What’s up with… SoftBank, Telia & Broadcom, Singtel

• SoftBank unveils multimodal AI for autonomous vehicles
• Telia goes large with VMware by Broadcom
• Singtel breached by China-backed hackers

In today’s industry news roundup: SoftBank has developed and is testing a multimodal, network edge-enabled AI system that can support driverless vehicles; Telia is bucking the telco trend by increasing its engagement with VMware; Chinese hackers allegedly breached Singtel’s defences ahead of a planned attack on US communications infrastructure; and much more!

SoftBank has developed a traffic understanding multimodal AI “designed for remote support of autonomous driving [and] designed to operate on low-latency edge AI servers with the goal of achieving fully unmanned operations,” the Japanese operator announced in this press release. Multimodal AI systems collect and integrate multiple types of data, such as text, audio, images and sensor information, to enable more comprehensive processing and analysis. “The traffic understanding multimodal AI aims to address key challenges in the social implementation of autonomous driving by enhancing vehicle safety and reducing operational costs through external support. By running the multimodal AI in real time on SoftBank’s MEC (multi-access edge computing) and other edge AI servers with low latency and high security, the system enables real-time understanding of autonomous vehicle status, providing reliable remote support for autonomous driving.” SoftBank says it launched a field trial of the solution in October at the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus in order to “verify whether the traffic understanding multimodal AI can provide remote support to autonomous driving, ensuring smooth operation even when vehicles encounter unforeseen situations that may impede driving.” It should be noted that SoftBank is one of the leading telcos in the AI-RAN Alliance industry group, which is exploring the best way to integrate radio access network (RAN) and AI infrastructure: It recently announced a collaboration with Ericsson that aims to further explore the potential of AI-RAN architectures. For more on developments in the telecom/vehicles world, check out TelecomTV’s newly launched Telcos & Autos channel. 

While other telcos grapple with VMware and its new owner Broadcom over licensing terms and conditions, Swedish operator Telia has expanded its relationship with the vendor through “a new multi-year agreement, which will see Telia further modernise and transform its telco and cloud infrastructure with the VMware product portfolio,” the companies have announced. As “the basis of its modern cloud platform,” Telia is “expanding its deployment of VMware Telco Cloud Platform and its cloud-native architecture to further progress its automation agenda across all network workloads, as well as its cloud-native expansion of critical assets.” In addition, Telia is “more broadly adopting VMware Cloud Foundation as its internal private cloud platform to accelerate innovation, streamline resource management, and increase operational efficiency for Telia’s internal IT organisation.” Hein Müskens, Telia’s deputy COO and group CIO, stated: “As a longtime VMware partner and customer, and now Broadcom partner and customer, we are pleased to continue to collaborate on our digital transformation journey at Telia. As we look to the future, it’s vital that we continue to adopt modern infrastructure. Broadcom is a critical partner in making this a reality.” Krish Prasad, SVP and general manager of VMware’s Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom, added: “In collaboration with Broadcom, Telia is building a more agile, reliable and secure network and IT infrastructure to enable the delivery of new monetisable 5G and cloud services for the benefit of its customers in the Nordics and the Baltics. We are delighted to enable Telia to continue serving its customers with this VMware software-based platform that includes the needed network and infrastructure orchestration, automation and scale.”

The Telia announcement was made at the VMware Explore 2024 event in Barcelona, where Broadcom announced a number of “major advancements across its VeloCloud product portfolio” including the launch of its VeloRAIN (robust AI networking) architecture “that uses AI/ML to improve the performance and security of distributed AI workloads”. It also unveiled an “expanded set of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Advanced Services innovations, ecosystem partnerships, and modernisation programmes that can accelerate generative AI application development, cybersecurity initiatives, and sovereign cloud adoption.

Singtel’s cybersecurity defences were breached in June by a China state-sponsored hacking group called Volt Typhoon as part of a broader international campaign targeting telecom networks and other critical infrastructure, according to a Bloomberg report, which suggests the breach was a trial run ahead of a larger planned cyberattack on US telcos. A Singtel spokesperson told Reuters that the network operator’s “protective and detective measures picked up the malware and eradicated it, and this was reported to the relevant authorities.” The news follows a statement jointly issued on 25 October by the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) that stated the US government is “investigating the unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.” Volt Typhoon has previously targeted telcos and critical systems in the US, Reuters noted earlier this year. 

Having been given regulatory clearance in late October to acquire the country’s fourth-largest service provider, Nowo Communications, for €150m, European operator Digi Communications finally launched commercial services in Portugal on 4 November. Adding Nowo means that Digi, which has been investing in its own fibre access network infrastructure and supporting systems in Portugal for the past three years, now has 270,000 mobile customers and 130,000 customers for its pay-TV and broadband services. In an effort to add to its customer base, Digi is offering its mobile services free until the end of this year to anyone who signs up during the remainder of 2024. Digi, which has existing commercial operations in Romania (its domestic market), Italy and Spain, is also preparing to launch in Belgium. In August, the operator, which has more than 25 million customers across its European operations, reported revenues for the first half of the year of €921.3m, up by 13% compared to the same period in 2023, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 19.1% to €333.3m. 

T-Mobile US has agreed to pay OpenAI $100m per year for three years to use the generative AI (GenAI) giant’s technology as part of the agreement announced at the US operator’s Capital Markets Day in September, according to a report from The Information (subscription required).

Virtualised routing platform specialist DriveNets has teamed up with open, disaggregated network technology vendor Radisys (part of Indian giant Jio Platforms) to pitch joint solutions to European telcos. “Through this partnership, Radisys will provide end-to-end integration of DriveNets’ Network Cloud solution, as well as Radisys’ Connect Modular Broadband end-to-end control and orchestration system, for service providers’ networks,” noted the new partners in this press release. “The companies have already conducted a successful proof of concept with a service provider in Germany and are pursuing additional joint business opportunities with operators in Europe,” they added. 

– The staff, TelecomTV