Capacity Magazine October / November 2018

VOL 18 ISSUE 6 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

Cover sponsor: OTEGLOBE

Business intelligence for the global carrier industry

Capacity

Capacity

VOL 18 VOL ISSUE XX 6 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER ISSUE XX MONTH 2014 2018

Big interview Rolf Nafziger speaks exclusively on the launch of Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier Special Report Capacity takes a look at the ongoing journey to empower women in telecoms

Business intelligence for the global carrier industry

Will YOU answer the call for equality?

Capacity

capacitymedia.com

Capacity

| 01

CONTENTS Capacity magazine, October/November 2018

VOL 18 VOL ISSUE XX 6 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER ISSUE XX MONTH 2014 2018

Big interview Rolf Nazinger, of Deutsche Telekom ICSS, on Special Report Capacity takes a look st the ongoing journey to empower women in telecoms

NEWS & ANALYSIS 04 EUROPE

Cover image: Adrian Teal, CartoonStock

Business intelligence for the global carrier industry

Will YOU answer the call for equality?

08 EURASIA ANALYSIS 10 MIDDLE EAST 12 AFRICA 16 ASIA & ASIA-PACIFIC 24 LATIN AMERICA

capacitymedia.com

45 IMC Q&A: MARK STEWART

special report

PREPARING NETWORKS FOR HAPPY HOLIDAYS ON FRAUD

86 CAPACITY’S

PEOPLE & DIARY

Capacity speaks to a number of prominent female execs as part of our empowering women in telecoms special report (page 57)

18 EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW Vincent English, Megaport

90 APPOINTMENTS

50 THE BIG INTERVIEW

Rolf Nafziger, Deutsche Telekom

54 THE BIG INTERVIEW Bruno Lopez, STT GDC

FEATURES 32 MEF TO TACKLE

ENTERPRISE NEEDS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WAN SUMMIT

36 WE JUST DON’T KNOW, BUT WE DON’T NEED UNCERTAINTY

40 Q&A TÉLÉCOMS SANS FRONTIÈRE

Executive interview: Annette Murphy, Zayo

60

The big interview: Gina Nomellini, GTT

62

The big interview: Katia González, BICS

65

20 Women to Watch

The industry’s latest movers

91 A DAY IN THE LIFE Mary Clark, Synchronoss

92 THE INNOVATION 22 EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW Capacity Lisa Miller, CenturyLink

59

84 TAKING LEADERSHIP

28 AMERICA IS BUILDING TO SCALE

after page 57

47 WHEREVER YOU ROAM:

CONFERENCE CODE OF CONDUCT

STRATEGIES

Rolf Nafziger speaks exclusively to Capacity about the company’s relaunch as Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier.

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TELECOMS

EUROPE

26 NORTH AMERICA

ON THE COVER

THE BIG INTERVIEW page 50-51

42 MAKING WAVES IN

REPORT

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION special report after page 71

5G mobile spectrum

SPONSORS 35 NTT COMMUNICATIONS

38 A1 TELEKOM AUSTRIA 41 OTEGLOBE 44 INTERNET MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

49 VIRTUAL1 76 VEON 78 HUAWEI

73

Executive interview: Roberto Kung, Orange

74

Huawei tackles business transformation

76

Creating a one-stop-shop for Eurasia

78

Atonomous network and service 2.0

82

Transformation for the enterprise market

Meet with the UK’s largest Ethernet Network at Capacity Europe 2018

Over 3,000 POPs enabled for 100MB and 1GB

23-25 October, London | Meet us at stand 2 www.talktalkbusiness.co.uk/carrier

'(876&+( 7(/(.20 */2%$/ &$55,(5 &211(&7,1* 7+( :25/' )25 <28 The telco landscape is rapidly transforming. Nowhere is that clearer than in our business, where a new era of global connectivity has already begun. To more quickly respond to our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; changing wholesale needs, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve reinvented ourselves. By simplifying processes, intensifying collaboration and enhancing agility. Plus, our expanded portfolio offers all you need from one source. Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier delivers the Capacity most innovative, future-proof solutions that guarantee a long and secure tomorrow for your business and the entire industry.

Get in touch: globalcarrier.telekom.com

editor’s letter | 03

Diversity is strength!

A

Follow Capacity on Twitter: @capacitymedia Follow Capacity on Facebook: www.facebook.com/capacity-media

Gartner survey last year showed that only 21% of leaders in the telecoms sector are women – if we look at wholesale, it is arguably even less.

Seventy years after ‘Rosie the Riveter’ – a cultural icon of World War II who features on our editorial cover – first appeared, the world has come a long way in terms of equality. However, as several interviews in our Empowering Women in Telecoms special report (p57-70) highlight, there is still a long way to go. Within this special report, we have listed 20 prominent women in telecoms (p65-69) who are really driving the industry forward.

Diversity is strength, but the industry needs to overcome passive resistance and stay the course. Empowering Women is a big feature at Capacity Europe so if you are there, don’t miss the must-see panel and drinks (sponsored by Zayo) on Day 1 of the event. It comes as the wholesale carrier community is undergoing a wider digital transformation. Our Business Transformation special report (p71-92) features a number of executive viewpoints on how the industry itself needs to change, as well as the role it can play in transforming other sectors.

One company undergoing a huge transformation is Deutsche Telekom’s wholesale arm – for the full scoop on how the company has revamped and why Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier has launched (see opposite page), check out our big interview with Rolf Nafziger (p50-51).

This issue is Capacity’s biggest magazine to date and is packed full of news, analysis, Capacity interviews, and features.

We’ve also have a new Code of Conduct for attending our events (p86) so please do familiarise yourself with them. Our exclusive market statistics from the Global Leaders Forum (GLF) is on the hot topic of fraud (p84-85).

We were extremely happy to announce the launch of our new website in the last issue and if you haven’t signed up or checked it out, what are you waiting for?

Good luck to the shortlisted companies for this year’s Global Carrier Awards and congratulations to the eventual winners! If you have any news to share that you want the industry to know at Capacity Europe or throughout the year get in touch with the editorial team (details below)!

We look forward to seeing you all at Capacity Europe!

Follow Capacity on YouTube: www.youtube.com/CapacitymagazineTV

Jason McGee-Abe Editor-in-Chief, Capacity Media

Follow Capacity on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/capacity-media

Management CEO Ros Irving ros.irving@capacitymedia.com

Sales International sales manager Federico Mancini federico.mancini@capacitymedia.com

Events Product director, conferences Vanessa Barbe vanessa.barbe@capacitymedia.com

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Jason McGee-Abe jason.mcgee-abe@capacitymedia.com Twitter: @JasonMcGeeAbe

International sales manager Charles Newman charles.newman@capacitymedia.com

ITW event director Ross Webster ross.webster@capacitymedia.com

Production Production and content coordinator Geralyn Samia geralyn.samia@capacitymedia.com

Accounts Administrative assistant Ruby Ward ruby.ward@capacitymedia.com

Design Freelance designer Anton Fimaier

Marketing Head of marketing Lubtcho Dimitrov lubtcho.dimitrov@capacitymedia.com

Editor-at-large Alan Burkitt-Gray alan.burkitt@capacitymedia.com Skype: alanbg Twitter: @alanburkittgray Deputy editor James Pearce james.pearce@capacitymedia.com Twitter: @jamespearce87 Reporter Natalie Bannerman natalie.bannerman@capacitymedia.com Twitter: @nitnat1989

Graphic designer Samantha Heasmer samantha.heasmer@capacitymedia.com

Marketing manager Simon Murray simon.murray@capacitymedia.com Digital content executive Uday Bahadur uday.bahadur@capacitymedia.com

Subscription enquiries Customer services customerservices@euromoneyplc.com tel +44 20 7779 8610 fax +44 20 7779 8602 Printer Stephens and George, UK Next issue December/January 2019 Published on 20 November 2018 Directors David Pritchard (Chairman), Andrew Rashbass (CEO), Andrew Ballingal, Tristan Hillgarth, Imogen Joss, Tim Collier, Kevin Beatty, Jan Babiak, Lorna Tilbian, Colin Day, Wendy Pallot Freelance writers Gareth Willmer Guy Matthews

How to contact Capacity Capacity magazine is published by Telcap, a division of Euromoney Global Limited TelCap, 8 Bouverie Street London EC4Y 8AX, UK tel +44 20 7779 7227 (switchboard) fax +44 20 7779 7228 www.capacitymedia.com Capacity (ISSN 1471-762X) is published six times a year by TelCap. Annual subscription €250, £210, $340. © TelCap, 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may by reproduced, stored or introduced into any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners Although TelCap has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this publication, neither it nor any contributor can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences that may arise from errors or omissions or any opinions or advice given.

04 | europe

BREXIT THREAT SPURS COLT’S 150KM EXPANSION IN DUBLIN

B

rexit – the UK’s expected departure from the European Union – is one of the reasons behind Colt’s expansion of its Dublin network, CEO Carl Grivner confirmed in an interview.

Speaking exclusively to Capacity, hours before the company officially announced the 150km network expansion in the Irish capital, Grivner said: “Dublin is already very strong, and Brexit is maybe leading to more activity. It’s not so much Colt as our customers. Dublin is very exciting in terms of what’s happening in this market.”

“We already have a strong presence in the city,” Grivner told Capacity. “We looked at 250 cities in terms of growth and data centres. Dublin comes out very forcibly in that area. I can count 25 cranes from my window. There’s lots of new construction.”

Dublin is being tipped as the place many US and other international companies will go for their European headquarters as Ireland will remain part of the EU, even if the UK leaves as the UK government plans on 30 March 2019.

Banks, for example, based in Ireland will be able to operate across the 27 remaining EU members – while the position of UK-based banks is still not known while negotiations continue to take place between the UK government and the European Commission.

Colt is also planning to announce expansion in Berlin in the near future, Grivner hinted to Capacity. “It has some of the same characteristics – a lot of new growth. It interests us in terms of the density of our network.”

SSE TO BUILD 5G FIBRE RING THROUGH LONDON SEWERS FOR O2 AND THREE SSE Enterprise Telecoms has agreed to build a 5G fibre ring in London for Three UK and Telefónica’s O2 UK. SSE announced in July 2018 that CK Hutchison’s Three UK had picked its wholesale backhaul service.

SSE will build a London network for both Three and O2, using fibre largely installed in Thames Water’s waste water sewers in the capital. Both SSE and rival carrier Zayo have fibre attached to the side of London 19th-century sewers.

“Networks will fundamentally underpin the UK’s digital economy and will be essential to 5G services,” said Colin Sempill, managing director of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, which is owned by energy company SSE. “With this high capacity core in the London sewers, Three UK and O2 are tapping into our unique, diverse

Capacity connectivity and putting their networks in a strong position to trial 5G offerings, while enhancing its existing services for their customers.”

SSE said the service would “significantly enhance Three UK and O2’s connectivity backhaul capabilities and pave the way for further 4G and 5G deployment by connecting cell sites and masts”.

Dave Dyson, CEO of Three UK, said: “Our partnership with SSE Enterprise Telecoms and O2 is one of the first examples of using existing infrastructure to improve connectivity in an urban area.”

Brendan O’Reilly, CTO of O2, said: “This partnership is a great example of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and O2 coming together in a collaborative and innovative way to address the growing challenge and pressure of obtaining access to fibre for mobile backhaul in the UK.”

Carl Grivner: Colt expands in Dublin

VODAFONE GERMANY ROLLS OUT 1GBPS INTERNET IN BAVARIA Vodafone Deutschland (Germany) has announced the launch of its gigabit cable broadband service to approximately 400,000 homes in Bavaria, Germany.

The cities of Nuremberg, Landshut, Dingolfing and Fuerth will be the first to receive the new service, which will offer high-speed internet access with a data rate of up to 1Gbps.

Nuremberg and Landshut were the first two cities in which Vodafone switched off analogue TV and radio channels and introduced the new cable standard DOCSIS 3.1 on which the gigabit service is based on.

Vodafone says that it plans on covering more than 6 million households with the gigabit service by the end of 2018, 11 million by the end of 2019 and a further 50 million by 2022.

NEWS IN BRIEF Orange to partner Google on 6,600km Dunant submarine cable connecting the US to the French Atlantic Coast.

Facebook, Airtel Uganda and BCS to lay a total of approximately 800km of optical fibre in North West Uganda.

Telesat, SES, Intelsat and Eutelsat have formed the new C-Band Alliance

in response to an initiative from the FCC, dicussing using their frequencies for 5G services.

Hawaiki Submarine Cable has chosen Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme solution to increase capacity on its cable by 50%.

PLDT is extending its strategic partnership with Amdocs, with a six-

year service agreement overseeing the company’s digital transformation.

DE-CIX has filed a constitutional complaint against Germany’s main spy agency after a federal court threw out a previous case.

TalkTalk has upgraded its metro aggregation network resulting in a 20-fold capacity increase.

october/november 2018

europe | 05

MAREA CABLE REACHES 200TBPS OF CAPACITY Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius confirm that its 6,600km-long MAREA cable from Virginia Beach to Sopelana, Spain has increased its initial capacity of 160Tbps to a total of 200Tbps.

The companies say that they are continuously working to improve the connectivity on its cable to meet both present and future demands.

This system provides the lowest latency route between the US and Southern Europe as well as a diverse path to network hubs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In September Infinera, a provider of intelligent transport networks, completed a number of successful submarine field trials over the MAREA cable.

The trials achieved new records for trans-Atlantic real-time spectral efficiency, peaking at: 6.21 bits per second per hertz (b/s/Hz) over 6,644 km, translating to a fibre capacity of 26.2Tbps and 4.46 b/s/ Hz over 13,210 km for a total of 18.6Tbps fibre capacity.

The trials were conducted using Infinera’s fourth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE4) advanced coherent technology. In addition, the company employed several advanced technologies including precision, multi-carrier common wavelocking based on Infinera’s large-scale photonic integrated circuit (PIC), digitally synthesised subcarriers with “near Nyquist” pulse shaping, enabled by the ICE4 real-time

coherent digital signal processor, and operation over a high-optical power, largearea optical fibre cable.

DE-CIX SET TO OPEN SECOND LISBON IX IN Q4 2018 DE-CIX has confirmed that it will open another Internet Exchange (IX) in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

Having established the fastest-growing IX via its subsidiary in Madrid in 2016, DE-CIX will install a second IX in the strategically important Portuguese capital of Lisbon by the end of 2018.

“After the continuous success in Madrid, DE-CIX is opening a new chapter of interconnection for the Iberian Peninsula with our newest Internet Exchange in Lisbon as a response to the dynamics of Internet traffic and to our customers’ needs,” explained Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DECIX International.

DE-CIX expanded its Iberian presence one year ago through an agreement with Itconic, which ran five data centres

Capacity

Ivo Ivanov: DE-CIX meets growing customer demands with 2nd Lisbon IX

across Spain and Portugal. A month later, Equinix announced it had entered into an agreement with the Carlyle Group to purchase Itconic and its CloudMas subsidiary for $259 million.

Ivanov added: “Lisbon itself is the sea cable hub of the Iberian Peninsula, with many major sea cable connections landing there from Western Africa and the Americas. There will be a new regime of trans-Atlantic traffic flows, with the Iberian Peninsula as the new centre of gravity. Networks will meet there instead of needing to go so much further north to reach European networks and international content providers. With Internet Exchanges in both Lisbon and Madrid, DE-CIX will support the digital ecosystem on the Iberian Peninsula to further grow and flourish.”

EQUINIX TO OPEN SECOND $19M DATA CENTRE IN SOFIA Equinix has announced plans to open a second $19 million data centre Bulgarian International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Q1 2019.

Schwartz: New faclity will give companies better interconnectivty options capacitymedia.com

The new facility based in Sofia – called SO2 – will support Bulgarian companies as they transform their businesses through interconnection with digital supply chain partners, cloud adoption and access to new markets around the world.

“Data centre colocation provides a powerful level of direct interconnection and empowers enterprises to react in real time, adapt quickly to change and leverage digital ecosystems to create new value and growth,” said Eric Schwartz, president, Equinix EMEA. “The new SO2 data centre in Sofia will provide local businesses and multinationals with the latest interconnection options to accelerate business performance and support their IT transformation initiatives.”

The company also announced plans to open its first $73 million International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre to meet the growing needs of its cloud customer in Q1 2019.

The site will give enterprises greater access to top providers at Equinix through low-latency and private connectivity options. In addition, Equinix says it will also extend its relationships with strategic partners, and strengthen its leadership position in the general cloud ecosystem.

The new facility – called PA8 – will be Equinix’s eighth data centre in the Paris metro area and will include round 850 cabinets in the first phase of its build out.

The area is already home to 200+ CSPs including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce and Microsoft Azure.

06 | europe

KPN’S IBASIS SALE TO TOFANE ‘TO BE COMPLETE BY YEAR END’ AS ALTICE DEAL EXPANDED

Alexandre Pébereau’s (pictured) Tofane Global has completed its acquisition of Altice’s wholesale voice business – and the deal has been extended to include mobile voice. A further deal, to acquire iBasis from KPN, is likely to be completed by the end of 2018, Pébereau told Capacity.

Both deals were announced in March for undisclosed prices, but the Altice acquisition has been significantly expanded since the original announcement, Pébereau said.

“Our target is to build a true unified communications operator and to build services at a global level,” said the former Orange International Carrier CEO, adding that Tofane Global “wants to become more and more of a challenge to BICS”, naming the offshoot of Belgium’s Proximus that competes in the international services market. Patrick George, a senior advisor to Tofane, was a VP at BICS for more than eight years.

Altice sold off its wholesale arm – covering France, Portugal and the Dominican Republic – to Tofane after over-expanding in both Europe and North America. Since then the group, led by Patrick Drahi, has demerged its businesses on each side of the Atlantic.

The deals mean that Tofane is “now the ninth player in the voice business”, Pébereau told Capacity. “We carried 14 billion minutes last year, worth €500 million.”

ILIAD, TIM AND VODAFONE SPEND €2BN ON ITALIAN 700MHZ SPECTRUM FOR 5G Italy has received winning bids worth €2.8 billion in its 5G auction, with three companies winning spectrum in the 700MHz band for just over €2 billion.

The government said that the first day of the auction, saw an increase of €345 million in the initial bids, and more bidding is going on today.

TIM will not to be able to use its spectrum on the 700MHz band until 2022, the company said in a statement. But then “the 5G ecosystem will be widespread, connecting billions of smart objects – cars, public transport, domestic meters and the control elements of water and gas networks,

bins, street lamps, buildings and all what is related to smart cities”.

TIM said: “These frequencies will also sustain the growth of data consumption from video services, such as virtual and augmented reality, video surveillance and telemedicine services in the most challenging conditions.”

The Ministry of Economic Development, which is conducting the auction, said it had received bids from Iliad, Fastweb, Wind Tre, Vodafone and TIM. The 700MHz spectrum licences will run until 2037. Until now the band has been used for terrestrial television.

FRANCE-IX AND ACORUS NETWORKS PARTNER ON CYBERSECURITY France-IX and Acorus Networks, a cybersecurity specialist, have partnered to provide advanced cybersecurity solutions.

As part of the agreement, Acorus Networks will join the France-IX Marketplace giving members of the FranceCapacity IX peering community access to Acorus Networks security solutions, which doesn’t require the installation of hardware on premise.

“We are pleased to welcome to our Marketplace, both Acorus Networks and its co-founder, Raphaël Maunier, especially as he was a founder-member of FranceIX when he was CTO of Neo Telecoms.

Now members can optimize their peering connection with competitively priced, advanced anti-DDoS solutions, efficiently accessed via their peering connection, which is a valuable addition to the range of services currently available,” said Franck Simon, president of France IX Services.

Acorus Networks will offer three complementary services in roughly 1-2 business days, directly from its France-IX Marketplace 100Gbps port to any peering member’s France-IX port via rapid VLAN provisioning. The services include: a DDoS

Franck Simon: Cybersecurity solution

mitigation service; a IP Transit service (from 100Mbps to 100Gbps); DDoS protection specifically for http/https Web sites.

“We are also delighted that Acorus Networks is joining the leading Internet networks who have chosen to increase their France-IX peering capacity via 100Gbps ports, which has become the new interface for large-scale IP networks in recent years,” added Simon.

GTT TO UPGRADE ITS NETWORK IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE GTT Communications (GTT) has announced the upgrade of its fibre network spanning central and eastern Europe (CEE), including new routes.

The company says that the network upgrade and additional high capacity fibre routes enhance the diversity, scalability and performance of GTT’s Tier 1 global IP network footprint for its enterprise and carrier clients in the CEE region.

“GTT is delivering on its purpose of

connecting people across organisations, around the world and to every application in the cloud,” said Rick Calder, president and CEO, GTT. “Central and eastern Europe is a significant market for GTT, and this network upgrade results in an even stronger set of cloud networking services for our clients.”

GTT is upgrading its routes between its network points of presence in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey,

adding a diverse, lower-latency route from Budapest to Sofia. GTT deployed next-generation optical technology along the routes, doubling the available optical capacity per fibre in the initial upgrade, with the ability to add capacity to align with client demand.

In an exclusive quote for Capacity, Gina Nomellini, CMO at GTT said, “We expect the network upgrade to be completed by October 2018.” october/november 2018

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Telefónica International Wholesale Services provides services to fixed and mobile operators, service providers, wholesale carriers and OTT-Media companies. With particularly strong presence in Latin America and Europe, our global portfolio includes new digital platforms and solutions for enterprises, as well as more established carrier services: • Voice • Carrier Enterprise • Mobile • Satellite • Security • Cloud • IoT • Big Data wholesale.telefonica.com sales.wholesale@telefonica.com

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08 | eurasia analysis

CAPACITY RETURNS TO THE HEART OF THE DIGITAL SILK ROAD

SEPTEMBER SAW CAPACITY EURASIA RETURN TO ISTANBUL, TURKEY, WHICH IS TRULY AT

Ǥ

͎͹͏ ǧ EXECUTIVES TO THE EVENT WHERE SOME OF THE KEY TOPICS CENTRED ON CAPEX INTENSITY, INVESTMENT AND MORE PARTNERSHIPS IN THE REGION, WRITES ǧ Capacity

T

here have been a number of political and economic problems in the region over recent years, as is the case with most regions, but Dino Andreou, CEO of OTEGLOBE, said that for our industry the biggest challenge for international wholesale is price aversion.

Speaking on the keynote panel from Day 1 of the event, he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a global challenge. This business is a capital hungry business; you need to invest in your networks and there is a lot of money that you need to spend in order to facilitate the business of your clients. We need to do this more and more but the margins are getting smaller and smaller.â&#x20AC;?

All the panellists from the keynote panel agreed with Andreou that capex intensity is a huge challenge in the industry. The OTEGLOBE CEO then gave an example about seeking additional capital today: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why should I give you money when you have an 8-10% margin and not give this money to retail which has 30-40%. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not easy and you have to prove yourself.

I believe the answer in the future is more partnership with other providers in order to minimise your capital expenditure and continue to grow.â&#x20AC;?

Radwan Moussalli, SVP and head of sales for Middle East, Central Asia and Africa from Tata Communications, agreed and said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in the wholesale business and you sell Terabits of capacity then every single fraction of a cent makes a

big difference. Especially as we know that 95% of that capacity is used for IP/the internet, which is a commodity. Therefore, price sensitivity is a big challenge and the cost is very important.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly transiting that causes prices to go up and from a cross-competitiveness perspective the submarine cables become less cost effective.

Therefore, the regulatory environment needs to mature to cater for global carriers like ourselves to use Turkey as a hub more often,â&#x20AC;? added Moussalli.

Stuart Evers, group chief commercial officer TĂźrk Telekom International (TTI), had mentioned during the keynote panel discussion that over the next 24 months the company predicts that its traffic will go up from 8.3Tb to 24Tb. In the Q&A session at the end of the session, Evers responded to a question from Capacity about how TTI is preparing for this huge surge in such a relatively small amount of time. Evers responded: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The British Army has the five Ps saying: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Poor planning leads to piss poor performanceâ&#x20AC;?, so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kind of following that mindset with what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Planning is key and we have regular meetings with TTIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parent so we have rolling forecasts so this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come to surprise to us at all. In 2015, we were providing around 2.8Tb, so we knew that this year would be between 8-9Tb and that it would lead to around 24Tb. These forecasts have really given us time to plan

effectively.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the major things we did was getting involved in SEA-ME-WE 5, where we were able to get 2Tb and with subsequent upgrades that will take us up to 6Tb,â&#x20AC;? said Evers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With great cooperation with Dino and OTEGLOBE we built a new terrestrial route across Greece from Turkey. We are looking at building additional subsea cable capacities in the future and we are upgrading our terrestrial network. We have three major routes going through the Balkans corridor two through Romania and one through Serbia. Next year weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing a huge upgrade by tripling or quadrupling capacity them. So weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gone from 2015 with two routes, which we carried around 1.2Tb with each, to having we hope seven routes of which we will carry 1.5Tb â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3Tb each.â&#x20AC;?

However, linking in with the main capex intensive and funding themes of the keynote panel, this costs a lot of money and involves a lot of planning. For those facing those challenges, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not about today or tomorrow but â&#x20AC;&#x153;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really about looking ahead and planning today for the next five years as you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet that incremental demand instantaneously or even in the short-term,â&#x20AC;? added Evers.

Capacity will be back in Istanbul next year with an even bigger and better event!

We look forward to seeing you all there in 2019! october/november 2018

Capacity

10 | middle east

TELECOM EGYPT COMPLETES $90M DEAL TO BUY MENA CABLE FROM ORASCOM

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El Beheiry: Telecom Egypt will recoup MENA investment after Airtel IRU deal formalised

elecom Egypt has completed its $90 million acquisition of Orascom’s subsea cable linking Italy with the Middle East and India.

The company first announced the proposed deal to buy the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) cable from Orascom Investment Holding in May. The cable runs from Sicily in the west to Mumbai in the east, via a number of connections in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Gulf.

“I am very pleased with the closing of this transaction that will add MENA cable to our international cables network in line with the company’s strategy to expand its international connectivity to enable Egypt’s vision of becoming a digital route,” said Ahmed El Beheiry, managing director and CEO of Telecom Egypt.

AVANTI COMMUNICATIONS SIGNS SEVEN-YEAR $84M CAPACITY LEASE DEAL Avanti Communications has signed a seven-year wholesale capacity lease agreement, worth $84 million, with a major international satellite service provider.

Although the identity of the service provider was not included in Avanti’s announcement, Comsat recently announced a seven-year master distribution agreement (MDA) with Avanti, which would see them benefit from the Avanti advanced satellite fleet, in particular from the Hylas 4 satellite, a high-throughput satellite (HTS), focussed on the Middle

East and Africa.

Capacity The company will receive $12 million per annum in quarterly instalments for the duration of the agreement once it has commenced.

The capacity lease agreement, which is expected to commence in Q3 of the company’s next financial year ending 31 December 2019, is for its Hylas-fleet of satellites and will significantly increase the company’s usage and fill-rates.

“This agreement is a major vote of confidence in the Avanti network and offer,” said CEO Kyle Whitehill.

AFGHANISTAN’S ROSHAN SELECTS DIGITALK CARRIER CLOUD FOR WHOLESALE CONNECTIVITY Digitalk Carrier Cloud has been selected by Roshan, the Afghanisatanbased telecoms provider for wholesale connectivity.

Digitalk Carrier Cloud replaces Roshan’s legacy solution and gives it access to Digitalk’s Session Border Control (SBC), Business Support Systems (BSS) and Business Intelligence offerings.

“We needed a solution provider that would work in partnership with us to ensure delivery of highest quality international connectivity, while being completely carrier neutral”, said Faiz Hassan, director of international & roaming at Roshan. “Digitalk met all Roshan’s requirements and we look forward to building on our strong and

mutually beneficial partnership.”

Justin Norris, CEO of Digitalk, the provider of cloud-based communications platform as-as-service (CPaaS), added: “We are delighted to add Roshan as the leading operator of Afghanistan to the growing list of Tier 1 operators that have migrated to carrier cloud. It’s a fantastic testament to the strength of our product portfolio and the continuous investment in the carrier cloud. We look forward to working closely with Roshan to support their growth.”

In other news, satellite service provider SatADSL and global IP communications provider Talia have extended their partnership to offer a new low-cost satellite broadband service across Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The decision to acquire MENA Cable is a result of our vision to achieve a short-term return from this transaction capitalising on the growing data demand from India.”

The company added that the total enterprise value was $90 million but that $40 million was the equity value and the other $50 million was debt.

In August, Telecom Egypt signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel for an indefeasible right of use (IRU) on the MENA cable as well as on TE North.

Airtel also got large capacities on the SEAME-WE 5 and AAE1 as part of the same agreement.

