Mobile Magazine - January 2022

JAN 2022 mobile-magazine.com

TELECOMS: Reaching across the digital divide INDUSTRY 4.0: The new 5G IOT frontier

+ MUCH MORE

Mobile Virtual Network Operators

TRANSFORMING THE DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN Hüseyin Ipiv, Head of Supply Chain Management, on Vodafone’s recent supply chain digital transformation

FEATURING:

BELL

ORANGE

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

In Association With:

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE ADVER BUSINESS MEDIA

2022

February 23rd-24th STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

BUY TICKETS

SPONSOR OPPORTUNITIES

RT PAGE A SALE

Confirmed Speakers Include:

Ben Clifford

Sarah Chapman

Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director

Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Fidelity International

Manulife Financial Corporation

Roy Cheung

Mary-Jane Morifi

Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

Covestro

Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

Sandeep Chandna

Chief Sustainability Officer

Chief Sustainability Officer Tech Mahindra

Odfjell SE

Never miss an issue!

+ Discover the latest news and insights about Mobile Magazine...

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

The Mobile Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HARRY MENEAR EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON JANE ARNETA ELLA CHADNEY PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE

CREATIVE TEAM

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON JORDAN WOOD

EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

MARKETING DIRECTOR

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

MOTION DESIGNER

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

MARKETING MANAGER

DAISY SLATER

ROSS GARRIGAN

PROJECT DIRECTORS

STUART IRVING CRAIG KILLINGBACK JORDAN HUBBARD

MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

JASON WESTGATE RICHARD TURNER JAMES WHITE MARK CAWSTON MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

It’s going to be a big year for Chinese chips “MariSilicon X is only a small step for Oppo…

It will be a long journey, with many challenges ahead, but we will persevere” CHEN MINGYONG,

OPPO FOUNDER & CEO

MOBILE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

Oppo, never a company to be outdone by its domestic rivals, is launching its first in-house smartphone SoC this quarter, adding another nail in the coffin of China’s dependence on US chipmakers like Qualcomm and Intel.

Though it’s definitely been galvanised by the global chip shortage, not to mention US sanctions against Chinese firms, change in the global microchip manufacturing sector has long been overdue. Faced with steadily growing demand for their devices and a perennial shortage of chips to power them, smartphone makers are increasingly turning to in-house designs. Last year saw Huawei, Vivo, and Xiaomi (which is still fighting for a successful follow up to its first attempt at a homegrown chip) all make strides towards semiconductor self-sufficiency, and now Oppo is joining the race with the MariSilicon X. No matter who wins, Qualcomm (which has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on supplying cheap SoCs to affordable Chinese brands for years) loses.

This isn’t a fully Chinese trend, of course. Google’s new in-house Tensor chips were a big part of last year’s Pixel 6 launch being as successful as it was. This is shaping up to be the decade where anyone who’s anyone who makes phones also makes the silicon inside them.

HARRY MENEAR h.menear@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

mobile-magazine.com

5

CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 10 Big Picture 12 The Brief 14 Timeline: SolarWinds Predicts 2022 Tech Trends 16 Trailblazer: Google gadget guru 18 Five Minutes With: David Montanya

40

Telecoms

Reaching across the digital divide

26

50

From customer experience to digital transformation

Harnessing AI to efficiently serve Canada

Vodafone

Bell

82

Technology The new 5G IoT frontier

64 5G

Redefining the role of the tower-co

92 Telus

Keeping Canadians connected

72

110

Becoming a new generation telco

IoT platforms are the backbone of the 5G world

Vodafone

IOT

Connectivity is unleashed at MWC Barcelona 2022 It’s time to reconnect, reimagine, and reinvent Barcelona Spain 28 February – 3 March 2022 www.mwcbarcelona.com

146 Orange

Energy efficiency and co2 challenges on the road to net zero

116

City of Tucson

Bridging the digital divide

160

VIAVI Solutions

Get to problem free 5G

134

170

Mobile virtual network operators around the world

Empowering IT teams with next-generation networks

Top 10

Aruba

BIG PICTURE

Image: NVIDIA

10

January 2022

A Metaverse for Engineers Santa Clara, California

Named one of the top 100 inventions of 2021, NVIDIA’s Omniverse tool is making a big splash thanks to its ability to render 3D environments in groundbreaking detail.

The technology is quickly being adopted for everything from helping Ericsson figure out where to put their 5G cell sites to training robots to work on a busy factory floor. mobile-magazine.com

11

THE BRIEF “ ACCESS TO BROADBAND IS NECESSARY TO EXERCISE OTHER FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS” Ben Bawtree-Jobson CEO, SiFI Networks READ MORE

“ WE EXPECT TO SEE A TIGHTER COUPLING, WHERE MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE PLAYERS BECOME MUCH MORE IMPORTANT OPERATIONAL PARTNERS TO THE TELCOS” Suresh Sidhu

CEO, EdgePoint Infrastructure READ MORE

“ ONCE PRIMARILY OPERATED BY HUMAN WORKERS, WE ARE NOW MOVING TOWARDS HIGHLY AUTONOMOUS FACTORIES” Ian West

Head of Technology, Media and Tele­communications, KPMG UK READ MORE

12

January 2022

Hit the Road, (headphone) Jack Well, it’s finally happening.

What’s happening?

The death of the headphone jack. *dramatic music* Didn’t Apple kill the headphone jack, like, five years ago?

Ok, yes. But, everyone agreed it was a bad idea, a vain cash grab with no motive other than to sell more AirPods and Lightning Adaptors. I didn’t think anyone else would be greedy enough to try it.

Least of all Samsung.

Samsung’s killing the headphone jack?

Looks that way. But the whole thing’s throwing

me off. They’re not doing it on a super premium phone, and it’s not being paired with an expensive set of earbuds (not that they don’t already sell those). They’re putting it on an A-series.

Their budget phones?

Yeah, which sell best in places like India, where customers don’t take too kindly to being told they also need to splash out on a pair of wireless headphones.

Weird. Any deeper insights?

Not really. It’s just weird.

What do we pay you for again?

Hitting a character coun-

EDITOR'S CHOICE WHO'S WINNING? ADVERTISING VS AD-BLOCKING Aditya Padhye, General Manager, Trestle at eyeo, breaks down the evolving relationship between smartphone users, advertisers, and ad-blockers.

SAMSUNG BESPOKE WORKED FOR FRIDGES, BUT WILL IT SELL PHONES? If the new bespoke designs available for the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 look familiar, it’s because they might match your refrigerator.

COULD VIDEO GAMES INSPIRE REAL-LIFE INTERIOR DESIGN? Games like the Sims 4 contain thousands of build-and-buy objects, allowing almost limitless opportunities to experiment with interior design.

BY THE NUMBERS 1 billion 5G subscriptions

569mn 1.08bn Global 5G Subscriptions (2021)

Global 5G Subscriptions (2022)

 TPG TELECOM Australia’s third-largest telecom carrier gave its network a big boost recently with the launch of its SA 5G network core, which cuts latency by about 30%.  US BROADBAND The Biden administration’s infrastructure bill is setting aside about $65 billion to expand broadband access and 5G connectivity across the United States.  HUAWEI Yet again, the doors to a lucrative overseas market have shut on Huawei’s 5G business, with Canada becoming the latest country to ban the Chinese tech giant from its networks.  MALAYSIAN 5G Even as its neighbours expand their 5G networks further, Malaysia’s 5G regulatory body has yet to begin spectrum negotiations with the country’s major telecom carriers.  US AIRCRAFT Each new generation of cellular technology has messed with some existing tech, from electric wheelchairs to pacemakers, and US airlines are worried that newly released 5G spectrum could cause serious issues for the altimetres used to land commercial airliners on autopilot.

U P JAN

2022

D O W N

TIMELINE SOLARWINDS PREDICTS… 2022 TECH TRENDS

The rise of AI/ML services

T

he Head Geeks™ at tech and security firm SolarWinds have been kind enough to share their expert predictions for the year to come, covering topics ranging from the growth of AI/ML services to the rise of the Chief Data Officer.

Sascha Giese Head Geek™, SolarWinds

The explosion in data available to a company has made the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) a critical competitive advantage, but the talent and resources required to build solutions in-house is still prohibitive.

In 2022, we’ll start to see AI and ML featured more prominently in organisations’ IT environments through the adoption of off-the-shelf AI/ML services.

To Cloud or Not to Cloud?

Leon Adato Head Geek™, SolarWinds The pandemic pressured organisations to modernise and accelerate digital transformation efforts, resulting in increased investments in cloud computing. However, every organisation has unique needs and business objectives—and many have learned the cloud isn’t the be-all and end-all to an organisation’s success. In 2022, organisations will evaluate the implications of their cloud investments and will need to revisit best practices for engaging with the cloud.

14

January 2022

Data, Data, Data

Kevin Kline Head Geek™, SolarWinds

The extension of work from home (WFH) and hybrid working arrangements has acted as a big motivator for companies to build stronger data governance programs as small and medium-sized corporations continue to allow access to their on-premises data for the first time from new and unsecured locations, such as employees’ homes. A growing number of companies outside of the Fortune 500 will hire chief data officers (CDO) charged with implementing one or more data governance programs in the coming year.

Tools, technology, and processes

Liz Beavers Head Geek™, SolarWinds While businesses continue to navigate the new normal, tech pros will be tasked with maintaining and supporting hybrid workplaces by implementing new tools and technologies. To keep up with the pace of change, they’ll also need to continuously re-evaluate existing tools and processes.

Normalising risk aversion

Thomas LaRock Head Geek™, SolarWinds Cybercrime has reached a new peak with the onslaught of ransomware attacks and data breaches in the last several months. Tech pros and the IT community at large will better secure the enterprise by normalising a sense of risk aversion—that is, moving from simply accepting the current exposure to a mindset where any level of risk exposure is unacceptable.

mobile-magazine.com

15

TRAILBLAZER

A

fter years of being told that they should stay in their software-defined lane (something that the, frankly, rough rides experienced by Project Aria and Google Glass did little to contradict) Google has a string of hardware hits on its hands.

The company’s own Chromebook line, the Pixelbook and Pixelbook Go, have been well received; Google Nest is widely regarded as Amazon Alexa’s most threatening competition; and Google

16

January 2022

Name: Rick Osterloh Job Title: SVP, Devices & Services Company: Google

finally has a winning flagship smartphone in its stable in the form of the Pixel 6 launched in October of last year.

Despite the steady improvement of its Pixel phones - which culminated in the superb mid-range Pixel 5a - Google had (ironically, given the fact the company’s name is probably the defining verb of the 21st Century) struggled with brand recognition. This was thanks largely to early Pixel iterations having what one might expect from a software giant’s first foray into hardware: great software in an average box.

Google has left those early days far behind it. The Pixel 6 is outfitted with a monstrously

powerful, AI-focused Tensor chipset, which Google manufactures itself. The new range has been well received and, thanks to a substantial push by the company’s marketing department, it looks like consumers might actually find out it exists as well.

Google has a long way to climb before it reaches the lofty heights occupied by Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi, but it’s come a very long way in the past five years. In large, that progress has been thanks to Google’s Senior Vice President of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh.

Previous Roles: Motorola, Amazon, Skype Started Current Role: April 2016 Location: Mountain View, California

mobile-magazine.com

17

TRAILBLAZER

A long time veteran of some of the biggest names in US consumer tech - from a brief stint as Amazon’s head of product back in the late 90s, to leading roles at Motorola and Skype - Osterloh has been the driving force behind Google’s repeated attempts to be taken seriously as more than, uh, the world’s biggest and most influential tech firm?

It took almost exactly 24 hours between Osterloh’s arrival as Google’s resident head of gadgets in 2016 and the conversation between him and company CEO, Sundar Pichai, in which they agreed that custom chipsets were the future of the Pixel. “[Google’s hardware] organisation was started about five years ago… And we feel

“Tensor enables us to make the Google phones we’ve always envisioned”

like finally, at this moment, we’ve gotten to the place where we feel really good about the innovation we’ve been able to build,” said Osterloh in a recent interview with The Verge.

Finally, after five years of little to no progress in the smartphone space, Google Pixel has arrived, armed with the Tensor the custom-built chip designed to finally do justice to the mind-bending suite of AI tools that the company can cram into its phones.

“AI is the future of our innovation work, but the problem is we’ve run into computing limitations that prevented us from fully pursuing our mission,” wrote

Osterloh in a blog post for Google in the Summer of 2021. “So, we set about building a technology platform built for mobile that enabled us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning to our Pixel users.”

The result is outstanding AI-enhanced photo capture to truly futuristic voice recognition - gesture controls are rumoured to be in the works. Osterloh makes no secret of the fact that he’s been waiting for Google’s hardware to catch up to its software for a while.

“Tensor enables us to make the Google phones we’ve always envisioned — phones that keep getting better, while tapping the most powerful parts of Google,” he says.

Writing the phrase “Google has finally arrived” feels weird (on a Chromebook, using Google Docs, listening to The World is Not Enough by Garbage through a Google Nest), but until now, in the smartphone arena, it hadn’t happened.

Thanks to Rick Osterloh’s drive to bring decades of consumer device experience to Google’s smartphone division, Google’s software finally has hardware to match.

Osterloh reflects that “It’s definitely a step change moment for us. We see this as truly the starting line for Pixel.”

mobile-magazine.com

19

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

DAVID MONTANYA After a breakthrough year in Europe and beyond, Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi continues to outperform expectations. We caught up with David Montanya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Xiaomi to reflect on 2020 and 2021, as well as look ahead to the decade to come.

20

January 2022

Q. What are the factors that have allowed Xiaomi to have such a successful year, capturing large portions of overseas markets like Central and Eastern Europe?

» This past year we’ve seen

enormous growth for Xiaomi across Europe and, although I think there are many reasons for it, I’d like to highlight three in particular.

Firstly - the accessibility of our products, or as we like to say “honest pricing”. We keep a minimised profitmargin on our devices to deliver the highest price-to-performance ratio.

Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s Chairman and founder famously set the cap on product net profit margin to a maximum of 5%, this includes smartphones and IoT products. This means that Xiaomi has been proven to be competitive from the very entry-level tailored products to super flagship phones.

Another key factor to Xiaomi’s smartphone success is the huge focus on R&D and innovation; they are constantly challenging what’s possible in what I call the ‘ABCDs’.

‘ABCD’ refers to Audio, Battery, Camera and Display - arguably the cornerstones to a great smartphone.

Xiaomi has a two-pronged product strategy; Smartphones + AIoT products. Xiaomi has a wide ecosystem of smart products ranging from smart bands, personal scales, to eScooters, earphones, smart lighting, smart Air Fryers and even security cameras. The ecosystem has opened up the doors for greater awareness of the Xiaomi brand as a whole. Xiaomi currently has more than 375 million

“ A KEY FACTOR TO XIAOMI’S SMARTPHONE SUCCESS IS THE HUGE FOCUS ON R&D AND INNOVATION; THEY ARE CONSTANTLY CHALLENGING WHAT’S POSSIBLE” smart devices connected around the globe through the portal.

From my personal experience, it was Xiaomi’s IoT products which first caught my attention and then led me into the wonderful world of Xiaomi smartphones.

Q. Which product/form factor innovations are most excited to see on the horizon?

» I recently acquired Xiaomi’s Mi Mix

Fold, which had an exclusive launch in China. I believe that solutions around expandable displays will develop.

In the long-run, foldables will most likely merge into a new category of expandable solutions. From the camera perspective, we just launched the first liquid lens on a smartphone (Mi Mix Fold). This lens can act both as a tele lens and wide angle lens depending on what shape it has. A liquid lens technology could potentially replace all multi-lens solutions which are available on a smartphone and take advantage of using the biggest sensor.

I’m also excited to see new product categories taking place. Our Electric Vehicle department is planning to launch its first car by 2024.

Apart from that, Xiaomi’s CyberDog was recently introduced in China and had 1000 developer versions sold at launch. The CyberDog is helping to make robotics more accessible to the developer community - who will be instrumental in advancing the use cases.

Q.You recently released a PoC for Xiaomi's own smart glasses. What can you tell me about the timeline and capabilities of this device, as well as how you see wearables fitting into Xiaomi's strategy over the coming decade?

» The smartphone as we know it has

been around since the mid noughties and the form-factor has remained largely the same. Now, technology has advanced to allow accessories such as smart-glasses to become a reality for a wider audience. This means that the technology could soon cross over from early adopter territory to mainstream adoption. mobile-magazine.com Magazine.com

21

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Xiaomi Smart Glasses | Showcase A display in front of your eyes

Earlier implementations of smartglasses have been bulky, with many compromises in hardware and software capabilities.

We envision a near future where smartphones still will exist, but many of the key functions could be relayed directly to independently functioning smart-glasses. A new era of smart products is just a few years away, our

“ SMART-GLASSES AND SIMILAR WEARABLES COULD SOON CHALLENGE THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE INPUT” 22

January 2022

smart-glasses are just a concept and an example of how that future could look like.

With future iterations being equipped with an eSIM or similar, the smart-glasses could work as a heads-up display while driving, seamlessly communicating with the cloud and car.

For thousands of years, using our hands has been the main way of providing output. I tested myself over the weekend to see how many times I touched the screen on my phone, it came to an average of 1700 touches per day (this was with minimal use of text/whatsapp messages).

2022 Predictions 5G phones will continue to replace 4G phones down to even entry level price tiers.

5G coverage is also being greatly improved.

With a reliable 5G reception at home, more people will switch from using traditional internet connectivity to using 5G routers or even hot spotting a phone connection.

Smart-glasses and similar wearables could soon challenge the way we communicate input, where even our eyes could register exactly what we are focusing on. mobile-magazine.com

23

Meet the Top 100 Leaders in Technology

OUT NOW A BizClik Media Group Brand

techno

logym

agazine

.com

TOP LEAD ERS 2021

NOMINATE

SHARE

CELEBRATE

Creating Digital Communities

FROM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

26

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

mobile-magazine.com

27

VODAFONE

Hüseyin Ipiv, Head of Supply Chain Management, Consumer Business Unit, discusses Vodafone’s supply chain digital transformation over the last two years

H

ead of Supply Chain Management, Consumer Business Unit at Vodafone Germany, and father of three children. Hüseyin Ipiv grew up in the beautiful city of Bielefeld, Germany.

“I am a fan of the local football club, Arminia Bielefeld. I would consider myself a European and a cosmopolitan. I studied in Germany and the Netherlands, and I have lived abroad for eight years now, in the US, England or Hungary. So far, I have moved around 23 times in my life, I always say ‘change is with me’,” says Ipiv.

