Expanding comms services firms are giving both the public sector and enterprises greater choice at the edge and in the cloud. Here, business technology journalist, Antony Savvas looks at the latest market developments.
Global infrastructure services company BAI Group has extended its European footprint by opening an operation in Italy. BAI Italia marks the company’s first European operation outside of the UK and Ireland, and strengthens its capabilities as a provider of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G services and shared infrastructure in the region.
Prime move
Already present in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the US and the UK and Ireland, Italy was seen as a prime move for expansion considering it is one of the biggest mobile connectivity markets in Europe.
BAI Italia will design, build, manage and fund critical connectivity infrastructure in the country, building on the group’s existing relationships with mobile network operators (MNOs). It is an encouraging move for the IoT connectivity market in particular, after the demise of Sigfox last month, which saw that international provider forced into bankruptcy protection as its funds ran out. (Also see: Sigfox goes into receivership after raising and spending €300mn, seeks buyer in 6-month court protection).
Going underground
BAI means real business in its expansion efforts. Last year, it acquired Mobilitie, one of the largest privately-held telecoms infrastructure companies in the US, and in the UK it acquired Vilicom, a specialist in 4G and 5G mobile solutions.
To demonstrate its capacity and its seriousness in going after big connectivity contracts, it can point to a 20-year concession deal it has from Transport for London (TfL), to deliver high-speed wireless communications for the London Underground, one of the biggest metro transport systems in the world.
BAI has brought in industry veteran Luca Luciani to run BAI Italia as CEO, and he is joined by a number of other senior executives hired to help run the venture. Luciani brings over 20 years of business experience across telecoms, energy, consumer goods and management consulting. He previously held several senior executive responsibilities at Telecom Italia and is the former CEO of TIM Brazil.
“The incredible experience across the BAI group means we are in the best position to work with the MNOs, private industrial precincts, commercial venues, public offices and municipalities to improve indoor and outdoor connectivity in Italy, says Luciani. “We will help to accelerate digital innovation across multiple sectors and drive the deployment of smart city applications.”
As it continues in its mission in building out its global footprint, who’s to say that BAI may not be interested in snapping up the available assets of Sigfox?
Spain
In another big connectivity services move, Telefonica‘s IT managed services unit Telefonica Tech has sealed a deal with Oracle Cloud to jointly offer cloud services and applications support to enterprises and public sector organisations across Telefónica’s global customer base. Telefónica Tech has a team of more than 3,000 IT pros and provides services to Telefónica Group’s 5.5 million business customers in 175 countries.
To support the increasing demand for cloud services in Spain, Telefónica will become the host partner for the new Oracle Cloud Madrid Region. The new data centre region is being designed to provide Spanish businesses and public sector customers with a “broad and consistent” set of cloud services with low latency and tight security, and to help them address their in-country data residency and compliance requirements.
“One of the key drivers for success in the cloud market is to help our customers in their digital transformation by offering a complete and differential portfolio with the support of reference partners,” says Maria Jesus Almazor, CEO of cyber security and cloud at Telefonica Tech. “This agreement with Oracle will allow us to expand our cloud services and reinforce our value proposition in databases and middleware applications with one of the market leaders.”
Similar moves
Since October last year, Oracle has entered into similar infrastructure and services agreements with Telecom Italia, India’s Bharti Airtel and Orange Africa, all telcos who are growing their digital and cloud services businesses.
There’s no doubt why telcos are making alliances with cloud players like Oracle, AWS, Azure and Google. Analyst house IDC sees a market opportunity worth US$1 trillion by 2024. This total covers worldwide spending on cloud services, the hardware and software components underpinning them, and the professional and managed services opportunities wrapped around them, which Telefónica Tech will now be licking its lips over.
Green full fibre
As telcos increase their services reach, the networks that customers use to access these services are a key consideration when it comes to the environment.
A report from the UK’s TalkTalk reveals the direct climate benefits of switching to full fibre over slower copper-based networks. It can result in an “80% improvement in energy efficiency” when compared to existing copper-based services. This efficiency is delivered through less equipment being deployed and maintained in the field, greater network reliability, the number of exchanges needed to support services being slashed, and overall lower energy use as a result.
TalkTalk reckons consumer customers can reduce their lifetime carbon emissions by up to 565Kg by using full fibre. Around 26 adult trees are needed to absorb that amount of CO2, says the report.
Full fibre networks use only light, rather than electricity, to transmit signals. Electricity-driven copper cables can only reliably carry signals for seven miles before significant degradation. Light used in full fibre networks can travel tens of kilometres without degradation, and therefore requires far fewer electricity-driven exchanges to support connections.
Fewer exchanges
Currently, TalkTalk provides its services in the UK through around 3,000 shared exchanges. Analysis suggests these exchanges use over 85,000 kWh of energy each year, equating to around 20,000 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). But with the full fibre services TalkTalk continues to roll-out, it says it will eventually only require 1,000 exchanges at its disposal, cutting energy use.
“The advantages of requiring less equipment and being able to use far longer cables than existing copper, mean we expect we will only require the use of some 1,000 exchanges, while being able to service many more customers and meeting our commercial ambitions, says TalkTalk. “Also, given the ability to transmit signals over far greater distances, the use of street cabinets will be virtually eliminated in a full fibre model.”
Technology progress often leads to a hit on the environment, just look at the growing electronic waste piles building up in the west, which are then regularly and selfishly shipped to the east with no thought. It’s certainly progress that digital services growth can be sustainably accessed by full fibre.
The author is Antony Savvas, a global freelance business technology journalist.
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