El Beheiry added: “We expect to formalise the partnership with Airtel into an agreement soon, which will enable Telecom Egypt to recover all of its investment in MENA Cable.”

BSO PARTNERS TASE FOR DIRECT CONNECTIVITY TO TEL-AVIV BSO has struck an agreement with the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) to offer direct connectivity to international traders looking to access the growing Israeli market.

BSO will offer low latency connectivity between London and Tel-Aviv, meaning international traders and members of the exchange can trade Israeli stocks without investing in their own long-haul infrastructure.

Fraser Bell, chief commercial officer at BSO, added: “Being at the heart of connecting the trading community to new and high-growth regions such as Israel is core to BSO’s service-led approach. Our agreement with the Tel Aviv Exchange reinforces our continued commitment to providing the electronic trading community with continuous and stable access to the most prosperous markets.”

El Beheiry added: “We expect to formalise the partnership with Airtel into an agreement soon, which will enable Telecom Egypt to recover all of its investment in MENA Cable.”

october/november 2018

Capacity

12 | africa

DJIBOUTI, PAKISTAN LAND DEALS FOR 60TBPS PEACE SUBSEA CABLE

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EACE Cable International Network has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and landing party agreement with Djibouti Telecom and Pakistan network service provider Cybernet.

“After nearly two months of consultation, the cooperation and negotiation between the PEACE cable and landing partners has been completed,” said Sun Xiaohua, COO of PEACE Cable.

“Thanks to all the partners for their support and I hope that PEACE cable will bring added economic value to the region in the near future.”

Huawei Marine started survey work at the turn of the year and, at the time, said that the cable will use 200Gbps DWDM technology and will provide up to 60Tbps design capacity. The PEACE system will provide a new information expressway for the interconnection among Asia, Africa and Europe by connecting with the existing land and subsea cables, greatly reducing the route length and latency between China-Africa and China-Europe.”

“Djibouti Telecom’s objective is to strengthen its regional hub position, the crossroad of three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe. PEACE and DARE

PEACE Cable Djibouti landing party agreement with Djibouti Telecom

[Djibouti Africa Regional Express] shall collaborate to achieve the digital and economic transformation of Republic Capacity of Djibouti,” added Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, general director of Djibouti Telecom.

The PEACE cable will see backbone connectivity in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt,

Kenya and France, providing critical interconnection to Asia, Europe, and Africa economic corridors.

Danish A. Lakhani, CEO of Cybernet, added: “We are excited about working on the PEACE project and the numerous benefits that the PEACE Cable will bring to Pakistan and its digital economy.”

FACEBOOK IN PLAN TO EXPAND AFRICAN IXPS TO LOCALISE CONTENT

Facebook partnership will help develop Africa’s IXP ecosystem

Facebook is working with the Internet Society to expand exchange points across Africa with the aim of sourcing 80% of content within the continent by 2020.

The company and the non-profit society said they wanted to expand the number of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). There are no IXPs in 42% of African countries at the moment, they said.

“The internet community adopted the goal of having at least 80% of the internet traffic consumed in Africa being locally accessible, and only 20% sourced outside the continent by the year 2020,” said Dawit Bekele, Africa regional bureau director for the Internet Society.

“We are getting closer to that target thanks to the many activities that promote interconnection and hosting in Africa and to partnerships such as the one we are announcing today with Facebook.”

Facebook’s head of connectivity and access for Africa, Kojo Boakye, said: “We admire the Internet Society’s important work to improve connectivity in Africa by supporting IXPs. Our partnership with the Internet Society will help develop Africa’s IXP ecosystem by deploying resources like training and equipment to the areas where they are most urgently needed.”

The Internet Society said that, when traffic is exchange outside a country, via satellite or subsea fibre cables, enduser experiences can be poor, and this discourages hosting content locally.

“Peering at IXPs helps keep domestic

internet traffic local by offloading traffic from relatively expensive international links onto more affordable local links,” said the society. “As a result, ISPs are able to offer improved internet experiences for end-users and spur interest in hosting content locally.”

The Internet Society and Facebook said they will collaborate in promoting IXP infrastructure development, training and community engagement with the objective of increasing the number of IXPs and supporting the expansion of existing IXPs to meet the growing demand in Africa.

They quoted figures from the Africa IXP Association (Af-IX) showing there are approximately 44 active IXPs in 32 countries in Africa. “This has resulted in a 275% growth of locally exchanged internet traffic over the last 10 years,” said the Internet Society, noting there were 16 only African IXPs in 2008.

“During the same period, traffic exchanged at the African IXPs increased from 0.16Gbps to 412Gbps with over 800 networks now connected at these IXPs.” october/november 2018

africa | 13

BRINGCOM SEALS DATANET ACQUISITION

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ringCom has completed a deal to buy privately-owned East African network service provider Datanet for an undisclosed fee.

The deal, first announced in May, was completed after BringCom received final approval from the Ugandan regulator Uganda Communications Commission.

“Datanet’s acquisition reflects BringCom’s strategy to expand its pan-African Carrier Ethernet network

and global connectivity services,” said Fabrice Langreney, president and CEO of BringCom. “Our team is excited to formally welcome our new colleagues to the BringCom family.”

Datanet is a network service provider operating in Uganda and Kenya and offering corporate network connectivity as well as secure and reliable wholesale access services. It was the first company in the region to enrol in the MEF Services

Interconnect programme. It also launched EP-LAN service over its carrier Ethernet network between Uganda and Kenya powering multi-branch interconnectivity/ operations and LAN extensions.

The deal means that US-incorporated BringCom can test its next-generation SDN/NFV platform in Uganda ahead of a planned global deployment that will help support its international operators looking for connectivity in Africa.

HELIOS TOWERS INVESTS IN DRC MOBILE BACKBONE NETWORK Helios Towers is upgrading and building backbone sites covering 1,800km in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The company says the investment, which is “in the double-digit millions”, will improve mobile infrastructure and connectivity to an estimated 6 million citizens in the country.

The backbone network runs through multiple areas of DRC, including the Equatorial rainforest and Kasaï-Central province to name a few.

It provides the infrastructure to connect

major towns and cities in DRC to voice and data technologies, transmitting signals through microwave from tower to tower up to 40km apart.

The project is due for completion by December 2018, with the backbone network adding significant capacity to replace the existing satellite connectivity in the area and providing the infrastructure for increased 3G capacity and launch 4G in Kisangani, DRC’s third largest city, and Capacity launch 3G in Northern Kasai.

“DRC has one of the lowest mobile

penetration rates in the world, with only around 25% of its 85 million population having a phone today, but it is growing incredibly fast,” said Kash Pandya, CEO of Helios Towers.

“Following the upgrade and construction of our backbone towers through some of the most remote areas in the country, last mile communications can eventually be created to connect towns and cities with increased reliability and speed, fit for the growing Congolese economy.”

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14 | africa

MAINONE CEO SAYS ‘NO’ TO IDEA OF SINGLE GATEWAY FOR NIGERIA

Opeke: All operators and carriers in Nigeria are providing feedback to the regulator

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ainOne CEO Funke Opeke has criticised a proposal from a number of data companies in Nigeria to create a single international gateway.

According to reports from Nigeria, licensed international data access providers want all data traffic into and

out of the country to come through a single pipe.

“We are equally shocked,” Opeke told Capacity, “and I think all operators and carriers in Nigeria are providing feedback to the regulator that this is a terrible idea/ proposition. So, the general industry view is negative”.

Stern opposition is also coming from mobile operators that are members of the Association of Licensed Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) whose chair, Gbenga Adebayo, told ThisDay newspaper that the idea was not in the national interest as it “would create network congestion, since all network operators would be compelled to route their incoming and outgoing calls through the single channel that would be controlled by few IDA operators”.

Opeke told Capacity that the idea does not come from the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC): “I do not think the regulator is in favour either since the idea did not

Capacity

originate from them, but they have to be the arbiter of this situation.”

ThisDay reported that the idea is being driven by individuals who are unhappy with the revenue share between mobile operators and international access companies. Opeke agreed with this analysis, telling Capacity: “The information we have is that this is a proposition of certain interconnect providers who I think have dubious intentions.” It would work against Nigeria’s economic interests and those of the telecoms and ICT industries in the country, she added.

The news comes after Orange is set to acquire additional capacity in the West African submarine cable system, MainOne, thereby reinforcing its position in the African telecommunications ecosystem. MainOne has also recently picked TE SubCom to extend its subsea cable to West Africa’s francophone region with additional branches connecting Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire.

CHINA TELECOM GLOBAL PICKS TERACO DATA ENVIRONMENTS FOR INTERCONNECTION HUB China Telecom Africa and Middle East (CTMEA) is establishing an interconnection network and telecoms hub at Teraco Data Environments, Africa’s first vendor-neutral data centre.

CTMEA, a subsidiary of China Telecom Global (CTG), has deployed its network nodes in Teraco’s data centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg since 2012, providing the hub with global internet resources into Africa.

Through the partnership, Teraco will pair is data centre services with CTG’s

ICT solutions, meeting the increasing demands from companies going into Africa, particularly those from Asia-Pacific.

Teraco has Tier III+ data centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg with facilities for multi-national companies to colocate their servers.

“Our customers in China and AsiaPacific region will now find it even more convenient to subscribe to a reliable, trusted and high-quality co-location and connectivity services from Teraco and China Telecom Global,” said Changhai

Liu, managing director of CTMEA. Jan Hnizdo, director at Teraco, said: “Teraco has been investing to expand our data centre facilities with additional capacity and floor space to meet increasing demands from enterprises and from the surge in cloud computing uptake. Our relationship with China Telecom Global opens up African opportunities for Chinese content and applications, which means a growing network and higher communications traffic in the African region to the East.”

CMC NETWORKS DEPLOYS 128T NETWORKING PLATFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA F128 Technology has announced the deployment of its 128T session smart networking platform with CMC Networks in South Africa.

Under the terms of the agreement, the platform will be rolled out across 16 countries with the intention of expanding globally in the coming year.

“128 Technology’s networking platform transforms our network, allowing us to provide better service quality to our customers, while deploying the most cost-

effective and competitive solution available in the market,” said Geoff Dornan, chief technical officer, CMC Networks.

“128T compliments both the MPLS and IP core network, allowing dynamic and instantaneous traffic flow control whilst preserving the end customer SLA requirements.”

A common challenge CMC says it faces is network reliability, in particular link outages that can result in inconsistent network access for customers, something

that 128 Technology’s solution addresses.

“As the need for SD-WAN based services increases across the African continent our customers can leverage off the nextgeneration SD-WAN capabilities 128T provides, allowing for a smooth transition from legacy networking technologies to the rigorous demands next generation IP networks require. CMC is proud to deploy the first intelligent next generation WAN network of its kind in Africa,” added Dornan.

october/november 2018

Capacity

16 | asia and asia-pacific

GCX ‘WILL TAKE TO YEAR-END’ TO SELECT BUYER FOR SUBSEA BUSINESS

I Bill Barney: GCX is reviewing two bids

SPARKLE STRENGTHENS ASIAN HUB WITH NEW POP IN SINGAPORE Sparkle has strengthened its Asian Hub with a new multi-service point of presence (PoP) in Singapore.

The international services arm of TIM Group’s latest PoP is located at Global Switch’s data centre, one of the most important telecommunications and internet ecosystems in Asia.

The new PoP consolidates Sparkle’s role as a “leading European doorway for the Asian market” and is strategically located at the subsea cable crossing point between the two continents. It is designed to serve both the local and the global IP markets, providing high performing IP transit, DDoS mitigation and virtual NAP services to operators, OTTs and content providers.

“Leveraging on Global Switch’s access to all subsea cable systems landing in Singapore - including SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE-4 and SEA-ME-WE-5, of which Sparkle is a consortium member – the new PoP will provide top quality east and west bound low latency connectivity solutions on the submarine route connecting Asia to Europe,” a company statement.

“In particular, access to the new generation SEA-ME-WE 5, which is natively extended to Sparkle Sicily Hub, consolidates Sparkle’s role as leading European doorway for the Asian market.”

Fully interconnected with Sparkle’s Tier 1-grade Global IP backbone Seabone, the new PoP adds to Sparkle’s existing PoP at Singapore Equinix, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, confirming Sparkle’s commitment to expanding it IP backbone in Asia.

t will take to the end of 2018 for the future of Reliance Communications’ data centre, enterprise and subsea business to be decided.

Meanwhile the group is deciding whether its Eagle subsea project will terminate in Marseille or Sicily on its way to the Middle East, Mumbai and south-east Asia.

RCom has completed the sale of its wireless business to the unrelated Reliance Jio, said Bill Barney, CEO of the company and its subsea subsidiary, Global Cloud Xchange (GCX).

“Wireless is completely gone,” he said.

The company is still reviewing two bids for GCX and the related businesses, but that is “a little more complicated as we have 30 lenders”, he said. One of the bidders owns HGC Global Communications; the other is a consortium of private equity companies.

Both have bid $1.1 billion, according to Capacity’s sources.

GCX has not decided where to terminate the European end of Eagle, Barney told Capacity. “A number of parties are trying to get it. We will decide in the next month or so, but it won’t impact the cost of the project.”

EPSILON PICKS JUNIPER FOR NETWORK UPGRADE Epsilon is to deploy Juniper Network’s end-to-end solution as part of a network upgrade aimed at supporting future internet of things application and enterprise services.

Epsilon will roll out Juniper’s Metro Fabric solution toCapacity upgrade to its Infiny

by Epsilon platform – an on-demand, self-service software defined networking (SDN) solution.

The Metro Fabric solution will help Epsilon offer a set of enterprise data and voice connectivity services globally, in order to tackle a growing demand for IoT, cloud, and big data tools.

Epsilon CEO Jerzy Szlosarek said: “We have been evolving our infrastructure gradually over the last decade in anticipation for the massive traffic growth driven by innovations in cloud, big data and IoT. “By upgrading our network to offer 100GbE on-demand around the world, we are helping not only our existing partners but also new customers to benefit from hyper-scalable connectivity that is designed to support services of the future.

We are pleased to partner with Juniper to realize our vision for flexible, fluid and intelligent global networking.”

Jerzy Szlosarek: Evolving Epsilon’s infrastructure

october/november 2018

Capacity

18 | executive interview: vincent english

MEGAPORT DEFIES TRADITIONAL CONNECTIVITY VINCENT ENGLISH, CEO, MEGAPORT, SPEAKS TO NATALIE BANNERMAN ABOUT HOW THE COMPANY IS LEADING THE CHARGE IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION IN THE CONNECTIVITY SPACE AND ITS PLANS FOR EUROPE

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usiness transformation is concerned with more than just how individual businesses are transforming their companies, but how they are influencing transformation as whole through what they do. This is the case for Megaport.

The company’s entire existence is centred on changing or transforming the traditional way of interconnecting with the cloud and networking in general. In essence, Megaport is a technology company. It leverages a software-defined network (SDN), built on a physical network which connects approximately 230 locations. Its SDN is integrated into the top seven cloud providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google, Oracle, IBM, Salesforce and Alibaba. By combining the software with its existing technology, Megaport effectively virtualises the network in the same way AWS virtualised cloudcomputing servers. In short, Megaport offers safe, direct connectivity into a public cloud environment from a customer’s enterprise infrastructure.

Speaking to Vincent English, CEO of Megaport, one of the key value adds the company has to offer is the ad-hoc way in which customers can provision connectivity services with Megaport.

He explains: “Customers can seamlessly use pay-as-you-go services to connect and consume the cloud. So that their connectivity usage matches the profile of how they are using and consuming the cloud.”

Megaport goes against the traditional way of doing things. Previously carriers would have to purchase long-term contracts to connect into whatever services they needed.

“Now it allows businesses to easily move their data in a safe and secure manner, in a profile of how they want to use the data at their own needs, rather than on a long-term contract,” says English.

He adds that Megaport has taken the complications out of its networking and the data can move quickly. What does this do for cloud adoption? Well, English adds that it lowers the barriers creating more ways to connect to the public cloud, but it also gives customers more access to public cloud from multiple regions rather than from where the physical cloud exists today.

A key driver of business transformation, particularly for Megaport and its network, is the uptake of multi-cloud connectivity.

According to English, over the last 12 Capacity month [ending June 2018] the company has seen a 208% increase in customers that are on the Megaport platform using more than one cloud provider.

This speaks to a few things, says English.

IT professionals and businesses are becoming a lot more savvy, they’ve got a lot more knowledge and research about how data and applications help their business grow or improve its performance. “So now what they’re doing is cherry-picking the best applications to suit what the business need and that’s not all provided by one cloud provider,” he explains.

This is a symptom of education adding that the cloud providers have “done a great job on teaching what the applications have and what they can do for businesses”.

Interconnection As interconnection evolves, English ays it needs to happen “further and further away from centralised specific regions” and “compute in general starting to happen further along the edge.”

How does he see that happening?

“Neutrality, independence and a little bit of an open mind – just seeing what the customer wants I think will allow an increase in that area,” he explains.

Earlier this year Megaport announced that it was offering dedicated access to Oracle cloud infrastructure with Oracle FastConnect locations in London. This feeds into a wider roadmap for both firms, the CEO says.

“Our network is a global network,

and turning up the FastConnect product directly here in London with Oracle means we’re able to directly service the London market. Having Megaport and the ability to scale up and down your bandwidth connectivity to Oracle as you need to, and being able to do that in a physical cloud on-ramp here in London means it’s a lot more efficient, latency is not an issue and you get all the benefits of the direct FastConnect product. Bringing Oracle to London with FastConnect just gives them access to that London customer.”

Europe is the next big market for Megaport and English has big plans for the region explaining that by through this financial year and into 2019, the company hopes to add somewhere in the region of 20-25 new locations in Europe.

“There’s been a shift now towards getting Europe up to the next level in anticipation of that wave of activity that’s going to come over the next 12-18 months,” he says.

English claims that his biggest challenge around network virtualisation isn’t in the any technical aspects of the network but “making sure as we go from market to market, people understand what this is and the user experience we deliver is the best it can be”.

There is no doubt in English’s mind that the future of networking will be in virtualised services, we need only look at consumer behaviour in every other aspect of modern living.

“People have already shifted away from physically owning things are very much for ease of use,” he explains. “Why can’t this by easier, why can’t this be simpler? That’s what society is moving towards and that pushes the need for a lot more virtualised services.”

As Megaport stays on course for accelerated growth for Europe, English is clear on the roadmap over the coming months. Firstly to be in 300 locations by the end of June 2019 across multiple regions. Continue to build out its capabilities with its ecosystem – with not just global providers but some “smaller regional providers as part of our marketplace” and of course focus on customer experience at the heart of it.

Either way, he says “we’re not slowing down.” october/november 2018

Capacity

20 | asia and asia-pacific

INDIGO SUBSEA CABLE LANDS IN PERTH

Campana executives announce $40m network expansion at Capacity’s Myanmar Connect event back in September

CAMPANA RAISES $40M TO FUND NETWORK EXPANSION IN ASEAN REGION

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ingapore-based Campana Group has announced a US$40 million Series B equity financing round, co-led by Tokyo based Mitsui & Co, and Myanmar businessman U Thein Htwe.

In addition to the Series B financing, Campana is arranging a debt facility of an additional US$40 million, for a total funding of more than US$ 80 million in equity and debt.

The funding will be used for the direct express SIGMAR submarine cable (Singapore-Myanmar), a four-fibre pair 2200 km system that will connect from Campana’s Thanlyin (Myanmar) International Gateway (IGW) facility, only 16 km south-east of Yangon city, to Tuas (Singapore).

Campana will then offer diverse fibre

backhaul to Yangon and Singapore via open access points of presence (POPs) Capacity creating the largest capacity lowest latency data centre corridor between Singapore and Myanmar. Branching units will be installed for both a future landing in Thailand and for subsea interconnection with cables coming from the West.

Myo Ohn, CEO of Campana, said: “The continued need for ultra-broadband access is driving the new projects in the Asia-Pacific region and contributing to the upward trend the submarine cables industry is experiencing. This project is a strong example of this and we are pleased to support and invest in Campana in advancing the digitalization capabilities in the ASEAN market and specifically in Myanmar.”

The first stage of the INDIGO submarine cable system, called INDIGO West, has been completed linking Christmas Island to Perth cable at Floreat Beach in Perth.

INDIGO West is the first 2,400km section of the entire 9,200km INDIGO system connecting Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit. It is soon to be followed by the laying of the second section linking Singapore to Indonesia, started in September and due for completion by the end of December 2018.

“The INDIGO submarine cable will usher in a new era of high speed communications between the growing economies of Southeast Asia and Australia,” said Ooi Seng Keat, vice president of carrier services, group enterprise at Singtel.

“This new data superhighway will complement our existing global links to Asia, US, Europe, Australia and the Middle East and allow Singtel and Optus to meet the growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications as well as boost network diversity and resilience.

We look forward to Optus landing the INDIGO Central cable in Sydney in a few months’ time which will further reinforce our position as the leading provider of international connectivity and data services in the region.”

FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES $1BN DATA CENTRE IN SINGAPORE Facebook has unveiled plans to build a $1 billion data centre in Singapore, the company’s first facility in Asia the OTT giant said.

The new facility, which is expected to open in 2022, will span 170,000sqm and 11-floors. It will be powered 100% by renewable energy, Facebook said, and will support hundreds of jobs in the country.

In a post, Facebook said it selected Singapore for a number of reasons, including “robust infrastructure and access to fibre, a talented local workforce, and a great set of community partners, including

the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Jurong Town Corporation,” both of whom are involved in the project.

Facebook’s new site is set to use 150MW of power once fully operational, and will be the largest single data centre in Singapore, which is itself a regional hub for subsea cable systems and connectivity.

The announcement follows a decision from the Singapore government to promote high rise data centres in order to drive growth in this market. Currently, Singapore has around 87 active data centres, according to a report from 451 Research. october/november 2018

Capacity

22 | executive interview: lisa miller

WOMEN NEED TO GRAB THE OPPORTUNITY LISA MILLER, PRESIDENT OF WHOLESALE, INDIRECT AND ALLIANCES, CENTURYLINK SPEAKS TO NATALIE BANNERMAN ABOUT HOW THE COMPANY IS FOCUSING ON ENTERPRISE AND WHY WOMEN NEED TO ADOPT A FAKE IT, UNTIL YOU MAKE IT ATTITUDE

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ike the true fighter she is, laden with a cold and feeling less than 100%, Lisa Miller – CenturyLink’s president, wholesale, indirect and alliances pushes through and ‘fakes it, until she makes it’ finding time in her day to talk to me ahead of Capacity North America in Denver.

In preparation for our meeting, I come across a video interview with Telarus in which Miller is quoted as saying the ‘new market focus for the new business is on enterprise, all investment is going in that direction.’

When I question her about this statement, she shares that CenturyLink’s business is 75% based on enterprise and therefore all of its expansions, whether it be network or products and services, all cater to the enterprise customer.

“When you think of our wholesale business, at the end is an enterprise customer. That focus and investment helps wholesale as well. That’s where the growth engine is of the industry,” she adds.

As someone directly responsible for the wholesale side of CenturyLink’s operations, Miller is well placed to identify the different demands required of the wholesale customer versus the enterprise customer. Automation or a self-sufficient experience is top of the list for the wholesale customer in her view, saying:

“They want to do everything online.”

On the enterprise side, Miller says that those customers need to “digitally transform their business to remain competitive in the market”. As a result, CenturyLink needs to be agile and help them through their journey.

It has been less than a year since CenturyLink completed its $34 billion acquisition of Level 3 Communications and, judging by its strong Q2 2018 results, the merger has had a positive impact. The Capacity company brought in a net income of $292 million, compared to $69 million for the same quarter of 2017.

Despite much of CenturyLink’s business being in enterprise, I was curious to know how the acquisition of Level 3 has affected the wholesale side of things. Miller says it’s been nothing but positive.

She explains: “Combined, we are a huge wholesale business. CenturyLink had a local and nationwide footprint and now a global footprint. The two companies together are in 60 countries, 100k buildings, 10% outside of North America and that allows us to build a global network that really resonates with our wholesale customers.”

Reaching for the cloud Earlier this year CenturyLink announced that it was becoming an Amazon Web Services (AWS) managed services partner, giving its customers low-latency access to AWS resources. The news joins the likes of Google and Microsoft cloud services that have also been added to the CenturyLink portfolio.

“All that cloud connectivity is so important. Enterprise customers need an easy provider who allows them to manage multiple cloud environments and CenturyLink can do that,” says Miller.

As for 5G and the internet of things, (IoT) Miller claims that CenturyLink is helping wireless providers with their strategy and network deployment.

“5G can require up to five times the connectivity required, for 3G. We can help

wireless providers in our legacy territories and the rest of the country,” she adds.

IoT will mean everything needs to be connected, “and that’s who we are,” explains Miller. “A network company becoming a technology company as things become more dynamic. Making sure we have the connections on a global scale.”

As the conversation turns to women in telecoms, Miller becomes visibly enthusiastic about the subject. She is an advocate for women in STEM and serves as a mentor, working to develop upcoming female talent in addition to being a member of Women In Channel and Women In Cable.

Speaking on what needs to be done to get more young women in tech, her stance is that progress it being made but more can always be done.

“What I’m excited about is that we’re starting STEM in grade school and trying to get all kids interested in science and technology.”

Earlier this year the CenturyLink Foundation awarded $1.4 million in technology grants fund more than 330 projects for young people across the US. However and whenever we choose to progress the conversation of empowering more women in telecoms, Miller wants to stress that this isn’t just a women’s issue or problem to help solve, adding: “Some of my best mentors were men.”

Telecoms is only one of a number of industries where women are notably outnumbered and rarely in senior leadership positions, but Miller’s advice is one that can be applied to all industry verticals.

“Never limit yourself,” she concludes.

“Often times, women limit themselves. A woman wants to be 100% qualified to do a job before they take a job. I watched my male counterparts accept roles they may not be qualified for, but they took them.

There is no job you will be 100% prepared for, so jump in with both feet, fake it until you make it, and take the opportunity.” october/november 2018

Capacity

24 | latin america

GLOBENET OPENS FORTALEZA CENTRAL INTERCONNECTION POINT

G Eduardo Falzoni: Fortaleza IXP is key to resiliency for Brazil

lobeNet has announced its new central interconnection point at the Fortaleza internet exchange point (IXP) is open for business.

As a result, network operators and internet service providers (ISPs) throughout Northeastern Brazil will be able to exchange traffic locally, taking advantage of the high-bandwidth, low latency connectivity GlobeNet’s infrastructure offers. The news comes after GlobeNet announced at the start of the year that the cable hub of Fortaleza would become its second IXP in Brazil.

“At GlobeNet, we’re excited to be

contributing to Brazil’s expanding digital economy,” says Eduardo Falzoni, CEO of GlobeNet. “The new Fortaleza IXP is key to ensuring the resiliency of the country’s internet infrastructure. For network operators, ISPs and other enterprises, it means increased bandwidth and ultra-low latency connections, all backed by our solid data centre infrastructure and reliable fibre-optic subsea cable system. We are not only answering today’s demand for improved connectivity, but we are also future proofing Brazil’s northern networks for increased internet penetration.”

CYRUSONE PARTNERS WITH ODATA AMID LATAM EXPANSION PLANS CyrusOne is making a $12 million investment in exchange for a 10% equity interest in ODATA Brasil S.A. and ODATA Colombia S.A.S. (ODATA).

ODATA, which is majority-owned by Patria Infrastructure Fund III, presently has over 12MW of capacity with plans to develop over 100MW in Brazil, and is set to launch construction in Colombia.

Brazil is the largest and fastest-growing data centre market in Latin America and ODATA is well positioned to capture much of this growth and serving the needs of hyperscale cloud companies.

“We are excited to partner with Patria and the ODATA team as they scale their business throughout Latin America,” said Gary Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer of CyrusOne. “To date, Brazil and other LATAM markets have largely been served by a limited number ofCapacity providers, leading to few options and high costs for our customers. The combination of our collective resources will form the basis of a powerful platform from which we can better serve these customers’ increasingly global needs.”

EQUINIX EXPANDS IX REACH TO BOGOTÁ

DIGITAL REALTY TO ACQUIRE BRAZIL’S ASCENTY FOR $1.8BN

Equinix has expanded its Internet Exchange (IX) into the Bogotá metro, a key location in the broader Latam region.

Bogotá, Colombia, is an important access route to nearby markets including Panamá, Perú and Costa Rica, says Equinix.

Equinix IX allows drivers of internet traffic to easily and effectively peer, or exchange IP traffic, and expand operations globally.

Equinix serves more than 1,350 ASNs, carrying 9.1Tbps global peak traffic, in the most locations (34 metros globally across the Americas, EMEA and AP).

