Capacity Magazine August / September 2019

VOL 19 ISSUE 5 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019

Big interview Iridium CEO Matt Desch tells Capacity how the company bounced back from near collapse Feature 20 Women to Watch: a salute to some of the female movers and shakers in our industry

Business intelligence for the global carrier industry

Capacity

capacitymedia.com

Capacity

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CONTENTS Capacity magazine, August/September 2019

VOL 19 ISSUE 5 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019

Big interview Iridium CEO Matt Desch tells Capacity how the company bounced back from near collapse Feature 20 Women to Watch: a salute to 20 of the female movers and shakers in our industry

NEWS & ANALYSIS 06 AFRICA

Business intelligence for the global carrier industry

Cover image: Adrian Teal, CartoonStock

12 EUROPE 15 MIDDLE EAST 16 EURASIA 18 ASIA AND ASIA-PACIFIC 19 NORTH AMERICA 20 LATIN AMERICA

STRATEGIES capacitymedia.com

ON THE COVER Capacity examines the opportunities awaiting the carrier community in the world of online gaming (page 22 - 23)

26 THE BIG INTERVIEW Bill Barney, CEO, Global Cloud Xchange 28 THE BIG INTERVIEW Nic Rudnick, CEO, Liquid Telecom

Marisa Trisolino, CEO of CMC Networks, tells Capacity how CMC is tranforming the Middle East and Africa region

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN

FEATURES

after page 34

TELECOMS SPECIAL REPORT

22 LET THE E-GAMES COMMENCE 34 IT’S NOT JUST THE RIGHT THING TO DO, BUT IT LEADS TO BETTER BUSINESS 38 INCLUSIVITY IS THE KEY TO SUPPORTING MORE WOMEN IN TECH

32

Big interview: Carrie Charles, CEO, Broadstaff

34

It’s not just the right thing to do, but it leads to better business

36

Marisa Trisolino, CEO, CMC Networks

39 20 WOMEN TO WATCH 52 EARTH-BASED CONSTELLATIONS FOR THE NEW SPACE RACE 55 THREE, TWO, ONE, ZERO! SATELLITES ARE BACK

PEOPLE & DIARY 32 THE BIG INTERVIEW Capacity ǡ ǡ ơ 58 MARKET TRENDS: Satellites 36 THE BIG INTERVIEW Marisa Trisolino, CEO, CMC 60 APPOINTMENTS Networks The industry’s latest movers 49 EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW 61 A DAY IN THE LIFE Jean-Philippe Gillet, general Monique Lanne-Petit, director, manager of broadband, Intelsat Télécoms Sans Frontières 50 THE BIG INTERVIEW Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium

THE BIG INTERVIEW pages 36-37

54 EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW Ben Longmier, CTO, Swarm

62 THE INNOVATION REPORT Private 4G and 5G

38

Inclusivity is the key to supporting more women in tech

39

20 Women to Watch

SATCOMS SPECIAL REPORT after page 50

49

Executive interview: Jean-Philippe Gillet, general manager of broadband, Intelsat

50 52

Big interview: Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium Earth-based constellations for the new space race

54

Executive interview: Ben Longmier, CTO, Swarm

A1 Wholesale is bridging Europe with America. a1.group/wholesale

Capacity

editor’s letter | 05

A catalyst for change! t’s that time of year again - yes the September rush! For Capacity that means a staggering seven events this month, including the inaugural Global Women in Telco & Tech Awards and Summit taking place 25 September. And though it needs no reminder, don’t forget to mark your calandars for the Global Carrier Awards on 30 October, celebrating its 15th year.

I hope to see as many of you there as possible!

In homage to women in telecoms, this issue features our Empowering Women in Telecoms special report, which includes the hotly anticipated 20 Women to Watch listing (pages 39-43).

This year the team and I have gone to extra lengths to include some newer faces to sit alongside a few of our industry veterans. In addition, we spoke to cover star Carrie Charles about how the industry needs to address its recruitment processes to meet the growing need for diversity (pages 32-33) and one of our writers takes on the biggest telcos in the industry examining how they are doing their part to change the narrative in 2019.

We also have the Satcoms special report, which features cover co-star Matt Desch of Iridium who tells us about the company’s new fleet of satellites that are now in service (pages 50-51).

Additionally, we take a look at the world of satellite start-ups on pages 52-53 and our very own Alan Burkitt-Gray gives us a crash course in satellite 101 for those seeking an overview of the industry over the past sixty years (pages 55-57).

In the front of book Nic Rudnick tells us about the new fibre capabilities Liquid Telecom is delivering in Africa (pages 28-29) and GCX’s Bill Barney gives us an update on the company’s search for a new owner (pages 26-27). Also, as the world recovers from the inaugural Fortnite World Cup, Capacity examines the impact of e-gaming and the possibilities that exist for the wholesale telecoms market (pages 22-23). We also hope you enjoyed the not so subtle nod to the infamous game Capacity on our front cover.

I

Jason McGee-Abe Editor-in-Chief, Capacity Media

Follow Capacity on Twitter: @capacitymedia Follow Capacity on Facebook: www.facebook.com/capacitymedia Follow Capacity on YouTube: www.youtube.com/capacitytv Follow Capacity on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/capacitymedia

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Editorial Editor-in-chief Jason McGee-Abe jason.mcgee-abe@capacitymedia. com Twitter: @JasonMcGeeAbe

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Editor-at-large Alan Burkitt-Gray alan.burkitt@capacitymedia.com Skype: alanbg Twitter: @alanburkittgray Reporter Natalie Bannerman natalie.bannerman@capacitymedia. com Twitter: @nitnat1989

Design Freelance designer Barbara Donner Graphic designer Samantha Heasmer samantha.heasmer@capacitymedia. com Freelance writers Gareth Willmer Guy Matthews Sue Tabbitt

Subscription enquiries Customer services customerservices@euromoneyplc. com tel +44 20 7779 8610 fax +44 20 7779 8602 Printer Stephens and George, UK Next issue October/November 2019 Published on 18 October 2019 Directors Leslie Van De Walle (Chairman), Andrew Rashbass (CEO), Tristan Hillgarth, Imogen Joss, Jan Babiak, Lorna Tilbian, Colin Day, Wendy Pallot, Tristan Hillgarth and Tim Pennington

How to contact Capacity Capacity magazine is published by Telcap, a division of Euromoney Global Limited TelCap, 8 Bouverie Street London EC4Y 8AX, UK tel +44 20 7779 7227 (switchboard) www.capacitymedia.com Capacity (ISSN 1471-762X) is published six times a year by TelCap. © TelCap, 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may by reproduced, stored or introduced into any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners Although TelCap has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this publication, neither it nor any contributor can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences that may arise from errors or omissions or any opinions or advice given.

06 | africa

ANGOLA CABLES TO LAUNCH ANGOLA’S FIRST LIVE GAMING PORTAL

A

ngola Cables has announced plans to use its subsea cable infrastructure to launch a new live gaming portal in Angola. The new service will be open to all e-sports and gaming communities in Africa, delivering a low latency experience to the end user.

“The gaming portal is a first step in connecting African gamers in the region with users in America, Europe, and Asia,” said Crisóstomo Mbundu, product manager at Angola Cables.

“SACS offers a compelling service

proposition for the global gamers and the e-sport community, gaming producers and providers of streamed events seeking interactive experiences with low latencies.”

The news marks Angola Cables’ first venture into e-sports, which has been made possible in partnership with Qwatti eSports, a gaming and e-sports specialist. The decision to launch this new offering is as a result of increasing demand from enthusiasts for a lag-free gaming experience.

Capacity Once live, the new gaming portal will

feature tournaments across multiple platforms including consoles, mobile games and computers. It will also feature an interactive tool to facilitate knowledge sharing within the gaming community, virtually connecting users from around the world.

“The combination of the Angola Cables’ high-performance network with Qwatti’s international expertise in the global e-sports market holds tremendous promise and potential,” added Guilherme Fraga, Qwatti’s product management and product development director.

The company will use the capacity of its SACS, Monet and WACS subsea cable systems, which link Europe, Africa and the Americas, reaching Asia through partners’ routes.

“Given the combined, robust IP network and the several agreements we have in place with major CDNs and points of presence within major telco hubs, users will benefit from a greater online experience and lower latency while gaming,” said Mbundu.

SPARKLE PICKS DJIBOUTI DATA CENTER AS ITS IP HUB IN AFRICA Sparkle has moved its Djibouti point of presence (PoP) into the Djibouti Data Center (DDC) and is using it as Sparkle’s IP hub for expansion to east and southern Africa.

The DDC is the first Tier 3 carrierneutral data centre in east Africa, with direct access to all major international and regional cable systems connecting the European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets with Africa.

These cables include SEA-ME-WE 5,

AAE-1, SEA-ME-WE 3, Eassy, SEACOM and EIG. In addition, other upcoming cables such as DARE and PEACE are also expected to land in the DDC. The move will strengthen the performance of Sparkle’s Tier-1 IP transit service, Seabone, delivering cost effective, high quality and secure connectivity to local and international OTTs, ISPs, content and application providers.

As well as Seabone, customers will benefit from Sparkle’s Ethernet Suite

service to connect different international data environments with enhanced flexibility and transparency.

The portfolio of Sparkle services offered via the Djibouti Data Center include, DDoS mitigation and cleaning solutions, which give Seabone customers the option to protect their network.

Virtual NAP solutions will allow customers to access the main internet exchange points without the need of building any proprietary infrastructure.

NEWS IN BRIEF Vodafone Ghana and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) are working with the GSMA to build rural connectivity.

India is lending Nigeria $100 million to install 1,000 solarpowered base stations to expand rural coverage. The project, that will start with the state of Oyo, is expected to last 12 months,

according to the Nigerian Ministry of Communication.

The Angolan government is to sell stakes in 10 of the country’s telecoms companies, including Angola Cables, as part of a wideranging privatisation move.

Data centre M&A deals in the first half of 2019 were up 18% from 2018, with 52 new deals closed in that period, continuing a strong trend of

growth over the last four years.

Cloud infrastructure services spend grew by 37.6% year-on-year in Q2 of 2019, totalling $26.3 billion, according to the latest research from Canalys’s Cloud Channels Analysis service.

Mobile money pioneer Michael Joseph has returned as interim CEO of Kenya’s Safaricom following the death of Bob Collymore in July.

august/september 2019

africa | 07

ELLALINK SUBSEA CABLE TO BUILD NEW BRANCH UNIT TO MAURITANIA The government of Mauritania has signed an agreement to strengthen connectivity to the country via the EllaLink submarine cable system.

“This agreement confirms our commitment to address the connectivity challenges that Mauritania faces,” said Dr Sidi Ould Salem, the country’s Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, Information and Communication Technologies.

“Internet connectivity is crucial to ensure the Mauritanians have effective and reliable communications services, and to progress the digital transformation of the region.”

A dedicated branching unit will be added to the EllaLink system, due to be operational in 2020, enabling Mauritania to enhance local and international broadband access, as well as offering diversity and resilience to the country’s telecoms infrastructure.

“We are delighted that the

Sidi Ould Salem (left) and Philippe Dumont sign the deal

government of Mauritania has chosen EllaLink to further develop its communications infrastructure,” said Philippe Dumont, CEO of the EllaLink group.

“As we continue to progress towards system installation this agreement further demonstrates the growing momentum of EllaLink.”

Capacity

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www.BringCom.com • info@BringCom.com

ICOLO.IO EXPANDS ITS DATA CENTRE PRESENCE TO NAIROBI Icolo.io has announced the construction of its second data centre in Kenya, with a completion date set for August 2019.

The new data centre, NBO1, marks the entrance of icolo.io to Nairobi following the construction of its first data centre in Mombasa. This new site will have IT power of 825kW and host more than 250 racks.

Ranjith Cherickel, founder and CEO of icolo.io, said: “With the announcement of the build of our second data centre in Kenya, we reaffirm our resolution of making Kenya a major convergence point in data communication in Africa. With this sizeable investment, NBO1 will be Nairobi’s first true carrier and vendor neutral data centre with scale.”

In addition, NBO1 will offer over 624 sq m of rack space with a 99.999% guaranteed power uptime. Built on a 4,400 sq m plot, the data centre has redundant power with back-up generators which are DCC certified, N+2 high precision cooling and pre-cabled interconnects.

Capacity

africa | 09

SEACOM TO DOUBLE SUBSEA CAPACITY AS IT STARTS TALKS WITH GOOGLE

Clatterbuck: Connected more metros to keep more customers on the network

SEACOM is planning to double its lit capacity on its subsea segment and is currently in talks to become involved in a number of African cable system projects being planned by Google and other cable operators. Byron Clatterbuck, CEO

EUTELSAT TO DELIVER WEST AFRICA POWER LINKS FOR GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES Global Technologies has agreed a multiyear contract for C-band capacity on the Eutelsat 10A satellite to provide connectivity and communications for the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) project.

Founded in 1999 by the Economic Community of West Africa States (Ecowas), the WAPP project aims to interconnect the power grids of 14 west African countries.

“After a successful partnership in Mauritania three years ago, we are delighted to be working alongside Global Technologies once again with assisting WAPP in achieving its ambitious shared energy project in the west African region over the coming months,” said Philippe Oliva, Eutelsat’s chief commercial officer.

Jean-Paul Steinitz, CEO of Global Technologies, said: “Global Technologies will contribute to offer a better and cheaper access to power for millions of people by delivering telecom infrastructure to connect the WAPP countries.”

capacitymedia.com

at SEACOM, told Capacity that “the rapid growth from various cloud service providers, as well as bandwidth-hungry corporates” was the reason for its latest development push.

SEACOM’s subsea cable system capacity will leap from 1.5Tbps to 3Tbps in the fourth quarter of 2019 after the panAfrican telecommunications service provider swaps the cable’s electronics to the latest technology, which will allow for faster data throughput.

“As part of building that internet superhighway, we have connected into more metros to keep more customers on the network,” said Clatterbuck. “In South Africa, we will extend the capabilities that we currently offer in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. That’s why we acquired MacroLan in Cape Town and then SAI in Durban.”

Google’s newest cable, Equiano, which is

landing in the island of St Helena on the way from Africa to Europe, is an attractive development for SEACOM as it is upgrading the capacity on the fibre assets of recently acquired FibreCo to deliver more services and international capacity into the South African market.

With a ready-for-service date of 2021, Equiano will run along the entire west coast of Africa, with landing points in Cape Town, South Africa; Lagos, Nigeria; and Lisbon, Portugal.

Clatterbuck said that SEACOM is going to deliver “affordable, terabit level high-speed internet connectivity and cloud services to traditionally-underserved mid-tier cities and towns” along the new FibreCo routes.

The upgrade will allow SEACOM to move large amounts of data between already established data centres in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

SYNIVERSE AND CHINA TELECOM IN MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA 4G CONNECTIVITY DRIVE Capacity Syniverse and China Telecom Global (CTG) have partnered to migrate mobile operators in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) to 4G and other advanced voice, data, and video services.

“The increasing sophistication of 4G roll-outs and the need to quickly complete these service upgrades present challenges that will only be able to be fully solved with the high-performance technology of IPX,” said Dean Douglas, CEO and president of Syniverse.

“Syniverse was the first to offer an IPX-based single-solution 4G testing environment to ensure that mobile operators could test all their services through one connection.”

“4G service – and soon, 5G – will quickly become the new mobile-service

standard in the developing mobile markets of the Middle East and Africa,” said Deng Xiaofeng, CEO of CTG. “Mobile users in this region will expect access to 4G speed and capacity anywhere they go.”

Douglas: High-performance technology of IPX for service upgrades

ETHIOPIA ‘TO USE MYANMAR MODEL’ TO LICENSE NEW MOBILE OPERATORS Ethiopia is to follow the example set by Myanmar five years ago to choose and license its two new mobile operators.

But a report from Reuters said that the new licensees would also be offered a stake in Ethio Telecom, still the state monopoly provider. The government of Ethiopia, which came to power in early 2018, has already announced its plan to liberalise the telecoms market – but details until now have been slight.

Now, the agency says state minister of

finance Eyob Tekalign Tolina plans a “two plus one” structure, with two new mobile operators and a stake in Ethio Telecom.

Details could follow as early as September.

Six years ago Myanmar, which had previously been served only with a monopoly government-owned telco, decided to offer two mobile licences.

Nearly two dozen international operators competed and Ooredoo and Telenor were chosen. They both started services in 2014.

10 | africa

GOOGLE’S EQUIANO CABLE TO LAND IN TINY ISLAND OF ST HELENA Google’s newest cable, Equiano, which will connect Africa to Europe, will now connect to the island of St Helena.

The plan was confirmed by Dax Richards, financial secretary to the St Helena government (SHG) via LinkedIn post. It will be the “first fibre-optic connectivity from St Helena to the outside world through both Europe and South Africa”.

With an RFS date of 2021, the Equiano cable will run along the entire west coast of Africa, with landing points in Cape Town, South Africa; Lagos, Nigeria; and Lisbon, Portugal The branch unit between the main trunk of the Equiano cable and the island will be approximately 1,140km long.

The SHG’s aim is to deliver broadband to St Helena by August 2021, so long as the cable laying and associated works to start on time. The marine survey for the Equiano cable route is underway.

“This is an historic moment, a truly transformational project for St Helena,” said councillor Lawson Henry, chair of the

Lawson Henry: streaming videos

economic development committee.

“When you consider the start of commercial air services just less than two years ago, it is incredible that in 2021 we will look back and think how far St Helena has come in just a handful of years. In a world with international fibre connectivity, imagine streaming videos in our classrooms, telemedicine services in our hospital, and entrepreneurs developing digital businesses from the comfort of their own home.”

He added: “Our next challenge once

the cable is landed is to ensure that it is affordable to everyone on St Helena.”

According to the SHG, connecting to Equiano meets SHG’s timing and budgetary requirements for the European Development Fund and supports the Digital ICT Strategy for St Helena. The executive council was also weighing up alternative options.

Once completed, the cable will provide the island with scalable connectivity, ranging from a few hundred Gbps up to multiple Tbps, as demand varies.

“We are pleased to work with Equiano on such an important project for St Helena,” added Richards.

“The cable has the potential to transform life on our Island and should create new opportunities to stimulate sustainable social and economic development. It is important that everyone is able to benefit from what improved connectivity and accessibility will bring. After all, that is one of the key conditions underlying the EU funding for this project.”

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MOBILE INDUSTRY GEARS UP FOR MILLIMETRE WAVE BATTLE IN EGYPT The mobile industry is attacking the space industry over the use of millimetre wave frequencies for 5G, ahead of a four-week spectrum conference in Egypt, starting in October.

The GSMA, which represents mobile operators and equipment vendors, says some people in the space industry are being protectionist because they have a prior claim to the spectrum.

“We can’t let misinformation and the overly protectionist attitudes of the space industry derail the 5G revolution,” said

Brett Tarnutzer, the GSMA’s head of spectrum. “Over-stringent protection will limit the spectrum needed for 5G and have huge consequences for society. This could put the economic and innovation bonanza accompanying ultra-fast networks on hold for a generation.”

The arguments are being lined up for the four-week long World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), to be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The GSMA is saying that if the mobile

industry had its hands on the millimetre spectrum it would help generate $565 billion worth of economic expansion from 5G. “This figure represents 2.9% of global GDP growth by 2034,” said the GSMA, which points to “a huge impact on developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and Latin America”.

Tarnutzer said: “WRC-19 is a critical moment for administrations to secure mmWave spectrum for future use and guarantee delivery of 5G-enabled services in their countries.”

ADTRAN PARTNERS AOI FOR ADVANCED FIBRE SOLUTIONS IN EGYPT Adtran has agreed with the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) to make fibre products in Egypt.

“The technical expertise of the AOI, as well as its experience of working with other technology leaders, make them an ideal partner for Adtran in the region,” said Ron Centis, SVP of global operations at Adtran.

“Network operators around the world are rapidly moving to gigabit and 10G as the demand from commercial, industrial and residential customers increases to support business and consumer applications and services.”

As part of the agreement, the team will first focus on Adtran’s fibre access portfolio,

which includes its XGS-PON, GPON and other SD-Access solutions.

“Adtran has consistently delivered superior technology to market that clearly shows unmatched domain experience and a commitment to helping network operators around the world achieve their fibre broadband goals,” said Lieutenant General Abdul Moneim Al-Tarras, chairman of the AOI. “This partnership will enable us to create new opportunities for Adtran, AOI and our customers as the demand for gigabit broadband accelerates in our region.”

The company has also announced the launch of its cloud-based performance test

solution that has been built to streamline data collection and reporting for network operators that use the Connect America Fund. Derek Foster, services portfolio manager, called it “a turnkey option that offloads the entire testing process”.

august/september 2019

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Capacity BU Mogadishu Mombasa KENYA

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DJIBOUTI AFRICA REGIONAL EXPRESS

The DARE1 (Djibouti Africa Regional Express1) is a new regional submarine cable system owned by a consortium of East African telecom operators and spearheaded by Djibouti Telecom. Landing across 4 cities the network will cover 5,000km and will have a capacity per wavelength of 100Gbps.

2020

2045

5,000

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Length (km)

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Design Capacity (Tbps)

Capacity per Wavelength (Gbps)

Landing Points

. .

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Mombasa (Kenya) Djibouti City (Djibouti) Mogadishu (Somalia) Bosaaso (Somalia) Berbera (Somaliland) as an option

. Discover how Dare1 can complete your needs. . Discover how Dare1 can enrich your business. . A Strategic Cable for the region.

