Displaying items by tag: Europe

Nokia and Deutsche Telekom Group have announced the expansion of their strategic partnership by setting plans to build a 5G-ready IP network.

Deutsche Telekom has selected Nokia's 7750 Service Router (SR) platform to significantly expand capacity across its edge/core routing network as it prepares for next-generation broadband and 5G services. Deployment has already started in Greece, where Nokia is replacing and modernizing the operator’s existing IP network. Rollout in Hungary is expected in Q4 2020.

With networks experiencing unprecedented traffic growth and unpredictable demands, operators want to meet ever-increasing performance requirements while driving down network costs. The scale, feature breadth and versatility of the Nokia 7750 SR-s platform addresses these requirements, enabling operators like Deutsche Telekom Group and its affiliates to build bigger, smarter, automated and secure networks with greater return on investment.

As part of its network modernization, Deutsche Telekom needed to replace an existing IP edge/core network that was reaching its end of service with a new network that can cope with 5G and ultra broadband access requirements. A key principle to achieve this was the consolidation of network layers through the integration of IP aggregation and edge/BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) functions into one converged layer.

Deutsche Telekom selected the Nokia 7750 SR-7s routers as they support the full spectrum of provider edge, gateway and core functions for advanced residential, mobile and enterprise services. Powered by the programmable FP4 network processing silicon, the routers will enable Deutsche Telekom to boost IP network capacity with deterministic performace for a top-quality subscriber experience. As a result, Deutsche Telekom can support 5G interconnectivity and an increasing growth in backbone traffic driven by an increase in mobility applications, video streaming, gaming and other high-capacity demands such as remote working.

The 7750 SR-s is managed by the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP). NSP supports 5G IP transport with automated slicing across IP and optical transport layers with end-to-end orchestration of network resource provisioning and assurance operations. This simplifies operations so that operators can create customer policies/slices with different network performance, quality and routing capabilities to respond quickly to fast-changing subscriber demand.

Bernhard Scholl, Technology Europe VP Access Core & Transport at Deutsche Telekom, said: “Deutsche Telekom Group affiliates need to expand and modernize their IP networks to address stringent 5G IP transport requirements. We continue to see tremendous growth in network traffic and the need to deliver more throughput and higher capacity with strict QoS to our customers is critical. This is particlarly the case as bandwidth intensive applications are shifting to on demand video along with the growing usage of cloud-based services. Building out this backbone with Nokia's IP edge routers will allow us to stay ahead of our customers’ network needs.”

Vassilis Kazatzopoulos, Head of International Sales DT Global Customer Business Team at Nokia, said: “With trends like 5G, IoT and Industry 4.0 now a reality, networks are expected to handle hundreds of new applications and services for millions of users. The Nokia 7750 SR-s series of IP routers takes router performance to the next level by delivering the massive scale, comprehensive feature set and platform versatility needed to stay ahead of evolving demands. Nokia is excited to expand its longstanding relationship with Deutsche Telekom Group to help prepare its affiliates’ networks for the future.”

Nokia has announced a services deal with A1 Austria, building on the leadership of both companies in the Austrian enterprise market.

In this three-year contract, started earlier in 2020, Nokia is providing its industrial-grade private wireless technology and services for all existing and new A1 Austria LTE and 5G enterprise campus network deployments.

As part of the deal, Nokia will provide operational support and care for all existing campus networks, ensuring adherence to even the most challenging service level agreements (SLAs) and quality of services (QoS) requirements. With the support of Nokia, A1 Austria will accelerate the digital transformation of its enterprise customers. A1 and Nokia have already successfully deployed a number of private wireless campus networks in Austria, including installations at Magna Steyr, Vienna Airport and 5G Playground Carinthia.

Nokia is now the technology partner of A1 Austria, ensuring high-performance 4.9G/LTE 5G private wireless network solutions. In addition, A1 and its customers benefit from Nokia’s globally proven capabilities in digitalization, automation, AI and network slicing.

A1 Austria is a global lead customer for Nokia’s network slicing technology in 4G and 5G mobile networks, a key functionality for enterprise networking which A1 Austria is planning to make available nationwide. Private wireless networks are ideal for the business-critical communication requirements of factories, logistic hubs, and other enterprise verticals along with public safety organizations.

