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    Beware the seven deadliest customer experiences – Foundever

    Nick Booth
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    Beware the seven deadliest customer experiences – Foundever

    Repetition, ratings and rude robots

    You can tell a CEO who’s spent too much time ‘in the cloud’. They believe their own customer satisfaction surveys. Either that or they are deliberately gas-lighting us. To improve customer experience, Mobile Europe sought simple ‘people pleasing’ advice for telcos from people who really know the customer. In the first of an occasional series, Maria Harju, Foundever’s Chief Revenue Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, describes The Seven Deadliest Customer Experiences and how mobile network operators can avoid them.

    Repetition.

    Repeating your story to multiple people is enough to make 57% of Europeans hang up. Yes, some problems demand escalation, but if you’re moving your customer across an omnichannel platform it’s omni stupid not to move the information from channel to channel too. A CX should systematically do that. This averts another massive frustration, disregard for the customer’s history. How can you pretend to care about the customer experience when you show you are demonstrably oblivious to it? All the information across all channels is captured and should be correctly stored and retrieved so that your agents can do their best jobs.

    Rate your experience.

    OK, we need performance feedback, but customers are suffering from survey overload. Every trip to the toilet now involves an invitation to rate the experience. There are better ways to learn how customers feel about service and how they perceive your brand. Speech and text analytics are instant, less obtrusive and more accurate.

    Chatnots.

    If you don’t acknowledge your chatbot’s limitations, you’re setting your brand up for a CX failure. If your customer knows it’s an automated system, they’ll treat it as such and adjust their expectations accordingly. But when the bot goes beyond its domain intelligence it must hand off to a live representative and pass on the information shared up to that point.

    Chats …. with delayed response. 
    Chat’s rationale is about immediacy and accuracy but long wait times and vague unfocused responses will demolish that advantage. Immediate contextual support can help a customer take action or make a decision. Avoid the temptation to set high chat concurrency targets for agents. The more conversations they handle the less likely they are to resolve complex issues or satisfy each customer. Use your best pre-scripted responses in early conversational stages so that agents have more time to find a resolution. Cross train your CX staff so that they can work across channels based on peaks in demand.

    Undervaluing CX

    If each interaction doesn’t meet expectations it will damage your brand. So stress its value in your proposition. A superior customer experience should be reflected in the price of a product or service. If you’re cheap very hard to hold on to customers, especially in the current economic environment. Here is the value of CX. Three in four consumers will walk after a single disappointing customer experience, yet 42% would pay more for an identical product or service if it were supported by a superior CX. Being in the latter camp starts with understanding who your customers are, their wants, needs and expectations.

    Treating vocal interaction like a necessary evil.

    Test yourself before you test their patience. Voice is about people not managing processes, so IVR should solve customers’ problems, not stress test their patience and short-term memory on the altar of your management processes, said Harju. Most consumers are frustrated by complicated menus then agitated by the agent that takes over. A happy resolution is an uphill battle. An IVR should minimise menu options, as part of the identification or authentication process so that more of the conversation is focused on the customer and their issue, and use it to coach the customer. Rather than playing a message saying the call is important, a message asking if a person has the reference number or other relevant information to hand is going to make everyone’s life easier.

    Network resilience is fundamental to Ukraine’s fight for survival

    Michelle Donegan
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    Network resilience is fundamental to Ukraine’s fight for survival

    Kyivstar’s CEO and CTO talk about the power of grit and operators pulling together

    In a small, quiet meeting room on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress with executives from Ukraine’s largest operator Kyivstar, the discussion was in stark contrast to what was going on at the show. While other European operators talked about fair-share politics and future immersive experiences, Kyivstar provided an update on how it has kept people safe and its network up and running after one year of war. 

    Oleksandr Komarov, Chief Executive of Kyivstar, acknowledged having a somewhat “alien” feeling here as the operator has “very different challenges and priorities” compared to the rest of the industry.

    In an interview with Mobile Europe, Komarov and Volodymyr Lutchenko, Chief Technology Officer at Kyivstar, shared how network resilience challenges have changed dramatically over the last year and how people have pulled together to preserve communications services. (Also see Telecoms in time of war)

    National roaming

    Cooperation among the country’s three operators – Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine, and Lifecell – has been “essential” for overall network resilience, and they have been “exchanging capacity and providing equipment to one another,” said Komarov.

    Indeed, one of the first and most important steps the operators took after Russia invaded a year ago was to implement national roaming, so that if network services are down on one network, users are automatically switched to another. National roaming is unusual and difficult, but the Ukrainian operators were able to launch it in about three weeks with support from the national regulator.

    The service is “working well to keep services going,” said Lutchenko. When the country suffered power blackouts in November last year, he said more than 2 million people per day used the national roaming service.

    When the war started, the government also issued additional frequencies free of charge to the operators to give them extra network capacity. Meanwhile, equipment suppliers and local businesses have also rallied to help keep the networks going.

    Komarov cited an example where Ericsson stepped up to support a “very big ambitious project to roll out a national core site in the western part of Ukraine … to mitigate the risks related to the potential loss” of other sites, he said. In peace time, such a project would take 12 to 18 months. But with everyone cooperating, he said they started the project at the start of 2022 and it was completed in early May, taking less than five months for a major deployment.