12 | europe

SETBACK FOR NETWORK SHARING AS EUROPE OPPOSES CZECH DEAL

T

he European Commission has come out against a proposed network sharing agreement by O2 and T-Mobile in the Czech Republic, along with network infrastructure company Cetin.

The Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union (EU), said its preliminary view was “that their network sharing agreement restricts competition in breach of EU antitrust rules”.

T-Mobile in the Czech Republic is owned by Deutsche Telekom, but six years ago Telefónica sold its controlling stake in O2 in the country to privately held international financial and investment group PPF, which in 2015 split it into two, mobile service provider O2 and infrastructure and wholesale network company Česká telekomunikační infrastruktura (Cetin).

One neutral commentator called Cetin “the deepest and most progressive infrastructure share in the world. They share everything: passive, active, core network”.

Cetin’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks cover 99.6% of the Czech population and the company runs 42,660km of fibre and 20 million km of copper. It transmits voice and data to points of interconnection in mobile and fixed networks, provides call termination and international data line services.

However, EU Commissioner Margrethe

Vestager: Co-operative agreements may be harmful to consumers

Capacity Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Operators sharing networks generally benefits consumers in terms of faster roll out, cost savings and coverage in rural areas. However, when there are signs that co-operative agreements may be harmful to consumers, it is our role to investigate these and ensure that markets indeed remain competitive.”

She said she had concerns that the

network sharing agreement between the two major operators “reduces competition in the more densely populated areas of the country”.

T-Mobile in Prague immediately condemned the decision. “T-Mobile strongly opposes the preliminary conclusions of the statement of objections in view of the vast benefits that network sharing has brought to innovation and consumers in the Czech market such as cost synergies, improving network quality and speeding up deployment of next generation networks.”

O2 in Prague said: “We are one of the first in Europe to share networks, and we are confident that we have complied with applicable legal and regulatory rules.

Today, network sharing is commonplace in most European countries.”

The company added: “We are therefore ready to allay the concerns of the European Commission.”

Cetin also stood out against Vestager’s recommendation, saying it “does not agree that the sharing of mobile networks violates EU competition law”.

A study by Opensignal last year showed that the Czech Republic has the best network in the world for overall video experience.

PPF, the company that owns Cetin and O2 Czech Republic, bought Telenor’s operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia in 2018 for €2.8 billion.

VODAFONE TO CREATE ‘EUROPE’S LARGEST TOWERCO’ TO FIGHT DEBT Vodafone has revealed it will create what it calls Europe’s “largest tower portfolio”, comprising 61,700 towers in 10 national markets, settling some of its debt by creating potential earnings of around €900 million.

The British-based conglomerate’s European tower infrastructure will be separated into a new organisation, referred to as TowerCo, which will begin operating in May 2020 with a dedicated management team.

Vodafone said in might sell shares in TowerCo in an initial public offer (IPO) as one of “a variety of monetisation alternatives” that it will look at over the next 18 months.

“Building on our position as Europe’s largest converged operator, we are now creating Europe’s largest tower company,” said Vodafone’s group

CEO Nick Read. “Given the scale and quality of our infrastructure, we believe there is a substantial opportunity to unlock value for shareholders while capturing the significant industrial benefits of network sharing for the digital society.”

With 75% of TowerCo’s sites in the major markets of Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, Vodafone has forecast an annual revenue of €1.7 billion and EBITDA of €900 million.

This is based on market benchmarks for anchor tenant lease rates, existing third party revenues and the attributable cost base.

During the course of the valuation of its tower assets, Vodafone said it had already received “several offers” for various parts of its portfolio, highlighting that they would

“command an attractive valuation”.

It added that TowerCo had a “superior asset quality, strong market positions and higher anchor tenant credit rating”, and that it will use the proceeds of any capex and opex savings to reduce the group’s debt.

Read, who became the CEO of Vodafone in October 2018, cut the mobile operator’s dividend by 40% in May to address the company’s net debt, which stood at €27bn at the end of March.

Vodafone has found “significant scope to generate operational efficiencies and increase tenancy ratios across the portfolio” in a review of its tower assets, and that it could “monetise towers while preserving network differentiation and long-term strategic flexibility” august/september 2019

europe | 13

CYRUSONE INTEGRATES MEGAPORT INTO ITS LONDON DATA CENTRE

Durvasula: Hybrid cloud architecture

CyrusOne is expanding its partnership with Megaport by deploying the full suite of Megaport services at its London I data centre in Slough, UK. In doing so, CyrusOne is delivering access to more than 300 service providers, including global Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) enabling its customers to have secure, on-demand connections to leading

CSPs directly from its London facility.

“As more and more enterprise customers opt for hybrid cloud architectures, they want the flexibility to scale rapidly and course correct quickly as their demands change,” said Tesh Durvasula, president of Europe at CyrusOne. “Given the highly successful partnership we already have in the US, it was an easy decision to bring this service to Europe where we have a rapidly growing portfolio of enterprise customers.”

Customers have the flexibility to vary connectivity requirements based on actual demand. Therefore CyrusOne customers can order new cloud services, scale, and control in real-time, enabling them to deploy a network strategy in days and pay only for what they need. All connections are secure and protected, with automatic fail-over, offering customers complete freedom over how they architect their

hybrid cloud solutions. “We have a strong partnership with CyrusOne already and expanding this into Europe will further enhance our ability to provide flexible, reliable and scalable connectivity solutions together, adding value for our Enterprise customers,” said Peter Hase, chief commercial officer, Megaport.

“CyrusOne’s premier London location gives enterprises a great local option for building their hybrid, multi-cloud, cloudto-cloud, and disaster recovery solutions.

Our proven working relationship enables us to move quickly to meet the escalating demand in Europe.”

The news marks the first collaboration between the two companies in Europe, both parties have already collaborated in the US with Megaport services already available across CyrusOne’s portfolio of data centres in the region.

TELESIGN LAUNCHES RCS MESSAGING SERVICES TeleSign has announced the company’s expansion into Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging, supporting the company’s position in the authentication and CPaaS space.

TeleSign says that it is addressing new communications and engagement use cases with its SMS and voice product offering and its data accuracy, which comes from proprietary global data sources.

“Engaging consumers should be a top priority for all companies, and quality of communication services can significantly impact engagement,” said Vincent Oh,

director of product management for CPaaS at TeleSign. “TeleSign has a strong platform Capacitymany different that is capable of supporting use cases within the CPaaS market on a global scale. Building upon our SMS and Voice Communications expertise, our new RCS Messaging API ensures a rich, engaging and effective communication experience.”

By adding RCS Messaging to its portfolio, TeleSign will enable a truly interactive and omnipresent communication experience, which includes the availability of two-way messaging via

chatbots to bring customers into the future of CPaaS services. Leveraging TeleSign’s RCS API, its customers can deliver messages to anyone with a RCS-enabled phone on a supported carrier.

The benefits of the new service includes Increased engagement while also solving MMS incompatibility; he ability to accurately measure campaign efficacy through read and delivery receipts for optimised customer communications; and higher customer satisfaction and reduced customer support cost via chatbot interfaces.

DIGIPLEX TO DELIVER MICROSOFT AZURE EXPRESSROUTE TO NORDICS DigiPlex, a provider of Nordic data centres, has announced that is it to offer Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute in the Nordic market.

The new offering will give customers direct and secure hybrid-cloud access through its Ulven data centre in Oslo.

Once live, the Azure ExpressRoute will create a private digital superhighway giving customers a direct connection to Microsoft cloud services, delivering nextgen connectivity and faster performance, as well as unlocking greater choice for access and ability to implement hybrid-cloud strategies.

“We are very pleased to offer our customers direct connectivity to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute,” said Gisle Eckhoff, CEO of DigiPlex.

“Digital infrastructure continues to move from on-premise solutions into capacitymedia.com

combinations of colocation and cloud. To stay ahead in the digital transformation race, Nordic enterprises are increasingly demanding private and secure connections to strategic cloud providers such as Microsoft to ensure optimal performance and scalability.”

Using the private gateway, DigiPlex customers are able to establish faster to market and secure connections to Azure ExpressRoute. In doing so, Azure ExpressRoute offers a range of enhancements for businesses including lowering operational risks, increasing performance, as well as creating more flexibility, reliability and predictable latency.

“It is great to build on our existing relationship with DigiPlex to add new connectivity options across the Nordics,”

added Ross Ortega, Microsoft Azure partner programme manager at Microsoft.

“We look forward to helping DigiPlex’s enterprise customers use Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for their mission-critical workloads running in Azure.”

Eckhoff: Private, secure connections

14 | europe

BT AND EX-DIRECTORS TO FACE NEW ACTION ON BT ITALIA SCANDAL A US law firm says it has filed an amended class-action complaint against BT, naming past senior directors in the scandal at BT Italia, which caused the group to write off £530 million.

Law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd has already filed three versions of the complaint, which name BT Group as a defendant plus two previous CEOs, Ian Livingston and Gavin Patterson, previous CFO Tony Chanmugam, as well as former BT Global Services CEO Luis Alvarez, and Nick Rose, who chaired the group’s audit and risk committee.

BT told Capacity: “These claims were brought over two-and-a-half years ago and dismissed by the US Federal Court on 1 August 2018. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint after the claim was dismissed, and all defendants re-applied to dismiss the amended complaint.”

The company added: “We maintain that these claims are unsubstantiated and will move to dismiss any further amended complaint.”

The law firm filed the complaint in the US District Court, in the District of New Jersey. It said that the court has already granted permission to Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd to file an amended complaint.

After the BT Italia scandal was uncovered, the group’s senior management were unable to sign off the previous year’s

BT: We maintain that these claims are unsubstantiated

accounts under the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2017 group CEO Patterson and previous group CFO Chanmugam lost bonuses as a result. The president of BT’s Capacity European operations and the CEO and CFO of BT Italy all left. Alvarez left his role as CEO of BT Global Services, to be replaced by Bas Burger, previously president of BT in the Americas.

The class action suit says, “Improper

accounting practices and a complex set of improper sales, purchase, factoring, and leasing transactions caused the company’s financial statements to be materially misstated for nearly a decade”.

It adds, “Internal controls over financial reporting … were falsely certified as effective and containing no material weaknesses.”

UK PM ‘WON’T SAY NO TO HUAWEI’, SAYS COMPANY FOUNDER AND CEO Huawei’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei has said he is confident the new UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will allow the company to supply 5G equipment. The UK is still pondering

Ren: A third mobile operating system

whether to follow the US lead and ban Huawei kit from networks or whether to allow the company to supply some elements following security tests.

In an interview with the Sky News TV channel, Ren said: “I think they won’t say no to us as long as they go through those rigorous tests and look at it in a serious manner and I think if they do say no, it won’t be to us.”

UK operators have indicated that they are willing to use Huawei kit in their radio access networks (RANs) but generally not in their core networks – leading to some observers to complain that, with 5G, there is no real demarcation.

In May, the US government put Huawei on its entity list, which bans US companies and its citizens from trading with it. That means Huawei will have difficulty loading Google’s Android on its future smartphones and offering Android apps. Huawei has launched its own operating system, HarmonyOS, but this is not yet available on smartphones

– nor is there an ecosystem of apps.

Ren told Sky News: “It would take a very long time to build our own ecosystem. For a very long time we may not be able to maintain as top smartphone vendors.”

He said this could be an opportunity: “If the US government does not allow Google to provide the Android system, then the world may have a third operating system – and that is not in the best benefit or interests of the United States, allowing a little brother operating system into the world. You cannot rule out the chance that the third operating system might outrun them someday.”

Johnson said within days of coming into office in July that the UK should roll out 5G as soon as possible. Ren said Johnson is “very decisive” and “a very capable person”.

Meanwhile the US has banned its mobile operators, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon, from sourcing any telecoms equipment from Huawei, claiming fears about cyber security. august/september 2019

middle east | 15

ETISALAT AND SPARKLE PARTNER TO ENABLE GLOBAL 5G DATA ROAMING

E

tisalat Carrier & Wholesale (C&WS) and Sparkle have teamed up to establish a 5G data roaming interconnection between parent companies Etisalat and TIM. The strategic agreement paves the way for 5G roaming between the Middle East and the global mobile and carrier community.

Ali Amiri, group chief of carrier and wholesale at Etisalat, said: “5G is seen as a game changer with rich potential for the wholesale business, bringing maximum

opportunities with higher connection speeds, mobility and capacity, as well as low-latency capabilities. This has enabled new use cases and applications positively impacting different industry sectors.”

He said Etisalat has “wide coverage roaming services covering 837 operators in 216 destinations” and its Smarthub IPX provides “wide 4G coverage to more than 460 live LTE partners in 163 countries”. This will “play a pivotal role in enabling 5G for all our customers across international networks”.

Amiri: 5G is seen as a game changer

ISRAEL’S MINISTRY OF FINANCE TO ROLL OUT UNIFORM FIBRE PRICES Israel’s ministry of finance has detailed plans to support the deployment of fibre connectivity in the country with the implementation of uniform broadband prices.

The government has required all carriers to sell internet services at the same price across the country, regardless of the technology or infrastructure used.

The aim of the policy, as reported

in Globes Israel Business News, is to prevent discrimination against the rural areas of the country and provide security for infrastructure companies.

The ministry wants to ensure that competitors will not be able to discriminate on price between areas that Capacity have many carriers and those in which Bezeq supplies fibre infrastructure.

The news follows a hearing during

which prices for using Bezeq’s fibre infrastructure were set in favour of its competitors. The company was given relaxation in the structure of its internet packages, giving certainty as to how it will sell its future services.

These combined efforts are set to stimulate the deployment of Bezeq’s fibre network and initiate plans for promoting fibre connectivity.

AWS LAUNCHES BAHRAIN DATA CENTRES AND OUTLINES PLANS FOR MORE Amazon Web Services has launched data centres in Bahrain and announced plans for nine more so-called “availability zones” in Indonesia, Italy and South Africa.

Although no further information was provided about the planned development in the three other regions, AWS revealed that its Bahrain development comprises three availability zones, each with “at least one data centre” in separate and distinct geographic locations.

“The cloud has the chance to unlock digital transformation in the Middle East,” said Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS. He said “advanced and secure technology infrastructure … matches the scale of our other AWS regions around the world”.

Each Bahrain availability zone has independent power, cooling and physical security, and is connected via redundant, ultra-low-latency networks. AWS customers can design their applications to run in multiple availability zones.

Mohammed Ali AlQaed, CEO of the Bahrain Information & E-government Authority (iGA), said: “By December of this year, we will have 30% of all 72 government entities migrated to AWS and by June 2020 we expect to have most capacitymedia.com

government data centres shut down, while the rest are minimised, allowing us to focus resources on projects that benefit our citizens and dramatically improve the overall availability and durability of government applications and data.”

Kuwait’s technology regulator, the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA), also welcomed the new AWS infrastructure. Chairman and CEO Salem Muthib Al-Athainah called it “an important step” in bringing reliable and secure cloud computing technologies

Jassy: Unlock digital transformation

closer to end users in the Middle East.

“This launch underlines the important location of the Middle East as a centre to the global data movement worldwide,” he said. “The presence of the AWS Middle East region opens up new prospects for companies and government organisations to serve customers in the region, contributing to the enhancement of infrastructure, digitisation, connectivity, and customer experience.”

He added: “Our significant work with AWS supports CITRA’s strategy of transforming Kuwait into a regional ICT hub, and the digitisation of the Kuwaiti economy, and we look forward to continue to build on that while leveraging the new AWS Middle East Region in Bahrain.”

The Middle East and Africa region is one of the fastest growing markets for public cloud services. According to IDC, the total spending on public cloud services in the wider region crossed $1.5 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at 27.2% a year over the next five years to reach $5.2 billion in 2023. IDC says Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain will each grow at 30% a year.

16 | eurasia

TURKCELL ACHIEVES RECORD-BREAKING SPEEDS IN 5G TRIALS WITH SMARTPHONES

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urkcell has claimed a world record speed of 2.283Gbps and Turkey’s first 5G signal over its 5G test network using a 5G-compatible smartphone.

The speeds were reached in Turkcell’s 5G network in Istanbul using a smartphone compatible with the allocated 3.5GHz frequency using bandwidth of 1GHz. “With world record speeds yielded on Turkey’s first 5G-device test, Turkcell proudly added another first to its track record,” said Gediz Sezgin, CTO of Turkcell. “We have one of the world’s fastest networks in Turkey and, with this milestone passed, we continue our efforts

to build the best 5G network. We keep providing the best quality services and high speeds to our customers as we further strengthen our strong network with 5G.” In June, Odine Solutions and Versa Networks successfully deployed a softwaredefined wide area network (SD-WAN) core in Turkcell’s network.

The deployment, which represented Turkey’s first commercial SD-WAN solution for a Tier-1 operator, will enable Turkcell’s corporate customers in Turkey with end-to-end software-defined and secure connectivity infrastructure-as-aservice (IaaS).

Sezgin said at the time: “SD-WAN is not only a major step forward in

Sezgin: Another first for Turkcell

our digitalisation journey but, more importantly, it helps customers lower their costs and simplify their operations through central management while enabling real-time application visibility capabilities.”

ROSTELECOM EXPANDS TO VLADIVOSTOK BY BUYING ALLIANCE TELECOM Russian operator Rostelecom has bought 100% control of Alliance Telecom, which offers internet and TV services in Vladivostok and other eastern cities.

Alliance Telecom’s turnover amounted to over 900 million roubles ($12.3 million) in 2018, but Rostelecom has not revealed the purchase price. It bought

Shumeyko: Realising the synergy effects

Alliance Telecom through its subsidiary Bashinformsvyaz, also known as Bashtel, giving it a 100% stake in three companies Capacity to secure full control.

Alliance Telecom has been providing internet access and TV services across the Primorsky region since 2007, servicing individual clients and business in the cities of Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Nakhodka and Artyom.

“The acquisition will strengthen Rostelecom’s position in the broadband internet market in the Primorsky region,” said Anna Shumeyko, senior vice president and chief of staff.

The household segment accounts for 80% of Alliance Telecom’s revenue. The operator claims to be “an undisputable leader in Vladivostok and one of the

leading providers in the Primorsky region overall with a subscriber base of 110,000 families”.

The company also has more than 6,000 business clients.

Shumeyko said: “We are seeing a lot of opportunities to realise the synergy effects from operational cost optimisation as well as from upselling the Alliance Telecom subscriber base with an expanded set of services, currently available to Rostelecom’s clients.”

Rostelecom said the deal is in line with its strategic priority to develop its digital ecosystem and services offering.

Last year Capacity reported Rostelecom plans to upgrade its transcontinental Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) Cable System linking Europe with China and Japan.

RETN UPGRADES TRANSKZ EURASIAN LINK THROUGH KAZAKHSTAN International network service provider RETN has announced an upgrade of its network running through Kazakhstan.

Transkz, developed and operated by RETN, is an alternative to existing subsea cable systems connecting Europe and Asia.

Launched in 2016, it has been upgraded to offer low-latency terrestrial paths linking Europe with central and East Asia.

The final stage of its development was completed in cooperation with Transtelecom in Kazakhstan. The infrastructure improvement follows the official opening of the upgraded fibre segment in Dostyk, Kazakhstan, on the border with China.

“It is a great honour to be involved in

this big project and to be an essential part of it. Transtelecom is one of the largest telecommunication providers in the Republic of Kazakhstan,” said Saken Baytruganov, vice president for commerce at Transtelecom.

“We are delighted to introduce Transkz in its refined shape, the RETN Eurasian Way, and we strongly believe it will be successful in supporting international businesses and improving Europe’s connectivity with central Asia, China and beyond,” said Dmitry Samarin, CEO at RETN. “We are proud that due to our partnership with Transtelecom we managed to build a terrestrial route that is one of a kind, as

it provides three fully diverse paths from Europe to the border with China and can boast one of the lowest latencies on the market.”

Baytruganov added: “We specialise in provisioning of a wide range of telecommunication services, digitalisation and system integration in the field of IT, communications, automation and energy.

Our business goal is to bring Kazakhstan people to digital well-being, and we are sure that with Transkz route we make it happen.

It is the most recently launched, one of the shortest and most protected of all existing terrestrial routes from Hong Kong to all European traffic exchange centres.” august/september 2019

Capacity

18 | asia and asia-pacific

AUSTRALIA’S NBN TO COMPLETE BUILDING WHOLESALE ACCESS NETWORK IN JUNE 2020

A

ustralia’s wholesale, equal-access broadband network has increased revenue 43% as it says it is on schedule to complete build-out in June 2020.

The state-owned National Broadband Network (NBN) has built 85% of its access network and it said it is “on schedule to complete the build by 30 June 2020”.

NBNCo CEO Stephen Rue said that in the last financial year “we’ve welcomed 1.5 million new customers to the NBN”.

He added: “I am pleased to confirm

that the construction of the NBN access network – the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Australia – is on track and remains on schedule for completion by 30 June 2020.”

Meanwhile Telstra said that the NBN was the reason its total income had fallen 3.6% in the financial year and EBITDA had fallen 21.7%.

CEO Andy Penn said: “Notwithstanding the intense competitive environment and the challenging structural dynamics of our industry, it is a year in which I believe we can start to see the turning point in the

DIGITAL REALTY EXPANDS IBM CLOUD CAPABILITIES IN SYDNEY Digital Realty has confirmed the availability of expanded access to IBM Cloud in Australia through IBM Cloud Direct Link Dedicating Hosting services in Sydney.

