A week in telecoms: AI, network slicing, Open-RAN and more 5G in space

Welcome to the Inform news round-up, where we take a look at a selection of recent CSP news and how it impacts the wider industry.

SK Telecom augments AI ambitions

South Korea’s SK Telecom (SKT) has stepped up ongoing efforts to transform itself into a global AI specialist by combining AI solutions with connectivity technologies.

The communications services provider has just unveiled an AI Pyramid Strategy that it said will accelerate innovation in three key areas: AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service. CEO Ryu Young-sang said the CSP expects the proportion of AI-related investment to triple from around 12% over the past five years (to 2023), to 33% over the next five years.

SKT also branded its AI technology as “A.X”, named its large language model “A.X LLM,” and announced the official launch of Korean LLM service “A.” that was released in the beta version in 2022.

SKT has for some time been promoting AI transformation through partnerships and collaboration with AI companies. Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom, e&, Singtel, and SK Telecom joined forces to form the Global Telco AI Alliance with the aim of accelerating the use of AI within their businesses and developing AI-fuelled business models to drive growth.

SKT also invested $100 million in existing partner Anthropic, a San Francisco-based company that is developing a generative AI (GenAI) platform called Claude.

In a separate development, Anthropic recently announced a strategic collaboration with Amazon on generative AI. The move will see Amazon invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic and have a minority ownership position in the company.

In addition, Anthropic will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train, and deploy its future foundation models while AWS will become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider for mission critical workloads.

Elsewhere, France’s Iliad Group unveiled plans to invest around €200 million in AI projects, including a cloud supercomputer powered by Nvidia, a research lab in Paris to foster a local AI ecosystem and an annual AI conference at Station F in Paris.

And BT-owned mobile operator EE said is stepping up its use of AI technology to enable it to better detect and ultimately prevent scams that affect its customers.

Telefónica signs MoU with Ericsson to develop cloud RAN

Telefónica signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ericsson to collaborate on the development of cloud-based RAN architecture, built on the Swedish vendor’s technology.

The two partners will test and deploy cloud RAN technology “with trial deployments in Europe,” using APIs and standardized open RAN interfaces, underpinned by 5G infrastructure, to achieve “industry-scale, high-performance, and cost-efficient cloud RAN.”

Telefónica and Ericsson will also explore how to deploy cloud RAN sites with a high degree of automation, adopting approaches in line with best practice in cloud ecosystems. This includes using rApps in RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and service management and orchestration (SMO) architecture to enhance radio access network (RAN) solutions.

Enrique Blanco, Telefónica Global CTIO, said: “This collaboration brings together the best of both organizations, enabling us to leverage the latest advancements in virtualization and cloud technologies. The network’s transition to software-based operations and the evolution to open and disaggregated network architectures will increase flexibility, enable new network architectures and models, and boost innovation.”

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks at Ericsson, added: “This collaboration with Telefónica aims to accelerate the development and deployment of cloud-native open networks. This will enable an open ecosystem of innovation and the way we think about the value of networks, by exposing new capabilities through standardized APIs. The latest development in O-RAN Alliance allows us to build high performance networks on Open RAN standards, at scale.”

Telefónica also collaborates with its industry peers under the Open RAN MoU, in an effort to accelerate progress on the technology. Earlier this year, it issued a new report along with Deutsche Telekom, Orange., TIM and Vodafone Group to demonstrate the progress being made and address questions and challenges that have been raised. 

Elsewhere, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo launched its Open RAN ecosystem experience (Orex) portfolio to the global market in an effort to become a dominant force in the development of cloud-oriented next-generation mobile networks.

Domestic rival Rakuten Mobile is already offering its open RAN expertise around the world via its Rakuten Symphony subsidiary. 

T-Mobile extends network slicing beta program

A growing number of telcos are progressing through the swathe of complexity involved in implementing network slicing and rolling out trials.

In one recent development, T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer John Saw announced that the CSP’s network slicing beta is now available to developers nationwide.