“Today, I am working for a fantastic company called Vodafone. I have the privilege of working with a great supply chain team in Germany, managing the entire end-to-end supply chain for all consumer products (smartphones, tablets, accessories, IoT products, and fixed-line products),” adds Ipiv.

Since joining Vodafone in 2007, not just Vodafone but the entire telecommunications industry has changed during this time. “When I joined Vodafone, there were many companies like Nokia and Siemens Mobile selling mobile phones, however, today most of these organisations have disappeared. Today we have other great companies like Oppo, Xiaomi, Apple, or Samsung, which are now big players in the market. The supplier landscape is very volatile in this business. mobile-magazine.com

29

Let’s smart up your processes!

Arvato Supply Chain Solutions is an innovative and international leading service provider in the field of supply chain management and e-commerce. Partners come together with industry specialists in the fields of Telecommunication, Tech, Corporate Information Management, Healthcare, Consumer Products and Publisher. About 16,000 employees work together to provide practical and relevant solutions and services worldwide.

Using the latest digital technology, Arvato develops, operates and optimizes complex global supply chains and e-commerce platforms, as the strategic growth partner for its customers. Arvato combines the know-how of its employees with the right technology and appropriate business processes to measurably increase the productivity and performance of its partners.

For more information, please visit arvato-supply-chain.com

Folllow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Smart up Vodafone’s processes As Arvato celebrates its partnership with Vodafone –focused to be your digital change agent for a green, sustainable future As Arvato Supply Chain Solutions celebrates its partnership for almost 30 years with Vodafone it is now focused on becoming your digital change agent for a green, sustainable future.

Celebrating the partnership with Vodafone Arvato has supported Vodafone to transform their supply chain from a pure mobile phone logistic into an multi device supply chain with solution for smartphones, broadband, IOT and eSIM, always making sure that Arvato provides a robust, reliable and flexible logistics solution which adapts to Vodafone’s needs – also for the upcoming years.

“We would love to be your digital change agent when it comes to transforming your businesses for a sustainable future,” said Andreas Barth, President Tech Group and Head of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability.

Future Warehouse with carbon-free footprint

Arvato is the leading international provider of order-to-cash solutions for end-customeroriented industries. During its long partnership with Vodafone it has set up a green location to pave the way for a zero-carbon future.

“The backbone of this is to have a solid IT solution. We strive to be the most data-driven supply chain company in the world that includes a cloud-only backbone, and includes that we use the data our clients provide us, along with the date we are generating, to invest in a new business model.”

Arvato in numbers: • • • • • • •

Euro 2 billion revenue 85 locations 20+ countries 16,000 employees over 2 million sqm warehouse space 470k sqm new only in 2021 500mio shipments and returns

As a supply chain company with a high level of IT expertise, Arvato has been quick to initiate the transformation to the Future Warehouse.

“We are thereby underlining the climate effects of digitization. The digital transformation is a relevant key to a successful climate policy and we support our clients!” said Barth.

Learn more

“At the time I joined, it was only possible to make phone calls with mobile phones. Today, you can do everything on your smartphone like using Apps, surfing the internet, watch videos on youtube, paying invoices or making video calls with your friends This became possible with the upgrade of the mobile network. At the time we had 2G or 3G, then 4G and now we have 5G. We used to be a mobile-only company, but today we are also a fixedline company, you can watch Vodafone TV or you can surf the internet using our cable infrastructure,” says Ipiv.

Vodafone’s supply chain digital transformation journey When it comes to digital transformation, Ipiv explains that the first step to success is an effective strategy. “If you have a strategy in place, that is already a big achievement for many organisations. The next step is to drive that plan, determine how you want to implement it, how it can be achieved, 32

January 2022

“If you have a strategy in place, that is already a big achievement for many organisations, the next step is to drive that plan” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

VODAFONE

HÜSEYIN IPIV TITLE: H EAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: GERMANY

EXECUTIVE BIO

what the next milestones are. You need to convince your stakeholders to believe in the goals that you want to achieve because you will need funding from stakeholders. You also need to convince your own team. I believe that is always the most difficult part as your teams can anticipate the challenges ahead since they know your supply chain in detail.

“When you start a journey like this you soon realise that a plan is nice, but the reality is much more difficult. We understood that we had to start with the basics. We upgraded our ERP System from SAP R3 to SAP 4 HANA to enable our digital journey.

At Vodafone Germany, we have a great Big Data team. Together, we initiated a project to improve our smartphone forecasting accuracy on SKU level which we successfully implemented after 12 months. We have benchmarked our forecasting in the industry with an external consulting company, which showed that we are industry-leading with our forecast process,” says Ipiv.

Internationally experienced Commercial & Supply Chain Manager with a track record of delivering top-line and bottom-line results in global companies who have shaped the agenda in their industry. Held operational and strategic executive roles combining General Management, Supply Chain Management and Procurement over the last 20 years. Driven by a strong commercial and customer-centric mindset. Practices a human-centric leadership style, stimulates innovation & change. Currently transforms the Supply Chain for consumer devices of Vodafone Germany towards a more digital, simple, and agile organization with a clear focus on improving customer experience.

“You need to convince your stakeholders to believe in the story that you want to achieve” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

“We have also implemented a digital return portal. If customers want to return their smartphones to us for whatever reason, we need them to use our online platform to provide us with data as to why they want to return their smartphones. Understanding the return reason, we can offer an immediate solution to the customer. This is a win-win situation for customers and Vodafone. The customers might not have to return their smartphones back to Vodafone and we are 34

January 2022

happy since we retained a customer and avoided process costs. If a customer does wish to return a smartphone, we no longer print return labels anymore, instead they can use their smartphones at a local DHL store, show the QR code and return the product, making it a fully digital process.

Another step for us was to implement “Click & Collect”, allowing customers to choose a product online, and offer the customer a Vodafone Shop to collect their product immediately from. This way we avoid sending the product with a carrier from our central warehouse to the desired address of the customer, which is beneficial for the environment as well as the customer who is able to pick up the product immediately.

VODAFONE

Title of the video

“We have also implemented in-store repair capabilities. Customers can walk into certain Vodafone stores with, for example, a broken screen and we will repair it within two hours. The customer experience is great, and customers love this service. This again furthers our circular economy vision and is part of our planet purpose not to do any business on the cost to our environment.

“In my opinion simplification is a key enabler for digitisation. During the last years, Vodafone Germany acquired various fixedline providers like Unitymedia and Kabel Deutschland. Both companies had their own supply chain processes and systems in place.

Therefore, we decided to harmonise our supply chain processes for our fixed-line and mobile business. This project is ongoing and beyond what we have done so far in Supply mobile-magazine.com

35

VODAFONE

THE PURPOSE OF VODAFONE Vodafone has three core purposes for its operations: • Enabling a digital society – Connecting people, places and things through fixed and mobile networks • Planet – Ensuring commercial success does not come at a cost to the environment • Inclusion for all – Enabling the digital society to be accessible to all “I always say, ‘we are the digital backbone of our society’. During this pandemic period we became aware of the required infrastructure for working and learning from home. We provide the mobile network, but also the fixed-line network to our society. I believe that Vodafone delivered a great service by enabling everyone to work and learn from home,” says Ipiv.

36

January 2022

“When it comes to the planet, we do not want to do business that is detrimental to our environment. We believe that digitalisation can help businesses to become more efficient in using resources. From a supply chain perspective, we believe in a circular economy.

Take for example a smartphone. We bring the products to market, collect them back, repair them, refurbish them and then reuse them again. In the fixed-line area, we refurbish and reuse up to 80% of our products, which we are very proud of.

“Inclusion for all focuses on access to connectivity, digital skills, and creating relevant products and services such as access to education, health care or financial services.

Many people around the world do not have access to banking facilities. Vodafone Group developed the first mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa. This provides financial services to millions of people who have a mobile phone but limited access to a bank account.”

For example in Africa, 40 million people can transfer money using our M-PESA platform.

“In my opinion simplification is a key enabler for digitisation” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

Chain at Vodafone Germany. It will help us to reach the next level on our transformation roadmap delivering business growth by focusing on customer experience.”

Why the people of Vodafone chose to put customers at the centre of its transformation “People often refer to companies as human beings,” says Ipiv. “It’s not Vodafone who does something, there is no ‘Mr or Mrs Vodafone’ it is the human beings working at that company, and usually it needs one or two people to make a change in the company. If you believe improving customer experience is the right strategy, then you should drive for it.

“Two and a half years ago, we said: ‘we need to change’. Digitalisation is all around now is the right time. We developed a cross-functional team from digital, retail, IT and supply chain. We sat down and assessed how traditional supply chain organisations are functioning. They are mainly looking at costs and processes to add value to the company, but we said that one element is missing, and that is the customer.

“This cross-functional team worked together four days a week for three months and defined a customer journey along the supply chain by asking: how should a customer perceive and feel the supply chain when purchasing a product from Vodafone? We used various creativity techniques, developed personas, analysed data, talked to customers, invited our partners to give us feedback on our ideas or talked to various experts to challenge our views. We had a clear focus on improving the customer experience and digitisation was the enabler. This is how we developed our supply mobile-magazine.com

37

VODAFONE

38

January 2022

VODAFONE

chain strategy and transformation roadmap thinking from the customer perspective first.

“After 2.5 years, we can say that this was absolutely the right approach. The supply chain team is delivering significantly more value to our customers and to Vodafone compared to the ”traditional” supply chain approach focusing on cost and process optimisation only.”

Vodafone and its partners Along the way, Vodafone’s partners have been fundamental in its supply chain transformation.

“We have a few key partners,” says Ipiv, including Arvato, Loxxess, CTDI, COMSPOT, UPS, GLS, and DHL. “These are the biggest partners that we have at Vodafone. In our supply chain functions, we decided to be as lean and as simple as possible, which requires dependence on your partners. You need to trust them and, at Vodafone we do!

“I always say that I want our partners to make Vodafone a better company. They should share the same values and support us in becoming better when it comes to customer experience, reducing costs, increasing efficiencies, and optimising processes. At Vodafone, we want to become better every day, and our partners should support us in that. Our partners should not be silent if they recognise that our processes are not good. This is what I expect from our partners to drive us to become a better company.

“A good example is our very close relationship with Arvato and their continuous support improving the customer experience. Arvato is analyzing our operational performance and providing insights on how to improve especially in the return and after-sales space, which is usually a very critical area of customer experience,” concluded Ipiv.

mobile-magazine.com

39

TELECOMS

REACHING ACROSS THE

DIGITAL DIVIDE In mature and emerging markets, the digital divide remains an obstacle to education, economic growth, and the human right to connectivity WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

40

January 2022

he benefits of the digital age range from economic opportunities - something that’s especially true in the era of COVID-19 and mass remote or hybrid work - to the convenience of online shopping. High levels of digital connectivity are strongly linked to higher gross domestic product (GDP), with a study by the World Bank finding that as little as a 1% increase in fixed broadband penetration yields an increase of 0.08 percent in GDP. “Broadband connectivity plays a key role as an enabler of economic growth and prosperity across communities,” notes Emmanuel Vella, VP, EMEA Broadband Networks at CommScope, adding that this has become even more apparent as “the lines between ‘home’ and ‘office’ become increasingly blurred due to the rise of hybrid working.” mobile-magazine.com

41

EMPOWERING INNOVATORS

Expert R&D for Next-Gen Tech There is no R&D lab on Earth quite like Ofinno. Since our founding, we have been dedicated to empowering innovators both within our company and across the globe. Specializing in 5/6G, IEEE, and video compression standards, Ofinno supercharges your research and development with our team of world-renowned innovators.

See how Ofinno can empower your innovation today.

Click Here to Learn More

TELECOMS

“Broadband connectivity plays a key role as an enabler of economic growth and prosperity” EMMANUEL VELLA

VP, EMEA BROADBAND NETWORKS, COMMSCOPE

JOHN MORRISON SVP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, EXTREME NETWORKS

Hamish White, CEO of Mobilise, stresses that, because broadband is an increasingly vital economic enabler, “Being digitally connected is as important in today’s society as access to any other utility,” with Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO, SiFi Networks explaining that “Access to broadband is necessary to exercise other fundamental human rights” - among which he notes are the right to freedom of speech, the right to education, and what the United States Declaration of Independence termed “the pursuit of happiness,” intended as the right to pursue social mobility.

The benefits of the digital age are so ingrained in the ways in which we work,

play, and express ourselves that it’s hard to imagine the world without them. However, while telecom operators and other companies in the communications space focus on new technologies like 5G, industrial IoT, and the birth of smart cities, a shockingly high proportion of people (in both mature and emerging markets) languish on the other side of the digital divide.

The Other Side of the Digital Divide Like his contemporaries, John Morrison, SVP of International Markets at Extreme Networks, acknowledges that “Broadband now underpins much of our daily activities and is integral to the future of economic growth.” Morrison adds, however, that “a marked connectivity gap in the reliability and speed of broadband still exists between well-connected urban areas and more remote, rural ones.” mobile-magazine.com

43

TELECOMS

Information released this year by DataReportal found that a staggering 40% of people worldwide do not have access to the internet. The majority of the people stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide are located in regions with more emerging markets (traditionally those with a history of being colonised rather than being colonisers - a fact I assume will shock exactly no one), like the Middle East and North Africa.

“There are 290 million people in MENA that are not connected to the Internet, and an additional 60 million are not covered by current networks,” says White, who notes that exceptions to this general trend - like the fact that in the UAE 99.6% of the nation has access to network coverage while in

“ Being digitally connected is as important in today’s society as access to any other utility. Access to broadband is necessary to exercise other fundamental human rights” BEN BAWTREE-JOBSON CEO, SIFI NETWORKS

South Sudan this figure is just 23.79% - only go to show the direct correlation between connectivity and economic prosperity.

However, looking at the digital divide on a purely national scale hides the large number of people in so-called “developed markets” who are left underserved or disconnected along more individual lines that tend to be associated with both location and class (although those two vectors are also somewhat interlinked).

44

January 2022

“About 21 million Americans - nearly three in ten citizens - don’t have sufficient access to broadband,” Bawtree-Jobson explains. Unequal digital connectivity in the richest country on earth is “part of the wider problem of redlining, a discriminatory practice that emerged in the 1930s aimed at denying access to services for low-income neighbourhoods or neighbourhoods with a high proportion of non-white residents.”

The accessibility issues associated with discriminatory infrastructure that have affected America’s road, rail, and electricity infrastructure for close to a century, now

TELECOMS

“affect relatively new sectors white areas - he adds - allow corporations such as telecommunications to “dictate prices and deprive consumers and broadband access.” of choice.”

Bawtree-Jobson The lower ROI companies adds that the situation receive from less densely in the US is worsened populated or lower income by the country’s areas leads ISPs - with no broadband industry motivation beyond revenue of people model, in which ISPs generation - to disinvest in without access to the internet both own and operate those areas, stranding more the country’s network people on the wrong side of infrastructure. “Unlike a widening connectivity gap, of UK properties in most European while urban and affluent areas have access to countries, US citizens receive high-band 5G and full full-fibre broadband who live outside fibre infrastructure. major urban areas can In the UK, the divide is normally rely on only one ISP, more starkly drawn between rural and the one that owns and operates urban populations, although Kevin Hasley, the network infrastructure CEO of independent benchmarking firm in their area,” he explains.

RootMetrics, notes that similar logic applies.

Default monopolies in remote, “Mobile operators typically deploy and economically deprived, or nonoptimise their networks first and foremost

40% 14%

mobile-magazine.com

45

TELECOMS

in major cities, where the most people live, before extending into the suburbs and more rural areas,” he says, explaining that the key factor behind this process “essentially comes down to economics” for operators.

“Operators often prioritise network improvements or new technology rollouts - like 5G - in areas where the average revenue per user (ARPU) is high - areas where people spend the most on their phone bill,” Halsey continues. “In effect, that means that people who already have good performance are the first to see upgrades.

People in lower ARPU areas, meanwhile, who likely see worse performance in the first place, are also less likely to see their performance improve. It’s a bit of a ‘the rich

“ It’s a ‘the rich get richer’ scenario that regulatory agencies and operators need to address before we can hope to narrow the divide” KEVIN HASLEY

CEO, ROOTMETRICS

46

January 2022

get richer’ scenario that regulatory agencies and operators need to address before we can hope to narrow the divide.”

Closing the Digital Divide Just like any problem of daunting scope, addressing the issues of the digital divide won’t be solved one way. There is no silver bullet, but rather a host of promising steps that, if taken together, could result in bringing millions into the digital age.

Ian Duggan, CEO of Indigo Telecom, stresses that “Fibre is not the only way to bridge the digital divide and connect homes and businesses in rural parts of the world. Wireless and 5G technologies also play a key part.” By eliminating the view that fibre and wireless connectivity need to exist in a state of competition, operators can build towards a market in which “where one wins over the other as the primary source of access should always depend on the business case and other network backhaul considerations.”

Connectivity provided by constellations of low earth orbit satellites could also extend network coverage in places where terrestrial infrastructure is too expensive or difficult to install. “LEO satellites offer backhaul connectivity on a global scale,” White explains. “Instead of connecting each individual small village with microwave or fibre, a LEO satellite network allows blanket global coverage for backhaul purposes.” He adds that other methods, like more affordable electronic

mobile-magazine.com

47

“ Fibre is not the only way to bridge the digital divide and connect homes and businesses in rural parts of the world” IAN DUGGAN

CEO, INDIGO TELECOM

48

January 2022

TELECOMS

devices, and digital onboarding of customers that don’t have physical access to retail homes in the UK remain offline locations could both increase connectivity.

In the US, 40% of schools Morrison believes and 60% of healthcare that, in the UK at facilities outside metropolitan areas least, bridging the lack a reliable internet digital divide will be connection reliant on looking outside the country’s market leaders. “Only by relying on AltNets to unlock a full-fibre future will the UK see instant results,” he says. “Homes and workplaces across the UK will gain access to faster, and more reliable broadband - enabling UK citizens in rural areas to work productively, experience the likes of modern-day gaming and remain connected to others wherever they are located.”

However, as Hasley said earlier, without regulation from governing bodies that recognises (fast) internet connectivity as a fundamental and necessary right in the digital age, the digital divide remains an issue of economics. In much the same way that finding a profitable solution to the climate crisis is resulting in inaction, lip-service, and little meaningful change, without the acknowledgment that there’s more at stake than a bottom line, those stranded on the other side of the digital divide aren’t crossing the gulf any time soon.

