A week in telecoms: Mobile World Congress highlights

The 2024 edition of Mobile World Congress took place this week with plenty of news on trending topics such as GenAI, network APIs and open radio access networks.

MWC organizer the GSMA was keen to provide latest updates on the Open Gateway initiative it launched in 2023 to drive the development and deployment of CAMARA network APIs. The industry body said 47 mobile operator groups, representing 239 mobile networks and 65% of connections around the world, have now signed up to the initiative.

It noted that more than 40 mobile operator networks have now made a combined total of 94 APIs commercially available to enterprise developers in 21 markets across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Technology partners and cloud providers to have got involved include AWS, Infobip, Microsoft, Nokia and Ericsson’s Vonage.

What’s more, research by McKinsey, GSMA Open Gateway and other network API initiatives suggest that network APIs could help operators “unlock an additional $300 billion market opportunity by 2030.”

During MWC, meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica Deutschland and Vodafone Germany launched the new Number Verify API on the German market under Open Gateway, in collaboration with Vonage.

It’s worth noting here that TM Forum members also recently began developing new “Operate APIs” to complement CAMARA network APIs, with a goal of providing a standardized way for mobile operators to make the interfaces commercially available to aggregators and developers. TM Forum has also published its first Open Gateway Operate API, which focuses on the operations between channel partners and operators.

NTT DoCoMo and NEC to form Open RAN JV

Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo and longstanding domestic partner NEC unveiled plans to collaborate in the open RAN field and market their combined expertise on the global market.

DoCoMo already markets multi-vendor open RAN solutions under the OREX brand, a concept similar to that of domestic peer Rakuten, which sells its own open RAN services under Rakuten Symphony. DoCoMo now plans to form a joint venture with NEC, currently dubbed OREX SAI, from April 2024.

The pair aim to promote the “commercialization and realization” of what they describe as “true Open RAN,” which supports equipment and systems from diverse vendors.

DoCoMo has long been attempting to foster the multi-vendor approach to open RAN, although Dell’Oro Group recently suggested that single-vendor open RAN is set to dominate technology sales, at least initially.

During MWC, fellow multi-vendor open RAN proponent Nokia also announced that its cloud RAN solution will be available commercially in 2024 following multiple trials worldwide with hardware vendors, webscale companies, and chipset manufacturers.

Nokia said its “anyRAN” approach enables a “fast transition to hybrid environments of cloud RAN and purpose-built RAN, ensuring consistent performance and interoperability with common software and In-Line acceleration architecture.”

Nokia also announced the launch of anyRAN for enterprise in partnership with Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft that will see the companies offer private wireless solutions to enterprise customers.

Swisscom and Vodafone confirm talks over Italy sale

Just a week after Orange and MásMóvil received clearance from the European Commission to combine their operations in Spain, another European merger could be in the offing as Vodafone unveiled more about long-awaited plans to sell its Vodafone Italia business.

The group confirmed it is in exclusive discussions with Swisscom AG regarding a potential sale of Vodafone Italy to Swisscom for €8 billion on a debt and cash free basis. However, it did note that there “can be no certainty that any transaction will ultimately be agreed.”

Assuming the negotiations are successful, Swisscom plans to merge Vodafone Italia with Fastweb, Swisscom’s subsidiary in Italy.

Iliad had also been interested in buying Vodafone Italia but saw its offer rejected in recent weeks.

Operators and vendors from AI-RAN Alliance

The AI-RAN Alliance, described as a new collaborative initiative aimed at integrating AI into cellular technology to further advance RAN technology and mobile networks, was launched at MWC.

Founding members include Amazon Web Services, (AWS), Arm, DeepSig, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Northeastern University, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, SoftBank Corp. and T-Mobile USA.

The group’s mission is to “enhance mobile network efficiency, reduce power consumption, and retrofit existing infrastructure, setting the stage for unlocking new economic opportunities for telecommunications companies with AI, facilitated by 5G and 6G.”

John Saw, Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile, noted that AI is “coming faster than even many of the most ambitious predictions.”

“Developing an ecosystem of AI-based solutions for the design, engineering, and operation of our network and services, with so many category leaders in this alliance, is a powerful way to accomplish more than we could alone,” he added.

Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer at the GSMA, said while it welcomed the shared ambitions of the alliance, “it’s critical it’s democratized, so all parts of the connectivity industry and their customers, wherever they are in the world, can benefit. We look forward to working with them through GSMA Foundry and other initiatives.”

Deutsche Telekom sees strong growth in 2024

Latest annual results came in from a bullish Deutsche Telekom, which said it met all its targets in 2023 and expects to see considerably stronger earnings growth in 2024, according to Chief Executive Timotheus Höttges.

The German group, which also owns a majority stake in T-Mobile US, expects its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after leases (EBITDA AL) to increase this year by around 6% to around €42.9 billion. Free cash flow AL is expected to increase by around 16% to around €18.9 billion.

“Thanks to our growing businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, we are confident we will up the ante yet again in 2024,” Höttges said in a statement.

In 2023, service revenues increased 3.6% in organic terms to €92.9 billion. Adjusted EBITDA AL increased by 4% in organic terms to €40.5 billion. Reported net profit was more than twice as high as in 2022, reaching €17.8 billion. Deutsche Telekom noted that the main driver was the proceeds from the sale of the majority stake in the cell tower business in Germany and Austria (GD Towers).

In its domestic market, DT said it recorded positive trends in all areas, with 1.2 million new contract mobile customers. T-Mobile US recorded the largest customer base growth in the industry last year, the operator said, reporting 3.1 million postpaid phone customer additions.

The US operator also gained 2.1 million new subscribers for its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service, increasing the total customer base to 4.8 million. The operator said it is on track to reach the 2025 target of 7 million to 8 million FWA subscribers.

Also noted…

AT&T said it believes a major network outage in the United States was caused by a network upgrade process, not a cyber attack. Service has now been fully restored, and those affected can apply for a $5 credit.

BT launched its NB-IoT network in the UK, as 3G networks are also shut down.

Xavier Niel and Iliad acquired a 19.8% stake in Tele2 in Sweden.

Deutsche Telekom, e& Group, Singtel, SoftBank Corp. and SK Telecom held the inaugural meeting of the Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA) at MWC and announced plans to form a joint venture to develop large language models (LLMs) for telcos.