Already available to iOS developers, the program has been expanded to Android developers that want to use 5G standalone (5G SA) technology for video calling applications that are commercially available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series. 

Any video calling app developer can sign up for the beta by visiting T-Mobile’s developer platform DevEdge. Those in the greater Seattle area can join T-Mobile engineers at the 5G Hub to test and validate this capability on their applications. T-Mobile said it plans to expand the network slicing beta to additional application types and use cases in the future.

Elsewhere, Vodafone UK and Ericsson recently completed a live network trial at Coventry University that they said successfully demonstrated the positive impact an optimized 5G standalone (SA) network slice could have on enhancing the mobile cloud gaming experience for consumers.

According to Ericsson’s network slicing report, is it estimated that 25-30% of the potential 5G use cases will need slicing as an enabler. Separate research from Ericsson and consultancy firm Arthur D. Little also shows that CSPs globally have an addressable revenue opportunity of approximately $200 billion when it comes to network slicing.

Vodafone makes a 5G call in space

Vodafone and partner AST SpaceMobile said they completed a space-based 5G voice call using an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite. 

The call was made from Hawaii to a Vodafone engineer in Spain. AST Vodafone also noted that it expects AST SpaceMobile’s terrestrial infrastructure in Spain to play a key role in establishing a future satellite network.

AST SpaceMobile aims to provide ubiquitous network coverage for consumers through direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity. Vodafone also recently formed a partnership with Project Kuiper, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) communications initiative. The operator intends to use Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G and 5G services in Europe and Africa, serving areas that “may otherwise be challenging and prohibitively expensive to serve via traditional fiber or microwave solutions.”

The UK-based operator is one of several communications service providers (CSPs) that are linking up with satellite service providers to solve backhaul and rural connectivity challenges.

For example, Deutsche Telekom has a partnership with Skylo and Intelsat, while Telefónica is collaborating with Sateliot. More recently, KDDI announced an agreement to use SpaceX’s Starlink LEO network for D2D services, extending mobile connectivity to areas including remote islands and mountains. 

A recent report from MTN Consulting argued that intense competition and a harsh funding climate mean satellite operators are moving deeper into the telecoms space for new market opportunities such as broadband internet, D2D and IoT market segments to find new revenue streams.

However, the analyst company said satellite operators are more likely to be a partnership opportunity than a threat to CSPs in traditional telecoms markets.

Deutsche Telekom ties with Ericsson on launch of network APIs

Deutsche Telekom flagged the commercial launch in Germany of three network APIs under the MagentaBusiness API brand in collaboration with Ericsson and Vonage.

The three APIs are quality-on-demand, which allows an application to request a certain quality of service for a SIM card; device status – roaming, which will determine whether or not a device is in international roaming mode, and in which country; and device location, where the network can verify the location of a SIM card within the mobile network in Germany, independent of GPS availability.

The network APIs were defined and standardized under the CAMARA open source program, which also underpins the recently launched Open Gateway Initiative. 

Ericsson said the move forms part of its strategy to create a global network platform business with network APIs in order to expose advanced 5G capabilities. A key component in building the global platform is Ericsson’s acquisition of Vonage with its Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) capabilities and developer community.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson, said the API business will open up additional revenue possibilities for operators. “We are thrilled to support DT as they launch communication offerings to enterprises by providing network APIs to the developer community,” he said.

Claudia Nemat, Board Member for Technology and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom, said that together with Vonage and Ericsson, “we are the first to expose network APIs in a one-stop shop portal. APIs are a key strategic focus for Deutsche Telekom. This is underlined by our status as a founding member of the CAMARA alliance, which aims to make standardized APIs available internationally.”

Also noted…

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) completed its auction of spectrum frequencies in the 900MHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz bands. Meanwhile, the auction of 5G spectrum in the Netherlands has been delayed again. 

BT confirmed the timetable for the sunsetting of its 3G network from January next year. The operator plans to complete the process by March 2024. 

Reliance Jio made good on its promise to launch 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services in India. Jio AirFiber is now available in eight cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.