaces-knows/
China Orders Telecom Companies To Block VPN Access to Global Internet
China’s government has reportedly directed telecommunications companies to block their users from accessing a secure internet network.
The country’s authorities are specifically mandating that state-run wireless carriers — like China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile — forbid people from using virtual private networks (VPNs). China is giving the quasi-private companies until Feb. 1, 2018 to comply with its orders, according to Bloomberg.
The technological capability gives users the ability to navigate the web anonymously through an encrypted, secure connection.
VPNs enable Chinese citizens with the ability to circumvent the country’s firewall (also known as the Great Firewall of China), which technically prohibits people from accessing many online services and sites that are available on the global internet. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, for example, are not accessible due to the firewall, so many Chinese citizens use Sina Weibo, a similar platform that is based in China and adheres to government’s calls for targeted censorship.
China’s propensity towards censorship manifests itself quite often, in fact, including in late June when the popular Netflix original “BoJack Horseman” was blocked just days after debuting in the country. (RELATED: China Battles For Internet Hegemony After America Gives Up Control)
“In the past, any effort to cut off internal corporate VPNs has been enough to make a company think about closing or reducing operations in China. It’s that big a deal,” Jake Parker, vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, told Bloomberg.
“VPNs are incredibly important for companies trying to access global services outside of China,” he said, adding that the order also seems to affect individuals across the country.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_China
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/10/china-bans-vpns-to-further-tighten-internet-controls-says-report.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/11/china-moves-to-block-internet-vpns-from-2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/china-is-said-to-order-carriers-to-bar-personal-vpns-by-february
5G in India dependent on fiber backhaul investments
Excerpts of an article in the Economic Times of India by Ankit Agarwal:
Executive Summary:
In the wake of growing awareness around Internet of Things (IoT) and the use cases it presents to Indian businesses and consumers, 5G will open a new era of opportunities for telecom operators and ecosystem partners in the country.
AJW Comment: However, fiber backhaul will be needed and that may take some time as India’s fiber infrastructure needs significant improvement.
“One of the fundamental requirements for 5G is strong backhaul which is simply not there and that is the most time consuming part and it is extremely expensive in today’s condition in India,” Jalaj Choudhri, EVP, Reliance Communications said. He adding that even if India is able to circumvent the challenges of standardization and 5G truly becomes available by 2020, yet a good 5G network cannot be expected unless we have a reliable and strong backhaul.
More in this article.
Current Status of 5G in India:
In India, Nokia has recently signed an MoU with wireless network operators BSNL and Airtel to collaborate on 5G technology solutions, and Reliance Jio is working with Samsung to explore various technologies and equipment for 5G.
In the wake of growing awareness around Internet of Things (IoT) and the use cases it presents to Indian businesses and consumers, 5G will open a new era of opportunities for telecom operators and ecosystem partners in the country. Though it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate of the market size right now, IoT is expected to provide a $15 billion market opportunity for Indian businesses by 2020, according to officials at Department of Telecom (DoT). Combine this with the unprecedented growth in the number of smartphone users in India, which is expected to overtake the U.S. in terms of smartphone shipment by 2019. Analysts are optimistic that India will hold around 15% of the world’s smartphone market share by that period – Indian consumers are ready for 5G.
Roadblocks for Indian Operators
Indian operators, however, need to address the issues surrounding 5G infrastructure and deployment. Challenges involving regulatory policies, investments and infrastructure readiness need to be addressed on priority.
Challenges ahead for telecom operators in India are multi-fold compared to their peers in the rest of the world. Diverse geography, disparate population and disparity in economic distribution among the rich and the poor pose serious challenges to operators, preventing uniform investments across different telecom circles. Also, issues such as Right of Way (RoW) have created uncertainty in fiber investments across different states. These apart, the rising cost of air waves and the challenges involved in migrating to new technologies bring additional challenges.
