What’s up with… Telstra & Ericsson, BT & Equinix, BSNL

• Telstra signs up for Ericsson’s programmable network pitch
• BT’s Global Fabric is now widely deployed across Equinix’s footprint 
• BSNL is back in the black

In today’s industry news roundup: Telstra is to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over four years in a new ‘programmable’ radio access network from Ericsson; BT’s new international service architecture is now deployed in more than 30 Equinix datacentres; India’s state-owned operator, BSNL, is profitable for the first time since 2007; and much more!

Telstra has opted to upgrade its radio access network (RAN) with new generation hardware and software systems from Ericsson, including the Swedish vendor’s “Open RAN-ready hardware solutions,” including massive MIMO radios and new RAN Compute solutions, as well as 5G-Advanced software, the companies have announced. The Australian telco will also, as part of a new four-year deal, deploy AI-enabled automation tools “to optimise network management through self-detection and self-healing capabilities”. The move will give Telstra the “first programmable network in the Asia Pacific”, the partners noted. While no value was assigned to the deal, Telstra’s CEO, Vicki Brady, stated during Telstra’s fiscal first half financial presentation that the operator was set to invest 800m Australian dollars (US$510m) in its mobile network over the next four years. “Telstra’s programmable network will provide a platform for innovative application development and the ability to tailor superior connectivity to the unique requirements of its customers, including new performance-based offerings,” noted Ericsson. “Further, it will open the network to tech innovators from wider ecosystems via network APIs (application programming interfaces). The adoption and acceleration in uptake of network APIs, and how they can drive telecom industry monetisation opportunities, is also the focus of the recently announced global venture, Aduna, of which Ericsson and Telstra are founding members. Telstra’s new 5G-Advanced network capabilities will be central to the delivery of such API-based services.” Brady commented: “We are at an inflection point, where customer needs for technology and connectivity are becoming more sophisticated, requiring a step change in how connectivity is delivered and consumed. At the same time, demand for mobile data on our network has tripled over the past five years. Through our partnership with Ericsson, the first-of-its-kind for any operator across Asia-Pacific, we will evolve our offering and improve the efficiency of how we use our spectrum so we can increase our 5G network capacity to deliver better consistency of performance, reliability and speed to millions of customers. With a programmable network, we will move from a one-size-fits all proposition, to being able to deliver more sophisticated use cases and commercial models to provide a differentiated and more tailored connectivity experience to customers.” Telstra is a big fan of Ericsson and is often engaged in next-generation network tests, trials and deployments, so it’s no surprise to see it adopting the vendor’s latest hardware/software combination, which also includes the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) – the vendor’s name for its service management and orchestration (SMO) platform, and a key part of an Open RAN architecture. “EIAP will improve network management and automation by leveraging EIAP and developer ecosystem tools to create and deploy custom applications (rApps) that employ advanced automation techniques, including machine learning and AI, to optimise the network and deliver improved sustainable operations,” added Ericsson. Those rApps will run on Ericsson’s non real-time RAN intelligent controller (non real-time RIC) platform, which is part of the EIAP: The rApps can be developed by Telstra, Ericsson or third-party developers that have proven interoperability with the EIAP. Ericsson noted during a recent media briefing in London that it has 57 rApps in its rApp directory (of which 20 have been developed by Ericsson). 

So is this what we can expect to see more and more – telcos opting to work with a single large network equipment vendor to act as the main hardware and software technology supplier but with the option of bringing in specialised third-party vendor partners (for radio units, rApps etc) as and when required under the wing of the primary vendor partner? It’s maybe not a surprise that Telstra is doing this, but it was a surprise when AT&T announced in late 2023 it was migrating to a next-generation programmable RAN in partnership with Ericsson. Appledore Research consulting analyst Robert Curran notes that “there's still a lot of appeal for operators in single vendor RAN contracts” and that “it is inevitable that incumbent vendors will have to go some way to accommodate customer pressure for more interoperability with third-party radios.” He explains that telcos are seeing the SMO as “a place where there is more scope to bring in specialists and innovators” and that this is “more likely to be done only with the agreement of the incumbent equipment vendor – and it’s still early days even for rApps” in this regard. (Curran also questions whether this might ever happen at all with xApps, the applications being designed to run on real-time RIC platforms. Ericsson doesn’t have a real-time RIC, it should be noted, because it believes there’s no need for one as its RAN compute and own integrated applications are all that is needed for very low-latency capabilities.) The Appledore team had expected to see some systems integrators step in to lead on Open RAN-enabled deployments, “but that has not really been the case”. Curran adds that “some telcos have taken that job themselves” – most notably Canada’s Telus and Rakuten Mobile – while others have simply “devolved it to their favoured network equipment providers”. Currently, Ericsson seems to be leading the charge in that latter category.  

Back with Telstra for a moment… The Australian telco reported revenues for the first half of its financial year of 11.8bn Australian dollars (AUS) (US$7.54bn), up by 0.9% compared with the same period a year ago, and EBITDA of AUS$4.2bn (US$2.68bn), up 6%. CEO Brady attributed the improving results to “momentum across our business” and “strong cost control”. Telstra announced in May 2024 that it was cutting 10% of its workforce.    