    Moving targets for resilience

    As the months of war have dragged on, the network resilience challenges have changed. In the first few months, Lutchenko said Kyivstar was engaged in “urgent activities” to keep the network going when the infrastructure was physically damaged by rockets, bombs, mines, and tanks, because the biggest problem is that it is often too dangerous to get to the sites to repair damages.

    “[The sites] could be in occupied territory or on the front line. The area could be under fire or the fields can be mined so that without supervision from the military, you cannot get there … That’s why your network should be very reliable and still work with multiple damages like ours,” said Lutchenko.

    Later in the summer, the resiliency work shifted to “stabilisation” projects. By September, Kyivstar’s network performance KPIs remarkably were “almost on a pre-war level.” Apart from occupied areas where Kyivstar had no access to sites, “the network was really good,” he said. 

    Attacks on energy pose new threats

    The communications resiliency landscape changed in October when Russia started attacking the country’s energy infrastructure. Lutchenko said the challenge is now “really huge” and the “new reality.” In late October, about 20% of Kyivstar’s base stations were affected by power outages. Lutchenko said the worst day was November 24, 2022, when 65% of Kyivstar’s network was without electricity.

    In response, Kyivstar has strengthened energy resilience by adding longer-life backup batteries and diesel-powered generators.

    Here again, cooperation has been vital. In Kyivstar has “crowd-sourced” access to power generators from local businesses, such as a petrol station located near one of the operator’s cell sites. “We asked businesses and invited people to help us with keeping the network up and running,” said Lutchenko, and now more than 600 sites are connected to diesel generators.

    But this is one area where Komarov feels help from the government has been “limited”. Of Kyivstar’s 1500 generators, he said about 40 were provided by the government and the rest were either procured by the operator or acquired from third parties that have “extra power capacity on hand located nearby our sites.” Kyivstar said it has invested around US$5 million just on generators and diesel fuel. 

    Fighting on two fronts

    Kyivstar’s network is under threat from cyberattacks as well as physical attacks. “The Russians want to destroy us not only physically, but virtually as well, so that means we have to fight on two front lines,” said Lutchenko.

    The operator took measures to protect its network by relocating certain equipment away from areas that were likely to come under Russian control. Komarov explained that in occupied territories there was a cyber defense effort underway to ensure that despite not having control of all its network, the operator was not “vulnerable to extra threats.”

    “We streamlined the architecture of our core infrastructure to minimise the number of potential vulnerabilities,” he said. In Kherson, for example, Kyivstar had “just a media gateway and RAN network” and this “decreased the risk of penetration,” he said.

    Restoring liberated areas

    As territories are liberated, Kyivstar works on repairing the destruction to its network. Lutchenko said that about 18% to 20% of the telecom infrastructure in formerly occupied regions is “totally destroyed,” meaning “there is nothing from an equipment or infrastructure point of view.” About 30% to 35% is “heavily damaged” and about 40% has “minor damages.” Kyivstar says it can repair nearly 90% of the network in those areas.

    “We’re waiting for our military to liberate more territory and we are ready to restore everything,” said Lutchenko.

    Losing more than infrastructure

    Kyvistar is worried about losing more county’s critical communications infrastructure: it is also working to keep its 3,800 employees and their families safe. In the initial months of the war, the operator provided instructions for where people could go for safety and converted regional offices into temporary homes with showers and washing machines for displaced families.   

    Around 140 Kyivstar employees have been drafted into the army and thousands volunteer to help the army in various roles. The operator has lost three of its employees in the war and two are missing.

    Kyivstar relies on maintenance and construction suppliers, but their situation is “very much worse” because they cannot protect employees “with the same efficiency as Kyivstar” due to its critical infrastructure status, explained Komarov.

    Lutchenko joined Kyivstar in November 2021 and has been in the telecom industry in Ukraine for more than 25 years. “I don’t think anyone can plan for stuff like this. The most important thing is we have the greatest team in the world.”

    Asked how the war has affected the operator’s business, Komarov said the operator was “in the green” and there is “extremely high pressure on our networks.”

    “But let’s face it, it’s less about business and much more about survival,” he said.

    More techcos step up to support Ukraine

    Annie Turner
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    More techcos step up to support Ukraine

    Microsoft, VMware, Intel, AMD and OneWeb are the latest to stop trading with Russia – and some with Belarus too

    Last week Google blocked Russians’ access to Google Pay and Apple did likewise with its wallet product and product sales in Russia.

    Some have criticised Apple’s move, pointing out it could push people towards using Android phones made in China that are more susceptible to hacking and surveillance.

    However, Apple made the moves after a direct appeal to its CEO, Tim Cook, by the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Vice

    Now more big tech firms are following their lead.

    Microsoft has suspended all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.

    The chips are down

    Chip giant Intel said in a statement that it, “condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and we have suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus.

    “Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this war, including the people of Ukraine and the surrounding countries and all those around the world with family, friends and loved ones in the region.”

    Another chip giant, AMD has also stopped shipments to Russia and Belarus.

    VMWare is suspending all its business activities in Russia and Belarus due to the unprovoked attack by Russia. It published a statement that read, “We stand with Ukraine, and we commend the bravery of the Ukrainian people. The human toll is devastating and like other global businesses, we are committed to supporting our Ukrainian team members, customers and partners.”