Moreover, the industry’s performance on key indicators such as network speed, coverage and customer service is not satisfactory. For example, average Internet speed in India stands at 3.5 Mbps compared to 29 Mbps in South Korea, 15 Mbps in the U.S., and 4.3 in China (see graph below).
In this context, it is worth analysing where telecom investments should be directed to make commercial 5G a reality in India by 2020.
Fiber to Drive 5G Rollouts
With a promise of 10Gbps speed, less than 1 ms latency and 90% reduction in network energy utilisation, 5G will spur the next round of telecom infrastructure investments across the globe, say experts. The growth of 5G will be fuelled by the sharp hike in consumer data and the proliferation of IoT devices.
ITU estimates the market for IoT devices will result in over USD 1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy by 2019. In view of these developments, ITU expects that investments on fibre infrastructure will surpass $ 144.2 billion during 2014 – 2019. The fact that 5G network will have to support bursty data from emerging applications like Video on Demand (VoD), IoT, Smart Cities, and the like also makes backhaul (from cell tower to network operators Point of Presence) a critical concern.
In several markets, operators are turning to fiber backhaul as an alternative to costly microwave technologies. Since fiber is essential for both wireline and wireless networks, investors show greater levels of confidence in fiber investment.
Fiber Investment: Where does India stand?
A comparison of optical fiber cable (OFC) rollout among the top performing telecom markets shows that the fiber kilometre (fkm) per capita is much less in India compared to several other key markets. For example, fkm per capita for China with 1.3 billion people is 0.87 whereas that of India with 1.2 billion people is just 0.09 (i.e. one-tenth of China consumption).
In developed markets such as the US and Japan, the score is 1.3 and higher (See graph below).
Preparing 5G Networks in India
The latest Cisco VNI report estimates that global IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% from 2014 to 2019, and reach 2 zettabyte per year by 2019. Given this, operators across the world are upgrading their backhaul networks with fibre technology. The fact that fibre-based networks are capable of delivering unlimited bandwidth makes them a winning formula for telecom investments.
Leading operators are now mulling ways to reduce the capex associated with fibre deployments. Infrastructure sharing and leasing are gaining popularity among mobile and cable operators in developing markets. In India, the DoT’s amendment of unified license scheme for active infrastructure sharing and the revised public private partnership (PPP) model for BharatNet project adopted last year are two timely steps to boost the infrastructure sharing efforts by operators. Combined with this, a consensus on RoW is also expected soon across all Indian states. A unified RoW policy will pave way for smooth fibre rollout, resulting in faster service rendering.
To rise to the global standards and solidify their stand in the country, Indian operators need to pump in more funds in optical fibre and related technologies. With fibre playing a pivotal role in improving broadband connectivity and building robust 4G/5G backhaul capabilities, operators will find the investment worth of a grab. As penetration improves, they will be in a position to lower tariffs and identify new monetisation opportunities. ARPU will improve, and the market will stabilise gradually.
As the second largest telecom market in the world, India promises great potential for investors. Industry watchdogs believe India and China combined are capable of transforming world’s telecom landscape in the next decade. Recent developments reveal that Chinese operators and technology vendors have come a long way in 5G tests and trials. Now, it’s the turn of Indian operators to prove their readiness to 5G.
This is an exciting time for India, and the impact of 5G and its associated enablement of M2M, IoT, Autonomous driving and AR/VR can be anticipated. Given the 5G requirement for latency reduction (from 50ms to 1 ms) and speed from 100 Mbps to 10Gbps, the fibre deployment in the country will need to increase from current market of 16-18 million fkm per year to at least 2-3x per year. 5G will also require a multi-fold increase in small cells deployment, with each small cell having backhaul on fibre. The percentage of tower backhaul on fibre for the operators will need to increase significantly from 20% to 70-80% levels.