The expansion in Sydney is expected to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption for local

Sharp: Customers choose service level

enterprises and enable them to take the next step in their hybrid cloud journeys.

“We are the first data centre provider to offer IBM Cloud Direct Link Dedicated Hosting, and currently the only data centre providerCapacity to offer IBM Direct Link Connect,” said Chris Sharp, Digital Realty CTO. “The flexibility of offering customers multiple options enables them to choose the level of service they need to help meet their specific speed, deployment and location requirements. Combined with Digital Realty’s service exchange, customers can also take advantage of on-demand network functionality powered

by Megaport.”

NTT TO EXPAND SUBSEA NETWORK TO INDIA NTT Communications has announced plans to extend its subsea cable network to India in order to offer broadband services in the country.

The decision will help the company offer bandwidth as well as data centre services, through its subsidiary Netmagic, a provider of end-to-end cloud computing solutions.

Once completed the newly expanded network will allow NTT to compete with the likes of Tata Communications, Airtel and Sify, to offer connectivity to the international cable landing station in Mumbai.

“We are planning to bring international fibre to India at some point of time,” Sharad Sanghi, MD and CEO of Netmagic, said to BusinessLine. “Once that happens, we will also look at offering broadband connectivity to telecom companies. As and when that happens, there will be a lot of demand for

data centre services along with bandwidth.”

The expansion will also give NTT the opportunity to develop its own cable landing station in India.

“There is a huge demand for connectivity in India,” said Sanghi. “As soon as new capacity is created through subsea cables, it is consumed in no time. Our own landing station in India will be a big growth driver for our data centre co-location services.”

Sanghi: International fibre to India

fortunes of the company from the changes we have embraced.”

Penn: Turning point in Telstra fortunes

RELIANCE JIO TO LAUNCH FTTH, MICROSOFT AZURE AND BLOCKCHAIN ACROSS INDIA Indian operator Reliance Jio is to introduce Azure in its data centres, gigabit fibre for customers and a pan-India blockchain network.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL), which owns Jio, announced these three innovations for the company at its annual general meeting in July.

Jio will launch Jio Fiber on 5 September – the third anniversary of the company’s foundation in what was then an oversupplied mobile market. Since then, consolidation and bankruptcy has reduced the field to just a handful of major players, including Jio itself.

Prices for Jio Fiber will go from 700 rupees ($9.80) a month for 100Mbps to 10,000 rupees ($140) for 1Gbps. Jio will add a high-definition TV to the fibreto-the-home (FTTH) package when a customer signs up for a year.

Jio has more than 340 million customers, Ambani told the annual meeting. “The potential for growth is immense and half a billion customers is now I believe well within our reach.”

Next year the company will launch its own new-movie service to premium fibre customers, under the brand First Day First Show.

Ambani told the AGM that Jio will install its own blockchain network, which he claimed would be one of the largest in the world, with “tens of thousands of nodes”.

It will be used for edge computing and content distribution, he said. august/september 2019

north america | 19

COGECO PEER 1 REBRANDS TO BECOME APTUM TECHNOLOGIES

Bowen: Aptum means ‘adaptability’

Cogeco Peer 1 has changed its name to Aptum Technologies, following the acquisition of the company by Digital Colony in April 2019.

Based in Toronto, Aptum will operate with two focused business units – data centre and fibre. The data centre business

will concentrate on enabling multi-cloud services for enterprises. While the fibre side of the business will operate ‘Canada’s first’ independent, neutral provider of small cell and 5G infrastructure, as well as enterprise and wholesale fibre connectivity.

In addition to an extensive metro fibre network across Toronto and Montreal.

“Aptum means ‘adaptability’ and reflects our heritage and vision for the future,” said Susan Bowen, CEO of Aptum.

“As businesses face exponentially increasing volumes of information, and data becomes an integral part of their infrastructure, technology platforms must adapt and harness the power of data to enable better decision making, risk evaluation and customer engagement. We help organisations unlock the potential of their data by providing a robust infrastructure that enables customers to solve complex challenges and maximise the

potential of their businesses.”

Additionally, Aptum has added two new offerings to its hybrid cloud portfolio.

These include Managed Amazon Web Services (AWS) adding to the company’s existing Managed Azure and Managed Private Cloud solutions. The other is the expanded availability of Cloud Connect for AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Platform, ServiceNow, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft ExpressRoute.

“The addition of these new cloud services is a perfect example of how Aptum is continually evolving to meet our customers’ changing needs,” added Bowen.

“Every business has unique considerations, constraints and objectives that will be met by different solutions.

Helping customers determine the correct platform for their unique requirements and then providing expert implementation is why businesses turn to Aptum.”

DE-CIX EXPANDS NETWORK PRESENCE IN DALLAS, TEXAS DE-CIX confirms that DE-CIX Dallas has extended its network with a new switch at its new point of presence (PoP) in DataBank’s downtown data centre.

The additional PoP will offer networks collocated in DataBank’s various Dallas facilities the ability to connect directly to DE-CIX’s Dallas IX, giving them access to over 60 networks. In addition, the new DE-CIX PoP will give networks across the Dallas market the ability to connect to a major peering exchange while remaining fully diverse from 1950 N. Stemmons, home to a number of data centre tenants including Equinix, zColo, Cologix, and Flexential, to name a few.

“DE-CIX Dallas is committed to providing network operators in the Dallas metro market the greatest number of interconnection options,” said Ed

d’Agostino, vice president and general Capacity manager of DE-CIX North America.

“We’re excited to be expanding and adding a great new partner like DataBank. Our partnership provides the market with a new and ideal diverse solution and offers a great place for single-site networks within the Dallas market to connect to a world-class peering exchange. Networks of all types, including those that are looking for diversity from Infomart, will find an excellent new home for their equipment with DataBank.”

DE-CIX Dallas leverages connectivity to multiple data centres to deliver interconnection capabilities and access to over 60 networks across its platform.

Using a standard cross connect operators can reach DE-CIX Dallas and a growing number of data centre facilities

throughout the local market. Additionally, networks throughout the entire Southwest that currently lack a presence in Dallas can access DE-CIX via transport connections and benefit from peering, enhancing connectivity throughout the region.

d’Agostino: Network expansion and partnership delivers diverse solution

MEF PUBLISHES THE INDUSTRY’S FIRST SD-WAN STANDARD MEF has published the industry’s first global standard for SD-WAN that defines SD-WAN service and its service attributes.

MEF members approved the new standard, SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70), before being ratified by the MEF board of directors at its recent annual meeting. The SD-WAN service standardisation was carried out within the MEF 3.0 Global Services Framework, which forms part of initiative to define, deliver and certify a suite of carrier Ethernet, optical transport, IP, SD-WAN capacitymedia.com

and security services orchestrated across automated networks using Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs. “We want to thank the SD-WAN team for the incredible job they have done in bringing this industry-first standard to market in a timely manner,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF. “Combining standardised SD-WAN services with dynamic high-speed underlay connectivity services – including carrier Ethernet, optical transport, and IP – enables service providers to deliver powerful MEF 3.0 hybrid

networking solutions with unprecedented user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.”

A number of companies contributed to the standardisation process including Colt and Verizon, to name a few.

The standard outlines requirements for an application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to decide how application flows are directed over multiple underlay networks regardless of the underlay technology or which service provider delivers them.

20 | latin america

MEXICO TO SET UP NATIONAL ‘INTERNET FOR ALL’ COMPANY TO EXPAND RURAL COVERAGE

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he government of Mexico is to create a national internet company to make broadband services available in rural areas of the country.

The company will use the existing Red Troncal national fibre network to deliver non-profit telecoms services, according to Mexico’s official gazette.

According to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the company will be called CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos – CFE Telecommunications and Internet for All – and it will be a subsidiary of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE, Federal Electricity Commission).

Red Troncal uses more than 25,000km of fibre that runs along the national electricity distribution detail, and has more than 115 points of presence – carrier

hotels – that will be used to provide wholesale services. Reports from Mexico suggest the network will be extended to 50,000km.

López Obrador wants to expand internet reach in Mexico from 87% now to 95% when his presidential term ends in 2024.

CFE Telecommunications will focus on areas that are not served by commercial providers and will be able to “create subsidiaries and participate in partnerships and alliances”, says the official proclamation.

In February Capacity reported that Telefónica and Facebook had teamed up with IDB Invest and CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) to launch a project in Peru, also called Internet para Todos, to expand internet connectivity in that part of Latin America.

President López Obrador: expand internet reach in Mexico to 95%

TIM BRASIL EXPANDS EDGE CLOUD CAPABILITIES READY FOR 5G TIM Brasil is expanding its edge cloud network using Nokia AirFrame servers that feature second-gen Intel Xeon scalable processors to virtualise its data centres by 2021.

The news will make TIM the first operator in Latin America to adopt the AirFrame technology for its data centre servers, improving server capacity and delivering better quality, internet access and video consumption for its users in Brazil.

“Virtualisation is important to improve

Capacity user experience in our network, which will count with more speed and data usage stability,” said Leonardo Capdeville, CTIO of TIM. “With this core virtualisation, TIM is leading with a 5G pilot project over the network. This process also allows us to strengthen our customers’ data protection.”

The rollout will comprise of 1,000 state-of-the-art AirFrame servers that will virtualise network functions to guarantee better customer experience. As well as creating edge data centres, the agreement

with Nokia also moves TIM Brazil a step closer to 5G, which requires a cloud core for network activities.

“Nokia’s unique solution, designed to support precisely this evolution to 5G, will give TIM Brazil a crucial ongoing competitive advantage as they evolve their core networks into cloud,” added Leandro Monteiro, Nokia sales director in Brazil.

“Nokia is proud to partner with TIM as it invests in cloud-native technologies to maintain its position as one of Latin America’s most efficient networks.”

LIBERTY LATIN AMERICA EXPANDS BROADBAND AMBITIONS IN CHILE Liberty Latin America’s VTR unit is to expand its operations in Chile, to add or upgrade its service to 200,000 homes.

This is an additional 50,000 broadband homes compared with previous expectations, said Liberty, and brings the

Ponce: Expanding our Chile footprint

total estimated additions or upgrades across all markets of Liberty Latin America (LLA) to at least 450,000 homes for 2019.

Guillermo Ponce, CEO of VTR, said: “We are excited about extending our new build and upgrade plans for this year and see tremendous opportunity beyond 2019 in further expanding our footprint to the rest of Chile.”

Liberty said the build-out strategy in Chile is consistent with its overall ambition to expand the provision of highspeed connectivity across the region, while delivering the highest levels of service for its 3 million LLA fixed-line customers.

Chris Noyes, CFO of LLA, said: “We consistently evaluate new build and upgrade opportunities and are pleased

with the financial returns we deliver through these programmes.”

He added: “Due to the excellent work by our engineering teams to reduce new build and upgrade costs per home across LLA, and given the sizable VTR market opportunity, we are happy to accelerate plans to bring broadband to as many citizens of Chile as possible, without changing our existing guidance for capital expenditures in 2019.”

Ponce said: “A major goal of Liberty Latin America is to bring high-speed connectivity to as many people as possible.

Importantly, this is the beginning of further construction into areas where we had previously not ventured and we will bring the fastest broadband in the region to these new homes.” august/september 2019

SPONSORED Q&A: GLORIA PALAVICINI | 21

Q&A WITH GLORIA PALAVICINI Q. Why is Neutral Networks a strong ally for carriers looking to enter the Mexican market?

Neutral Networks offers an infrastructure platform that provides new alternatives in the Mexican telecom market, delivering more unique routes and connectivity solutions for carriers and wholesale service providers that support their coverage requirements through three main services: ethernet connectivity, dark fibre and BTS towers.

We are a neutral company, and all of our services work throughout our redundant, scalable and flexible network with a typology that provides more stability to our customers, and a new CWDM ethernet network compatible with national and international carriers.

Q. How will the telecommunications industry benefit through the group’s OPEX and CAPEX models? And in what ways do they adapt to the specific needs of your clients?

Since we are part of a telecom infrastructure group, the company has the capacity to deliver built to suit solutions that broaden the connectivity scope of our clients through OPEX and CAPEX models. If a customer doesn’t have enough capital to invest in a project, Neutral Networks can build fibre and rent it to the client; if they want to expand their reach, we can build more kilometres and allow operators to connect their network and enhance it through our connectivity solutions in the cities within our footprint.

Q. How does the Neutral Networks’ network, which consists of more than 2,000 km of fibre in nine key cities, give the company an advantage in the Mexican market?

Our network is less than three years old and provides ethernet carrier class services catering to the main industrial parks in the country, where the most important business corporations are located.

We have an aggressive growth strategy that has allowed us to reach over 2,000 km of fibre in less than two years, including long Capacity Q. What is Neutral Networks doing in order to remain a neutral haul connectivity and internet services in the north of Mexico. company with neutral assets that strengthens the connectivity We are moving in the right direction and our focus remains on reach of its business partners? strengthening our portfolio as we continue to pursue connectivity opportunities in international markets in the near future.

We provide turnkey solutions through a completely neutral business model, as we don’t serve the enterprise market and we don’t compete with our clients.

Q. What capabilities do 280 BTS Towers and 3,000 billboards We deliver 100% neutral infrastructure including ethernet provide that will ensure the company has the capacity, coverage connectivity covering 9 major cities in key business areas, and scalability in order to provide for the growing needs of its penetrating the most important markets in Mexico, helping them clients? expand their reach with our carrier-class services.

Neutral Networks’ fibre product differentiates from others as it provides FTTx coverage that includes connectivity to wireless sites Q. How is Neutral Networks designed to be a “one-stop shop” and is part of our fibre backbone, enabling MNOs to offer more for end-to-end integrated solutions? coverage and capacity where needed thanks to our collocation opportunities. We are exploring the use of billboards, where we Neutral Networks is part of a group of telecom companies Even allocate small cells and antennas that open more coverage in areas of Group, a single point of contact designed to offer integrated high density where consumers demand more bandwidth capacity to solutions to operators in the telecommunications industry through send and receive data.

OPEX and CAPEX models that adapt to the specific needs of our Our goal is to help to produce a new digital ecosystem that will customers. encompass fibre, towers and antennas in order to serve the new Because of this, we have the capability to provide network technologies needed to support smart cities and 5G networks. construction, installation, and maintenance services through our infrastructure construction arm Even Telecom, delivering a full spectrum of telco services.

Q. How do your two brands, Even Telecom and Neutral Networks, work together successfully in order to provide solutions for the Mexican market?

Q. What will the company provide to operators?

Developing our projects alongside Even Telecom gives us a very We were the first telecom company in Mexico that offered dark fibre strong competitive advantage, attending our customers every step of lease in metro areas. the way: since the planning and deployment of fibre infrastructure, to This service is accompanied by a portfolio that allows operators the administration and maintenance services without depending on to complement their operations services through a robust network, third parties. Our focus remains on expanding our clients’ services as meeting the demand for the highest capacity, lowest latency fibre far as possible across the country through a portfolio mix of ethernet routes, and high-capacity wavelength solutions through a metro services, fibre footprint and BTS towers located in strategic sites, ethernet footprint of over 2,000 kms in 9 main cities in Mexico, covering more than 80% of the nation, making us the best business with over 280 BTS towers and 3,000 friendly sites. partner for carriers aiming to reach the Mexican market. capacitymedia.com

22 |

Let the e-games commence Capacity

THE INAUGURAL FORTNITE WORLD CUP IN JULY PROVED HOW FAR ONLINE GAMING HAS COME, AND OFFERS POINTERS FOR THE KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES AWAITING THE CARRIER COMMUNITY. GUY MATTHEWS REPORTS

W

hen Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won the Fortnite World Cup in New York on 28 July, he did so roared on by a sell-out crowd of 23,000 video game fans. The 16-year-old’s prize money was $3 million.

Anyone in doubt about the pulling power of a successful Battle Royale game such as Fortnite, launched two years ago, need only consider a few of the facts. The 99 other players that Giersdorf beat in the final showdown each took home $50,000. Epic Games, the title’s publisher, will be giving out a total of $100 million in prize money during 2019. It can easily afford to do this, having made a £3 billion profit in 2018, according to publisher TechCrunch.

Largely on the strength of Fortnite, Epic is worth around $15 billion.

In addition to the huge crowd of fans watching the to-the-virtual-death tournament in the Arthur Ashe stadium, millions around the world had the event livestreamed to them over YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and the Fortnite website. Fortnite has upwards of 250 million regular online players, some 40 million of whom participated in qualifiers

hoping to compete in the World Cup. Fortnite is a major advertising opportunity for the numerous brands that pay big money to get placed within the game: Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Endgame, Netflix’s Stranger Things and Nike’s Air Jordan brand all featured in the World Cup. Fortnite functions less like a video game than a minor industry in its own right, not to mention a particularly addictive form of social network for its followers.

It also demands a complex mesh of technology to reach its public. Bryan Hill is business development director for digital media at data centre operator Interxion’s platforms division.

“When the Fortnite World Cup is streamed on a platform like Twitch, that then hits a connectivity hub operated by someone like us. It then goes over a backbone and on to a distribution platform, which is reliant on ISPs and transit providers and exchanges to reach the consumer.”

Delivering on the needs of these consumers, getting content to their consoles with minimal delay, is a specialised task. Limelight Networks has

a key role in the content delivery strategy of Fortnite, and a number of other online and mobile games, working with Ericsson on integration with networks to cut latency to a minimum.

“We can help telcos add streaming for games like Fortnite,” says Steve MillerJones, VP of product strategy at Limelight. “We can help them build out edge computing, enabling the games companies to bring their platform to the distribution network.”

An aspiring game developer can’t just hope for the best, he says: “You need connection points nearer to the game’s user so that that last-mile connection works well for you. Then the rest is handed off to the core. The software stack that we offer at the edge helps manage the big spike of traffic you get at an event like the Fortnite World Cup.” The console and the high-end PC have for years been the dedicated gamer’s tools of choice. But that’s not where gaming’s future lies. The centre of gravity has already shifted to cloud gaming and, as with other OTT content, mobile on-demand consumption.

“We service pretty much all the august/september 2019

Image: Epic Games

feature: fortnite | 23

companies in the cloud gaming space,” says Interxion’s Hill. “As people did with movies and music, game players want flexibility, and always-on play. This is opening up new audiences for triple-A big-budget games. No need to buy a console or top-end PC.” The next gaming evolution that everyone is talking about is, naturally, 5G. At this stage, says Hill, nobody is sure exactly how gaming over 5G will play out, or how it will function commercially.

“As far as the business plan of data usage goes, no one has yet come up with the ideal model,” he says. “There will probably be multiple models, just as there have been in the evolution of OTT [over-the-top] video. Will some people pay bigger tariffs for the inclusion of games? Will it be about advertising? A pure subscription service where you pay extra for content? We’ll see, over time.

Everyone is figuring out what is an evolving landscape.”

Certainly Epic Games is savvy to changes in game consumption, having just launched Fortnite Battle Royale Lite, which still allows 100 players to fight simultaneously, but comes in the form of an Android adaptation, with original gameplay faithfully recreated.

Carriers too are increasingly aware of commercial opportunity. “Gaming overall, mobile and fixed, plays a major role in our strategy to deliver best networks and customer experience,” says Dirk Wende, communications spokesperson for Deutsche Telekom.

“That’s why we introduced [cloud gaming service] MagentaGaming as a beta release to the market at Gamescom 24.8. It works on from any device – Android, AndroidTV, Windows, MacOS – independent of the user’s hardware. All compute will be managed from the cloud.”

Gaming is an increasingly global pastime too. Angola Cables has partnered with gaming specialist Qwatti eSports on a portal as a first step in connecting African gamers with others in America, Europe and Asia. Crisóstomo Mbundu, product manager at Angola Cables, said that with the company’s mesh of subsea assets it can reduce latency between content and consumer. “We have good gamers here in Africa, but it has been difficult for them to compete with gamers in other parts of the world,” he explains.

5G will change everything, says Jamie Jefferies, Ciena’s vice president and general manager for EMEA. “Of all mobile game revenues, 80% – or $54.9 billion – will come from smartphone games, according to industry reports,” he claims. “In part, the success of mobile capacitymedia.com

gaming is due to the use of new technologies like AI and AR, which offer a more immersive experience.”

The mobile edge will be critical, allowing for the frontloading of both gaming assets and compute – moving the gaming providers’ points of presence (PoPs) closer to end users, argues Dirk Trossen, principal engineer at InterDigital, a developer of mobile network solutions. “When games are provided on top of a localised infrastructure, in a private network deployment, it even allows for entirely site-specific deployments, such as in a theme park, a sports venue or a city,” he explains.

Sandro Tavares, head of mobile networks marketing at Nokia, is excited about the concept of network slicing which he says will allow telcos to build networks with specific characteristics for each service. “In practice this means a telco can sell a service specific to gamers that guarantees a high data throughput at low latencies and low jitter by dedicating a slice of the network for it,” he explains.

Other technologies will play their part.

Vendor Extreme Networks supports US universities with their e-sports Capacity programmes. “They work with us because they need a solid and resilient internet connection,” says Bob Nilsson, director of vertical solutions at Extreme. “It’s like Wall Street, where if you can connect faster than your competitors, then you

and machine learning to tell you where there may be over-capacity, so you can work on that ahead of an emergency. Our synthetic monitoring means we can simulate being a gaming customer in PoPs all over the world.”