According to Mobile Experts1, the global private LTE and 5G market is anticipated to triple by 2025 as a variety of industries are upgrading their investment in private wireless networks to support industrial operations.

Alexander Stock, CTO at A1 Austria, said, “This deal reinforces the long-standing collaboration between A1 and Nokia, including an agreement to expand next-generation 5G mobile communications in Austria. A1 is now a clear leader in enterprise in Austria and, together with Nokia as its technology partner, we are looking forward to quickly rolling out new deployments.”

Friedrich Trawöger, Head of Operate and Managed Services at Nokia, said, “As operators like A1 Austria diversify their portfolios with new services and business innovation to digitalize industries, Nokia is in place to deliver proven expertise in the deployment and operation of business-critical private network solutions. We have had significant success on a number of executed projects with A1 in Austria and this deal will further position both companies as leaders in the private LTE and 5G domain.”  

In addition to the services contract, Nokia provides A1 Austria the infrastructure, software and services for setting up the private LTE networks. This includes a micro core network, AirFrame servers, small or macro cells, as well as professional services.

Nokia has announced the extension of its long-term strategic relationship with BT into the 5G arena, following its selection as a 5G RAN vendor for the UK operator.

As part of the deal, which will make Nokia BT’s largest equipment provider, Nokia will provide equipment and services at BT radio sites across the UK, helping to evolve BT’s radio access network to 5G and supporting its goal of maintaining the UK’s best network.

BT’s Nokia-powered network, which currently includes Greater London, the Midlands and rural locations, will be extended to also cover multiple other towns and cities across the United Kingdom. This enhanced Nokia footprint will support BT’s commitments to the UK government around the use of High Risk Vendors (HRVs) in UK network infrastructure.   

Nokia will supply its AirScale Single RAN (S-RAN) portfolio for both indoor and outdoor coverage, including 5G RAN, AirScale base stations and Nokia AirScale radio access products. These solutions will enable BT to build on its existing network leadership in the UK to deliver connectivity and capacity benefits to consumers at ultra-low latencies as well as reducing complexity and increasing cost efficiencies. The deal will also see Nokia optimize BT’s 2G and 4G networks and work alongside BT on the development of the OpenRAN ecosystem.

As part of BT’s network transformation, the operator will also utilize Nokia Software’s ng-SDM and NetAct network management platform, supporting the network evolution to 5G. These build upon the existing network architecture and provide an immediate cornerstone and single platform for new 5G-based services. Nokia will also provide its state-of-the-art Cell Site Gateway product providing key backhaul connectivity. 

Nokia will also provide digital design and deployment for a faster time to market as well as optimization and technical support services.

Philip Jansen, CEO, BT Group said,“Digital connectivity is critical to the UK’s economic future, creating jobs and underpinning sustainable growth. That’s why BT is making game-changing investments in full fibre and 5G. In a fast-moving and competitive market, it’s critical we make the right technology choices. With this next stage of our successful relationship with Nokia we will continue to lead the rollout of fixed and mobile networks to deliver stand-out experiences for customers.”

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, Nokia, said, “I am delighted that BT has extended its partnership with Nokia on 5G RAN, making Nokia BT’s largest infrastructure partner. Our two companies have collaborated for over a quarter of a century in order to deliver best-in-class connectivity to people across the United Kingdom. We are proud to support BT’s 5G network evolution and look forward to working even more closely together in the years to come.”

PCCW Global has signed a collaboration agreement with Spanish technology company Nayar Systems that will provide the European technology specialist with access to a global telecommunications network and fabric, with coverage of over 120 countries using PCCW Global’s Console Connect IoT SIM connectivity.

Nayar Systems is a major industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technology developer serving the global elevator industry, and the collaboration will enable it to significantly reduce the time and cost associated with deploying the telecommunications services most required by modern high-tech elevator systems.

In addition to its IoT relationships in the elevator industry, PCCW Global’s growing portfolio of IoT vertical markets already include the media, logistics, aviation and transportation industries.

PCCW Global will provide Nayar Systems with Console Connect IoT single SIM technology, which delivers a global fabric of connectivity and enables Nayar Systems to offer a complete IoT solution to their clients worldwide.