The current main drivers for the increase in deployment lie in the increased 4G deployments in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, increased Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployments by telecom operators, ISP’s and MSO providers. For example, ACT has recently launched 1Gbps broadband service in Hyderabad, which 20x faster than the market average of 50 Mbps. The other drivers for increase in fibre demand include the rural broadband project – BharatNet and large connectivity projects by the Defence. Lastly, optical fibre is a critical component to make the Smart Cities project a success.
Enabling early adoption of 5G, Sterlite Tech is working closely with key stakeholders – DOT, TRAI, telecom operators, equipment vendors and start-ups to enable 5G deployments in the country. Sterlite Tech is actively involved in 5G readiness solutions, and, is a key member of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) led by Facebook, to completely transform telecom networks using SDN/NFV and make them 5G ready.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETTelecom.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETTelecom.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.
Sprint Merger with T-Mobile Gets Closer; Incompatible 2G/3G Technologies is an Issue
German newspaper Handelsblatt yesterday reported that T-Mobile US Inc.’s parent company (Deutsche Telekom AG) favors a merger with Sprint. Deutsche Telekom AG, which controls T-Mobile, aims to maintain control of the combined company after an all-stock deal with Sprint, according to Handelsblatt, which cited sources close to the German company’s management committee and board.
Bloomberg reported two weeks ago that Sprint and T-Mobile were considering an all-stock deal. Sprint and T-Mobile were also talking to other potential merger partners, Bloomberg reported then, citing people familiar with the matter. Executives of both companies have said a merger would produce billions of dollars in cost savings and help them compete against larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
When the merger was rumored months ago, SoftBank — Sprint’s parent company — reportedly had not pushed the subject due to strict U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting rival carriers from conspiring during airwave auctions.
Now, the report claims that final measures are being put in place to complete the merger and the all-stock agreement would eliminate transaction costs with a deal like this because both companies would be exchanging stock rather than actual money.
This news also comes right after Sprint introduced its new promotion to encourage customers to ditch their current carriers. Those who switched to Sprint would receive unlimited data for up to five lines for free — making it clear that the carrier might be in trouble.
Sprint has consistently been playing catch-up with its rival carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Last year OpenSignal reported the carrier took last place in all categories ranging from speed to latency. On the other hand, T-Mobile had an increase in 4G coverage at 81.2 percent — which was neck and neck with AT&T at 82.6 percent — trailing closely behind Verizon. Sprint came in last, yet again, at 70 percent.
T-Mobile has been making efforts to improve its service across the board after having rolled out LTE on the 700MHZ spectrum. The OpenSignal report also measured LTE speeds in 11 of the biggest metro areas where T-Mobile won in four cities — placing it ahead of Verizon’s three — but the two carriers tied in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
A merger would likely see T-Mobile and Sprint’s networks also unified, although that would take much longer than many pundits expect. That’s because Sprint uses CDMA technology to power its 2G and 3G networks, while T-Mobile uses GSM (like all of Europe). The two wireless digital transmission technologies are not compatible, and CDMA would likely have to be phased out (along with some customer devices) before the two networks could truly unify. In the short term, internetworking units would be needed for seamless connectivity between wireless endpoints.
Also, T-Mobile has announced a nationwide 5G network, while Sprint has not, although it’s working with several companies (including Intel) on 5G software technologies.
Verizon still remains champion when it comes to coverage nationwide and reliability. AT&T is a close number 2. T-Mobile, which this year passed Sprint as the #3 U.S. wireless carrier, has been very aggressive and is clearly working to toward getting ahead. Sprint has lagged behind, most likely because it had to jettison its WiMAX network and replace it with LTE.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Update: Sprint CEO interviewed on CNBC, June 22, 2017:
A combined T-Mobile–Sprint could pose a “powerful” threat to telecom giant AT&T, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure told CNBC on Thursday, June 22, 2017.
“We have looked at every other alternative to make sure we are making the right decision,” Claure said on “Halftime Report.” “If the government works to allow us to combine, we’ll be No. 3, but we’ll be a formidable competitor and we’ll continue to disrupt the industry.”