Even the evolution of the smartphone matters, argues Ian Fogg, Opensignal’s VP for analysis. “Our research shows gamers get a different experience according to which handset they use,” he says. “Higher download speeds are experienced by users of higher end devices. Latency and responsiveness are better too. It can mean winning a game or not winning a game.”

So what’s just around the corner? 5G’s ability to handle more simultaneous connections will likely unleash bigger multiplayer experiences, believes Carl Livie, mobile marketing platform AppLovin’s MD for EMEA. “Games like Fortnite have previously been capped at 100 players per session, and this number could grow exponentially with the help of 5G,” he explains.

“As for e-sports, audiences will be able to tune in to watch their favourite gaming athletes anywhere, any time, and on a scale never experienced before. 5G has the potential to increase the popularity of e-sports so much that we may see Olympic-style events come in as a result.”

This scenario is great news for carriers, believes Paul Barnes, App Annie’s MD for EMEA. “Carriers have really lost out

We can help the games companies bring their platform to the distribution network” Steve Miller-Jones, VP of product strategy, Limelight

have an advantage. You need plenty of bandwidth, plus the kind of network management software that can prioritise gaming as a high priority over other campus traffic.”

Network monitoring matters too, says Casey Zandbergen, head of global strategy at ITRS Group, a specialist in the field. “You don’t just want something to tell you that your network is broken, you want to be using artificial intelligence

over the last 10 years,” he says. “If you look at the evolution of the app and at what has happened with music, content and news, and the emergence of platforms like Google and Apple, a lot has been taken away from them. All carriers are now trying, late in the day, to get back to some direct consumer connection.

They see 5G and gaming as a way to do this. I believe they can, but they can’t do it alone.”

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26 |

GCX’s Eagle ready to fly as soon as buyer is found Capacity

G

lobal Cloud Xchange (GCX) has now received quotes from three different vendors for its Eagle cable – but it won’t sign the contract until its own future is settled. The company’s CEO, Bill Barney, says he expects to find a buyer “within 90 days”. We were meeting in London one week into August, so 90 days after that is the end of the first week of November. Though there might be “an extension of a month or two” after that, he notes. Early January, then.

Barney said the three quotes for Eagle, which is due to extend from Marseille in the Mediterranean to Singapore via Mumbai, have come from “American, French and Japanese companies”. Does that mean SubCom, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and NEC, I ask. Barney just smiles, but will not confirm names.

Had Huawei Marine bid for the project?

Barney shakes his head. “We use Huawei and ZTE [equipment] in our domestic network, but not in subsea.”

Eagle will initially have capacity of

Bill Barney is close to finding a new owner for Global Cloud Xchange, he tells Alan Burkitt-Gray.

Meanwhile plans are advancing for Eagle, its high-capacity Marseille-to-Asia cable

20Tbps, says Barney, but no final decision will be made until the supplier is selected.

He mentions 40Tbps. “It’s likely we’ll be able to upgrade. We’ll put in the repeaters.”

He is expecting to have contracts in place in time for next year’s Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference in Hawaii, which is set for 19-22 January, with “next summer laying the cable”, and operations about 18 months later, which takes the ready-for-service date into 2022.

If he makes that target of 90 days and two extra months, GCX’s future will be settled and will be able to plan for the rest of its life. But Barney was telling me in September 2018 that GCX’s future would be settled by the end of that year. Since then he’s spent most of his time flying around the world looking for buyers for GCX and putting the Eagle plan together.

Strong fourth quarter Barney has insisted throughout that GCX is essentially sound as a business. “We had a very strong fourth quarter,” he tells me at our London meeting. “The best Q4 ever.

There’s been more capacity installed in Q4

than in the last two years.” GCX’s fourth quarter and financial year end in March.

The business is coming from “large technology companies that are still growing at 40-50% a year”, including over-the-top (OTT) companies. “The west coast [of the US] OTT market now gives us almost a third of our business, from a standing start a few years before.”

GCX has “a great set of customers who are expanding very quickly”, he adds. They include “eight technology customers” on the west coast, and he says that “70-80% of the business” is traffic to the Middle East. The Middle East is seeing “a land grab” as companies such as Amazon and Netflix are buying “loads of capacity” for video.

And there are “all the Chinese technology companies – or, I should say, all the southern Chinese technology companies.

This year we managed to win nine of them.”

That’s where much of GCX’s growth is coming from, he adds. GCX won its biggest indefeasible right of use (IRU) contract for capacity in the financial year that ended last March, says Barney.

Europe? “That’s the Steady Eddy of our august/september 2019

the big interview: bill barney | 27

1997

President, South Asia and the Middle East, GlobalOne

1999

President and CEO, Asia-Pacific , MCI

2002

CEO, Asia Netcom

2007

CEO, Pacnet

2013

Board member, SpeedCast

2014

CEO, Global Cloud Xchange

2016

CEO, RCom and GCX

and France Telecom. It ended in the early years of the century when France Telecom bought out the other two and, following a rebrand, turned it into Orange Business Services.

After working for a succession of other telcos in south-east Asia, Barney joined what’s now GCX in early 2014 – though it was then Reliance Globalcom, part of a telecoms empire that was being put together

by Indian businessman Anil Ambani, who had already bought companies such as Flag Telecom, Vanco and Yikes.

Ambani’s empire included a mobile operator, Reliance Infocomm, and it expanded under the Reliance Communications (RCom) brand.

More than a decade earlier, Anil Ambani had inherited the telecoms operations built up by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who died in 2002, as well as some other Reliance-branded businesses. The rest of the Reliance empire – without telecoms – went

The west coast OTT market gives us almostCapacity a third of our business, from a standing start a few years ago” Bill Barney, CEO, GCX

business,” he says – a term one can take to make there’s lots of revenue-earning capacity but not the same sort of growth you get from the west coast of California or the south coast of China. It’s also where much of GCX’s enterprise business comes from – companies such as the Hilton hotel group, the spectacles retailer Specsavers and Euromaster, part of the Michelin tyre company. “We have 81 of the Fortune 100 companies as customers,” he smiles.

Archaeology Of all the people in the telecoms industry Barney has made probably the biggest jump since university. He graduated in classical, ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies and archaeology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and then went on to continue his studies at Stanford University in California.

But within a decade of leaving Stanford, he was leading GlobalOne’s operations in South Asia and the Middle East. GlobalOne – nothing to do with any company that uses the name today – was a disastrous joint venture between Sprint, Deutsche Telekom capacitymedia.com

to Mukesh Ambani, Anil’s older brother.

But four years ago Mukesh started to fight back and founded Reliance Jio, beginning what has been the most valuedestructive sibling fight in telecoms history.

Faced with low-price competition from Jio’s 4G network, rival mobile companies, mostly still 2G or 3G, have merged, others have closed down, and RCom has been fighting for survival – a battle that inevitably muddied the position for GCX, RCom’s sister company in the Anil Ambani empire.

In a forthright statement in May 2018, GCX said a process started by India’s National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) would not affect it or its related data centre and enterprise telecoms businesses.

RCom still has to emerge in some form from India’s laborious company bankruptcy process. It’s still not clear what will happen to RCom, which has had considerable trouble trying to sell its assets, including spectrum and towers. The mobile business has been wound down.

Meanwhile Barney has been hurtling round the world talking to potential buyers of GCX, which has been successfully

ring-fenced from RCom’s tribulations (though Barney is still officially CEO of RCom). Early last year, Capacity understood that there were three bids for the GCX operation plus the Indian data centre and enterprise businesses.

Another company that was briefly interested was Sistema, the Russian industrial group that was then getting out of the Indian mobile business: it previously had a stake in Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), which traded as MTS India.

Sistema, which has strong ties to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, confirmed to Capacity in March 2018 that it was interested in buying RCom’s telecoms business, using earn-out payments originally agreed in 2015 when RCom acquired SSTL. But, after questions were asked about the company’s Moscow links, it backed down and sold the 10% stake in RCom it had acquired as part of the SSTL deal.

Reports said that Sistema lost $4 billion on its investment.

Late last year, according to Capacity’s sources at the time, RCom had two bids for GCX on the table. One was from I Squared Capital (ISQ), the company that owns Hong Kong’s HGC Global Communications, and the other was from a consortium of other private equity investors.

They’d both bid $1.1 billion, but they don’t comment, and Capacity can’t establish whether they’re still on the scene.

It’s effectively not RCom’s to sell any more: GCX is now in the control of the bondholders, to which a payment of $350 million was due at the end of July. With hours before the deadline, they agreed to wait – not forever, but for an initial two weeks. In mid-August they gave another two weeks, likely to be extended if they are confident that a deal can be done.

In March, Barney and GCX called in Lazard, the investment bank, as a financial adviser “to make sure we look at all the available options”, he told me at the time.

Today, he doesn’t want to say more, even to give a clue about who or how many might be interested in buying. But they exist and “it will happen over the next few months”, he tells me.

Meanwhile he’s focusing on Eagle. The current plan is to lay the stretch from Mumbai to Singapore first, followed by Mumbai to Marseille, via Egypt. GCX was earlier choosing between the south of France and Sicily, but “we’ve left the Italians behind”, he tells me.

The whole cable will have provision for up to 25 branches, he adds; indeed, Eagle will be laid with junctions ready to be extended with new cable. The main landing stations are already built or under construction. But first, Barney and his bankers at Lazard need to find a buyer for GCX. He’s confident it will happen.

28 |

Liquid Telecom’s African expansion New fibre capabilities being unlocked by Liquid Telecom are providing Africa with access to powerful systems, CEO Nic Rudnick tells Jason McGee-Abe

W

hen Capacity last interviewed Nic Rudnick in the August-September 2018 edition, the Liquid Telecom CEO provided an optimistic outlook on how the data, voice and IP provider was performing in eastern, central and southern Africa as part of its new legacy for the continent.

Its wholesale open-access fibre network business model had recently achieved a huge success after a Telecom Egypt agreement allowed the African operator to complete a pan-African terrestrial fibre network from Cape Town to Cairo.

Since then, Liquid Telecom has continued its run of impressive accomplishments by securing $180 million in funding from UK-based development finance institution CDC Group – the largest equity investment the firm has made in its 70-year history.

With pride in his voice, Rudnick tells me that it’s a “good validation of the strategy and business model that we have

Capacity

been adopting” – widening its fibre footprint and broadening its data centres and cloud services product portfolio for wholesale, enterprise and retail customers.

“CDC likes to invest in high-impact companies, which is also a reflection on the impact that we are having on the countries and communities which are using our network across Africa,” explains Rudnick, adding that Liquid Telecom’s plan is based on two strategic objectives.

The first is to continue its connectivity throughout Africa “in a way that improves the quality of data”, he says, especially through cross-border links; a plan that involves aims such as reducing latencies when people use either Liquid Telecom’s or other operators’ networks.

“That, we believe, is more important now than it’s ever been,” Rudnick says, “due to the introduction of cloud servers, which are a complete game-changer for Africa because they are allowing the most advanced technologies in the world – from more enterprise resource planning systems all the way to artificial intelligence – becoming immediately available to

enterprises and start-ups in Africa.”

Until now the technology has been “out of reach”, with enterprises having to buy hardware and servers and having to pay licence fees running into millions.

However, Rudnick has seen this all “completely change”, with African SMEs able to access cloud services for the first time on a pay-as-you-go business model, all bundled together and payable in a local currency with their connectivity.

One Africa “It’s a quantum change, bigger than the impact that cloud is having on developed countries,” states Rudnick. But it requires a network that can deliver the services, “which is why we have been investing in and focusing on new internet exchanges, increasing cost order links and building up our One Africa network”.

Liquid Telecom’s Sudan link with Telecom Egypt’s network formed a new cross-border interconnection, completing a 10-year project to offer a 60,000km network running the length of the continent. The vision to create a single august/september 2019

the big interview: nic rudnick | 29

1998

Commercial director, Econet Wireless International

2001

Director, Telecom Lesotho

2004

CEO, Liquid Telecommunications Group

2005

CEO, Econet Carrier Services

2006

Director, Liquid Telecom South Africa

2009

Director, Econet Wireless Global

deployments of data centres and relationships with cloud providers with services that can be hosted in Africa for the first time. All this will result in a “new future for access to technology across the continent”, says Rudnick.

Cloud and online services What feedback has Liquid Telecom had so far? He says: “We’ve received a lot of enthusiasm for One Africa. I think if one looks to see what One Africa does to latencies, and the opportunities that it opens for the availability of cloud and online services, they will find it has considerable impact. It’s early days yet because we’ve just completed the network and are fully commercialising it. But certainly the interest that we’ve received from within and outside Africa from people wanting connectivity in and from the continent looks extremely promising.”

In Rudnick’s last update, he told

Our One Africa project will have considerable impact Capacity on availability of Africa’s cloud and online services”

Nic Rudnick, CEO, Liquid Telecom

fibre network from the Cape to Cairo was incomplete when Capacity spoke to Rudnick last year, but now the link is finished, with latency of 97ms, which is impressive when you consider that Liquid Telecom’s ping tests found that latency on the subsea route would be 209ms.

“The impact is that cloud services can now be accessed right across the continent.

As the cloud service and software providers, such as Microsoft or AWS, start rolling out, it now means that it will be possible for enterprises and start-ups to access their cloud services at low latencies – and that those cloud systems will work.”

Data centres are another component of Liquid Telecom’s African expansion. With facilities already in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Nairobi, the company wants to also add centres in Mombasa, Egypt and Nigeria “and some other countries where we may have smaller rollouts”, explains Rudnick.

He sums up the strategy in two words: “comprehensive ecosystem”. This, Rudnick adds, will encompass existing fibre networks plus additional builds, large scale capacitymedia.com

Capacity that Liquid Telecom has invested “a lot” in the subsea cables surrounding Africa. The company is a shareholder not only in the West Africa Cable System and the West Indian Ocean Cable Company, but also in The East African Marine System (TEAMS), which is an initiative spearheaded by the government of Kenya to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre cable.

It was first proposed as an alternative to the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), in which Liquid Telecom also has investments.

Rudnick says now there are a number of new initiatives underway on the east and west coasts of Africa, which are primarily being driven by the US over-the-top providers.

He is discussing opportunities, and has “no doubt” that Liquid Telecom will participate in such cables.

“This will happen to ensure that our future requirements for capacity in the years to come are able to be satisfied,” he says, not giving too much away. One area of development that Rudnick has kept his

eye on are the projects that will link Africa to South America. His particular focus was on the technical and economical elements of the unfolding projects, but has Liquid Telecom acted on it?

I ask: “Is that something that’s been realised yet?” Disappointingly, Rudnick doesn’t reveal new and great investments, and responds by saying that he’s still “keeping tabs”, but believes the cables are “well underway” and that Liquid Telecom is planning to connect its pan-African network to them.

Power and responsibilities To round up an insightful update, I concentrate on Liquid Telecom’s great rate of growth, which creates both challenges and opportunities, but what has happened to the organisation itself over the course of its transformation?

“As you grow as an enterprise, the structure of the organisation needs to change, to position yourself in a way that makes your technologies, products and services available to as great a number of people as possible,” Rudnick explains.

“It’s also reasonable that the enterprise structure also evolves over time in order to ensure that we’ve got the right people in the right places to continue to grow the business at the speed that we’d like it to grow.”

The greatest opportunity across Africa is the cloud, according to Rudnick. He explains that the continent “doesn’t really understand what it is”, causing many missed opportunities as it can grow “a start-up in any country within Africa”.

“You can access artificial intelligence.

You can get automatic translation and speech functionality. The amount of technology and capability that is now just there is just incredible,” he states. “This is the biggest and most unbelievable opportunity that is arriving at people’s doors in Africa, but the challenge is that a lot of people don’t appreciate the opportunity.”

Some businesses believe that cloud “is just an online storage and backup system”, he says.

“We run the risk of building networks, putting in data centres, bringing in connectivity and access to the most advanced technologies in the world and finding that they’re under-utilised because the awareness and knowledge to make use of them is not there. That is the biggest challenge for us as an industry, to make sure that we are telling people that we’re bringing in knowledge and that we are making these services available at affordable prices so people can make use of them.”

If the industry can’t achieve this awareness “it will have failed”, he says.

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special report

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TELECOMS August/September 2019

CONTENTS 32 Big interview: Carrie Charles, CEO, Broadstaff

34 It’s not just the right thing to do, but it leads to better business Capacity

Capacity explores gender parity in 2019 and the telecoms companies doing their part for change

36 Big interview: Marisa Trisolino, CEO, CMC Networks

38 Inclusivity is the key to supporting more women in tech TalkTalk’s Ruth Kennedy explains what we can do to support and encourage women in tech

39 20 Women to Watch Capacity’s annual listing of 20 top women to watch in our industry

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32 |

Diversity is not an option As telecoms and tech industries struggle to close the work skills gap, Carrie Charles, CEO of Broadstaff, speaks to Natalie Bannerman Capacity about the importance of diversity and inclusion in innovation and technology

I

n its 2015 report, Why diversity matters, McKinsey found that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform companies that aren’t – while gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform its counterparts that aren’t.

In an industry that is struggling with an increasing work skills gap, companies in the wider telecoms and tech are turning to likes of Carrie Charles, CEO of specialist staffing firm Broadstaff, to help find this talent and educate them on how to recruit for diversity at the same time.

Charles is clear about the topic of diversity and why it is so important: “Studies show a strong business case for diversity and its positive impact on a company’s bottom line.”

The other half of the argument, according to Charles, is that diverse organisations innovate better. This is a factor that is very important given the era of emerging technologies such as 5G, automation and artificial intelligence.

“When you have a group of people who are very similar, they think the same and they come from a similar background. They are

going to have similar thoughts, views and opinions to share,” she explains. “When you get people from various backgrounds, cultural, gender, generational, then you are going to have unique ideas and views, which ultimately drives innovation” Charles is a strong believer in the notion that diversity will help to remedy the current work skills gap facing our industry and the need to “rescale and upscale our workforce”, but says that companies need to cast their net wider in order to find them.

“Companies are looking for the best person for the job,” insists Charles. “But I don’t believe hiring managers are looking hard enough to find a candidate from an underrepresented group who could, in fact, be the best person for the job.”

By simply casting a wider net and going to where these diverse groups are, effectively finding a new talent pool, then Charles says then companies will be able to grow faster and hire the people who have the skillset to do the job.

“I live in Florida where one of the favourite pastimes is fishing. This reminds me of the current climate of telecoms where there are

hundreds of boats fishing in the same area, but none are catching fish. If one boat would move five miles north, they will find the fish.

We have to drop the herd mentality and change our recruiting strategy to attract qualified, diverse candidates.”

In 2018 Boston Consulting Group published How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation, where it surveyed employees at more than 1,700 companies in eight countries (Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Switzerland and the US) across a variety of industries and company sizes. The report found that 75% of respondents said that diversity is gaining momentum in their organisations. It also found a strong and statistically significant correlation between the diversity of management teams and overall innovation.

With millennials due to account for over 50% of the workforce by next year, Charles says it’s time for companies in the telecoms sector to start listening to their needs in order to attract and retain this generation.

“Millennials and Gen Zs are now demanding diverse organisations. Studies show that a high percentage of millennials august/september 2019

the big interview: carrie charles | 33

1987

Telecoms specialist, US Marine Corps

1990

Certified financial planner, Phoenix Life Insurance

1994

VP of sales/certified financial planner, Lincoln Financial Group

2005

VP, The Loan Corporation

2009

CEO, Executive Centers of America

2012

CEO, Design My Life

2016

CEO, Broadstaff

don’t want to be diverse or don’t believe it’s important, it’s that they need education and solutions and to dedicate the time to implement new processes.”

Charles says that it’s the small-to-medium sized companies that are struggling most in this area because of the time, budget and priorities. “The priority is securing the projects then finding the people to complete the projects,” she says. The good news is that we are seeing more small to mid-sized companies implementing diversity initiatives, like Tilson Technology, Verticom and InRange Solutions.

But, for the larger companies that have the resources, she remains hopeful, saying: “I do see large companies like Crown Castle and American Tower, and the major carriers, taking action and making diversity a priority.”

An often talked about problem our industry faces is the idea that fewer woman are interested in technical roles and lack the

We find the person who is the best fit for the role, Capacity regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, faith and so on” Carrie Charles, CEO, Broadstaff

and Gen Zs prefer to work for a diverse over a non-diverse organisation, and will leave their jobs faster if they do not feel a sense of belonging and inclusion.”

But these aren’t too dissimilar for women, who after all, will form part of the millennial and Gen Z cohort as well.

“Women want to see more diverse workplaces and also see more females in leadership positions. When women see women in leadership roles, they feel confident in their own growth path with that company. This improves engagement and retention.”

Charles also points to healthy work-life balance and flexibility as high on the list of requirements for the working woman. But she says the number-one desire today is having a voice.

With all this being said, I’m curious to know her perspective on why the hesitation and slow progress. “It takes time and money to change a process, especially one that’s been in existence for decades,” explains Charles.

“In telecoms today, people are busier than they’ve ever been, and because of the current talent shortage, one person is doing the job of two or three people. It’s not that companies capacitymedia.com

desire to enter them – a problem that Charles says can be remedied by engaging girls at a young age.

“I think that we should start younger, elementary school and pre-school age. There should be more technical toys for girls, instead of just Barbies and baby dolls. We need to encourage girls, even from six months old, to have fun with technology.”