Through the Console Connect IoT management portal, Nayar Systems has the ability to activate, monitor, and manage any number of IoT SIMs remotely in over 120 countries where the company has presence, enabling immediate 4G connectivity for the telemetry, safety and remote control functions of its elevators.

Incorporating single SIM IoT technology into the elevator production process will result in a significant reduction in time and costs related to provisioning for telecommunications services at the point of production.

Nayar Systems’ customers and end-users will benefit from simplified installation and the deployment of reliable elevator communications using single IoT SIM technology over extensive worldwide mobile partner networks, supported by PCCW Global’s high-speed, robust and secure international IPX infrastructure.

In addition to supporting both single SIM and eSIM technology across a global infrastructure, PCCW Global’s Console Connect IoT connectivity service offering includes an intuitive self-service portal, 24x7 international NOC monitoring and multilingual service hotline, fully private on-demand connectivity to clouds and data centres, Software Defined Network (SDN) orchestration, and support for a universal API facilitating connectivity monitoring and management.

Craig Price, Senior Vice President, Mobility Product and Marketing, PCCW Global, said, “We are proud to be powering Nayar System’s IoT solution, and we look forward to assisting to deliver this integrated IoT solution to the international market. It is exciting to be the enabler of such an innovative service, which will deliver real benefits to Nayar Systems’ end-users.”

José Luis Sanchis, CMO, Nayar Systems, said, “The collaboration will allow us to expand the business footprint around the globe and provide after-sales service in real-time to our clients. All problems related to elevator telecommunication connectivity are solved as the manufacturer controls the condition of the lift remotely at all times, without the installer having to deal with the problem of obtaining telecommunications connectivity from a local supplier.”

PCCW Global today announced that its Console Connect Software-Defined Interconnection® (SDI® ) platform is now available in many more data centers via an extended collaboration with Global Switch, a leading owner, operator and developer of large-scale carrier and cloud neutral data centers in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Global Switch owns and operates 13 data centers centrally located in Tier 1 cities, offering a total of 390,000 sq. m. of highly resilient technical space and hosting some of the world’s largest cloud providers, hyperscalers and enterprise customers.

The company works with all industry verticals and segments and provides tailored solutions to meet each customer’s specific needs, whilst also ensuring the availability of a wide range of high-performance interconnect solutions from leading players such as Console Connect.

Following the highly successful launch of Console Connect in Global Switch’s Singapore Tai Seng data center in 2019, the platform has now been extended to all Global Switch locations and is immediately available. The collaboration gives Console Connect users an extensive choice of on-net data centers and cloud access points in Europe’s largest and most interconnected data center hubs - London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris. It also brings the Console Connect platform to Madrid, Spain, one of the most important gateways to Latin America, as well as other major European markets.

In Asia Pacific, Console Connect is available at the Global Switch data centers in Sydney and Hong Kong, in addition to the pre-existing facility in Singapore’s Tai Seng data center.

Mr. Michael Glynn, Vice President of Digital Automated Innovation, PCCW Global, said, “We are delighted to extend our collaboration with Global Switch by bringing the Console Connect platform into all of its data centers worldwide. The addition of eight on-net data centers in Europe forms part of a major expansion plan for the platform across the region, while the new facilities in Sydney and Hong Kong further consolidates our position as a market leader for on-demand fabric in Asia Pacific.”

The Console Connect network-as-a-service platform is fully integrated with the world’s leading cloud, SaaS, IoT and IX providers, including Google Cloud, AWS, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, Tencent and NAVER Cloud.

The automated Console Connect fabric is underpinned by PCCW Global’s leading IP backbone and one of the largest MPLS networks in the world, spanning more than 3,000 cities and 160 countries. Global Switch customers will be able to instantly access this ecosystem of clouds, SaaS providers, and network, and seamlessly connect to over 300 data centers worldwide through Console Connect.

The platform provides users with the redundancy and flexibility to scale their businesses on demand at any Global Switch data center, and have access to the PCCW Global physical network, which is separate to the public Internet and offers uncontended and highly redundant core connectivity with multiple diverse paths between countries.