The Sprint chief spoke after a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump and other tech leaders to discuss the potential impact of emerging technologies on U.S. industrial workers, among other topics. Representatives from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile were also at the meeting, Claure said.
On Tuesday, German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent, was prepping documents for a potential merger with Sprint. T-Mobile declined to comment but sources said the company is sounding out if there are any government objections to a deal, the newspaper reported.
T-Mobile did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Wall Street has frequently speculated about a possible merger of the two companies.
On the regulatory issues of such a deal, Claure said with more companies in the telecom market, like Comcast and Google, it is less likely to raise an eyebrow from the government. “You’re talking seven or eight formidable competitors today,” he said.
More importantly, “we’re going to need to make some serious investments in order to bring 5G to the United States,” he added. “And that’s going to require to the tune of $40 to $50 billion of investments.”
More at:
Colt plans to enter U.S. Metro Fiber Market in 2018 after Asia Metro Network Investments in 2017
UK based Colt, an alternative telco leader in software defined and virtualized WANs (see sections below for examples), is plotting an assault on the US metro fiber market next year (i.e. in 2018). According to the Financial Times (on line subscription required), Colt wants to become world’s largest metro fiber company within three years. That’s a truly optimistic goal considering all the legacy fiber facilities based network operators, including Century Link which now owns Level One’s fiber assets.
Colt remains one of the most substantial “alt-nets”(alternative or competitive facilities based wireline network operators) still in operation and this year has been investing in its networks in Singapore, Tokyo and Osaka as part of its expansion plan (see section below for more on this).
The telco hopes to build or buy networks in several large US cities that also says the provider might lease some facilities from other vendors. CEO Carl Grivner cited the expected fiber boom from cloud services and the internet of things (IoT) as Colt’s basis for optimism. The company will also look to expand its networks in the UK outside of London in Manchester and Birmingham in the UK.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
On January 12, 2017, Colt announced it was investing in Asia metro area networks. In particular, it will expand and enhance the Colt IQ Network™ in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2017 as part of its plans to invest significantly into Asia over the next three years. In Singapore, these investments will revolve around a series of initiatives that include a large-scale expansion of existing coverage, provisioning of high-bandwidth capacity, and new digging projects for Colt’s next-generation fiber optics.
The Colt network expansion, comprising both Optical and Ethernet architectures, will provide high-bandwidth services to major buildings and data centers across Asia. The investment underlines the growing bandwidth demands of global organizations, particularly in digital, data-intensive industries.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The move to target US fiber investment reminds us of the ill-fated strategy of Cable & Wireless in 2000-2001, when that UK network operator pumped billions of pounds into US acquisitions months before the market collapsed.
CEO Grivner, who worked at Cable & Wireless along with XO (now owned by Verizon), said that, with cloud computing and technology relating to the “internet of things” only growing, the bet on expansion looked safer than it did at the turn of the century. “I don’t think it is going to take a pause. The growth has caught up to the hype,” he said.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Other Voices:
Fierce Telecom wrote on June 19, 2017:
Colt’s plans to build a mixed network in the U.S. should not be a great surprise. In November 2016, Colt said it was expanding its North American sales and support teams. While the focus was to leverage type 2 facilities from other carriers, Colt’s initial foray into the United States could challenge AT&T and Verizon, attracting more multinational customers that need local and international connectivity services.
As a Pan-European provider, Colt operates in 20 countries across Europe and Asia. One of its first moves was to open two regional offices: one in Chicago and another in Jersey City, New Jersey.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
At the 2017 Open Network Summit, this author attended an impressive presentation by Colt’s experience in deploying SDN and NFV solutions in production both for Ethernet and IP services, the learning associated as well as their future plans. In particular, Javier Benitez covered Colt developments around Ethernet and IP on Demand, SD VPN, SDN controlled MPLS packet core and SDN/NFV NNI standardization. His presentation is available on reader request. Other 2017 Open Network Summit presentations can be downloaded for free here.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
SDx Central wrote last November:
AT&T is working with Colt Technology Services to provision network services using a programmatic API-to-API interface between separate software-defined networking (SDN) architectures.
