What’s up with… MásOrange & Ericsson, NTT Docomo, Corning

• MásOrange turns to Ericsson for Open RAN – report
• NTT Docomo boasts 6.6 Gbit/s 5G
• Corning strikes major deal with Lumen

In today’s industry news roundup: Spanish operator MásOrange looks set to replace Huawei and ZTE with Open RAN gear from Ericsson, according to a local report; NTT Docomo combines three spectrum bands to exceed 6 Gbit/s 5G SA download speeds; Corning sets aside 10% of its fibre manufacturing capacity for Lumen as it reports sales and profit hikes; and much more!

MásOrange, the Spanish operator created in March by the €18.6bn merger between Orange Spain and MásMóvil, appears to be on course to reduce its reliance on Chinese mobile network infrastructure vendors Huawei and ZTE and replace them with technology from Ericsson (an existing vendor supplier to the operator) as part of a shift towards the deployment of Open RAN technology, according to Spanish newspaper Expansion. According to the newspaper, Ericsson might even become the sole radio access network supplier if it is able to meet the operator’s Open RAN requirements during the coming years. The speculation comes only weeks after Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm highlighted the continuing competitive threat of Huawei and ZTE despite years of sanctions and bans. “In contrast to what many on the outside think, we’re actually seeing a sharply increased competition from Chinese vendors… in Europe, but particularly in Latin America,” stated Ekholm, who suggested that Huawei and ZTE are cutting their prices to win deals. “We see them quite aggressive in the market. Ultimately, it’s a choice customers will have to make, how they think about their network resilience… It’s really in the customers’ hands to choose [but] we see them increasingly aggressive.” If Ericsson can build its role at MásOrange as outlined by Expansion, it would be another significant Open RAN deal for the Swedish vendor to add to its massive AT&T deal. 

Starting on 1 August, Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo will enable 5G download speeds of up to 6.6Gbit/s, the fastest in the country, over its 5G standalone (SA) network in certain areas in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture initially. It will achieve this eyebrow-raising feat by commercially deploying New Radio-Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) technology across three frequency bands – 3.7GHz and 4.5GHz in the sub-6GHz mid-band range and 28GHz (millimetre-wave) band “for high-speed transmissions connecting two 5G base stations and simultaneously transmitting/receiving across multiple frequencies supported by these stations,” the operator noted in this announcement. Docomo has been offering 5G SA services since 2021: In August 2022, it combined one of two mid-band frequencies with the millimetre-wave band to offer download speeds of up to 4.9Gbit/s and upload speeds of 1.1Gbit/s. With this latest development, both sub-6 frequencies will be combined with the millimetre-wave band “for even faster transmission speeds,” noted the operator. The service will initially be supported by three smartphones – Sony’s Xperia 1 VI SO-51E, Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra SC-52E and the Galaxy Z Fold6 SC-55E. 

Corning has struck a deal with US network operator Lumen Technologies to reserve 10% of the fibre maker’s global capacity for each of the next two years to enable the operator to build a new network to “interconnect AI-enabled datacentres,” the vendor noted as it reported its second-quarter financial results. “This will be the first outside-plant deployment of Corning’s new generative-AI fibre and cable system, which enables Lumen to fit two to four times the amount of fibre into their existing conduit,” noted the vendor. Corning reported second-quarter revenues of $3.6bn, up 4% year on year, while net profit increased by 5% to $407m. “Our strong second-quarter results exceeded the guidance we provided in April and marked a return to year-over-year core sales and EPS growth,” noted chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks in this announcement. “The outperformance was driven primarily by the strong adoption of our new optical connectivity products for generative AI (GenAI), which drove record sales in the enterprise portion of our optical communications business. The opportunity is only growing; in fact, in the third quarter, we reached an agreement with Lumen Technologies that uses our new GenAI fibre and cable system to facilitate Lumen’s build of a new network to interconnect AI-enabled datacentres.”