Mr. Paul Selwood, Group Director, Strategic Accounts and Networks, Global Switch, said, “We are extremely excited that the Console Connect platform is available at all of our data centers. Our customers will be able to securely access services from any cloud or SaaS provider, connect to business-critical applications with ease, and scale connections up and down on-demand.”

Italy’s Competition Authority (ICA) has taken legal action against Facebook, threatening to fine the social media giant for failing to comply with their terms regarding data practices involving user data which were previously set in November 2018.

The ICA issued a statement which read that if a company failed to comply with their terms, it would potentially result in a €5 million fine.

Facebook was fined €5 million back in November 3018 after the ICA found that the social media giant did not inform its users adequately about their personal data collection procedure and how it was being used for commercial purposes. More specifically, they were penalized on the grounds of “the remunerative aims underlying the supply of the service , while at the same time emphasizing that it is provided free of charge.”

The ICA also asked Facebook to put an end to this and publish an amending statement which was to be shown on the homepage of the website as well as the app and the person profiles of all Italian users.

However the regulatory agency found that, upon registering on the social network, users “are still not adequately and immediately informed about the collection and use of their personal data for commercial purposes” and that “Facebook did not publish the amending statement”.

When it comes to regulator probes, Facebook has been under the spotlight over the past few years.

A spokesperson rom Facebook stated, “We are reviewing the authority decision… We made changes last year, including to our terms of service, to further clarify how Facebook makes money. These changes were part of our ongoing commitment to give people more transparency and control over their information.”

Telefonica Germany has said that it is currently in talks with Mercedes-Benz for a 5G mobile network which will be used to produce vehicles at the automaker’s Factory 56 plant in Sindelfingen, Germany.

Vodafone’s network was down across Europe on Thursday with thousands of customers unable to use the internet or make phone calls.

Issues began at around 14:42 BST according to network monitor Down detector. Customers all over the UK reported issues and so did customers in Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Greece and Portugal.

Many customers took to Twitter to express their frustration on the matter.

Vodafone then acknowledged the outage and tweeted, “We are currently investigating a potential outage to our fixed and mobile services. We thank you for your patience as we work to get this resolved.”

The company has around 19.5 million UK customers and around 444 million globally.

Initially, it looked more like an isolated issue with customers in some UK cities thought to have been among those affected; however, Economics Correspondent Paul Cogan at Virgin Media TV noticed that Down Detector showed more maps with even more outages.

He stated, “Vodafone’s problems don’t seem to be restricted to just Europe. Down Detector outage maps show problems in India, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.”

The global disruption was then confirmed when Vodafone Ghana tweeted, “Vodafone Ghana wishes to apologize for the intermittent network challenges experienced by some of our mobile customers. Resolving it remains our topmost priority. We shall keep you updated. Thanks for your patience.”

Vodafone then apologized for the inconvenience and said the services were back to normal. “This issue has now been fully resolved and normal service has been restored to customers. We thank you for your patience and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.”

The network outage comes a month after Vodafone set its launch date for its new 5G network in seven UK cities.

The company last experienced an outage in October 2018.

Cinia and MegaFon have signed an MoU to partner up to lay telecom cables across the Arctic Sea through an ultra-low latency subsea route between Europe and the northern parts of Asia.

The arctic is one of the most environmentally protected areas in the world, making permits for laying cables to be very difficult to obtain.

Ari-Jussi Knaapila, CEO of Cinia, said, “The Arctic cable will contribute to the socio-economic development of the Arctic areas. The cale is an environmentally sustainable way to boost global, regional and local economy. At the same time, the cable will connect three continents, covering approximately 85 per cent of the world’s population.”

The new route will offer low latency, physical diversity and high network availability  which will serve the markets of Europe, some parts of Russia, Japan and North America.

CEO of MegaFon, Gevork Vermishyan said, “MegaFon is proud to join a major international infrastructure project that will not only connect several continents via the Arctic but also will benefit MEgaFon as a leader of digital opportunities by enabling the development of network infrastructure for customers in the Arctic region and the Far East.”

TIM (Telecom Italia), in collaboration with Nokia, has achieved a wavelength speed of 550 Gigabits per second (Gb/s), a new European record for data transmission over a long-distance backbone network.