“Equinix IX allows our customers to interconnect with their partners throughout the digital supply chain. Customers also benefit from new business opportunities and create additional value in a neutral data centre, which makes our business in the country more competitive and makes Colombia a more attractive base for global companies,” said Steve Sasse, Equinix director of strategy for Latam & the Caribbean.

Digital Realty subsidiary Stellar Participações has agreed to buy Brazilian data centre provider Ascenty from private equity firm Great Hill Partners in a $1.8 billion deal.

The acquisition will add Ascenty’s eight data centres, located in key Brazilian metro areas of São Paulo, Campinas, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, to Digital Realty’s global footprint. It also includes a 4,500km proprietary fibre network linking those regions.

In addition, the two companies have identified significant cost efficiencies in supply chain management.

The experienced Ascenty management team will remain in place, according to Digital Realty, overseeing day-to-day operations in a region that offers significant growth opportunities.

Digital Realty also entered a separate agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure, part of Brookfield Asset Management,

Gary Wojtaszek: Powerful platform

which will see Brookfield commit to fund half of the required initial equity investment for the deal – around $613 million – in exchange for 49% of the total equity of Ascenty.

“We are pleased to expand our global footprint into Latin America and to partner with the Ascenty management team and Brookfield, said Bill Stein, CEO, Digital Realty.

“We expect this acquisition will further accelerate our growth while enhancing our ability to support our customers’ digital transformation across the globe.

“This transformative transaction represents consistent execution against the new market strategy we articulated at our Investor Day last December, and immediately establishes us as a market leader within an historically under-served region poised for rapid growth,” he added.

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2018, subject to closing conditions.

october/november 2018

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We are connecting the world to the future

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26 | north america

GTT SNAPS UP ACCESS POINT IN $40M DEAL

G

Calder: We expect a rapid integration with Access Point

SAEX PARTNERS SPARKLE TO EXPAND ITS REACH FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO THE US SAEx International has announced a partnership with TIM’s Sparkle to expand the reach of its system to the East Coast of the US. Its 25,000km, six-fibre-pair, 72Tbps subsea cable will connect Africa and Asia to the Americas using a new diverse and seismically calm route, evading the serious risks of the Pacific.

The first phase of the SAEx project will cross the Atlantic Ocean by linking the South Atlantic section of the cable from Cape Town to Brazil, before reaching the US East Coast with a landing in New Jersey.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sparkle will provide connectivity from Brazil to the US on an operational fibre system.

In addition, Sparkle will also provide interconnection facilities in Brazil as well as technical and sales support in Brazil and North America.

The news aligns itself with SAEx’s commitment to grow both west and east from South Africa says SAEx, creating a truly global system spanning two oceans and four continents.

While at the same time reinforcing Sparkle’s role in the leading position in its ability to provide low latency connectivity solutions and end-to-end support.

TT Communications has added another company to its growing list of purchases, buying US communications services provider Access Point for $40 million ($35 million in cash and the rest made up of shares).

North Carolina-based Access Point, which launched in 1996, will boost GTT’s US enterprise client base and deepen the carrier’s presence in verticals such as retail, manufacturing and energy.

GTT said it made the acquisition as Access Point offers “complementary managed broadband, internet and voice capabilities” as well as strengthening GTT’s channel partner presence.

Rick Calder, CEO of GTT, said: “Access Point’s strong client relationships in key vertical markets make it a compelling strategic fit for GTT. We expect a rapid integration as we work with our new

clients to deliver on our purpose of connecting people across organisations, around the world and to every application in the cloud.”

It is the latest acquisition for the Virginian-based company, which has a long history of growing through mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, it agreed a deal to buy Interoute for $2.3 billion, adding 15 data centres, 17 virtual data centres, and 51 new colocation facilities to its footprint.

Other significant acquisitions over the last few years have included a $590 million deal to buy Hibernia Networks and the $100 million deal to buy Global Capacity, both sealed last year. Overall, GTT has bought more than 30 companies over the last decade, during Calder’s reign as CEO of the company.

SATELLITE OPERATORS IN ALLIANCE TO SELL US SPECTRUM TO 5G OPERATORS Capacity

The CBA was approved by Daniel Goldberg, Telesat; Steve Collar, SES; Stephen Spengler, Intelsat; and Rodolphe Belmer, Eutelsat (L-R)

Telesat, SES, Intelsat and Eutelsat have formed the new C-Band Alliance (CBA) to help sell some of their spectrum to mobile operators for 5G services.

The move is in response to an initiative from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is discussing opening up some of their frequencies for 5G services.

They want to set up a trading system for the spectrum. The alliance states: “The CBA will engage in secondary market-based transactions to expand use of C-band”, which includes the frequencies 3,700 to 4,200MHz for satellite downlinks.

The CBA said it is “designed to act as a facilitator” for the FCC’s proposal to clear part of the spectrum so it can be shared with mobile operators. The four

companies, normally rivals, said: “The formation of the CBA is a significant achievement and demonstrates the industry alignment necessary to make this mid-band spectrum available quickly, thus supporting the US objective of winning the race to introduce terrestrial 5G services.”

Mobile operators will also have to contend with the US Navy, which also uses part of the 3,700 to 4,200MHz spectrum for some of its missile-detecting radar systems.

The FCC wants to set up “a commercial and technical framework that would enable terrestrial mobile operators to quickly access spectrum in a portion of the 3,700 to 4,200 MHz frequency band in the US, speeding the deployment of nextgeneration 5G services,” said the CBA. october/november 2018

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Visit www.TheSphere.IO to learn more about The Sphere ecosystem.

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28 | north america analysis

NORTH AMERICA IS BUILDING TO SCALE

T

hree hundred-fifty telecoms executives gathered in Denver for the 2018 Capacity North America conference to discuss key topics such as collaboration and virtualisation.

Closer collaboration was the big message shared by many - whether it be the relationship between carriers and service providers, or the increasingly relevant topic of interoperability.

Speaking on the importance of collaboration to virtualisation and Epsilon’s place in that space, Carl Roberts, CCO of Epsilon, said: “Ultimately nobody can do everything and one of the things that we as a much smaller company does is actually stitch together capability.”

As far as virtualisation within interoperability, he said that “softwaredefined networks (SDNs) allows us, if we work together as an industry, through seamless APIs to do it all end-to-end.

Where we can help each other to actually service the needs of a new internet of things (IoT) and even bring 5G and mobile networks onto a fixed network fabric.”

On the topic of virtualisation and security, Ron Winward, security evangelist at Radware, commented: “If we’re able to, as a service provider, put security closer to my customers, closer to the edge and have them be big beefy boxes that can handle the large tasks, that’s what our customers want. Before without a multi-tenancy solution that wasn’t even an option, now thanks to SDN paired with various multitenancy options, we can now provide that for our individual customers on an individual basis.”

Sharing his thoughts on what’s ahead for 2019, Dawane Young, division VP – voice, wireless and platforms at Verizon, said: “We’ve worked on the collaboration and interoperability piece in 2018, by 2019

we hope to see collaboration not just in standards bodies but also the partnerships amongst us develop and grow.”

A new term that was doing the rounds was this idea of hybrid multi-cloud, a concept that - according to panellists of the cloud-centric networking discussion - is the next big thing in the cloud computing space Capacity and is another step toward removing the barriers of cloud consumption.

The key take away from the conversation was that in order for enterprises to be cloud-centric a couple of requirements need to be meet and that is the simplification of infrastructure and quality customer experience.

But that cloud connectivity must of course be underpinned by adequate fibre infrastructure, according to a Deloittepublished 2017 report titled “The need for deep fiber,” there will be a fourfold increase in mobile data traffic in the US between 2016 and 2021. Indicating that an investment of $130 to $150 billion is needed over the next five to seven years to adequately support broadband competition, rural coverage, and wireless densification.

As with all things in the telecoms space security is and was always a big talking point and that is especially true in and across hybrid clouds. Businesses are increasingly looking for a solution that can offer the security and visibility needed across its various cloud environments. In addition, cost control from a networking perspective was highlighted as a potential challenge in the space because of the need to move data between different environments and handle various workloads.

Visibility and the performance element in the cloud is great, but it is important to understand the different requirements

needed for different workloads.

Granularity of control and being able to service around that is key, otherwise, enterprises are beholden to their cloud provider to rectify any of their issues.

How does the edge fit into this cloudcentric network? Digital Realty’s Chris Sharp thinks that in the future it will become necessary to have a strong foothold in this area, but for now it their isn’t a strong enough requirement for it.

“It’s a burgeoning market; we’ve constantly looked at it and we will flex into it when the workload meets that specific requirement. But for now I would say the majority of networks, especially those with new wireless capabilities and the like are solving the majority of the use cases today.”

New voices in the telecoms space Ever the champion of new of emerging, it was the speakers on the future faces of telecoms panel that had some of the most interesting insights of the conference. At one point the panellists eluded to the fact that networks aren’t preparing or doing enough for next-generation services, saying “they’re not moving fast enough”.

When discussing the challenges around penetrating North American markets, Amber Hartley, chief corporate development officer, BurstIQ, predicted that blockchain would put entire companies out of businesses.

“Blockchain will be so ubiquitous you won’t even know that it’s there. It’s going to be this integral part of every data relationship globally and how we manage data. The challenge with that is that because of the way data blockchain works, because it creates these attested, trusted data sets, it is going to put entire businesses out of business.”

North America is the real home of hyperscale architecture due to its rapidly growing markets and increasing need for scale. There has been a significant increase over the last five years in what that edge footprint looks like.

In the infrastructure space, tower and small cells was identified as the biggest opportunity in the North American market because of its ability to solve the increasing problem of urban densification.

According to The Small Cell Forum, total deployments of small cells in North America to reach 849,000 by 2025, or 10% of global deployments. New submarine cable projects are also being explored in the region with branches into Asia as a particularly big opportunity for increased growth. october/november 2018

Capacity

30 | north america

TELIA CARRIER PARTNERS TIERPOINT TO OFFER CLOUD CONNECT SERVICES

Göjeryd: Excited to expand TierPoint relationship, bringing enhanced connectivity to many new locations

T

elia Carrier and TierPoint have entered into a partnership that will see Telia Carrier offer its Cloud Connect service across 25 TierPoint facilities in the US. By combining TierPoint’s edge data centre, cloud and managed services portfolio, with Telia Carrier’s Cloud

Connect service, the two say that they are creating opportunities for thousands of US enterprises, in their digital transformation.

“As enterprises continue to entrust their critical business processes to the cloud, direct and secure connectivity which bypasses the public internet becomes vital,” said Staffan Göjeryd, CEO, Telia Carrier. “In partnering with TierPoint, we’re able to bring enhanced global connectivity and our award-winning customer care to many additional new locations, providing the quality of service and performance that enterprise customers expect.

We’re really excited about expanding this relationship and in particular, the tangible benefits it will bring to TierPoint’s customers.”

In addition, Telia Carrier services will now be available in TierPoint sites across 14 US metro areas, including Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Connecticut,

Dallas, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Nashville, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia, Raleigh, St. Louis, and Seattle.

“This new partnership with Telia Carrier is yet another key step in the process of expanding the connectivity options for clients using our data centers and cloud pods,” said TierPoint chief technology officer, Terry Morrison. “It further enhances our market-leading, edge-infrastructure solutions.”

Overall Telia Carrier’s Cloud Connect solution simplifies the transition to cloud-based workflows with various, geographically diverse connections to the world’s largest cloud providers, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and IBM/ Customers in TierPoint’s facilities will also benefit from access to Telia Carrier’s MEF 2.0 certified data centre-to-data centre Ethernet service, which connects to more than 150 points-of-presence (PoPs) worldwide.

Capacity

PACKETFABRIC EXPANDS INTO INTERCONNECT MIAMI DATA CENTERS PacketFabric, a connectivity-as-a-service platform, has expanded its offering into Interconnect Miami Data Centers (IMDC), a data centre and colocation provider in South Florida.

The platform is now available to all IMDC customers and allows public, private and internet-based network solutions to be designed, provisioned and managed through a single web interface.

“We’ve always offered our customers great colocation and connectivity options with access to all the key metro, long haul and subsea networks in South Florida, including IMDC’s own fiber ring throughout

downtown Miami,” said Jason Cohen, CEO at Interconnect Miami Data Centers.

“Now, we’re also able to offer PacketFabric’s dynamic network capabilities, providing our customers instant access to a vast ecosystem of cloud, network and service solutions —a cross connect away from any one of the IMDC facilities.”

By connecting to the PacketFabric platform from an IMDC facility customers can quickly provision direct, secure terabit-scale connectivity between any two or more locations on the PacketFabric network. Using PacketFabric’s any-to-any SDN-powered

network enables connectivity to its ecosystem of cloud service providers, carriers and partners. To date PacketFabric has a US footprint that includes 150 points of presence (PoP) in 18 metro markets.

“Interconnect Miami’s focus on providing greater choice, access, visibility and control to their customers is in line with our own mission to make network services easier to procure, consume and manage,” added Chad Milam, president and COO at PacketFabric. “PacketFabric is excited to offer scalable connectivity on demand to IMDC’s customers throughout South Florida.”

WINDSTREAM WHOLESALE TO EXPAND ITS CORE NETWORK TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC Windstream Wholesale says that it will expand its core network into NJFX’s international landing station in Wall Township, NJ. The expansion will add capacity to Ashburn, Virginia, Newark, New York City as well as other major data centre markets.

“This buildout with its connections to Wall Township, NJ, will provide enterprises, international carriers and

content providers fast access from our coast-to-coast network to major subsea cable systems,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of wholesale at Windstream Enterprise and Wholesale.

“Our network expansion strategy also includes easy access to other international networks through our links in Texas and South Florida and to Asia-Pacific cable systems on the West Coast.”

The expanded core network will use

Infinera’s DTN-X to create express routes to these locations resulting in better latency and network scalability. This in turn results in improved performance and savings for Windstream Wholesale customers. Build out of these expanded core networks is due to begin in Q4 2018.

Infinera recently closed its acquisition of Coriant, making it one of the larges vertically integrated optical network equipment providers in the world.

october/november 2018

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MEF to tackle enterprise needs in partnership with WAN Summit Capacity

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M

EF has outlined enterprises as a key focus of its upcoming MEF18 conference by announcing the launch of its first WAN Exchange at the event.

MEF18 will be held 29 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 November 2018 at the JW Marriott LA LIVE in Los Angeles, California, will welcome executives from a number of international carriers including the likes of AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, PCCW Global, Verizon, Orange, and CenturyLink.

Speakers will discuss the industry transition to cloud-centric network services that deliver the dynamic performance and security required to thrive in the digital economy, according to MEF (formerly Metro Ethernet Forum).

The event will also see MEF host its first WAN Exchange, in partnership with The WAN Summit, a series of events that unite the buyers and suppliers of

enterprise networking services. The WAN Exchange series was first launched at ITW last year, and serves as a microcosm of other WAN Summit events, which are held in a number of locations including London and New York.

The WAN Exchange at MEF18 will

include several sessions, including a look at Experiences with WAN Adoption, which looks at the journey enterprises take, from proof of concept to pilot and rollout of SD-WAN. Other topics on the agenda at the MEF18 WAN Exchange include what carriers should expect in the era of endto-end automation, and how to seek peak performance for application aware networks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Enterprises are looking for agility, simplicity, and assurance, and there is a sense of urgency that service providers must respond by delivering automated network services that empower customers with unprecedented control and visibility,â&#x20AC;? said Nan Chen, president of MEF. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are pleased to work with the WAN Summit to assemble a community of experts dedicated to tackling tough networking issues and unleashing the full potential of industry innovation.â&#x20AC;? october/november 2018

mef18 | 33

WAN Summit is run by Capacity Media and TeleGeography. The series of events is attended by carriers, vendors, service providers and a number of international enterprises. Past enterprise attendees and speakers have included the likes of Adidas, Airbus, UBS and Citibank. Confirmed enterprise speakers for the WAN Exchange at MEF18 include representatives from McKinsey & Company, Intuit, and Refinitiv (the former Finance and Risk business unit of Thomson Reuters).

Chris Thompson, global account manager for WAN Summit, said the WAN Exchange offers a new opportunity for both enterprises and carriers attending MEF18.

He said: “The WAN Exchange gives carriers attending this year’s MEF18 the

chance to deep dive into the needs and requirements of enterprises as they tackle issues around procurement, deployment and testing during the adopting of SDWANs. With topics such as SLAs and quality of experience,; the journey of SD-WAN deployment; and end-to-end service automation, it really is a mustattend for carriers and telco’s looking to capture a slice of the growing enterprise market.

“For us, it is an opportunity to showcase the amazing content that can be found globally at the WAN Summit series, and to introduce connect enterprises and services providers in a new space. We’d like to thank MEF for partnering with us to launch the WAN Exchange at MEF18 this year and look forward to seeing attendees in LA.”

Capacity

capacitymedia.com

At MEF17 – last year’s equivalent event, that was held in Orlando – MEF unveiled its new global services framework, which is aimed at defining, delivering and certifying orchestrated services across automated networks.

Proof of Concept The MEF 3.0 Transformational Global Services Framework aims to help telcos to deliver the dynamic performance and security required as demand for increased bandwidth and more agile services grows.

MEF 3.0, the follow-up to Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 20) sees the global standards body move beyond carrier Ethernet to look at automated and virtualised services by providing a suite of LSO (lifecycle service orchestration) APIs that offer an on-demand, cloud-centric service, MEF said.

The fifth annual proof of concept (PoC) Showcase aims to highlight how service providers can implement different aspects of MEF 3.0 services.

This includes demonstration of MEF 3.0 concepts related to emerging standardized, orchestrated services and LSO APIs that enable orchestration across multiple providers and over multiple network technology domains (e.g., Optical Transport, CE, IP, 5G, etc).

MEF18 will see a number of MEF members carry out proof of concept demonstrations featuring more than 50 service and technology solution providers.

Topics to be covered at the event, according to MEF, include automated commercial interaction, automated service fulfilment and activation; proactive service assurance; applicationaware networking. Intent-based networks and services; and secure SD-WAN. The Showcase includes two types of PoC demonstrations: those proposed specifically for MEF18 highlighting collaborative and highly differentiated commercial solutions as in past years and, for the first time, demonstrations of MEF 3.0 Implementation projects driven by MEF members.

“MEF18 is the must-attend networking event for executives and other senior professionals focused on accelerating worldwide adoption of assured services across automated networks,” said Kevin Vachon, COO of MEF. “We are absolutely delighted by the extraordinary support for this year’s show.

Educational sessions, keynotes, Proof of Concept demonstrations, and more will showcase industry progress in defining, delivering, and certifying emerging MEF 3.0 services that provide unprecedented user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.”

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SPONSORED Q&A

| 35

A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC GLOBAL NETWORK Network security continues to be a very serious issue for the industry in general as cyberattacks affect networks and services. What is NTT Communications doing to protect its network - the Global IP Network - and its customers’ networks?

We’re doing a lot of things on a number of different levels. From our own network perspective, we’ve built the network to be resilient and also meet the most stringent standards so it is protected if it is attacked deliberately or errors occur in routing from our customers or peers, to make sure it doesn’t impact our customers in a negative way. Our network is based upon industry standards and we make sure we’re applying them in the best possible way – things like BGP tools and RPKI are key parts that we’ve adopted for a while.

Beyond that, we offer our customers a suite of services and tools for network security. These include mitigation of DDoS attacks, and free tools like black hole filtering. We will continue to develop out product range to enhance our offering, whilst giving our customers the choice of services which best suits their needs.

Michael Wheeler EVP, head of Global IP Network business

unit, NTT Communications Capacity

How does NTT Com evolve its offering to tackle the ever-changing nature and size of DDoS attacks?

There is a bit of cat-and-mouse to tackling new threats. Beyond making the architecture of our network resilient, there is a number of steps we take. Volume is not the only issue – there is also packetper-second volumes and these can be much more damaging for particular services. At that point, the infrastructure itself doesn’t help a lot – you need to look at being able to deploy more advanced tools and capabilities around access control risks, scrubbing of traffic, and redirecting or terminating traffic on the edge to make sure those kind of attacks don’t take down customer specific services or environments. It is an ever-evolving situation and I don’t think we’ll see that change any time soon. Generally speaking, attackers will continue to get better at what they do and find new avenues to pursue attacks, but we’ll continue to develop ways to address those attacks.

NTT Com offers one of the most comprehensive set of BGP Communities in the industry. Why is transparency on routing policies and BGP communities in particular important for your customers? What’s the benefit for them?

We think transparency is important for a number of reasons.

The internet is a network of networks and it utilises a series of industry standard RFC-based BGP announcement sets allowing configurations and for traffic to travel round the world. For this to all work, you need to have transparency and there also needs to be a commensurate level of trust.

At its core, that’s how the internet functions, so if it breaks, or if someone tries to attack somebody, you need transparency. That’s why we’ve been a big proponent of things like Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) for a while. We’ve done a lot of work – along with a number of our peers – to propagate that. Those kinds of things protect the internet to make sure it works the way it needs to.

For our customers on a global level we provide a lot of flexibility. capacitymedia.com

I’d certainly put us among the top carriers regarding flexibility for our customers to use BGP communities in allowing policies as they connect to us in different parts of the world. This allows them to do a number of things in regards to how they route their traffic and how the traffic they send to us, dependant on geography, will route to other networks in the ways they define, as opposed to how we define it. We try to pass that transparency on to our customers so they can leverage the network in the best possible way.

A lot of our competitors offer quite a bit less visibility to their customers. I’m not sure why but it serves as a differentiator for our network with other tier 1 operators.

Focusing now on innovation and automation, NTT Com was one of the first carriers to develop and implement software-defined networking, or SDN, in its global network. What are the results that the company has seen by adding automation to network management?

I feel like SDN and automation has been part of our DNA as an organisation for so long, I’m not sure I could imagine it without the automation. It is part of who we are. Automation reduces errors that can occur down to human-error by creating rules that are part of that software package, and that is a huge benefit. It also saves a tonne of time for our staff, allowing us to do things much more efficiently, much more effectively, and that has benefits in terms of operating expense for us as well.

Where it has taken us in the last year or two – because we’ve been working on automation for over 15 years – is in providing us the ability to be highly efficient when scheduling network maintenance. Also things like upgrading routers or uploading new code, or making a transition in infrastructure from 10G cards to 100G cards for example, can be done in a much shorter amount of time. Customers see these as very positive things as they reduce disruption and keep service speed and the status quo. That’s on a global scale so it’s a big advantage for us.

36 | feature: brexit

We just don’t know, but we don’t need uncertainty INDUSTRY LEADERS ARE WORRIED THAT THE OUTCOME OF THE UK’S BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS ARE STILL UNCERTAIN, WITH ONLY MONTHS TO GO. BUT SOME CARRIERS ARE GETTING READY FOR BIG BUSINESS TO MOVE OUT OF THE UK TO OTHER EU MEMBERS

Capacity

B

rexit – the UK’s expected departure from the European Union in March 2019 – is one of the reasons behind Colt’s expansion of its Dublin network, CEO Carl Grivner has confirmed. He was in Dublin to launch addition of 150km to Colt’s fibre network in the Irish capital.

“Dublin is already very strong, and Brexit is maybe leading to more activity. It’s not so much Colt as our customers. Dublin is very exciting in terms of what’s happening in this market.”

Colt celebrated its expansion with a party in Facebook’s European head office in Dublin. “We already have a strong presence in the city,” says Grivner. “We looked at 250 cities in terms of growth and data centres. Dublin comes out very forcibly in that area. I can count 25 cranes from my window. There’s lots of new construction.”

Dublin is being tipped as one place many US and other international companies will go for their European headquarters – as Ireland will remain part of the EU, even if the UK leaves as the UK government plans on 30 March 2019.

Airlines or banks, for example, that are based in Ireland will be able to operate across the 27 remaining EU members – while the position of UK-based airlines or banks is still not known while negotiations continue between the UK government and the European Commission.

Berlin is another possible home for

companies that currently have their European headquarters in the UK. “It has some of the same characteristics – a lot of new growth. It interests us in terms of the density of our network,” says Grivner, and Colt is likely to announce an expansion there too.

Annette Murphy, who runs Zayo’s network in Europe, is another senior executive who thinks Brexit might just be good for the telecoms industry. “There might be more dispersion of organisations.

They will spread more across Europe and that might lead to more demand for telecoms services, with more offices to connect,” she says.

But there’s uncertainty across the industry. The UK’s electorate voted in June 2016 in a referendum asking whether they wanted to leave or remain – and the leavers won by a small margin of 52%48%. The referendum question was short on detail: leave or remain in the European Union. There was nothing in there about the questions that have perplexed business ever since – nothing about whether the UK should stay in the European customs union and single market, for example, or whether the borders should remain open not only to UK citizens wanting to work or study in the other 27 member states or whether their citizens should be able to work in the UK. That’s led to uncertainly – a situation that’s not been helped by little progress

in negotiations between the European Commission and the UK government, which lost its working majority in a snap election in 2017.

Irish problem Much of the stalemate has been about the status of the border between the Republic of Ireland, an independent member of the EU, and Northern Ireland, part of the UK and therefore a member of the EU until March 2019. Under the terms of an international treaty that in April 1998 ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, there should be no border. It’s impossible to have a border and no border at the same time, and politicians have failed to resolve this.

The Irish border, like a new customs border between the UK and mainland Europe, is of minimal significance to data flows in the telecoms industry. But manufacturing industry, used to four decades of just-in-time logistics, is scared that supply chains will be disrupted by customs checks. And airlines and banks are worried that their right to operate across this new UK/EU27 border will cease after 30 March.

That will affect the UK as a whole. “The big unknown is what will be the impact on the UK economy,” says Nick Jeffery, the CEO of Vodafone UK. “Businesses like certainty.” Another of his worries focuses on Vodafone’s ability to move executives october/november 2018

Capacity

A1 TELEKOM AUSTRIA GROUP TAKES UP THE FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD.

T

elecommunications fraud is a major problem for the industry and can take many different forms. Carriers, however, are now doing much more to combat WKH IUDXGXOHQW WUDIĂ&#x20AC;F WKDW FRVWV WKHP VR PXFK PRQH\ RQ D daily basis. Nowadays, regardless of whether customers are FRQIURQWHG ZLWK WKH PDQLSXODWLRQ RI FDOOHU LGHQWLĂ&#x20AC;FDWLRQ RU lose MTR due to VoIP bypass or unknowingly share their voice revenues with SIM box fraudsters, carriers are having to build up expertise through their business so they can raise new anti-fraud-oriented solutions based on leading-edge innovations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; now and in the future.

Over time the A1 Telekom Austria Group has developed a wide range of tailor-made anti-fraud security services designed

to counteract fraudsters and is able to support you with the ODWHVW WHVWLQJ URXWLQHV VXFK DV $ 1XPEHU 9HULĂ&#x20AC;FDWLRQ *OREDO Probe Network, Plug and Play Testing, OTT Detection, SIM Box Detection and an Advanced Reporting Tool. Based on WKH VSHFLĂ&#x20AC;F IUDXG VFHQDULR $ 7HOHNRP $XVWULD *URXS :KROHVDOH experts are able to support your fraud prevention and detection activities by selecting the most suitable features to design a customized test environment that is compatible ZLWK \RXU QHWZRUN VSHFLĂ&#x20AC;FDWLRQV IRU HDFK FXVWRPHU 7R PHHW the requirements for different customers, the A1 Telekom $XVWULD *URXS RIIHUV Ă H[LEOH SDFNDJHV LQFOXGLQJ GLIIHUHQW YROXPHV RI WHVW FDOOV IRU D Ă&#x20AC;[HG SHULRG RI WLPH VWUHVV campaigns, occasional testing and pause in the test period.

A1 Telekom Austria Group`s tailor-made Anti-Fraud Security Services $ 1XPEHU 9HULĂ&#x20AC;FDWLRQ Origin-based billing, also called A-Number Billing, is one of the top fraud targets in the telecommunications industry and the manipulation of caller identiďŹ cation is a major source of annoyance for your customers. There are so many drawbacks, starting from missing calls to non-functional callbacks that transparent end-to-end quality of the telephone number is crucial for the callerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience. The major disadvantage for the operator is the loss of revenue from billing diďŹ&#x20AC;erentiation based on the A-number. Manipulated caller identiďŹ cation opens up a wide area for fraudsters to trick operators. As part of its service, the A1 Telekom Austria Group runs a series of tests to identify if the operator is indeed being aďŹ&#x20AC;ected by SIM box fraud and if so by what type.

Capacity Global Probe Network The Global Probe Network testing tool initiates test calls using test methods tailored to almost all problems arising on routes from speciďŹ c countries or suspicious traďŹ&#x192;c from your roaming partnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; network. With Global Probe Network the A1 Telekom Austria Group can help you identify the source of the fraudulent traďŹ&#x192;c so you can set ďŹ lter and ďŹ rewall rules based on real network results.