The test occurred between two networks — one in the U.S. and one in Europe — and demonstrated that enterprises can provision on-demand, scalable network services across multiple locations and multiple networks, even networks from different service providers. The trial took place between the East Coast of the U.S. and various locations in Europe, and it combined AT&T and Colt’s on-demand network capabilities. AT&T and Colt plan to share the network-to-network interface and open API code with standards bodies and industry forums.
This is an important finding for service providers that want to sell services to enterprises. With this capability, enterprises will be able to reserve ports, order a point-to-point Ethernet service, or adjust their bandwidth requirements on demand.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
About Colt:
Colt, formerly known as City of London Telecom, is owned by fund manager Fidelity which was an original investor in the business when it was founded 25 years ago. The company was briefly a rising star of the UK telecoms sector, achieving a valuation of £4bn and entering the FTSE 100. However, it struggled to fulfill its growth potential, as moves into IT services and data centers in the past decade failed to pay off. Fidelity de-listed the business in 2015.
Mr Grivner said it was easier to invest in the telecom business (as a network operator) outside the glare of the public markets. Therefore, there were no plans to relist the company’s shares.
Verizon’s Huge Increase in Fiber Investments for “5G” Small Cell Backhaul & FTTP
Verizon Communications’ recent surge in buying fiber assets has little to do with its FiOS video and broadband Internet access. Yet the company expects to benefit from the investments, Senior Vice President Kyle Malady said at the Fiber Connect conference this week. He said Verizon is doubling down on fiber to fuel 5G network builds. His presentation can be viewed here.
“All the cards are lining up for us to double down on fiber again,” Malady said during his June 13th keynote address at the conference. Malady said balancing CAPEX requirements in a world of 4G, pending 5G, and other key network initiatives may have given the appearance that Verizon was scaling back on fiber investments. But that has now changed and you can thank wireless backhaul for it.
“Fiber is basically the nervous system of the networks of the future,” Malady said and Verizon is making big investments in it. He cited recent announcements with Corning and other fiber suppliers that Malady said has the carrier buying enough fiber to string to “Mars and back.”
This doubling-down in fiber is not driven by expanding FiOS. It’s driven by the need to densify Verizon’s network for 5G. FTTP applications will be a benefit of this densification. Because of 5G, Verizon will need to backhaul wireless traffic from small cells located at approximately 1,000-foot intervals in urban applications.
Those small cells will require gigabit capable backhaul, which is best delivered through a deep fiber network, says Malady. As a result, Verizon is changing their approach to fiber. They are adding many more strands as they lay this fiber, leading to the ability to offer FTTP services as they accommodate their small cell-heavy 5G network. “All applications can be served out of one fiber sheath,” said Malady.
Verizon’s “One Fiber” in Boston, MA. is their first market for this approach. It’s an approach that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam stressed at a recent industry conference, suggesting Verizon will have the largest national fiber footprint as a result of their 5G intentions. Verizon is also partnering with the city of Sacramento, CA. The theme is: “Designing and Constructing an Integrated Fiber Solution with our Municipality Partners,” according to Malady.
“[5G] leads to a whole new architecture and will require massive bandwidth, deep fiber and flexible access at the edge,” said Malady. This 5G-driven architecture is one reason Verizon is moving to NG-PON2 for their next generation fiber platform.
“We’re going to skip XG-PON and move on to NG-PON2,” Malady said, citing mid-2018 as their commercial launch time frame. NG-PON2 is better suited for 5G because of its wavelength flexibility and capability to eventually scale up to 80 Gbps in capacity.