    It added, “We are also seeking to support non-Ukraine-based employees with family members located in Ukraine with information to access available resources. We continue to support our employees in Russia, as they are adversely impacted by the consequences of their government’s actions.

    “The suspension of operations includes suspension of all sales, support, and professional services in both countries in line with VMware’s commitment to comply with sanctions and restrictions.”

    The board of directors at satellite operator OneWeb has voted to suspend all launches from Baikonur, the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

    Social media battles

    Meanwhile social media sites are continuing their battle with Russian authorities, which are keen to control the flow of information and the narrative surrounding the war.

    Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have acted to prevent Russia’s state media making money from ads on their sites. In response, Moscow has said will restrict access to Facebook after its parent company Meta refused to stop fact-checking some Russian media companies’ output.

    TikTok has limited access to Russian state-controlled media accounts in the EU and Reddit has stopped users posting links to Russian state-sponsored media.

    Expect yet more big techcos to act soon.

    Cellnex sees Spanish consolidation ahead as Q1 net loss halves 

    Simon Dux
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    Cellnex sees Spanish consolidation ahead as Q1 net loss halves 

    The towerco also has opportunities after the arrival of MásOrange and Digi Spain’s subsequent market approach

    Cellnex Telecom has posted revenues of €946 million (+7%) and its adjusted EBITDA grew to €778 million (+7%) with a clear drive from its PoPs (Points of Presence) organic growth (+10.7%) in Q1 2024. The towerco saw a net loss of €39 million, however this represented a €52 million improvement over the first quarter of 2023 (-€91 million), reflecting the growth in the Group’s EBITDA.

    Cellnex announced on 5 March the sale of its business in Ireland to Phoenix Tower International for €971 million, equivalent to a multiple of 24x EBITDAaL. The company expects non-binding offers for its Austrian business in May. Saudi Arabia’s stc Group and sovereign fund PIF may bid for Cellnex’s Austrian unit, El Economista newspaper reported, citing unidentified industry sources.

    Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano said the towerco was making “good progress” on its “next chapter”. “Having obtained our investment grade rating by S&P much earlier than originally planned, we confirm an unconditional commitment to maintain this credit rating level both by S&P and Fitch,” he said.

    “From the leveraging perspective we’re making remarkable progress thanks to the disposal of the sites in France, our agreement in the Nordics and our recently announced exit from Ireland. This closest process is on track, we presented all the documents, the relevant documents to the antitrust and leverage will be reduced by €971 million when completed and paid,” he added.

    He also confirmed progress on forming “LandCo”, a new Spanish company dedicated to holding all of Cellnex’s land assets as part of an effort to maximise value. “We are trying to start to evaluate if it could be appropriate to transfer existing portfolios into the newly created LandCo or not. This depends very much on the tax efficiency of this process,” he said.

    Spanish consolidation will happen

    Speaking on the company’s analyst call, Patuano said it was not a question of “if” the Spanish tower market will consolidate but “when and how.”

    “Obviously, American Tower invested a very significant amount in Spain in their acquisition of the tower from Telefonica. So my base case is that American Tower will be a long-term player. And we are here since ever and so this is our home market, and we know it fairly well,” he said.

    “I think that the Spanish Tower market is four tower operators, and in a while, there will be more tower operators than operators, which means that this is something that possibly is going to happen. Then I ask myself if this will be a game of combination or a game of someone exiting from the market. I don’t exclude that it could be a combination game,” he added.

    MásOrange network redesign

    Patuano said that the MásOrange merger has raised two questions from a network standpoint – with the entire Spanish market becoming way more interesting.

    “…Please don’t take as being offensive with anyone, [but] the network quality of Másmovil was not at the standard of the network quality of Orange. But on the other side, the network quality of Orange is not capable to receive the entire customer base of Másmovil,” he said.

    “What is clear is that MásOrange should make a fairly, I don’t want to say complicated, but fairly big project of the network redesign,” he said. “We are talking with the MásOrange CTO in order to understand how we can support them in making efficiency in the periphery of the network, where the network can be optimised.”

    He added: “Possibly, there are sites and antenna both from Másmovil and Orange, and it’s not necessary to have both, but to densify the network where the density of the clients is higher.”

    “In this, there is the big question mark,” he said. “You know that Orange had a RAN sharing with Vodafone in the so-called jumping network. The territory of Spain was divided in two areas. Let’s make a proxy. The coastline was covered by Orange with the exception of Catalonia, and Catalonia and the inner land was covered by Vodafone with their network.”

    He added: “So, also, Vodafone passed through a change of control or better, it’s passing through a change of control, and so the future evolution of this joint venture is in a delicate moment because of all the changes at the proprietary level.”

    Patuano said it was unclear with Digi is going to do, adding that Cellnex is discussing options with the telco. “What is almost sure is that there are two points that are almost sure,” he said. “One is that they are not going to make a nationwide network, so the vast majority of their coverage will be through a RAN sharing, and the second is that in order to keep the frequencies, they have to use the frequencies, otherwise they lose the frequencies. So, this means that they have to do – they will do some RAN sharing and some new emplacement.”

    Polish evolution

    Patuano told analysts the towerco continues to look closely at its Polish operations. “It’s not a mystery that we are looking towards the evolution of Poland. The evolution of Poland is we have a potential opportunity to consolidate the active market in Poland,” he said. “If this would be the case, it would be appropriate for us to welcome a co-investor who can work with us. This can turn into some capital repatriation, so there is – there are many projects.”

