Mobile Magazine - September 2021

September 2021 | mobile-magazine.com

Sunrise UPC: a new dawn for seamless connectivity

Mobile Security Apps

Telenet: the new era of in-home entertainment

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN IMPROVEMENT Chra Hussain, CCO of Asiacell, talks technology, team building, and always ensuring the customer comes first

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The Mobile Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HARRY MENEAR EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JENNIFER SMITH PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE

CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON DUKE WEATHERILL JORDAN WOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE

MOTION DESIGNER

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

SAM KEMP EVELYN HUANG HABBIE AMOS JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE

MARKETING MANAGER

DAISY SLATER

MARKETING DIRECTOR

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 PRESIDENT & CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

Big tech opts for home-grown chips

Leading electronics makers like Apple and Google are electing to forgo smartphone chips from the market’s leading manufacturers in favour of developing their own.

“We keep running into limits with existing off-theshelf technology solutions, and it’s just really hard to get our most advanced stuff from research teams onto the phone” RICK OSTERLOH, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVICES & SERVICES, GOOGLE

MOBILE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

Google has become the latest smartphone manufacturer to announce plans to ditch a major chipmaker for its own in-house semiconductors. The company announced that the next generation of its Pixel smartphone - slated for launch this coming autumn - will not be powered by Qualcomm’s ubiquitous Snapdragon microprocessors, as was the case with its previous versions of the phone. Instead, Google has debuted its own smartphone chip, the Tensor.

The move came just nine months after Apple announced that it would be severing a 15-year partnership with Qualcomm’s main competitor, Intel, electing instead to rely on its own semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities when powering its laptops.

With the global chip shortage continuing to bite, and smartphone manufacturers looking for new ways to differentiate themselves from an increasingly homogenous market, do Intel, Qualcomm, and other leading chipmakers need to be worried about buying chips “off the shelf” is going to become a thing of the past?

HARRY MENEAR h.menear@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 08 Big Picture 10 The Brief 12 People Moves:

Nadia Hoosen 14 Timeline:

The Metaverse 16 Trailblazer:

Keri Gilder 18 Five Mins With:

Kevin Cho

36

Telecoms

Surviving the Great Resignation

22

46

Complete Focus on the Customer

Intelligent Connectivity of the Future

AsiaCell

Sunrise UPC

92

Technology

The RCS Revolution is Getting Left On Read

68 5G

Revolutionising the Industrial IoT from Low Earth Orbit

102

PCS Wireless

Powering the secondary device market

78

114

New Era of In-Home Entertainment

Fraud and CyberSecurity in a Post-Pandemic World

Telenet

IOT

Top 100 Leaders in Technology To be announced at the Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE Event

September 14th - 16th

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Creating Digital Communities

124

154

Shaping the Future of Procurement

Bridging the digital divide

Vodafone Procurement Company

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142 Top 10

Mobile Security Apps

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Creating Digital Communities

BIG PICTURE

8

September 2021

LEO: the new connectivity frontier Cape Canaveral, Florida

The billionaires aren’t the only ones going to space this summer.

Companies like OQ Technology are continuing to shoot nanosatellites into low earth orbit, fighting for a new connectivity frontier. You can find out more about OQ and the potential for satellite networks to revolutionise the industrial IoT sector later in the issue.

OQ Technology: Tiger-2 nanosatellite blasts off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 last month mobile-magazine.com

9

IN BRIEF “ Satellites in LEO are the only costeffective way to push the network beyond what terrestrial providers can offer”

BY THE NUMBERS

Japan’s NICT doubles the world internet speed record

Previous record (August 2020) 178 Tbps New World Record (June 2021) 319 Tbps

Omar Qaise

Founder and CEO, OQ Technology 

READ MORE

“ [Hybrid] offers a better work-life balance, where employees have more time to take care of their families or themselves” Phil Perry

Head of UK&I, Zoom 

178 tbps

319 tbps

EDITOR'S CHOICE ERICSSON BOSS WANTS TO WAIT FOR 6G TO EMBRACE OPENRAN OpenRAN adoption across 5G networks remains relatively low, and Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm wants to keep it that way, for now…

READ MORE READ MORE

“ The pandemic highlighted just how reliant the world is on telcos, and telcos are finally starting to take notice” Kerstin Trikalitis

CEO, Out The Media 

LEO NETWORKS: VITAL FOR THE FUTURE OF 5G Martin Keenan, Technical Director at Avnet Abacus, breaks down the role of Low Earth Orbit satellite networks in the future of the 5G rollout.