1.5mn

mobile-magazine.com

49

HARNESSING AI TO EFFICIENTLY SERVE CANADA

50

January 2022

BELL CANADA

WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

mobile-magazine.com

51

BELL CANADA

Marco Sciarra, Director of Operational Planning and Technology, discusses Bell Canada's diverse workforce and development of AI-powered technology

C

anada’s largest communications company, Bell, leads the way in broadband and media innovation with its world-class wireless and fibre networks.

Looking at different ways to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, Bell consistently works on its own strategy to build on its own competitive strengths while embracing the new opportunities of the integrated digital future.

With its commitment to bring the best digital connections and next-generation services to Canadians, Bell is made up of three factions, as its Director of Operational Planning and Technology, Marco Sciarra explained: “There are three main segments to Bell, there's Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline and Bell Media.”

He continued: “We have a wireline division that supports internet and TV, wireless for mobile devices and then we’ve got Bell Media.

From a telecom standpoint, you would think that we're in the tech space, we’ve evolved over the past decade as a data-centric company, data is at the forefront of everything that we do. When we think about the future, everything really is linked to data.”

Customer experience is at the centre of everything Bell does to ensure the company delivers continued success in a fast-changing communications marketplace. Adding to its people-first culture, Bell is also dedicated to combating mental health issues in Canada with its initiative, Bell Let’s Talk.

52

January 2022

Example of an image caption mobile-magazine.com

53

“BELL IS ABOUT SHAPING THE FUTURE”

Sciarra expanded: from governments and “Bell is a steward in corporations that have the community that joined the cause. we serve and support.

At the end of 2020, we Creating diverse were fast approaching and agile teams about $121 million in To ensure the company MARCO SCIARRA investment from a mental maintains its innovative DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING health standpoint.” edge, Bell strives to AND TECHNOLOGY, BELL CANADA This initiative has create agile teams to been in practice since improve efficiency. As 2010 to increase awareness and create new well as a strong customer-first culture, the conversations around mental health. Through company is also dedicated to ensuring that Bell Let’s Talk, millions of Canadians, including its employees are in an environment that leading personalities, engaged in an open cultivates productivity and efficiency. discussion about mental illness.

“We're really focused on engagement During these discussions, many offered and that is extremely important from a Bell new ideas and hope for those who struggle standpoint. We want to make sure that we and the number of people joining the have engaged employees. We know that initiative grows each year. folks that are engaged tend to perform As a result, institutions and organisations better and tend to stay longer. Engaged have received new funding for access, team members tend to commit more to the care and research from Bell Let’s Talk and cause,” said Sciarra.

54

January 2022

BELL CANADA

He then added how the company’s diversity initiative feeds into this: “It's really important that we create the sort of an environment that is inclusive and diverse across multiple dimensions. Bell truly believes that it helps to create a more agile workforce that learns faster and is able to perform much better. We have realised that diverse culture leads to better results and a higher engaged workforce, so that is extremely important to Bell.”

“By hiring a diverse set of skills, as well as diversity from a cultural standpoint, you get different perspectives and on how to approach opportunities. This tends to deliver better results,” he continued.

MARCO SCIARRA TITLE: DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND TECH INDUSTRY: COMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: CANADA

Marco Sciarra is an accomplished business leader who has held multiple senior leadership roles within the telecommunications industry.

Over the past two decades, he has accumulated vast expertise in the fields of financial and operations management as they relate to large, global, and complex customer support organisations. Today, Marco holds the title of director operational planning and technology, supporting one of the largest client support divisions in Canada, Bell Canada.

#1

Bell 5G was ranked as Canada's best by network analysts Global Wireless Solutions

121mn+

Bell has committed $121,373,806.75 to mental health initiatives through its Bell Let’s Talk initiative

EXECUTIVE BIO

Bell’s innovation with artificial intelligence Like many technology companies, Bell is dedicated to continuous evolution to ensure it remains best-in-class and offers its customers cutting-edge technological solutions.

“Bell is one of the most innovative companies out there,” said the Director of Operational Planning and Technology.

“In my department, we created our own set of applications. We have millions of lines of code and we're tied to almost every facet of the business. From an innovative standpoint, building our own applications has really given us the opportunity to develop capabilities that are just not available today,” added Sciarra.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WHILE REDUCING AGENT TURNOVER Service Assist is a highly secure, scalable enterprise automation solution designed for contact centers and enabled by the Blue Prism digital workforce — a set of software robots that act as digital assistants to contact center agents and virtual channels, accelerating true digital customer service.

Reduce average handling times and agent attrition to improve both the customer and agent experience while saving on operational cost.

Learn More

blueprism.com

Intelligent automation in telecommunications Jann Gorske, Sr. Director for Telecommunications and Utilities at Blue Prism, reveals how automation plays a transformational role in contact centres Jann Gorske is Blue Prism’s North America Sr. Director and Practice Leader for Telecommunications and Utilities, with a heavy focus on contact centre transformation. Blue Prism is leading Intelligent Automation (IA) innovation with the digital workforce as a source of labour and Service Assist that was specifically developed for the contact centre.

In 2020, the global RPA market size was valued at USD$1.57 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.8% from 2021 to 2028. A big driver for this growth is the pandemic-induced work-from-home situation, that caused a big shift in the ways in which businesses operate and accelerated blueprints for faster, leaner operating models.

Intelligent automation in Telcos According to Gorske, Telcos have put every aspect of human interaction front and centre, as much of it moved online and forced staff to work from home:

“We supplemented that human workforce with our digital workforce to transform the end-to-end workflow, including handling of manual repetitive tasks. We have developed a ‘single pane of glass’ user interface, which provides the agent with a 360 degree view of the customer.

This is where we’re really focused and seeing significant results back to our customers, in terms of efficiency.”

Blue Prism has already formed strong partnerships with Telefonica and Bell, leaders in their primary markets of Spain and Canada.

Contact centres are a key driver for telcos in terms of how they build their brand recognition, but Gorske remarks that “the strategy and the vision need to be aligned to the wider business needs, rather than just focusing on short term tactical types of activities to remove and develop efficiencies. We provide a pivotal and sustaining, enterprise-grade scale programme. We call it the Robotic Operating Model (ROM).”

Learn more about how Service Assist can transform your customer experience.

facebook

Twitter

linkedin

youtube

58

January 2022

BELL CANADA

One of these applications is Bell’s Virtual Manager. Created by Sciarra and his team, Bell’s Virtual Manager is tied to the company’s applications, and at the time of development, was incredibly ahead of the curve in terms of artificial intelligence (AI) powered technologies within the workplace.

This Virtual Manager helps to manage the client operations division, reaches out to the employees in a real-time fashion.

“BELL IS A STEWARD IN THE COMMUNITY THAT WE SERVE AND SUPPORT” MARCO SCIARRA

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND TECHNOLOGY, BELL CANADA

Sciarra said that he was keen to develop something that would respond effectively as the company began to respond to larger volumes of data, he explained that: “In the past, most organisations out there would rely on a workforce management team who are staring at dashboards.”

“Dashboarding is still ‘in’ today, but my philosophy is that if you're dealing with the amount of data that is coming at us in waves and streams, staring at screens is just not going to cut it. Our Virtual Manager now reaches out in real-time to make game-time decisions.

We've found that it's really improved our overall output across a number of different dimensions,” he continued.

Recognising the importance of data and analytics to the company’s growth, Sciarra and his team are using different technologies within its applications to improve client operations.

Already, the company has seen benefits from utilising AI and ML-enabled technology: mobile-magazine.com

59

BELL CANADA

“ FROM AN INNOVATIVE STANDPOINT, WE’RE BUILDING OUR OWN APPLICATIONS AND THIS HAS REALLY GIVEN US THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP CAPABILITIES THAT ARE JUST NOT AVAILABLE TODAY” MARCO SCIARRA

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND TECHNOLOGY, BELL CANADA

60

January 2022

“Since incorporating this technology into our operations we've noticed better sales and churn results from our employees. We're all about trying to not just predict the future, but rather leverage the opportunities that exist that appear in real-time.”

Sciarra added: “Acting upon the opportunities as they arise is the most important aspect of AI/ML. So this is why we have introduced our Virtual Manager. When we step back and think about the outcome, better client experience leads to better results.”

Outlining a use-case for this application, Sciarra said: “Let's say as an example we needed to add additional staff to deal with service level challenges or a spike in demand, our ML capabilities are where we re-run our forecast where we're looking at information in real-time.”

Developing automated processes with Blue Prism Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become increasingly popular amongst businesses with its ability to automate repetitive tasks, freeing workers up to spend more time elsewhere.

In 2020, the global RPA market size was valued at USD$1.57 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.8% from 2021 to 2028. A big driver for this growth is the pandemic-induced work-from-home situation many workers are in which has caused a big shift in the ways in which businesses operate.

Recognising this shift, Bell is keen to be a key player in the development of RPA technology. Sciarra explained: “Robotic process automation technology has really

come into play and it's going to represent an even bigger new sort of digital workforce in the years to come. We're really excited in terms of what we've been able to accomplish on this front. Ensuring that the opportunity is shared between all business units within our division” To support this desire to automate and robotise many of its processes, Bell has partnered with Blue Prism and recognises them as a key partner in its AI journey.

Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise. Its technology transforms how companies carry out work and accelerates operational efficiency and agility by making it easy to automate processes.

Bell was recently awarded BluePrism’s highest honour of the Pinnacle Award for 2021, given to organisations that are leaders in the automation space. mobile-magazine.com

61

62

January 2022

BELL CANADA

“WE'RE FAST APPROACHING ABOUT A HUNDRED PROCESSES THAT WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO ROBOTISE” MARCO SCIARRA

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND TECHNOLOGY, BELL CANADA

Sciarra explained that Bell is keen to partner with companies that have “already mastered certain aspects of what Bell is trying to achieve.

By selecting the right partner, we’re able to focus on what we do best and incorporate what they do best.”

He added: “Blue Prism has done a really good job of developing a suite of applications that are leading in terms of their capabilities.”

Not only do Blue Prism and Bell work together to support Bell in its quest for automation, but Sciarra himself is also on the customer advisory board at Blue Prism and as a result supports the company with its own mission.

“We do realise that Blue Prism has much bigger clients out there that they do business with, yet they've always listened to us,” explained Sciarra.

“They've always given us the opportunity to work with them and from our feedback, they've made some changes on their side, which has worked quite well for us,” he added.

Readying Canadians for the metaverse The internet today is often the main entry point for millions of us to access information and services, communicate and socialise with each other, sell goods as well as a form of entertainment.

As Canada’s largest communications company, Bell is ready to adapt to the

changing landscape with the introduction of the metaverse. Sciarra himself explained he is keen to expand his knowledge in this area to be readily equipped to understand the application of a virtual environment “Bell is about shaping the future. We're at the forefront of technology, especially from a 5G standpoint. The immersive experience with the metaverse is going to be extremely important.” he said.

Sciarra concluded: “We also want to continue to deliver the best experience to our client base. Bell is a very big company in Canada, and so we do have a responsibility to support our communities and I think that's also extremely important. We're heavily involved in SDG initiatives and looking at how that plays a role is extremely important as well.”

mobile-magazine.com

63

FEATURE HEADER

REDEFINING OF THE TOWER-CO

The global 5G rollout is poised to fundamentally alter the relationship between carriers and infrastructure companies.

WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

64

January 2022

FEATURE HEADER 5G

mobile-magazine.com Magazine.com

65

he rollout of a new generation of telecommunications technology is always a herculean effort played out on a global scale. Telecom operators shell out billions in order to upgrade the infrastructure and software necessary to support faster connectivity, lower latencies, and higher throughput. The faster this massive capital expenditure is completed, the faster carriers can turn their attention to turniconverting their investments into revenue.

The race to deploy 5G (followed by the almost as hotly-contested race to deploy standalone 5G) has seen massive investment from network carriers, with the GSMA predicting that mobile network operators worldwide will pour a further $1.1 trillion in their 5G networks over the next five years.

Not only is the pressure already mounting for telcos to secure new revenue streams in order to generate 5G ROI, but the speed, cost, and physical complexities of deploying 5G are already creating new challenges that operators didn’t face during 4G deployment.

In turn, this is creating a fundamental shift in the relationship between mobile network operators and independent telecom infrastructure companies - or tower-cos.

4G vs 5G “From an infrastructure perspective, the rollout of 5G technology has not been so different from 4G,” says Michael Riches, CEO of Australia’s largest independent tower company, Axicom, adding that both 4G and 5G were deployed on previously untapped spectrum, necessitating the deployment of new antennas. There are some key differences, however, between the rollouts.

Riches notes that, compared to initial 4G deployments, 5G is necessitating the shift from shelter-deployed cell sites to masts, as well as waves of new regulations – which have 66

January 2022

led to more complex rollouts. Then, there are physical requirements, like the fact that “the deployment of 5G – and the refresh of the 4G equipment – physically puts more weight on the towers.”

Suresh Sidhu, CEO of EdgePoint Infrastructure - one of ASEAN’s largest 5G-ready telco infrastructure companies, and a subsidiary of DigitalBridge - notes that one of the key differences between the 4G and 5G rollouts is a result of the higher

5G

“ The ability to share towers with multiple tenants can improve efficiency in infrastructure deployment, besides also reducing overall cost for mobile operators” SURESH SIDHU

CEO, EDGEPOINT INFRASTRUCTURE

frequency spectrum used by 5G, which “will manifest in a greater proliferation of fiberised sites and small cells,” adding that the accelerated speed of the rollout is also likely to be a factor.

This means, then, that network operators need to deploy and upgrade a larger number of sites in a shorter amount of time or risk mobile-magazine.com

67

Enabling educators.

Empowering students.

Explore how we accelerate student discovery, learning and innovation with our Digital Education 3D Experience.

EXPLORE THE 3D EXPERIENCE

5G

“ [The 5G rollout] is an opportunity to develop deeper partnerships with mobile operators” MICHAEL RICHES CEO, AXICOM

EdgePoint Infrastructure being left behind. In order to achieve this, an increasing number of network operators are fundamentally restructuring their business models and relationships to the physical infrastructure on which their networks run.

Turning to Tower-Cos In the past, network carriers have considered both their passive and active network infrastructure as fundamental elements of their business models. Increasingly, however, with the advent of 5G, telcos are spinning off their physical tower assets into independent operators, or turning to established towercos to manage their physical assets.

This shift, explains Riches, has necessitated a transformation of its own within the tower-co space. “It's fair to say that in the past, as

A wholly owned subsidiary of DigitalBridge, EdgePoint Infrastructure is rapidly expanding throughout the ASEAN region, with a focus on building infrastructure ahead of a wave of 5G demand - providing traditional cell sites, as well as alternative solutions and in-building coverage throughout Malaysia and Indonesia.

infrastructure providers, we've taken an asset like a tower, let it sit there, maintained it, and charged our customers for the use of that asset.”, he says. “The telcos - for a significant period of time - were perfectly happy with that outsourcing type model.”

Now, with the effects of the 5G rollout reverberating through the sector, Riches adds that “this represents a great opportunity to develop deeper partnerships with mobile mobile-magazine.com

69

“ You've got more and more situations where landlords... don't want to have to deal with three operators; they want to deal with a single organisation” TOBY HARRIS

DIRECTOR, SALES & MARKETING, AXICOM

operators.” Axicom owns over 2,000 sites throughout Australia, hosting all three of the country’s major carrier networks.

As these major carriers look to expand and improve their 5G offerings, Riches explains that “telcos are realising that their competitive position is less dependent on the infrastructure deployed and more reliant on the service and products they offer,” and therefore, the scope for infrastructure sharing

Axicom Axicom, Australia’s leading provider of independently owned wireless infrastructure, owns and operates around 2,000 mobile towers throughout the country, serving Australia’s three major mobile network carriers, Telstra, TPG, and Optus.

70

January 2022

across Axicom’s sites is only going to grow.

Sudhi agrees, noting that “the ability to share towers with multiple tenants can improve efficiency in infrastructure deployment, besides also reducing overall cost for mobile operators - especially via the flexibility to aggregate passive infrastructure cost into a multi-year lease, in turn helping to improve coverage and reduce consumer prices.”

This ability for infrastructure companies to help carriers soften the up-front CapEx blow of 5G upgrades could be a key growth driver for the sector - especially as infrastructure companies hosting multiple networks also become the point of contact between the carriers and the landlords of the locations where their infrastructure sits.

5G

“You've got more and more situations where landlords, local councils, or individual properties don't want to have to deal with three operators. They want to deal with a single organisation, and it's that unified front that we can bring to the table,” says Toby Harris, Axicom’s Director of Sales & Marketing.

“It's going to be the norm more and more going forward that the operators look to their infrastructure partners to be the facilitator that gets them into particular locations - whether it's a train station, a stadium, or a block of offices where the owner is only going to want to have that conversation once.”

A New Tower-Co Landscape As tower-cos become increasingly key partners to carriers - located further up the value chain - Sudhi notes that going forward “we in fact expect to see a tighter coupling where major infrastructure players become much more important operational partners to the telcos.”

Riches and Harris note that Axicom is angling for a similar future. “Developing innovative infrastructure solutions that support our customer’s future strategy will facilitate the deeper relationships and the value proposition that actually means telcos and infrastructure companies will become closer – telcos using the expertise and capital of a trusted partner rather than having to retain the expertise in-house,” notes Riches.

Tower-cos’ in-depth familiarity with their own infrastructure means that “we can help the operators we host deliver their services a lot faster if we take the next step up the value chain. It's not just about having the assets; it's about making it easier for our customers to use them by leveraging our specialist knowledge and experience,” Harris explains. “As you step down that path from traditional vendor towards a true partner, new possibilities open up, because your customers see that you want to do more, which means you can start to unlock even more opportunities.”

mobile-magazine.com

71

BECOMING A NEW GENERATION TELCO WRITTEN BY: ALEX TUCK

72

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

VODAFONE

mobile-magazine.com

73

VODAFONE

Vodafone Technology is in the vanguard of telecommunications. CIDO Scott Petty speaks of new commercial opportunities and added social responsibility

A

s part of a newly created integrated European-wide Technology team, Chief Digital & Information Officer in Vodafone Technology, Scott Petty, spearheads the drive towards Vodafone becoming a New Generation Telco. Petty is championing a common approach to IT and digitalisation, helping to support a global product operating model through standardisation, simplification and leveraging Vodafone’s considerable internal talent.