Plug and Play Testing Plug and Play Testing is an expert class of detection solution that lets you test your network without having to tell any of the technical departments within your organisation or conďŹ gure hundreds of test numbers in your network.

The A1 Telekom Austria Group oďŹ&#x20AC;ers Plug and Play Testing and manages the entire test routine and you receive the results without having to carry out any conďŹ guration work in your network.

OTT Detection The OTT Detection Service tests if you are losing revenue because of OTT bypass and your customers also suďŹ&#x20AC;er from poor call quality which is a huge problem for mobile operators when it comes to incoming calls. The A1 Telekom Austria Group can bring full visibility to your team by testing all incoming voice routes to your network with special OTT Detection methods helping you to prevent revenue losses from voice traďŹ&#x192;c bypass.

SIM Box Detection SIM box fraud means losing 6% of customer voice revenues without even noticing. This â&#x20AC;&#x153;invisible theftâ&#x20AC;? is possible, because a fraudster creates a new unsafe route for a call instead of using regular interconnections. The fraudster remains invisible to the operator, as its SIM card traďŹ&#x192;c resembles that of a normal end-customer. This results in poor quality with long call set-up times, jeopardised recall and voice mail functionalities and the CLI (Calling Line IdentiďŹ cation) may also be wrong or missing. The A1 Telekom Austria Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s SIM Box Detection Service is able to identify all SIM Box frauds known to the market by means of an active testing system that uses global SS7 and probe infrastructure.

Advanced Reporting Tool The advanced reporting tool from the A1 Telekom Austria Group is designed to proactively alert you of roaming problems, always keeping you one-step ahead of your customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs. With the tool, all the General Roaming Quality (IR.81) KPIs can be monitored and as the information is based on your real-time subscriber data we will be able to upgrade the system in the upcoming release to a signalling intrusion detection system.

Check out our latest Anti-Fraud Security Service Webinars!

Learn more about how A1 Telekom Austria Group can support you in your fraud prevention: a1.group/wholesale/webinar

Capacity

Webinars

Come by and visit us at the Capacity Europe: booth number 37/ meeting room 501

40 | q&a: monique lanne-petit

Q&A WITH TÉLÉCOMS SANS FRONTIÈRES FOUNDER ͮͬǡ CAPACITY SPEAKS TO ITS FOUNDER ABOUT THE CHALLENGES IT HAS FACED AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ITS MISSION CRITICAL WORK Last year we saw the devastation Hurricane’s can cause. How important is getting connectivity back online in places like Saint Barthelemy and Dominica? Why? When disaster like Hurricane’s Irma and Maria strikes, the country’s terrestrial network can be entirely or severely damaged, whilst the traffic on functional transmission stations congests access to voice and internet services.

Both the population and humanitarian responders are affected by the lack of communication. As Mobile Network Operators work to repair telecom infrastructures, we bridge this gap by establishing direct contact with affected communities, providing lifelines via internet or telephone, whilst ensuring that the humanitarian community (United Nations, governments, NGOs, Search & Rescue teams) is covered by the necessary communications means to secure the efficiency of their operations.

During missions such as Hurricane’s Irma and Maria TSF conducted telecoms assessments, Support to coordination, Humanitarian calling operations and Capacity building.For example: • In Saint Martin TSF provided connections to the Departmental Operational Centre (COD – Centre Opérationnel Départemental) in order to organize and coordinate emergency

response and logisitics.

• In Dominica, our services facilitated the arrival of specialized humanitarian teams in the vital sectors: medical, food, water, sanitation and civil engineering and allowed the French and international relief actors to organize and coordinate their land and helicoptered operations.

• In parallel, our team provided Wi-Fi Internet hotspot, humanitarian calling operation and launched a new service to bring the technologies closer to communities: High-speed ambulant Wi-Fi services were tested in the most remote areas. This vital connectivity enabled residents to contact their relatives Capacity and organise the assistance they required via social networks, SMS, phone calls and videos.

What challenges does TSF face?

In the past, telecommunications and technology were then unknown in the humanitarian field. For most people, relief and humanitarian aid were associated with medicine, food, tents, blankets and school supplies. Recognising that aid should never be prioritized, we fought to bring telecommunication to the same level as all other types of help. Overcoming this obstacle has allowed engineers, technicians and programmers to be part of the humanitarian world and we are very proud of it.

What role does the wholesale industry play in helping TSF? What more can the industry do?

TSF works closely with numerous companies and foundations that share its values. For more than 20 years, we’ve built partnerships based on mutual trust alongside leading corporations in the industry. They support our actions to help us use tech to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. They participate not only financially or materially but also with their employee involvement through skills-based support activities and fundraising events.

Specialised in new tech, firms like PCCW Global, Inmarsat, Eutelsat, or foundations such as Vodafone, AT&T and Thales have considerably helped TSF to strengthen its speed of intervention and its independence.

Partners like capacity media have helped us to reach out to a broader audience and to develop a network of valuable contacts in the Telecoms community. These types of partnerships are essential to TSF’s development and projection in the future.

TSF believes that the industry can play an even greater role in building TSF’s reputation of leading international NGO specialised in technology and telecommunications. We think each of our partners can mobilize their own network and become ambassadors of TSF’s actions.

TSF recently turned 20 – name some highlights from this time?

In 1998, we were the first organisation to provide telecoms connectivity as aid, and pioneers in leveraging connectivity for international response and coordination.

TSF was also the first to bring connectivity directly to populations, as opposed to only serving emergency responders.

We later innovated to develop telecoms centres that offered free connectivity using light-weight equipment in the first days of a response to all government agencies, IGOs, and NGOs. Most recently, TSF was the first to bring broadband data connectivity to populations in the first days of an emergency, allowing people to use their own devices—and happily the rest of the community is now working to follow our example. october/november 2018

SPONSORED Q&A

| 41

OTEGLOBE: GOING STRONG TO THE NEXT YEAR OTEGLOBE’S CEO, DINO ANDREOU, MAKES A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PAST YEAR AND DETAILS THE COMPANY’S PLANS FOR THE NEXT ONE

Q. What have been larger but fewer corporations and as a result, stiff competition the highlights and in a shrinking market. New EU regulatory framework to reduce key developments termination rates also had a significant impact on roaming fees. for OTEGLOBE in These conditions led to significant price erosion with a negative the region over the impact on companies’ revenues and profitability that was and still past 12 months? remains one of our main challenges today.

Last year we’ve expanded In this hostile environment, OTEGLOBE achieved not only to and redesigned our survive and operate fluently but to grow to the leading Southeast backbone network by European Carrier, with outstanding financial results. To achieve leasing new fibre across that we had to leverage on our robust network infrastructure, Europe and now have more continue making significant investments to expand our business than 21,000km of own and build strong partnerships with other well-known carriers to dark fibre stretching from offer “off-net” services outside our network footprint.

Greece to Western Europe.

The successful launch of AAE-1 also gave us a significant boost We’re the only carrier that further East and helped us partner with major Asian carriers that connects Greece and the Capacity want to connect to Europe over new, diverse and unique network Balkans to major European routes and that paid off significantly. OTEGLOBE reached €333.5 hubs such as Frankfurt, million in revenues in 2017 with a 15% increase in our EBITDA London, Marseilles, Paris, margin and is set for a strong performance also in 2018/19. Our Milan, Sofia etc. with four new diverse European backbone totally based on leased fibre diverse fibre routes, two routes transiting Balkan countries and improving our cost structure and competitiveness, whereas AAE1 another two routes transiting Italy. opens up new markets and sources of revenue for OTEGLOBE. During last year we’ve also seen the successful launch of Asia Africa Europe -1 consortium subsea cable where OTEGLOBE Q. Looking forward what are OTEGLOBE’s acts as a full member and landing party. AAE-1 aims to connect strategic priorities as well as expansion plans for the major Internet Hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore as well the region in 2018/2019? as countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa where the cable is Maintaining our leading role in Greece and the wider area of landing, to Europe. With the completion of both projects, we’re Southeast Europe is our primary goal and that includes both our closing the gap for diversity in the Mediterranean and South Voice and Data Business.

Europe. Traffic coming from Asia and routed through AAE-1 AAE-1 is about to be having its first major upgrade and we’re subsea cable to OTEGLOBE’s landing station at Chania, will planning to get more capacity and strengthen our position there. utilize OTEGLOBE’s diverse and protected terrestrial network to At the same time, we’re evaluating new projects over the Eurasia reach Europe, offering more options and better resilience in the route to enhance our position in the developing markets of Middle region to our customers.

East, Africa and Southeast Asia and serve our short-term goal to Finally, during 2017/18 our company started the implementation make Greece the alternative hub in the Mediterranean region and of a major transition of its Voice Network that carries more than Southeast Europe.

6 billion minutes, running over IP. OTEGLOBE is a strong In our Voice Business, we will continue placing emphasis on regional voice hub in southern Europe, with its own IPX platform, international hubbing services to reach remote destinations and offering both bilateral voice terminations as well as hubbing maximize the benefits of our international voice (IPX) network. services, accounting to the majority of our revenues. This transition And of course we’ll continue evolving our network platform to involves the migration of several key Voice Network Elements offer new services as well as manage our operating costs to cope to a virtualized infrastructure (NFV), adding to the flexibility, with price erosion and remain competitive in a tough market for redundancy and cost-efficiency of our offered services to our the benefit of our customers. customers.

Q. What does OTEGLOBE hope to achieve by Q. What are the challenges you are facing in the attending Capacity Europe 2018?

European market and how are you managing to Meet our partners and customers and listen to their ideas and tackle those challenges? needs. Discuss with them on our future plans and new projects.

Going back to the last decade, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented Find new partners to share our growth plans and business potential. financial crisis that deeply affected international wholesale telecoms Listen to what the market has in store for the next year. With 5G, in several ways and still does today. We’ve seen many companies IoT and other exciting technologies around the corner, I look going bankrupt, increased mergers and acquisitions to form forward to the future with a lot of optimism. capacitymedia.com

42 | feature: subsea cables

Making waves in Europe A NUMBER OF NEW SUBSEA CABLE SYSTEMS ARE LANDING IN EUROPE, NOT ALL OF THEM IN FAMILIAR LOCATIONS. GUY MATTHEWS CapacityEXAMINES THE CHANGING FACE OF THE CONTINENT’S CONNECTIVITY.

E

urope is far from poorly served by subsea cable connectivity. From multiple trans-Atlantic systems to a mesh of Mediterranean links, there are routing and pricing options that take traffic to anywhere in the world cheaply and at speed.

Now a new clutch of systems are being launched, or are at the advanced planning stage, that aim to bring something fresh to the mix, landing at innovative destinations and funded by a non-traditional mix of backers.

Going live in early 2018, for example, was MAREA, a joint investment by Facebook, Microsoft and Telefonica subsidiary Telxius. It’s a 6,600km, 160Tbps cable that runs from Virginia Beach in the US to Bilbao on the north coast of Spain.

Facebook is also part of the consortium behind the planned Havfrue cable, set to connect the US with Ireland, Denmark and, eventually, Norway, and scheduled for launch in the second half of 2019.

An additional participant in the project is Google Cloud which is also behind Dunant, a four-fibre pair cable system, which will span more than 6,400km between Virginia and France’s Atlantic coast.

The ground-breaking Havfrue consortium is completed by Irish submarine cable operator Aqua Comms, already the owner of Ireland’s first dedicated fibre-optic

network between New York, London and Dublin.

Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aqua Comms, talks of a ‘new era’ for Europe’s subsea cable sector, one characterised by innovative routing: “Aqua Comms is leveraging its newest route with AEConnect-2, offering connectivity across the pan-Atlantic hyperscale data centre industry,” he says.

“We’re enabling interconnection between the north east of the US and Denmark, as well as offering loop resilience in Ireland.”

Conspicuously, none of the major new European projects has a landing in the UK, once considered a de rigueur destination for pretty much any trans-Atlantic network.

In fact of all the new European cables launched since 2015, only one has a British landing.

Not so surprising and no cause for conspiracy theories, argues Alan Mauldin, research director with analyst firm Telegeography: “A lot of the European cables being built are going to new places, which on balance is a good thing,” he says.

“It brings more geographic diversity.”

He describes the idea that Brexit is behind the avoidance of the UK as ‘a ludicrous concept’: “It’s more a matter that the owners of these cables, many of them content providers, are looking out for greater overall diversity. We’re seeing a similar process on the trans-Pacific route where cables are opting to focus less on

Japan and more on places like Hong Kong and Singapore.”

He points out that a comparable phenomenon is playing out in the Mediterranean where new cables like AAE-1 and SEA ME WE 5 are landing in a mix of familiar and new locations. AAE-1 comes ashore in Bari on Italy’s Adriatic coast as well as in better served locations like Open Hub Med in Sicily and Marseille.

SEA ME WE 5 lands in Sicily and France too, as well as Turkey.

There is strong logic for cables that connect the US directly with Scandinavia, contends Mattias Fridström, chief evangelist at Telia Carrier: “The Nordic countries are currently a prime spot for new webscale data centres, due to their extremely good power price ratio, combined with close to zero CO2 emissions from renewable energy sources,” he says. “I think this will lead to a need for more cables going directly from North America to the Nordics. One is already on its way, landing in Denmark, and I believe that a few more will be needed to cover requirements in the coming years.”

He describes as ‘interesting’ plans for an Arctic cable over Russia’s north coast: “But the cost compared to the benefit makes it hard to complete,” he fears. “Only governments can agree on a project like that, not operators themselves.”

Despite the drive to establish new and diverse landings, the most popular october/november 2018

feature: subsea cables | 43

European cable destination shows no sign of losing its appeal. Some 13 submarine networks run out of Marseille, connecting to dozens of countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, making France’s second largest city a key gateway for carriers, ISPs and CDNs seeking to deliver content and services beyond Europe.

Delphine Masciopinto, CCO of Internet exchange France-IX, explains that many of these cables benefit from a direct connection into one of the company’s three Marseille PoPs, located in Interxion’s massive MRS2 data centre: “By landing direct in a data centre, these cables can offer better value, better performance and are more reliable,” she says. “There are not many places in the world that can match this.”

Masciopinto believes there are many strong reasons why Marseille’s appeal has held up so well despite competition from around Europe and the middle East: “There’s diversity of routing options, a market open to competition, and carrier neutral facilities,” she says. “As long as all the cables that land there provide something different, there’s no difficulty with having so many. Between them they provide redundancy.”

There are those who, while accepting the importance of Marseille, believe it is healthy that other European hubs emerge to challenge it.

Retelit, the Italian provider of infrastructure and data services, has established a landing station at Bari on Italy’s east coast as a landing for the AAE-1 subsea cable in which it is a stakeholder. capacitymedia.com

The cable also lands at Marseille and Open Hub Med in Sicily.

Giuseppe Sini, head of Retelit’s International Business Unit, says it is vital for his customers in Asia and the Middle East to have the option of a landing in the centre of the Mediterranean, avoiding, should they wish it, traditional routing via the Sicily Channel with its history of cable damage.

“It’s particularly important for content providers and OTTs to have different and diverse routes such as we offer,” he argues.

“These players often feel they do not have the time to wait for traditional consortiums to sort out new routes, so in many cases we are seeing them build and operate cables of their own, sometimes partnering with each other and sometimes with operators. The operator is often critical to these projects as they can help with licensing issues.”

He expects to see fresh consortiums enter the cable sector over the next few years, disrupting the market further with landings in places like Italy and Spain: “This has certainly been our strategy, to provide alternative landings,” he says.

“We’re currently planning a new one in northern Italy, close to Genoa. The idea is a mesh that connects to all the data centres Capacity in Europe.”

Javier Héctor Lloret, senior strategic sourcing manager, submarine cables, at BICS agrees that OTT influence is increasingly critical in determining where cable land, and that multiple routing

or Pakistan,” says Lloret. “This serves to reduce latency and increase diversity of the international traffic used by China’s telecom operators.”

So is the European cable sector approaching any kind of saturation?

Will this latest wave of new systems be enough to sustain it for the foreseeable? It is difficult to see this being the case given steadily rising traffic volumes as well as a growing hunger for the resilience that comes with greater diversity.

“Analysts are predicting extremely healthy growth in subsea European cables, in other words cables terminating in or traversing Europe,” claims Peter Zwinkels, vice president, global submarine solutions with vendor Infinera. “Capacity is set to more than double in the next two years. We would say that the market requires more cables than are currently planned to cope with this.”

There is also the matter of the aging nature of much trans-Atlantic infrastructure: “Many of the trans-Atlantic cables are getting pretty old, and at some point we’ll start to see cables turned off,” foresees Telegeography’s Mauldin. “This means we might see new cables to provide a comparable route.”

Telia’s Fridstrom agrees: “Many cables still in use across the Atlantic are about 20 years old,” he points out. “We have seen a few new cables recently but there is still a need to replace these older cables even though most of them have been upgraded several

It’s important for content providers and OTTs to have different and diverse routes” Giuseppe Sini, head of international business unit, Retelit

options are seen as key to protecting their traffic: “The fact that the OTTs plan their main backbone to link their data centres, located in different parts of Europe, is the reason we are seeing them use these alternative routes.”

He also believes there may be some influence spinning out of China’s Belt and Road initiative. While much of its telecoms infrastructure side has been focussed around terrestrial developments across the wide open spaces of central Asia, there is also an indirect but significant subsea aspect to the strategy, he claims: “We’re seeing the opening of new submarine routes that ultimately reach China, via Myanmar

times. The technology of 2018 cannot be compared to that of 20 years ago, which is why we are running out of positive business cases supporting an upgrade of an old cables.”

The case for further cables across the Atlantic and for new options in the Mediterranean seems solid. The current wave of European cable initiatives may in fact be merely the vanguard to an extended phase of innovative developments.

The Dec/Jan issue of Capacity includes our annual subsea special report. To get involved contact Natalie Bannerman at natalie.bannerman@capacitymedia.com

44 | q&a: internet mobile communications

BEHIND THE SCENES AT B OT.MARKET

Í­ÇĄÍŹÍŹÍŹÎŽ

MEMBERSHIP WITH ITS B O ÇĄ MARK J. STEWARTÇĄ ÇĄ

ǧ ǯ Ǥ Can you introduce Internet Mobile Communications and your involvement with the telco industry to date?

Internet Mobile Communications Ltd is a UK company, launched in 2012 and is an international telecommunications business and more recently a FinTech company.

We started out trading in international voice but over the years, realised that while technology and service development had both evolved, the way that the industry works in settling international payments hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. We saw this as a huge opportunity so we came up with an idea of providing a service called Bank of TelecomÂŽ (BoT).

BoT is a registered trademark of IMC and the idea was simple: an automated trading platform for international telecoms companies to trade voice minutes.

We have built a global market and in three years over 1,000 carriers have joined BoT and are trading with us. This has happened organically and we are currently signing and onboarding carriers at a rate of 30+ per month. We have also doubled our revenue six years running and have a massive portfolio of clients on BoT that are spread across 120 nations, who are managed by account management teams in four countries in Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish.

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re taking things to the next level by introducing the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first regulated settlements service using Blockchain technology. How will your new offering be a gamechanger in the industry?

Yes, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very excited about the launch of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;BoT Marketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first, regulated international settlements service.

It uses our stable token BoTCoin ÂŽ- itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stable because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pegged against the US$ so it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t suffer from the volatility that crypto currencies on the open exchanges suffer. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique is that Bot.Market is regulated by the Maltese Financial Services Authority (MFSA), so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a verified customer/trading base from an EU Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) perspective. As Bot. Market is integrated at an API level into capacitymedia.com

Western Union Business Services our partner Bank, it means that it can offer same day US$ settlements to over 170 countries, and can pay money in and out in every single FIAT, virtually eliminating cash flow issues and trade risk resulting in significant business benefits. BotCoin settlements are instantaneous between Members.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seriously bucking the trend and expect this to be a complete disruptor to not just the telecommunications industry but all industries, especially the banking world. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re almost certain that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the only carrier, in fact the only company that has integrated at an API level into a Capacity foreign exchange platform.

By partnering with FX companies, BoT.Market is cutting out the use of banks, which have inherent inefficiencies and high costs, most of which are not transparent. This can only mean significant financial benefits for Telcos when dealing with international settlements.

How will BoT.Market save the industry around $13.5 billion?

We have a saying: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bank of Telecom kills dead moneyâ&#x20AC;?. The idea is that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re cutting out the dead money, which just pointlessly sits in bank accounts before transactions are fully completed and transferred. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve cut out bank fees and delays in transactions.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a regulated company, offering instantaneous settlements and it never hits the banking system so thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no cashflow delay and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 100% utilisation of cash.

What weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing is getting rid of the archaic traditional way of doing business where there are delays and accumulative costs in carrier settlements.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably about 7,000 phone companies in the world. Imagine all of them trading and settling without paying Bank charges. Bank wire charges cost on average $60 around the world and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re charging 87.5% less at a fixed $10 per international settlement. We estimate that the industry paid $18 billion in international transaction fees to banks in 2017, so according to our maths, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll save the industry $13.5 billion. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll disrupt the market as weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re much

cheaper, faster and secureâ&#x20AC;Śeverything your bank isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t when it comes to international settlements!

In addition to saving money on the international settlement fee, withdrawals are also cheaper at a fixed $20 and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also offering a monthly bonus on BoTCoin balances, helping to protect and make the razor-thin margins go a little further.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also giving customers that sign up a welcome bonus of 1% up to $50,000 of the initial BoTCoin capital deposited.

What other industry concerns for BoT.Market address?

The new offering really does address the challenges that international telcos have always faced in regards to legacy international settlements processes.

Some of the key concerns for our customers, hypothetically the CFOs from MNOs or other financial/accounting heads, centre on utilisation, speed, money laundering, fraud and security. As we are the only regulated company offering this service, their fears should be allayed because only trusted Bank of Telecom trade partners â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ones that they currently trade with on a daily basis anyway - are eligible to join the BoT.Market, since they have already been verified by KYC and paid via our FX partners.

From a security standpoint, BoTCoinÂŽ uses our certificated Ethereum Fork Blockchain system, which has allowed us to add an extension to enable a Closed User Group (CUG) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which members within are already verified, as mentioned above. In addition to the CUG, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;keyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sits outside the network, which means it cannot be hacked. The protection of that key sits within the responsibility of the client, much like your PIN for your bank card. There are also many layers of security embedded, with multiple, globally dispersed back-up sites.

Bot.Market promises to challenge Banks on international settlements to the benefit of all telcos trading internationally. It only is a matter of time for the telco industry to leverage Blockchain technology in some way. Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a reality with BoT.Market and its BoTCoinÂŽ.

FAST

INTRODUCING BOT.MARKET THE WORLD’S 1ST REGULATED BLOCKCHAIN POWERED SETTLEMENT ! ³Á‫ٳ‬ SERVICE. EFFECTIVE

SECURE

Capacity

EVERYTHING YOUR BANK ISN’T

For too long, Banks have dictated how and when your international bills get paid, using systems that ȒȇǼɵ ɀƺƺȅ ɎȒ ƫƺȇƺˡ Ɏ Ɏǝƺȅِ áƺǼǼً ɯƺ‫ټ‬ȸƺ ƬƏǼǼǣȇǕ Ɏǣȅƺ Ȓȇ ɎǝƏɎِ XȇɎȸȒƳɖƬǣȇǕ ȒɎِxƏȸǸƺɎ ǔȸȒȅ Xx!ً Ɏǝƺ ɯȒȸǼƳ‫ټ‬ɀ ‫׏‬ɀɎ regulated, Blockchain-powered settlement service ǔȒȸ ƫɖɀǣȇƺɀɀƺɀ ǼǣǸƺ ɵȒɖȸɀِ ȒɎِxƏȸǸƺɎ ɖɀƺɀ ȒÁ!Ȓǣȇ۱ً Ə ɀɎƏƫǼƺ ɎȒǸƺȇ ȵƺǕǕƺƳ ɎȒ Ɏǝƺ ȳ ‫ ًڟ‬ƏȇƳ Ȓǔǔƺȸɀ ɀƏȅƺ ƳƏɵ ɀƺɎɎǼƺȅƺȇɎɀ ɎȒ ÁƺǼƬȒɀ ǣȇ Ȓɮƺȸ ‫ ׎ו׏‬ƬȒɖȇɎȸǣƺɀً ɮǣȸɎɖƏǼǼɵ ƺǼǣȅǣȇƏɎǣȇǕ ƬƏɀǝ ˢ Ȓɯ ǣɀɀɖƺɀ ƏȇƳ ɎȸƏƳƺ ȸǣɀǸِ áƺ ƏǼɀȒ ȒȇǼɵ ƬǝƏȸǕƺ ‫ ׎׏ڟ‬ȵƺȸ ɎȸƏȇɀƏƬɎǣȒȇً ɀƏɮǣȇǕ ɵȒɖ

ɖȵ ɎȒ ‫ ۏדِוז‬ɮɀ ƏȇǸ ɯǣȸƺ ǔƺƺɀِ ȇƳ ɯƺ‫ټ‬ǼǼ ƫƺ ǕǣɮǣȇǕ you a monthly loyalty bonus based on your ƏƬƬȒɖȇɎ ƫƏǼƏȇƬƺِ Xǔ ɎǝƏɎ ɯƏɀȇ‫ټ‬Ɏ ƺȇȒɖǕǝً ɵȒɖ‫ټ‬ǼǼ ƏǼɀȒ ƺȇǴȒɵ Ə ǴȒǣȇǣȇǕ ƫȒȇɖɀ Ȓǔ ‫ ۏ׏‬Ȓǔ ɵȒɖȸ ǣȇǣɎǣƏǼ ƳƺȵȒɀǣɎِ‫ن‬ For security, membership is limited to a closed user ǕȸȒɖȵ Ȓǔ ɮƺȸǣˡ ƺƳ ƬɖɀɎȒȅƺȸɀ ɵȒɖ ƏǼȸƺƏƳɵ ɎȸƏƳƺ ɯǣɎǝِ ȇƳ Əɀ ȒÁ!Ȓǣȇ۱ ǣɀȇ‫ټ‬Ɏ ǔȸƺƺǼɵ ƏɮƏǣǼƏƫǼƺ Ȓȇ ƬȸɵȵɎȒ currency exchanges, and is equal to the US$, you’ve ȇȒ ɮȒǼƏɎǣǼǣɎɵ ǣɀɀɖƺɀ ɎȒ ɯȒȸȸɵ ƏƫȒɖɎِ àǣɀǣɎ ɯɯɯِƫȒɎِȅƏȸǸƺɎ ɎȒ ƳǣɀƬȒɮƺȸ ȅȒȸƺ Ȓȸ ƺȅƏǣǼ Ȓȇ ȅƏȸƬȒȅȅɀ۬ƫȒɎِȅƏȸǸƺɎ ‫ن‬Èȵ ɎȒ Ə ǼǣȅǣɎ Ȓǔ ‫ ׎׎׎ً׎דڟ‬Ȓǔ Ɏǝƺ ǣȇǣɎǣƏǼ ƳƺȵȒɀǣɎِ

Capacity

feature: roaming | 47

Wherever you Roam: preparing networks for happy holidays

Capacity CARRIERS HAVE HAD TWO SUMMERS TO DIGEST THE EXPLOSION IN TRAFFIC SINCE THE EU

ǧ ǧ ǧ

Č&#x192; WITH IMPACT?

T

wo summers have now passed since the EUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roam-like-at-home (RLAH) regulation came into effect, abolishing charges for users and applying a regime for cuts in wholesale caps. That means carriers are getting a better sense of the roaming traffic patterns they face on their networks going forward, and how to deal with them.

These first two summers were always going to be a crunch time to assess the impact â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the first because everybody knew there would be an explosion in roaming traffic, but not exactly how big it would be; and the second because there was no previous barometer for how take-up would continue.

In the event, wholesale carrier BICS says figures from its EU operator customers indicated a rise in data roaming traffic by three to six times in summer 2017, compared with a lower increase of two to four times this summer.

BICS also cites figures showing that the proportion of roamers using data abroad similarly to how they would at home has risen more slowly, growing to 34% this summer from 31% last year and 15% pre-

capacitymedia.com

regulation. However, the percentage doing so for voice has increased faster, presumably as roamers become more comfortable with calling from abroad.

Of this summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data roaming rise, MikaĂŤl Schachne, VP of mobility solutions at BICS, says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still extremely important growth of traffic, but now I would say we are in a more natural evolution of the roaming market.â&#x20AC;?

Despite the data surge, BICS sees significant scope to help operators address the untapped business opportunity for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;silentâ&#x20AC;? roamers that remain. The company has, for example, services that can help operators launch marketing campaigns in real time when users land in a country.