    He pointed out Poland could readily be densified in terms of passive infrastructure. “There is a quite significant lack of coverage when you go out of the major cities and there is the RAN component, both in terms of existing relation with [Polsat Plus] and the possibility of having a partnership also with Play,” he said. “So, this is a big project. It is something that we’re looking at. Is there interest? Yes, there is interest. So, we are working with some counterpart who could be focused on this.”

    Business lines in detail

    EBITDAaL stood at €535 million (+9%) showing a disciplined approach to Opex and lease management. Free cash flow was €103 million vs -€139 million from the same period of the previous year, due also to proceeds from the second tranche (€152 million) of the sale of sites in France, in accordance with the remedies established by the French Competition Authority (FCA) following the purchase of Hivory in 2021.

    For better transparency, Cellnex began reporting revenues from its four business lines. Towers accounted for 82% of revenues, with €776 million (c.+5%). DAS, Small Cells and RAN as a service contributed 6% of revenues, with €59million (c.+21%). Fibre, connectivity and housing contributed 5% of revenues with €47 million (c.+24%) while broadcasting contributed 7% of revenues with €64 million (c.+2%).

    As of 31 March, Cellnex had a total of 112,247 operational telecom sites: 23,861 in France, 22,559 in Italy, 16,227 in Poland, 13,341 in the United Kingdom, 8,770 in Spain –the Group’s five main markets–, and a total of 27,489 sites in the rest of the countries in which it operates (6,571 in Portugal, 5,498 in Switzerland, 4,639 in Austria, 3,979 in the Netherlands, 3,158 in Sweden, 1,652 in Denmark and 1,992 in Ireland); in addition to 1,892 Broadcasting & Others sites and 10,252 DAS and Small Cells nodes.

    Organic growth of points of presence at sites was +10.7% compared to the same period of 2023, 7.5% from new colocations in existing sites, with a total of 3,390 – with Italy and Portugal standing out in this field – and 3.2% from the rollout of 1,454 new PoPs during the period due to the progress made in the BTS (Built to Suit) programmes in France, Italy and Poland.

     

    Kenyan city builder launches Fahari Link to deliver high-speed internet 

    Simon Dux
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    Kenyan city builder launches Fahari Link to deliver high-speed internet 

    New town Tatu City builder Rendeavour pledges to connect its neighbours, as Kenya announces fibre rollout acceleration

    Rendeavour, the builder, owner and developer of Tatu City – a 5,000-acre new city on Nairobi’s doorstep – has created a new service provider, Fahari Link, to deliver high-speed internet connectivity to thousands of currently underserved residents in nearby towns and informal settlements.

    Fahari Link has invested heavily in acquiring wholesale bandwidth from global internet service providers to extend its reach to areas beyond Tatu City, including the informal communities of BTL, OJ and Rutoro. Rapidly growing Ruiru, the sixth fastest growing town in Africa, will be served, as well as the communities of Oaklands, Murera, Kamakis and other parts of Kiambu County. In total, Fahari’s services will be available to close to one million people.

    Fahari Link will provide low connection fees, daily internet plans, reliable internet connectivity and technical support to citizens of Kiambu County, including those earning subsistence wages. In addition to connecting homes, Fahari Link will deploy wi-fi internet connections in public spaces such as shopping centres and sports fields, ensuring that digital access is available to all, including mobile users.

    “With Fahari Link, we are not just connecting people; we are connecting aspirations, opportunities, and futures,” said Rendeavour deputy country head Alex Kahu. “By expanding affordable internet and broadband services to our neighbouring community, Tatu City is ensuring that no one is left behind in Africa’s digital future.”

    According to Rendeavour, more than 3,000 homes and apartments are occupied or under construction in the city and 4,500 students study at Tatu City’s schools. The city is also home to around 75 local businesses. German-based cleaning equipment manufacturer Karcher has announced an approximate €3 million investment in building a regional distribution centre at Freight Forwarders Solutions (FFS) in Tatu City, located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on Nairobi’s doorstep.

    The city already has its own telecom provider, Tatu Telecom, which has laid more than 40km of fibre optic cables and currently serves over 1,000 residential and commercial customers, including schools and local, regional, and multinational companies within Tatu City. Tatu Telecom has also built an open-access network, allowing multiple internet service providers to serve Tatu City residents and businesses.

    Rendeavour currently has 30,000 acres of urban-build projects in across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Kenya accelerates its fibre rollout

    The arrival of Fahari coincides with cabinet secretary for information, communications, and the digital economy Eliud Owalo announcing the nation has changed its rollout model and now believes it can deploy 100,000 kilometres of optical fibre to underserved areas in two years rather than the original five planned.

    To achieve this the country was switching away from burying cables to using existing infrastructure from the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). Needless to say, this isn’t a new approach in Kenya. For example, in 2017 Liquid Telecom Kenya announced a 10-year partnership with Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) to operate KETRACO’s Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) fibre cables and expand the internet network across East Africa.

    But Owalo, speaking at the Digital Transformation in East Africa conference, signalled the government was backing the plan to accelerate its rollout. “If we go that route, which is now work in progress, it is our estimation that as opposed to the five years within which we are envisaged to roll out 100 000km, we will now be able to roll out the 100,000km of fibre within the next two years,” he said.