READ MORE

THE LAWS OF ROBOTICS: HOW REGULATION WILL IMPROVE OUR ROBOTS Tom Canning, VP of IoT at Canonical, takes a closer look at the regulation of robotics as automation - driven by 5G and AI adoption - continues to evolve.

READ MORE READ MORE

10

September 2021

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Rot, then Recycle your smartphone Smartphone companies are going about sustainability all wrong.

How so?

The five ‘R’s are in a specific order for a reason.

If manufacturers really want to cut down on e-waste, they should get serious about the first four options.

Reduce: the average consumer buys a new phone every four years. We should be designing phones that last for 10.

Reuse: there are plenty of things you can do with an old smartphone, from donating it to using it as a backup media player.

Repair: the World Economic Forum estimates that making smartphones easier to repair could extend their average lifespan by 33%, saving emissions equivalent to the entire CO2 output of Ireland.

What about Rot? Surely you’re not advocating for a compostable smartphone.

(Partially) biodegradable smartphones could have been a thing since the beginning. The first bioplastic was invented in 1926! And the technology has been more or less ready to go since the 1980s.

Let me guess, it’s not quite as cheap as petroleum-based plastics.

Ding ding ding!

 INDIAN SMARTPHONE ADOPTION Despite having a population that rivals China, India remains a largely untapped market.

Now, everyone from Google and Jio to Apple are fighting to convert more than 450mn Indians into smartphone users.

W A Y

 APPLE After the phenomenal success of the iPhone 12 5G, Apple looks like it’s going all in on 5G, with every single iPhone slated for release in 2022 confirmed as 5G-capable.  ERICSSON Ericsson just lost out on a massive China Mobile contract to its rival Nokia, further compounding a 60% drop in Chinese sales this quarter.  NETFLIX After blistering success during the pandemic, Netflix's growth slowed to a crawl this quarter.

Still, the streaming service has “big plans” for H2, which look like they might involve gaming.

U P SEP 21

W A Y D O W N

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PEOPLE MOVES

NADIA HOOSEN FROM: AA PLC TO: ONEWEB WAS: CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER NOW: CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER, GROUP COMPANY SECRETARY

12

September 2021

"Nadia will be an excellent role model and bring a broad range of sector knowledge and hands-on commercial experience as we continue to innovate and grow rapidly"

T

NEIL MASTERSON CEO, ONEWEB

he second great space race is wholeheartedly underway. No, I’m not talking about the multibillion dollar “rocket” measuring contest between Elon Musk, Jeff “Space Cowboy” Bezos, and Richard Branson - although they are involved to some degree. All over the world, telecommunications firms are looking to satellites as a way to broaden connectivity in remote parts of the globe, from strengthening terrestrial networks in order to connect underserved communities to supporting next-generation industrial IoT applications hundreds of miles out to sea.

It’s a brand new frontier, not just for satellite technology, but for the regulatory frameworks that underpin it. Several of the companies involved in building vast constellations of nanosatellites in low earth orbit are already finding themselves in potentially sticky legal spats with governments, astronomers, and each other.

Space based telecom companies need to lawyer up, which is exactly what UK-based satellite company OneWeb has done.

In July, OneWeb announced the appointment of Nadia Hoosen, previously Chief Legal Officer at roadside assistance company AA, as its new head of everything legal and regulatory. Prior to AA, she was Group Legal Director and Deputy Company

Secretary at TalkTalk Telecom Group for more than eight years and Head of Legal at the Carphone Warehouse Group.

A dual qualified Solicitor and Chartered Secretary, Hoosen is a recognised leader in the legal profession with two decades of legal and UK listed regulatory expertise.

Neil Masterson, Chief Executive Officer at OneWeb, lauded Hoosen’s broad range of sector knowledge and hands-on commercial experience, which will underpin OneWeb’s oncintued expansion efforts. “It is really exciting to welcome someone with Nadia’s legal and regulatory leadership to OneWeb,” he added.

OneWeb is entering a particularly complex time, legally speaking, as it fleshes out its global coverage to deliver satellitebased connectivity across Canada, the UK, Northern Europe, Alaska and Arctic regions, ahead of partial commercial services before the end of this year.

“I am delighted to join OneWeb, as the business continues to build significant momentum ahead of its commercial services launch later in the year,” Hoosen said upon her appointment.

“I’m looking forward to working with the whole OneWeb team as we continue to ensure OneWeb’s legal systems and regulatory processes remain at the highest standard.” mobile-magazine.com

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TIMELINE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE

METAVERSE!

