• Ericsson unveils rApp library with telco support
• Microsoft to pump €4.3bn into its Italian datacentres 
• Telecom Italia fields €700m offer for Sparkle

In today’s industry news roundup: Ericsson looks to position itself as the go-to vendor for rApp functionality in the Open RAN era; Microsoft is pumping billions of euros into its Italian cloud and AI infrastructure to support sovereign and European demand; Telecom Italia looks to be a step closer to selling off its international networks unit; and much more!

Ericsson has made a bold move to develop a multivendor repository/library of rApps, software applications designed to run on non-real time RAN intelligent controller (RIC) platforms that can be used for automated operations in traditional as well as Open RAN mobile networks. As part of the ongoing development of its service management and orchestration (SMO) solution, which it calls the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), the Swedish vendor has been developing its own rApps and attracting developer partners that want their rApps to be made available to Ericsson’s network operator customers. According to the giant mobile infrastructure vendor, the repository, dubbed the rApp Directory, is already available to “early members of the EIAP ecosystem, and currently provides information on over 20 rApps, which can be used commercially on the EIAP.” The EIAP ecosystem currently has 28 registered members, including 18 independent software vendors and 10 network operators (which “can both use and contribute their own rApps”), as well as more than 1,100 individual developers. The EIAP ecosystem includes the likes of AT&T, Swisscom, Telstra and Vodafone from the telco sector and technology developers, such as Aira Technologies, Airhop, Aspire, Booz Allen, Domos, Future Connections, Fyra, Groundhog, HCL Software, Icebreaker, Infovista, Intel, Ookla, Snowflake, Tectwin, Viavi, Wipro and Zinkworks. It’s worth remembering that AT&T struck a major Open RAN deal with Ericsson at the end of 2023. Read more. 

Microsoft plans to invest €4.3bn in Italy over the next two years “to expand its hyperscale cloud and AI datacentre infrastructure and provide digital skills training to more than 1 million Italians by the end of 2025.” The cloud, tech and AI giant noted that it aims to “help Italy maximise the opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) and to contribute to the focus of the Italian government on long-term economic growth and demographic challenge. Microsoft’s datacentre expansion in northern Italy coupled with its commitment to provide extensive AI skills training supports the rising demand for AI compute and cloud services across Italy as organisations look to boost productivity and uncover new breakthroughs with AI… With this investment, northern Italy will become one of Microsoft’s largest datacentre regions [in Europe] and will play a crucial role in meeting European data boundary requirements. It will also serve as a key data hub for the Mediterranean and North Africa, supporting the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, and meeting the government ambition under the G7 presidency to foster collaboration with the Global South,” the company added. 

And there’s more from the home of fine wine, pizza and pasta… Telecom Italia (TIM) has received a €700m takeover offer for its Sparkle international networks and services business from Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and Retelit, a provider of communications and IT services to the Italian enterprise sector. The Italian operator’s board will weigh up the offer, which is “valid” until 15 October. Telecom Italia has already offloaded its domestic fixed access network (NetCo) to private equity firm KKR this year in a deal worth up to €22bn. That deal made a considerable dent in the telco’s debt pile, which is now down to about €8.1bn, but it wants to slim down even further and the operator’s CEO Pietro Labriola signalled that he was confident of striking a deal to sell Sparkle when commenting on Telecom Italia’s second-quarter earnings report at the start of August.

In August, we reported that AT&T and Verizon were trying to convince US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the high power levels of the planned ‘coverage from space’ services being prepped by SpaceX/Starlink and T-Mobile US would cause interference with regular terrestrial cellular services and should be halted. Now, the US telco duo have the additional support of a group of major European telcos – Orange, Telefónica, Telenor, Vodafone Group, Liberty Global, PPF Telecom Group and United Group – which have jointly sent a letter to the FCC to note that they would be “gravely concerned if the FCC were to support requests from the satellite sector to allow any relaxation in the safeguards to protect licensed terrestrial mobile network operators and their users from harmful interference” from services being delivered by direct-to-device (D2D) satellites. The telcos added: “Any relaxation that degrades the utility of spectrum that mobile operators have licensed from their respective national authorities, and which would undermine service quality and increase deployment costs, would be legal grounds for claiming damages. It’s also important to appreciate that mobile networks in Europe are designed to operate within smaller national territories and with much closer neighbours, compared to the US, placing additional constraints on achieving interference-free operation.” For the full details of the out-of-band emissions about which the telcos are concerned, see the full letter.   

European towers giant Cellnex has appointed Óscar Fanjul Martín as its new chair of the board of directors, replacing Anne Bouverot who has resigned “due to her recent appointment by the French President Mr. Emmanuel Macron as special envoy for the Global Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, which will be held in France in early 2025,” the company announced this week. Fanjul has been an independent director of Cellnex since June 2023 and is a member of the company’s Capital Allocation Committee. 

– The staff, TelecomTV