    He added that since the resumption of the fibre rollout last year, Nia Fibre, which was contracted by the government, had laid 10,000 kilometres. As the fibre build continues, the government said it would also roll out 25,000 wi-fi hotspots across the country.

    Safaricom’s fibre training commitment

    Elsewhere, Safaricom, in partnership with Kenya’s ICT Authority has launched the Connect Academy, a training programme designed to address the shortage of skilled fibre optic technicians in Kenya. As part of the Presidential DigiTalent Programme, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the academy will focus on skill development, mentorship, training, certification, and fostering innovation in the ICT sector.

    The initial cohort of 200 participants will begin training in May. They will receive full-day sessions every Friday for three months led by Safaricom engineers. “Our target is to grow a world-class broadband connectivity talent pool for public and private sectors in partnership with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. This will create employment and a career path for Kenyan youth who lack higher education,” said Safaricom chief consumer business officer Fawzia Ali-Kimanthi.\

    Pictured (left to right) Frank Mosier, chairman, Rendeavour; Alex Kahu, country head, Kenya, Rendeavour; John Njogu, Gitothua Ward MCA; and Linda Nyaseda, head of city management, Tatu City.

    AI-based automation: Wait or act now? | White paper by CORTEX

    admin
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    AI-based automation: Wait or act now? | White paper by CORTEX

    Orange boosted by on-going, double-digit growth in Middle East and Africa

    Annie Turner
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    0
    Orange boosted by on-going, double-digit growth in Middle East and Africa

    Elsewhere progress is less dramatic but appears to be going to plan, if not fast enough for the stock market

    Orange Group CEO Christel Heydemann was pleased with the first quarter’s earnings, reported yesterday. She highlighted the completion the 50:50 merger of Orange España and MásMóvil to form Spain’s biggest operator by subscriber numbers and the strong growth in its Middle East and African opcos (MEA).

    Orange’s revenues in the MEA region had double-digit growth in revenues for the fourth consecutive reporting period, up by 11.1% year on year to to €1.85 billion. More specifically,

    mobile data revenues rose in the region by close to 16%, fixed broadband by 20.6%, mobile money by 23.5% and B2B by more than 14%.

    Orange achieved less dramatic results at home in France where revenues rose by 0.8% to €4.3 billion, but was still the star turn in Europe, apart from Spain, as the total revenues from the other European market fell by 2% to €1.7 billion.

    The company said this was due to a deliberate reduction in low-margin sales and the fall was somewhat offset by ongoing growth in retail.

    Means business

    Orange Business reported a 0.3% decrease in revenues to €1.9 billion, in large part due to a fall in income from legacy fixed voice services, However, the good news is the accelerated growth in IT and integration services revenues, which rose 7.5% to €937 million.

    Orange Cyberdefense is making a hefty contribution to Orange Business, as laid out in the Lead the Future strategic plan, with accelerating growth. “Orange Business continues to execute its transformation plan with several important milestones achieved this quarter, notably the implementation of the cost-reduction plan,” stated Heydemann.

    Overall, Orange’s group revenues were up 2.1% year on year to €9.9 billion, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and adjusted loss (EBITDAaL) up 2.3% to €2.4 billion.

    Investors were not as encouraged by the results as Heydemann: the group’s share price fell nearly 4% (to €10.60) on the Paris stock exchange (pictured) giving Orange a market cap of €28.2 billion.

    Zain pilots ‘world-first’ signal overlay to secure Saudi networks

    Annie Turner
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    Zain pilots ‘world-first’ signal overlay to secure Saudi networks

    With Enea, the operator could help extend the capabilities and architecture of signalling firewalls to improve protection for virtual, cloudified and physical infra

    Zain KSA, which provides mobile and digital services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is to trial what Enea says is world’s first signalling overlay on a mobile network. The technology is designed to extend the signalling firewall’s capabilities and the trial is expected to start this year on Zain KSA’s network.

    Enea says the pilot programme could be expanded to other markets and customers.

    The patent-pending tech was conceived in Enea’s Technology Research unit last year. It takes advantage of the signalling firewall’s techniques for detection and protocol correlation, using “transport layer-aware distributed ingestion” across virtual, cloudified and traditional network infrastructure.

    Deep insights, greater protection

    This gives the operator deeper insights into network events and helps defend against “emerging threats”. Anders Lidbeck, CEO of Enea, elaborates, “The emergence of cloud and virtualized infrastructures, along with the proliferation of private networks and APIs, has introduced new complexities and vulnerabilities in mobile networks, significantly increasing the risk of sophisticated cyberattacks.

    The Kingdom aims to be at the forefront of 5G development as part of Saudi Vision 2030’s goal to become an ICT leader and transform into a sustainable digital economy.

    Threats on and to telecom networks are escalating globally, hence network security is a high priority for Zain KSA, which has consistently invested in security for signalling and messaging to safeguard its digital ecosystem.

    Acceleration

    The intention is that this pilot will accelerate innovation and the deployment of next-generation signalling security for complex and more sophisticated attacks on networks.

    Eng. Abdulrahman Al Mufadda, COO of Zain KSA, commented, “By being the first to test this promising technology, we are cementing our position at the forefront of telecom innovation, furthering our commitment to providing secure and cutting-edge solutions to our individual and business customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

    Lidbeck added, “This partnership builds on our long-standing relationship with Zain KSA, and emphasizes our shared commitment to enhancing network security and embracing innovation.”

