WCA March 2020

Telecom news

Ø Ø Mobile operator Three Ireland, contrary to its earlier announce- ment of a 5G launch by the end of 2019, postponed the launch of its 5G network until 2020. The Irish Times reported a statement from the company, quoting: “Rather than launch with a small number of sites … as other operators have done, we will launch with a substantial footprint in 2020.” The report added that Three Ireland “is believed” to be in negotiation with Huawei and, certainly, no partner for its 5G network partner has yet been officially named. Ø Ø Orange Poland confirmed its choice of Juniper Networks to upgrade its IP network core in preparation for a planned 5G rollout. The installation will include Juniper’s network health and diagnostics solution, Contrail HealthBot. Ø Ø Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company KPN has completed the sale of its enterprise division, KPN International, to GTT Communications of Virginia, USA, in a $55mn deal. KPN has also announced the sale of its web hosting company, Argeweb, to Total Webhosting Solutions, while GTT is believed to be calling in advisors to consider the sale of its infrastructure division. Ø Ø Ericsson demonstrated its spectrum sharing with a data call that connected Bern in Switzerland with Gold Coast, Australia, over commercial 5G networks using pre-commercial 5G smartphones from Oppo. Oppo is the first 5G device manufacturer to implement Ericsson spectrum sharing technology. Ø Ø The European Commission (EC) has published a full review of the roaming market, its first since EU and European Economic Area roaming charges ended in June 2017. The positive impact is as clear as it is unsurprising, showing a peak of 12 times more use of mobile data abroad over the summer. The existing roaming regulation will remain in force until June 2022, although the EC expects that the legislation will continue beyond that time and for the foreseeable future.

revenue per user (ARPU). The new tariffs, representing increases of between 15 and 40 per cent, came into effect in December 2019. Defending the new charges, Shashwat Sharma, chief marketing officer for Bharti Airtel, said, “Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G network.” Vodafone Idea has been under intense financial pressure, a situation described by Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read as “critical”. Announcing its increased tariffs, Vodafone Idea said, “In line with its commitment to provide customers with simple, convenient and affordable products, VIL has curated an optimum range of feature-rich plans for both voice and data. VIL continues to actively invest in building digital infrastructure by embedding new age technologies to make its network future-fit. Building on its largest spectrum footprint and by accelerating its network integration, VIL is speedily expanding both its coverage and capacity and is well on track to offer 4G services to one billion Indian citizens by March 2020.” Whatever consumers may have felt at the news, it was received with approval by the market. Shares in all three tariff-raising companies rose soon after, with VIL seeing the biggest increase at 22.4 per cent. Telecoms short stories Ø Ø C-band spectrum, though used in Europe for 5G services, has remained unavailable in the USA, where it is widely used by satellite operators. Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wants to rule out a proposed private sale by the current licence owners, and has spoken out in favour of an open auction for the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band, making 200 MHz of C-band spectrum available for commercial 5G use. Writing on social media, Mr Pai said, “I’m confident they’ll quickly conduct a public auction that will give everyone a fair chance to compete for this 5G spectrum, while preserving availability of the upper 200 MHz of the band for continued delivery of programming.”

ongoing procedure to allow the UK to leave the EU]. During 2018, UK telecommunications companies are said to have increased spending on research and development by around $249 million to $1,230 million: with a growth rate of 25.4 per cent, R&D spending has hit a four-year high. However, analysis by research and development tax specialist Catax shows this is still below the spending peak reached in 2007, ahead of the financial crash of 2008/9. Mark Tighe, chief executive officer at Catax, said, “The telecoms industry is extremely important to the UK strategically, and it is reassuring to see such growth in investment. There is still some way to go if this investment is to recover to levels seen before the financial crash, however, and it is vital this happens if Britain is to continue to be a key technological player on the world stage.” Despite widespread and well- publicised uncertainty around Brexit, UK businesses are described as continuing “to defy expectations with increasing R&D spending and record employment.” Mr Tighe added, “More broadly, this is the second full year that Brexit Britain has shrugged off the political poison after the EU referendum and posted great gains in terms of R&D investment, running head and shoulders above the long-term average. “For the first time in history, a quarter of a million people nationwide are engaged, full time, in keeping the UK at the cutting edge. This is going to make a huge difference to Britain’s prospects outside the EU.” End in sight for India’s telecoms price war Since 2016, when India’s Reliance Jio first offered its ultra-low charge 4G data tariffs, the country’s telecommunications providers have been engaged in a price war that has left operators trading on the narrowest of margins. Now, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (VIL) and Reliance Jio have unilaterally announced new, higher tariffs in a move to end the downward spiral and help telcos raise their average

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Wire & Cable ASIA –March/April 2020

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