The big challenge, though, is for operators to not only handle the surge in data, but also to continue ensuring quality of service and minimise costs as they face heavy pressure on their revenues and margins â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not to mention big competition from over-the-top (OTT) players. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Quality is not for free,â&#x20AC;? says Schachne. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You need to upgrade your network, and still need to monitor it and make sure you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any congestion.â&#x20AC;?

From the carrier side, he says, BICS has dealt will with the changes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So far, we never had any congestion issues,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have regular planning discussions and forecasting activities to make sure that all the connections are sufficiently provisioned.â&#x20AC;?

Planning ahead Other major carriers point out that they had already been making preparations for years, given that roaming rates have fallen in the EU each year since 2007. And they have bolstered their IPX services to handle the traffic rises.

Telefonica International Wholesale Services (TIWS), for example, just launched its first 200 Gigabit Ethernet interconnection with Telefonica Spain.

Nevertheless, Alberto Carro, who is in the business development team at Telefonica Global Roaming, says that even though the company was well-prepared for the increase in traffic, the sheer size of the rise took the industry by surprise. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This added a lot of complexity to the business,â&#x20AC;? he says.

One challenge is the increase in permanent or longer-term roamers, says

48 | feature: roaming

Carro – for instance, people who travel to Spain from abroad and stay there for three or four months or longer, but still use their home network. “This is an issue for operators because it generates costs that are not related to domestic consumption,” he says – while there is also a need to cater for the big traffic variations at different times of year, something he says Telefonica has managed with its infrastructure upgrades.

The regulation has “dramatically changed the way we are managing the roaming business, and many other businesses that relate to it”, says Joaquín Flores, head of mobile wholesale services at TIWS. “What is important is to be prepared.”

After last summer’s surge, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier increased its IPX capacity “dramatically”, says Christian Wollner, the company’s head of product management for mobile world – upgrading to 2 x 100Gbps at the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX).

Wollner expects a “second round” of people starting to use services abroad, as more get used to it and fears of bill shock fall. He says a big chunk of the traffic driving volumes is coming from video – and uses his own behaviour to illustrate this. “Before, I was really careful with video such as Netflix because I knew that it was big loads of data, and I turned to Wi-Fi in a hotel when I was travelling. And now within the EU, I just behave as if I were at home.”

More for less IPX provider iBasis says, meanwhile, that it begins preparing for European summer in the depths of winter to make sure it is fully ready for any eventuality. “We start very early with our summer preparations – that is, now,” says Chris Lennartz, head of product management for mobile services at the company.

To strengthen its IPX ecosystem recently, iBasis increased its backbone capacity threefold and completed multiple customer upgrades this spring, as well as raising capacity in key data aggregation centres. In the end, this summer’s increase was not as big as the company expected – but iBasis was prepared, and able to offer flexibility to customers given their uncertainties over the capacity needed, says Lennartz. The company is now planning ahead for about two times current traffic in each coming year.

In light of the roaming regulation, carriers are having to offer customers “better bang for their buck” because of the increased pressure on their finances alongside catering for heightened levels of traffic, says Lennartz. “The tagline is ‘do more for less’.”

Lennartz anticipates consolidation in the realm of IPX, because of the need for

highly specialised businesses to improve cost-effectiveness and deal with the new roaming demands – with some IPX players lacking the means to rapidly meet those.

“I foresee a consolidation in the market to those players that have enough scale, expertise and experience to tackle the problem in a holistic way,” he says.

This, he says, is reflected in the acquisition of iBasis by Tofane Global, a deal that Lennart says was prompted by his company’s desire to help drive the anticipated consolidation rather than wait for it. Tofane, a company founded last year to form a specialised tier-one

detecting security issues that arise with increased roaming.

Dennis Meurs, vice president and general manager of exchange, clearing and settlement solutions at global connectivity enabler Syniverse, says Syniverse provides consultancy for customers related to areas such as clearing and settlement, solutions to optimise data traffic and tools to create specific roaming packages for both inside and outside the EU. Players such as Mobolize, which offers smart on-device mobile data management to optimise performance for customers, are meanwhile coming to the aid of mobile

I used to be careful with video but now in the EU I behave just as if I were at home” Christian Wollner, head of product management for mobile world, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

Capacity carrier through international wholesale acquisitions and strategic partnerships, expects to complete the purchase of iBasis from KPN by the end of 2018.

Aside from saving costs, some EU operators have sought to attract more traffic from outside the region to compensate for the decline in roaming fees.

Big data and new business As a result of the regulation, there is also a growing demand for improved roaming outside the region. Telefonica’s UK subsidiary, O2, has helped with this by launching a package that gives users roaming benefits in 27 additional destinations outside the EU. Operators in other regions are also improving their packages.

However, services offering improved network insights and other value-added features also provide a route to improving cost structures and revenues. Carriers are, for instance, setting store by big data, business intelligence and analytics tools that can give customers improved insight into the behaviour of roamers on their network and aid predictive analysis, thus helping them better plan their strategies and save costs.

“These tools have the potential to give you 360-degree information on your roaming business, with near real-time information,” says Flores, with TIWS for one offering this type of insight. Schachne at BICS adds that analytics can aid in

operators with new products that seek to improve efficiency. In Europe, the company has just launched Mobolize Bond, which offers smooth hand-off between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to avoid data “dead zones”.

This helps mobile providers “better manage data on devices in a more costeffective way and add value to the end customer and their on-device experience”, says Colleen LeCount, SVP of global sales and marketing at Mobolize.

Some of the revenues lost from roaming can also be compensated for by the rise in new services such as IoT, says Carro – adding that networks need to account for the fact that many of these services, such as connected cars, need to be able to offer roaming. “The roaming business needs to adapt to this new wave of devices and connectivity required.”

IoT and forthcoming 5G will mean both opportunities and challenges for operators, requiring them to work out how to integrate their roaming models with the new technology. But as carriers get more to grips with the trends and patterns over time, they will have the chance to hone their models to deal more effectively with the new realities. And Nathalie Vandystadt, a spokesperson for the European Commission, believes this will culminate in a better environment for everyone: “All economic players, including competitive operators, will ultimately benefit from a much more efficient roaming market.” october/november 2018

SPONSORED Q&A

| 49

LEADING THE WAY IN UK SDN

ÇŻ ÇĄ ÇĄ Í­

Ǥ not just internet connectivity. This means that we can now deliver a cellular solution that replicates the standard product set of traditional wired Ethernet solutions offering multiple VLAN capability and bringing all traffic privately back to our network.

We are bringing this to market in three forms; as a primary piece of connectivity, a more flexible and capable backup solution than DSL and as a rapid connectivity deployment to meet short-term requirements, such as the waiting time for the installation of fibre services.

Can you expand on Virtual1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SDN offering?

The software-defined nature of our network has meant that we have not only been able to automate change across our network, and most significantly, we have integrated that control directly into our partner facing systems. For the first time in the UK, the IT and telecoms channel are in direct control of the solutions they provide How is Virtual1 innovating in the UK to UK businesses, and this control brings the traditional service connectivity space? lead times of days down to just minutes.

We have pioneered the use of software-defined networking (SDN)Capacity We are making 35+ network features available via both our in the UK carrier market. Developing our solution in-house, we customer service portal - 1Portal, and also our suite of APIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, that rolled out automation across our entire network. By placing control our partners can use to configure attributes such as real-time of our network with an SDN controller, it takes the control of the bandwidth change, VLAN resigning, quality of service, BGP configuration of the network away from the hardware components configuration or IP addressing changes, 24/7/365. and holds it centrally. This significantly reduces the manpower Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just in life services that benefit from this architecture, needed to install run and maintain a carrier network. Then with our use of SDN has also reduced our install times too, we ship network builds all templated and implemented centrally in an hardware pre-staged, so once connected, it will dial back to the core automated fashion, services can be delivered much faster, and free and download the full configuration. This means less time is taken from human error. Lastly, we have made some of these templates preparing and shipping hardware, and its allows for specifications available via both our Portal, and API suite, so that our customers to be changed in flight. This all results in our partners being able can implement change to solutions themselves, drastically to realise value much faster than they would have traditionally. improving the customer experience to end businesses.

For example, we are now averaging 26 working days for a Layer2 provision on our network, significantly ahead of the market How has wholesale demand in the region average. evolved in recent years and how is Virtual1 aiming to meet those demands?

Last year Virtual1 released real-time bandwidth The connectivity market in the UK has long been dominated changes across its Ethernet network â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what were by a handful of carriers and was prime for both disruption and the drivers of this decision? innovation. The lack of innovation and competition were not the It was driven by 2 factors: only frustrations with the existing market, others included; high The trend towards utility based commercial structures across costs, long lead times, lack of transparency, poor service levels, all areas of IT and telecoms. Connectivity solutions have really and no direct control by the IT & telecoms channel. Starting out lagged behind here, providing a static proposition, typically on a as a connectivity aggregator gave us the perfect insight to this and 3-year contract is not suitable for the rate of change in a modern allowed us to innovate to smooth over some of these rough edges. business and its increasingly data hungry applications. The ability Building our own UK wide network to deliver on the rest was an to flex bandwidth up and down based upon specific workloads or obvious next step in our evolution and allowed us to take on the seasonality is a clear differentiator to a business looking to maximise rest of the market challenges. efficiency, as well as scale quickly to meet demand.

The frustrations that the UK telecoms channel felt with service Virtual1 recently launched its Cellular Ethernet response on making changes, prior to our launch bandwidth product â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Can you explain what this solution is increase to a site typically took weeks and often resulted in the need and its significance of it to the end user? for new contractual terms. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been rewarding to see our partners Connectivity is a critical component to how business is conducted, take this feature up and take it to market, as well as key players in and businesses expect, regardless of location, to be able to connect the UK market follow suit. to their customers and supply chain. We wanted to bring a cellular Spearheading the service revolution in the connectivity market connectivity product that could not only extend our reach to was a key objective for Virtual1 when we made the decision to anywhere with a signal, but also provide a feature rich experience, move from aggregator to local exchange carrier. capacitymedia.com

50 |

Introducing Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier has exclusively launched at Capacity Europe. It’s the new name for Deutsche Telekom’s international wholesale business and Jason McGee-Abe spoke toCapacity Rolf Nafziger, SVP, to find out what the launch all means

S

o what are the reasons for the change I ask Nafziger, who has around 20 years’ experience with Deutsche Telekom and is responsible for all international wholeale activities. “The way in which we communicate is changing rapidly, as are many areas of human activity.

In the telco business, a new era of global connectivity has already begun. We also see the need to change, to better ready our clients for a swiftly transforming future, and to be able to help shape the direction of the industry,” Nafziger responds. “Therefore, we are implementing a new strategy and a new name that better reflects our goals of providing the best user experience, top future-proof solutions, high flexibility and quick innovation.”

Being strong in many markets is not enough. “We need to look far ahead and create value that is a differentiator as well as an enabler of innovative business opportunities,” he says. “With Deutsche Telekom as the most valuable European telecommunications brand behind us, we now have a name that reflects that strength: Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier.”

Consolidation or a restructure?

Deutsche Telekom has consolidated its portfolio and its International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) and International Wholesale Business Unit (IBU) services and solutions have gone under one roof with Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier.

Nafziger is tasked with the new-look Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier business, which has launched on 22 October at Capacity Europe. I ask Nafziger whether this is purely consolidation or a restructure.

“This is not a restructuring, it is simply a way to highlight externally that our extensive and ever-expanding portfolio is managed under one umbrella. So customers understand that they really can have all they require from one source – which makes their lives easier and their pocketbooks slimmer,” he says. “Under our new name customers will be able to receive solutions from the areas of global voice, commercial roaming, internet & content, carrier enterprise services, mobile world as well as inflight connectivity.” The industry has changed dramatically and has undergone many technological changes within just the past few years. “This is a trend that is

accelerating rather than slowing down,” the Deutsche Telekom executive states. “So it sometimes isn’t even possible today to know what might be coming up tomorrow. One thing I am sure of is that the price pressure on traditional services is going to increase.”

On the other hand there is huge potential in newer technologies such as IoT, A2P, M2M or SDH shifting to Ethernet to SDWAN or the evolution from 3G to 4G to 5G. “IoT is of course huge and will have a great impact on the international wholesale business with many potential application areas. What that means for us and for other telco providers is that we must be more agile and flexible to identify opportunities and quickly develop innovations.”

AI, big data and digitisation The Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier business is leveraging the power of AI and big data, and the digitisation of Deutsche Telekom’s daily operations allows the company to reduce the complexity of its processes and to offer a variety of standardised solutions. “This will reduce costs for our clients and will also enable smoother and faster delivery and timeoctober/november 2018

“

“

the big interview: rolf nafziger | 51

2000

Marketing Director, VSE & SME Segment

2002

EVP, Pricing

2006

SVP, Marketing, T-Mobile Deutschland

2009

SVP, International Segment Marketing

2012 2013 2018

VP, Marketing, Europe SVP, International Wholesale Business Unit SVP, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

to-market,” Nafziger tells Capacity. “We will benefit from more transparency and a clearer overview which will give us more flexibility and the ability to see process problems that were before difficult to discover. That in turn will result in lower costs and the potential to better identify areas that could provide growth potential.

“We are implementing digitisation to help us realise our goals and increase business ease,” says Nafziger. “It’s part of our long-term strategy to make use of data analytics and big data to create more efficient processes. The outcome will increase transparency and decrease lead time as well as costs for our clients and for ourselves. It will also give us deeper and faster insights and, as a result, the agility to more quickly innovate and provide solutions to upcoming and currently undetermined challenges.”

The increased production of IoT devices will create a greater need for management of international connectivity and this will lead to totally new business models.

“This is why we are looking into offering customised IoT solutions. IoT traffic will need to be managed differently from capacitymedia.com

other traffic and so we are continually developing our IPX platform to make it more intelligent and better able to handle upcoming needs in the IoT area.

Auspiciously, we have years of experience in the IoT field and so have made more inroads in this subject that most other providers.”

360° Defense Strategy

Nafziger has previously told Capacity that the three key pillars of focus for the company were security, digitisation and IoT. With the proliferation of connected devices and access points, security is still an ever-critical issue today. So what does the company’s 360° Defense Strategy look like today and how is the offering evolving?

“Our 360° Defense Strategy is the most comprehensive security offering on the market. We are continually expanding these solutions to protect our clients against all types of fraud and cyber theft,” he responds.

“That starts with state-of-the-art services to combat DDoS volumetric attacks, which have become increasingly massive and destructive. We also offer backbone protection for IP Transit customers routing their traffic across Deutsche Telekom’s AS3320 network. Some newer services Capacity include our SS7 Firewall as well as SMS+ Protect which safeguards against text messaging fraud. And we offer a 24/7 fraud management team that monitors an advanced automated system. I could go on and on about our security solutions, which

documents can be accessed from mobile devices without security concerns.”

Innovation & EAN project The company is intensifying its agility to more quickly respond to the ever-changing requirements of its business and today’s market demands. Nafziger, who is known for his dedication to fostering innovation projects and is tasked with identifying upcoming digital trends, also tells me of the interntion to boost the company’s ability to innovate and provide the best customer experience by supporting an internal mindset that creates passionate team players. “Customer-centric colleagues that tenaciously work in partnership with clients to make sure their most challenging needs are met. Who are not afraid to take risks to develop new prospects, while instilling trust and reliability in the customer experience.”

Nafziger says the company is and always has been focused on quality and providing the very best customer experience. “This will become more and more apparent to our customers and partners as we follow our focus on customer-centric solutions, process simplifications and portfolio expansion,” he adds. “Customer requirements change and we intend not only to keep up with those changes but also to help drive the direction they take.”

“We’ve already proven our ability to do that with our work as a leading partner in the development of the European Aviation Network (EAN).” This is a completely

Implementing a new strategy and name that better reflects our goals” Rolf Nafziger, SVP, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

I believe is more comprehensive than that of any other telco provider.”

But how is the company enhancing its solutions with the onslaught of more frequent and bigger cyberattacks? “We’re continually enhancing this area because cybercriminals keep finding new methods to undermine security solutions and because technologies keep evolving. That is why we have a campaign to fight fraud and security loopholes,” he responds. “With our team of fraud management specialists and our automated, global monitoring system, we stop thousands of fraud cases per year. We are also a major player in fraud initiatives such as the i3 Fraud Forum and the Cyber Emergency Response Team. As an example of our ongoing fight against fraud, we recently lauched our IP-VPN Mobile Access, which is a Layer 3 service that delivers private and secure WAN over dedicated IP VPNs. So crucial business

innovative, ground-breaking solution that has brought broadband to passengers flying above Europe. It is comprised of a satellite and complementary groundbased LTE technologies that required close cooperation with partners as well as regional governments.

EAN is now commercially available and has been for several months. “Our launch customer, International Airlines Group (IAG), has already begun installing the system. Under their flag flies renowned airlines, such as: British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. They will outfit over 300 aircraft with EAN and 90% of their short haul fleet should be equipped by early next year.

“This type of innovation can only be offered by providers with years of experience, the best minds in the business and the backing of a stable Tier 1 organisation – all of which we have.”

Capacity

www.liquidtelecom.com

Liquid Telecom trademark notice. “Liquid Telecom”, “Liquid“, “the Liquid Telecom Logo” and “Hai” and “the Hai logo” are registered trademarks ® of Liquid Telecommunications Holdings reserved. You may not at any time or for any purpose use the Marks or the name “Liquid Telecom Group”. © Copyright Notice. Liquid Telecommunications Holdings Limited 2017. All righ

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So now you can access tools virtually anywhere on almost any device. Whether you’re working online or off, from your computer, tablet or phone, we have your business covered with Microsoft Cloud.

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54 |

Combining

global presence with local

expertise

Bruno Lopez runs ST Telemedia’s Global Data Centres.

He tells Natalie Bannerman about the company’s position as major cross-content player in the data centre market and the next opportunities for expansion

T

he company Bruno Lopez runs manages a portfolio of more than 60 data centres around the world – both directly and actively through joint ventures.

With a presence in key business markets including Singapore, China, India and the UK, it is well placed to bridge the divide between east and west. Headquartered in Singapore, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) is owned by parent company Temasek Holdings.

Lopez says that there are seven key differences between the Asian and European markets, all of which are directly linked to data centre growth in these regions.

The first he says is the different conditions of the data centre markets: “Asia is less homogenous as compared to Europe. Some Asian markets are still in a nascent development stage, lacking highquality capacity offerings. Because of this, businesses across Asia remain under-served as compared to Europe.”

Talent is another factor and Lopez says that there is a real lack of quality experienced data centre professionals in Asian. In Europe, because it is more developed, “there is greater depth in the talent pool”.

When it comes to wholesale versus retail colocation, Lopez says both regions

Capacity

have a similar pattern, with wholesale colocation concentrated in the key hubs, such as Singapore and Mumbai in Asia, and London and Frankfurt in Europe.

As for the quality of existing inventory in the two regions, Lopez says there’s a significant difference. “Some of the older colocation facilities in Asia have significant challenges – as they aren’t purpose-built facilities,” he explains.

Asia takes the lead over Europe in terms of telecoms infrastructure – as countries such as China and Japan rapidly pushing 5G initiatives. With 5G networks expected to play a large role in the adoption of the internet of things (IoT), Lopez expects Asia to lead the charge on this front.

Both China and India have over a billion people and a significant number of them are yet to engage digitally, meaning that the demographic conditions in Asia are stronger. Lopez adds: “Massive markets like Indonesia [are also] growing rapidly.”

Interestingly it is the established regulatory frameworks like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that Lopez views as an advantage for Europe over Asia.

“Asia’s regulatory frameworks are more fragmented,” he says. “This creates more challenges for firms as they have to deal with multiple standards of compliance and rule of law, especially when managing

several Asian markets. The varied cultural norms and languages further make Asia a more complicated region for companies to navigate.”

Nevertheless, as STT GDC crosses the border between these two regions, it is uniquely placed to help European multinational companies looking enter into Asia.

“As our home market, Singapore is fasttracking to become Asia’s digital capital.

The country’s digital ecosystem provides ample opportunities for businesses to access new markets across the Asia-Pacific region,” he says.

Each of STT GDC’s facilities in Singapore, India, China and the UK are led by local teams with extensive knowledge of the local industry standards and regulations. Lopez says that the company’s understanding of the complex Asian landscape provides “the value-add that customers often look out for when they venture into unfamiliar markets”.

July saw the launch of STT GDC’s VIRTUS data centre in Stockley Park, London’s largest data campus. VIRTUS LONDON5 and LONDON6 are the first two data centres to open on the campus, delivering 40MW of IT capacity between them bringing the company’s total IT load capacity in the London area to 90MW. With plans for another 25MW at october/november 2018

the big interview: bruno lopez | 55

2006

2008

2014

CEO, data centres and networks, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation CEO, Keppel Data Centres, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation CEO, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres

LONDON7 on the Stockley Park campus well under way, this will bring the total VIRTUS London portfolio to 115MW. Lopez says that London experienced a record year of growth last year and that STT GDC sees this upward trend continuing, “despite headwinds in the macroeconomic environment– such as Brexit”.

Since the integration of VIRTUS into the STT GDC portfolio, he says “there has been a great deal of knowledge sharing through our active engagement at the board and the executive council, the global alliance framework and operational and technical level.”

Lopez claims that VIRTUS’s continued expansion is due, in part, to the increasing rate of growth in enterprise cloud adoption, with VIRTUS becoming home to major public clouds as well as enterprise private clouds in London.

Across its other regions, the company recently announced the expansion of its STT Defu 1 data centre in Singapore with STT Defu 2. In India and China Lopez says that data centre demand is growing rapidly with demand “far outpacing supply”. India has higher demand than China, he says, mainly in the key economic cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Bangalore.

“Data consumption in India is growing capacitymedia.com

at a frenetic pace. In fact, India is outpacing even the most developed economies in terms of growth in data,” he says. “Cloud adoption by enterprises at scale and digitisation are leading factors for this surge in data generation and consumption. This has led to an unprecedented focus and demand for efficient, reliable and scalable data centres in India.”

To meet this demand Lopez says that STT GDC expects to more than double its capacity in the next 18-24 months.

Nevertheless, STT GDC is continuously evaluating new markets, with particular focus on locations its customers are planning to go. Because of this, the company has recently announced a joint venture with TICON, a Thai developer and industrial property company, to make inroads into Thailand’s data centre market by building its first data centre facility in Bangkok.

From a wholesale perspective, Lopez says that STT GDC ensures that its designs meet the market requirements – by having an underlying building design that is flexible enough to meet the diverse demands as solutions in this space are bespoke to specific customers.

“Through our partnerships with telco operators such as StarHub, ViewQwest and Capacity Tata Communications, we have expanded our connectivity solutions service portfolio to include metro connectivity solutions,”

operated data centres typically incur higher costs when under-utilised. Colocation facilities on the other hand offer lower costs of connectivity.”

The company believes that cloud computing is the main driver of growth for the data centre industry, he says, because of its ability to make organisations rethink their approach to IT. The rise of enterprises adopting hybrid solutions, such as both colocation and cloud, for their digital transformation goals contributes to the growth of the booming data centre industry, he says.

“While enterprises may be enticed by the vast number of emerging technologies entering the typical workplace such as artificial intelligence and the IoT, they need to take a step back, rely on tested and proven solutions like the cloud, and adopt a holistic approach in completing their digital transformation journey,” says Lopez.

Looking ahead at future expansion plans, Lopez says “we are constantly on the lookout for new markets to enter to support the rapid growth of our customers particularly in Asia.” He says this Asia First approach is due to the increasing rate at which Asia is expanding. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Asia Pacific data centre services market is expected to grow 27% a year to support this massive surge in data demands and it is expected to

Singapore’s digital ecosystem provides ample opportunities for businesses to access new markets across the Asia-Pacific region” Bruno Lopez, group CEO, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres

he says. “We have also partnered with several internet exchange operators across all markets. This includes our recent partnership with the Singapore Internet Exchange (SGIX) earlier in July and the Mumbai-IX, which is powered by DECIX. In total, we have established points of presence in over 16 major business markets.”

On the enterprise side, particularly in Singapore, Lopez says: “We are seeing the shift from a retail-focused market to a wholesale-driven one, predominately led by the major cloud service providers.

The increase in colocation space can also be attributed to the rise in enterprises transitioning from their own data centres to colocation facilities or directly to the cloud via major service providers.”

He explains: “Business leaders are shifting from a capital expenditure model to an operational expenditure one, as owned and

exceed the European market by 2021.

“There are also massive opportunities for us in this region with countries like Indonesia growing at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 35%,” continues Lopez. This makes them one of the fastest growing markets in the Asia Pacific region. “In regard to Europe, we will be focusing on the key markets in western Europe,” he notes.

The company will continue to expand its global and local presence with data centre investments, he says, listing data centre platform acquisitions, greenfield and brownfield development, single or multiple data centre asset acquisitions, and joint ventures with strategic partners.

Wherever’s next for the company, it carries with it the same vison and message that has brought it so far to date: “Global presence, local expertise.”

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special report

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TELECOMS October/November 2018

CONTENTS 59 Exec interview Annette Murphy of Zayo on being a woman in telecoms

60 The big interview Gina Nominelli, CMO at GTT, talks about acquisitions, expansion plans, and offers advice for the next generation of women in telecoms

Capacity

62 The big interview Katia Gonzalez of BICS talks combatting fraud and combatting sexism in the industry

65 20 Women to Watch Capacity takes a look at women who are changing the industry in our latest power listing

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Our team of experts will highlight the key trends that look set to deďŹ ne the coming twelve months and the issues that will test the brightest and best in the industry.

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Are new routes being devised or is the industry focusing on providing resilience and reducing latency? How is technology catering for increased trafďŹ c?

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DISCUSS YOUR BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES TODAY! To discuss future branding and advertising opportunities in Capacity Magazine and all other Capacity Media print and digital products, book a meeting with Charles and Federico at Capacity Europe 2018!

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executive interview: annette murphy | 59

ZAYO CONTINUES TO GROW WITH ORGANIC EXPANSION IN EUROPE

ANNETTE MURPHY JOINED GEO NETWORKS A DECADE BEFORE ZAYO BOUGHT IT. NOW HEAD OF ZAYO IN EUROPE, SHE

ǧ

GROWTH

Z

ayo is expanding organically in major European cities, including Dublin, London, Paris and Amsterdam â&#x20AC;&#x201C; rather than growing by acquisition, as it is doing in the US. Annette Murphy, the managing director of Zayo Europe, is reluctant to say the group is looking for inorganic growth â&#x20AC;&#x201C; acquisitions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; on the east side of the Atlantic.

Instead, she steers the conversation away deftly: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never before have we seen more opportunity for organic expansion,â&#x20AC;? she says.

From its Boulder, Colorado base, Zayo US has bought Optic Zoo Networks and Spread Networks this year alone, and Electric Lightwave last year, plus Allstream in 2016, on top of a selection of data centres. In Europe, the last acquisition was Viatelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infrastructure at the end of 2015 and Neo Telecoms in France in 2014. A few weeks before that, it bought London-based Geo Networks. But nothing since Viatel.

Perhaps Murphy is just being ultracautious: top executives rarely like to admit theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re actively pursuing acquisitions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Zayo CEO Dan Caruso is a famous deal-maker; weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll take Murphyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reluctance to comment with caution and wait to see what happens. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our strategy remains consistent with what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always been â&#x20AC;&#x201C; weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always been disciplined about acquisitions,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a certain lack of discipline out there now. Our strategy remains unchanged. There have been some nice complementary tuck-in assets [in North America]. That remains the modus operandi.â&#x20AC;?

Murphy joined Geo in 2004 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; after a spell at BT Global Services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and stayed after the Zayo takeover, to become sales and business development director for its wholesale operations in Europe.

Geo â&#x20AC;&#x153;was a 100% fit with Zayoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core strategyâ&#x20AC;?, she recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The focus is assets and what we do with those assets and the markets we serve. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think we could have found a better trade purchaser for Geo than Zayo.â&#x20AC;?

Into the sewers Many of Zayoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fibre assets are in the London capacitymedia.com

sewers through a deal signed in Geo days with Thames Water. The fibres are fixed to the side of the brick walls that were built in the 1860s under the direction of the brilliant engineer Joseph Bazalgette, and they are still in good condition 150 years later. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The sewer network has been a key USP for us,â&#x20AC;? says Murphy. The fibres are deep, secure and economical. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They go right across London and come up through the manholes,â&#x20AC;? leaving Zayo to call out the Capacity diggers for only short stretches. The company also uses sewers in Paris, thanks to a parallel decision by Geo. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re even better: they reach right into the cellars.â&#x20AC;?

US vs Europe At the first Metro Connect Europe conference in September, Murphy compared the European and North American markets.

We pursue that theme in the interview in Zayoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two years ago Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have said there was a five-year difference between the two markets. Now, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say Europe is fast catching up with the US, and some market segments are at parity.â&#x20AC;?