Going even further, she says that the current method of engaging young people at university age, though great, is not effective.

“By the time kids enter college, many of them have chosen a major [subject] and have developed their interests. We need to get them excited about technology in middle and high school. Kids are now opting for technical trade schools instead of college.

Companies can partner with high schools to educate students on the benefits of a career in telecoms and technology.”

With a career spanning over 20 years, including an impressive stint as telecommunications specialist in the US Marine Corps, it’s fair to say Charles has encountered her share of trials in her career.

But she believes that being a woman in this

male-dominated field has its share of assets.

“Being the only woman in the room instantly makes you different and memorable. Because of this, I do believe I’ve had an advantage in a male-dominated industry. It’s all a matter of perception.

Women can see this as a disadvantage or an advantage. I always choose to see the positive side.”

As CEO of her company Charles has a number of men who work for her. She describes attending conferences with colleagues and introducing themselves to someone, whereupon it is often assumed that the men are the leaders and she’s working for them.

“It is not a roadblock for me, because I do not get offended. I know this stereotype still exists. I correct them and simply move on,” she explains.

In the past, she has also had the awkward task of setting boundaries or addressing discomfort in a social setting. “It all comes down to how to handle it delicately. I don’t want to embarrass the person,” she says. “I try to do it in a way that preserves the business relationship.”

One thing’s for sure – as a passionate speaker and advocate for diversity and inclusion in our industry, all members of team Broadstaff have been taught the importance of this subject and it is passed on to all its clients.

“When discussing job openings with a client, we refer to potential candidates as ‘he or she’, whereas people usually say ‘he’ when talking about construction or engineering roles. That small adjustment helps to open the mind to a more diverse candidate pool,” she says.

“Secondly, we educate our clients on the need for diversity in their teams. We’ve had many instances where we present a woman for a role and the hiring manager says: ‘I don’t see a woman in this position.’ Then we say, ‘Let me tell you why this woman would be a good fit for this role,’ not why a woman would be, but why this woman would be. We find the person who is the best fit for that role, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, faith and so on.”

Charles spends much of her time speaking on the subject of diversity and inclusion.

Most recently she spoke on diversity and inclusion at the Verizon Technology Users’ Forum – “a huge hit”, she says.

The biggest area that Charles thinks we’re falling short on is “that men are not included enough in this conversation”, she notes.

“Men need to be more involved in this conversation. They need to be encouraged to be mentors and sponsors for women. Many women’s organisations will not allow men to participate on any level. I think this is a mistake. This is not an ‘us versus them’ issue.

This is a human issue and we can only solve this together.”

34 |

It’s not just the right thing to do, but it leads to better business Capacity

IS GENDER PARITY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ANY FURTHER ADVANCED IN 2019, ASKS SUE TABBITT. WHO’S GETTING THERE?

T

here will come a day when gender parity becomes a non-topic, in the communications industry and beyond. But for now it remains a strategic board issue.

Although female representation at all levels of the global telecoms market is improving, many feel progress is not happening quickly enough and that more needs to be done – by leading industry players, by membership organisations and industry networks, and by national governments and education systems.

“Achieving gender parity should be of paramount importance for leaders today,” says Keri Gilder, chief commercial officer at Colt Technology Services. “Not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but diversity generally – including diversity of thought – leads to better decisions and in turn, more profitable businesses.”

Looking at how far the telecoms industry has come, she says: “Not far enough. The good news is that the gender conversation has been heightened; the bad news is that in technology and telecoms there still aren’t that many women; even less so in technology-specific roles. We are starting to see process at the entry level but we have a long way to go in middle and upper management.”

Stephanie Liston, senior counsel at law

firm Mishcon de Reya, agrees that there is still a long way to go. Liston is one of the judges of Capacity’s Global Women in Telco & Tech Awards, and she was a founder of Women in Telecoms and Technology (WiTT).

“I think the industry is improving – but slowly,” she says. Liston started WiTT in 2000 when she was “very lonely” as a women working in predominantly a man’s world. The networking and support group started with four people around a dinner table. “Much has changed since then – but only really in the last five years,” she says.

Hundreds attend the meetups now.

“We discuss relevant current issues facing the sector; we review TED talks, consider the impact of AI, and focus on female entrepreneurs,” Liston says.

“It’s good that women can see role models in each other, and have an opportunity to swap notes about the issues they come up against.”

She agrees with Gilder that aiming for gender parity needs to be a higher strategic priority, for the whole industry’s sake. “The statistical and behavioural commercial benefits of diversity have been well documented. Not only that, but this industry has a skills shortage and the training, hiring and retaining of women

is critical to beginning to address this.”

The telecoms industry is undergoing fundamental transformation, though. It is becoming less based on physical hardware and focused more on intelligent software and value-added experiences provided on top of the infrastructure. Does this make a difference to the skills and gender mix telcos are attracting?

Danielle Royston, CEO of Optiva, a Canadian technology vendor of cloudbased OSS/BSS solutions to the telecoms industry, thinks the big tech companies have been quicker to grasp the value of being seen to set a good example and blaze a trail for greater diversity.

“Google, Facebook and Apple now provide their diversity reports publicly, elevating this issue by shining a light on it,” she notes, adding that the more that poor female representation is highlighted, the greater the impetus for change – something the telecoms industry needs.

And this needs to be driven from the top of an organisation, she asserts. “You can’t force diversity to happen via HR.” Looking to other industries for inspiration and best practice is not a bad starting point, Royston believes. As women take up more top roles, the ratio will gradually adjust in the tiers below, she adds. “By putting women and diverse august/september 2019

Image: Adobe Stock

feature: gender parity | 35

candidates into powerful leadership positions, the promotion and selection of women and diverse candidates will naturally accelerate.”

Royston believes the bigger names in the market are starting to make a more overt effort to set policies and goals to redress the balance. “In my first year, in 2017, in all of my travels from Africa to South America and across Asia, I met only one female executive; in the second year I met two,” she says. “But I am now at least starting to see some change, where companies have made parity a focus.”

One organisation doing well is Vodafone, according to Royston. “They have put together a concerted effort around gender diversity, and the results are showing.”

Helen Lamprell, general counsel and external affairs director at Vodafone UK, feels proud to be associated with a company which has also been investing at a grass-roots level to attract more girls into technology-based study and careers.

“As a woman in tech, I strongly believe businesses have a responsibility to support female talent development, and encourage more women to explore STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects at all levels of education,” she says.

Colt is similarly proactive, and championing gender parity initiatives from the top. Today, more than half of the company’s executive leadership team are women, and the business internationally is aiming for an increase in female talent at all levels of leadership by 2023.

Among a number of programmes is the company’s female-focused group, Network 25, designed to help to attract, retain and develop women in Colt, from London and Frankfurt, to India, Japan, Singapore and China.

“Colt is not satisfied being one of the pack,” she says. Gilder is personally involved with an initiative Colt is driving with some of its partners in the Middle East, involving cross-company mentoring of female employees who are just now receiving the opportunity to participate in the workforce. “In parts of the world like Saudi Arabia there is little to zero representation of female role models,” she notes. “It is critical that we use our partnerships and all of our resources to help accelerate change everywhere.”

As president of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA), Martha Suarez, based in Bogotá, Colombia, has been directly involved in industry networks for women in Latin America. She is encouraged by the rise in such groups, including ChicasTIC Latam and Conectadas in Mexico. ChicasTIC Latam, which capacitymedia.com

roughly translates as “ICT Girls”, started as a WhatsApp group, before moving to LinkedIn and then growing from there.

“We give advice to each other, there are monthly activities,” she says. “Being able to see other women in director-level positions in the industry is important.”

Significantly, the women represented are not just from a STEM background.

“Women in telecommunications don’t have to be engineers,” Suarez notes.

She thinks government intervention and policy-setting would help drive faster progress with gender parity initiatives – a cohesive package of measures that make it easier for women to rise through the ranks, earning equivalent pay, supported by better maternity and childcare support, and so on. “You can’t just dictate that 50% of employees or board directors must be women: that feels imposed. It’s more about a societal shift, understanding that women can, do and would like to do the same job as men, and making that more possible.”

More openness about pay levels would help too, she adds. “Having the information is part of the solution here,” Suarez says.

Nokia has been raising its game here.

In 2019, as part ofCapacity its prioritisation of diversity, CEO Rajeev Suri set out to research and address any gender pay disparity across its operations worldwide.

Analysis revealed a small but statistically significant pay gap in almost every country, which Nokia pledged to close by 1 July, something Suri has been blogging about.

As a lawyer, Liston at Mishcon de Reya is proactively working to promote pay parity in telecoms and beyond, where there has been some high-profile movement on this front. In April 2017, the European Union introduced gender pay reporting for large employers.

“Under the new rules, employers are required to report on and publish their gender pay gap on an annual basis,” Liston notes. “They are encouraged to explain any disparities, and set out what action, if any, they plan to take to address them. It is hoped this visibility – and the threat of reputational fallout for businesses with a large pay gap – will help drive institutional change over time.”

So, what next? Liston thinks headhunters could be looking more closely at women for key jobs, and agrees that governments as well as schools, universities and businesses all have a strong part to play in eliminating bias and promoting inclusion.

CenturyLink sees a diverse workforce as a market differentiator and contributor to business success. “We believe it’s one of our greatest strengths in a competitive

Google, Facebook and Apple now provide their diversity reports publicly, elevating this issue by shining a light on it Danielle Royston, CEO, Optiva

marketplace,” says Julia Fraser, the company’s VP for sales in the UK and Ireland.

CenturyLink fosters an inclusive culture and Fraser works closely with the company’s recruitment team and hiring managers to help source the best female talent through a range of initiatives.

“It’s important that there is a balance between female and male representation on job vacancy shortlists, and teams should be trained for absolute objectivity in the selection process and to highlight that career progression is a level playing field, regardless of gender,” she says.

The positive impact of greater parity can soon be felt, according to Matt Carter, CEO of managed SD-WAN provider Aryaka. Today women make up 35% of the company’s C-suite, and 44% of Carter’s direct reports are women.

“Constantly transforming our culture has allowed us to attract highly-qualified, ambitious women leaders who in turn are uplifting us all,” he says.

“We’ve seen a 40% increase in the number of women applicants. To me, their presence in the C-suite is as natural as breathing air.”

36 |

CMC brings reliability to Africa and the Middle East Marisa Trisolino, CEO of CMC Networks, tells Natalie Bannerman how her company is delivering much-needed connectivity resilience to the region and saysCapacity we need to do away with the gender comparisons

W

ith a career spanning 21 years, Marisa Trisolino is one of a few female CEOs in the telecoms industry.

Trisolino took the helm last year at CMC Networks, heralded as the largest panAfrican and Middle Eastern carrier.

At the end of 2018, CMC launched its first SD-WAN offering, the CMC-Rapid Adaptive Network or C-RAN. Speaking about the significance of that offering, Trisolino explains the importance of it to the MEA region and its growing need for reliability. “Customers have started to ask to redesign their networks in the Middle East and Africa region. This is largely with an increased thinking and focus on replacing MPLS with DIA [direct access to the internet] or IP circuits,” she explains.

However, she says that in several African countries DIA does not deliver the required reliability, which traditional MPLS does – and that is where CMC’s C-RAN comes in.

“Our C-RAN ecosystem and solution

provides revertible sub-second failover for all sites with dual circuits and transmission control protocol (TCP) session optimisation for legacy and high latency circuits like VSAT,” she says.

“CMC C-RAN has removed the traditional boundaries between WAN, data centres, security and cloud, and it provides tomorrow’s next-generation of networking, which is a first and pivotal step in Africa and the Middle East.”

Continuing on this streak of advancement back in March of this year, CMC partnered UAE-based du to announce the development of a new low-latency route between Djibouti and Dubai. Together both parties will create a one-stop shop for MPLS and capacity services, allowing cost-effective connectivity between Africa and datamena’s DX1.

Trisolino says the new route has helped CMC customers enjoy SD-WAN, MPLS and Ethernet services between datamena’s data centre and CMC’s 78 PoPs across Africa, as well as its data centres serving end customers who require a low-latency

route between Africa and the UAE. “This network is fully functional and is our preferred ME to Africa route and rides on dual cables and equipment, so fully protected on both segments,” she says. “We have seen a dynamic uptake in business between Djibouti to London and a similar uptake by our VNOs in the Middle East looking to expand into Africa using CMC’s Pan African network.”

As a key player in the region, CMC is well-placed to comment on the challenges that exist there. It is an area going through a period of transformation and high activity, and I was interested in learning what CMC is doing to mitigating these risks.

The biggest challenges, in Trisolino’s view, are high bandwidth costs, distances between locations and poor internet connectivity. Places outside the main cities suffer from high costs and lowquality links.

“The high bandwidth cost drove CMC Networks to look for a unique SD-WAN solution that addresses the unique challenges of the MEA market. For this august/september 2019

the big interview: marisa trisolino | 37

2010

Regional managing director, AT&T Wholesale EMEA

2013

Regional director EMEA global wholesale solutions & access management, AT&T Global Services

2015

Area vice president EMEA and southern Asia global access management, AT&T Global Services

2018

CEO, CMC Networks

female leaders in the market need to support our younger colleagues and give or create the space for them to express and share their opinions in the workplace.”

She overcame this by ensuring she knew her facts and she did some extra homework so that any statement she made was backed up with factual support. “It pays off and, as my career progressed, my opinion was asked for,” she says.

The second challenge she says is more personal – and that is the feeling of guilt towards her family.

“A demanding career takes time away, no matter how organised or balanced your approach. The unexpected meeting or trip always happens,” she explains.

“Make peace with this and go with it.

The more you fight it or try to make up for lost time the more the guilt feeling will kick. Just get over it and move on, and be

A balance needs to be struck and the competitive comparison between male andCapacity female needs to be done away with”

Marisa Trisolino, CEO, CMC Networks

purpose, CMC partnered with 128 Technology and Redvine,” adds Trisolino.

“Together we have developed a solution that does not use any tunnels, resulting in bandwidth saving of 30-40% compared with other SD-WAN products.

This, together with unique features 128T developed to improve the reliability and quality of choppy internet links, allows CMC to address the challenges of the MEA market, with lower cost and better quality.”

As an advocate for Capacity Media’s Global Women in Telecoms & Tech Summit and Awards, gender parity in our sector is something that she champions personally.

What have been her own personal experiences as a woman in this industry?

She says that one of her biggest challenges has been around recognition and finding her voice in the workplace – especially in the younger ranks.

“Either you get talked over or your suggestion becomes someone else’s great idea,” she says. “It is not in our nature to raise our voice to get attention. The senior capacitymedia.com

thankful at the same time your family is understanding.”

Trisolino thinks that being a woman in this male-dominated field is a “constant asset” simply because of the added diversity and perspective that it brings. As she puts it, “women have a different approach, style and read on a given situation”.

That is not to say that the assessment or read of a male colleague is any less of that of their female counterparts. “It is just simply different and it allows for a different angle or approach, which most of the time speeds up decision-making or makes reaching a conclusion more efficient. The workforce just works better when there is a balanced contribution and diversity. It’s definitely less boring,” she says.

According to the National Girls Collaborative Project in the US there are only 28% of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields as opposed to 72% of men. Women make up 23% of those in core STEM occupations in the UK, according to WISE. Further to this, UNESCO statistics suggest that 30% of the sub-Saharan African tech workforce

are women. East Asia, the Pacific, south Asia and west Asia had the worst balance, with 20% of researchers being women in each of those sub-regions. Meanwhile, central Asia had women comprising 46% of its researchers.

In response, Trisolino says that a large amount of work still needs to be done and part of that involves doing away with unnecessary standards and being intentional with creating much needed balance in our sector.

“A balance needs to be struck and the competitive comparison between male and female needs to be done away with,” she says. “That unnecessary push for a woman to demonstrate herself at the workplace and home, and pretend the juggling act is sustainable, is just not right.”

In order to achieve this Trisolino says building the right environment and working culture is key.

“It starts with us,” she continues. “We need to create and support a working environment which is encouraging and supportive of the various personalities in a company – male or female. Everyone has the right to be recognised for their ability, merit and individual contribution.”

As the fight for gender parity rages on, Trisolino has her hands full with CMC, executing the company’s plans to expand its suite of capabilities.

“CMC Networks is launching the next phase of our C-RAN solution, which will add SDN-NFV capabilities to our platform,” she explains. “This allows our customers to instantiate various VNFs [virtualised network functions] like Fortigate and 128T, allowing to service chain them together for a full next-gen SD-WAN network along with a security solution at a click of a button.”

In addition, the company plans to expand its portfolio with the launch of new product offerings. “We are also rolling out the expansion and footprint of our new Multi-Cloud Connect (MCC) and C-Rapid Deployment (RAD) products to provide these new offerings across the African continent and the Middle East.”

The new offerings are set to “solve the African cross-border connectivity problem” by leveraging CMC’s “extensive African footprint”. Thanks to other recent announcements, CMC now provides layer 2 ExpressRoutes, Direct Connects or IP-optimised routes for any customer in Africa with services on Azure or AWS. “Then finally, we are able to offer our C-RAN Programmable Platform, which enables customers to self-provision E-Line services between our data centres and increase and decrease the bandwidth of these services on demand,” she says.

All in all a lot is happening over at CMC and exciting times lie ahead.

38 | opinion: ruth kennedy

INCLUSIVITY IS THE KEY TO SUPPORTING WOMEN IN TECH TalkTalk champions women in senior roles. Ruth Kennedy, who is one of them, says we should all do what we can to encourage and support women throughout their tech careers

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usinesses thrive when they have a diverse workforce that includes women from a variety of backgrounds and industries.

I am proud to work for a company that champions women in senior roles.

TalkTalk has great female representation at a senior level, with our CEO, Tristia Harrison, and CFO, Kate Ferry, to name just two.

While the industry has come a long way, there’s more that we can all do to encourage and support women throughout their tech careers.

Plant the seed early We need to demonstrate how appealing a career in tech is to young women from an early age.

It wasn’t that long ago that young women were discouraged from taking an interest in STEM subjects because they were considered boyish.

Of course, this attitude has been flipped on its head and we are now actively encouraging young women to get involved in STEM subjects.

I have a daughter aged 12 and her school is brilliant and very supportive of young women taking an interest in STEM subjects.

As well as encouraging her to focus on STEM subjects at school, I try to reinforce the belief that she can be whatever she wants to be if she puts in the hard work.

Building relationships with local educators, such as the University of Manchester and Salford Business School, has been imperative to the success of TalkTalk’s move to Salford Quays.

In doing so, we hope to find great talent and endeavour to inspire more woman to consider telco when they’re choosing their career path.

TalkTalk Business has brought in 50 graduates to fill technology roles in the last 12 months and it’s been a great

success – around 20% have been promoted in that time and almost all are still with us.

However, there is a definite gender imbalance in technology jobs at a graduate level. We recently hired an early talent manager, who will be looking at an earlier apprentice age to reach out to those young women who decide not to go to university.

Capacity Representation in the industry There is still more we can do to bridge the gap. I attend a lot of industry events and feel a pang of disappointment when I scan the agenda and see the same faces again and again.

While companies aren’t specifically choosing to exclude women, they aren’t making enough of a conscious effort to be more inclusive. Until we start seeing 50% more women on agendas, the industry will stay the same. We need to be creating more opportunities for women to voice their expertise on public platforms. In turn, they will act as role models and more women will be empowered to get involved.

An inclusive environment One of the biggest challenges for women in business is returning to work after having children. We must ensure that women returning to work have the right support structure, and that mentoring, role modelling and training are available.

We must set a good example and hire more women with children into senior roles. If they can do it, so can you.

TalkTalk’s flexible working approach supports working parents. We must be conscious not to go the complete other way and alienate remote workers.

Loneliness is a huge epidemic right now, especially in an industry where there typically aren’t as many women as men.

Starting a company group for women is a nice way to champion and encourage

We must set a good example and hire more women with children into senior roles” Ruth Kennedy, director, carrier and SI, TalkTalk Business

other women and develop key relationships with people from different departments and backgrounds.

Accept every opportunity Having previously worked in the British Army in the Royal Corps of Signals, I have always been comfortable working in a male-dominated environment. I don’t feel that I have been treated differently for being a woman and I have never considered myself as any different from my male peers. I have always worked as hard as everyone else and felt confident in voicing my opinion and making myself heard.

I advise women in business to work hard, make valuable connections and accept every opportunity that comes your way – whether that’s asking the female leaders you look up to for advice or enrolling in a formal mentoring scheme. You could even become a mentor yourself and provide support and guidance to other women in the industry.

I’ve been a mentor for many years at TalkTalk, offering guidance and support to women looking to progress in their careers. This involves training and advising my mentees, while also building up their confidence and developing specific skills. Being a mentor is an invaluable experience and I’ve met some truly inspirational women from it.