Malady hinted this new outlook on fiber could lead to Verizon entering markets outside of their traditional territory. He cited ongoing discussions with Sacramento, Calif. for a fiber broadband-based public-private partnership.
New network architecture, according to Verizon:
• Massive bandwidth – deep fiber, flexible access
• Edge Computing
• Dense 5G Wireless
• Unlicensed and shared spectrum
• Software defined infrastructure
• Open source and automation, open RAN
References:
http://www.telecompetitor.com/verizon-were-doubling-down-on-fiber-broadband-just-dont-call-it-fios/
https://static.coreapps.net/fiber2017/handouts/106c1f9a-833d-4387-8afa-3b83ace7ea26_1.pdf
https://www.fiberconnect.org/page/education-program
https://app.core-apps.com/fiber2017/event/a041198839018a16ba6025fbe8eca53d
NFV Open Source (OPNFV) Reaches Critical Juncture at Beijing Summit
The OPNFV Summit – June 12-15th in Beijing, China – marks a critical moment in the development and acceptance of the open-source network functions virtualization technology by telecoms and others, said Heather Kirksey, Director of the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) project within the Linux Foundation. Ms. Kirksey told Light Reading that network operators “are engaging in open source in the right way now.”
Instead of showing up in large numbers with lists of demands or problems that need solving, “they are at the table working, contributing code and addressing problems.” Kirksey cites AT&T’s “Nirvana stack” (presented by AT&T’s Paul Carver at the 2017 Open Networking Summit) as an example of how open source is becoming a critical element of AT&T’s future networking protocol work.
Having initially used Juniper Network’s Contrail SDN controllers in its AT&T Integrated Cloud, the network operator is now looking at an open source ODL-based controller running on top of OPNFV software/firmware (see chart below).
AT&T’s “Nirvana” SDN Stack, as presented by Paul Carver at the 2017 Open Networking Summit
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Within OPNFV itself, and working with other open source groups, we’ve had a big focus for us on what it means to have a healthy open source culture, what it means to be effective,” Kirksey said. “In terms of what TIP (Facebook’s Telecom Infrastructure Project) does, it’s their people and processes group. I think it is really interesting, it never would have dawned on me to take that on as a task within an open source group. But we focus on it a lot when we are building our own culture, hoping that will create seeds,” she added.
OPNFV has, from its outset, worked in collaboration with other groups and upstream code whenever possible, Kirksey said next week’s summit reflects some of that cooperation.
This week’s four-day event in Beijing kicks off with OPNFV Project‘s Design Summit, for the developer community to push forward on Euphrates, the next OPNFV release. But those first two days also include mini-summits for the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), OpenDaylight, DPDK, FD.io and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, as well as its own mini-summit on data plane and VNF acceleration.
The event comes at an interesting time in the open source world, as debate rages on a few issues, including the commercial viability of open source and how it goes to market, and the way in which open source is being embraced by the carrier community. There is also much more discussion about how open source groups work together, versus duplicating work or working at cross purposes.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
OPNFV is under the Linux Foundation, which has become the dominant open source organization for open networking/software defined networking. Next week’s event will be the third OPNFV Summit and the first held in China. Many Chinese companies will attend, including: China Mobile, China Telecom, Huawei and ZTE. Didi Chuxing , the Chinese version of Uber, will also be present.
HPE’s Pradeep Sen (formerly with Verizon) will present a keynote at the OPNFV Beijing Summit. He will talk about “Cloudification and Disaggregation stages of the telco journey to the cloud, and what we in the industry, and open source and OPNFV in particular, need to pay attention to.”
Representatives from Orange and NTT DOCOMO will also present keynotes.
References:
http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/opnfv-summit
Open Network Summit: ONAP Steals the Show with Broad Support
Cisco: Online video to account for 82% of all Internet traffic by 2021!