IT’S THE CYBERPUNK

2020’S

A

central theme of cyberpunk fiction is the blending of “reality” with hyper-immersive digital space.

This new decade is already blurring the lines between sci-fi and reality, as AR/ VR, social media, smartphones, and the IoT push us ever deeper into new virtual worlds, shared digital spaces - a metaverse pushed by tech companies to augment, or even replace, our physical lives.

1992

Snow Crash and the Origin of the Metaverse The term “metaverse” is coined in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash. Later popularised further by the book Ready Player One, a metaverse is a fully-realised digital space existing beyond the physical one in which we live - sometimes upheld as a utopia of infinite possibility, but more frequently used to paint a picture of a society in denial of a dying or unjust physical world.

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September 2021

2003

Second Life: the First Metaverse?

Created by San Francisco-based developer Linden Lab, Second Life was (and still is, I guess) an online virtual world where people could work, play, and interact socially through an online avatar. The game boasted over a million active users at its peak and is often held up as both a precursor to social media, and the world’s first metaverse.

2010-2019

The Dawn of the Gaming Metaverse

“The metaverse is not an App Store with a catalog of titles. In the metaverse, you and your friends and your appearance and cosmetics can go from place to place and have different experiences while remaining connected to each other socially” - Tim Sweeney, CEO, Epic Games

During the last decade, the gaming community became the most active testbed for metaverse features, as developers looked for new ways to keep users inside their virtual worlds.

From MMORPGs like World of Warcraft to more modern iterations like Fortnite have amassed tens of millions of regular users having shared social and recreational experiences online.

2021

The Metaverse Alliance In May, 17 South Korean companies banded together to form the “Metaverse Alliance”, an industry association dedicated to growing and elevating metaverse technology like VR, AR, and shared spaces. In July, SK Telecom launches its own metaverse, ifland, in an attempt to create “a new kind of social networking service culture”.

2022-???

The Age of the Metaverse From Korean telecom companies and crypto enthusiasts to social media giant Facebook, the world of tech is being increasingly vocal about the direction in which we’re headed. From the multi-dimensional gaming spaces created by Roblox, to large scale enterprises looking to recreate the sense of a shared office in digital space, the 2020s are on track to be the decade we all step into the metaverse. mobile-magazine.com

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TRAILBLAZER

Transformation Through Connectivity Name: Keri Gilder Job Title: CEO Company: Colt Technology Services

T

hroughout her impressive career in the telecommunications industry, Colt Technology Services’ CEO Keri Gilder has remained resolutely focused on leveraging connectivity in order to deliver outstanding results for her customers.

She took on the CEO role at Colt last year, following an 18 month stint as the company’s Chief Commercial Officer. In a recent interview, Gilder explained that, while the scope of her role has grown, her core mission has remained very much the same.

“Both CCO and CEO, if you get down to brass tacks, they both have employees and customers at the front and centre.”

Born in Leadville, Colorado (a town somewhat ironically known for its role in the silver and gold mining industries), Gilder has come a long way to reach her current position at Colt’s London Headquarters.

She has held roles as a network engineer for aircraft manufacturers, worked

“One thing that I believe is critical if you are going to be a successful leader is listening”

for Lucent Technologies, and rose steadily through the ranks for 16 years as part of telecom infrastructure firm Ciena Communications - finally ending up as the company’s Vice President and General Manager for EMEA before making the jump to Colt in 2018.

Upon her appointment to CEO last year, Gilder said that she was “honoured” to be taking over the role, and assured investors that she would ensure Colt remains “vigilantly focused on delivering the very best for our customers.”

Gilder’s strategy as CEO of Colt Technology Services centres on transforming the way the world works through the power of connectivity, something which became even more mission critical during the COVID19 crisis. In an interview with the Pacific Telecommunications Council earlier this year, Gilder explained that “The pandemic definitely led Colt to reevaluate our strategy and focus areas for the years ahead.” In response to the challenges posed by the

19

Years in Telecom Industry

2018

Appointed CEO of Colt

pandemic, Gilder launched Colt’s new three-year strategy aimed at taking “what has always been in our DNA as a business” and building on that foundation in order to instil in Colt the agility and sustainable strategy to succeed in the coming years.

Gilder is a vocal champion for greater inclusion and diversity in STEM industries, leading Colt’s Diversity Council to ensure that the Colt is a place where everyone feels like they can bring their true selves to work, as well as personally supporting a number of external mentoring and coaching initiatives.

Gilder has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Management Information Systems (MIS) from New Mexico State University. She currently lives in London with her husband and two children.