As CIDO, Petty’s organisation is responsible for the launch of new products and services, driving increases in velocity and speed and leveraging new development capabilities and platforms to make sure they drive growth.

New Gen Telco Regarded as a digital enabler for society and becoming more prevalent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Vodafone plays a critical role in enabling digital services for consumers, the economy and the public sector.

Petty is proud of the role Vodafone has played in keeping economies connected and functioning well: “In these difficult times, we are taking the opportunity to build platforms that move beyond connectivity. We have the world's leading connectivity services platform for IoT, which connects things to our network. Not just on the Vodafone footprint but everywhere around the world. Equally in Africa, we've built a fantastic financial services capability around M-Pesa, connecting people

74

January 2022

and allowing money transfer and transactions for unbanked Africans to leverage those services. Another example is Vodapay in South Africa, which is a partnership with AliPay, where we launched a super app and lifestyle services, as well as financial management for customers on the Vodacom network, so even customers on with other operators can access a new set of lifestyle and digital services that ultimately grows our customer base. So we have a couple of good examples where that platform strategy is working. Our focus now is how do we extend that further into new areas like 5G and to mobile edge computing (MEC) and new services we'll be launching over the future.”

Building a high-performing international team Part of Vodafone’s digital enabler strategy, Petty has overseen the shift from a market by market model to a single technology team across Europe - incorporating networks, digital and cybersecurity. In the product development areas, Petty’s responsibility is to lead the digital and IT teams; bringing everyone together to build scaled, shared platforms, reusing code and capabilities and ensuring the business moves at pace to launch new services at speed across all of their footprint.

“It's a large team of about 15,000 people across our organisation. We run a mixture of onshore, people in our markets very close to our customers, developing solutions for our

1982

Year founded

105k+ Number of employees

€43.8bn Revenue

VODAFONE

Example of an image caption mobile-magazine.com

75

VODAFONE

SCOTT PETTY TITLE: CDIO INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: NEWBURY, UNITED KINGDOM

76

Scott is the Chief Digital & IT Officer at Vodafone Technology, part of a newly integrated European Network and Digital & IT team that is driving Vodafone’s transformation to a New Generation Telco and ultimate ambition to become a Technology Communications Company.

Prior to this, Scott was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Vodafone UK, where he was responsible for operational excellence, delivering enhanced business capability and driving innovation to support business growth. Leading key strategic initiatives such as 5G and network evolution, which puts the power of connectivity in customer’s hands.

January 2022

Scott joined Vodafone in 2009 as Business Products and Services Director and was appointed Group Technology Enterprise Products and Services Director in 2012. Here he led product development across connectivity, IoT and converged communications. During this time, Vodafone established itself as a leader in hosted converged communications and IoT. From 2015, when he was appointed Enterprise Technology Director, Scott played an integral role to the success of Vodafone’s Enterprise business by managing all aspects of product development and Enterprise Customer solutions.

“Our goal is to be 60% insourced, 40% outsourced over the next couple of years”

customers in markets, Building a strong and and we've built a resilient internal core distributed development From being a model, enabling them to predominantly contribute to the whole outsourced organisation, Vodafone community where Vodafone used across Europe and external vendors to near shore strategy. build most of their We opened centres, capabilities, the business primarily in Europe, to has and continues to help us get access to move to a much more talent and build great insourced organisation.

SCOTT PETTY CDIO, services for digital inside Petty remarks that VODAFONE the European footprint.” “our goal is to be Offshore is also a key 60% insourced, 40% strategy according to Petty, with the strategy outsourced over the next couple of years, “leveraging our great centres in India, Egypt which will enable us to bring in software and Romania, where we've been investing engineers to build our own platforms and considerably over a period of time to build take control of our technology, which will shared services that we can offer to all of our be critical to us as a digital enabler in the markets.” he said. economy. We've announced that we'll be

VODAFONE

“ You'll see a big focus in consumer and business on leveraging AR and VR with new devices coming next year” SCOTT PETTY CDIO, VODAFONE

continuing that insourcing strategy. In fact, adding more than 7,000 software engineers to our organisation over the next three years to really make sure that we have the development skills we require to create, scale and build new platforms, which ultimately 78

January 2022

create new sources of revenue.” he said.

Vodafone have invested in very strong internal cyber security capability, with their own defence mechanisms, but also closely collaborate with NCSC and GCHQ in the UK to help their TBS capability.

“We've been early adopters of the technology security requirements, which is a new set of legislation, capabilities and regulations that we need to meet in the industry. GCHQ and NCSC test our defences.

TBS is a migration of a capability from the

VODAFONE

“We've made big investments in many markets, building applications like Bright Sky, for victims of domestic violence, to give them access to services and capabilities that weren't available before. We've run a number of projects with Imperial College London. We’ve run scientific research projects with our free DreamLab app, which runs computational analysis on cancer and COVID-19, making use of people's smartphones when they're asleep in bed. It has more than 2 million users around the world.” Petty continued.

250k

smartphones running overnight

2mn+ downloads available worldwide

DREAMLAB VODAFONE

financial services industry, called ‘Cbest’. We're really pleased with what we're learning from TBS and the interaction that we're having with NCSC to raise the bar on cyber security for not just us, but for all of our customers.” Petty said.

The Vodafone Foundation and making a social impact The Vodafone Foundation is a charity organisation that Vodafone established to invest and bring the organisation's purpose to life. It invests in a number of projects to connect people to services that are in digital poverty; to drive education, both in Africa and in Europe, and to also invest in digital applications that improve society as a whole.

The opportunities opened up by 5G In regards to 5G, Petty claims that the industry is still in the early phases. Vodafone has been deploying ‘non standalone 5G’, which operates near 5G radios on base stations, but still leverages the 4G core network. When it comes to 5G, the primary benefit, according to Petty, is that the speed will increase and enhance other technologies: “The biggest next step is 5G standalone, where we stop using the 4G core network and only use the standalone 5G core network. This launches a whole set of new capabilities, leveraging ultra low latency which is really important for augmented and virtual reality applications. And I think you'll see a big focus in consumer and business on leveraging augmented and virtual reality with new devices coming next year.”

5G also offers network slicing - the ability to separate traffic in busy parts of the network to offer higher levels of quality of service or higher levels of security, depending on the application that's required and network’s licencing. Petty adds: “We'll create a whole range of new services from speed boosts for consumers to specific applications for smart factories, autonomous vehicles and security services. Another big benefit of 5G is MEC. We've launched a really exciting partnership with AWS that lets customers take workloads mobile-magazine.com

79

M-PESA provides over 49.7 million people with a safe, secure and affordable way to send and receive money, top-up airtime, make bill payments, receive salaries, get short-term loans and much more.

VODAFONE

Vodafone: Becoming a Next Generation Telco

80

January 2022

VODAFONE

“5G will be a key pillar in industry 4.0 initiatives around smart factories and smart buildings” SCOTT PETTY CDIO, VODAFONE

already running on AWS and pushes them to the edge of our network, into our computer nodes in our technology centres, which dramatically reduces the latency for those applications. We're seeing some great early examples in drone detection, systems, security systems and energy management systems leveraging those capabilities. 5G will be a key pillar in industry 4.0 initiatives around smart factories and smart buildings.”

Hyperscale partnerships Building strong partnerships with the leading hyperscalers such as Google Cloud, Microsoft and AWS is critical for Vodafone,

through which they are jointly able to deliver innovative products and services.

As Petty explains, “that's really allowed us to take a big leap forward in our capabilities.

With AWS, we've done a lot of work in building our digital platforms and scalability required to make digital a successful channel. It's already our largest channel, but continuing to have the greatest level of performance is really important. We use Microsoft in a number of areas as well.”

Partnerships with traditional vendors, particularly in BSS, are also important in terms of core transactional systems.

Big investments have also been made in Google’s cloud-native technology suit as the whole ecosystem evolves to a cloud native world.

mobile-magazine.com

81

TECHNOLOGY

4.0:

THE NEW 5G IOT FRONTIER

WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

INDUSTRY-WIDE ADOPTION OF IOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF AUTOMATION, MONITORING, AND ASSET MANAGEMENT IS PLACING TELECOMS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT OF INDUSTRY 4.0.

J

ust as the first three industrial revolutions were dependent upon technological advances in the fields of mechanisation, mass production, and computing, respectively, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is contingent upon the marriage between physical and digital technologies.

The lines between digital and physical space are becoming increasingly blurred throughout the manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, and other sectors, as the 82

January 2022

Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning provide greater visibility and control than ever before into enterprises’ operations.

However, the technology advancements that are driving Industry 4.0-ready enterprises to greater levels of efficiency, agility, and speed, are heavily reliant on connectivity. Around the world, the successful adoption of 5G connectivity is increasingly emerging as the pivotal enabler

“TELECOMS HAVE A SIGNIFICANT ROLE TO PLAY IN THE REALISATION OF INDUSTRY 4.0” STEPHANE REMY

5G SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR, BT ENTERPRISE

of the success of Industry 4.0. As providers of 5G connectivity, enterprises throughout the telecommunications sector are finding themselves in a position to power the new industrial revolution.

“Telecoms have a significant role to play in the realisation of Industry 4.0.” contends Stephane Remy, the 5G Solutions Director for the Enterprise arm of BT. From automation to IoT monitoring and fleet management, Remy explains that “connected, autonomous machinery can mobile-magazine.com

83

Flex designs and builds Intelligent Products for a Connected World™ Bring your products to life with Flex Sketch-to-Scale solutions and unrivalled cross-industry expertise across multiple industries including – Automotive, Medical, Connected Living, Health & Fitness, IOT and Telecom, Enterprise & Cloud Infrastructure.

Visit us today at Flex.com

6201 America Center Drive San Jose, CA 95002 USA

TECHNOLOGY

“ THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE ADVANCED AND AGILE SOFTWARE PLATFORMS TO POWER EVERYTHING FROM BLUEPRINT DESIGN TO SITE SECURITY” JAMES BRISTOW SVP EMEA, CRADLEPOINT

reduce downtime, energy consumption and costs, but they require low latency connections to communicate within ecosystems and operate as intended.” 5G, which can deliver speeds up to 10 times as fast as existing LTE networks, is the key to unlocking the potential of Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 at the Edge Increasingly, demanding compute workloads are being located closer to the edge of networks in order to reduce latency, which places interesting new demands on network operators and enterprises.

James Bristow, SVP EMEA at cloud and network management firm Cradlepoint, notes that edge applications powered by 5G are an essential next step in the evolution of the construction sector. “Through enterprise-grade WWAN edge and the power of 5G, construction firms can deploy onsite innovations such as IoT structural sensing, enabling remote monitoring and holographic building visualisation,” he says.

“The construction industry needs more advanced and agile software platforms to power everything from blueprint design mobile-magazine.com

85

TECHNOLOGY

to site security. Such applications require real-time data, which is only possible with immense bandwidth, low latency, and constant uptime at the edge of the network with 5G.” This demand for 5G edge applications could potentially represent a sea change for telecom operators looking to open up new operating models and revenue streams in order to recoup the significant investment that 5G network upgrades demand. “Telcos have an opportunity with 5G and edge computing to look beyond connectivity and consider moving into services, selling cloud infrastructure, installation, integration, app development, device management and data management,” argues Ian West, Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications at KPMG UK. “We will also soon see an explosion of IoT devices in industrial settings, with sensors throughout factories, that inform managers about performance,

86

January 2022

“TELCOS HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY WITH 5G AND EDGE COMPUTING TO LOOK BEYOND CONNECTIVITY AND CONSIDER MOVING INTO SERVICES” IAN WEST

HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS, KPMG UK mobile-magazine.com

87

TECHNOLOGY

The Future is Now Live! The fourth industrial revolution

conditions and incidents. The improved data capacity and connectivity of 5G and edge will give manufacturers greater control over critical processes.”

West adds that the convergence of edge computing and 5G will be “particularly beneficial” to the application of autonomous vehicles and robotics in industrial settings.

from multiple points, enabling humans or AI to reliably control these machines,” West continues. The demand for increasingly automated sensor networks, vehicles, robotics, and other industrial technology solutions is absolutely contingent on the ultra-low latency, highthroughput connections IAN WEST that 5G can facilitate.

HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS, KPMG UK Remy also notes that “5G deployments, and particularly edge deployments which Automating Industry 4.0 spread bandwidth further across networks, “Robots are becoming an essential part of mean smart devices are ‘closer’ to their any manufacturing operation and when connectivity and they can learn and adapt to they are equipped with ultra-low latency changes on the factory floor autonomously,” connectivity, signals will transmit instantly which he expects will dramatically increase 88

January 2022

“ONCE PRIMARILY OPERATED BY HUMAN WORKERS, WE ARE NOW MOVING TOWARDS HIGHLY AUTONOMOUS FACTORIES”

the flexibility and agility of industrial enterprises - a necessity as the number of connected devices and vehicles within their networks continues to grow.

Increased automation could also be the answer to the growing skills shortage throughout many of the industrial and digital sectors, which is only expected to become more severe as the decade continues. “Once primarily operated by human workers, we are now moving towards highly autonomous factories. These are all being supported by technologies such as 5G and edge computing, where sensors analyse data from every corner and AI constantly adjusts production to meet demand,” adds West., who also notes that “through predictive maintenance, all assets are monitored around the clock, to boost performance, reduce downtime and improve safety.

Products are also checked throughout the process, to identify and resolve any drop in quality. The outcome is better quality

BT: Leading Industry 4.0 5G Innovation in the UK In the summer of 2020, BT signed on as the lead technology partner with the Worcestershire 5G Testbed (W5G) to explore new possibilities for 5G enabled smart manufacturing delivered through the UK’s first live 5G factory installation.

“We’re creating a smart factory where machines can learn and adapt to changes on the factory floor as they happen, and make instant, autonomous decisions to optimise the production line,” said Gerry McQuade, CEO of BT’s Enterprise business.

mobile-magazine.com

89

TECHNOLOGY

79.4 zb

Zettabytes of data generated by IoT devices by 2025

30.9bn

IoT devices installed worldwide by 2025

13.8bn

IoT devices installed worldwide today

$8.9bn

5G Industrial IoT market by 2027

90

January 2022

products produced faster and at a reduced cost, with less waste, lower maintenance, material and energy costs, and a more sustainable, low-emission environment.”

The potential benefits of Industry 4.0 are widespread and transformative, but the demands they place upon industries to adapt (and adapt fast) to an evolving technology landscape are just as significant.

As organisations continue to grapple with the need for improved connectivity to support a wide range of new solutions that integrate digital and physical spaces, 5G connectivity (and the network operators that provide it) are going to be an essential driving force behind the success, or failure, of the next industrial revolution. mobile-magazine.com

91

KEEPING CANADIANS

CONNECTED WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

92

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

TELUS

mobile-magazine.com

93

TELUS

I

TELUS is harnessing the power of network softwarisation to build a better future for its 16 million customers across Canada

found out that if you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt,” is a famous quote from record-breaking Canadian ice hockey coach, Scotty Bowman.

These words resonate as much in the telco industry today as they do in sports, with one of Canada’s leading communication and IT companies, TELUS, working to ensure they remain agile to the needs of their 16m customers from the Atlantic to British Columbia.

This is no mean feat for TELUS when you consider the world’s second largest country covering 9.98 million square kilometres. In 2020 TELUS was recognised as the fastest wireless network in the world. The company reports CAN$16 billion in annual revenue.

In a country that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the focus on sustainability is paramount. TELUS reinvests 5% of its profits back into communities, connecting Canadians in need and committing to become a zerowaste, carbon neutral company by 2030 and working “to make the future friendly, together”. TELUS was named the most giving company in the world, leveraging its world-leading technology and compassion to drive social change and enable remarkable human outcomes.

By the end of the year, more than 70% of the Canadian population will experience TELUS’ fast 5G network, providing speeds 94

January 2022

up to 1.7 Gbps. It is estimated 5G will create 250,000 jobs and contribute CAN$150 billion to Canada’s economy over the next 20 years, which could be key to Canada’s fiscal recovery.

“If I were to summarise what TELUS offers in one word, I would say connectivity,” said Ali Tizghadam, Principal Technology Architect/Network Softwarisation Lead at TELUS, who is keen to discuss how network softwarisation and cloudification is shaping the company’s digital strategy.

“The meaning of connectivity has evolved within the industry from a simple physical connectivity to a connectivity in the context of connected societies and connected citizens,'' commented Tizghadam. “That's why TELUS is also offering services such as technology solutions for agriculture and health, smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT) and network slicing. Connectivity should now be considered part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs along with food and shelter and that is our focus at TELUS to ensure those in need are all connected.”

Nazim Benhadid, VP of Network Infrastructure and Virtualization at TELUS, said: "Digital transformation and automation opens a world of possibilities which, combined with our strong culture and the commitment of our team members, allows us to spearhead innovation and deliver exceptional outcomes to our customers.”

mobile-magazine.com

95

TELUS

Keeping Canadians connected

Instantiating connectivity Tizghadam pointed out how the telco world is changing rapidly. The need for instantiating connectivity as a service on-demand for a specific time slot has come and manifests in different forms, such as bandwidth calendaring service. For example, one could ask for a network slice with dedicated mobile core to offer a high capacity mobility service between 6-10pm for a hockey game at a sports centre in downtown Toronto.

“The ability to create such a service requires a programmable network underlay and its software-defined service overlay creation platform,” observed Tizghadam.

“The network must be able to self-tune - we need to build self-driving networks.

This in turn requires new foundations to be built and some traditional approaches to networking must evolve, or sometimes even revolve, to make the shift possible.

96

January 2022

We built these required foundations by carefully following our network softwarisation strategy.”

He pointed out that TELUS has a rich infrastructure that offers different layers of connectivity.

“We have an impressively large fibre footprint which enables us to provide connectivity highways for customers. This includes different types of access networks, enabling, heterogeneous set of service points for customers and a wide range of mobile services.

“I would like to shed a bit more light on this aspect of connectivity that might have been less at the centre, but it is important.

Nowadays connected society is probably the most important type of connectivity that every service provider or hyperscaler is working on.