And Europe is seeing new entrants from the US, bringing new potential customers, â&#x20AC;&#x153;companies we previously didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see here.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very positive for Zayo because we serve them in the US market and the partnership is strong.â&#x20AC;? She points to â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t name â&#x20AC;&#x201C; over-the-top (OTT) companies, â&#x20AC;&#x153;big webscale companiesâ&#x20AC;? that Zayo works with in the US. Previously customers in Europe tended to use less fibre than in the US, she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were buying wavelengths across Europe and now theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re buying a very high fibre count as companies roll out infrastructure across the region.â&#x20AC;?

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big difference, of course, in the wireless markets, where each country in Europe has a separate set of competitors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all with different policies with regard to backhaul. Some provide their own fibre, but others go to the fibre market.

There is parity in many areas of the market on each side of the Atlantic.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Financial services, for instance.â&#x20AC;? New York is comparable with London, Paris and Frankfurt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In investment banking we feel weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re particularly well positioned, given that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an organisation that likes to own its fibre. Access and ownership lets you provide the best level of service. You have control of the entire architecture.â&#x20AC;?

Murphy says Zayo was â&#x20AC;&#x153;was built for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world rather than one thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trying to move into todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world.â&#x20AC;?

Take its IT system: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our entire business is built around a simple IT architecture and everything is on a single system. That makes everything across the business work better â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pre-sales, delivery, service. Data is always in the right place. It allows us to focus on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important.â&#x20AC;?

Zayo has assets in eight European countries, says Murphy, focused on fibre assets and service, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and that allows us the opportunity to expandâ&#x20AC;?. It operates in five main market sectors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; wholesale telecoms, including wireless; content; financial services; professional services; and public sector and health.

As head of Europe, Murphy spends â&#x20AC;&#x153;most of my time on trains and planesâ&#x20AC;?, between London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan and the US. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think of Paris as an international trip any more,â&#x20AC;? she adds. But all of those take her away from her husband and â&#x20AC;&#x153;three little boys of four, seven and nineâ&#x20AC;? in southwest London.

Back in January, Caruso said he wanted to inject a new energy into Zayo. Does Murphy see this? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh absolutely. We operate at a very fast pace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we call it â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the speed of Zayoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very exciting environment, a very challenging environment. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not for everyone. You need very high levels of commitment from people here. We focus on building very effective teams,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dan is very focused on the culture of the business, on retaining the entrepreneurial spirit on which we were founded.â&#x20AC;?

60 |

GTT just keeps on growing Gina Nomellini, chief marketing officer, GTT, speaks to Natalie Bannerman about the integration of its acquisitions, its plans for further expansion and her advice for the next generation of women in telecoms 2018 has been a year of great growth and expansion for GTT. This year alone the company has completed the acquisitions of Custom Connect, Interoute, Accelerated Connections (ACI) and most recently Access Point. Such change requires an agile and dynamic management team able to meet the meet the large task GTT has ahead.

A not too unfamiliar sight, on the GTT senior management team page of its website, I find only one woman’s name listed in a sea of men. Gina Nomellini, GTT’s chief marketing officer, is that one woman, who joined the GTT family when One Source Networks was acquired by the company in 2015.

Now faced with the mammoth task of integrating all of GTT’s new purchases into one cohesive brand I spoke to her about the company’s most recent announcements and its plans for further growth.

M&A growth In September, the company announced plans to upgrade its fibre network in central and eastern Europe to enhance the diversity, scalability and performance of its Tier 1 global IP network footprint for customers in the region. In addition to upgrading routes between GTT points of presence (PoP) locations in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, we are also adding a diverse, low latency route from Budapest to Sofia.

Nomellini is keen to stress that the network upgrade has no direct relationship to the Interoute acquisition as it was in

action before the deal was completed.

She explains:Capacity “This upgrade project commenced prior to the closing of the Interoute acquisition and was completed post-close. As a pan-European network operator, Interoute was known for its expansive network reach into the Central and Eastern Europe region and we continue to view this region as an important market for GTT.” There is a strong curiosity surrounding GTT and its recent acquisitive activity, with many in the industry wondering how the company has been able to afford all its purchases and still have such strong financial results. In May, GTT confirmed that reached $1 billion in annualised revenues. But Nomellini says that its acquisitions have directly contributed toward its revenue growth.

Nomellini adds: “During the last 12 months alone, we have completed six acquisitions and we are well-positioned to meet our next revenue objective of $2 billion by early next year. Clients acquired through this M&A activity benefit from the expansive network reach and broad portfolio of network services offered

by GTT. Therefore, each acquisition is typically an upsell opportunity for us.”

In total GTT has completed 30 acquisitions over the last 10 years but two of the biggest over the last 12 months has undoubtedly been its $2.3 billion purchase of Interoute and its buyout of ACI for an undisclosed sum. The ACI deal was completed back in March and Nomellini says that integration of the business is

complete while the Integration of Interoute is “on-track” in all aspects.

“We have completed the organisational integration and have announced our leadership teams across each of the divisions and support organisations,” she explains.

“We have integrated our networks and will continue to rationalise PoPs in the core IP network to realise further synergies. We have also loaded Interoute client data onto the GTT client management database system, a key milestone for any of our integrations.

Though all seems to be going well in the integration front, Nomellini is keen to stress that “all integrations have challenges” and that they expect that mistakes will be made in the process, “but we practice vigilance to self-correct quickly and minimise any impact on our clients.”

Culturally she says that Interoute and GTT share common cultural values because of their heritage of challenging the incumbents.

“Together our disruptive force in the market is even greater. Already, the entire company meets each week for 30 minutes on a video conference bridge to learn about an aspect of the business and listen to our CEO, Rick Calder,” she adds.

New teams and divisions Speaking of new divisions and leadership teams, Martin Ford and Jesper Aagaard were recently named as heads of new UK and Europe business divisions respectively.

The new UK division includes Ireland, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, while Europe october/november 2018

the big interview: gina nomellini | 61

2006

Senior director - product management, Level 3 Communications,

2007

GM - global products, Telstra

2010

VP - global products & marketing, Telstra

2010

Chief marketing officer, One Source Networks

2015

Chief marketing officer, GTT

is comprised of mainland Europe including central and eastern Europe.

The decision to separate the former Europe division into Europe and the UK, Nomellini says was done to align sales with key functions that impact the client experience. These include quoting, ordering, service delivery, billing, and overall client account management.

“GTT created two divisions in Europe to keep the local market orientation of our sales operations aligned,” she explains. “We are also considerably larger now in Europe - combining Interoute with legacy GTT – and creating divisions for UK and Europe balances our organisation based on revenue and resources.”

Unlike some who think that not enough is being done to encourage more women into telecoms, Nomellini has more of an optimistic view, it’s just a matter of staying the course.

“We have some terrific women leaders in telecom, including women who have highly distinguished records as CEOs. If the industry stays on a course of recruiting the best talent with equal opportunity and consideration, I believe we are well poised to continue to cultivate outstanding women leaders,” she says.

As for advice for the next cohort of female telecoms leaders, she identifies two key thoughts: firstly, pick a strong role mode. Also, assert confidence in your ability to rise to a leadership position.

“Our industry has a great track record of rewarding performance. If you have the dedication, drive, and good leadership capacitymedia.com

qualities, the telecom market affords great opportunities for career advancement,” adds Nomellini.

encumbered with disparate legacy systems that undermine the client experience,” says Nomellini. “GTT lives by the values of simplicity, speed, and agility, which is reflected in our approach to delivering solutions for our clients. Many of our clients are contending with complexity, therefore we aim to eliminate the complexity.”

In the same June/July issue of Capacity Magazine Calder was also quoted as saying: “We’re more focused in the Americas and Europe in the short-run, I wouldn’t say that we would never do something in AsiaPacific”, leading me to wonder whether or not GTT was planning for any expansion into Asia. But as ever Nomellini remains ambiguous, neither confirming not denying my suspicions, leaving the door open for any potential opportunities.

“The Americas and Europe are the clear geographic focus of our business and we see substantial opportunity to expand our scale and market presence in these two regions,” she answers. “But the essence of GTT’s proposition is to securely and diversely connect clients to any location in the world and any application in the cloud. Many clients rely on us to serve their connectivity requirements in the Asia-Pacific region and I expect we will continue to expand that capability over time, whether through organic initiatives or M&A.” The GTT team will no doubt have their work cut out for them over the coming months and well into 2019.

Despite Nominelli’s belief that the company now has the network assets and product capabilities to compete with some of the most established players

What’s next for GTT? Emerging technologies and business diversification seems to be the growing trend among telcos. SD-WAN, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine-tomachine (M2M), 5G and the internet of things (IoT) are all popular buzzwords that to be explored, but GTT is honing in one in particular moving forward and that’s SD-WAN. “As GTT has a limited base of legacy MPLS services, SD-WAN plays perfectly into our disruptive approach to serving the market with innovative, cost-effective cloud networking solutions,” says Nomellini.

“We have unique assets and capabilities to capture a significant share of the SD-WAN market, which includes one of the largest Tier 1 global IP networks, the broadest array of access options and last-mile partners, and extensive experience as a provider of managed services.”

Interesting however, in the June/July issue if Capacity Magazine GTT CEO Rick Calder was quoted as saying: “Intelligent automation and visibility for a CIO of its network will be a Capacity huge area of innovation over the coming years, particularly with the vendor community. It’s an area we haven’t played deeply in directly but we’re thinking about how we can,” indicating that company was potentially moving more heavily into automation.

Nomellini says that the company is continuously innovating with networking technologies, which ultimately benefit end user clients in terms of improved security, performance and cost efficiencies and that AI and Gina Nomellini, chief marketing officer, GTT machine learning play a big part in that. in the market, she says that GTT “will “We see an opportunity to implement continue to seek opportunities to expand intelligent networking functionality that our market presence and scale, deepening enables more efficient routing of traffic our penetration in key vertical markets, based on a global view to the network broadening our network reach, and typology versus router-to-router pathways. enhancing our capabilities”.

This will also improve failover capability As previously mentioned SD-WAN will and network visibility.” be a clear focus for the company moving Both SD-WAN and automation all forward as GTT continues to build on play into GTT’s wider goal of supporting its platform to “bring next generation its enterprise and carrier clients with virtualised services that improve network their business transformation. But unlike agility and efficiency for our clients.” incumbent carriers that are concentrating At this point, the future looks very their investment resources on the consumer, promising for GTT, as Nomellini that it mobile, and media sectors, GTT is focused is on track to meet its next financial goal on cloud networking services. well ahead of the original target timeframe, “Many of our industry peers that have whatever the stage is, don’t bank on it also expanded through M&A activity are slowing down any time soon.

Our acquisitions have directly contributed toward our revenue growth”

62 |

Fraud

requires a global solution Katia González, head of fraud prevention operations and services at BICS, talks to Natalie Bannerman about the increasing impact of telecoms fraud,Capacity her experiences as a woman in telecoms and her work with the i3Forum and the GLF’s code of conduct

H

ave you ever received a call from a number you don’t know? In general, those are missed calls that you never have time to answer, so you usually call it back to know what it was about.

That call is typically fraudulent and going to be charged at a very high rate. “That’s telecoms fraud and that’s what I do,” said Katia González, head of fraud prevention operations and services at BICS. Having been with the company more than 10 years González is considered an expert in her field – and, as such, she also serves as the chair of i3Forum’s fraud workstream.

What is BICS’s strategy to combat the growing threat of fraud? Its approach is global, she says, as all plans should be.

“BICS is a global company, so when it comes to preventing telecoms fraud we have a global strategy; both because of the nature of our business, and also because we believe that fraud is a global problem that requires a global solution. It doesn’t make sense to have different operators fight fraud and try to come up with solutions here

and there, unless there is a global González says the industry as a whole is moving in this direction “both in terms of the services we offer, and also via promotion through the i3forum and the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum’s code of conduct.” There are a number of initiatives where the industry is trying to gather different members of the business to help try to find this widespread global approach.

“So, even if each region has some specificities, with certain types of fraud being more prevalent in specific regions, overall there’s no major difference – just the way fraud attacks take place. The results are all the same.”

Because of González’s position with the i3Forum, she knows first-hand that work that has gone on between the organisation and ITW’s Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), which recently partnered to publish a code of conduct to combat fraud in the industry.

The document has been supported by 18 carriers. A1 Telekom Austria, BICS, BT, Colt, Deutsche Telekom ICSS, Etisalat, Orange, PCCW Global, Telefónica and Türk Telekom International signed the code, and they were later joined by BTS,

Interoute [now GTT], Sprint, Tele2, Telia Carrier, Telstra, MNF Group including TNZI, and Vodafone.

What’s the significance of the document?

González says that it means a drastic change is happening. “A few years back you had mobile or fixed line operators running their fight against fraud independently. But when we are a group of relevant industry players that have a similar industry approach then we create a real impact in the fight against fraud,” she explains.

“With the code of conduct we have been able to reach a little bit further. Previously this kind of knowledge was only shared internally in the wholesale community, but thanks to the reach of ITW and Capacity [which runs International Telecoms Week], we’ve been able to make a lot of noise.

It means that there is an international consciousness around the problem of fraud and that wholesale carriers can be part of this initiative to fight fraud.”

Collaboration is key This message of collaboration is a sentiment that González truly champions. She has written blogs on the subject, with titles october/november 2018

the big interview: katia gonzález | 63

2004

Product project process engineer, Belgacom Mobile

2008

Pricing manager, BICS

2011

Fraud manager and revenue assurance product manager, BICS

2011

Chair of fraud workstream, i3Forum

2013

Head of fraud prevention operations and services, BICS

like ‘No mobile operator is an island in the threat of telecoms fraud’. Though she says that collaboration in this area is changing and getting better, there is still a lot of work still to be done.

“From time to time I get messages from people from other companies asking ‘how can we sign’ the code of conduct. Now let’s be honest: for some it may be just a marketing exercise to show that they want to do something, but for many I think there’s this consciousness that is rising up.”

Unsurprisingly, educating the industry about the need for collaboration is also González’s biggest challenge in her role.

“We are moving from a pure regulated industry. We need to move to a way of doing business that’s the right way and putting in the effort that is needed.” But this needs investment, she warns: “That’s the issue with all of this. We require investment, the kind that doesn’t make money. That’s kind of a challenge. This is why we need at least the big players to start contributing more.”

Emerging technologies have the ability to improve the lives of consumers but those same innovations can embolden criminals. capacitymedia.com

What will be the impact of 5G and the internet of things (IoT) on fraud? González predicts that because IoT will generate a lot more connected devices it will also create more entry points for any kind of attack.

“5G will speed things up, meaning it will become crucial to be faster in the detection and prevention of fraud,” she says. “Because, once it’s there, it spreads very quickly. I think these technologies will be an enabler of business opportunities but, unfortunately, they will also enable fraud attacks to cause even more damage in a shorter period of time.”

As for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-to-machine (M2M) systems, González sees them as both a potential accelerator of fraud and a potential tool for fraud prevention. “With so many devices and so many transactions going over the networks, it’s going to be very difficult to keep people working in a traditional way without machine learning and automation. There’s going to be too much data out there,” she says.

But where there are benefits for one, there are benefits for all. “As automation speeds things up and makes things faster and smarter, I’m afraid criminals will also use this. There’s no reason why they wouldn’t.

Unfortunately, technology is there for Capacity anybody – the potential there is huge.”

Despite the progressive nature of technology and criminal activity as a whole, González says that the biggest enablers of fraud are the same as they were years ago: roaming, spam texts and missed – or

Passive resistance Women in telecoms is a subject close to González’s heart and it’s a conversation she is keen to have with me. She describes what she calls passive resistance to increasing female inclusion in very male-dominated industry.

“To be honest I still feel the sexism,” she says. “You learn to deal with it, but its there. I think there is some kind of passive resistance that is cultural because unfortunately on this issue it tends to be cultural.” What’s the answer? “For me it needs to be addressed from two different angles: one is the personal angle and over time you need to learn how to deal with it. Then there also needs to be a more structural change, things like public policy changes, the changing of people’s mindsets, cultural changes and educational changes.”

But regardless of the noise, the biggest assets any woman has in trying to navigate this industry, according to González, is resilience – something she says she is learning to do every day.

“Always talk in a professional way of course, but in the right way. Talk to stand up for yourself. Talk to other women.

Don’t just get upset. This is why I’m glad this conversation is happening – you feel stronger when you know you are not alone.

When we stand up for one’s position, we stand up for the others’ positions too.

That’s why it is so important.” González champions the notion that “diversity brings value” and says: “Having different views

As automation speeds things up and makes things faster and smarter, I’m afraid criminals will also use this. There’s no reason why they wouldn’t” Katia González, head of fraud prevention operations and services, BICS

“Wangiri” – phone calls.

Why? She credits this to the ease of committing these types of crimes in order to get a lot of money very quickly.

From a general perspective it’s personal data and international transactions that González sees as a widespread problem – because of the sensitivity of that data and its ties to international activity. “Personal data because it’s very sensitive for end users and there’s a lot of consciousness about ways of using it,” she says. “International transactions because money flows faster when you have international data movements going on. Of course I mean telecoms, not banks or financial markets.”

and different perspectives always enriches a discussion” One way to combat sexism, she says, is to generate statistics about it.

“Things like that will show that there is a difference.”

Meanwhile, the battle against fraud continues. González remains hopeful for the future as knowledge and awareness of the problem continues to grow. It is the wholesale community that, in her opinion, is leading that charge.

“I think with respect to collaboration, wholesale carriers are one step ahead compared to operators.” With any luck, one day soon that missed call on your mobile will be just that.

North America is now closer to Europe.

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Women to Watch D

iversity is strength! On all fronts, we know that organisations that deliver diversity are rewarded with well-rounded solutions, innovative thinking and well-balanced teams.

Though the conversation around this very male-dominated industry has come a long way over recent years, we still have a way to go. Too often, the senior leadership pages of some of the world’s biggest telcos have not a single woman’s name on it, a trend we need to change.

You cannot do these lists without leaving some names out, and I’m sure there are some exceptional female leaders whose names we don’t even know yet. But here is Capacity’s list of 20 of the more prominent women in telecoms, who are pushing that conversation forward. capacitymedia.com

Compiled by Natalie Bannerman

66 | 20 women to watch

Jennifer Artley BT director of technology, life sciences & business services

Mary Clark Synchronoss chief marketing officer and executive vice president, product

Margherita Della Valle Vodafone group chief financial officer

Maria Teresa Ferrigno Sparkle EVP Sales Western Europe

Brynn Fowler Oracle director, network business governance & planning

Jennifer Artley has over 20 years’ experience in technology, sales and business development experience having previously served as vice president of global sales enablement at Equinix, 13 years at Level Communication as senior vice president of its commercial enablement group. Her recent appointment to director of technology, life sciences & business services at BT, is a promotion that it is addition to her role as president of Americas, a position entered in June 2017. Ever the champion of female equality in technology as is a member of the KPMG Women’s Voices initiative, among others.

Mary Clark is chief marketing officer and executive vice president, product of mobile innovation company Synchronoss. Clark joined Synchronoss in January 2018 to lead the company’s global product management, marketing and communications. Previously she was chief marketing officer and SVP of roaming at Syniverse.

Since joining Synchronoss, Clark has been instrumental in transforming its cloud, messaging, digital and IoT product and platform portfolio. This includes the recent addition of Synchronoss’ Digital Smart Building platform to AT&T’s smart cities portfolio.

In her 25-year career, Mary has been an champion of gender diversity.

Capacity Margherita Della Valle succeeds Nick Read as group chief financial officer of Vodafone and will join its board of directors. Della Valle was appointed deputy group chief financial officer in 2015 and previously held the role of group chief financial controller, chief financial officer for the Europe region, and chief financial officer for Vodafone Italy.

She joined Omnitel Pronto Italia – which later became Vodafone Italy – in 1994 and held various consumer-marketing positions in business analytics and customer base management before moving to finance.

Della Valle is also a non-executive director on the board of Centrica plc.

Ferrigno has been described as having an unconventional and bold attitude, all that aids her in being the leader that she is. In 2017, Ferrigno was appointed vice president of sales for western Europe at Sparkle. Over her 20-year career, Ferrigno has worked in different countries around the world adapting to different situations and cultures, as well as serving in roles from HR to marketing and sales.

From head of sales in Buenos Aires to the position of CEO of Latin American Nautilus in the US, then returning to headquarters as EVP line of business IP & data.

Brynn Fowler is the director of network planning, strategy and enablement team for Oracle Cloud based in San Francisco. In her role, she is responsible for global network planning and acquisition, contract operations as well as financial planning and operations. She describes herself as an extroverted introvert and has been vocal about women’s issues in the industry and believing that solving for a lack of diversity on teams often starts with the hiring manager. Fowler has held a number of leadership positions in the industry such as Megaport, Microsoft and X5 Solutions.

october/november 2018

20 women to watch | 67

Gagun Gahir Telstra regional manager voice EMEAA

Keri Gilder Colt CCO

Suzie Gleeson Digital Realty VP cloud sales strategy

Katia González BICS head of fraud prevention operations and services

Victoria Lamberth ZenFi Networks Chief Revenue Officer

capacitymedia.com

Gagun Gahir is the regional manager for carrier voice services at Telstra, covering EMEA and the Americas. With over 15 years of global telcoms experience, Gahir is responsible for scaling Telstra’s voice business and driving success by aligning and deepening customer relationships. She has also participated in projects to fight telecom fraud, and spearheads efforts for Telstra’s digitised experience. Prior to joining Telstra, Gahir worked for IDT Telecom where she headed the EMEA sales teams as well as took on commercial operations roles.

Gahir was featured in Wholesale World’s 2018 list of 20 women to watch in telecoms.

Keri Gilder has recently been named as Colt’s chief commercial officer. In her new role she will be heading Colt’s sales and marketing around the world, including in the US where Colt recently launched its services. Previously she served as Ciena’s vice president and general manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, having been with the company since 2002. In her previous role Gilder was responsible for high-bandwidth applications and services.

Throughout her career, Gilder has been heavily involved in facilitating mentoring and career development programmes, Women @ Ciena during her time with the company.

Capacity As vice president of cloud sales strategy at Digital Realty, Suzie Gleeson brings 25 years of experience to the role. In addition to helping customers meet their agility, security and scalability demands daily, Gleeson is a big champion of getting more women involved in the traditionally male-dominated telco and data centre world. To this end, she recently founded Digital Realty’s Women’s Leadership Forum, a group that provides collaboration and support in a collegial environment for women at Digital Realty. She is also co-founder of the Women’s Tech Forum, an industry group with co-founders from Microsoft, Oracle and Facebook.

With over a decade’s experience in mobile and wholesale telecoms, González has held a number of different positions, but none so pertinent as her current role as head of fraud prevention for BICS. An expert in her field, she started her career as a consultant in the supply chain industry, and has worked hard to become a respected thought leader in the fight against telecoms fraud. González leads daily discussions between different industry bodies, liaising with them to get their buy-in on the i3Forum’s agreed ‘best practices’, and the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum’s (GLF) Code of Conduct principles.

As chief revenue officer of ZenFi Networks Victoria Lamberth successfully leverages a combination of ambition and deep industry expertise to drive results. As director of business development at Lexent Metro Connect, she helped spearhead the sale of Lexent to Lightower Fiber Networks (Crown Castle) in 2010. She is also a founding partner at Metro Network Services in NYC. She is also a co-founder of ZenFi Networks, and since 2013 has overseen its operations, including a fibre network expansion of the largest public wifi network in NYC. This past year, Lamberth was integral in completing the strategic merger of ZenFi Networks and Cross River Fiber.

68 | 20 women to watch

Cara Mascini EdgeInfra CEO

Anne Morel Orange International Carriers VP global carrier sales

Annette Murphy Zayo Group Managing Director, Europe and SVP of Fiber Solutions

Gina Nomellini GTT CMO

Sally O’Brien Sprint head of global service providers

Cara Mascini is described by her peers as ambitious, eloquent and a knowledgeable entrepreneur who founded a company called EdgeInfra.

The company is built on innovative concept to improve end-user experience at lower costs for all by building micro data centres to better serve and interconnect the MNO’s with geo-relevant content.

Mascini has previously worked in the interconnection space with such companies as AMS-IX, Ziggo and Eurofiber. In addition completed her MBA at Bradford University whilst juggling her work and family life. She is now said to be venturing into the world of 5G, edge computing, AI to name a few.

Anne Morel has been vice president of global carrier sales at Orange International Carriers since 2012. She oversees the global sales and business development of wholesale services for voice, data and mobile data. Prior to this, she worked as managing director for France Telecom UK, and actively contributed to the development of the France Telecom group in the UK through partnership and acquisition. Morel has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility within the International Carriers management team including head of European carrier sales before taking her current role.

Annette Murphy brought extensive knowledge and experience when Capacity Zayo acquired Geo in 2014. She served as the senior vice president of fibre solutions, owning the P&L for this division and effectively overseeing engineering, service delivery, service management, product marketing and finance. In late 2017, Murphy was promoted to managing director of Europe. In this expanded role, she is leading a business within Zayo with an enterprise value of more than $1 billion.

Murphy and her team have delivered significant growth over the past 12 to 18 months, working effectively across a large geographic area of western Europe.

As the chief marketing officer of GTT, Gina Nomellini brings over 20 years’ experience in telecoms, with a specialisation in international. She leads all marketing and product management activities globally which includes brand management, corporate communications, marketing campaigns, product development, and product marketing. Most recently, Nomellini spearheaded the rebranding of Interoute, which was acquired

by GTT in May of 2018, in 20+ locations across Europe. She has also played an instrumental role to ensure a smooth integration of Interoute and GTT more broadly - from a network, product, systems, messaging, and organisational standpoint.

Earlier this year Sally O’Brien was named as head of global service providers at Sprint. Her most position prior to this appointment was as head of global wireline wholesale, where she managed the commercial relationships with over 400 international carriers to enable global roaming, international long distance and IP data services for Sprint.

O’Brien has over 25 years’ experience in the industry, holding positions in sales management in enterprise, national accounts, domestic and international wholesale, as well as machine-to-machine. Earlier she was director of international markets for the Sprint emerging and wholesale solutions division. october/november 2018

20 women to watch | 69

Kristine OlsonChapman TalkTalk Business managing director

Funke Opeke MainOne CEO

Laurinda Pang CenturyLink president of international and global accounts management,

Aruna Sundararajan Indian Government telecoms secretary; chairman of the telecoms commission

Dr Rosalind Thomas SAEx International managing director and CEO

capacitymedia.com

Kristine Olson-Chapman is said to responsible for TalkTalk business as a whole. Despite her range of responsibilities, her ‘mission’ is to make the way the company interacts with its customer as simple as possible. Having joined TalkTalk in 2009, Olson-Chapman has since held a number of senior management roles within its consumer and B2B teams. Prior to this, she spent over 5 years working in general management, product and brand marketing at major multinationals companies such as American Express and Unilever. She is described as being easy to deal with, having clear communications channels and being transparent.

Funke Opeke is founder and CEO of MainOne, which built West Africa’s first privately-owned subsea cable system that interconnected Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal in 2010. Under her leadership, MainOne has grown to become the leading provider of wholesale and enterprise connectivity and data centre services across the region and the company has played a major role in changing West Africa’s internet landscape. The company has notably embarked on an ambitious collaborative project with Avanti to build a Nigerian satellite gateway.

Through MainOne’s data centre operation called MDXI Avanti’s earth station will be hosted at MDXI’s satellite farm in Lagos.

Capacity After the acquisition of Level 3, Laurinda Pang took over her current role at CenturyLink in November 2017, where she had been regional president of North America and Asia Pacific. While at Global Crossing she had a number of roles before Level 3 bought it, including VP of global sales operations and later chief of staff to the CEO, a member of the executive leadership team responsible for the company’s restructuring and the development of a focused business strategy for improved financial performance. Pang became chief administrative officer of Level 3, responsible for corporate strategy, communications and investor relations.

Aruna Sundararajan is India’s telecom secretary and chair of its telecom commission. With over 30 years’ experience in the Indian telecoms industry, Sundararajan is regarded as one of the most senior servants in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Over her long standing career Sundararajan has been responsible for setting up the IT department of Kerala in 1998, establishing the IIITMK, and the InfoPark, Kochi, which changed the IT landscape of the state of Kerala and in initiating the SMART City project, and most recently she spearheaded the movement to change Indian operators’ telecoms licences to enforce net neutrality.

On her LinkedIn profile Thomas is described as a person internationally recognised “for an understanding of the private sector’s role in African infrastructure financing”, having interviewed her for Capacity, I now know this to be true. As managing director and CEO of SAEx (South Atlantic Express) submarine cable she is responsible for raising investment capital for the system and oversees its development.