In addition to her role as CEO of Colt, she is also the only female member of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association’s CEO council. mobile-magazine.com

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FIVE MINS WITH...

KEVIN CHO CHINESE SMARTPHONE GIANT OPPO HAS BIG PLANS FOR THE UK MARKET. AS THE COUNTRY REOPENS IN EARNEST, WE CAUGHT UP WITH OPPO’S UK GM KEVIN CHO TO TALK ABOUT THE COMPANY’S STRATEGY FOR DIFFERENTIATING ITSELF IN A POST-PANDEMIC BRITAIN.

UK, delivering innovative, creative and high-speed devices for everyone.

After all, the UK is one of the most important markets for us; it is highly mature, very diversified and we know that consumers here have high expectations of their smartphone and wearable devices. We’re confident we can deliver on those expectations.

Q. HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENTIATING YOURSELF FROM ESTABLISHED COMPETITORS LIKE APPLE, SAMSUNG, AND YOUR SIBLING COMPANIES LIKE REALME AND VIVO? We definitely see ourselves as a unique company in terms of what we offer and to whom we offer it.

Our biggest differentiator is our continued innovation and creative drive. One such example is our Find X3 Pro, the 10-bit billion colour display delivers 64 times more colours than a traditional 8-bit display is capable of.

»

Q. HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERISE THE PACE OF THE UK'S 5G ROLLOUT SO FAR? IS THE MARKET MATURE ENOUGH? Despite fears that the rollout of 5G in the UK would be delayed – or just not possible altogether due to the adverse economic conditions brought about

by COVID-19 – the prospects are truly bright for the UK’s 5G industry for the rest of the year and beyond.

With O2 and Vodafone, two network partners we work with closely on our smartphone launches, announcing a deal to create more efficient blocks of 5G spectrum earlier this year, the UK’s 5G development is certainly picking up the pace.

» Q. WHAT ARE OPPO'S PLANS FOR THE UK MARKET IN 2021/2022?

Crucially, we’ve made a number of really strong partnerships with brands we associate with being the best of British.

Last month, we were the smartphone sponsor for Wimbledon, which we couldn’t be more excited about.

What’s more, our ambition is to be the leading smartphone provider in the

»

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September 2021

Q. WHAT 5G APPLICATIONS DID THE PANDEMIC THROW INTO THE SPOTLIGHT? WHAT PLACE DO THINGS LIKE VIRTUAL SPORTING EVENTS HAVE IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD? Unequivocally, 5G will upend the ways in which consumers watch and attend music and sporting events this year and next. For starters, its major benefit – increased capacity – will decrease the number of spikes in connectivity so those interruptions that happened during the Euros final or the Ashes are reduced.

Instead, it’ll put consumers right at the heart of an event alongside the athletes without the risk of interruption.

Then there’s 5G low latency. This will support the explosion of VR, AR and IoT devices across the board – all of which have already begun to change the way we watch sport, buy furniture online and even choose a hair style at the hairdressers.

»

Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY PREDICTIONS FOR THE UK SMARTPHONE MARKET AS A WHOLE OVER THE COMING YEAR? 5G enables us to bring the technologies of the future – from VR and AI through to IoT – to life now in the form of our smartphones and smart devices.

The science fiction dreams of, for example, immersive shopping online and cloud gaming could all become a reality as part of our latest devices.

At OPPO, for instance, we want to provide our customers with the whole gamut in a single device – regardless of which product they choose.

Consumers should be able to call, work, and train for the gym from their smartwatch, tablet or smartphone – we want to facilitate it and make these kinds of activities the norm over the coming year.

»

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CISO United States Marine Corps

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Asiacell: Complete Focus on the Customer WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

22

September 2021

PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

ASIACELL

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ASIACELL

Chra Hussain, CCO of Asiacell, talks technology, team building, and always ensuring the customer comes first

P

lenty of companies, having attained a clear lead in their industry, might be tempted to take it easy and enjoy the view from the top of the hill. The ones that stay at the top of the latter, however, know that being number one takes just as much, if not more work than being a challenger.

Asiacell is the undisputed market leader in Iraq’s telecom sector, and invests heavily in making sure things stay that way.

“Asiacell is king in terms of its position as the leading player in the Iraqi telecom sector,” says Chra Hussain, Asiacell’s Chief Commercial Officer, who explains that the company “maintains this position through its unmatched digital resources and technical know-how.”

As a result, Asiacell’s network delivers the fastest, most reliable connectivity in the country to the largest number of people. The company serves a growing subscriber base of more than 14.7mn Iraqis across all 19 of the country’s governorates who - Hussain is quick to emphasise are the leading priority for the carrier.

