What’s up with… 5G in India, Altice, 800GbE services

• As Bharti Airtel preps new 5G expansion, Jio hits 148 million 5G users
• Altice makes new moves to shrink its debt pile
• Colt, Nokia and Windstream Wholesale boast long-distance 800GbE connection 

In today’s industry news roundup: India’s telco sector is awash with 5G updates and speculation as the India Mobile Congress prepares to open its doors; Altice Portugal eyes Morgan Stanley for potential sale of FastFiber assets; Colt, Nokia and Windstream Wholesale team up to connect London and Chicago with the world’s first ultra-fast 800Gbit/s Ethernet optical and IP service; and much more!

Ericsson has reportedly landed a new multibillion-dollar 5G mobile network equipment deal with India’s second-largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, according to The Economic Times. The Swedish vendor was one of Airtel’s main vendor partners as it rolled out its national 5G network in 2022 and 2023 and now it seems the vendor is picking up significant new business as Airtel adds capacity to, and extends, its 5G network coverage. Speculation that a new deal with Airtel is about to be announced comes only weeks after Ericsson landed a major slice of 4G/5G radio access network (RAN) equipment contract awards worth $3.6bn in total from India’s third-largest operator, Vodafone Idea. Speculation about new 5G investments by Airtel comes only hours before Ericsson reports its third-quarter financial results (released early on 15 October) and on the eve of the India Mobile Congress show in New Delhi (the event is not part of the GSMA’s MWC event series). With Airtel and market leader Reliance Jio having successfully rolled out 5G networks and having attracted hundreds of millions of 5G customers between them, and with Vodafone Idea now also investing, we can expect to hear plenty more about 5G in India during the course of the event, along (no doubt) with plenty of news about India’s burgeoning datacentre and AI services sectors. Look out for news from the India Mobile Congress show on TelecomTV this week. 

The Airtel contract speculation came just as Reliance Jio’s parent company, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), was publishing its financial report for the three months ending 30 September. RIL noted that Jio now has 148 million 5G customers (from a total user base of almost 479 million), with those 5G users generating 34% of the mobile data traffic running over Jio’s networks, and that Jio has increased its average revenue per user (ARPU) by 7.4% year on year to 195.1 Indian rupees ($2.32).  

Altice Portugal is in talks to sell its 50.01% stake in Portuguese wholesale fibre access network operator FastFiber to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, which already owns the other 49.99% stake in the operator, Jornal Economico has reported. Altice International owner Patrick Drahi has been trying to sell Altice Portugal in an effort to raise funds to help reduce the company’s debts but has struggled to secure a deal to sell all of Altice Portugal’s assets to one buyer. However, in late August the operator noted that it might sell its assets in Portugal in separate deals, having failed to secure an €8bn deal to sell the whole lot to Saudi telco STC, and is now believed to be in talks that would make Morgan Stanley the outright owner of FastFiber, which runs a network that reaches 5.7 million premises. The total debt pile across Altice Group’s operating divisions (Altice International, Altice France and Altice US) amounts to about $60bn, with Altice International’s being the smallest (about €8.5bn/$9.3bn). Drahi raised funds in August by offloading his 24.5% stake in BT Group to India’s Bharti Airtel for about £3bn ($3.9bn), and in the same month struck a $1bn deal to sell its global media platform subsidiary Teads to New York-based online content recommendation engine specialist Outbrain.

Drahi’s team is also believed to be busy in France where, according to Bloomberg, Altice France is in talks with its creditors to swap an equity stake of up to 15% in return for reducing the value of Altice France’s debt, which currently stands at about €24.4bn ($26.7bn), by the same percentage. The creditors had earlier proposed a deal whereby Drahi would have lost control of Altice France, so it seems that talks are at a very delicate stage over the future ownership of the telco – France’s second biggest (after Orange) and better known as SFR.  

Nokia has collaborated with Colt Technology Services US operator Windstream Wholesale to complete the world’s first ultra-fast 800Gbit/s Ethernet (GbE) optical and IP service trial connecting London and Chicago. The transoceanic service trial covered 8,500km via a subsea and terrestrial route over a live production network and, when operational, will provide increased capacity, speed and latency whilst simultaneously reducing power usage on the extremely busy route between the US and Europe, the partners noted in this press release. The service capacity enabled by the 800GbE technology is able to support advanced network applications, such as AI datacentre interconnect, content delivery networks and connections to financial data points. Indeed the trial was designed specifically to test the boundaries of next-generation wavelength, capacity, speed and latency between two of the world’s largest financial trading hubs. It involved connecting one of Colt’s five transatlantic submarine cables and part of its extensive long-distance terrestrial fibre network with Windstream Wholesale’s Converged Optical Network (ICON), which monitored speed and performance on the end-to-end service from router to router. Central to the trial was Nokia’s latest, sixth-generation, Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) coherent optics and 7750 Service Router (SR) high-performance routing platforms. In light of the successful completion of the trial, Nokia, Colt and Windstream are now looking at ways to make 800GbE connectivity services commercially available to global business customers. Joe Scattareggia, president of Windstream Wholesale, stated: “Our latest innovation represents a true game-changer for global connectivity. By partnering with two extraordinary leaders in the industry, we’re enabling unprecedented bandwidth capabilities that are essential for driving AI-powered applications worldwide for our customers. As an optical technology leader, Windstream Wholesale and our partners are establishing 800GbE as the next evolutionary advancement increase for wave services. This collaboration has pushed the boundaries of what’s possible,” he boasted. 

The Gitex Global 2024 technology show has opened its doors in Dubai and, as usual, there’s plenty of digital services-related action at the event. Regional telco giant e& is flexing its AI muscles by showcasing what it describes as “groundbreaking, real-world AI-powered solutions across various industries, including intelligent connectivity, digital finance, smart cities, healthcare, and workplace transformation.” And Ericsson has rocked up to the show to announce the deployment of its Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S) 5G technology by e& United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the vendor, “The technology was demonstrated through a cloud gaming showcase conducted on e& UAE’s 5G standalone commercial network on the sidelines of Gitex Global 2024, where L4S resulted in reducing the latency to less than half and perfectly maintaining it within a predefined range. This allowed e& UAE to deliver consistent low-latency connectivity that ensures an exceptional, lag-free experience for live online cloud gamers.”

Odido (formerly T-Mobile Netherlands), the largest mobile operator in the country, has launched a nationwide 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service called Klik&Klaar Internet with an aggressive monthly fee of just €25, or just €20 for its mobile customers. Read more (in Dutch).

– The staff, TelecomTV