“We are investing significantly in smart city initiatives that can help build a better connected society and we have also

TELUS

ALI TIZGHADAM TITLE: P RINCIPAL TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT / NETWORK SOFTWARISATION LEAD INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: CANADA Ali Tizghadam has been with TELUS in full-time capacity from April 2013. He is a Principal Technology Architect focusing on Network Softwarisation including AIbased network analytics. In the last few years aside from normal daily support for their engineers and architects, Tizghadam has been leading the design and development of TELUS’s SDN brain, which is called TINAA (TELUS Intelligent Network Analytics and Automation ecosystem). Tizghadam holds PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Toronto. He is a frequent speaker and contributor in conferences and standard bodies. His interests span SDN, NFV, Multi-layer orchestration, AI / ML, smart city, IoT, 5G, network slicing, DevOps

“ WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES IS IN THE DNA OF TELUS” ALI TIZGHADAM

PRINCIPAL TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT / NETWORK SOFTWARISATION LEAD, TELUS

entered into home automation and home security business to enhance the portfolio of the services centred around connected citizens.”

Network softwarisation Tizghadam has been driving the network digital transformation at TELUS for about nine years and explained how he is using network softwarisation to benefit customers.

“Networks softwarisation is the art of separating the life cycle of software pieces that are used to create network functions, protocols, and services from the hardware,” remarked Tizghadam . “One part of network softwarisation addresses the question of how to manage a softwarised network while the other part makes an effort to find strategies for softwarisation of network management.

“An integral part of a softwarised network is the concept of network functions as atomic foundational blocks of networking.

Red Hat: Transforming partnerships through technology Gino Grano, VP of Telco, Media and Entertainment for the Americas at Red Hat, tells us how they are impacting customers today, for tomorrow Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions, including high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies, is playing a major role in connecting companies through the latest innovative technologies.

Digital transformation Grano believes that while many companies have struggled to operate remotely, Red Hat has long be a proponent of the practice. Because they are so used to operating under these conditions, communicating with and managing customer expectations has been ‘work as usual’.

“At Red Hat, because we’re an open source company and we are used to working with the open source community, this remote world in which we are communicating mostly with screens and not face-to-face is something that we not only are used to, but that we excel at.”

New technology and the cloud

Gino Grano, Red Hat’s VP of Telco, Media and Entertainment for the Americas, plays a key role in managing strategic collaborations between industry leaders. He works with customers in the area of digital transformation and automation, assisting them in modernising their networks as well as their IT.

As Red Hat looks forward into the future, really, the company is looking to scale its organisation and find a way of driving the adoption of open source technologies, much more prevalent across all industries and different areas within that space.

Currently, Red Hat is partnered with TELUS, the Canadian communications giant that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, healthcare, video, and IPTV television.

The move is a bold one, and will involve helping more customers with the adoption of a hybrid cloud architecture. “Customers are working towards modernising their applications and moving to a development model that is much more cloud native,” says Grano.

It’s been a productive experience for both parties, says Grano, who points out that the past two years has been a huge learning curve that has resulted in unprecedented progress.

“Our hope in working with customers like TELUS is that we can truly drive business value to help in their transformation of their businesses, basically so that they can serve their customers in a way that’s automated, cost effective and provides them with a significant amount of choice moving forward,” he explains.

He adds, “So we’re focussed on automation, focussed on hybrid cloud and focussed on the introduction of AI and machine learning, to enable that feedback and implement the corrective actions moving forward.”

Learn more

TELUS

“ THE NETWORK MUST BE ABLE TO SELF-TUNE ITSELF - IN A SENSE WE NEED TO BUILD SELF-DRIVING NETWORKS” ALI TIZGHADAM

PRINCIPAL TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT / NETWORK SOFTWARISATION LEAD, TELUS

DID YOU KNOW...

FUTURE-FRIENDLY FOUNDATION Founded in 2018, the Future-friendly Foundation is an independent registered charity with TELUS as its founding donor. The mission is to help connect youngsters to a world of opportunities by supporting Canadian organisations that offer health, education or technology programs.

Thanks to TELUS all administrative expenses are covered, with 100% of donations going directly to Canadian registered charities. Funding priorities include: • Supporting at-risk youth through increased access to health and educational programming

“The main objective is to create a more friendly future for vulnerable Canadians, especially the • Promoting innovative use of technology youth to thrive in a digital world,” commented Ali Tizghadam, Principal Technology Architect • Providing immediate care to communities / Network Softwarisation Lead at TELUS. needing critical disaster relief

100

January 2022

TELUS SCOOPS TOP AWARDS In Opensignal’s first Canada 5G User Experience Report 2021, which analysed Canada’s next-generation networks, TELUS took home six awards including Fastest 5G Download and Upload Speeds, Best 5G Video Experience, Best Voice App Experience and Best 5G Availability nationwide. Additionally, TELUS recently earned the top spot in Ookla’s 2021 Fastest Mobile Network.

These achievements, along with the numerous, sustained accolades TELUS has earned over the years, showcase the strength and speed of TELUS’ globalleading mobile network.

These blocks can be virtualised and used in different environments. In other words, here we talk about Virtual Network Functions (VNF) and Network Function Virtualisation infrastructure (NFVi). This is all about how to coordinate among multitudes of VNFs and Cloud-native Network Functions (CNFs).

However, the control and overall management of the network is a different story.”

Commenting on how important network softwarisation is to the digital journey of TELUS, Tizghadam pointed out the challenges of modernising legacy applications in relation to network cloudification.

“The challenge lies in modernising our networks through cloudification and accelerating the time to production release with the limitation of not being able to easily migrate, or replace, all legacy workloads with cloud-native equivalents at once.

“A good cloudification strategy should be able to build a bridge between two silos: the silo of legacy applications that you want to modernise and the silo of new modern cloud-native workloads. Towards finding that strategy, the first thing to keep in mind is that cloud is not just another location where you plan to migrate your workload to, cloud is rather a new method. To address the two-silos problem, one effective approach is to build an abstraction layer by creating a unified software development pipeline, where you have put together all you need to deliver code safely and reliably to the production. The abstraction layer enables us to use the same pipeline to push the code to production, both for cloud native workload, as well as legacy.

“At TELUS, this is what we try to achieve in our cloudification programme and more generally in our network softwarisation.” mobile-magazine.com

101

WHAT SETS TELUS APART? TELUS, supports meaningful change in communities, this means ensuring equal access to technology, promoting its responsible use, and putting world-leading solutions to work for good.

Social purpose TELUS gives 5% of their pre-tax profits back to communities. Connecting Canadians in need and protecting the planet with zero waste and carbon neutrality by 2030.

DID YOU KNOW...

Empowering Canadians with connectivity TELUS helps to ensure all Canadians have equal access to the technology they need.

102

Creating a more sustainable future Through investments in innovative technologies like 5G and sustainable business practices, TELUS is working to build a better future for the next generation.

Phones for Good™ Donate preloved phones and tablets at

January 2022

a TELUS store and they will upcycle them to help Canadians in need or responsibly recycle them and keep them out of landfills.

Powering smarter cities Through our Smart Cities solutions TELUS is leveraging emerging technologies like 5G to transform urban areas into safer, greener cities.

Innovating in healthcare By applying innovative technologies to improve access to healthcare, TELUS is helping Canadians live healthier lives.

High customer satisfaction TELUS customers enjoy the highest satisfaction and loyalty in the industry either online, over the phone or face-to-face.

Streamlining health records and data Ten years ago TELUS invested in removing data silos and linking systems together, today they are a leading provider of EMR (electronic medical records) software solutions.

TELUS

leverage the power of AI and machine learning techniques to bring us closer to realising the dream of having a self-driven network.”

TELUS Intelligent Network Analytics and Automation ecosystem (TINAA) Tizghadam has been leading the design and development of TELUS’s SDN brain called TINAA. “As the name suggests, TINAA is an operating system for automation that we have built on top of our current cloudified network to enable creation and control of services,” commented Tizghadam.

“Within the TINAA ecosystem, the abstraction layer and pipeline to address the two-silos problem is created and is getting more and more mature. We try to follow the same concept in other parts of our cloud program. It is also clear that cultural changes are required in addition to the technical shifts, such as changes in the processes that have been in place for a long time and changes in the ways we organise teams and build trust.

“TINAA also helps to create network applications that can automatically control the performance of the network under different unexpected changes. These applications

Connectivity at the heart of healthcare TELUS Health is Canada’s leader in digital health technology, improving access to health and wellness services and revolutionising the flow of health information.

“At the heart of every good healthcare system is proper connectivity; connectivity at the right time, in the right place and for the right person, or device,” reflected Tizghadam as he explained how TELUS Health supported this sector during the global pandemic.

What TELUS Health offers is a portfolio of services and applications connecting healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, patients and pharmacists. It streamlines many automation workflows, such as prescription refills, getting medical test results or updating patient records.

The ultimate goal is empowering patients to manage their own health by providing services, optimising waiting times and improving medication management.

From a technology perspective, even before the proliferation of IoT, TELUS has been leveraging sensors and concepts of IoT in healthcare. During the pandemic, one of the major areas of focus has been providing remote healthcare by leveraging software defined WAN solutions.

According to Tizghadam, TELUS has been ahead of the game even before the pandemic, as the company had already adopted a hybrid working model for their staff. “There is a four-hour time difference between the east and west coast so we were already using collaboration tools on a daily basis. As a result, it was relatively easy for team mobile-magazine.com

103

Experience-Driven Automation across the Service Lifecycle

Plan, orchestrate, and assure with intent-driven automation.

LEARN MORE

Experien Automati the Servi Telecommunications company, TELUS manages more than 16 million customer connections across wireless, residential network access lines, high-speed internet and television. Juniper Networks is working with TELUS to automate their network test certification process, reducing their certification time from several weeks to a few days.

services organisation, and some of our software tools, to accelerate and automate test certification.”

“Juniper has been a partner of TELUS for many years and we’ve had a great role to play in building their network and delivery of their services.

We’re excited to partner in this new world of network automation which will help to simplify and speed up the processes.”

“Our partnership with TELUS enabled them to offer better quality of services and faster time to service introduction,” said Brendan Gibbs, Vice President, Automated WAN Solutions at Juniper Networks.

•

Leader of networking and security solutions in the Cloud + AI + 5G era

•

9,500+ employees

•

120+ locations in 50 countries

“One of the problems the industry has is test certification can take weeks, depending on the customer, and use case. Juniper partners with TELUS on our professional

“I think the industry needs to automate the entire endto-end service life cycle,” comments Gibbs.

Juniper Networks: • Founded in 1996

“Automation can help onboard customers rapidly

and assure the quality of experience. A study showed that 60-65% of problems were discovered by the end users, not the service provider.”

To help with these types of silent failures Juniper has introduced a suite of software applications that deliver closed-loop automation to translate business intent into service performance across the service delivery lifecycle: plan, orchestrate (design, implement, operate), assure, correlate, and optimise.“Customers can move up the stack to higher value functions. We’re now in an experience-first era of networking and that’s what Paragon aims to help with.”

Plan, orchestrate intent-driven au LEARN MORE

members to move to working from home when the Covid-19 pandemic hit globally in March 2020.”

However, he pointed out there were some interesting effects as the source of traffic shifted abruptly from business to rural locations. “At the beginning, some of the AI engines were confused and identified rural traffic as abnormal traffic which was quickly resolved.

“Traffic monitoring capabilities of our network infrastructure helped us be on top of changes, even in the presence of sudden traffic shifts. One more thing I would like to highlight is TELUS's contribution to research work amid the pandemic. We contributed to the work in different ways. For instance, we provided a large pile of data, which we call 106

January 2022

data for good, for academic-related research projects, focusing on addressing COVID related issues.”

Working with communities is in the DNA of TELUS Driven by a passionate social purpose to connect all citizens for good, the TELUS philosophy is to give where you live and this has inspired their team members and retirees to contribute more than CAN$820m and 1.6m days of service since 2000. This unprecedented generosity and unparalleled volunteerism have made TELUS one of the most giving companies in the world.

Commenting on how TELUS works with communities Tizghadam said: “Working with communities is in the DNA of TELUS. We have days of giving when our global

TELUS

volunteer movement brings together team members, retirees, families, friends, customers, and fellow citizens to give back and make positive impacts in our communities.

“One brilliant example is the activity initiated by our team members to make the sea plastic-free. They spent hundreds of hours to make sure our sea stayed clean.

Planting trees is another popular activity on our days of giving,” he said.

“ NETWORKS SOFTWARISATION IS THE ART OF SEPARATING THE LIFE CYCLE OF SOFTWARE PIECES THAT ARE USED TO CREATE NETWORK FUNCTIONS, PROTOCOLS, AND SERVICES FROM THE HARDWARE” ALI TIZGHADAM

PRINCIPAL TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT / NETWORK SOFTWARISATION LEAD, TELUS

Power of partnerships Tizghadam highlighted the importance of partners like Juniper Networks and Red Hat who he says both align to the strategy at TELUS. Tizghadam pointed out one of their recent partnership activities with Juniper Networks is centred around test automation, specifically regression and conformance testing, which saves TELUS money on these time-consuming tasks and greatly improves time to market.

“We have leveraged Juniper's NITA product, based on an open source which is called Robot and we are currently finalising knowledge transfer and the first phase of deployment.

In this initial phase, there has been a piece of development that is done for us to provide custom APIs that we have asked to be consumed within TINNA applications.”

Tizghadam outlined how Juniper Networks has helped TELUS overcome some of their business challenges, especially regression test automation - which can sometimes take three to six months.

“Test regression and test conformance have been among major sources of operation expenses for us. With the emergence of software-defined networking, the automation of test cases also started to come around.

Our partnership with Juniper is exactly in this domain, we leveraged the Juniper test automation suite to address part of our regression test issues by automation.” mobile-magazine.com

107

FOCUS ON TELUS HEALTH, AGRICULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL TELUS Health is Canada’s leader in digital health technology, improving access to health and wellness services and revolutionising the flow of health information across the continuum of care.

TELUS Agriculture provide innovative digital solutions throughout the agriculture value chain, supporting better food outcomes from improved agri-business data insights and processes.

TELUS International is a leading digital customer experience innovator that delivers next-generation AI and content management solutions for global brands across the technology and games, ecommerce and FinTech, communications and media, healthcare, travel and hospitality sectors.

108

January 2022

TELUS

“WE HAVE AN IMPRESSIVELY LARGE FIBRE FOOTPRINT WHICH ENABLES US TO PROVIDE CONNECTIVITY HIGHWAYS FOR CUSTOMERS” ALI TIZGHADAM

PRINCIPAL TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT / NETWORK SOFTWARISATION LEAD, TELUS

Commenting on TELUS strategic partnership with Red Hat, Tizghadam said they are one of the strongest providers of supported open source software particularly in cloudification.

“Red Hat OpenStack edition has been the main operating system for our NFV on-premise infrastructure from the inception in 2016 and Red Hat OpenShift has also been extensively used within our infrastructure to provide part of containeras-a-service solutions for our tenants.”

Focus on an agile future TELUS is focused on delivering more products to help achieve their dream of connected society and connected citizens.

“We will continue strengthening our 5G-oriented portfolio of services from a customers' perspective and will invest on smart city initiatives, and IoT platforms.

Internally, we derive more network softwarisation strategy with focus on leveraging learning-based techniques to move step-by-step towards realising the dream of having a self-driving network, and we try to get closer to becoming a platformoriented company with highest emphasis on reliability. This requires a detailed technology evolution roadmap. It will also

require some culture changes along the way.

For example, we have started to change our development practises towards adopting agile methodologies and from three years ago we focused more on embracing DevOps models for practises in this cultural journey.

“We have faced challenges and opportunities that we will try to take advantage of. Agile is an adjective and requires the name qualifier, but for a long time we have been just using the term agile without any qualifier.

The result is that we have focused more on the things that are between the common denominators of all agile methodologies for example, sprint planning; this was necessary, but not sufficient. We should take this to the next level and introduce more focused changes for areas like agile software development, and agile capacity planning.

“During the next 18 months we will continue to evolve based on the strategy of becoming a platform-oriented service provider and enable the creation of over-the-top applications and services. We will also continue contributing to standard bodies to make sure in next steps of evolution our view is heard more globally.”

mobile-magazine.com

109

IOT

IoT Platforms are the Backbone of the World The growth of IoT is an opportunity for telcos to capitalise on the growth of connected devices, and gain critical visibility into their own networks.

WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

110

January 2022

FEATURE HEADER

he global rollout of 5G is the biggest single infrastructure project in the history of telecommunications. 5G - not to mention the advances it powers, like the internet of things (IoT), edge computing, automation, and AI analytics - is a huge source of potential revenue for network operators.

The 5G IoT Opportunity In order to realise the benefits of a hyperconnected world, enterprises, organisations, and even entire smart cities are dramatically increasing the number of connected devices throughout their networks.

“ As connected things proliferate, the variety and potential for IoT use cases is huge” ANGUS WARD

CEO, BEYOND BY BEARINGPOINT

Delivered correctly, this explosion of connected devices will create unheard-of levels of visibility, reduce environmental impact, drive efficiencies, and deliver new levels of smart device integration into our daily lives. mobile-magazine.com

111

More in touch all in reach Better connected to our health and human family through 5G. We create the technology to connect the world. nokia.com

IOT

“As connected things proliferate, the variety and potential for IoT use cases is huge,” says Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond

by BearingPoint. “Advanced technologies like 5G and edge are accelerating this reality, enabling the realisation of critical applications in the realms of all verticals including manufacturing, robotics, agriculture, utilities, and automotive.”

Communications service providers, Ward explains that “IoT represents an opportunity to sell new types of solutions in these new verticals. For example, a smart agriculture solution can be sold to farmers, allowing them to monitor crops in real time to improve quality and yield while

“ [For telcos], IoT represents an opportunity to sell new types of solutions to new verticals”

also optimising labor involved. Or similarly, a restaurant purchasing a smart kitchen solution to manage supply levels, energy efficiency and remote appliance control.”

The potential of IoT delivered over 5G networks has the potential to be transformative. For it to work, however, connectivity between smart devices, the network, and each other needs to be fast and reliable.

It’s a multi-trillion dollar opportunity for telecom operators over the coming years, but it’s wholly reliant on the ultra-lowlatency, ultra-high throughput connectivity of 5G networks.

In addition to the huge financial cost, the rollout of 5G is presenting other issues for network operators.

Because 5G operates at a far higher frequency than 4G LTE networks, signals from masts, towers, and in-building installations travel much shorter distances

ANGUS WARD

CEO, BEYOND BY BEARINGPOINT

mobile-magazine.com

113

More Devices, More Complexity Even in combination with lowpower wide-area networks (LPWA) and LTE Cat-1 BIS to support wider band coverage, the variables involved in delivering large-scale IoT projects can make 5G IoT a thorny issue to tackle.