The 25,000km, six-fibre-pair, 72Tbps cable will connect Africa and Asia to the Americas. She has previously served as CEO at eFive Telecoms and has held numerous executive and consultant roles in the finance and infrastructure space.

I N T E R N AT I O N A L TELECOMS WEEK YOUR GLOBAL WHOLESALE MEETING Capacity

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special report

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION October/November 2018

CONTENTS 73 Executive interview Roberto Kung of Orange on how 5G will drive transformation

74 Huawei tackles business transformation Capacity reports on Huaweiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business transformation conference in Munich

Capacity

76 Creating a one-stopshop for Eurasia VEON Wholesale Services is moving to centralise its operations in a bid to add value, scale and efficiency to help meet customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs

78 Autonomous network and service 2.0 Huawei chairman Liang Hua on the Operations Transformation Forum

82 Transformation for the enterprise market SD-WAN is set to transform the way large enterprises do business, the WAN Summit in Singapore heard

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executive interview: roberto kung | 73

5G ‘WILL DRIVE ALL OF ORANGE’ TO TRANSFORM Transformation has started at Orange, one of the backers of the ONAP open networking approach.

But it’s 5G that is driving progress, Roberto Kung tells Alan Burkitt-Gray

Orange is preparing for the advent of a 5G-driven transformation in all its 30 territories across Europe, Africa and the Middle East – and Orange International Carrier and Orange Business Services “are twin sisters” in this process, says Roberto Kung.

“They’re focusing on virtualisation,” he says. “Even before 5G they are working hard on this, with features such as network on demand.” Orange is rolling out its Easy Go Network, which allows enterprises to instantly provision virtual network functions (VNFs) via a user-friendly portal.

“Enterprises and carriers can set up their own virtual private networks (VPNs) with more flexibility,” says Kung. “This is operational in more than 60 countries.”

Orange provides it to enterprise customers, “an automatic way to set up features such as firewalls and bandwidth and cloud”, he says.

We are talking in a hotel outside Munich, where Huawei is running its Operations Transformation Forum, an annual event that gathers together industry executives from across the world. Elsewhere in the hotel there are speakers from BT, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Hong Kong Telecom, TIM and others addressing the conference and meeting colleagues.

Kung trained at two of France’s top universities, École Télécom ParisTech and École Polytechnique, and he has been in Orange for much of the time since, including six years until 2010 as head of the company’s core network research and development centre.

Now he is senior vice president for quality operations, and he has a demanding timetable ahead of him. “There is only 18 months to get ready for 5G,” he warns.

Each of Orange’s operations has its own CTO, and many of them are keen to be among the first in 5G. “Some countries capacitymedia.com

are advanced, and they are pushing to be leading in 5G – operations in Europe and some Middle Eastern countries,” he says.

“We want to get prepared culturally for 5G, to prepare for virtualisation,” Kung tells me. The term he uses is “CICD” – meaning continuous integration and continuous delivery. “If you want to be Capacity listening and responding to customers, you will need to integrate on the fly.”

Speed will be of the essence in developing new services. “Two years is way too long,” he says. “The idea is to be able to do corrections [to existing services] in a week or a day, and develop new services in a month,” he says.

The second thing on Kung’s agenda is “working with virtualisation”, he adds: “That will allow us to automate and install applications quickly.” The operator’s network platform will allow that, he notes.

But there’s a further consequence of all this new technology. “It pushes us to transform ourselves,” he says. The effect will work right across different parts of the organisation that currently work in silos, such as marketing, engineering and operations. “You need to work transversally,” he notes.

At the same time Orange is urging its national operators to be “leaner on capex”, he warns, even though the transformation means the “architecture is different”, but “operators are used to that and we’re not afraid of that”.

When will we start to see the first new services that emerge from 5G? In the slightly longer term, 2021-22, he says.

There will be network slicing in order to achieve reliability for industrial internet of things (IoT) services. “There will be massive IoT for agriculture,” he says.

“We’ve got to learn IoT with 3G and 4G. There is LoRa [IoT technology] in France and we are waiting for the LTE solution,

LTE-M. We see there will be an impact in the way we operate.”

Orange is already planning for virtualisation with 4G, ready for 5G, he notes. “We are testing virtual RANs [radio access networks] in several countries and with several vendors – the three big ones,” a reference to Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia, as well as “maybe a newcomer such as Altiostar”, a virtual RAN company.

“The great industry challenge for 5G is that we need to be more flexible,” says Kung. “We have a spaghetti of IT applications in all our countries. We need to change everything.”

Orange needs to decide what needs to be harmonised with the Open Networking Automation Platform (ONAP), says Kung.

“Almost all operators have endorsed ONAP, and within Orange we will transform ourselves with ONAP. We think ONAP is a good way. This should be done with ONAP. Vodafone is a big supporter of ONAP. Deutsche Telekom just joined.”

ONAP, supported by the Linux Foundation, was born in February 2017 with the merger of two earlier open-source approaches, one backed by AT&T and the other by China Mobile, Huawei and ZTE – a fascinating combination of companies.

Founding members of ONAP back then included the operators AT&T, Bell Canada, China Mobile, China Telecom and Orange, plus hardware and software vendors such as Amdocs, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Nokia, VMware and ZTE. Moving to ONAP will mean a change for Orange’s Easy Go Network, which Kung describes as “pre-ONAP”. He notes: “It’s good to standardise,” implying that Easy Go will be converted to conform with ONAP. “There’s a worldwide consensus on virtualisation,” he adds. “Let’s have the same way of working, the same design studio.”

74 | feature: transformation

Transform to survive the data and onslaught MOVE SERVICES TO THE CLOUD, BE FASTER AND BE SIMPLER: THAT WAS THE MESSAGE ǧ

HEARD FROM INDUSTRY LEADERS AT A MUNICH CONFERENCE ON OPERATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

Capacity

K

aan TerzioÄ&#x;lu, the CEO of Turkcell, had what he calls â&#x20AC;&#x153;a moment of truthâ&#x20AC;? about the reality of digital transformation on only his fifth day in his new top job, back in 2015. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I got the first WhatsApp call of my life,â&#x20AC;? he says. It was, therefore, a phone call that brought no revenue whatever to Turkcell: WhatsApp calls run on the data bundled into a mobile subscription.

That made TerzioÄ&#x;lu, a former vice president of Cisco for central and eastern Europe, to drive Turkcellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transformation strategy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not to find ways to block WhatsApp, but to ensure the telco can provide digital services to compete with it.

TerzioÄ&#x;lu was speaking in September at a digital transformation forum in Munich, alongside senior executives from companies such as BT, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Hong Kong Telecom and Orange (see interview, page 69).

Huawei organised the Munich event and its chairman, Hua Liang, told the telecoms executives that it was taking its own medicine and was running an aggressive digital transformation programme of its own. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everything should be on a common digital platform,â&#x20AC;? said Hua. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now it is time to go digital. When you are digital you achieve revenue growth.â&#x20AC;? The key question was about cloud computing: â&#x20AC;&#x153;How does this technology impact our business?â&#x20AC;?

Hua ran through a list of benefits.

Huawei has â&#x20AC;&#x153;eliminated 250 million customer waiting hoursâ&#x20AC;?, he said, and has achieved a â&#x20AC;&#x153;40-60% opex savingâ&#x20AC;?, including replacing â&#x20AC;&#x153;15 siloed ordering systemsâ&#x20AC;?.

Digital services â&#x20AC;&#x153;could be seen as optionalâ&#x20AC;? in the 4G mobile era, he said; but not in the 5G era. The promise, he added, is that â&#x20AC;&#x153;in 2025 digital services will be 20% of the revenue of the telecoms industryâ&#x20AC;?.

Laxmi Akkaraju, the chief strategy officer at the GSMA, warned the industry of the need to transform. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Revenues are plateauingâ&#x20AC;? for mobile operators, she said, but 5G will create new data demands â&#x20AC;&#x201C; she estimated 250 exabytes a month by 2021.

The industry will need new tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) to help handle the new load. â&#x20AC;&#x153;AI and 5G will transform the current landscape,â&#x20AC;? Akkaraju warned, but â&#x20AC;&#x153;operators will need to optimise their infrastructureâ&#x20AC;?.

There is growth in the entertainment industry, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but almost all growth is in new mediaâ&#x20AC;?, she added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Subscribers are switching from linear TV to digital services.â&#x20AC;? The industry needs, she said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;a cultural transformationâ&#x20AC;?.

How has Turkcell transformed since TerzioÄ&#x;lu was startled to receive that WhatsApp voice call in 2015? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing from â&#x20AC;&#x153;being an infrastructure player to being a real digital operatorâ&#x20AC;?, he said.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are changing from playing with the hardware to providing real digital services.

We are changing from complaining about demand growth to using that demand growth.â&#x20AC;?

Today the average customer of Turkcell still has 32 minutes of voice calls a day, but listens to 24 minutes of music and watches 57 minutes of TV on the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s platform, and reads material on the internet for 31 minutes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two out of three customers have a multiplay relationship with us and 70% of our revenues are created by these customers,â&#x20AC;? said TerzioÄ&#x;lu. Turkcell has its own login for customers so theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not tempted to connect with Facebook, and the company has developed a national search engine, Yaani. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Today 20% of our customers are on our own e-commerce platform.â&#x20AC;?

Meanwhile Turkcell is now â&#x20AC;&#x153;a single operating company, not based on single asset classes like mobile or fixedâ&#x20AC;?, he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be afraid of data growth â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the revenue is.â&#x20AC;?

In the Netherlands KPN has introduced the biggest social network in the world, the Chinese service WeChat, to its network.

More than just an Asian WhatsApp, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also used for payments and buying tickets.

The Netherlands welcomes 100,000 Chinese visitors a year and in May 2017 Tencent, the owner of WeChat, wanted to october/november 2018

feature: transformation | 75

allow its customers to use the app on their travels.

“We brought the service live in weeks,” said KPN’s Bouke Hoving in Munich.

“Users can buy tickets for museums and railways; they can book hotels and pay restaurant bills.” KPN was able to introduce WeChat payment and booking so fast because “we started digital transformation in 2013”, said Hoving, who is executive vice president for network and IT. Before 2013 KPN “wasn’t going in the right direction”, he said. “We were in a critical moment in the history of KPN.” The company started transformation “by digitising our business. We consolidated backend systems and unified the digital layer. We started at the front end and worked with cloud technology and opensource software.” What is Hoving’s motto after what he called “a journey of almost four years”? It is: “Simplify. Complexity remains the enemy.”

Four years ago Telefónica’s O2 Germany bought a rival mobile operator, E-Plus, from KPN. Combining the networks added an extra level of complexity: “You will find problems, call flows and use cases you never dreamed about,” Michael Häberle, Telefónica’s director of network operations and quality in Germany, told the Munich conference. A sympathetic audience heard about one high-value capacitymedia.com

customer who drove from the Netherlands to Munich every Monday, making conference calls the whole way. “In six hours he got four call drops. That’s not what the customer expects,” said Häberle, adding with a smile: “He might have said the network did well with only four.”

Now Telefónica has put in systems to analyse “the call flow and why calls could not be performed”, he said. “We can see data from the customer before they have to call the hotline.” Telefónica created a service operations centre “covering sales, marketing and everything”, that works closely with the network operations centre.

“Now we can see all the data. We can see events before they happen.”

Telefónica has a worldwide programme of transformation, called Unica, that will effectively put all of its operations in Capacity the cloud. Separately from the Munich conference, I talked to Arturo Aguilera, head of international services for carriers at Telefónica International Wholesale Services. “Transformation means we can sell faster and with new functionality,” he told me. “And it means quicker income and with better margins.” With Unica, Telefónica is able to offer added-value services to its wholesale customers.

The group has been working on this for four or five years, he said. “The first years we were working on the hardware solution with Intel. We have a permanent lab to test the new kind of infrastructure.”

Telefónica is running Unica in Germany, Argentina, Colombia and Peru, he said, and it will be expanded to seven more countries. There are seven hubs used to deploy the new services to wholesale customers around the world, in places such as Mexico City, Miami and Hong Kong.

Back in Munich the gathering heard from Jean-Claude Geha, who is senior vice president of international technology and services delivery at Deutsche Telekom, and also chairs its Pan-Net unit that is designed to transform its national operations outside Germany. “Speed is key, especially when we’re competing not only with the traditional provider but also with webscale providers that started with a clean sheet.”

The Pan-Net project is international, headquartered in Bratislava with technology skills distributed across central and eastern Europe. “We’re testing applications and services and we’re also

testing processes. We’ve implemented artificial intelligence without having to increase headcount,” said Geha.

Services to be transformed “started with easiest, such as messaging and voice over Wifi”, and on the business-to-business side it started with secure cloud services before moving on to cloud-based customer premises equipment.

“We now have 160 million unique users.

The numbers are growing and we are now planning more sophisticated services.

There’s a great opportunity cloudify television. We’re working with Huawei to cloudify the TV backend,” he said. It will be offered across the company’s footprint, he added.

He addressed some of the challenges for management. “Technology people tend not to want to let go when it comes to cloudification,” said Geha – a polite way of saying that people don’t want the products they work on to be transferred to a cloud-based alternative. The answer? “If you start with new products and services then cloudification is easier.” He took a gentle swipe at the top management.

“It’s not trivial to assume that the executives, the people who provide the funding, understand the implications of cloudification.”

The results of moving to the cloud are that you spend more opex but less capex.

“You need fewer and fewer network engineers and more software developers.”

But Deutsche Telekom finds itself completing with the webscale companies for software people, he noted.

The possible savings are huge, he said, putting them at “30%, 35%, 40%”.

Geha added: “If something saves 5-10%, you’re doing the wrong thing.” That’s not enough, he implied.

After his presentation I asked him which vendors the Pan-Net project is working with. “We’re looking at vendors that are cloud-ready to see how they work in the international environment [on areas such as] the signalling platform, wholesale voice and roaming. It’s a matter of having vendors with true cloudification capability.”

How do you choose what to cloudify?

“What we’ve learned is that we cloudify where it makes sense in terms of customer experience, time to market and efficiency. It’s important to understand the technology well, to put you in a better position to figure out what makes sense now and what in three to five years.”

It has to be “doable and integratable, and not one-offs”, said Geha. Don’t customise, either. “We want a lean and agile position.

If you customise you’re stuck. We must work together and have a case that’s not just technology-driven, not used just because the technology sounds good.”

76 | SPONSORED STATEMENT

CREATING A ONE-STOP SHOP FOR EURASIAN MARKETS VEON WHOLESALE SERVICES IS MOVING TO CENTRALISE ITS OPERATIONS IN A BID TO ADD ÇĄ

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ǧ CUSTOMERSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; CHANGING NEEDS AND THE DRAW OF ITS UNIQUE EURASIAN FOOTPRINT.

Capacity

The wholesale market has found itself at something of a crossroads in the past few years. With the fall in voice revenues that carriers have faced across the globe and the rise of over-thetop (OTT) players as competition, they have needed to adopt new approaches.

Juniper Research has estimated, for example, that global mobile operator-billed revenues from voice and data services will fall by more than $50 billion over the next five years, from $837 billion last year to $785 billion by 2022. At the same time, there are big opportunities for wholesale carriers to grow revenues on their international backbone services to compensate for the decline in voice.

But to do this alongside the changes in the industry, carriers have also needed to adapt more quickly, something they have not always found easy to do. The rise of OTT players such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Skype to meet todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital demands have added to this. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s under pressure on traditional services,â&#x20AC;? says Karsten Lereuth, General Manager of VEON Wholesale Services (VWS). â&#x20AC;&#x153;We also see that OTT players are trying to gain more and more market share, and this puts our margin line under pressure.â&#x20AC;?

Eurasian countries outside the traditional strongholds of Western

Europe and the US are facing similar dynamics too. There are, however, significant variations in competitive and regulatory environments across the different countries in that region, as well as often language barriers. These can pose a big and complex challenge for wholesale customers that want to have good access to these markets or a bridge from Europe to Asia.

This means a wholesale carrier that is able to provide a strong footprint across these geographies and offer the experience and expertise to facilitate access could provide a valuable service for such players. VWS believes it is such a carrier, offering customers a unique combination of coverage in these markets and the depth of expertise to help them fully capitalise in this region.

Promising geographies With several routes stretching all the way from access points in Frankfurt and Amsterdam across Eurasia as far as Vladivostok, Hong Kong and Singapore in the Far East, VWS provides partners the attraction of a network with access to some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most challenging geographies.

Lereuth acknowledges that these are often behind traditional European markets, but that this means countries such as Ukraine and Pakistan are ripe for growth. In Ukraine, for example, october/november 2018

77

operators only started launching the country’s 4G services early this network, allowing easier identification of net senders and receivers year, while smartphone penetration is below 50%. of traffic in different territories, and thus aiding in finding the best “If you see our region, you’ve still got huge pockets for growth deals for both the group’s operating companies and its customers.

– and we are a very big player in the region. What we will see in Overall, he says, we can “have state-of-the-art systems, increase the future is a much bigger growth rate than we’ve ever seen in the bargaining power for customers and select the quality partners that past,” says Lereuth. we want”.

“We operate in very interesting and challenging markets,” he adds. “For us, it’s maybe a little bit different than for many other Start-up mentality players, because the geographical region we operate in has a One of the keys to VWS’s success with its strategy so far is that different level of complexity. But I think we at VEON Wholesale the company has recruited an expert team of “top-notch industry Services can play a really important role in unlocking the region for specialists” from all over the world, says Lereuth. It has assembled players who have difficulties to get into these markets.” a key account management team that is encouraged to work To help make this much easier and more streamlined, VWS across product lines and has in-depth knowledge of regulation has started moving to centralise the group’s wholesale activities in and various conditions in different markets to help customers Amsterdam. This means that, through a single point of contact, Capacity and partners overcome any hurdles. The team also consists of customers will gain the benefit of having a “one-stop-shop” for people representing more than 20 nationalities, helping bridge any all the services they require rather than needing to deal with language or cultural barriers. fragmented wholesale operations in individual countries. Products In addition, the team is prepared to adapt fast to change, taking will also be harmonised across the group. an open-minded and agile approach to make sure it is able to deal VWS has already successfully centralised its roaming services in a with a fast-changing environment. Indeed, this type of “start-up process that began several years ago, so can take valuable learnings mentality” has become part of the team’s DNA, says Lereuth. from this for the other services it now plans to centralise in its “Usually telcos don’t work like this, but things are moving faster new transformation. “To be honest, I think we’ve now got one of than five or 10 years ago. We are always asking ourselves is this the most efficient roaming teams and set-ups in the world,” says the right model? Is this the right decision? We have to change and Lereuth. adapt.”

In addition, VWS has a big customer base that it can help This approach includes the need to develop much closer already, with more than 800 networks from 230+ countries and cooperation with internal and external customers, as well as OTTs, territories, and over 500 deals for its roaming, international voice to make sure their needs are fully understood. Part of this has and data operations. involved VWS becoming a member of international organisations such as the Ngena Alliance and the IoT World Alliance to help in Multi-pronged change developing new businesses in collaboration with other carriers on a There are several prongs to the new phase of transformation. One global scale. involves the centralisation of voice, which began in February. In In addition, the company is coordinating between the retail and parallel, the company is also centralising data services and new wholesale side of the business to make sure it can offer good deals products, with these processes all “full steam ahead”, says Lereuth. to the market that help stimulate traffic – leveraging the VEON These new services are in areas such as messaging, M2M, SDgroup’s subscriber base of 210 million in 10 countries.

WAN, peering and transit, plus others.

VWS also spent a long time planning its strategy to make sure This is therefore a big project involving multiple areas and it works effectively, rather than jumping in too quickly before is expected to have big benefits for both VWS’s own operating everything was ready. “Moving such huge volumes into a new companies and external customers in aiding ease of business commercial company and at the same time adding value internally and quality of service – and ultimately in costs and margins. and for external partners is not a walk in the park,” says Lereuth.

This requires a lot of migration and renegotiation of deals into a He reiterates that this is a big project. “We have many balls in centralised form, but Lereuth says VWS is coping well and, in fact, the air, while needing to still make sure we are delivering what even better than planned. customers expect from us on a daily basis,” says Lereuth. But, he “What we see here is a much more agile environment,” he says. adds, “if I optimise infrastructure and opex and bring in state-ofThis allows customers to access services in a centralised way not the art systems and then the best experts, and deal with all the voice only across geographies, but also across different products. “You can traffic going in and out, this will deliver substantial value”. talk with my team about roaming, you can talk about voice, you He emphasises that doing this begins with a working climate that can talk about data, and we are also prepared to make a deal across stimulates creativity. “It is important that we create an environment these product lines.” where it’s fun for the team to work in,” explains Lereuth. “That This also helps to give a fuller view of traffic across the whole helps us in putting together something that’s quite amazing.” capacitymedia.com

78 | SPONSORED STATEMENT

AUTONOMOUS NETWORK AND SERVICE 2.0

͎Ǥ͏

ÇĄ

ǥ ǧ

ǥ ǧ

ÇĄ

Capacity

Bill Tang, president of Huawei Global Technical Services, speaking to delegates at the Operations Transformation Forum in Munich

For many years, the telecoms industry has been promoting digital transformation across various fields. However, from the perspective of the telecoms industry, although we are running the most advanced network in the world, a large number of operations and maintenance methods are still in a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;manual phaseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that we might think belongs to the eighteenth century, leading to structured problems. First, in terms of financial results, OPEX investment is generally three to four times higher than that of CAPEX. In addition, network construction optimization makes it difficult to enable operators to improve their financial status on a large scale. Second, the complexity caused by the overlay of multi-generation networks poses great challenges in manual operations for operation personnel. Numerous problems with sites, pipelines, and equipment rooms form physical breakpoints that hinder automation. The complexity of core systems made manual operations difficult and led to 70% of network-level accidents.

Third, the structural shock of the internet not only poses threats to cloud services, but also to networks. The impact of this is seen from DC backbone networks to cloud-network-synergy enterprises networks. It is affecting the cloud-network-synergy market

with large scale, wide coverage, high utilisation, and deep data integration.

In terms of OPEX distribution, we can further review the challenges facing the telecoms industry from four aspects: operation (maintenance and employees), energy (power, water, electricity, and heating), resource utilisation (circuit NE leasing, depreciation, and website interconnection), and experience (sales expense and product costs).

First, from the perspective of operation efficiency, one major characteristic is heavy routine workloads. Taking an operator as an example, the annual number of office data records exceeds 17 billion pieces, those of NE parameters stands around 10 million, those of transmission risk elimination is nearly 1 million, and those of maintenance for home broadband communities is tens of thousands. Physical facilities are of great importance. According to the work order survey in a region, 26% of work orders are related to feeder or optical fibre problems, 26% to restoration operations such as restarting non-master equipment software, 24% to automatic recovery after mains supply interruptions, 11% to automatic alarm clearing, and just 10% to faults on device october/november 2018

79

hardware. The second characteristic is that the network cutovers and upgrades must be performed more than 100,000 times each year, and the emergency assurances nearly 400,000 times.

Therefore, a large amount of manpower is required to ensure these upgrades and major events.

Second, site energy consumption (including outdoor sites and telecoms equipment rooms) affects 60% to 80% of energy efficiency issues, while data centres affect around 20%. Energy consumption will continue to rise in the cloud-enabled data centres. From the perspective of operation statistics, traffic distribution is unbalanced in time and space. The busiest top 10% of sites of a network generate 50% of the traffic, while the idlest 50% sites generate only 5% traffic. However, the basic energy consumption of these sites is the same. That is, sites generating little or low traffic still consume a large amount of energy.

Third, from the perspective of resource utilisation, the root cause of low resource utilisation is an unbalanced distribution of service traffic in time and space. In addition, resources are limited by physically distributed design and operation, and do not adopt the global centralised design and dynamic scheduling with time and space. For example, the backbone network usage of operators is about 30%. Traditional traffic optimisation and optimisation

strategies (such as optimisation triggering threshold and migration traffic selection) do not support dynamic adjustment based on the application and network traffic status. Therefore, continuous load balancing is not possible, lagging far behind internet companies with around 90% network utilisation.

Finally, from the perspective of customer experience, there are still many manual operation activities such as traditional drive tests and neighboring cell parameter optimisation. The sampling test cannot comprehensively and objectively reflect the customer experience, and the multi-source dynamic data of terminals, applications, and time and space is not introduced, which cannot fully drive automatic network adjustment.

Use architecture innovations to resolve issues Architecture innovations solve the structured problems for the telecom industry. The combinations of innovations in products, business models, and systems enable automatic, self-healing, self-optimized, autonomous networks, as well as digital service operations. This makes breakthroughs in operation, energy, resource utilization, and service experience.

Based on the service process of operators, analyse the activity distribution, cost distribution, and manpower distribution in

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Figure: Architecture Innovation capacitymedia.com

80 | SPONSORED STATEMENT

terms of planning, design, deployment, provisioning, operation, entire service process: In terms of service scenarios, we need to and optimisation, and innovate the architecture to achieve the find specific scenarios, such as automatic fibre check, service automatic goal. In the case of high failure rate of passive devices provisioning, network optimisation, fault location, and automatic such as cables, power supply, and environment, the objective of resource scheduling, and determine the breakthrough points to “active devices manage passive devices” is put forward. That is, aligning with the need of “zero wait time, contact-free operation, active devices can be used to predict and manage passive devices. and zero negative feedback”.

To solve the problem that the network has power consumption The training platform provides the data and artificial intelligence with no traffic, the “bits drive watts” objective is put forward. algorithms that best suit the telecoms field, including optical Only when there is bit flow, there is watt consumption. The timemodule data, lab fibre bending, loose, grey, and live-network space multiplexing objective is proposed to maximise the reuse fault data. Algorithms include basic data cleaning, information of network capacity in the case of unbalanced traffic in time and integration, machine learning modeling, and in-depth learning. space. According to the characteristics of rich terminal applications The optical fibre fault model and filter model are jointly trained. and full-process experience, the goal of “application-driven The management and control platform is combined with the live experience improvement” is proposed to introduce more terminal network to implement quick provisioning, simplified operation, application elements and drive automatic network adjustment and intelligent operation. The basis of this is to add data collection based on experience results. The breakthroughs are extracted and parsing capabilities at the network device layer, including the from use cases, forming a series of value points. We can combine capability of collecting fibre data, optical signal data, and routing the value points into solutions to facilitate business scenario data. In addition, the equipment must have reliable inference improvement. execution capabilities.

On the training platform, Huawei focuses on building an AI training platform oriented to the telecom field. The training Objectives: improved operations, efficient energy, platform is deployed in public cloud + stack mode. The stack mode high resource utilisation, and optimal service can be extended to operator’s network deployment, so that the experience training can be completed without data transmission. The training Operation level has three phases. The first phase is run-to-failure platform provides the AI tool chain and common model services in (R2F), where operation personnel must go and handle faults in the telecom domain. A telecoms data lake is composed of the basic networks as quickly as possible. The second phase is preventive data, lab test data, field data, and marking data generated during maintenance (PvM), where all devices are checked to prevent service operation of network products, as well as the running data faults, leading to inefficient services. The third phase is predictable of typical sample network devices that are desensitised. The data maintenance (PdM), where the fault probability is predicted, and lake is used for continuous training. Service 2.0 in the network maintenance is done based on the status. field aims to provide online digital smart services and AI-basedCapacityIn Autonomous Network and Service 2.0, devices are used to online services. This type of services is under continuous iteration implement site management through network simplification. and operate in “model as a service” mode by following industry This reduces faults in passive devices such as power supplies, practices. The services are always in the beta phase and constantly connectors, and cables. In addition, active management is updating and improving. The telecom model is continuously adopted to manage passive devices, such as cables, connectors, released to the model market for iterative update and optimisation. and power environments. For example, route, fibre, and signal At the network and device level, the goal is to build an agile visualisation are enabled to allow optical fibres to predict and and intelligent network. Three capabilities are introduced to locate problems, such as fibre aging, excessive bending, loose the bottom-layer devices and cloud infrastructure, middle-layer connectors, and long routes, based on status. Intelligent fault network management and control, and upper-layer entire process prediction and network design enable shared network loads, and system to achieve network autonomy. The first capability is device transforms repair and inspection into predictive maintenance digitalisation. On the basis of large capacity, low latency, and based on status. Then, manual open loop becomes device-based high availability, we can enhance the data collection and parsing closed loop, which achieves automatic recovery for non-physical capability of a dynamic awareness environment, including the faults and improving operation efficiency. awareness of the surrounding environment and passive devices.

