What’s up with… Deutsche Telekom & Meta, SpaceX, AT&T

• Deutsche Telekom hits back at Meta in peering dispute
• Elon Musk’s SpaceX preps $1.5bn investment in Vietnam
• AT&T joins the TM Forum’s ‘Running on ODA’ gang

In today’s industry news roundup: Giant German telco accuses Meta of “twisting the facts” in the duo’s ongoing peering payments row; SpaceX is courting Vietnam, where it wants its Starlink operation to become a major broadband service provider, with talk of a $1.5bn investment; AT&T has deployed plug-and-play IT stacks to support its MVNO operations; and more!

Deutsche Telekom has hit back at Meta’s decision, announced on 25 September, to end its direct peering relationship with the giant German telco, a move that might degrade the quality of service that DT’s mobile customers might experience when using popular applications, such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger. Meta accused DT of “putting the open internet at risk and undermining net neutrality principles” and of “using its market power to put its subscribers in Germany behind a de facto paywall, potentially restricting their access to internet services that do not pay Deutsche Telekom” by asking Meta to pay for feeding traffic onto the telco’s networks. Now the telco has responded, saying that Meta is “once again twisting the facts,” and noting that historically Meta has paid a peering fee but stopped its payments during the Coronavirus lockdowns and is failing to renegotiate peering terms. According to DT, by ending its direct connection to the German operator, Meta is “once again abusing its overwhelming bargaining power to discredit legitimate concerns of the European telecommunications industry and consumers in order to avoid fair payment. This is not just about a difference of opinion between two companies,” it added, “but about the question of whether the power of the strongest prevails on the internet or whether there is a fair balance between all participants. We hope that this debate will not be carried out on the backs of the citizens. Even a company like Meta is not above the law.” Let’s hope this ultimately gets settled amicably and that millions of German users don’t end up suffering a degraded service.  

Deutsche Telekom and Meta aren’t the only ones currently engaged in a war of words. AT&T and Broadcom, which now owns US telco VMware, are locked in a legal battle over the terms of VMware’s licence agreement, as reported earlier this month. AT&T claims that Broadcom, which shifted VMware to a subscription model from its traditional perpetual licence model, is failing to honour a contract agreed with VMware before the chip giant closed its $61bn acquisition of the cloud platform vendor. Now, according to Ars Technica, Broadcom has responded with claims that AT&T has no case as it knew VMware was heading towards a subscription model before it was acquired by Broadcom, adding that the telco is resorting to “sensationalism by accusing Broadcom of using ‘bullying tactics’ and ‘price gouging’. Such attacks are intended to generate press [coverage] and distract the court from a much simpler story.” This dispute will be closely watched by many telcos and other large VMware customers, which have found themselves having to deal with a less economic cost model in recent months. 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to invest $1.5bn in Vietnam, the satellite company’s senior VP for global business and government affairs, Tim Hughes, told Vietnam’s State President Tô Lâm during a meeting in New York this week, state-backed Viet Nam News has reported. “The Vietnamese government is weighing the investment proposal” and is “asking SpaceX to closely coordinate with relevant Vietnamese agencies and partners to complete investment procedures,” the news agency noted. SpaceX’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband service provider, Starlink, has been seeking clearance to provide services in Vietnam and it seems clear from the report that the Vietnamese government is open to having Starlink provide data connectivity in rural and remote areas and, in doing so, help the government respond to natural disasters more effectively. Starlink is currently in negotiations about how it can provide its services while meeting Vietnam’s foreign ownership rules: The country recently liberalised its digital infrastructure ownership regulations and that has resulted in growing interest and investments in the country as a hub for datacentres – see Vietnam now a magnet for datacentre developers.

AT&T has become the first US operator to achieve ‘Running on ODA’ accreditation from industry body the TM Forum. Running on ODA status is awarded to network operators that have built software stacks that conform with the forum’s open digital architecture (ODA) and open APIs, which enable a more modular, plug-and-play approach to telecom IT operations. AT&T adopted an ODA approach for the back-office operations of its MVNx Ecosystems unit, enabling mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that use AT&T’s mobile network to reach their customers “to offer their own branded mobile services without having to invest in the expensive infrastructure typically required to operate a mobile network. ODA is a critical foundation for delivering this service, providing a common framework on which AT&T’s customers can innovate and offer new experiences by integrating network capabilities into their products and services,” noted the TM Forum in this announcement. “I’m delighted that AT&T has further demonstrated its commitment to ODA and open API standards by gaining Running on ODA accreditation for its MVNx Ecosystems group,” noted Andy Tiller, EVP of member products and services at the TM Forum. “By embracing ODA, AT&T is making it easier and faster for its partners to build and launch new services, leveraging the power of AT&T’s network. This means more innovative offerings and greater choice for consumers,” added Tiller. For more on ODA see DT, Orange et al join the ‘running on ODA’ club.

Not for the first time, large language model (LLM) developer OpenAI, best known for its Chat GPT generative AI (GenAI) application, has suffered a top management meltdown. The company nearly imploded late last year when CEO Sam Altman was sacked, appeared to be hired by OpenAI investor Microsoft, and was then reinstated as head honcho of OpenAI. Now, just as the company is in discussions for a fresh round of funding – reportedly $6.5bn at a valuation of $150bn – OpenAI’s influential CTO, Mira Murati, quit suddenly on Wednesday, announcing her departure via a post on X. Murati was not alone – VP of research Barret Zoph and chief research officer Bob McGrew also quit the company which, according to Reuters, might be shifting from ‘not-for-profit’ governance to a ‘for-profit’ model. The trio’s departure marks something of an ongoing brain drain at OpenAI: In August, co-founder John Schulman joined rival AI firm Anthropic, and another co-founder, Greg Brockman, announced he was taking a sabbatical until the end of 2024. Earlier in the year, another co-founder, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, left the company. As you might expect, seasoned industry analyst Richard Windsor is not impressed with recent development at OpenAI: “How this [company] is worth $150bn is beyond me,” he noted in his latest Radio Free Mobile blog.

Orange’s decision to delist from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and voluntarily deregister with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced on Wednesday, is simply a matter of reducing the telco’s administrative workload, a spokesperson for the telco told Reuters after the announcement resulted in a dip in the company’s share price on the Paris stock exchange. Orange noted in its official announcement about the decision that the move “is in line with the group’s aim to improve internal simplification and efficiency, while maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance and transparent financial reporting. Orange remains fully committed to an open and frequent dialogue with US investors. This decision is expected to have no impact on Orange’s clients and partners or its commercial presence in the US.” 

Ericsson and optical networking module developer Nubis Communications used this week’s ECOC trade show, held in Frankfurt, to propose the use of co-packaged optics in future radio access network (RAN) architectures. “Co-packaged optics can enable high capacity at low energy consumption in future RAN networks, but dedicated developments are needed,” noted Ericsson in this blog. “In a demo at ECOC 2024, Ericsson and Nubis showcased the ability to operate at high temperatures commonly found within radio units, compatibility with standard optical fibres, and implementation of automated eye-safety mechanisms. This can be very beneficial in the networks of the future, including 6G,” stated the vendor, pointing out that such technology is not currently used in RAN deployments as pluggable optics are currently meeting network operators’ needs. However, data traffic growth will put a strain on pluggables, the partners suggested. To find out more about the case for co-packaged optics in the RAN, check out this blog. 

– The staff, TelecomTV