    Microsoft’s new Phi-3 AI model can run on an iPhone  

    Simon Dux
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    Microsoft’s new Phi-3 AI model can run on an iPhone  

    As Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Tim Höttges recently quipped, “Who the hell needs apps?”

    Microsoft has introduced Phi-3, a family of open AI models it claims are the most capable and cost-effective small language models (SLMs) available, outperforming models of the same size and next size up across a variety of language, reasoning, coding, and maths benchmarks.  

    The mini version, for example, is a 3.8 billion parameter language model trained on 3.3 trillion tokens, whose overall performance, as measured by both academic benchmarks and internal testing, rivals that of models such as Mixtral 8x7B and GPT-3.5, according to a research paper published by Microsoft.  

    More importantly, the “highly capable language model” was running locally on a mobile phone. “Thanks to its small size, phi3-mini can be quantised to 4-bits so that it only occupies around 1.8 GB of memory,” stated the paper. The researchers tested the quantised model by deploying phi-3-mini on iPhone 14 with A16 Bionic chip running natively on-device and fully offline achieving more than 12 tokens per second. 

    At MWC, Höttges predicted that in five or ten years from now: “nobody will use apps anymore. We will use the interface of speech, or an easy way of asking the system, and be automatically connected to the functionalities of the apps.”  

    DT demonstrated the concept on its own-branded T Phone at the show. An AI-based assistant replaces all the apps on smartphones so that people can access what they need through a “generative interface” via voice or text. DT is working with Brain.ai and Qualcomm to develop the technology in Europe and the US. 

    Earlier this month, a Worldpanel ComTech study showed that 25% of Samsung Galaxy S24 buyers say AI is key reason to buy and that Samsung and Google, which are successfully marketing “halo” artificial intelligence (AI) features in their devices, can influence consumer behaviour. AI may not be generally understood by the mass market, but it knows a great acronym when it sees one.  

    Available on Azure AI 

    In a blog post, Microsoft GenAI corporate VP Misha Bilenko said Phi-3 models significantly outperform language models of the same and larger sizes on key benchmarks. Phi-3-mini does better than models twice its size, and Phi-3-small and Phi-3-medium outperform much larger models, including GPT-3.5T.   

    He added that small language models, like Phi-3, are especially great for: resource constrained environments including on-device and offline inference scenarios; latency bound scenarios where fast response times are critical; and cost constrained use cases, particularly those with simpler tasks. 

    “Thanks to their smaller size, Phi-3 models can be used in compute-limited inference environments. Phi-3-mini, in particular, can be used on-device, especially when further optimized with ONNX Runtime for cross-platform availability,” he said. “The smaller size of Phi-3 models also makes fine-tuning or customisation easier and more affordable. In addition, their lower computational needs make them a lower cost option with much better latency.” 

    He added: “The longer context window enables taking in and reasoning over large text content—documents, web pages, code, and more. Phi-3-mini demonstrates strong reasoning and logic capabilities, making it a good candidate for analytical tasks.” 

    Still showing familiar AI weaknesses 

    In terms of LLM capabilities, while phi-3-mini model achieves similar level of language understanding and reasoning ability as much larger models, it is still fundamentally limited by its size for certain tasks. 

    The researchers found the model simply does not have the capacity to store too much “factual knowledge”, which can be seen for example, with low performance on a TriviaQA task. “However, we believe such weakness can be resolved by augmentation with a search engine,” they wrote.  

     Another weakness related to model’s capacity is that the researchers mostly restricted the language to English. “Exploring multilingual capabilities for Small Language Models is an important next step, with some initial promising results on phi-3-small by including more multilingual data,” they stated.  

    “Despite our diligent RAI efforts, as with most LLMs, there remains challenges around factual inaccuracies (or hallucinations), reproduction or amplification of biases, inappropriate content generation, and safety issues,” said the research paper. “The use of carefully curated training data, and targeted post-training, and improvements from red-teaming insights significantly mitigates these issues across all dimensions. However, there is significant work ahead to fully address these challenges.” 

    Car makers meet tech firms to thrash out mobile Digital Keys 

    Simon Dux
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    Car makers meet tech firms to thrash out mobile Digital Keys 

    The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) is working on standards to let mobile phones securely open cars, but customer perception will be the key

    The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), a veritable who’s who of auto manufacturers and big tech, gathered in Ulm, Germany this past week to test the latest version of the CCC Digital Key specification – an interoperability certification standard launched last December. The certification mark signals to consumers, partners, and stakeholders that the product meets industry and program standards for the best device-to-vehicle connectivity experience. 

    The German get-together was the eighth Plugfest for this organisation and its members, and this time included participants from BYD, CARIAD, COMPRION, Continental, Google, Huf Hülsbeck & Fürst, Marquardt and Qualcomm and served to further refine the CCC Digital Key applications, enhancing implementations, specifications, test suites and tools. 

    Specifically with release 3 version 1.1.3, this Plugfest focused on incorporating ultra-wideband (UWB) and Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) into the next CCC Digital Key Certification, building on the capabilities already included in the current programme. 

    The CCC members point out the CCC Digital Key Certification for NFC implementation is already live and the first products to reach certification are expected very soon.  