Ruth Kennedy is TalkTalk Business’s director of carrier and SI august/september 2019

20 Capacity

Women to Watch T

his year’s class of the annual 20 women to watch includes a mix of new faces and veteran movers and shakers. As ever, this listing, chosen by Capacity’s editorial team, aims to celebrate female executives in our sector who are doing amazing work in their field and pushing the limits of telecoms and innovation. There are always some names that we miss but do keep an eye out next year for the opportunity to have your say and nominate some amazing women in your business!

capacitymedia.com

40 | 20 women to watch

Sarah McComb AWS Manager of global infrastructure expansion

Clémentine Fournier BICS Vice president sales, Africa

Tània Pinosa Brodynt Global Global product and OPS director

Lisa Miller CenturyLink President of wholesale, indirect and alliances

Belle Lajoie Cloudscene CEO

McComb is responsible for AWS’s investments in cloud infrastructure a role that also sees close collaboration with network backbone and data centre teams. Over the course of her career, she has held positions at the likes of IT solutions provider StrataCore as well as Microsoft. Her experience spans acquisitions, operations and business from small startups to industry leading players. Outside of the office, McComb serves as president, secretary and treasurer of the Women’s Tech Forum, an organisation that supports her belief in empowering women through lasting connections, positive and honest support and community.

Following the birth of her second child in 2011, Fournier became head of a team to sell BICS’s broad range of telecommunication services, including international voice termination, messaging, roaming, and innovative service solutions. Throughout the first half of 2019, Fournier and her team helped several mobile operators optimise their roaming business, offering managed services and advanced monitoring tools to guarantee consistent borderless connectivity wherever in the world their subscribers travel. Fournier is dedicated to helping telecoms operators find new sources of revenue in areas such as the IoT and subscriber authentication.

Pinosa joined Brodynt almost four years ago in the role of global service Capacity assurance director, and she is been in charge of both provisioning and support departments. She is described by her colleagues as the person to ask to when it comes to after-sales customer service and internal processes. As a telecoms engineer she has the technical expertise required to navigate this industry. Pinosa’s ability to accurately develop and quickly implement a strategy has been created to the recent successes of Brodynt’s provisioning and support departments, which have grown significantly in size during the last couple of years.

Miller is responsible for driving profitable revenue growth through alternate sales channels and building strategic partnerships that enhance the position of the company as an industry leader. She was most recently senior vice president of wholesale and alternate channels for Level 3 Communications.

Miller is an advocate and leader for women in STEM and serves as a mentor, working to develop rising talent, as well as contributes her insights on the importance of women in technology. She is also a member of Women in Channel and Women in Cable.

As the first CEO of Cloudscene, Lajoie has played a key role in the growth and development of the company. Since her appointment in April, she has launched Cloud Pathfinder, an online app that allows enterprises to search and connect with cloud partners. The expansion of Cloudscene’s product portfolio comes in response to industry demand for solutions that better enable the global market to connect to all major cloud providers. Prior to her appointment at Cloudscene, Lajoie served as global chief commercial officer for Megaport, and before this held roles with NEXTDC and Pipe Networks.

august/september 2019

| 41

Marisa Trisolino CMC Networks CEO

Louisa Gregory Colt Chief of staff

Suzie Gleeson Digital Realty VP, global accounts and cloud sales strategy

Cara Mascini EdgeInfra CEO

Woon Lee Chin Epsilon Director, product

capacitymedia.com

Trisolino has more than 20 years of experience across a number of roles in the telecoms space including sales, supplier management and strategic planning. Over her long career, Marisa has a proven record of improving service quality, increasing sales and managing costs and carrier relationships in the wholesale industry. She is recognised as an accomplished and energetic leader with a track record of improving service quality, increasing sales and managing costs and carrier relationships in the wholesale industry. Since her appointment, the company has celebrated a number of successes, one being a partnership with du on a new route from Africa to the UAE.

Gregory is tasked with ensuring the company delivers in key areas of its growth strategy, which includes investing in an intelligent network suitable for supporting enterprise customers. Having joined the company in 2016 in Singapore, Gregory has since then been named as member of Colt’s executive leadership team, and reports to CEO Carl Grivner. More recently, she led the Global Leaders’ Forum working group on blockchain, which launched at ITW 2019. “The blockchainbased ecosystem has been tested with resounding success at every stage, and we believe that this platform signals nothing less than the future of ICT financial settlement, ” she says.

Gleeson is co-founder of the Women’s Tech Forum, a network Capacity dedicated to supporting women in technology through community and building relationships. Gleeson has held leadership roles in a number of companies during the 23 years she has spent in this industry including Equinix and CenturyLink (previously Level 3 Communications). In her current role, she leads a team specialising in edge colocation and interconnection at Digital Realty. As a strong advocate for gender parity, Gleeson believes that it’s not about special treatment for women, but about encouraging gender diversity that helps the whole industry.

Mascini, who founded EdgeInfra, is described by her peers as ambitious, eloquent and a knowledgeable entrepreneur. The company is built on an innovative concept to improve end-user experience at lower costs for all by building micro data centres to better serve and interconnect the mobile operators with geo-relevant content. She has previously worked in the interconnection space with such companies as AMS-IX, Ziggo and Eurofiber. She completed her MBA at Bradford University while juggling her work and family life. She is now venturing into the world of 5G, edge computing and AI – to name a few.

Chin leads the development and management of a comprehensive suite of global connectivity solutions at Epsilon. These products include data centre interconnect, direct cloud connect, internet exchange peering, SD-WAN, voice and colocation services. Since joining Epsilon in April 2017, Chin has spearheaded several successful projects and partnerships. She played a key role in the cross-carrier automation project between Epsilon and DCConnect, which interconnected both SDN platform, Infiny and the SD-Cloud Express. Chin has also driven the initiative for 100G upgrades across the network backbone.

42 | 20 women to watch

Cristina Amor Soto Eurona Telecom Communications and brand, institutional relations, IR director

Tansy McCluskie Facebook Network investments

Chandy Ghosh Inteliquent COO and GM

Caroline Puygrenier Interxion Director, strategy and business development, connectivity

Funke Opeke MainOne CEO

Amor Soto is a member of the board, as well as head of communications, public affairs and investor relations for the entire Eurona Telecom group. In this role, she leads the strategic areas such as wholesale, Wifi hotspot, satellite and fixed wireless. Before joining, she worked for such companies as IBEX, Iberdrola, Suez and Llorente y Cuenca, as well as with the Spanish government. Amor Soto has driven Eurona’s unique identity, focused on business projects with a clear social vision. She has led projects that seek to address the problem of depopulation in Spain, bringing internet to rural areas with viable technological solutions such as satellite.

A regular speaker at Capacity events on the topic of women in telecoms, McCluskie is a recognised figure within the wholesale space.

Prior to joining Facebook, she served as procurement specialist and then product manager of fibre solutions, Europe, at Zayo. During the 2018 empowering women in telecoms panel at Capacity Europe she said what needs to happen to tackle gender diversity: “It’s our role to encourage people to step up. I would like to see more female leaders [in the industry]. Once you get there it’s easier to maintain.”

A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Ghosh has been Capacity characterised as “a force to be reckoned with”. She is especially passionate about encouraging women and minorities to build a career in technology and telecoms and is a mentor to countless women. Having steadily ascended through her career at companies such as KPMG, Johnson Controls, Intrado and CenturyLink, in her Inteliquent role, Ghosh is focused on improving mission-critical, lifesaving 911 technologies, by making them more responsive, accurate and easier to use.

Puygrenier brings over two decades of knowledge to her position as strategy and business development director for Interxion’s connectivity segment – with previous experience including roles with BT and Vodafone. Puygrenier is passionate about empowering the next generation of women in tech, and uses her role to push for greater gender diversity within the traditionally male-dominated telco and data centre industries. She has also spent the last three years teaching financial literacy workshops to children in London as part of the Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership’s business enterprise and employability programme.

MainOne, which Opeke founded, built west Africa’s first privatelyowned subsea cable system. It interconnected Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal in 2010. The company recently announced plans for expansion into Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. Under her leadership, MainOne has grown to become the leading provider of wholesale and enterprise connectivity and data centre services across the region and the company has played a major role in changing west Africa’s internet landscape. The company has notably embarked on an ambitious collaborative project with Avanti to build a Nigerian satellite gateway.

august/september 2019

| 43

Anne Morel Orange International Carriers SVP global carrier sales

Naaz Bax Seaborn Networks Head of marketing for events

Mary Clark Synchronoss Chief product officer and CMO

Gagun Gahir Telstra Regional manager voice EMEAA

Amy Marks Xsite Modular CEO

capacitymedia.com

Morel has overseen the global sales and business development of wholesale services for voice, data and mobile data since 2012. Prior to this, she worked as managing director for France Telecom UK, and actively contributed to the development of the France Telecom group in the UK through partnership and acquisition. She has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility within Orange International Carriers’ management team, including head of European carrier sales, before taking her current role.

While Bax works tirelessly as Seaborn Networks’ head of events, she has also been an active and motivated proponent for the Women in Subsea movement that has begun to gain traction over the past year.

She is a vehement advocate for diversity within the workplace – not just for women but also to encourage all young people to consider the subsea industry for their future career choice. She has advocated within Seaborn for its new internship programme. Bax has spoken and participated on multiple panels and sessions to help spread the word.

A year after joining Synchronoss, Clark is continuing to establish Capacity herself as a marketing, and now product, leader. In addition to her existing role as CMO, Clark was recently appointed to the role of chief product officer. She has implemented several product initiatives and outlined opportunities to expand Synchronoss’s product offerings.

This has led to partnerships with Softbank, AT&T, Rackspace and Microsoft. Clark’s personal mission to bolster gender diversity has seen her establish the Synchronoss lean-in programme – weekly meetings whereby Synchronoss’s female employees share career insights, life lessons and interesting ideas with the wider Synchronoss team.

With over 15 years of global telecoms experience, Gahir is responsible for scaling Telstra’s voice business and driving success by aligning and deepening customer relationships. She has also participated in projects to fight telecoms fraud, and spearheads efforts for Telstra’s digitised experience. Prior to joining Telstra, Gahir worked for IDT Telecom where she headed the EMEA sales teams and took on commercial operations roles. Gagun has featured heavily on diversity and inclusion panels at Capacity events as a topic close to her heart.

Xsite Modular is the design-builder of modular critical infrastructure buildings and Marks is dubbed the “Queen of Prefab”. She is known for being an outspoken advocate of women in telecoms and is one of the co-founders of Women in Subsea, an initiative that creates networking opportunities to women working in the sector. Marks also acts as chairperson for the SubOptic Diversity and Inclusion working group. She is described as someone who “walks the walk instead of just talking the talk” and as a leader in the “dry side” of the subsea cable industry.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN EUROPE? THREE AND NOKIA LAUNCH WORLD’S FIRST £2BN 5G-READY CLOUD CORE NETWORK >>>

SWISSCOM AND ERICSSON LAUNCH FIRST EUROPEAN COMMERCIAL 5G NETWORK >>>

Three UK and Nokia have launched the world’s first 5G-ready fully integrated cloud core network, totalling £2 billion, in preparation for Three UK’s 5G rollout.

Ericsson and Swisscom have switched on the first large-scale commercial 5G network in Europe to support commercially available smartphones.

CINIA AND MEGAFON SIGN MOU FOR ARCTIC CABLE >>>

GOOGLE TO BUILD €600M DATA CENTRE IN FINLAND >>>

Cinia, a Finnish designer, builder and operator of intelligent network solutions, and MegaFon have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build a new subsea cable in the Arctic.

Google has plans to invest close to €600 million in a new data centre in Hamina, Finland.

Share your news to be involved in the 2019 Capacity Europe e-Alerts that are sent to the 2,500+ senior-level attendees during the course of the event

special report

SATCOMS August/September 2019

CONTENTS 49 Executive interview: Jean-Philippe Gillet, general manager of broadband, Intelsat

50 Big interview: Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium

Capacity

52 Earth-based constellations for the new space race Capacity rounds up the best startup talent in the satellite space

54 Big interview: Ben Longmier, CTO, Swarm

55 Three, two, one, zero!

Satellites are back Capacity gives an overview of the satellite industry and how it’s still developing

capacitymedia.com

48 | SPONSORED STATEMENT

NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR BACKHAUL VIA SATELLITE The 5G networks, which promise to change our lives by enabling reliable than terrestrial fibre or multiple microwave hops. SES has a truly connected world, are still a long way from complete successfully deployed this solution in south-west Pakistan. deployment. GSM or 2G is still around and will continue to serve SES also provides a roadmap for the future which will enable the voice communication needs in the emerging markets. migration to 5G. SES is launching mPOWER, the next generation Industry analysts believe 4G migration to the edge of the network of MEO satellites, which will increase the throughput many times at will speed up due to the 5G hype. Traditionally communications the same low latency. satellites were seen to be the last option for the network planners due The mPOWER constellation will provide an additional layer of to the high operating cost, limited throughput, higher latency and flexibility. The cellular operator will be able to dynamically move the physical deployment challenges at the cell sites. traffic to other sites as the traffic profile changes. The ultra highThe space industry which used to be the exclusive domain of the throughput capability of mPOWER, along with its lower latency, governments has seen an unprecedented rise of start-ups funded will enable quite a few use cases of 5G as well. by private money. The time between the dawn of space age andCapacity 2009 only saw a handful of private companies emerge. Since 2009, according to industry estimates, more than $20 billion of private money has been invested into 435 companies related to space.

About SES Networks Satellite-related companies have attracted more than $10 billion of SES Networks is a market-leading provider of global data this investment followed by launch vehicles. networks, delivering world-class differentiated networks and The combination of the new high-throughput satellites, lower services to customers and partners in fixed data, mobility and launch costs and innovations in the antenna technologies is making government markets anywhere they need it. satellites mainstream. Cellular operators are the main beneficiaries of The company operates the world’s only multi-orbital and multithese developments. band communications satellite fleet, with over 50 satellites in SES, which operates more than 75 satellites in different orbits, geosynchronous (GEO) orbit providing broad coverage, and 16 has successfully implemented innovative backhaul solutions to in medium Earth orbit (MEO) providing fibre-equivalent enable rapid deployment of 4G. SES has pioneered the deployment throughput and latency capabilities. of carrier-neutral satellite-based transmission sites that can provide SES Networks combines these unique space-based capabilities simultaneous backhaul services for 2G, 3G and 4G services to with a robust, cutting-edge terrestrial infrastructure and advanced multiple mobile network operators. software systems to bringing the right communications solution to SES uses its high-throughput O3b satellites, deployed in the customers of all sizes around the world. medium Earth orbit (MEO), which lowers the latency significantly.

By offering only three points of failure the SES solution is more

ENHANCED CONNECTIVITY capacity

august/september 2019

executive interview: jean-philippe gillet | 49

SATELLITES ‘NOW PART OF A HYBRID COMMS SYSTEM’ Intelsat’s been way out on the geosynchronous orbit for 55 years, but now it’s integrating with low-orbit satellite networks and even tower companies’ services, the company’s Jean-Philippe Gillet tells Alan Burkitt-Gray

S

pace may be the final frontier to some, but it’s a rapidly evolving business to Jean-Philippe Gillet. As Intelsat’s vice-president and general manager of broadband, he sees satellites becoming integrated with the whole telecoms ecosystem.

He gives two examples. First, Intelsat has an agreement with the Malaysian tower company Edotco, owned by Axiata, to deliver services across Asia.

Secondly, Intelsat is working with low-orbit satellite companies – especially OneWeb, in which it is a shareholder – to deliver content.

“Satellites need to be fully integrated into hybrid solutions,” says Gillet, a satellite veteran who has been with Intelsat since 2003 and before that worked with US, Japanese and French satellite-based content services.

Intelsat itself is the granddaddy of all satellite companies, founded more than half a century ago in August 1964.

“Today we’re all about making satellites part of the wider ecosystem,” says Gillet. The Edotco deal covers 3G and 4G mobile standards as well as internet of things (IoT) services, “and how do we prepare for 5G”, he adds. “It will require a number of entities in the ecosystem to work together – a massive investment – and it will require a number of players to work together.”

The Edotco partnership is looking at backhaul of tower sites, managed services for rural and remote areas, and edge data centres to be placed close to towers – as well as disaster recovery solutions.

Mobile data traffic is expected to grow 31% a year over the next five years to reach 136 exabytes a month by the end of 2024. By then 5G networks will carry 25% of mobile data traffic, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

“Normally towers are connected by fibre or microwave,” says Gillet, “but no one technology is going to prove the capacitymedia.com

solution. The requirements are going to be accelerated.”

Since Intelsat went into service in April 1965, the company has specialised in geosynchronous satellites – now often abbreviated to GEO. But today, telecoms solutions “aren’t just space-based, but space and everything else”, says Gillet.

What, as far as Intelsat is concerned?

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, he answers, as well as balloons and Haps.

Capacity That’s an acronym for high-altitude platform station or, if you prefer, high-altitude pseudo-satellite or even, with the addition of an extra S, just high-altitude platform.

“We were one of the early investors in OneWeb,” he notes. “And we were the first to recognise – as a GEO player – the need to have LEO integration. You need to see how you can offer the best route.”

Certain applications need low latency, he points out, “better than GEO”, which is at 35,700km above the surface. But

5G will require a number of entities in the ecosystem to work together” Jean-Philippe Gillet, general manager of broadband, Intelsat

where you’re not worried about latency and you do want high throughput, “GEO makes sense”. Video, for example.

“The way traffic is going, by 2022 75% of the internet will be video content, according to the GSMA and other organisations,” he says. “Think about what video content you view today: you have a video file sent to your smartphone.”

It doesn’t matter if there’s half a second

latency if you can use network resources more effectively.

“The beauty of satellites is that you can use them to distribute the most popular content. Satellites will be part of 5G networks, we are convinced of it. But they have to be fully integrated.”

Intelsat has two main activities in the networks business, says Gillet: mobile network operators, to extend their reach into less-well served areas; and enterprise networks in markets from hospitality to banking.

“We are estimating the impact of 5G on the enterprise world. What 5G will require is massive investment. In fact, enterprise is going to drive 5G markets in areas such as IoT, and that will make 5G sustainable.”

Intelsat is a global company, with more than 50 satellites. “We have highthroughput satellites all over the world.”

So when a company starts offering a service in a particular region, “we never look at a market specifically for one region, but seek how we can replicate it elsewhere”.

That’s why he regards the deal with Edotco as “very forward thinking”, because Intelsat can offer similar partnerships with tower companies or mobile operators in other parts of the world.

He points to another Intelsat deal, this signed with African Mobile Networks (AMN), which works with a number of operators from Sudan to South Africa.

“We have significantly supported their deployment,” says Gillet, who is listed as a non-executive director on AMN’s board. AMN is about to deploy solarpowered towers across Africa, he says.

“We want to help it deploy in more rural areas, where you cannot rely on electricity supplies.”

That’s what he means about satellites working in the ecosystem as part of hybrid solutions.

50 |

Above the clouds with Iridium With a new fleet of Iridium satellites now in service, Matt Desch is building advanced services for the company he has nurtured from near collapse. Capacity Interview by Alan BurkittGray

A

mazon cloud users will be able to access their services from anywhere in the world via satellite company Iridium by the end of September, Iridium CEO Matt Desch tells me.

The contract, announced last year, will be aimed mainly at the internet of things (IoT) market, making it available across the 80% of the Earth’s surface that has no cellular coverage. The partnership between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Iridium will use the same IoT facilities that existing AWS IoT customers use.

“We will be the first satellite company to make a partnership with a cloud company,” says Desch. “We’ll go live by the end of the third quarter this year.” He confirms that that means by the end of September. “Our partners are already planning for it. We’ll start seeing more applications go faster.”

Applications, he says, will include tracking of goods, such as parcels and containers, and vehicles, such as buses, in areas that have no cellular signal.

“Users will be able to plug an Iridium

antenna into an existing system,” he says.

The 66 new satellites, plus a number of spares, have inclined orbits so that they provide complete land and sea coverage, including the Arctic and Antarctic. Each satellite is 780km above the surface of the Earth, giving a ground-to-satellite latency of 2.6ms. Signals are routed in a mesh from satellite to satellite.

Desch himself put the last two of Iridium’s replacement 66-satellite fleet into operation in February, replacing units that were launched in the 1990s. “They should last another 20 years,” he says.

He has now been CEO of Iridium for 13 years, leading a drive to raise $3 billion to fund the new, more powerful satellites. It’s four months longer than he was at Nortel, he muses. That was the Toronto-based equipment vendor that collapsed into bankruptcy protection in early 2009, long after Desch had moved on, firstly to Telcordia – now Ericsson’s iconectiv operation – and then in 2006 to Iridium.

There, he’s rebuilt a company that was facing disaster. Motorola came up with the idea of a satellite phone company in the

1990s; by the time the company went into operation on 1 November 1998, cellular phone networks were spreading around the world, taking away much of the potential revenue.

Faced with this competition, Iridium mark one went into bankruptcy protection on 13 August 1999, just nine months after it started up, with debts of around $4 billion. Motorola announced that the satellites would be de-orbited, until at the end of 2000 the US government offered $72 million for a two-year contract. US military forces have long been good customers for Iridium. In the mid-2000s, the company even had a heat-map on its website, showing where the big users were.

Afghanistan and Iraq, mainly.

Some private investors stepped in to save the company, buying it in 2001 for $35 million – and starting the long process of reconstruction.

Desch arrived at Iridium in 2006 with two main tasks: securing the funding so that it was a going concern, and planning the future satellite constellation. Iridium was only seven years old but satellites, august/september 2019

the big interview: matt desch | 51

1983

Supervisor, Bell Labs/Lucent

1987

Senior manager, strategic planning, then director of product management for operator services, Nortel

1990

AVP for wireless, Nortel

1995

EVP and president, Nortel

2000

Chairman, Airspan Networks

2003

CEO, Telcordia Technologies

2006

CEO, Iridium

the financial challenges in 2029-39. “Now we’re so large we’ll have plenty of money.