BT Group says its international enterprise-focused Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform, in which it has been investing for several years, is “now deployed in over 30 Equinix datacentres,” and that this number will increase to more than 40 Equinix facilities in the next year. “This will span the world’s top-30 business locations covering 95% of the world’s cloud interconnection traffic,” according to BT. “When fully built-out, Global Fabric will be available to customers internationally via 140 points-of-presence (PoPs) hosted in the world’s top cloud locations across 40 countries. It will offer 74% direct coverage of hyperscaler clouds and pre-provisioned high-bandwidth connectivity to over 700 datacentres,” added the UK operator. As we’ve pointed out before, this sounds like a telco services platform designed for the modern-day needs of international enterprise customers, but the future of the Global Fabric platform, in terms of its ownership and strategy, is somewhat uncertain now that BT, under CEO Allison Kirkby, is focused on the UK and is exploring options for its international operations. Last month, BT announced that its head of BT Business, Bas Burger, is to be reassigned and will, from early March, “devote all of his time to the optimisation of BT’s international operations and explore options for the unit,” while the role of CEO of BT Business is taken by Jon James. 

The old saying has it that patience is a virtue, but state-owned BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), India’s oldest telco, has tested the forbearance of Indian economists and industry analysts to their very limits as, over many years, its market share declined along with its battered reputation, while privately funded competitors, such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, ate its lunch, dinner and breakfast too. But suddenly, after 17 years in the red, BSNL, which remains firmly attached to the hip of India’s Department of Telecommunications, part of the Ministry of Communications, has actually recorded a profit, its first since 2007: That was the year Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, Netflix began its streaming service, Kindle went operational and MySpace (remember that), heavily supported by the Rupert Murdoch organisation, was valued at $165bn. Rupert is still with us, but MySpace isn’t. It seems like longer than 17 years ago but, nonetheless, BSNL is back in profit, at least for one quarter, and possibly for longer. For the company’s fiscal third quarter, which ended in December 2024, BSNL reported operating revenues of almost 49.7bn Indian rupees ($574m), up by 9% year on year, and an operating profit (before one-time items and tax) of 2.62bn rupees ($30.3m), compared with an operating loss of almost 15.7bn rupees ($181m) for the same period a year earlier. What’s more, the company expects the same sales and margin trends to continue during the current quarter, which is the final period of its current fiscal year. What has changed? BSNL, which offers its services across almost all of India (except for Delhi and Mumbai), had been in stasis for years, with little investment or operational change. So when Reliance Jio turned the market upside down in 2016 with its aggressive pricing and state-of-the-art technology, many of India’s operators went out of business and BSNL survived only because it is state-owned. Now, though, there are signs of life at BSNL, which received (not before time) a cash injection from the government in 2022, and since then has been able to invest in network upgrades and (years after its rivals) deploy a new radio access network to initially offer 4G services but which can also be used for 5G as well. Now its revenues are increasing, its 4G customer base is growing and, according to the Hindustan Times, the turnaround is the result of the telco’s strategic focus on expanding its service offerings and attracting new subscribers. The positive results show BSNL achieved an 18% sales growth in the mobility sector, a further 18% increase in revenues from fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services, and a 14% increase in revenues from its leased line services. The profitability was also boosted by a programme of major cost savings and the successful introduction of popular new products and offerings, including nationwide Wi-Fi roaming, a BiTV entertainment service for mobile subscribers and a streaming service called IFTV (with more than 500 channels) for its FTTH customers. The operator is also deploying a private 5G network for Coal India – it is targeting the mining sector for its private 5G offerings. BSNL noted that its focus remains on “accelerating 4G/5G rollouts to enhance service quality and network reach; expanding enterprise solutions to tap into new revenue streams;  monetising digital assets to unlock value from BSNL’s infrastructure; and optimising operational expenditures through strategic cost-saving measures. With these strategic initiatives and sustained financial discipline, we are confident that BSNL is on the path toward profitability in the ensuing years, reinforcing its position as a competitive and resilient telecom provider driving India's digital transformation.” India’s telecoms minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, lauded the performance as “a significant turning point”, though whether this is the start of a period of growth is yet to be seen: BSNL has benefitted recently from the decision by market leaders Jio and Airtel to increase their tariffs, which in turn led to customer churn and that trend may be temporary. BSNL’s future fortunes also depend on the timely expansion of BSNL’s 4G service offerings and its ability to enter the 5G services market. And there’s a long way for BSNL to go before it can truly start to make an impact on the market leaders: India has almost 1.15 billion mobile connections, of which BSNL boasts just 92 million, giving it a mobile market share of just 8.03%, while Jio’s share is 40.15%, Airtel’s is 33.45% and Vodafone Idea’s is 18.19%. But for BSNL, being profitable for the first time in 17 years is a good way to go into 2025.  

– The staff, TelecomTV