In terms of energy efficiency, we adopt the “bits drive watts” Typical scenarios include the perception of the antenna status in strategy, where network traffic determines power consumption. the wireless field, the perception of optical fibers, signals, and routes Power consumption is reduced when there is no traffic, and AI in the network field, the dynamic and on-demand processing of can predict traffic and adjust the energy efficiency of operator sites large-scale distributed streaming data in the IP domain, and the and data centers in real time to save energy. Site auxiliary facilities real-time and dynamic restoration of the network topology. The are incorporated into equipment cabinets to maximize site energy perception and digitalisation capabilities of these networks and efficiency. Service traffic is accurately predicted and devices are devices are the basis of network automation and intelligence. The quickly put into deep sleep mode, realising the “bits drive watts” second capability is inference execution based on the AI model. strategy and ensuring energy consumption management with The network and devices can perform inference execution based optimal customer experience. on the AI model, including data preprocessing and AI model In data centres, equipment rooms, and sites, each system has management. The process of inference execution must ensure dozens of parameters. Through AI training, Autonomous Network network security and robustness, and the deployment can be and Service 2.0 generates heat dissipation, environment, and service divided into embedded deployment, network management and load models to achieve optimal energy efficiency for auxiliary control integration, independent deployment, or public cloud facilities. These include diesel generators, solar energy, and batteries service deployment. The third capability is the service process that operate with the proper amount of sunlight and under proper orchestration capability. The telecom domain model works with temperatures. In addition, it finds optimal modes for dozens of the local business process of operators. Digital technologies such pieces of water cooling equipment. as model-driven, process orchestration, data analysis, and AI are At the equipment layer, dynamic energy distribution can be used to implement automatic service provisioning and automatic performed according to service workloads. When there is no service/network operation, helping achieve the real time, on traffic, power consumption is reduced through timeslot shutdown, demand, all online, DIY, social (ROADS) experience.

RF deep sleep, and carrier shutdown. In addition, dynamic energy-saving management of data center objects (such as server For the optical networks, we can learn how AI promotes the october/november 2018

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components) is implemented. At the network system layer, an accurate service load prediction model is constructed for optimal traffic scheduling on networks, improving energy consumption efficiency.

Autonomous Network and Service 2.0 can accurately predict long-period traffic rules, ensuring the optimal utilisation of sites, pipelines, and equipment rooms. The air interface spectrum is maximised based on the distribution of users, terminals, and services. Balanced elastic traffic during peak and off-peak hours improves the utilisation of the backbone networks to full-load operations. Based on the identification of service and traffic features (proximity, periodicity, trends, and events), trend prediction, and path performance prediction, traffic is dynamically allocated and balanced during peak and off-peak hours, greatly improving network utilisation. Traffic paths can be adjusted, almost in real time, to achieve optimisation without compromising QoS or SLA. With automatic closed loop networks, Autonomous Network and Service 2.0 introduces user data to terminals and applications, achieving optimal user experience. Corporate users can construct cloud-and-network synergy in minutes, coordinate global networks across multiple regions, and implement automatic forwarding and learning on networks. This allows them to achieve user-transparent scheduling and routing. Cloud synergy is deployed at the home user end to improve the home broadband quality, user experience, and problem handling efficiency of home networks.

unit control tasks according to the AI model or rules. For example, the data center can automatically adjust the parameters of the water-cooled equipment unit based on training models. In this way, energy efficiency can be improved and PUE can be reduced.

However, dynamic prediction and adjustment are limited in a certain unit. Level 3 is conditional autonomous network that can implement complete closed-loop automation at the subsystem level. Taking the wireless domain as an example, this solution can be used to evaluate and predict user traffic, perform resource scheduling and parameter adjustment over the air interface, and assess the network adjustment effect. Automation can be achieved from perception, decision-making, execution, and after-event evaluation. Level 4 is a highly autonomous network. The system can automate the entire life cycle of a single service across domains, such as cloud VPN service design, deployment and provisioning, dynamic scheduling, and automatic fault self-healing. Level 5 is a fully autonomous network. The system can perform complete dynamic tasks in all network environments and handle exceptions properly.

Network autonomy is a step-to-step process, from providing an alternative to repetitive execution actions, to performing perception and monitoring of network environment and network device status, making decisions based on multiple factors and policies, and providing effective perception of end user experience. The system capability also starts from some service scenarios and covers all service scenarios.

Implementation path of Autonomous Network and The network autonomy and service 2.0 model has a long way Service 2.0 to go. Huawei launches SoftCOM AI, relying on Huaweiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longThe automatic running of the network must be a long-term term and resolute strategic investment in All Intelligence, digital process. We must have a clear long-term goal as a guide and bear and intelligent network and device investment, and continuous in mind that the automation cannot be achieved overnight. We Capacity investment in digital practices in the service field and in platform need to start with the end in mind, forging ahead with small construction. Huawei is determined to build an autonomous steps, and make achievements along the way. We can divide network solution, upgrade the service mode, and release a series of network autonomy into five levels. Level 0 is manual operation solutions. Network autonomy is like automatic driving. It requires and maintenance. Level 1 is auxiliary operation. The system can a rich ecosystem of partners to inject operation and maintenance continuously control a subtask, such as board switchover and experience into the system and work together to achieve automatic, automatic rerouting. Level 2 is a partial autonomous network. self-healing, self-optimization, autonomous networks, and digital Under the applicable design scope, the system can perform some operation of services.

Level

Name

DeďŹ nition

Execution

Perception

Decisionmaking

Experience

System Capability

0

Manual operation

Even with auxiliary tools, O & M personnel perform all dynamic tasks.

Person

Person

Person

Person

N/A

1

Auxiliary operation

Under the applicable design scope, the system can execute a sub-task repeatedly based on rules.

Person and system

Person

Person

Person

Some service scenarios

2

Partial autonomous network

Under the applicable design scope, the system continuously completes the control task of a unit based on the model

System

Person

Person

Person

Some service scenarios

3

Conditional autonomous network

Under the applicable design scope, the system can implement complete closed-loop automation of single-domain scenarios. Users can respond to the requests in a timely manner when the system fails.

System

System

Person

Person

Some service scenarios

4

Highly autonomous network

Under the applicable design scope, the system can automatically analyze and execute cross-domain and service closeloop automation.

System

System

System

Person

Some service scenarios

5

Fully autonomous network

The system can perform complete dynamic tasks and exception handling in all network environments. Operation personnel do not need to intervene.

System

System

System

System

All service scenarios

Table: Five levels for network automation capacitymedia.com

82 | sd-wan

SD-WAN will drive digital transformation in the enterprise space ATTENDEES OF THE WAN SUMMIT IN SINGAPORE HEARD HOW ADVANCED AND FLEXIBLE NETWORKS ARE HELPING ENTERPRISES ALONG THEIR TRANSFORMATION JOURNEYS

I

n the digital era, business transformation is key not just to telecoms but also to the enterprise sector. According to the Advance2000 survey, 85% of enterprise decision makers believe they have just two years to integrate digital initiatives before they risk falling behind their competitors. 55% think they have even less time – just one year, in fact.

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) could play a key role in helping enterprises continue their transformation journeys, the WAN Summit conference in Singapore heard from several speakers.

The event, which took place in the Asian city-state in September, looked at the rapidly growing software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) market in the Asia and Asia Pacific region. The keynote presentation, given by Orange Business Services, looked at how businesses were adopting SD-WAN either as a managed or as a hybrid.

Laurent Perrin, director of application driven network at OBS, said: “SD-WAN is the right way to help businesses through their transformation because it brings flexibility.

“Our customers point to agility, to the ability to adjust the network, with many driven by business transformation. We are moving from a fully managed model to a more flexible model with more visibility. Why visibility? Because the network is carrying more and more traffic, with some of it no longer managed directly by IT or network managers but by specific business divisions directly. So we need to move to a more enduser focussed structure.”

He gave an example case study of an international enterprise OBS had worked with to transform its network: German manufacturer Siemens.

Siemens, he explained, was looking for a more flexible infrastructure to cover its 1,500 sites which span more than 94 countries. So Orange looked at virtualisation.

He added: “Siemens – an example of a customer sourcing all of their services from one provider. We have been contracted to transfer their network from a full MPLS

Capacity

to SD-WAN, They want different types of access, to reinforce security.”

He was joined on stage by his colleague James Soo, who reminded the packed hall that SD-WAN is itself just “a concept, not a standard”. This means enterprises have many different vendors and options and each “have a different kind of flavour”.

So how does OBS tackle this? Soo explained: “The first is trying to understand your data: how you use it, what your data is, and where you expect to see it in the next six months. So do your due diligence, and then look at doing a proof of concept to help you understand how SD-WAN can actually work in a real-time environment.

“Then begins the transformation – do you want to do this across your sites, or only at a limited number? This means piloting different profiles and a close engagement with partner.s Find milestones and set expectations.

The beauty of SD-WAN is that using policies we can tweak and adapt your network as new applications come on board.”

Another topic of discussion was zero touch provisioning of networks, which, according to one panel, is “not quite there yet”. The panel, which featured representatives from Tata Communications, Nuage Networks, and Cato Networks, as well as enterprises in the form of Cargill and Fugro, was the keynote panel at the Singapore event.

According to Gavin Yeoh, of Indian telecoms giant Tata Comm, the right SDWAN strategy for service providers is about getting to know your partners.

He explained: “It is about understanding each enterprise – what are your use cases, what are the priorities? And understanding the traffic flow to make sure you understand the internet infrastructure but so you’re not losing performance issues.”

Ton phung, of Nuage Networks, explained: “When we talk to our enterprise and SP customers, the main drivers are definitely cost, but customers also want flexibility, so SD-WAN has to be able to work over any access infrastructure. So the customer can choose any of the infrastructure, but they also need a management portal so they can login themselves. They want flexibility but also the ability to pick and choose their partners and network solutions.”

But on the topic of zero touch provisioning – where automated networks make routing decisions without input from the network manager – the enterprise network has some way to go, even if it is an SD-WAN, according to Cargill’s Daryl Yeo. He said: “Zero Touch provisioning isn’t really a reality at the moment, but you can keep a light touch. It is not properly there yet because you still need to integrate and operate.” october/november 2018

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84 | market data: fraud

TAKING LEADERSHIP ON FRAUD The Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), in partnership with the i3Forum, launched its fraud code of conduct earlier this year. This exclusive snapshot of a GLF survey looks at changes in fraud volume and impact trends over the last 12 months.

The status of fraudulent traffic and its use-cases Fraudulent traffic is a significant issue facing the international wholesale carrier industry. Analysis by CFCA sizes the impact of fraudulent activity as $77b of revenue for telecom as whole that will never leave carriers’ accounts receivable.

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Trends impacting fraudulent traffic Overview: Changes in Prevalence and Types of Fraud Through engagement in producing this report, authored with Delta Partners, at an industry level two primary macro trends were identified: technology enabling a greater frequency of attack attempts has contributed to a larger number of attacks, whilst the average value loss of each attack has declined. Technology is a two-edged sword; it provides the enablement of better data creation, collection, consumption, and speed of response. But also opens new fraud types, and gives fraudsters greater accessibility, scale, and sophistication. ,Žǁ ŚĂƐ ƚŚĞ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ĂŶĚ ŝŵƉĂĐƚ ŽĨ &ƌĂƵĚƵůĞŶƚ ƚƌĂĸĐ ŚŝƫŶŐ LJŽƵƌ ŽƌŐĂŶŝƐĂƟŽŶ ĐŚĂŶŐĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉĂƐƚ ϭϮ ŵŽŶƚŚƐ͍ ^ŝŐŶŝĮĐĂŶƚůLJ ZĞĚƵĐŝŶŐ

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Carriers identified two types of investments as the investments that provided the greatest ROI namely the active management of customers by dropping known bad customers and reallocating the coverage of FTEs by scheduling employees to ensure 24/7 operation. october/november 2018

market data: fraud| 85

Approaches to measurement While many respondents reported tracking volume, the number of respondents who report fraud management metrics to head-ofbusiness or higher management was lower; further, very few respondents reported giving a regular report to management either as a stand-alone brief or as a part of a larger network brief. Degree of prioritization was observed to correlate with the proportion of survey respondents who included fraud metrics in regular reporting. However, even within the respondents who stated top prioritization of fraud management, 33% reported they did not include fraudulent traffic metrics in management reports. This inconsistency in reporting fraud management metrics is certainly an issue when carriers then make commercial decisions and either bring in fraud management figures or leave out fraud risk considerations entirely. Neither of these are good options especially when exacerbated by a lack of standard metrics that fraud is reported through. tŚĞƌĞ ǁŽƵůĚ LJŽƵ ƌĂŶŬ ƚŚĞ ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶĐĞ ŽĨ ĨƌĂƵĚƵůĞŶƚ ƚƌĂĸĐ ĂƐ Ă ƚŽƉŝĐ ŝŶ LJŽƵƌ ŽƌŐĂŶŝƐĂƟŽŶ͍

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Capacity

EŽ

Intent and Impact of the Code of Conduct GLF Code of Conduct – a first step towards industry leadership Addressing fraud is challenging in the international carrier context as instances or contributors of fraudulent traffic cannot be irrefutably verified, with anti-trust implications from carriers making false accusations. As such, for fraud to be addressed, its symptoms, i.e. irregular traffic patterns, should be an initial focus, which due to its cross-network impact requires collaboration between carriers.

The GLF developed a code of conduct for international carriers to demonstrate their commitment to reducing fraudulent traffic and work only with parties who can demonstrate their active commitment to preventing fraudulent traffic.

Respondents note that the Code of Conduct is public statement without an accountability mechanism, but all are hopeful that this will be developed as more parties’ sign. As one respondent noted “Right now, it is just paper, need to see action and share knowledge. We signed it, but I hope it goes further than that.”

EXPECTED VALUE OF CODE OF CONDUCT

ŽŵƉĂƌŝƐŽŶ ŽĨ ǀĂůƵĞ ƉůĂĐĞĚ ŽŶ ƌĞǀĞŶƵĞ ůŽƐƐ ƚŽ ĨƌĂƵĚ ǀƐ͘ &K ŝŵƉĂĐƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĐŽĚĞ ŽĨ ĐŽŶĚƵĐƚ ;й ŽĨ ƌĞǀĞŶƵĞ͕ ƐŝnjĞ ŽĨ ďƵďďůĞ ŝŶĚŝĐĂƚĞƐ ŶƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ ƌĞƐƉŽŶĚĞŶƚƐͿ

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VALUE PLACED ON ALL FRAUD

capacitymedia.com

3–5%

86 |

CAPACITY MEDIA HAS UNVEILED ITS NEW CODE OF CONDUCT FOR OUR EVENTS WORLDWIDE. TAKE AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT SOME OF THE KEY TOUCHPOINTS IN THE NEW CODE HERE

Code of conduct noun:

A set of rules about how to behave and do business with other people

C

apacity Media takes great pride in the fact that our events have a wide and diverse geographic span and equally attract attendees from all over the world, with different backgrounds, cultures, experiences and beliefs. For us, a Code of Conduct for our events is nothing new – we are a company driven by our principles, our beliefs and our values. In addition, we expect everyone who works in and/ or participates in our events to conform to our ethical standards.

However, we realise that our expectations of what is appropriate for our events may not be viewed in the same way as all of our participants.

We think it is important to periodically highlight our policy as it removes any semblance of doubt about our expectations and ensures that we are all on the same page. We are committed to our events being safe and ethical places to conduct meetings and promote an environment to create, develop and nurture business relationships.

For whom is the Code of Conduct?

Everyone who participate at our events – all our employees, attendees, speakers, sponsors, suppliers and volunteers at our events are required to comply with the Code of Conduct.

What are the main highlights of the Code of Conduct?

The underlying current of our Code of Conduct is about treating everyone equally, fairly and with dignity and respect.

The following are some of our core rules: • Act with integrity, honesty and respect in interactions with all event participants Capacity • Keep communication, verbal or otherwise, appropriate for a professional audience • Harassment, insults, bullying or discrimination are not tolerated • Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any part of our events • Sexist, racist, derogatory or exclusionary jokes are highly inappropriate for our events What would happen if a participant were a victim of negative behaviour at one of our events?

Unfortunately these incidents, although small in number and frequency, do sometimes occur. Despite of this, we have a process in place to deal with these situations.

If a participant is a victim of negative behaviour or notices someone else is being victimised, we ask that they contact a member of the event staff immediately or any of the security on site. Our staff are identifiable, as they will be wearing event branded clothing and/or badges.

Our Employees, Volunteers and Security are all fully trained on our Code of Conduct and how to handle negative incidents at our events.

We value the safety of all of our participants, hence we will be happy to help participants through whichever means necessary- whether it is assistance to contact local police, provide escorts, or

anything else to help them feel safe for the duration of the event.

Are there consequences for breaking the Code of Conduct?

We take our Code of Conduct very seriously and respond to every report appropriately.

Depending on the incident reported, a number or all of the following could occur to the offending individual: 1. A formal request to stop any negative behaviour with immediate effect 2. Expulsion from the event without a refund 3. Reports made to the Senior Management of the individual’s company 4. In extreme cases – a black mark on the Company 5. And a life time ban on attendance to future Capacity Media events We will go to this extent because of how seriously we value our events being a safe and respectful environment for all.

Codes of conduct do not necessarily stop all negative behaviour. However, we hope that the stance we have adopted will make all participants aware of their behaviours and trust that we will respond appropriately and do all we can to preserve the integrity of our Events and protect all the participants who attend them.

If you need more information on our Policy, please contact The CEO and divisional director, Ros Irving. To get access to the full Code of Conduct, you will find a link on the home pages of our websites. october/november 2018

WHICH EVENTS WILL YOU BE ATTENDING? REGIONAL EVENTS

MESSAGING

ASIA 2018

INDIA & SAARC 2019

5 & 6 December 2018, Hong Kong

12 & 13 February 2019 New Delhi

CARIBBEAN 2019

MIDDLE EAST 2019

LATAM 2019

12 & 13 February 2019, San Juan

5 - 7 March 2019, Dubai

12 & 13 March 2019, São Paulo

RUSSIA & CIS 2019

EUROPE EAST 2019

AFRICA 2019

2 & 3 April 2019, Moscow

Dates TBC, 2019

Dates TBC, 2019

NORTH AMERICA 2019

EURASIA 2019

CENTRAL AMERICA & ANDEAN 2019

& SMS WORLD

27 & 28 November 2018, London

Dates TBC, 2019

September 2019, Denver

Co-located with

Dates TBC, 2019

EUROPE 2019 29 – 31 October 2019, London

SUBSEA EVENTS SUBSEA AMERICAS

3&4 December 2018 Fort Lauderdale

Capacity SUBSEA MIDDLE EAST

4 March 2019 Dubai

SUBSEA EMEA

July 2019 Marseille

(part of Capacity Middle East)

SUBSEA ASIA

Dates TBC, 2019 Indonesia

CONNECT EVENTS METRO CONNECT USA

MEXICO CONNECT

29 - 31 January 2019 Miami

METRO CONNECT EUROPE

April 2019

MYANMAR CONNECT

September 2019 Yangon

10 & 11 September 2019 Mexico City

WAN SUMMITS

GLOBAL EVENTS International Telecoms Week 23 - 26 June 2019, Atlanta, GA

8 & 9 April 2019, New York

May 2019, Frankfurt

30 October 2019 London Awards 2018

September 2019, Singapore

www.capacitymedia.com

October 2019, London

@CapacityMedia

@CapacityMedia

@CapacityMedia

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90 | appointments

Charles Meyers Equinix Charles Meyers has been appointed to the position of president, chief executive officer and its board of directors, effective immediately.

Meyers brings 25-year’s experience in the tech industry including a number of executive positions at leading telecoms and IT companies. He joined Equinix in 2010 as president of Americas, during which time he lead the company’s largest operating region through a period of significant growth and strong operating performance. In 2013, he was appointed chief operating officer at Equinix, where he headed up the company’s drive for global consistency, leading the global sales, marketing, operations and customer success teams. For the past 12 months, he has served as president of strategy, services and innovation (SSI).

Keri Gilder Colt Ciena’s vice president and general manager for EMEA, Keri Gilder, has joined Colt Technology Services as its new chief commercial officer.

In her new position, Gilder will head Colt’s global sales and marketing, including in the US where Colt recently launched its services. Speaking exclusively to Capacity Gilder said: Colt has invested heavily in its network and services and I will be helping to expand the operation.”

An engineer trained in management information systems, Gilder has been with equipment vendor Ciena for 16 years – making Colt will be the first carrier she’s worked for.

“Ciena has been a great company to work for and they will be a strategic partner for me in my new role.,” said Gilder. “I will still be able to engage with them – just on the other side of the equation.”

Edward Diver Digital Realty Digital Realty has named Edward Diver as its new chief information officer reporting directly to CFO Andy Power. Diver will be responsible for managing Digital Realty’s global IT operations, including both internal functions as well as customer-facing applications.

He has more than 30 years experience leading global teams of technology professionals. In that time he has overseen IT transformations at a number of Fortune 500 companies where he managed its international divisions of up to 700 employees and budgets in excess of $300 million across a number of verticals. Prior to joining Digital Realty, Diver served as vice president of application services and Interim CIO at Blue Shield of California. For them he was responsible for ts architecture, applications, infrastructure, security, and operations organisations.

Bill Betz DataGryd DataGryd, a New York-based data centre provider, has named Bill Betz as its new vice president of sales.

Betz will be responsible for the sales execution of DataGryd’s 60,000 sqft facility located at 60 Hudson Street. Working closely with the company’s president and CEO, Betz will also help develop sales strategies and go-to-market plans while building a pipeline for new business and managing customer relationships and communications.

Betzrings more than 30 years of success driving large global sales and marketing teams to increased revenue and market share. He recently served as VP of sales at Sky Technology Partners, where he gained knowledge and insight into various cutting edge technologies and services, including SD-WAN, hyperscale data centre facilities, and software-, platform-, infrastructure-asa-service solutions.

Capacity

Todd Baron VueTel Todd Baron has been named as the chief operating officer of its US operating company, VueTel USA. Baron, who has over 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry and has an extensive background in leading carrier and wholesale sales teams, joins VueTel USA from IDT Corporation where he had most recently been vice president of international wholesale carrier sales since November 2012.

Baron will lead VueTel USA’s offering, including international internet transit services (IP transit), International dedicated lines (IPLC), devoted Ethernet circuits (EthLink) and IP VPN as well as international voice transit services.

David Bennett AIRX Technologies AIRX Technologies has named former BT Global Services architect David Bennett as its new head of technical consult and operations. The news follows the appointment of former BT account director Gary Millward as head of global sales and business development in August.

Bennett will be tasked with tackling product strategy, solutions design, implementation, pre-sales, and operations.

His primary focus will be on building technical and operations relationships with AIRX’s telecoms and enterprise partners in order to deliver its portfolio of internet connectivity, internet of things solutions and managed services.

Michel Paulin OVH Cloud services firm OVH has named former SFR chief Michel Paulin as its new chief executive officer. Paulin will be tasked with leading cloud hosting company OVH as it executes its Smart Cloud, which aims to consolidate its position as an alternative leader in cloud to the larger operators, such as AWS, Microsoft and Google.

He replaces founder Octave Klaba, who stepped back in as CEO in 2017 in order to drive the company’s growth strategy.

Klaba will remain as chairman at the company he founded in 1999, along with three of his family members.

Paulin spent almost a year and a half as CEO at Altice-owned French telecoms firm SFR, having joined from Morocco’s Meditel in April 2016.

Cliff Gasior NJFX Cliff Gasior has been promoted from director of engineering to vice president of engineering and operations.

Having joined NJFX over a year ago, he previously worked as a mechanical systems engineer for CSI Engineers for over four years. In addition, Gasior has also served as engineering project manager for Bala Consulting Engineers, Gasior in his new role is responsible for implementing infrastructure designs on a holistic level to ensure efficiencies and the ability to scale, NJFX said. He will focus on the life cycle of equipment and systems from a day-to-day standpoint.

“NJFX is proud to have such seasoned and well-respected veterans on its team,” NJFX said.

Tell us your move

Capacity is keen to hear from readers about new roles and appointments in the industry.

Send details to james.pearce@capacitymedia.com, with a high-resolution picture

october/november 2018

Capacity

92 | innovation report: shared spectrum

SHARE AND ENJOY: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR 5G SPECTRUM AS SPECTRUM DEMANDS INCREASE, SOME REGULATORS ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SHARE IT OUT. SOME NEWCOMERS TO THE MOBILE INDUSTRY, INCLUDING WHOLESALERS, LOOK LIKELY TO WIN ACCESS TO SPECTRUM TOO

W

e’re seeing the beginnings of a radical change in the way the industry and regulators think of spectrum. All across the globe, operators wanting to improve their mobile data coverage have their eyes on bits of spectrum that are now used by other agencies. And regulators are starting to mutter “use it or lose it” to telcos about the spectrum they license.

It used to be the case that, once you’d got your hands on a chunk of spectrum, it was yours for the life of your licence – 20 years or more. Many operators that were granted free licences for 900MHz after a beauty contest in the 1980s are still sitting on that spectrum, having refarmed it to 2G, 3G and now 4G. But demand for mobile data, and especially mobile video, continues to grow at a ridiculous rate. The supply of spectrum hasn’t increased – though engineers are finding ways to get commercial use out of frequencies that once were just used for lab tricks.

Back in my university days in Leeds I played with microwaves going through copper waveguides into prisms made of, what was it, polyethylene? Today, that would cause serious interference to most students’ mobile phones. And in the hills south of Bologna the curators of the Marconi museum demonstrate 100-yearold spark transmitters that would look really interesting on a spectrum analyser.

We’ve seen the mobile industry move up and down the spectrum from its original 900MHz or so like a hungry grizzly bear preparing for hibernation. It’s kicked the TV channels out of the top of the UHF bands and is looking further down, to 600MHz and lower. It long ago moved up to 1,800MHz, 1,900MHz and beyond. Now the grizzly can sniff available spectrum at 3,500MHz and way beyond, up to the millimetre wave area of 26GHz or 28GHz.

In the US, the Navy uses a good chunk of the 3,500MHz band (that’s 3.5GHz, if you prefer) for radar to spot incoming missiles.

Quite reasonably, the US Navy doesn’t see why it should give up spectrum that works extremely well at it what it wants it to do. If you remember any engineering or physics, the wavelength of 3,500MHz is about 8.5cm: missiles reflect those waves very well. But the industry’s lobbyists point out that the Navy operates off the coasts of the US and further out to sea, not inland.

There’s a lot ofCapacity the US that’s a long way from the sea.

And these days we have instantly accessible databases. The Navy knows where its ships are, even when they move, and it could populate a database to show, at any time, what frequencies are available for commercial users and what aren’t.

Mobile phone masts don’t move and they could use only permitted frequencies – and shift to new frequencies when the USS Ronald Reagan appears on the horizon.

The industry has set up a lobbying and negotiating group called the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Alliance.

Unfortunate name, I know: it brings to mind large hairy truckers moving slowly along the freeway saying “ten-four” to one another. The group has picked up 105 members, including all the US mobile operators, plus vendors such as Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia, and tower and infrastructure companies. Everyone seems to be in favour of the idea and the CBRS Alliance expects next year’s mobile phone generation will have chips that work with this shared spectrum.

Millimetre ranges Now let’s come to those millimetre wave bands – literally, as the wavelength of 26/28GHz radio waves is about 11mm.

They’re ideal for shared spectrum, because they don’t travel very far. Tony Lavender, Plum Consulting partner and CEO, puts the range at 100m or so, 200-300m in exceptional circumstances. That means you

could have a small cell transmitting on a particular frequency in the 26 or 28GHz band, with another along the road on exactly the same frequency, and they would not interfere.

Just as with the 3,500MHz band, a database would help the industry to keep interference at bay, by identifying who’s using what and where. There are already licensed users of millimetre wave spectrum for fixed links, and they’d be on the database too.

The traditional role of the regulator was to license spectrum and then collect the fees – while the licence owners would use their spectrum or leave it empty. That’s not acceptable any more, regulators are starting to say. The days of buying spectrum and sitting on it are over. At Capacity Media’s Metro Connect conference in Amsterdam in September, the European Commission’s Kamila Kloc said shared spectrum is in the EU’s plans.

At another event in Munich the week before, Matthias Kurth, the former head of the German regulator, said Germany wants to reserve 100MHz of spectrum in the 3,500MHz band to share among industrial companies. Other regulators have told operators they will lose licensed spectrum if they don’t use it. Some are thinking of not charging for millimetre wave spectrum – allowing it to be shared by all – until the bands start to fill up.

Wholesale spectrum Kloc – deputy head of cabinet for EU vice-president Andrus Ansip, who runs the digital single market programme – hinted that she and her colleagues are even thinking of making provisions for wholesale carriers: licensing spectrum that could be offered to a wide variety of users.

Spectrum licensing has been much of what regulators have done for a living for decades – but they’re recognising that allowing more use of spectrum, by more users, will benefit the industry and all of us. october/november 2018

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