What’s up with… Network APIs, Telenor & Google, Nokia & OTE

• Ericsson and 12 major telcos form new network APIs company
• Telenor advances data strategy with Google
• Nokia and OTE claim two optical world records

In today’s industry news roundup: Twelve major telcos and Ericsson are forming a new company to take network APIs to the world; Telenor teams up with Google Cloud to advance its data and analytics strategy and capabilities; Nokia and Greek telco OTE claim to have broken two optical transmission world records; and more!

Major telcos América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile US, Verizon and Vodafone have joined forces with Ericsson to form a new company that will provide network APIs to a broad ecosystem of developer platforms, including hyperscalers, communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) providers, system integrators (SIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs), based on APIs developed using specifications from Camara, the open-source project driven by the GSMA and the Linux Foundation. Ericsson’s Vonage division and Google Cloud will “partner with the new company, providing access to their ecosystems of millions of developers as well as their partners.” The new company’s shareholders will “bring funding and important assets, including Ericsson’s platform and network expertise, global telecom operator relationships, knowledge of the developer community and each telecom operator’s network APIs, expertise and marketing,” the companies noted in this announcement. Ericsson will hold 50% of the equity in the new venture while the telecom providers will jointly hold the other 50%. The new venture’s platform and partner ecosystem will remain “open and non-discriminatory to maximise value creation across the industry,” and other telcos are “encouraged to join the new company, further driving the industry and developer experience, and allowing all participants to tap into a significant new revenue opportunity, such as telecom operator Three Sweden (Hi3G Access) which is already in discussions.” Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom stated: “The new company accelerates our leading work with MagentaBusiness APIs to expose our network capabilities for customers and developers. We believe that this company will open up new monetisation opportunities for the industry. We encourage and look forward to more telecom operators joining us to expand and develop this ecosystem.” Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at industry research firm CCS Insight, believes this is a step in the right direction. “Traditionally, telecom operators have largely failed to support developers by providing them with the right tools and opportunities to create new services. This was not such a problem in the 3G and 4G eras, as successful applications like Uber were developed without needing major support from telecom providers. With 5G, however, a lack of tangible and attractive customer uses – particularly in [the] consumer market – continues to restrict sector growth and unnerve investors seeking a more tangible path to return on investment. To overcome this, operators have been forced to adopt a fresh mindset of collaboration, flexibility and openness. Today’s announcement is an important step in that direction by addressing one of the major challenges for developers seeking to engage with mobile operators – sector fragmentation. In the past, the telecom industry – with many competing players each deploying different strategies for their specific regions – has struggled to present a united and coherent front. Operators have a dubious track record in collaborating. However, driven by growing urgency to better monetise significant network investments, and now with involvement from major technology partners in the form of Ericsson and Google, there should be fresh optimism that the new company unveiled will enjoy more success than previous failed ventures,” stated the analyst. 

Telenor has expanded its relationship with Google Cloud to transform “how it harnesses the power of its data”, teaming up with the hyperscaler “to deliver a unified data and analytics platform that will enhance customer experience, support new product development, and simplify operations.” Telenor will use Google Cloud’s BigQuery, integrated with Vertex AI and Looker, to “transform existing on-premise data platforms across Telenor’s Nordic businesses into a harmonised cloud-native data and analytics orchestration platform called Nova. Nova will enable Telenor to seamlessly implement any cloud instance, harnessing data and AI in their core operations to enable hyper-personalised customer experiences, optimise network operations, and support operational excellence across Telenor Nordics,” noted the operator in this announcement. Google Cloud will also provide Telenor with real-time data tools, including Dataflow, Cloud Data Fusion, Pub/Sub, Dataform, and Dataplex, “enabling the operator to gain real-time insights into hundreds or terabytes of data, generate deeper analytical insights in minutes instead of days, and support governance and faster construction of data and AI product developments.” Amol Phadke, Telenor’s group CTO, noted: “Data is foundational to AI development and enterprise transformation. We are excited to partner with Google Cloud to unleash the full power of our data to better serve our customers, increase the speed of insight and innovation, and support our AI-First ambitions.” Earlier this year, Telenor teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a sovereign cloud platform. 

Nokia and Greek telco OTE Group, part of the Deutsche Telekom empire, are claiming two new optical transmission rate world records using Nokia’s sixth generation of super-coherent photonic service engine (PSE-6s) technology. The field trial, which used Nokia’s 1830 PSI-M optical transport solution, ran over OTE’s national dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network, connecting IP core datacentres and routers in Greece. Two optical nodes were installed in Patra and Athens to boost performance over the specific fibre optic routes using PSE-6s-coherent optics. According to the vendor, Nokia and OTE “achieved record-breaking speeds in a live network in real conditions, transmitting 800 Gbit/s on a single channel over 2,580km, and 900 Gbit/s over 1,290km. This was achieved over a DWDM link transmitting a full load of DWDM channels over 4.8THz of spectrum and supported a total network capacity of 25.6 Tbit/s per fibre. The companies also demonstrated 1.2 Tbit/s transmission on a single channel over 255km.”

Telecom Italia (TIM) has submitted a bid for the remaining operations of BT Italy, hoping to get about €100m from the UK telco in order to take on the assets, according to Reuters. BT has been looking to offload the assets for a while following an accounting scandal in 2017 that resulted in a £530m provision in its accounts for related costs and an extensive trial that led to the conviction of eight people, some of whom were former employees. But other companies are interested in the assets, which comprise four datacentres and a backbone network: According to Reuters, a handful of suitors, including Italian fibre operator Retelit and Milan-based private equity firm Nextalia have expressed interest.

– The staff, TelecomTV