We generate so much cash that we have flexibility to develop ideas.”

Iridium’s vision is “that this company is a very unique network”, says Desch. At Iridium, “we’ve inspired a new space race.

There are lots of new companies taking encouragement that we’re successful now”.

But isn’t that a problem for Iridium? Two decades ago the old company was overtaken by the rapid arrival of cellphones. Today cubesats and other small, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites threaten to compete with the new Iridium, don’t they?

“No, what they’re doing is very different from what we’re doing. LEO is a neighbourhood in space, it’s not a business model. Where we differentiate ourselves is in spectrum, applications and business approach,” Desch responds. Iridium’s plan for the next 10 years is different “from anyone we’ve seen”.

One of the key differences is the spectrum that Iridium uses – and here

We will be the first satellite Capacity company to make a partnership with a cloud company”

Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium

especially orbiting only 780km above the surface, have a limited lifespan. It was important to think about the successor fleet as soon as possible.

“We were in a very difficult place financially,” he recalls. “We were profitable but there wasn’t enough money to refresh the fleet. There were some stressful years.”

The company began to work on Iridium Next, as the new fleet is called, in 2007.

Desch and colleagues found the financing and in 2010 ordered the new satellites from Thales Alenia Space.

The first 10 were launched on one SpaceX rocket in January 2017 and the final 10 in January this year: the value of the whole deal to SpaceX was $492 million.

The new satellites replaced the 1990s fleet one by one, so services continued throughout to existing customers.

“The final satellites were in position in February after a $3 billion replacement programme that took 10 years to complete,” recalls Desch.

He doesn’t expect work to start on the next successor fleet for another 10 years – but is confident that Iridium will not have capacitymedia.com

you’ll have to forgive me, because the satellite industry has its own way of identifying bands. Not for them simple terms in megahertz and gigahertz, but L-band, Ku-band, Ka-band and so on.

Ku-band uses 12GHz for the downlink and 14GHz for the uplink; Ka-band uses 26.5-40GHz. Both of these ranges are used by the LEO small-sats and by traditional geostationary satellites far away at about 35,700km above the equator. “They’re microwave frequencies,” says Desch.

Iridium uses L-band, around 1-2GHz, “closer to cellphone frequencies”, that can be directed to “very small antennas”, with low battery drain. “We can operate where [the others] get affected by rain or bad weather. We can be in the cockpit of an airplane – where Ku and Ka can’t.”

So what’s the company’s business plan?

IoT is “the core of the business model”, he says. “We still do satellite phones but IoT is the growth area for us. We’re really now a satellite IoT company that also does voice services.”

For example, “we can track airplanes globally”. Aireon is a venture owned by a

number of air traffic control services that uses Iridium to track aircraft over oceans and low-density land areas with great precision. “We know the location of every airplane in the world.” It means aircraft can be routed more efficiently. “Instead of 60 miles apart, they can be closer. They can climb faster and use less fuel. They can pass slower aircraft. This has revolutionised air traffic control in three months.”

And, when there’s a problem, Iridium delivers the information. When the two Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed after take-off this year, “it was Aireon that supplied the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] with the flight tracks” before the flight recorders were found.

This is a service “no one else can offer”, he says. “It’s not what Motorola envisioned when they thought of Iridium in the 1990s.

Now you can track airplanes and ships with a $1-$2 antenna.”

Companies “can use our network to ensure GPS services can’t be jammed – that makes us different from the others”. Why’s that important? Many services are highly dependent on GPS satellites to synchronise operations – not just the world’s mobile phone networks but power grids and many digital services.

And there’s Iridium Certus, for ships and trains, and “there will be aircraft” soon, delivering up to 1Mbps bandwidth. “With battery power it will work at 100kbps or less, to transfer pictures or low-resolution video.” These projects are costed in tens of dollars rather than thousands. It’ll be possible to connect smartphones to “a small Iridium device” in your pocket for when there is no cellular coverage.

He continues to enthuse about new possibilities: crewless ships, drones delivering vaccines and drugs to remote areas, and so on. “5G will operate on only 15% of the world’s surface. We have 450 technology partners,” working in shipping, IoT and consumer equipment. One is Garmin, which has satnavs embedded in Caterpillar construction gear. “That’s the magic of us now. We don’t have to spend millions on figuring out solutions.”

Having spent that $3 billion, the company faces no big capital expenditure until it starts work on the next replacement project in the 2030s. That means income goes straight to the bottom line, “$2.5 billion in cash over the next five years”, he predicts. Operating margins “are 60% and growing”, he says.

“We’re almost like a tower company. We have our assets in space and they generate a lot of cash. We’ve carved out a unique space – and that has made us really valuable.”

And Desch’s future? “I’ll be here for some time to come, probably helping to shape the next phase. I can’t do golf and you will not see me on a polo pony.”

52 |

Earth-based constellations for the new space race WHERE ARE THE HOTSPOTS OF THE NEW SATELLITE ERA? GARETH WILLMER TALKS TO ǧ

N

ational boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space.

So said Carl Sagan several decades ago in Cosmos, his hugely popular TV series and accompanying book.

Sagan was talking about the way in which ethnic and religious boundaries seemed so insignificant from space. But, 40 years on, this could equally apply to communications boundaries, which a wave of new providers are seeking to break down through cheaper, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, including nanosatellites and cubesats.

These are aimed at bringing the unconnected online and expanding coverage of technologies such as 5G and the internet of things (IoT), creating a real market for satellite communications beyond the traditional giants in the field.

Yet while space has no boundaries, certain hotspots of activity are breaking out on Earth, with clusters of new players sprouting up in particular areas. And it seems the right time to capitalise, with the market for small satellites set to triple or more than triple over the next 10 years to $43 billion, according to space consultancy Euroconsult.

But where are the main locations around the world of growth and promise for this market? We detail some of the key hotspots below – though, given the surge in innovation all over the globe, this list is by no means exhaustive.

US: Silicon Valley and Florida It’s no surprise that the hive of innovation that is Silicon Valley and the rest of the US west coast constitute one global hotspot – especially with NASA facilities such as its Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory there.

Companies with offices and headquarters on the west coast, including OneWeb, SpaceX and Amazon, have been at the forefront of the satellite revolution, with their plans to launch fleets numbering hundreds or thousands.

Other, newer space firms are springing up in the area too. “Being in Silicon Valley has exposed us to great investors, partners and customers, and has been a key resource to

drawing the best talent and engineers,� says Ben Longmier, co-founder and CTO of Swarm Technologies – a satellite company he co-founded in 2016 to boost the availability of low-cost connectivity, messaging and IoT services.

The firm has nine LEO satellites in space, with a 150-strong constellation planned within the next year or so (see interview in this issue, page 58).

Reflecting the area’s depth of talent, Swarm’s team comprises engineers, scientists and start-up operators who have previously worked for the likes of NASA, Google, Apple and SpaceX, and in venture-backed companies and academia.

And the team Capacity has been able to build satellites fast, says Longmier, making 14 for future launch in one day at its Mountain View offices.

The tech facilities and venture capital funds sloshing around Silicon Valley are further draws, with Longmier saying the $28 million of funding secured by Swarm is more than enough for the company to launch its entire constellation.

New satellite activity is additionally building up in Florida, with the state’s strong heritage in aerospace and NASA launches. OneWeb has just opened a 9,800 square-metre facility there to aid industrialscale mass production for its eventual planned fleet of almost 2,000 satellites.

Furthermore, other firms are making the area more attractive for start-ups through missions that allow providers to rideshare on their rockets. SpaceX, which has launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, has unveiled a programme allowing small satellite providers to hitch a ride on the company’s Falcon 9 rockets for as little as $2.25 million per mission.

Los Angeles-based start-up Relativity Space has secured a disused launchpad at Cape Canaveral. It is planning to help others send payloads into space on rockets it has 3D-printed.

Northern Europe: UK Half the satellite manufacturing value chain is already in Europe, and “new players will find it a great fit to innovate there�, says Arun Kumar Sampathkumar, industry

manager for aerospace and defence at Frost & Sullivan. “European-based efforts seem to be fast-tracking to enable them access to cheaper launch services.�

Much activity in the region is centred on Northern Europe, where governments are investing as opportunities grow. The UK Space Agency (UKSA), for example, is bidding to boost its share of the global space market to 10% by 2030 and getting involved in initiatives such as Project Darwin – a trial with Telefónica’s O2 and the European Space Agency (ESA) of satellite and other technologies for connected vehicles.

That trial will take place at Oxfordshire’s Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, the site of a huge cluster of about 90 space organisations. One of these is start-up Lacuna Space, based at the ESA’s oncampus Business Incubation Centre, which is planning shoebox-sized cubesats to enable IoT via long-range wide-area-network (LoRaWAN) technology.

Lacuna CEO Rob Spurrett explains that start-up clusters are boosted by access in places like Harwell to the availability for rent of testing equipment such as vibrationtesting apparatus. “Start-up companies still need pretty expensive facilities to do what they need, so if there happen to be ones around that you can hire rather than buy, they’ll tend to cluster around those,� he says.

He adds that there are quite a few venture capital funds in the Oxford area, including on the Harwell campus.

Spurrett says Scotland is another place where satellite start-ups are springing up, centring on the University of Glasgow – with companies like Clyde Space, which is building a reputation as a world leader in developing cubesats.

Northern Europe: Netherlands and Denmark Observers cite other northern European countries too, such as Germany and Luxembourg, which have good access to venture capital and are around areas of key historical space activity or contain small satellite developers such as Berlin Space Technologies. As well as operating in the august/september 2019

Image: Adobe Stock

feature: satellites’ silicon valleys | 53

UK, Lacuna Space has another office in the Netherlands. There, it works closely with Amsterdam-based The Things Network, a leading crowdfunding-backed advocate of LoRaWAN technology seeking to boost low-cost IoT adoption around the world.

With many new satellite players focusing on cheap, low-power networks for IoT, a growing hub for such activity in Amsterdam is a further draw for the cluster that’s forming there too – along with a variety of other attractions.

Satellite IoT start-up Hiber is another player with offices in the Dutch capital, as well as in the city of Delft, around 50km to the south-west. Coen Janssen, the company’s co-founder and director of business intelligence, explains: “We set up in Amsterdam and Delft most importantly because there is a wealth of business and start-up talent in the former city and technical talent in the latter.”

He describes Delft University of Technology, where he studied, as “the leading university for aerospace engineers in the western hemisphere”. ESTEC, the ESA’s technical headquarters, is also nearby.

Janssen talks of the history of innovation and creativity in the Netherlands. “The Dutch invented Bluetooth, Wifi and the CD, as well as other important things like the artificial heart,” he points out.

Hiber says significant activity is also taking place in Scandinavian markets such as Denmark, where the company works with Aalborg-based nanosatellite developer Space Inventor.

The Danish government, says Janssen,

a fleet of satellites for UK-based Sky and Space Global.

GomSpace is apparently named after the “grumpy old men” nickname the founders gained while at university for their “critical, enthusiastic and analytical approach” to technology.

Southern Australia Australia is seeing a fresh lease of life as a location for space technology, after the country’s government last year launched its national space agency.

In particular, organisations including the new Australian Space Agency are flocking to the southern city of Adelaide, where a new seven-hectare innovation precinct called Lot Fourteen is being set up. One of the first tenants to move there was nanosatellite IoT start-up Myriota.

“We’re seeing start-ups from across the globe move to Adelaide to enjoy the benefits that being based here can provide their business,” says Alex Grant, CEO and co-founder of Myriota.

Stone & Chalk, an innovation hub, will soon open its doors to hundreds of start-ups, while the University of South Australia’s Innovation and Collaboration Centre is running a venture catalyst space Capacity programme.

The Smart Sat Cooperative Research Centre is also based in Adelaide. “It’s the biggest space industry research and development project in Australia’s history, combining the power of industry research, educators and start-ups,” says Grant.

Fleet Space is another company that has

largely unconnected continent, so the entire ecosystem understands better than most the tyranny of distance and the benefits of being able to connect devices at scale in areas without connectivity,” says Pearson.

Asia and the Middle East Observers also point to a variety of other places around the world with promise for new space-based ventures too.

In Singapore, for example, start-ups are springing up such as Transcelestial Technologies, which aims to build a space laser network using wireless communication and nanosatellites.

In addition, the National University of Singapore has established a Satellite Technology and Research Centre.

Meir Moalem, CEO and founder of Sky and Space Global, believes Israel – where his company has an office – could also be one for the future. “Israel is what we call the start-up nation,” he says. “Companies there are always thinking about new things and ideas, and new developments.” And Israeli start-up NSLComm, for example, launched its first nanosatellite in July.

Other locations hold promise for the future too. “I imagine we will see more of these kinds of technologies emerging out of developing nations like China and India,” adds Janssen. “I’ve spoken with numerous investors and prospects in China who have a huge amount of enthusiasm for this technology and the impact wider IoT connectivity could have on the world, particularly in regard to remote farming.”

In India, he adds, more mainstream space

Until a few years ago, space belonged only to mega-companies with big pockets, but today the amount you need to invest is much lower” Meir Moalem, CEO, Sky and Space Global

“seemingly sees space tech development as an important element of the national economy”.

In 2016, Denmark set aside the equivalent of €47 million for space activities over a three-year period, including its participation in the International Space Station.

Aalborg University, meanwhile, has a strong reputation in engineering and a history of student cubesat projects. It was also the place of study for the founders of Aalborg-headquartered nanosatellite manufacturer GomSpace, which is building capacitymedia.com

set up in Adelaide to provide low-cost satellite systems for IoT applications.

“South Australia has excellent access to telecommunications talent coming out of universities, as well as being the HQ of the Australian Space Agency,” says Matthew Pearson, co-founder and chief operations officer at Fleet. “There is a great combination of government support, and new and experienced talent that we can draw on.”

And with its huge tracts of open land, the country seems a logical place for a burgeoning space sector. “Australia is a

activity is happening, especially at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the country’s south-east.

Yet, say market players, at the end of the day space knows no boundaries, and lends itself to a global approach on Earth.

If new players can seize this window of opportunity, it offers strong prospects, says Moalem. “Until a few years ago, it belonged only to mega-companies with big pockets, but today the amount you need to invest to establish a space-based business is much lower. That opens up a lot of opportunities.”

54 | executive interview: ben longmier

FORD’S NETWORK TO BE BUILT FROM SWARM SATELLITES Satellite start-up Swarm Technologies plans to connect every Ford car using 150 tiny cubesats orbiting the planet, CTO Ben Longmier tells Alan Burkitt-Gray

S

ee that box of Earl Grey teabags in your office kitchen? Pretty soon there’ll be 150 or so objects, each no bigger than that box, orbiting in space.

They are being built in-house by a start-up called Swarm Technologies, based in Silicon Valley. It was set up by Sara Spangelo, an aerospace engineer who worked for Alphabet’s ultra-secret Google X research arm, and Ben Longmier, a former nuclear engineer who worked for a secret Apple project.

Less than three years later, Swarm has raised $28 million, “enough to build the entire constellation of satellites”, says Longmier from California.

“Some people in the world have zero communications – we can provide that and it will be game-changing,” he says.

But as well as that there are commercial opportunities in the internet of things (IoT): transport and agriculture, as well as in solar and wind energy, and services to monitor pipelines.

The cost has come down so much that all these applications are now affordable.

“We already have international partnerships – with Ford for example – to use our satellite services. You’ll have a Swarm button in every Ford car for when the airbag goes off and there’s no cellular coverage. We’re at a cost point where Ford can build a satellite modem into every car.” This is Ford globally, he notes, and “we’re a global company. Cars are going to be connected.”

Longmier and Spangelo have both worked in and around the new space industry since they did their PhDs – Spangelo at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab, for example, and Longmier also at Nasa before he started up Aether Industries, developing near-space balloon operations for aerial imaging and telecoms.

“Apple bought it and gave us an almost unlimited budget, but I can’t talk about it,” says Longmier, who left to set up Swarm with Spangelo. You mean

iPhones in space, I joke. He repeats: “I can’t comment.”

They created Swarm to take advantage of the burgeoning satellite market. “In particular satellite launch costs have come down, almost to the point at which individuals can afford them. Almost,” he says. “Start-ups can raise some venture money and that’s all happened in the last five years.”

Swarm started in an old aircraft Capacity hangar in Palo Alto. “It was really dirty, but we could make all the noise we wanted. Silicon Valley is extremely expensive and this was basically free by comparison.”

And they took on an usual strategy.

“Most satellite companies don’t build satellites, but we are almost completely vertically integrated. It’s never cheaper to do it yourself but it’s always faster.”

In case you’re worried about that grubby hangar, the company has since moved into an 8,000 sq ft building “with antennas on the roof, a clean room and a small machine shop”.

Each of Swarm’s satellites is tiny, a

Even in developed nations there is this problem of connectivity” Ben Longmier, CTO, Swarm

10×10cm square that’s 2.8cm thick. The emerging smallsat industry calls this size ¼U, based on the Silicon Valley standard for 10×10×10cm cubesats.

“We wanted them to be smaller but we also want to make sure they are trackable in space. They need to reflect radar – just like my bike reflector.”

Swarm has signed up with a company called LeoLabs to keep a radar eye on

them. “Now, we look very bright in terms of our radar signature.”

How many? Swarm has an initial nine in space now, but “Sara has signed up for 177 satellites to be launched,” he says.

“We’re in the queue now.” The company has applied for a licence from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Only 150 of those 177 will be needed for service, he says. “We’re planning on some of those rockets blowing up. Flying is hard, space is hard,” he says. “But the satellite stuff was not the hard part: the hard part is getting commercial approval for the frequencies. It’s not a streamlined process. Spectrum has been the main and only roadblock.”

And the business for Swarm’s satellites?

“Smart agriculture is a target market.

Most farms have shitty cell service,” he says. “Even in developed nations there is this problem of connectivity. We think Swarm has a unique opportunity.

Agriculture is a low-margin business, but it doesn’t need a lot of data, with a lot of computing at the edge.”

Swarm is already working in the pre-sale phase with “a bunch of partners”, though it is also having to seek approval from regulators “country by country”, he says. “We prefer to go direct,” but some countries need an intermediary such as a local telco, “and we’re exploring those.”

One opportunity is Sweetsense, monitoring water wells in Kenya and Ethiopia via Iridium’s satellites.

“Otherwise someone has to drive out to check each one. People pay lots of money to Iridium for little bits of data.”

However, “Iridium has been a pioneer in the IoT satellite data industry. Iridium is one of the best but it’s very expensive.”

The future, he believes, is in small satellites. “We’ll be the first to do it.

There are many sensors that are looking for satellite communications. We have all the funding to do it right now.” august/september 2019

feature: which satellite? | 59 55

Three, two, one, zero!

Satellites are back WHAT’S GOING ON IN SPACE? MORE THAN YOU THINK. ǧ GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF THE INDUSTRY AND HOW IT’S STILL DEVELOPING AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE WORLD’S TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE

I

t’s only a few years ago that communications satellites were considered as just so last century – as indeed they are.

But in the past few years they have come back with a vengeance, promising to enable new services such as the internet of things (IoT) as well as to expand the coverage of

mobile phones and data to the vast fraction of the earth that is not yet covered by mobile operators. All this means things are changing. There are new types of satellites – and there is every sign that satellites will regain their recognition as part of the communications infrastructure. Satellites

have one challenge not faced by fibre: space debris, from old launchers or dead satellites.

A 10-year-old Atlas Centaur rocket broke up in orbit in late March into one big chunk and 40-60 smaller pieces, many larger than 30cm in size, and some only 10-20cm across. They all threaten the industry.

SECTION 1: MARKETS Intercontinental phone calls and TV The first transatlantic phone cable, in service in 1956, carried 35 simultaneous telephone calls between Newfoundland and Scotland, and no TV. Less than a decade later, the first geostationary satellite, Intelsat I, carried 150 calls at once, as well as TV pictures – and was available over a wider area via the giant satellite dishes that became a symbol of international communications.

New satellites followed quickly so that in July 1969 the world could watch the Apollo 11 crew (pictured below) walking on the moon. Today, fibre provides most of these intercontinental services, for phones, TV and for internet data.

But cables can break and so geostationary satellites are still needed to provide a back-up.

And there are still places not yet reached by subsea or terrestrial fibre. Many islands – such as St Helena in the south Atlantic

capacitymedia.com

Capacity

– rely exclusively on satellites, as do some land-locked countries.

Ships and aircraft You can’t connect fibre to ships crossing the ocean. From the early twentieth century – think of the Titanic in 1912 – the only way to stay in touch was via short-wave radio, until Inmarsat was founded in 1979.

Like Intelsat, it began as an intergovernmental body, intended to establish and operate a satellite communications network for the maritime community. Its role was quickly extended to cover aircraft, also previously out of radio touch once they were out of range of the coast.

Inmarsat provides global maritime and aircraft distress services at no charge, as well as paid satellite phone services,

with its own country code, +870.

The company, now owned by private equity, came to public fame five years ago when Malaysian Airlines flight 370 disappeared on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew.

The aircraft remained in automatic touch, though without positioning information, for some time after losing contact with air traffic control.

Now, Aireon, an international air-traffic control company, uses Iridium satellites to track aircraft with the right equipment every half-second (pictured above).

Iridium’s satellites cross the poles, so cover the globe – unlike geostationary satellites, which are low on the horizon or just below the horizon in polar regions.