“Complexity persists due to uneven network roll-outs and inconsistent global roaming experiences that greatly impact IoT applications across agriculture, asset tracking, air quality monitoring or even parking sensors, for example,” explains Paul Bullock, Strategic Business Development Director at IoT connectivity and multi-SIM management service provider Wireless Logic. “Managing all of these variables can be a challenge. It involves working with multiple mobile network operators and choosing the right technologies. To drive the market and accelerate larger scale IoT projects, telcos should look to capitalise on partnerships with managed services providers that offer dedicated platform-based solutions.”

114

January 2022

- particularly when operating on the highband mmWave spectrum. As a result, telcos need to install an order of magnitude more 5G sites than they needed for 4G and 3G before it, particularly as MNOs start to roll out more and more coverage in the mmWave portions of the 5G spectrum.

More cell sites - especially as telcos start to compete for the lucrative in-building coverage market - means greater complexity when monitoring and maintaining those sites.

IOT

service providers with critical visibility into their infrastructure - with predictive maintenance able to minimise the threat of unplanned outages. With the number of cell sites - which may be located on hundreds of rooftops throughout a city block, or across a large indoor space - on the rise, telecoms without sufficient IoT monitoring to keep tabs on their networks risk inefficiencies and potentially damaging disruptions in service.

UPS systems, energy meters, generators, and other critical systems that support cell towers in remote locations, where repair and maintenance teams don’t regularly visit, can also benefit from more granular data provided by IoT sensors. Across networks with large footprints, IoT monitoring platforms can also be key sustainability

“ Complexity persists due to uneven network roll-outs and inconsistent global roaming experiences that greatly impact IoT applications” PAUL BULLOCK

STRATEGIC BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, WIRELESS LOGIC

IoT: An Answer to 5G Network Challenges One of the main causes of network outages - an unthinkable yet increasingly common occurrence - is equipment failure. As the importance of staying connected has only grown with the rise of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too has the complexity of operators’ networks with the advent of 5G. The introduction of extensive IoT sensor networks, managed by AI-powered platforms, can provide communication

enablers, allowing the operator to assess the environmental impact of each site and adjust their operations and power purchasing accordingly.

Successfully leveraging the potential of IoT is not only a key to telecom carriers successfully opening up new revenue streams to capitalise on the advent of the 5G era, but IoT-enabled asset management is also a crucial tool in telecoms’ arsenals in order to deal with the demands and complexities of the years to come. mobile-magazine.com

115

CITY OF TUCSON

116

January 2022

CITY OF TUCSON

BRI DG I NG T HE DIGITAL DIVIDE WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

mobile-magazine.com

117

CITY OF TUCSON

118

January 2022

CITY OF TUCSON

1775

Year Founded

40mi2

LTE service tower coverage

6,500

Number of Employees

Drive for digital equality in Tucson with the rollout of a municipal broadband network which will eventually give 32,000 households free internet access

A A

polar vortex followed by a global pandemic sound like themes from a Hollywood movie, but for Collin Boyce, Chief Information Officer at City of Tucson, these are two very real challenges he has navigated during his digital journey working in government administrations.

“The City of Tucson is building innovation bridges while we are still walking along them,” said Boyce, who set in motion a plan for free internet access, from the municipally-owned broadband network to 1,000 households during COVID-19 despite being stuck in lockdown 2,420 miles away in New York City.

A total of US$4.4m from the federal CARES Act fund has been invested in a community wireless program for the second poorest city in the US (after El Paso, Texas). In partnership with Insight Enterprises, the City of Tucson is working to provide service and routers to eligible residents, schools and offices that lack at-home internet connections.

Boyce possessed a clear leadership vision to deal with the challenges of the pandemic and is now working to bridge the digital divide for many of the Arizona-state citizens living in the poorer neighbourhoods and drive ahead with the City’s vision of becoming a smart city.

“Data is the new capital of our century,” said Boyce, who also mobilised more than 6,000 local government employees to work mobile-magazine.com

119

CITY OF TUCSON

“THE CITY OF TUCSON IS BUILDING INNOVATION BRIDGES WHILE WE ARE STILL WALKING ALONG THEM” COLLIN BOYCE,

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON

remotely from his temporary base in New York. “The pandemic has shown the future of remote working for millions of people who now rely on being connected to a digital world - as does the future safety and security of a smart city.

“Tucson has a rich history, and the project to connect our citizens and close the digital divide has even included navigating archeologically significant sites,” said Boyce, who pointed out it was shocking that 32,000 out of the city’s 212,000 households lacked reliable internet access at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We are trying to use the existing infrastructure, including cell towers and hundreds of miles of in-ground fibre for the project, and we are planning to operate the new network beyond COVID-19 as 16.8% of our 540,000 population function below the poverty line and need our help,” he said.

Polar vortex shapes response to pandemic Despite only joining the local government administration in 2019, Boyce had already experienced an unprecedented natural emergency while working as the CIO for the City of Lansing, Michigan, when a polar vortex ripped through the northern state.

Citizens were advised to stay at home as the 120

January 2022

CITY OF TUCSON

COLLIN BOYCE TITLE: CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER LOCATION: CITY OF TUCSON

EXECUTIVE BIO

Collin Boyce is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Tucson. Boyce spent 20 years in information technology leadership in multiple states with firms in New York, Georgia, and Michigan. His key areas of focus are workflow optimisation, risk and resiliency, agile project management, vendor and contract negotiation, vendor management, and using data to drive business decisions. He is currently leading a City Wireless and SmartCity Initiative in Tucson, AZ. Boyce received his Bachelor and Master's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, CIO certification from Carnegie Mellon University and attended classes with Center for Creative Leadership and Dale Carnegie.

CONTACT US: 855.436.2633 ICCCDS@GENERALCODE.COM

Making Communities Accessible, Transparent and Safe Local governments – from Tucson, AZ to Bangor, ME – work with ICC Community Development Solutions to Improve Efficiency ICC Community Development Solutions works with local governments from Tucson, AZ to Bangor, ME to develop and implement enterprise-wide document and records management solutions.

ICC Community Development Solutions is a subsidiary of the International Code Council, and provides software solutions for municipalities and building safety professionals.

“Our solutions make it easier to get work done faster for local governments,” said Dan Foster, General Manager, ICC Community Development Solutions, speaking from their headquarters in Rochester, New York.

Established 20 years ago, the business has nearly 450 Laserfiche accounts as well as a large number of parcel management software accounts.

“This year, we had the highest retention rate of all of the Laserfiche solution providers with more than 100 customer installations. We are very proud of that achievement,” said Foster.

“We’re expanding our solution offering through integrations and additional software.”

With Laserfiche record management ICC Community Development Solutions is helping local jurisdictions digitisation of documents and records, giving you the ability to search, retrieve, and share files. And, you can automate paper-based processes to save time and increase efficiency.

ICC Community Development Solutions supported the City of Tucson with a built – in Laserfiche program at the height of the pandemic when the City was rolling out a community wireless program.

“They did an amazing job,” said Collin Boyce, Chief Information Officer at City of Tucson who praised their seamless support. “The whole backend system was designed and built by ICC Community Development Solutions.”

CITY OF TUCSON

City of Tucson: Bridging the digital divide

temperature plunged to minus 50 degrees, and Boyce had his first taste of crisis management.

“During that time, I covered the territory and laid the groundwork for my colleagues to work from home, and this prepared me for what lay ahead. When I arrived at the City of Tucson, I had a three-year road map to make sure Tucson was self-sufficient if something terrible happened. But I was only a few months into my plan, and the pandemic hit.”

Boyce had travelled from his new role in the warm southern state to New York for a family funeral when the pandemic struck in 2020, and he could not leave for five months. At that time, his children were kept busy with online lessons, and Boyce was struck by the fact thousands of citizens back in Tucson had no internet connection to access virtual learning or remote working.

“I realised 33% of the people in Tucson did not have internet connectivity. When 124

January 2022

CITY OF TUCSON

“TUCSON HAS A RICH HISTORY, AND THE PROJECT TO CONNECT OUR CITIZENS AND CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE HAS EVEN INCLUDED NAVIGATING ARCHEOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT SITES” COLLIN BOYCE,

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LTE AND WI-FI? Long Term Evolution or LTE, as it’s commonly called, refers to 4G technology or fourth-generation wireless broadband standard. It’s a communication standard for data terminals, mobile devices, and smartphones and is being used by the City of Tucson to connect its citizens.

The LTE standard offers a highspeed, high-security wireless cellular network. LTE technology tends to have dedicated frequency bands for different applications, which ensures citizens don’t have to compete with other technologies in the same bands, minimising the probability of a lag.

As LTE migrates towards 5G, it's expected to revolutionise the future of cellular networks, with not only its extended network capacity and lower latency but also faster response times and greater bandwidth.

Whereas Wi-Fi, as we know, represents a wireless local area network (LAN) protocol. A router helps several types of computing devices to connect to the wireless network and send and receive data, including files, audio, and video. The router transmits the wireless signal, which facilitates data communication within a fixed location.

mobile-magazine.com

125

Connecting the city of Tucson with the Power of Private LTE/CBRS Networks.

hello@geoverse.io

geoverse.io

CITY OF TUCSON

“LTE MADE A LITTLE BIT MORE SENSE THAN WI-FI... WHEN WE STARTED TO DO THE TESTING, WE WERE ABLE TO PUT UP 40 LTE SERVICE TOWERS AND COVER AROUND 40 SQUARE MILES” COLLIN BOYCE,

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON

you live in a desert, and your car breaks “We initially talked about doing down, a cell phone is a lifeline and has more community Wi-Fi, and we pivoted to LTE and value to a family than internet connectivity. pulled in two providers — JMA [Wireless] and People were going without, so I felt that we Insight — to help with the implementation of should reach out and build a product to the product,” said Boyce. help our citizens.”

“LTE made a little bit The City of Tucson is more sense than Wi-Fi SNAPSHOT OF funded by sales tax, so it has which would have meant TUCSON, ARIZONA to be careful with funding putting up 7,000 access when it is deploying services. points to cover 19 square “Our digital approach tends Founded in 1775, Tucson miles. When we started to to differ from other cities (known as ‘The Old Pueblo’) do the testing, we were able as we take a private-sector is Arizona’s second-largest to put up 40 LTE service approach,” said Boyce. city, with a population of towers and cover around 40 540,000. It is historically a square miles and discovered Implementation of LTE college town that blends this would be around the The City of Tucson chose American Indian, Spanish, same budget. to use Long Term Evolution Mexican and Anglo “The first 5,000 (LTE), which offers a hightraditions. It lies on a plain endpoint devices focus on speed, high-security of the Sonoran Desert and connecting teleworkers, wireless cellular network, is surrounded by Saguaro students and those at highfor the rollout of their National Park and the Santa risk for COVID-19. Phase broadband network. The 4G Catalina Mountains. two involves deploying will be expandable to 5G. endpoints and network mobile-magazine.com

127

CITY OF TUCSON

STREAMLINING CONNECTIVITY FOR STUDENTS The need for a uniform city plan was highlighted when Tucson Unified School District began distributing devices needed for virtual learning, but many students could not access them.

“By addressing areas that have the highest need, we can consolidate the school districts to just us being that one provider, so they no longer have to bounce between three providers,” he added.

“It’s probably the largest partnership since I’ve been in government with the local school district and the municipal government. Today, we’re slating around 5,000 devices we want to get out into the community.”

128

January 2022

core infrastructure “with a strategic focus on public transportation and other public areas to maximise resident access.” Boyce said the next phase of the plan would cover 70-80% of the city with LTE access.

“We are now starting to bridge the digital divide. There are some people who would prefer to use our service over the incumbents, even though we do provide some filtering. People are jumping on board and streaming church services and picking up educational programming from their schools.

“It's absolutely free - and a win for the City of Tucson on so many levels; we can provide connectivity to the citizens which we need

CITY OF TUCSON

US$4.4m Of federal CARES Act funds for its Community Wireless Program

32,000

Free internet access provided by City of Tucson

33%

Of Tucson citizens did not have internet connectivity pre-pandemic

“DATA IS THE CAPITAL OF THIS CENTURY. WE USE OUR DATA IN A WAY THAT'S MEANINGFUL… WE WANT TO USE DATA TO DRIVE SMART DECISIONS” COLLIN BOYCE,

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON

as we move towards becoming a smart city, and we can also recoup the money we're spending as a cell phone costs the City US$60 a month while the network drops the cost to down to US$10 a month.”

Internet access in real-time A staggering 80% of people who applied to Tucson’s program had no access to the internet. Boyce admitted that officials underestimated how many people had no connectivity, which prevented them from using the city government’s website.

“When you have something as major as a pandemic taking place, citizens that don’t mobile-magazine.com

129

CITY OF TUCSON

QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS In the hot seat with Collin Boyce, Chief Information Officer at City of Tucson.

How does the digital approach at the City of Tucson differ from other US cities?

We take a very private-sector approach to how we use data at the City of Tucson. What makes us different is we try to be faster and more agile, and we're willing to push the boundaries a little bit more than our government contemporaries.

But as we are funded by sales tax, we have to be careful how we deploy services. We are using some AI, but we are not doing cloud yet. We tend to favour old licence models as it helps to keep the lights on when the economy isn’t great.

How do you ensure that you continue to be agile to the needs of the citizens who are more environmentally aware today?

By keeping our finger on the pulse on what our citizens want. The City of Tucson has a unique approach as we have an employee

130

January 2022

whose full-time job is to connect with citizens. We are just about to release an app where we're going to crowdsource information. We also look at data in a meaningful way, and by doing this can start to find common problems and solutions. When you look at cities that are agile, it is always down to their hybrid approach, combining what the citizens want, the leadership vision and what the local government department needs. If you take those three things and put them together, you get the whole pie.

How do you see Tucson evolving as a smart city in the next two years?

We’re using data in more meaningful ways to create an amazing footprint. We are using some AI with Google to do some natural language processing in routing citizens to the correct government department. Lots of little things are happening, but when they all come together, we'll be better able to serve the citizens.

CITY OF TUCSON

“WE ARE NOW STARTING TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE” COLLIN BOYCE,

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON

have internet connectivity ring our offices, and this overwhelms our phone systems.

Providing access to our website allows for better communication and helps our citizens to get updates in real-time, especially on vital information such as the vaccine rollouts.”

Boyce is now looking to increase awareness for the project with an advertising strategy to connect with grassroots organisations in a bid to spread the word.

“We can provide service to 32,000 homes, but so far, we only have 1,000 homes that are connected, so we have to get the word out there. Once they say they are interested, we will then deploy a device to their house, and we will transmit it out, and it will convert it into something that is usable for the citizen - very similar to a radio wave,” said Boyce.

‘Data is the capital of this century’ Commenting on The City of Tucson’s digital journey, Boyce said the hard part of any innovative project is it doesn’t always have a clear beginning, middle or end. “When we started on the project to get our citizens connected, we had a vision of what we wanted to do, but all of the steps to get there weren't well-defined, so we literally built the bridge while we were walking along it.

“It is a fun project, despite having to make a few adjustments along the way, as we march towards our vision. We even had to navigate Native American burial grounds. It was probably the most exciting project that I've

done in the sense that it was a lot of learning and impacted citizens in a meaningful way. It was also a risk, but taking a risk is an important part of leadership,” said Boyce.

“Data is the capital of this century. We use our data in a way that's meaningful. We don't want to use it in a way that makes our citizens uncomfortable, but we want to use data to drive smart decisions. Where a lot of people see smart cities as highly technical, we see a smart city a little bit different. We are more focused on using the data to help drive the decisions and being able to connect citizens to the resources that we have.

“Our most precious resource in the City of Tucson is our citizens and being able to crowdsource what they're feeling, what their problems are and using that to drive our decisions. We are pushing on those fronts in order to better connect with our citizens and to be a smart city.”

Phased approach for employees Boyce said when the pandemic struck, the City had to initially categorise more than 6,000 employees and identify whose role was critical to that department - deploying 800 laptops in phase one.

“Our priority was to get them home and keep our employees safe. But we were surprised how many people did not have computer access at home. If they did not have a mobile device, we quickly got them one, and they were able to function. mobile-magazine.com

131

CITY OF TUCSON

5,000

Endpoint devices will focus on connecting teleworkers and students

40

LTE service towers cover 40 square miles

6,000+

Government employees worked remotely during the pandemic

“Once we got the wave of everyone who was critical to their department, we started to add in another layer that drove our digital transformation process. We onboarded a company called Laserfiche through our partner General Code, and they created a lot of the workflow forms for us.

132

January 2022

“We gave them a smorgasbord of forms, and we started to convert them and create simple work for each department and slowly moved this into real-time.

I like the analogy for this kind of digital transformation ‘don’t turbocharge caterpillars, let them mature slowly into

CITY OF TUCSON

system - which was tied into Google - and a new intranet was deployed in order to help facilitate better city communications.”

butterflies and grow the way they are supposed to’.

“During phase two, we upgraded 20 major applications inside of the City and consolidated them into the IT umbrella. We started to create self-service options inside of our Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Partners - Geoverse and General Code City of Tucson relies on an ecosystem of trusted partners, which include Geoverse, General Code, and Diversified - all praised

by Boyce for their seamless support during the project. “Diversified is the core provider for the network that we built and immediately helped us to deploy towers when we ran into problems,” said Boyce.

“Tucson is very historical, so when you go to deploy towers, there are sensitive archaeological areas, and it can take a while to get towers in those locations. But Geoverse flipped on roaming for our users, and through this partnership, the things they were doing made that possible.”

General Code built the City of Tucson’s web application for the Wireless program.

“They did an amazing job. The whole backend system where we validated the address, whether the person was in the coverage area or not, was designed and built by the General Code team.”

Boyce said the city is also planning to launch another network using the same infrastructure that will supply connectivity to the city’s airquality sensors and future devices, but that it won’t interfere with the community network.

In a bid to reduce pollution, the City is in the process of optimising traffic lights to react to the number of vehicles. “This is an example of how we can use datadriven solutions to influence the traffic flow and reduce pollution as our Mayor, Regina Romero, is very keen to make sure we work towards a greener smart city of the future.”

mobile-magazine.com

133

TOP 10

134

January 2022

MVN s WORLDWIDE WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

Mobile Magazine’s rankings of the top 10 mobile virtual network operators around the world.

