What’s up with… AWS, Veon, Comcast, HKBN, US sanctions

• AWS unveils strategic initiatives with Veon, Comcast
• China Mobile bids $882m for HKBN 
• US adds to its chip sector sanctions against China

In today’s industry news roundup: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching a generative AI (GenAI) lab with Veon in Ukraine and is hosting Comcast’s 5G core platform; China Mobile puts down big bucks for its HKBN bid; the US has added further sanctions in an effort to hold back China’s AI progress; and much more!

This is going to be a big week for Amazon Web Services (AWS) announcements as the hyperscaler is holding its annual re:Invent gathering in Las Vegas, where it has already unveiled “new datacentre components designed to support the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and customers’ evolving needs”. Among the early announcements timed to coincide with the event are two from the network operator community. In Ukraine, mobile operator Kyivstar (part of the Veon group) has launched a generative AI (GenAI) lab with AWS to “help Ukrainian enterprises introduce AI technologies with the aim to enhance business processes and contribute to the country’s long-term economic recovery,” the operator noted in this announcement. “Generative AI has the potential to be a transformative force for the efficiency and competitiveness of Ukraine’s enterprises. It will also play a pivotal role in driving economic growth as part of Ukraine’s long-term recovery,” stated Oleksandr Komarov, CEO of Kyivstar. “Our successful partnership with AWS has bolstered our expertise in data processing and analysis. The launch of this generative AI lab represents the next step in delivering innovative augmented intelligence and cloud services to our business customers,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the US, cable operator giant Comcast has migrated its 5G mobile core platform from an on-premises compute stack to AWS “to provide Xfinity Mobile and Comcast Business Mobile customers with next-generation 5G wireless services using Comcast’s licensed spectrum across the US,” the cloud giant announced in this press release. “AWS’s extensive cloud infrastructure, together with their understanding of telco network requirements and ability to support production-grade 5G networks, will help us to continue delivering the highest quality service to our wireless customers,” stated Tom Nagel, executive VP of Wireless Strategy at Comcast. The operator, which sourced its 5G core system from Nokia, reported having 7.5 million mobile customers at the end of September, but it didn’t split out how many of those were using its 5G services. 

The bidding war for Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) is well and truly on! As we reported earlier, I Squared Capital, which already owns Hong Kong operator HGC Global Communications (formerly known as Hutchison Global Communications), is in discussions about a potential binding bid for HKBN. But it has at least one serious rival in the form of China Mobile, which tabled a non-binding bid last month and has now formalised a cash offer worth an initial HK$5.32 per share, or HK$6.86bn (US$882m). The total value of China Mobile could run as high as HK$7.8bn (US$1bn) once potential payments for restricted share units (RSUs) and vendor loan notes (VLNs) are taken into account. However, China Mobile is only interested in the acquisition if the deal doesn’t face opposition from Hong Kong regulators. HKBN’s share price jumped by almost 5% to HK$5.10 on the Hong Kong stock exchange during Tuesday trading. 

The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has announced a new raft of rules “designed to further impair the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) capability to produce advanced-node semiconductors that can be used in the next generation of advanced weapon systems and in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing, which have significant military applications,” the US government noted on Monday. “This action is a proactive measure enhancing the Department of Commerce’s work to impede the PRC’s ability to procure and produce the technologies necessary for its military modernisation,” it added. The new rules include: Controls on 24 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and three types of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors; new controls on high-bandwidth memory (HBM); new red-flag guidance to address compliance and diversion concerns; 140 Entity List additions and 14 modifications spanning PRC tool manufacturers, semiconductor fabs, and investment companies involved in advancing the PRC government’s military modernisation; and several critical regulatory changes to enhance the effectiveness of our previous controls. Quite what will come next once Donald Trump takes office in January is anyone’s guess, but nobody is expecting an olive branch.

Liberty Latin America, which offers  consumer and/or enterprise communications services in 20 markets across Latin America and the Caribbean, is dipping its toes into the virtual RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN waters in Puerto Rico. Its operation there, simply called Liberty, is testing Open RAN-compliant vRAN technology and radios from Samsung Networks to check out the potential of a software-oriented architecture. “The biggest advantage of vRAN and Open RAN is that it allows us to be more agile,” noted Víctor Vera, senior director of RAN technology at Liberty. “By having the cell site information processing centralised in Liberty’s cloud-native datacentre and leveraging the latest software-centric solutions, the implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting is a lot easier for operators to handle at a single location. This is especially valuable when it comes to recovery efforts during a natural disaster or emergency situations,” he added.  

– The staff, TelecomTV