Digital support system vendor Evergent is pitching a new system to telcos that, if it works as promised, ticks some important boxes for those operators looking to accelerate their transition to digital service providers (DSPs). Its Digital Commerce Bridge has been designed to “​​enable communication service providers (CSPs) to rapidly launch highly flexible, digital-first services across entertainment, healthcare, finance and beyond” – that’s one major box ticked – “without the expense and disruption of updating their existing BSS infrastructure” – that’s another big box ticked. The vendor’s system “sits on top of existing BSS [business support service] technology to create a digital-first way of managing subscription-based services. This accelerates time-to-market, enables rapid experimentation and unlocks data-driven customer insights to enhance profitability and retention,” the vendor noted in this announcement. So it sounds (at least to this author) like middleware on commercial steroids, which is something that might well appeal to a lot of telcos wondering how to get themselves out of a legacy BSS hole as they plan their digital services portfolios. That point is more eloquently made by John Abraham, principal analyst at Appledore Research, which is renowned for its expertise in the telecom software sector. “CSPs need effective ways of monetising an array of new services and enhancing customer experiences as they evolve into subscriber-centric, digital platforms of the future. Many operators are pushing to diversify their offering but are restricted by rigid, legacy BSS systems — deploying a digital overlay is a powerful, low-risk, high-impact approach that can accelerate time to revenue and help telcos participate in new value chains in the short term, without multi-step transformation requirements,” noted Abraham. Evergent isn’t pitching this out of the blue – it claims to have onboarded more than 800 million service subscribers across over 180 countries for telcos, media firms and sports organisations, including the likes of AT&T, Antel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat and Singtel in the telecom sector, Sony Pictures, BritBox and Sky NZ in the media sector, and the NBA (National Basketball Association) in sports. 

Qualcomm Technologies has unveiled its Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 mobile platform, designed for entry-level mobile devices. The company says the platform will “make 5G accessible to 2.8 billion smartphone users in select regions”, offering 1Gbit/s peak download speed, “robust CPU performance” and AI-enhanced audio. Other features include Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1 and 40W fast charging. Chris Patrick, SVP and GM of mobile handsets at Qualcomm Technologies, said it represents “a significant leap forward in making 5G technology more accessible. Thanks to cutting-edge engineering, we balanced affordability with strong performance and all-day battery life.” The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 will initially be adopted by Xiaomi, with the first device expected to be announced before the end of 2024. “Many people have yet to experience the benefits of 5G,” said Muralikrishnan B, president of Xiaomi India, “and thanks to Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, Xiaomi can bring 5G connectivity to a broader audience to help reshape the way the world connects and interacts.”

US-based cloud networking company Extreme Networks has formed a co-innovation alliance with Intel: It says it will use Intel’s Connectivity Analytics program to enhance the native AI capabilities within its Extreme AI Expert solution. By adopting Intel’s software development kit (SDK) and GenAI, Extreme says it will make networks smarter, faster and more resilient, helping customers optimise network performance, detecting security threats, and personalising end-user experiences. “Partnering with Intel provides our customers with a more secure, more streamlined way to gain visibility of their network and client devices within a single platform,” explained Nabil Bukhari, chief technology and product officer at Extreme. “We’ll provide richer, more intuitive AI-driven insights and automation, which results in smarter, more responsive experiences that enhance everything from network optimisation to swift security threat detection and resolution.” The partnership aims to deliver increased visibility into both network and client devices and should drive additional development of GenAI tools that enable customers to optimise the design, deployment and management of enterprise networking and security. “By leveraging the riches of AI-centric insights available through the millions of Intel-connected devices across the world and combining that with rich data from the network, we’ll help organisations reduce operational costs and provide best-in-class end-user experiences,” added Eric McLaughlin, VP & GM of wireless solutions at Intel’s Client Computing Group.

The broadband revolution is going well in Portugal, it seems. According to national regulator Anacom, at the end of the first quarter of this year 3.69 million Portuguese households, 86.9% of the country’s total, were subscribing to high-speed fixed line broadband services, with 91% of those services classified as ultra-fast broadband (with downstream speeds of more than 100 Mbit/s). Of the 3.69 million homes with active high-speed broadband lines, 2.63 million had fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) lines and 1.06 million had cable broadband (HFC, or hybrid fibre-coax) lines. For more on Portugal’s broadband statistics, see this Anacom announcement.  

- The staff, TelecomTV