What’s up with… Telia, T-Systems & Ericsson, Telus

• Telia makes a big play in IoT
• T-Systems and Ericsson target private networks
• Telus cozies up to Google Cloud

A bold play in the international IoT services sector, an expanded partnership in the hot private networks market and the latest telco/hyperscaler relationship are the top news treats today.

• Telia has launched Telia Global IoT Connectivity, which aims to make it easier and more cost-effective for enterprise users to run IoT networks across a number of markets, claiming that its service can save companies, on average, 28% of the cost of running traditional international IoT networks. The offer comprises: Telia eSIM technology; a “global ecosystem of pre-integrated operators”; a “unique programmable network”; and “a cloud platform to manage it all.” See this press release for further details. 
• T-Systems, part of the Deutsche Telekom empire, and Ericsson have teamed up to offer a “fully integrated set of campus network solutions” built around the vendor’s Campus network Infrastructure and Edge Computing capabilities from T-Systems. The companies have already been working together in the German market, but the new relationship takes the joint offer to other international markets. At stake? A market that could be worth as much as €70 billion by 2025, according to Arthur D Little. 
• Canadian operator Telus and Google Cloud have forged a wide-ranging alliance to develop “new services and solutions that support digital transformation within key industries, including communications technology, healthcare, agriculture, security, and connected home.” The agreement will see Telus and Google Cloud collaborate on “5G services and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), which leverages Google Cloud’s managed application platform, Anthos.” See this announcement for more details. 
• The need to find and quantify broad economic returns from each and every high tech or network investment – 4G, 5G, cloud, public Wi-Fi, you name it! – knows no bounds. It’s reached the point where a project need hardly have started than its boosters are busy calculating how much benefit will accrue. UK operator O2, for instance, has decided it’s time to start totting up the value of the UK’s Shared Rural Network. The first sod has hardly been turned (do radio networks require their sods turning?) and it’s projecting that the enhanced coverage “could” boost rural business turnover by £187.7 million per year. “But wait,” as they say on those TV shopping channels, “there’s more.” Rural communities could now contribute an added £58.9 million to UK GDP each year, claims O2. The first phase of the initiative was announced on January 27th  (this year), so only hours ago.
• What difference will RAN sharing and neutral hosts make? Rethink Technology Research has been interviewing all the parties and calculates that MNOs are set to deploy 2.9 million net additional macro and micro base stations (4G, 5G and multi-RAT) between now and 2026, with 820,000 of these being brand new sites. If they adopt sharing and wholesale strategies using tower operators and other neutral host providers at the rate and scale they currently project, they will need to find only 110,000 new sites for macro and micro equipment, a saving that will have a dramatic effect on the ROI models for their network build-outs and assist them in their quest to reshape their cost base by placing greater emphasis on predictable opex, and less reliance on upfront capex. An executive summary of the report can be downloaded here.
• According to the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), there are now 144 live commercial 5G networks in 61 countries/territories, with more to come. The GSA is also counting 413 operators in 131 countries/ territories that are investing in 5G networks by engaging in tests, trials, pilots, and planned or actual deployments. An Update Status Snapshot Report (February 2021) can be downloaded here. 
• Polish service provider Orange Flex is appealing to its customers to convert their spare data allowance into trees to help build a “new biodiverse forest”: The initiative, dubbed EKO GB, aims to plant 10,000 square metres of forest, with every 30 Gbytes donated by Flex customers equal to 1 square metre of forest. See this site for further details and more about Orange Flex’s green credentials.    
• The planned sale of TikTok’s US operations to Oracle and Walmart has been put on ice while President Biden’s administration reviews the Trump team’s various decisions related to the security of Chinese technology, according to CNBC.