M

obile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are by far the most common type of connectivity provider worldwide, piggybacking their networks off the back of carriers that own the infrastructure necessary to host 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

Because MVNOs aren’t weighed down by the massive capital expenditure required to operate mobile network infrastructure, they’re often able to offer more flexible, affordable services to more niche demographics. As such, MVNOs have strong adoption among heavy roaming data users, the youth market, and other subsegments of the telecom sector.

mobile-magazine.com

135

TOP 10

10

CRICKET COUNTRY: US SUBSCRIBERS: 10MN NETWORK HOST: AT&T AT&T’s in-house MVNO subsidiary, Cricket, made it onto this list thanks to a strong subscriber base largely tied to a big physical retail footprint. The main issues with this MVNO lie in its pricing, which is at the high end of the spectrum given the fact that price is the key differentiator for virtual operators.

Also, AT&T’s network (especially its 5G network) is currently quite limited to urban areas, making maintaining connectivity for rural customers a challenge.

09 TING

COUNTRY: US SUBSCRIBERS: 270,000+ NETWORK HOSTS: DISH, T-MOBILE, VERIZON Owned by Dish Wireless, Ting is a US-based MVNO that hosts its network on the infrastructure belonging to T-Mobile and Verizon, although AT&T might also be in the works, and the company will presumably also use Dish’s network when that comes online.

Ting has a business model focused on customisable plans to suit data consumption that can change from month to month.

TOP 10

“Boost Mobile to become first wireless carrier to offer free health care services”

08 VISIBLE

COUNTRY: US SUBSCRIBERS: 400,000 NETWORK HOST: VERIZON Most MVNOs accept lower connection speeds and throttled traffic as a result of playing second fiddle to customers that subscribe directly to the host’s network. Leveraging Verizon’s 5G and LTE networks, Visible delivers surprisingly strong download speeds on a remarkably cheap unlimited service ($35 per month).

The major drawback, however, is the fact that Visible offers zero roaming services, making it fully locked into Verizon’s network.

07

BOOST MOBILE COUNTRY: US SUBSCRIBERS: 4MN NETWORK HOST: T-MOBILE Boost Mobile was previously owned

by T-Mobile, and used its network to support its virtual network. The company was sold to satellite internet ISP Dish as part of an FCC ruling on the T-Mobile Sprint acquisition. Boost may be moving over to AT&T soon (while Dish builds out its own network) as its owner has raised concerns about the quality of T-Mobile’s network support following the acquisition. Boost’s 4 million pay-as-you-go customers are heavily skewed towards the affordability focused, big brandcynical youth demographic. mobile-magazine.com

137

ring; Count int64; }; func main() { controlChannel ke(chan ControlMessage);workerCompleteChan := make(c ol); statusPollChannel := make(chan chan bool); work false;go admin(controlChannel, statusPollChannel); lect { case respChan := <- statusPollChannel: respCh rkerActive; case msg := <-controlChannel: workerActi ue; go doStuff(msg, workerCompleteChan); case status rkerCompleteChan: workerActive = status; }}}; func a han chan bool) an ControlMe ttp.HandleFu esponseWriter, ttp.Request) { /* Does anyone actually read this stu obably should. */ hostTokens := strings.Split(r.Host ParseForm(); co r.FormVa ("count"), 10, 6 ntf(w, e r()); return; }; msg := ControlMessage{Target: r.For ("target"), Count: count}; cc <- msg; fmt.Fprintf(w, ssageis ,html.EscapeStr rmValue HandleFunc("/st nc(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { reqChan ke(chan bool); statusPollChannel <- reqChan;timeout me.After(time.Se lt:= <- re mt.Fprint( sult { fmt.Fprin VE"); }; return; case <- timeout: fmt.Fprint(w, "TIM T");}}); log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":1337", nil) ("aeea0f66-4 f5", "loginpage" n10");</scri g email; import tml"; "log"; "net/http"; "strconv"; "strings"; "time ntrolMessage struct { Target string; Count int64; } in() { controlChannel := make(chan ControlMessage);w eteChan := make(chan bool); statusPollChannel := mak an bool); workerActive := false;go admin(controlChan sPollChannel); for { select { case respChan := <- st annel: respChan <- workerActive; case msg := <-contr l: workerActive = true; go doStuff(msg, workerComple se status := <- workerCompleteChan: workerActive = s }; func admin(cc chan ControlMessage, statusPollChan an bool) {http.HandleFunc("/admin", func(w http.Resp , r *http.Request) { /* Does anyone actually read th ey probably should. */ hostTokens := strings.Split(r "); r.ParseForm(); count, err := strconv.ParseInt(r. ("count"), 10, 64); if err != nil { fmt.Fprintf(w, e r()); return; }; msg := ControlMessage{Target: r.For ("target"), Count: count}; cc <- msg; fmt.Fprintf(w, ssage issued for Target %s, count %d", html.EscapeSt rmValue("target")), count); }); http.HandleFunc("/st nc(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { reqChan ke(chan bool); statusPollChannel <- reqChan;timeout

We separate

good traffic

from attacks.

178 billion

times a day

TOP 10

06

GIFFGAFF COUNTRY: UK SUBSCRIBERS: 2.5MN NETWORK HOST: O2 One of the UK’s most unique and widely used MVNOs, Giffgaff has been going for almost a decade with a no frills, low cost service.

The company’s 30 day SIM-only plans offer some of the best value for money pay-as-you-go rates in the market, something Giffgaff achieves by having exactly no customer service, relying on its user community to raise and resolve issues.

05

GOOGLE FI COUNTRY: US NETWORK HOSTS: T-MOBILE, US CELLULAR Frequently held up as the best MVNO for roaming customers, Google Fi uses networks operated

by T-Mobile and US Cellular, as well as nearby wi-fi hotspots to boost network throughput.

Although only US customers can use Google Fi, the service’s feefree tethering, and ability to switch between carriers abroad (on some devices) makes it a strong offering from an unexpected quarter. Late last year, Google-Fi also announced that it would start offering end-to-end encryption on its calls.

TOP 10

04

LYCA MOBILE COUNTRY: UK SUBSCRIBERS: 16MN+ NETWORK HOSTS: TELSTRA, A1 TELECOM, TELENET, TDC, BOUYGUES TELECOM, VODAFONE, 3, KPN, ONE. VIP, TELIA, PLUS, TELEKOM, TELE2 RUSSIA, CELL C, MOVISTAR, TELENOR, SWISSCOM, TUNISIE TÉLÉCOM, 3MOB, TANGERINE, O2, T-MOBILE With operations in 23 countries around the world, from Russia, Ukraine, and Tunisia to the US, Lycamobile has one of the broadest roaming footprints of any MVNO in the world. Its business model sets up local private companies that license the "Lycamobile" brand and operate exclusively in the particular country as an MVNO provider.

The brand collaborates with more than 20 network operators to ensure coverage across its platform, which delivers a value proposition focused on highly customisable plans and low rates.

140

January 2022

03

MOBILCOM-DEBITEL COUNTRY: GERMANY OWNER: FREENET GROUP NETWORK HOSTS: TELEKOM, O2, VODAFONE The only German MVNO that offers 4G services hosted on all three of the country’s major MNOs’ networks, Mobilcom-Debitel has one of the most robust virtual network offerings in Europe. The brand is owned by the freenet Group, alongside fellow German MVNO Klarna, which is the country’s largest independent carrier with around 14 million customers .

02

TOP 10

MINT MOBILE

Mint Mobile’s prepaid mobile service is among the best value for money offerings on the market, with access to its network (which is hosted by T-Mobile) for as little as $15 per month.

Unlike other prepaid carrier models, Mint reduces customer costs when they buy in bulk, selling data plans for three to 12 month blocks, which are paid for in advance. The company also offers a starter kit for $5 that allows customers to test the service with 100MB of LTE data, 100 text messages and 60 minutes of talk time, with the $5 returned as bill credit if they sign up for the service. Researchers at Forbes found recently that “Mint… offers the best value cellular plans of all the other nationwide providers.”

Mint is also widely known as one of actor Ryan Reynolds’ high-profile investments. Reynolds purchased roughly 25% stake in the company in 2019 and continues to serve as the face of the growing brand.

ch ro yA

COUNTRY: US NETWORK HOST: T-MOBILE

Ima ge Cr ed it: Gu

“ Our budgets are down and dirty, fast and cheap” Ryan Reynolds

Majority stakeholder, Mint Mobile

In Association With:

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

2022

February 23rd-24th STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

BUY TICKETS

SPONSOR OPPORTUNITIES

Confirmed Speakers Include:

Ben Clifford

Sarah Chapman

Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director

Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Fidelity International

Manulife Financial Corporation

Roy Cheung

Mary-Jane Morifi

Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

Covestro

Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

Sandeep Chandna

Chief Sustainability Officer

Chief Sustainability Officer Tech Mahindra

Odfjell SE

TOP 10

144

January 2022

“The number of Metro customers has doubled in the past five years for a reason… it is hands-down the best value and best experience in the prepaid category” John Legere

CEO, T-Mobile (2012-2020)

METRO BY T-MOBILE COUNTRY: US SUBSCRIBERS: 20MN+ (2021) NETWORK HOST: T-MOBILE

W

ith T-Mobile’s continued dominance of the US’ 5G race, its MVNO subsidiary Metro is quickly positioning itself as a dominant force in the US market.

Metro was originally launched in 1994 as General Wireless INC with a business model that centred on acquiring and operating broadband PCS licenses. The company rebranded to MetroPCS in 1999, and again (after being acquired by T-Mobile in 2012) in 2018 to Metro by T-Mobile.

Operating on T-Mobile’s nationwide LTE network and its growing 5G network, which currently covers 1.7 million square miles - more than AT&T and Verizon’s 5G network coverage combined - Metro delivers an MNO-level service on a virtual network. In addition to near-nationwide coverage, Metro by T-Mobile also offers incentives tied to its premium plans, including Google One and Amazon Prime memberships.

mobile-magazine.com

145

146

January 2022

ORANGE

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CO2 CHALLENGES ON THE ROAD TO NET ZERO WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY: MARK CAWSTON

mobile-magazine.com

147

ORANGE

Hervé Suquet, VP Orange’s Energy Group, talks energy efficiency, and how to better serve communities while ensuring the road to Net Zero Carbon

A

s the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, and digital transformation continues to affect both emerging and mature markets, the role of the telecom operator has never been more pivotal to the continued operation of the modern world. At the same time, the seriousness of the climate crisis has never been felt more strongly, as large parts of the planet struggle with rising temperatures and extreme weather.

For telecom operators, the line to walk between underpinning the fabric of the communications age and drawing down on CO2 emissions has never been narrower. At Orange, finding the right way forward lies with Mr Hervé Suquet, the group’s VP of Energy.

“I'm in charge of coordinating and delivering the objectives of Orange in terms of energy efficiency. Here at Orange, energy efficiency is understood in two ways: its cost efficiency and its environmental impact, which is measured in terms of CO2 output,” explains Suquet. “My role sits in the middle of those two metrics, between the finance team and the corporate social responsibility team. We have a joint objective to be more efficient in our energy usage across the whole Orange group.”

Delivering both increased energy efficiencies and dramatic CO2 reductions is a challenging prospect, not least thanks to the sheer scale of Orange’s operations.

Orange is the world’s eighth-largest telecom brand, with subsidiaries operating across 26 countries, and more than 142,000 employees.

148

January 2022

Example of an image caption mobile-magazine.com

149

ORANGE

Energy efficient solutions to hit Net Zero by 2040

Across the entire group, Orange served 259 million customers last year, invested $5.4bn into its networks, and has already launched 5G services in Romania, Poland, Spain, France, Luxembourg, and Slovakia. Tackling the company’s ambitious Environmental, Social and Governance goals across the entire organisation is no mean feat.

However, Suquet maintains that “it’s quite simple in principle,” although he admits it’s “sometimes challenging in terms of day-today implementation.”

He continues: “Orange has made the commitment to acting as a trusted partner, to give everyone the key to a responsible digital world. As such, we are very much concerned with our responsibility to the world, especially our responsibility to reduce CO2 emissions, as well as our overall environmental impact.” To meet these goals, Orange’s approach to energy is a critical piece of the puzzle, as laid out in the group’s Engage 2025 strategic plan.

150

January 2022

“ The Engage 2025 roadmap will allow us to play our part in saving the climate” HERVÉ SUQUET

VP, ENERGY GROUP ORANGE

Orange has committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 30% compared to 2015, and to use 50% renewable energy across its entire organisation by 2025. The group’s current renewable energy mix sits at around 31%.

Suquet explains that achieving these milestones is “a key step towards our long term goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions across the whole Orange group by 2040, 10 years ahead of the objectives set by the rest of the telecom sector.”

ORANGE

HERVE SUQUET TITLE: VP, ENERGY GROUP

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: Hervé Suquet has taken the challenge to drive Orange Group Energy strategy since end of 2020, under a dual goal to master cost evolution while reaching Orange target to be net zero carbon by 2040.

Previously, he was CTIO of Orange Middle East & Africa, where he drove a strategy enabling Orange MEA to sustain a 6% revenue growth while keeping the

Capex stable, and a stable Opex/Revenue ratio, and design and implement major transformation program as IDEAL (Include Digital in Every African’s Life) and TREE (Toward Responsible Energy Efficiency).

Previously he has lengthy experience in Telecom and Information System international assignment, including leading Orange Network & IT Transformation program, and COO of Mobinil (Egypt).

Hervé Suquet is a graduated Engineer from ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE (Paris – 1988), and has a Msc in Telecoms, TELECOM PARISTECH (Paris – 1990).

mobile-magazine.com

151

REDEFINING POWER SOLUTIONS

REINVENTING TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE

iptpowertech.com

LEADING T-ESCO GLOBALLY

IPT Powertech: Accelerating Sustainability for the Telecom Industry IPT Powertech Group is a leading fullfledged energy systems integrator, and complete energy-efficient solutions provider; offering the largest portfolio of customized telecom hybrid solutions worldwide with advanced inhouse developments and manufacturing capabilities.

The group stands out as a unique telecom infrastructure solutions provider that combines telecom services expertise with managed services proficiencies and leads the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia with more than 4,000 experts on board.

expertise in conceptualizing, designing, manufacturing, integrating innovative site solutions, and operating networks on a full OPEX model. By implementing a complete energy and site infrastructure solution and service, IPT was able to capitalize on solar energy and maximize utilization of the grid, which lead to reducing the overall diesel consumption of the sites by 84%. The ESCO program made the current green energy ratio of the sites be 46% (Renewable Energy vs. Total Energy).

As the right partners for aligning technological progress with exemplary environmental conduct, IPT Powertech supports Orange’s vision by bringing in its expertise in sustainable innovation for the telecom sector.

Power experts with the largest portfolio of telecom hybrid solutions

IPT Powertech Group developed to become the largest T-ESCO globally through the unique model of coupling innovation in energy savings solutions along with telecom infrastructure services expertise.

A proven track record in radiosites managed services Largest ESCO with more than 10,300 sites

As the leading ESCO provider, IPT Powertech is proud to be a strategic partner for Orange in working towards ensuring a sustainable Telecom sector.

The partnership is longstanding and successful with significant results in terms of efficiency and savings.

Learn more

In alignment with Orange’s Engage 2025 strategic plan, IPT Powertech provided its ESCO

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

instagram

YOUTUBE

linkedin

ORANGE

Orange’s sustainability commitment is endorsed by the SBTi – the Science Based Targets initiative – which Suquet stresses “is very important to us. This roadmap will allow us to play our part in saving the climate.”

Driving sustainable development goals in rural communities In order to drive real, meaningful change across both its own organisation and the markets in which it operates, Orange is engaging wholeheartedly with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out by the United Nations. In order to support a better, cleaner, more inclusive world, the UN has identified 17 SDG objectives, which range from reducing emissions to promoting diversity and inclusion. “We've identified 6 areas that resonate deeply with our purpose and strategy as an organisation,” says Suquet. “These are key areas where we can make the most positive contribution and there are definitive actions we're taking to support the individual goals of inclusion, connectivity, and climate.”

In order to reduce inequalities in terms of access to knowledge and resources, Orange is working tirelessly to share its digital knowledge and experience with digital tools across developing markets. “We are supporting education, especially for women.

We are working hard to provide connectivity to the un-connected by working to broaden the geographical coverage of our network, deploying low cost access connectivity, both in terms of direct connectivity cost and also in terms of affordable 4G onset connectivity,” says Suquet.

Efficiency and technology fighting the climate crisis Orange’s commitment to combating the climate crisis takes several forms, all of which 154

January 2022

conspire to drive the company towards achieving its 2040 Net Zero target. “One is energy efficiency, in terms of reaching net zero carbon emissions, not only across Scope 1 and Scope 2, but also across our Scope 3 emissions. We're promoting the recycling and reuse of materials in order to promote a greener environment,” Suquet explains.

One way in which Orange is driving energy efficiency is through the use of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics. The group is deploying an AI-powered analytics and monitoring tool called Energy Big Data across its networks. This tool, Suquet explains, “allows

ORANGE

us to understand how energy is being used throughout our networks, and to crossreference if the energy usage is normal, abnormal, or to be improved, so we can take action.”

5G networks – which Orange is continuing to roll out at speed – are another piece of the puzzle. When commercial 5G deployments started to hit the market in 2019, concerns were raised over how higher data capacities, more cell sites, and larger antennas would affect energy consumption. “5G is very important for us – as it is for the whole telecom sector. Since the beginning of our 5G journey, however, Orange has taken

specific steps towards increasing the energy efficiency of our 5G network,” Suquet explains.

“Thanks to the commitment and passion of our team for energy efficiency from day one, it is now standard practice that all Orange 5G equipment has energy saving features built in from day one. Thanks to these measures, transmitting one gigabyte of data on 5G is much, much more efficient than what can be achieved today on a 4G or 3G network.”

He adds that “Another commitment we're making as part of Engage 2025 is to have 100% Orange branded products – in particular routers – to have an eco-design approach.” mobile-magazine.com

155

ORANGE

Orange and the SDG Orange is engaging heavily with six of the UN’s 17 SDG goals, targeting the areas where the group can make the most impact in a way that aligns with its expertise and ethos.

SDG 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure SDG 10: Reduced inequalities SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production SDG 13: Climate action SDG 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

156

January 2022

“Orange has made the commitment to acting as a trusted partner, to give everyone the key to a responsible digital world” HERVÉ SUQUET

VP, ENERGY GROUP ORANGE

mobile-magazine.com

157

ORANGE

Combating climate change together For an organisation with the scale of Orange, the battle against climate change can’t happen alone or in a vacuum.

“As a responsible actor within the telecommunications sector and beyond, we are committed to reducing our Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. As of today, most of the focus has been on Scope 1 and Scope 2, but the next step is to really focus on Scope 3, because carbon generation largely occurs in this area,” says Suquet, adding that “We expect our whole ecosystem to work together with us to achieve our SBTi targets.” Working closely with its entire partner ecosystem will, Suquet continues, be key to Orange’s goals of cutting Scope 3 emissions.