In 2018, Deutsche Telekom, working with Nokia, launched the European Aviation Network (EAN), which uses a

56 | feature: which satellite?

combination of an Inmarsat satellite, operating on 2-4GHz, and 4G terrestrial signals to provide mobile coverage to commercial aircraft. Data rates of up to 75Mbps are available for each aircraft via an on-board Wifi relay.

SES’s subsidiary O3b plans to start launching a constellation of MEO satellites, called mPower, in 2021 to offer broadband to ships at sea via 30,000 steerable spot beams, at up to 10Gbps.

The mPower satellites will be connected via SES’s own geostationary fleet.

TV and content delivery

Geostationary satellite operators found an expanded US market in delivering new TV channels such as ESPN, founded 1978, and CNN (pictured above), founded 1980, to cable operators, so they could offer more than just the regular terrestrial services to their customers – and collect extra subscriptions.

Then rural dwellers, far from terrestrial broadcast stations or cable networks, realised they could buy dishes and watch TV. Designed for cable networks, the dishes were several metres across.

Within years, powerful direct-to-home (DTH) satellites were in service across the world delivering sports, movies, news and entertainment channels to customers who installed relatively tiny dishes, only 60cm across, on their walls and roofs.

In 1985 entrepreneurs set up Luxembourg-based Société Européenne des Satellites (SES) to launch the first of

many Astra satellites for just this market.

Geostationary satellite operators also deliver premium TV content to cruise liners and other ships.

Base station backhaul Cellular base stations need to be connected to the core telecoms networks. In cities and densely populated countries, it’s economical to use fibre or microwave, but this is not always the case in rural areas of emerging markets.

SES’s MEO subsidiary O3b (pictured below) aims at doing just this: the name stands for “other three billion”, signifying the company’s intention to extend broadband to people not yet served adequately.

Geostationary satellite companies offer a similar service, though latency is a problem here, especially if more than one satellite hop is needed – see facing page.

But just as satellites provide an emergency back-up when subsea cables break, they can also provide disaster recovery when an earthquake or storm knocks out regular cellular coverage – via a base station in a shipping container or on the back of a truck, equipped with a satellite dish.

Capacity

Satellite phones In the 1990s, no one expected that cellular phone networks would grow so quickly – and that’s why Motorola invested billions in Iridium. The revived Iridium company still provides a satellite phone service – see interview with CEO Matt Desch on pages 50-51 of this issue – and so do Inmarsat and UAE-based

Thuraya. You can buy Iridium phones from Amazon.com at a price of $645 upwards. Three satellite companies have their own country codes for direct dialling to phones on their network: Iridium is +8816 and +8817, Inmarsat (pictured below) is +870 and Thuraya is +882 16.

Two challenges have limited the market for satphones: first, you need a line-ofsight to the satellite, so ideally you need to be in the open air, and second, battery consumption is high.

An alternative is to have a satelliteconnected hotspot that links nearby terminals such as phones using Wifi.

Satellite data and IoT Before broadband made the web and other internet services so widely available, data connections were difficult for telcos.

In the late 1980s, the best that could be done was Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) – a copper-based service that worked in increments of 64kbps, not very good for sending and receiving large files.

Satellites could do better, at a price, with very small aperture terminals (VSAT) using fixed dishes from around 1.2m up to 3.8m. VSAT connections gave shops a point-of-sale service; they were used to register lottery transactions and bets; banks connected branches and automatic teller machines with their central computers.

VSAT from companies such as Inmarsat is still used in remote areas, where no broadband is available via fibre cables or ADSL on copper.

LEO satellites have developed new roles with the emergence of the internet of things (IoT) – to track shipping containers, railway wagons, farming and construction machinery, and refrigerated trucks.

SECTION 2: GETTING SMALLER Cubesats Operators used to boast about how big and heavy their satellites were – and some still do. The first Intelsat V, launched in 1985, weighed just over 2 tonnes on launch; the first of the next generation, Intelsat VI, weighed 4.3 tonnes. It was 11.7m tall – as high as a three-storey building – and 3.6m in diameter.

But 20 years ago two California

universities, Stanford and Cal Poly, invented a new standard, the cubesat, measuring 10×10×10cm, though some are 11.35cm high. The maximum weight of a cube is 1.33kg. Because of the limited area available for solar panels, cubesats cannot consume more than 10W of power.

There are already 900 in operation, typically orbiting around 700km above august/september 2019

| 57

the Earth’s surface. Some are for research, including Earth observation, and others are for communications, such as IoT. At least one company, Swarm, retains the 10×10cm footprint but has opted to

use the height of just 2.8cm – see interview with CTO Ben Longmier on page 54. Swarm has a contract to provide global IoT services to Ford cars.

The 10 ×10×10cm size is called 1U

– for “unit” – but other designers are building 2U, 3U and 6U satellites to give extra power and capabilities.

Since last year, two 6U satellites have been heading to Mars.

might take two hops if you’re talking to a user of a mobile phone network that uses satellite to link its base stations. That’s a whole second to hear a reply.

Geostationary satellites are sometimes called GEO, with the letters standing for “geostationary Earth orbit”.

US-owned GPS, the Russian Glonass and the European Galileo all use MEO orbits, but there are few communications satellites, apart from O3b’s, at this height.

SECTION 3: ORBITS GEO, MEO and LEO – and latency Light and radio waves travel at 300,000km a second. That means a signal going up to a geostationary satellite 35,786km above the equator and back down again travels around 71,500km.

If you’re speaking via satellite it’s a quarter of a second before the person at the other end hears you and another quarter of a second before you hear their reply.

For voice calls, it’s just about manageable (I did it lots of times in the 1970s and 1980s before subsea fibre took over.) For data, needing a quick response, it’s almost impossible. And some calls

MEO Medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellites orbit at 2,000km and more above the surface, below the GEO height.

Satellite company O3b, owned by SES, operates 16 MEO satellites at a height of 8,000km, primarily to backhaul mobile voice and broadband base stations.

Global positioning services such as the

LEO Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites are typically 750km above the surface, high enough to avoid the upper atmosphere – which causes them to slow down and gradually fall out of the sky – and close enough to provide a good, strong signal.

That’s about the distance from Boston to Washington or London to Frankfurt, and shorter than the distance from Melbourne to Sydney. Latency is only around 5ms – or 10ms for a round-trip.

Capacity SECTION 4: FOUNDATIONS Where the idea came from It is 74 years in October that Arthur C Clarke, a radar instructor and then a physicist long before he was a sciencefiction writer, published an article in Wireless World, a UK magazine for radio enthusiasts. In Extra-terrestrial relays: Can rocket stations give world-wide radio coverage?, Clarke laid out the ideas that are still used for geostationary satellites.

His focus was television services, then about to spring into life after the end of the Second World War. “To cover a small country such as Great Britain would require a network of transmitters, connected by coaxial lines, waveguides or VHF relay links.”

He noticed that a satellite at 42,000km from the centre of the Earth – today we’d talk about 35,786km above the surface – would appear to hover in one place.

“It would remain fixed in the sky and unlike all other heavenly bodies would neither rise nor set.” These space stations would be built of components ferried up by rocket, he said.

Clarke assumed that a communications station would be crewed, “with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew” – a bit like today’s International Space Station (ISS), except that the ISS is only 409km above the surface, rather than 35,786km. capacitymedia.com

Today some people call that the Clarke Orbit, in his honour.

Clarke thought the world would need three stations, 120 degrees apart, “linked by radio or optical beams ... and thus any conceivable beam or broadcast service could be provided” (see picture, above, from the original Wireless World article).

He worked out much of the engineering of communications satellites, such as how much energy solar panels might gather but also when they’d go into eclipse, in the shadow of the Earth. He thought that a bandwidth of 100GHz, with separate beams focused at different parts of the surface, would permit “an almost unlimited number of channels”. He calculated the rocket power needed and

said multi-stage rockets – he called them “step-rockets” – would be required. He didn’t, though, think about latency, as his article mainly focused on one-way TV broadcasting.

No one has proved a link between early work on communications satellites and Clarke’s October 1945 article – which he previewed in a letter to the editor in March 1945. The special nature of the 35,786km orbit wasn’t a secret, and the 1950s saw a huge amount of satellite and rocket development, including the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 in 1957.

The first real geostationary communications satellite was Intelsat I, launched just 20 years after Clarke’s Wireless World prediction.

58 | market trends: satellites

S

LEGACY VERSUS TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES AHEAD

atellite operators face the challenge to balance growth, technology evolution and legacy customers, says a new report from Northern Sky Research (NSR). Operators are planning diverging supply strategies. Some are investing in large very high throughput satellite (VHTS) payloads to minimise capex/Mbps with the hope that demand will fill them rapidly. Others follow a step-by-step approach, launching smaller HTS payloads and hoping for rapid technology evolution to minimise cost per Mbps sold. Operators with significant exposure to fixed satellite services (FSS) today try to balance profitable legacy customers like video with growth coming from data with hybrid FSS-HTS satellites.

Mixed orbital architectures While some operators remain committed to geosynchronous orbits, others are looking to appeal to customers with diverse requirements by either operating assets in multiple orbits or partnering with other operators.

This enables an operator to seamlessly route communications over whichever link is more advantageous, taking such factors as latency, security and throughput requirements into account.

LEO constellations lining up After years of fundraising and

development, the first low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites have launched.

OneWeb raised $1.25 billion in early 2019. New constellation announcements continue, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

While non-geostationary HTS capacity and service revenues are not expected to grow quickly enough to sustain every player, the ongoing pressure for next generation networks is expected to drive the development of network and equipment design.

The paradigm has shifted from “Is

there a price pressure?” to “The price is definitely declining”.

This transition has forced operators to think mass market, unlock demand at lower price points, and pivot from oligopolistic to pluralistic positions.

The price declines are expected to range from 10% to 18% a year over 10 years for several GEO-HTS applications and will completely transform the transponder equivalent wholesale market to a bulk wholesale/service focused customer-facing play.

Capacity

Global trends Global total revenues $25

$ billions

$20

$15

$10

$5

$0 2018

2019

C-Band

2020 Ku-Band

NSR expects total capacity revenues to grow at 6.8% a year over the next 10 years.

Growth drivers continue to shift away from video and favour data segments.

However, video is still the cash cow and will provide very generous cumulative revenues over the forecast period.

Backhaul, consumer broadband and

2021

2022

2023

2024

Widebeam Ka-Band

2025

2026

GEO-HTS

mobility will be the key applications for future industry growth.

In a market with continuous capacity declines, driven both by technology trends and tougher competition, value is moving to higher layers of connectivity.

FSS will suffer a net loss of $3.2

2027

2028

Non-GEO HTS

Source: NSR

billion in annual revenues, but cumulative revenues will still be superior to HTS with $92.8 billion until 2028.

HTS will grow very rapidly, adding $15.2 billion annual revenues in the next 10 years with cumulative revenues reaching $77.2 billion.

august/september 2019

| 59

Key regional trends Global revenues by region $25

$ billions

$20

$15

$10

$5

$0 2018 NAM

2019

CAMCB

2020 SAM

2021 WEU

North America will continue to be the primary target market, showing both high levels of cumulative revenues – driven by video and HTS markets – but at the same time excellent growth, driven by HTS). Europe yields

CEEU

2022

2023

MENA

2024 SSA

2025

EA

SA

excellent revenues because of very strong video markets; however, as video stagnates and data segments still need time to develop, growth will be comparatively slower.

Sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia,

2026 SEA

2027 AOR

2028 IOR

POR

Source: NSR

south-east Asia and South America have large addressable markets for data services and will incorporate extraordinary levels of new business to the satellite communications industry.

Capacity Bandwidth demand by application Global GEO-HTS & non-GEO-HTS bandwidth demand by application 18,000 16,000 14,000

Gbps

12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 2018

2019

2020

Enterprise data

Activating new markets through HTS is the hope of the industry. NSR believes that the combination of cheaper capacity, with efficient ground segment and adequate business models has the potential to unlock

2021

2022

2023

Broadband access

2024

2025

2026

Commercial mobility

new business opportunities for the industry.

After some reluctance to adopt HTS, more and more operators incorporate some sort of HTS in their future fleet strategies.

Consequently, the market will become

2027

2028 Gov/mil

Source: NSR

contested with abundant supply.

Pricing will continue degrading over the forecast period but the cheapest bandwidth not always wins the deal. Business models are key.

Adapted with permission from the 16th edition of Northern Sky Research’s report, Global satellite capacity supply and demand. nsr.com

capacitymedia.com

60 | appointments

John Sheputis GI Partners Private investment firm GI Partners has appointed John Sheputis as its new managing director. He will responsible for leading GI Partners’ technology property acquisition and development activities.

In 2007, Sheputis helped to launch Fortune Data Centers, establishing the wholesale data centre segment of Silicon Valley.

During this time, he oversaw the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars of development capital and executed substantial leases with major tenants.

In 2014, Fortune Data Centers was acquired by Dallas Infomart to create Infomart Data Centers.

Following this, in 2018, the Infomart Data Center properties were acquired by Equinix and Stack Infrastructure in two separate transactions.

Nikolai Beckers Ooredoo Algeria Ooredoo Algeria has named Nikolai Beckers as its new CEO. With over 20 years’ experience across the telecoms and ICT industries, he has strong leadership skills in a number of companies including Deutsche Telekom and T-Online France.

Ooredoo Group CEO Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al Thani said: “We welcome Nikolai Beckers to Ooredoo, and are confident that he will deliver sustained success during this period of change and transformation in the telecom sector.”

Prior to joining Ooredoo, Beckers most recently served as CEO of Bakcell, the Azerbaijanbased mobile network provider. He was also CEO of Telekom Romania and president of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Syatems France.

Beckers holds a degree in business administration from the University of Cologne.

Jeffrey Tapley Digital Realty Jeffrey Tapley has been named as managing director for Digital Realty in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

He has been serving as interim managing director of the region since March.

Based in London, he will report directly to CFO Andrew Power.

Tapley was previously senior vice president of global portfolio management at Digital Realty.

Before joining the company, he was managing director at Fidelity Investments’ real estate group and at Long Wharf Real Estate Partners.

“I look forward to working with our customers and our teams across the region to ensure that Digital Realty is best positioned to execute our strategic expansion plans and support our customers’ global growth,” said Tapley.

Nancy Erba Infinera Optical networking company Infinera has appointed Nancy Erba as its new CFO. Erba will take over from current CFO Brad Feller after a short time at Infinera as its senior vice president.

CEO Tom Fallon said: “As we strengthen our financial operations and continue to execute our long-term strategy to drive profitable and sustainable growth, Nancy will be a key asset to our leadership team.”

Prior to her time at Infinera, she also served as CFO at Immersion Corporation, a developer of haptic technology, for two and a half years until March 2019.

Before that, she spent 15 years at Seagate, rising to be VP of finance for corporate financial planning and analysis.

Capacity

Roxanna Cieplinska e-shelter NTT subsidiary e-shelter has named Roxanna Cieplinska as its new vice president of hyperscale sales, international.

Cieplinska said: “I look forward to being part of this innovative team and representing our robust portfolio of data centres. We have facilities in London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hamburg and more.”

She was most recently Bridge Data Centres’ VP of hyperscale sales for Asia Pacific and EMEA. Before that, she worked for CenturyLink, holding roles such as account executive, strategic manager for data centre and cloud ecosystem and regional director for hybrid IT solutions.

Aniruddho Basu Mavenir Network software company Mavenir has appointed a former Ericsson executive, Aniruddho Basu, to develop new business in enterprises and industries.

Basu worked for Ericsson in India and Sweden from 2003 until earlier this year. He is now SVP and general manager of emerging business at Mavenir, based in Stockholm.

Basu will focus on finding markets for Mavenir’s solutions in 5G, internet of things (IoT) and digital transformation.

Mavenir president and CEO Pardeep Kohli said: “This new business focus will enable Mavenir and our channel partners to expand their addressable market.”

Judi Hartono Ciena Ciena has appointed Judi Hartono as country head of Indonesia.

Hartono brings industry knowledge and expertise that will help operators lay the groundwork for networks that can adapt and scale to manage unpredictable requirements.

Before joining Ciena, Hartono worked for Nokia as sales director and customer team head. He has held several positions at Juniper Networks.

Dion Leung, Ciena’s regional managing director for Asia, said: “As Indonesia prepares for 5G applications and inter-island, inter-country data centre interconnections, we are expanding our leadership team in Asia to help our customers transform their networks and turn challenges into new business opportunities.”

Nathan Bell M1 Former Telstra executive Nathan Bell has become chief digital officer at Singapore mobile operator M1. Though his appointment has not been officially announced, he appears in M1’s list of senior management.

On Bell’s LinkedIn profile his role is stated as “leading M1’s business transformation, across digital, product and systems”.

Bell spent eight years at Telstra, ending with nearly three years as the Australian group’s director of business-to-business digital transformation.

He also spent two and a half years as COO of Telkomtelstra, a joint venture with fixed-line operator Telkom Indonesia that focuses on business services.

Tell us your move

Capacity is keen to hear from readers about new roles and appointments in the industry.

Send details to natalie.bannerman@capacitymedia.com, with a high-resolution picture

august/september 2019

Capacity

62 | innovation report: private 4G and 5G

PRIVATE NETWORKS WILL FUEL GROWTH FOR MOBILE VENDORS OWNERS OF PORTS, FACTORIES AND OIL PRODUCTION PLATFORMS ARE TURNING TO MOBILE EQUIPMENT VENDORS,

ÇĄ Í° Íą

THAT ARE INDEPENDENT OF LICENSED PUBLIC NETWORKS. ALAN

ǧ LOOKS AT THIS FAST GROWING SECTOR

M

obile equipment makers are focusing on a market that, according to some reports, is growing at 13% a year and should reach $4.5 billion by 2023. Others put the growth rate even higher, at 28% a year.

At a time when Dell’Oro reports, as it did in mid-August, that the total market for telecoms equipment and services is growing at just 1% a year from now to 2023, what is this source of riches?

It’s the market for private 4G LTE networks, already identified by network equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia as an important extension of the mobile industry. It’s also seen as a route to private 5G networks.

Indeed, some private 5G networks are already in operation, well before public 5G services are generally available.

But what are these private networks?

Look around any private campus and there will be security people, maintenance people and others keeping in touch on private mobile radios. You see them in airports, seaports and ferry terminals, and at bus and train stations; you see them in theatres and cinemas; you see them at sports events and at Capacity Media’s conferences; you’re unlikely to see them but nevertheless they exist in oil and gas production wells, power stations, warehouses and factories.

Go with Vodafone In June, a German maker of electric cars put a 5G-powered factory into operation, using technology from Vodafone and Ericsson. The company, e.Go Mobile, makes an electric subcompact car, e.GO Life, in its factory near Aachen.

Automated guided vehicles in the factory replace the classic production line and transport the chassis from station to station. The company could have used a classic radio network or Wifi, Ericsson and Vodafone decided it was an opportunity

for a pilot for a 5G-driven factory, giving it a latency of less than 10ms.

But we don’t have to wait for 5G for private mobile networks: most existing networks run on 4G. Ports are already using private 4G networks in place of old-style private mobile radio. The Netherlands port of Rotterdam was early into the world of private 4G, working with companies such as Cisco, Ericsson Capacity and IBM to link people and infrastructure.

Global standard One of the advantages of 4G is that it’s essentially a global standard. A 4G terminal or phone will work on public and private networks anywhere in the world – a good feature for ships docking at Rotterdam at the end of a voyage from Shanghai. And the same will apply to 5G terminals and phones as they arrive on the market.

But the network is private: the port or the factory doesn’t have to persuade local mobile network providers to ensure good signal strength throughout the site. That doesn’t exclude operators, of course, which is why Vodafone is working with that German electric car company.

In theory, a terminal can continue to operate outside the factory walls, using the public network.

Finnish operator Elisa is also working with Ericsson on building private mobile networks for enterprise customers, providing greater security and an increased capacity for high demand. Elisa has been carrying out tests in its own facilities, using a pre-packaged solution from Ericsson.

Capacity, security and other critical communication needs are prompting industries to seek out their own private networks, says the Swedish vendor. With dedicated networks for enterprises, Elisa will be able to better adapt its service to specific industrial customer needs. As

private networks are closed, only specifically defined devices and connections can access them, securing higher levels of performance and information security valuable to industries.

Pumping the gas Nokia has built private 4G networks for oil and gas production sites, not just in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea but also on terra firma in the Middle East.

These installations are typically isolated from normal public mobile services – but they still need big data applications such as automation, remote monitoring and real-time asset management, and energy companies are trying to automate production as much as possible.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT) are as important for oil and gas as for other sections, especially as, says Nokia, much of the old equipment in these networks is approaching or past end-of-life.

Nokia also has a contract to build a private LTE network that will reach the premises of consumers who are customers of a Brazilian energy company, Elektro, using 3.5GHz spectrum. Elektro – which is part of the Neoenergia/Iberdrola energy group – will use the network to connect smart meters and other equipment in the homes of more than 75,000 customers in the city of Atibaia and other parts of the Brazilian state of São Paulo.

Germany’s regulator, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), and the European Commission are both taking steps to ensure spectrum is available for future private networks.

BNetzA has identified spectrum in the 3.4-3.8GHz band that can be taken up by large industrial companies such as BMW, Bosch and Siemens. It’s not for Germany’s mobile operators to reserve for enterprise customers – but will be for the enterprises themselves to build, with the help of network equipment companies. august/september 2019

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