    “We believe vehicle-to-device access will soon be a standard, expected feature for consumers, and to do this, we must be able to deliver a seamless user experience and ensure security,” said Mercedes-Benz development expert Dirk Hassert. “The work done to incorporate UWB and BLE, here in Ulm and ongoing as a larger membership, makes certain we can optimise value for consumers and provide fully interoperable, secure implementations. We’re excited for the progress we made this past week and look forward to our continued advancements.” 

    “The automotive industry has worked for decades to make the driving experience more convenient through digital technologies. But unlocking the full potential of digital key, and accessibility technologies across the board, depends on a universally interoperable and secure standard,” said CCC president Alysia Johnson. “As an organisation committed to driving global progress, we remain steadfast in our dedication to creating that standard and are thrilled to have spent time collaborating in Germany, a hub for innovation and excellence.” 

     When the certification launched BMW’s Daniel Kuelzer pointed out exactly why car manufacturers are so keen to make it happen. “Displaying the CCC Digital Key mark will be a game changer for automakers because it tells customers they can access their cars securely and seamlessly with their smart device by simply identifying the mark,” he said. 

    As a result, the CCC board of directors is stacked with their reps and those of big tech including: Apple, BMW, CARIAD, DENSO, Ford, General Motors, Google, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, NXP, Panasonic, Samsung, Thales and Xiaomi.  

    The next CCC Plugfest will be held on 17-21 June in Hefei, China, hosted by Volkswagen Group (China) Technology Company.  

    The other standards body 

    Of course, when it comes to standards bodies tech loves competing groups and sure enough another consortium which also certifies, the FiRa Consortium literally has overlapping members among the likes of Apple, Google, Cisco, Samsung and Qualcomm. FiRa backs ultra wideband and fortunately, the membership overlap led the two organisations to announce the formation of the Joint Ultra-Wideband (UWB) MAC PHY Working Group (JUMPWG) to jointly develop and maintain the UWB technology specifications last November.  

    The organisations knew that as the underlying IEEE 802.15.4 standards evolve, this new working group would “ensure long-term interoperability and scalability of the advanced UWB technology developed for the CCC Digital Key,” encouraging broader adoption of UWB technology for secure and accurate ranging for vehicle access – leading up to the German plugfest.  

    A1, Nokia delivers 800Gbps across 1276km link on a single wavelength

    Annie Turner
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    A1, Nokia delivers 800Gbps across 1276km link on a single wavelength

    The transmission was between Frankfurt and Budapest using Nokia’s FP5 network processor and Photonic Service Engine optics (PSE-6s)

    A1 Austria and Nokia delivered an 800Gbps service in a live network across a single wavelength and a distance of 1276km, from Frankfurt to Budapest.

    A1 Austria is part of A1 Group, the European subsidiary of América Móvil which is one of the largest mobile operators in the world. The AI Group has headquarters in Vienna and operates in seven countries in central and eastern Europe. It has a total of about 29 million customers.

    A1 operates a Europe-wide IP and optical network using Nokia’s service router portfolio. The operator offers services direct to businesses and as well as wholesale to enterprises, hyperscalers and other service providers’ end customers.

    The field trial

    The field trial used Nokia’s FP5 network processor silicon and its sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine optics (PSE-6s). According to the press statement, this marks A1’s first demonstration of an 800Gbps per wavelength in its long-haul network and will help the company meet the increasing demand for capacity.

    Nokia’s PSE-6s optics were deployed in the shipping DMAT6 transponder with 2.4Tbps capacity, enabling transport of multiple 800GE services while reducing network power per bit.

    The vendor claims that the FP5 network processor silicon too will increase IP peering performance and scales to 800GE ports, reducing power per bit with more efficient IP connectivity and fewer network links. The chipsets allow networks to run at up to 50 Tbps and reduce A1’s operational and hardware costs.

    Remarkable achievement

    Alexander Stock, CTO at A1 Austria (pictured), said,“We are committed to investing in our digital infrastructure and driving digitalization across Europe, and the success of this trial is a testament to the hard work delivered by our teams and by our trusted partner – Nokia.

    “It’s a remarkable achievement that will not only allow us to lower costs per bit but will also provide the much-needed high-speed connectivity to our wholesale customers in 2024 and beyond.”

    TIM’s embattled Labriola given another three years as CEO

    Annie Turner
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    TIM’s embattled Labriola given another three years as CEO

    Attempts to unseat him and block the splitting out of the infrastructure into a NetCo failed, but opposition wins three board room places so the opera continues

    At TIM’s general meeting yesterday, Pietro Labriola was confirmed a group CEO for another three years. The outgoing board secured more than 48% of the vote, which translates into six out of nine boardroom seats.

    However, Merlyn Partners and Bluebell Capital Partners won two seats and one boardroom seat respectively. They oppose Labriola’s plan to split the telco into a ServCo and NetCo with the private fund KKR gaining control of the latter for €22 billion.

    One of the two board members for Merlyn is Stefano Siragusa who helped the finance house draw up an alternative strategy to splitting the operator last year.

    If things go to Labriola’a plan, the transaction will be completed in the summer, leaving the Italian Finance Ministry with a 20% stake. It is still to gain all the regulatory approvals but has the support of the Meloni Government.