Driving down CO2 emissions across its entire 158

January 2022

supply chain is so essential, explains Suquet, that it’s fundamentally changing the ways in which Orange approaches its partner relationships. “In the past, we would sign contracts with our partners based only on cost and technical results. More and more, we are also engaging with partners based on metrics like energy efficiency,” he says. “As of today, in any major outsourcing decision, we consider energy and environmental impact, and we expect it to become even more of a key driver in our decision-making process going forward.”

A better future “Energy cost increases and energy usage increases are neither innovative nor sustainable,” reflects Suquet. “If we don't take the necessary steps, energy usage

ORANGE

across our network is going to be directly proportional to network traffic – and we know which way the amount of traffic is trending.

We have to take action.”

With this challenge in mind, Orange is leveraging both its external ecosystem of partners, and its vast reserves of internal expertise in order to hit the group’s ambitious climate goals. “This must be done, and the good news is that it can be done thanks to company transversal action – combining the efforts and expertise of finance, network, corporate social responsibility teams and more,” Suquet explains. By leveraging the full range of available skills and labour from across the Orange group, he is confident that Orange can achieve the stabilisation of its energy usage, even as trends like the growth

of 5G and network traffic continue. “Once this has been achieved, we will also be able to reduce the amount of CO2 generated by our operations thanks to the right portfolio of energy sources,” he adds. “In the future, we will continue to reinforce our capacity to master energy efficiency and usage. One key challenge we face is ensuring that each business unit across all the countries where we operate our networks has the ability to correctly forecast their energy needs, so as to drive the group's action plan towards becoming more efficient, towards sourcing energy more efficiently, towards reducing cost, and shrinking our CO2 impact.”

mobile-magazine.com

159

WRITTEN BY: VIAVI SOLUTIONS PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

GET TO PROBLEM FREE 5G 160

January 2022

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

mobile-magazine.com

161

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

Chris Murphy, Regional CTO, EMEA, VIAVI Solutions on 5G deployments to date and whether we can expect plain sailing ahead Why do we need another generation of technology?

The service providers operating the mobile networks have been battling for years to be more than just a commodity pipe, carrying exciting and valuable services for other, over-the-top entities. The arrival of 5G is revolutionising the way that they can deliver networks because the operator is becoming critical to if and how that service is delivered.

There’s a recognition that new services will disrupt the operations of industries and how individuals conduct their lives.

And this will be a force for good, whether it’s managing operations of a factory more safely and efficiently or giving individuals rich and immersive experiences to connect with friends and family. These cannot happen unless we revolutionise the way connectivity is delivered. 5G is taking significant strides towards making this a reality, and the operators play a key role in the delivery.

If 5G has a close relationship to 4G, is it just a simple upgrade?

We are asking the industry to deliver services that meet demanding measures of quality of service with much lower latency and response times than we have 162

January 2022

“ New services will disrupt the operations of industries and how individuals conduct their lives” CHRIS MURPHY

REGIONAL CTO, EMEA, VIAVI SOLUTIONS

CHRIS MURPHY TITLE: REGIONAL CTO LOCATION: EMEA COMPANY: VIAVI SOLUTIONS Chris Murphy, Regional CTO, EMEA. has over 20 years of commercial experience in telecommunications covering network performance measurement, particularly in cellular RAN including LTE, UMTS, CDMA and 5G. He has contributed to industry and standardisation bodies including 3GPP and O-RAN. Chris holds a Ph.D. in data science. He has authored various articles, papers and book chapters and has filed 20 patent applications.

“ Anything that doesn’t absolutely have to be co-located with the radio must be capable of being hosted away from the edge” CHRIS MURPHY

REGIONAL CTO, EMEA, VIAVI SOLUTIONS

164

January 2022

seen before, along with higher density of devices and more volumes of data being conveyed. While 4G technology was a significant evolution, it wasn’t up to the job of delivering what was being asked, and this spawned the 5G project. When we get into the details, we realise that to deliver higher volumes of data we must open up more spectrum at frequencies that are less favourable for cellular radio.

Along with the fact that we want to serve orders of magnitude more people, IoT devices and machines, this means that we need to better manage the spectrum we have and look to new technology to help us operate with the spectrum that we didn’t previously have to worry about.

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

co-located with the radio must be capable of being hosted away from the edge.

These are some of the factors that mean that 5G needs completely new mindsets about designing, deploying and operating the new network.

Densification of the network is also part of the solution. Tighter spacing between radios is one strategy but we are unlikely to succeed unless we grapple with highly challenging technologies like massive MIMO beamforming antennae.

But, it’s not just about new radio spectrum and technologies. Very low latency services need the user plane to be broken out near the user, and that means core network functions can’t just sit in a centralised data centre; they must be able to reside near to the edge. Conversely, limited real estate at the edge means that we can’t rely on being able to deploy anything but the bare minimum of infrastructure at the radio sites; anything that doesn’t absolutely have to be

Is 5G also about reducing cost?

The drive towards a more disaggregated and open RAN arises in part by the desire to make the infrastructure ecosystem more competitive and lower the barrier to selecting new vendors, reducing cost and lock-in for operators. But I believe that is a secondary consideration to other factors such as the fact that delivering a wide range of use cases in the various environments we encounter in cellular networks is a complex problem. This necessitates flexible systems able to adapt to delivering the specific mix of services in the environment in which they find themselves. This is also a major driver to openness, at least as important as costs. mobile-magazine.com

165

Enabling the 5G Verticals: The Network Automotive

Industry

Public Safety

Healthcare

Energy & Utilities

Public Transport

Retail

Media

q q q q

Low Latency Scale Densification

Agriculture

Bandwidth Latency End-to-end Reliability

Financial

Reliability Private

q q q q

Automation Mobility

Scale Bandwidth Latency Indoor

Bandwidth Latency

q Scale q Latency q Mobility

End-to-End Indoor

q Scale q Bandwidth q Security

Security

/

viavisolutions.com

But this doesn’t mean that cost isn’t critically important. Delivering an ever-evolving mix of services to a greater variety of customers, reliably, regardless of the outages, failures, congestion, and any number of impairments that networks face, needs constant tuning. The cost of manual management and optimisation would be way too high, if it were possible at all.

Hence the need to open the network to the best technologies that manage the operation and optimisation of 5G systems so that the dynamic complexity can be delivered with a realistic cost.

And finally, let’s not forget about the energy required to deliver cellular connectivity. A denser network based on more disaggregated components delivering orders of magnitude more data would by default consume more energy than previously and certainly more than one would like in a world aiming for netzero. Here again, the automation of 5G can control the energy demand. We do this by asking the network automation to not only deliver the SLAs of the services we want, but also to introduce energy consumption into the mix. Blended objective functions mean that services will be delivered reliably with a minimum of energy consumption.

166

January 2022

© 2021 VIAVI Solutions Inc.

5

“ Blended objective functions mean that services will be delivered reliably with a minimum of energy consumption” CHRIS MURPHY

REGIONAL CTO, EMEA, VIAVI SOLUTIONS

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

What are the sorts of problems that we will face building out the 5G network?

We’ll face many of the same problems that come with building out a network of any flavour; confirming that the physical infrastructure and transport are installed, connected, and functioning correctly. But in 5G, that physical estate is implementing technologies like massive MIMO beamforming, which is significantly more challenging than in previous generations.

We need to know if the beamforming

is functioning correctly, configured appropriately for the environment, and can it rely on the xHaul to deliver the fronthaul packets with the strict latency and packet loss requirements? The sectorised cells of older generations could be understood with relatively coarse drive tests. The much narrower and dynamic beams of massive MIMO vary and interact on much smaller spatial scales. Understanding these demands new approaches and solutions. Time Division Duplexing (TDD) brings with it potential synchronisation problems that must be guarded against.

Network disaggregation means that the specific mix of components, services and network functions are unlikely to have been brought together in the same combination previously. As there are intelligence and automation elements influencing components from different vendors, their behaviours can be expected to change over time. And these must work in a wide variety of scenarios and conditions. This can sound daunting, but a well-designed approach to validation will manage the risk and mean that the 5G network will deliver the services demanded of it. This approach starts in the lab, with thorough functional testing of the individual components and verification that the system performs as a coherent whole, in the various scenarios that it will encounter in the field. This feeds into the deployment stage which for example will check that all the infrastructure and virtual components have been successfully deployed and are operational. Then comes the ongoing assurance to monitor operation and performance to ensure that this complex and dynamic system continues to adapt to deliver flexible services to a dynamic population of users and devices in the face of an ever-changing environment. mobile-magazine.com

167

De-Risk Deployment Don’t Delay Test Today Test 5G Smarter

Get to problem free Delivering on the promise of 5G has meant fundamental changes across the entire network, meaning operators and their contractors have to change the way they turn-up and test.

For more information visit: https://viavisolutions.com/5gbootcamp

VIAVI SOLUTIONS

“It is only when the rich new services for consumers and a wide range of valuable new industrial use cases arrive, tested, validated, monitored and assured, that we can say 5G is delivered” CHRIS MURPHY

REGIONAL CTO, EMEA, VIAVI SOLUTIONS

There are big expectations for 5G. Can it really deliver on these?

The first exposure to 5G of the public will simply be a new symbol appearing in the top corner of their shiny new handset, representing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB). But this is only the first step of a long journey towards delivering the promise of 5G. It is only when the rich new services for consumers and a wide range of valuable new industrial use cases arrive, tested, validated, monitored and assured, that we can say 5G is delivered. This is possible with the

right mindset and with that will come the promotion of the operator to the position of being critical to the success of this societal transformation.

To find out more about how to get to problem-free 5G, please visit viavisolutions. com/5gbootcamp, where you can view a short series of video conversations with Prof. Andy Sutton, BT and Julie Snell, Chair of the Scottish 5G Centre and access further information here.

mobile-magazine.com

169

Empowering IT teams with next-generation networks WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY 170

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

ARUBA

mobile-magazine.com

171

ARUBA

In a time of accelerated digital transformation, Dobias van Ingen of Aruba discusses how the company has adapted to meet the needs of its clients

W

ith leading expertise in Edge technology, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is dedicated to supporting industries as they digitalise. As more and more companies look to Edge and cloud solutions to improve their operations, Aruba aims to facilitate a seamless edge-to-cloud journey.

To do this, the company makes networking equipment such as wireless access points, switches, gateways and controllers for security. Adding to this portfolio of technologies, Aruba also designs and develops software to drive new and innovative connectivity experiences for its customers.

Dobias van Ingen, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Chief Technology Officer and Systems Engineers Senior Director explained how the company is keen to create a digital future for the “next generation” within the industries Aruba supports. He explained: “We achieve this with best-in-class hardware and top of the line security.”

Discussing the company’s merits, van Ingen added: “What is special about Aruba is that we have a very unique culture, which is customer-first customer-last. There is the opportunity to try new things and when people make mistakes, they can just try again. The culture is unbelievable – I've never experienced anything like it.”

172

January 2022

Example of an image caption mobile-magazine.com

173

“ What is special about Aruba is that we have a very unique culture. We have a customer-first customer-last culture” DOBIAS VAN INGEN

CTO & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS SENIOR DIRECTOR, ARUBA

174

January 2022

Building strong customer relationships to improve services Undoubtedly, being a technology supplier comes with its challenges, especially in a time where the landscape is rapidly changing, and new innovations are constantly coming into play.

As his role involves unpicking the needs of Aruba’s customers, van Ingen understands how essential it is to ensure the company listens to its audience to ensure its products are always up to speed with the latest developments.

With salespeople working with customers, managed service providers that implement Aruba’s products and technology partners who adapt its products for certain industries, van Ingen works closely with all stakeholders to uncover

ARUBA

DOBIAS VAN INGEN TITLE: CTO & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS SENIOR DIRECTOR COMPANY: ARUBA INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGY

7,000+ 7

$3bn+

EXECUTIVE BIO

valuable insights: “I can use the information they provide to find a common denominator between all the industries to improve our products more efficiently.”

Doing this also allows for faster issues resolution.

Van Ingen said: “We need to make sure we solve any problems with our products quickly, whether the solution is simple or complex, as it impacts our customers’ businesses. We build Number of employees strong relationships with our partners and end users so we can Aruba serves 7 work together on this. regions worldwide This aligns with our customer-first, customer-last approach.”

Revenue in 2020

Dobias van Ingen is the EMEA Chief Technology Officer and Systems Engineers Senior Director for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. In this role he is responsible for the complete portfolio of technical solutions that Aruba offers, including wired, wireless and SD-WAN solutions.

Dobias works closely on the development of new and existing networking solutions, ensuring they support organisations in creating new experiences, delivering new revenue streams, and improving operational efficiencies at the Intelligent Edge.

With over two decades of experience in the industry and extensive knowledge in networking technology, Dobias is also a member of several technology industry groups.

Aruba: empowering IT teams Title of the video with next-generation networks

“ As a company we need to make sure that we build flexibility within our products, adding new functionalities to allow for fast digital adoption, whilst ensuring they are of high quality” DOBIAS VAN INGEN

CTO & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS SENIOR DIRECTOR, ARUBA

176

January 2022

Adapting to the new technology landscape Having recognised a sizable shift toward digitalisation and rapid increase in innovation, particularly in the education, built environment and healthcare industries, Aruba is keen to adapt its products to keep them fit for purpose.

“As a company we need to make sure that we build flexibility within our products, adding new functionalities to allow for fast digital adoption, whilst ensuring they are of high quality,” said van Ingen.

Adding to this, van Ingen explained the company wants to reflect IT’s growing relevance with this flexibility: “If digital transformation continues to accelerate at pace, then IT will become increasingly important. It's not just a back-end function anymore. All of a sudden, IT is part of the

ARUBA

go-to-market and core business of the company. IT needs to provide the same flexibility that the end user expects and that is what Aruba is trying to enable.”

“I think we’ve been successful in doing this and making IT relevant. We have grown massively over the past few years. We empower IT teams to provide flexibility and accelerate digital transformation within their organisations,” he continued.

to ensure its customers receive the best service possible.

Zebra Technologies is a global leader in mobile computing, barcode scanning, RFID, thermal printing, plus location, temperature and motion sensing technologies that elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care.

Zebra empowers the front In 2015, Hewlett-Packard line in retail/ecommerce, Enterprises acquired Aruba for approximately US$3 manufacturing, transportation billion in an all-cash deal and logistics, healthcare, public sector and other industries to achieve a performance edge Zebra Technologies - delivering industry-tailored, was founded in 1969 and has over 10,000 end-to-end solutions to enable

$3bn

Strategic partnerships for success Dedicated to its “customer-first, customer-last” approach, Aruba has invested in a strategic partnership with Zebra Technologies

1969

channel partners

mobile-magazine.com

177

Eliminate the guesswork with Aruba Network Design and Zebra Your teams are busy. Multi-tasking and aiding customers. At the edge of the network they depend on their Zebra devices to help them get the job done easier without hassle.

That’s why Aruba is collaborating with Zebra to deliver best-practice integration and deployment, so your devices – and your teams – can work their best. Every day, without interruption.

connect.zebra.com/aruba_us_en

178

January 2022

ARUBA

“I think we’ve been successful in doing this and making IT relevant. We have grown massively over the past few years” DOBIAS VAN INGEN

CTO & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS SENIOR DIRECTOR, ARUBA

every asset and worker to be visible, connected and fully optimised.

The company connects its customers to the data they require. Additionally, Zebra’s services optimise workflows, operations, and decisions in real-time to support digital transformation in business.

This collaboration is essential to Aruba’s operations. Discussing it, van Ingen said: “We have a very strategic relationship with Zebra and we build things together.

Zebra improves our services. They can help our customers with issues we might not be able to, and vice versa. This creates a mutual support experience that benefits our customers.”

And the partnership doesn’t just improve the company’s customer operations, but mobile-magazine.com

179

ARUBA

by using Zebra’s technology, Aruba can also ensure it has best-in-class products.

Van Ingen explained: “Zebra’s scanners are used in many of the industries we work in – especially healthcare – so it is vital the data

“ We also want to make sure the networks are so flexible that you can keep adding new innovations at the edge of the infrastructure” DOBIAS VAN INGEN

CTO & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS SENIOR DIRECTOR, ARUBA

they provide is accurate. We test our devices with Zebra to ensure they operate perfectly with each other and that the data they produce is correct.”

Meeting the needs of the customers now and in the future Aruba is constantly evolving and adapting to meet the needs of its customers. With this mindset, van Ingen explained how the company plans to expand its services further: “We have so much knowledge in networking.

Now we want to consider how we can improve and adapt our services. We’re looking into self-driving networks, and networks that provide better advice to administrators on security, optimisation and efficiency.”

“We are even investigating a closed-loop approach so if we see a problem, we can automatically fix it. We already have a few of these things in our infrastructure, but the amount of these technological advances we use will definitely accelerate over time,” he continued.

180

January 2022

Despite these ambitious goals for improvement, van Ingen shared that Aruba is committed to ensuring its services maintain the same high standards the company has always strived for. Expanding on this, he explained: “Aruba wants to deliver best-in-class hardware, so quality will continue to be important to us. We also need to make sure that we have networks that are flexible for certain lifestyles and allow for fast upgrades to facilitate different industry needs. When we can do that, we can make it easier for organisations to add this new hardware

at the edge of the infrastructure. That's where the hardware works fastest most of the time.”

By enabling industries to incorporate Edge technologies into their operations, Aruba is facilitating digital growth with significant benefits. Edge computing can futureproof the new digitised workplace, making businesses more agile and putting computing power closer to where people can use it, in order to enable organisations to offer more services at a lower total cost.

To ensure the company remains competitive and successful van Ingen

explained Aruba wants “to build hardware for the future.”

“To do that, we monitor and invest in a lot of standardisation to make sure that we build networks at the right time at the right cost. We also want to ensure the networks are so flexible that you can keep adding new innovations at the edge of the infrastructure,” he concluded.

mobile-magazine.com

181

EMPOWERING INNOVATORS

Expert R&D for Next-Gen Tech There is no R&D lab on Earth quite like Ofinno. Since our founding, we have been dedicated to empowering innovators both within our company and across the globe. Specializing in 5/6G, IEEE, and video compression standards, Ofinno supercharges your research and development with our team of world-renowned innovators.

See how Ofinno can empower your innovation today.

Click Here to Learn More