Online video will make up 82% of internet traffic in 2021, according to a Cisco forecast released this week. The amount of bandwidth consumed will grow as more video is consumed and higher-quality videos are watched. Live (real time or linear) video is expected to see the fastest rate of growth over the next four years. Video accounted for 73% of traffic in 2016.
Cord cutters generate twice as much internet traffic as those who still pay for regular TV, according to Cisco. The video bandwidth demand is coming from all types of internet video, including on-demand content like Netflix, web cam viewing and traditional TV options available over the internet (IP VoD).
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8650935/Cisco_global_ip_traffic_01.png)
Chart Courtesy of Recode: https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15757594/future-internet-traffic-watch-live-video-facebook-google-netflix
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
44% in 2016 –>58% by 2021
2.3 in 2016 –>3.5 by 2021
27.5 Mbps in 2016–>53.0Mbps by 2021
4. Average Traffic per Capita per Month
12.9 GB in 2016–>35.5GB by 2021
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Live video is set to be the fastest growing segment of internet video traffic thanks to new video offerings like Facebook Live, Twitter’s broadcast of live sports and live over-the-top bundles from companies like AT&T, YouTube and Hulu. It’s expected to grow to nearly 25 exabytes (25 billion gigabytes), about 13 percent of internet video traffic, by 2021, up from 1.6 exabytes, or 3 percent of video traffic last year.
2021 Forecast IP Traffic Highlights:
- Globally, IP traffic will grow 3-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 24%.
- Globally, IP traffic will reach 278.1 Exabytes per month in 2021, up from 96.1 Exabytes per month in 2016.
- Global IP networks will carry 9.1 Exabytes per day in 2021, up from 3.2 Exabytes per day in 2016.
- Globally, IP traffic will reach an annual run rate of 3.3 Zettabytes in 2021, up from an annual run rate of 1.2 Zettabytes in 2016.
- Globally, IP traffic will reach 35 Gigabytes per capita in 2021, up from 13 Gigabytes per capita in 2016.
- Globally, average IP traffic will reach 847 Tbps in 2021, and busy hour traffic will reach 5.0 Pbps.
- In 2021, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross Global IP networks every 1 minutes.
Source: Cisco http://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/solutions/service-provider/vni-forecast-highlights.html
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Rreal-world impact of IoT:
Cisco anticipate the balance of power shifting from mobile phones/tablets to IoT connected devices. By 2019, IoT connections will account for more mobile additions than smartphones, tablets, and PCs. And by 2021, 638 million IoT modules will be added, while smartphone, tablet and PC additions will reach 381 million.
From a 5G perspective, there will be a slight impact over the next five years. The end of 2020 has been earmarked as the 5G finish line for a number of operators, though no-one should forget about 4G too quickly. Cisco predicts that by 2021, 5G will account for roughly 0.2% of mobile connections, though each connection will generate nearly 30 gigabytes per month, almost five times higher than the average 4G connection. These estimates would see 5G take 1.5% of the total traffic despite the modest number of connections.
“There are several issues that remain to be addressed before significant commercial 5G deployments commence (starting in 2020),” said Shruti Jain, one of Cisco’s analysts. “Can you imagine the impact of 5G on today’s data cap structures? Currently, top 1% of mobile users consume 30 GB of monthly data. When 5G is introduced, 30GB will be the average.”
As you can probably imagine, a lot of this traffic will be video, in fact 80% of it will be. Video will dominate IP traffic and overall Internet traffic growth representing 80% of all Internet traffic by 2021, up from 67% in 2016. This means there will be 1.9 billion Internet video users by 2021, as well as three trillion internet video minutes per month, about one million video minutes every second.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Chart Courtesy of Recode: https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15757594/future-internet-traffic-watch-live-video-facebook-google-netflix
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
References:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/index.html
Akamai: U.S. Internet speeds increased 22% YoY; IPv6 adoption is a conundrum
http://telecoms.com/482612/the-age-of-face-to-face-conversation-is-pretty-much-over/