    The French connection

    The French conglomerate Vivendi is TIM’s biggest shareholder with about 24% and also opposes the deal. Somewhat surprisingly, it abstained from the vote on boardroom appointments having issued a statement before the meeting saying, in effect, it is incumbent of on the new board to sort the mess out.

    Vivendi does not have any representatives on the board.

    Led by financier Vincent Bollorè, Vivendi has invested and lost €4 billion in TIM and the Italian company Mfe (formerly known as Mediaset) since 2015. Vivendi has argued that the KKR deal undervalues the infrastructure and the price should be closer to €28 billion.

    However, Vivendi has stopped short of derailing the creation of the NetCo through the courts as it is widely seen as the only option to reduce TIM’s huge debts. As of the end of 2023, Vivendi’s stake was valued at €1.3 billion.

    Not all going to plan

    The embattled CEO is feeling the heat outside the boardroom too. Last month’s earnings report showed that TIM’s level of debt is not falling as fast as predicted.

    The Financial Times [subscription needed] reported that in March, short sellers had netted €1 billion. Short sellers borrow shares to sell them, betting on the price falling so they can buy them back at a lower price and pocket the difference.

    From the top

    Labriola said in a statement after the general meeting, “Today’s Shareholder Meeting marks an important step forward in the plan we’re pursuing to put TIM back on a path of growth and development building on 22 months of improving performance and delivery of our financial objectives. 

    “This is a new phase in a journey whose objective is to seize all the opportunities that will arise as the market evolves. Indeed, we’re convinced of the need to provide the Company with a more robust financial structure, strategic options and a leaner organisation clearly focused on our business areas.

    “Over the next three years we will work to ensure sustainable growth for the Group in the interests of all our stakeholders and with the aim of capitalising on our strengths. We will pay close attention to costs and above all to achieving a return to value generation in the Italian market.”

    Orange and LatenceTech develop connectivity quality probe 

    Simon Dux
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    Orange and LatenceTech develop connectivity quality probe 

    Telcos says AI-based tool should help to optimise network reliability for new 5G or fibre uses

    Orange has worked with Canadian startup LatenceTech to develop a software probe to measure connectivity quality in any location and from any type of terminal. Given the shift to automated operations that require real time data on network performance, developing scalable diagnostic assistance tools that are cloud-based and can be used by all manner of heterogenous equipment gives telcos an advantage given their vast estates of kit. 

    The Montreal-based LatenceTech worked with Orange to develop a tool that can measure network throughput, latency and reliability in real time. “This real-time software solution based on multiple protocols, including Two Wire Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP), is simple to install and use,” said LatenceTech co-founder and CEO – and former Ericsson senior executive – Benoit Gendron.  

    “It is an automated container-based solution that runs autonomously on any type of terminal, including mobiles, modems, robots and cars. It is also scalable and can be deployed in multiple locations on the same network,” he added. 

    LatenceTech’s approach extends traditional methods to a strategy that balances data analysis and performance optimisation. The objective is to redefine performance metrics by emphasising the quality of network experience rather than relying solely on conventional, quantitative data metrics. 

    LatenceTech’s strategy for enhancing network performance involves deploying software systems that embed monitoring agents in client networks to improve Quality of Service (QoS). Gendron said: “These agents are engineered to evaluate and regulate network performance, with a specific emphasis on latency metrics at the server or network entry point.” This approach, he says, aligns network performance with the customer’s perspective, effectively tackling technical challenges while prioritising user experience in assessing network quality. 

    End-to-end network throughput estimation challenge 

    Orange challenged LatenceTech to incorporate its patented (Low Intrusive Fast Bandwidth Estimation) LIFBE process, a novel method for efficient end-to-end network throughput estimation – a more energy-efficient method for network bandwidth testing. 

     By leveraging LIFBE’s unique approach, which utilizes UDP probe packets and an innovative curve-fitting method for accurate throughput calculation, the goal was to dramatically reduce the data volume required for these tests from 100 to 150 megabytes to a mere 5 to 10 megabytes. 

    An essential aspect of this phase involved LatenceTech’s decision to employ the Ada programming language to refine and enhance the accuracy and efficiency of Orange’s existing C bandwidth test code. The company said prototype delivery within three months showed the practicality of the LIFBE process and Ada’s effectiveness in complex network stacks. 

    “This partnership allows us to explore areas that we could not have addressed with our own resources,” said François Jézéquel, head of business development at the Orange Fab startup accelerator. “It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement: LatenceTech retains the intellectual property of the components and we have exclusive use of them for our networks.” 

    “Telco as a Platform” deployment 

    LatenceTech deploys its solution using an “on-demand service” cloud platform, enabling it to meet the growing needs of service providers, which are increasingly seeking to easily and autonomously monitor their networks over a given period. This “telco as a platform” approach enables almost instantaneous implementation by the customer themselves, according to the startup. 

    As well as providing diagnostic assistance, the solution can use generative AI to detect anomalies (worse latency, reduced throughput, packet losses, etc.) and generate forthcoming latency forecasts and recommendations, based on the diagnosis from the measurements. “We want our customers to play a part in managing their own networks,” said Jézéquel. “And, with their ever-increasing 5G uses, they appreciate this autonomy.” 

     Wide range of applications 

    The product is in the final phase of development. It will be available at the end of May 2024 and unveiled at the VivaTech conference in Paris with demonstrations of measurement tests and network performance analyses on a connected vehicle, as well as a software installation walkthrough. 

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