A week in telecoms: MTN taps AI; 5G SA in Germany and Spain

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.

MTN taps into cloud native and AI

Pan-African operator MTN became the latest communications service provider (CSP) to spell out how it intends to implement an AI and cloud-native approach to improve the customer experience.

In a statement, the group announced “a transformative partnership” with consulting firm Accenture and customer experience solutions provider Genesys to help “redefine” customer care for its subscribers by implementing cloud-native solutions and advanced AI capabilities.

The Genesys Cloud CX platform, described as a “pivotal component of this transformative program,” incorporates natural language processing to understand customer queries more intuitively and machine learning algorithms to adapt and improve over time.

In fact, the platform has already been deployed at MTN operating companies in several countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, and Uganda.

According to MTN, in South Africa alone, the transformation has yielded a 40% year-on-year reduction in call volume. Nikos Angelopoulos, MTN’s Group Chief Information Officer, noted that digital transformation “is not just about adopting new technology; it’s about unlocking new ways to add value to our customers and our business.”

A growing number of CSPs are embracing AI to improve operational efficiency and customer services. For example, South Korea’s SK Telecom (SKT) continues to transform itself into a global AI specialist while France’s Iliad Group recently unveiled plans to invest around €200 million in AI projects.

AI, especially generative AI (GenAI), was also a central topic at the recent DTW23-Ignite event.

For example, Shankar Arumugavelu, Global CDIO at Verizon, said he believes GenAI is “a real game changer”. While he agreed that GenAI has the potential to generate immense value for telcos, Scott Petty, CTO of Vodafone, advised the industry to put strong governance in

Cellnex sells off mobile towers 

The days of multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions in the towerco sector may be over, at least for now, but deals continue to take place as CSPs tweak their asset portfolios and free up much-needed cash to support digital transformation ambitions.

For instance, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo agreed to sell a further 1,552 towers to infra-sharing company JTower for JPY17 billion (US$114 million), which the operator will then lease back.

And, Spain-based infrastructure provider Cellnex, perhaps better known for scooping up telco towers around the world, has agreed to sell a stake in its Nordic business to investment firm Stonepeak.

Specifically, Stonepeak is to buy a 49% interest in Cellnex Sweden and Cellnex Denmark for €730 million with a network totalling 4,557 sites in both countries. Cellnex said it will continue to manage the day-to-day business of Cellnex Nordics and consolidate the results of its operations.

As to why it decided to offload these assets, Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano indicated that the deal “marks another significant step forward in our goal to attain investment grade ratings.”

In other words, Cellnex plans to use the proceeds of the deal to reduce its debt. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2024 at the latest.

Telefónica to launch 5G SA in Germany

Telefónica Deutschland is set to become Germany’s second operator to launch 5G standalone (SA) services, joining a small cohort of operators globally to offer services based entirely on a 5G core.

The CSP plans to start offering plans under the 5G Plus brand from October 10. Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer (CTIO) of O2 Telefónica, said 5G SA “is available to more than 90% of the population in Germany. By the end of 2025, we will provide the whole of Germany with 5G Plus.”

Domestic rival Vodafone Germany launched 5G SA services to the wider market under the 5G+ brand in March 2022. The operator switched on the technology in April 2021. In August 2023, Vodafone said 5G+ was available to 37 million people in Germany, or 45% of the population.

As for launches in other markets, the July 2023 update from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) said at least 36 operators in 25 countries and territories are now understood to have launched or deployed public 5G SA networks.

Orange tests 5G SA on open RAN in Spain

Orange flagged the further deployment of its experimental “Pikeo” 5G SA network as part of efforts towards “developing and defining future networks” that are also fully automated.

The group has now tested a data connection on its 5G SA network through an open radio access network (RAN) in Spain. Orange Spain collaborated with technology partners such as HPE, Casa Systems, Mavenir and Dell Technologies to deploy an open RAN node connected to a cloud native 5G SA core network.

The Spanish operator, which is in the process of merging with rival MasMovil, was the first in the Orange group to commercially launch its 5G SA mobile network, with the commercial name of 5G+.

Alexis Salas, Director of Engineering at Orange Spain, said the pilot “has allowed us to test in a real environment our vision of the future of telecommunications networks focused on the use of software and data as fundamental pillars. Specifically, we have implemented a 5G standalone network based on open-source software running in our private Orange Cloud environment.”

Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO and Senior Vice President of Orange Innovation Networks, recently described Pikeo as its flagship innovation bet on network automation.

Eutelsat and OneWeb complete merger

UK-based OneWeb and French rival Eutelsat completed their merger, creating a new behemoth called Eutelsat Group that will rival Elon Musk’s Starlink venture and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

The merger essentially combines OneWeb’s constellation of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites with Eutelsat’s geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites.

The “fully integrated GEO-LEO satellite operator” now plans to deliver “global, fully integrated connectivity” supported by the network density and high throughput of GEO satellites and the “low latency and ubiquity” of the LEO constellation.

It has a total fleet of 37 GEO satellites and an LEO constellation of more than 600 satellites, “providing capacity for broadcasters, media service providers, telecom operators, ISPs and governmental agencies.”

Both companies have separately worked with CSPs to help boost connectivity options in difficult to reach places. For example, OneWeb has recently tied with AT&T, BT, Orange, Telefónica, Telstra and SoftBank to extend mobile network coverage.