“We are a service company. Everything we do is about enhancing the customer experience. Our staff is in a constant state of training and development to keep up with the latest trends in customer service,” she says. “Ensuring that our service remains the best in the market is our priority here at Asiacell, and our network is continuing to consistently improve and develop all over Iraq.”

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September 2021

ASIACELL

Asiacell's Chief Commercial Officer, Chra Hussain

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ASIACELL

“ Asiacell is king in terms of its position as the leading player in the Iraqi telecom sector” CHRA HUSSAIN, CCO, ASIACELL

26

September 2021

Continuous Improvement Internally and in the Community In order to ensure that its customer experience remains the best available to Iraqi consumers, Asiacell is driven by a doctrine of continuous improvement and training, in order to better understand, build relationships with, and serve its customers.

“We are developing a full digital transformation strategy across both sales and customer care, which will be our main segments of focus for the foreseeable future,” says Hussain.

“Beyond the technical side of things, Asiacell is committed to serving communities. We are here to serve Iraq by supporting culture, the arts, sports, and youth development throughout the country.”

In May of 2021, Asiacell announced a collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme in Iraq, signing a two year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost youth employment and strengthen Iraq’s micro, small, and medium enterprises. The initiative will support local startups looking to solve local challenges, connecting them with potential investors, and promoting opportunities for long-term, sustainable youth employment.

“Along with my team, I have been developing new partnerships and programs supporting many initiatives which aim to help the Iraqi youth to harness their fullest potential,” says Hussain.

Hussain has also been driving a culture of learning, improvement, and customer centricity within Asiacell itself. “Almost every company will claim that it has a customer-first philosophy. A closer look under the hood often reveals that

ASIACELL

LEVERAGING AI TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND SERVE THE CUSTOMER “These days, customers have incredibly high expectations of online retailers, and the most successful companies are the ones that can tailor their offerings and customer communication channels to meet those customers’ every need,” says Hussain.

“It can take just one minor inconvenience on that customer journey to lose a buyer and gain a negative review.”

In the pursuit of customer experience perfection, Asiacell has invested heavily in AI-backed customer experience technology over the past few years, allowing the company to “listen more closely to what their customers want than ever before.”

Hussain continues: “By adopting AI solutions, Asiacell has been able to eliminate much of the guesswork when it comes to understanding our customers. The technology has allowed us to develop personalised experiences by delivering relevant messages to consumers at the right time. It also helps us listen more closely to what our customers actually want from us.”

An added benefit, she explains, is that AI has allowed Asiacell to automate a lot of its mundane processes at scale, freeing up valuable human hours that staff can spend on other areas of the business, like innovation, relationship management, and customer retention.

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Asiacell and Huawei partner to accelerate digital transformation in Iraq with LTE rollout

Huawei will result in Asiacell receiving a Tier III design certification for more data centres, ensuring Iraq has a local, high-quality cloud data centre cluster for the first time.

Downtime for any digital business means lost revenue, frustrated customers, and compliance headaches. That mission-critical data requires secure and available hosting infrastructure.

Therefore, organizations keen to protect and differentiate their services in a crowded marketplace—and striving to develop new business models—will find that leveraging the power of cloud data centres is of great organizational value.

Customer experience improvement To provide the best user experience in the LTE arena, Asiacell has worked with Huawei in 4G migration via the latter’s Business and Network Consultant program. This project saw several initiatives implemented, including new user portfolios, terminals analysis, and network improvement to bring the company closer to the customer.

More steps towards digitalization

Asiacell, the largest telecommunications provider in Iraq, has always been focused on providing superior business and technical support to enterprise customers. This enables them to run their operations in a secure and scalable environment with less operational costs.

Asiacell can now offer faster data, better performance, and several other high-level digital services by embracing digitalization. This was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic when Asiacell delivered online academic programs to the education sector in Iraq during COVID-19 lockdowns.

“Asiacell has always been committed to providing the best service in the market and a premium customer experience to the country, from consumer to the enterprise,” says Chra Hussain, Chief Commercial Officer at Asiacell Communications.

Moreover, digitalization has driven more organizations in Iraq to develop new revenue streams by pursuing app-centric infrastructure and services. This pursuit requires reliable and secure data centre services; a mission Asiacell has endeavoured to fulfil with the advanced infrastructure the company has deployed in collaboration with Huawei.

To enhance these services even more, Asiacell recently partnered with Huawei to build an Uptime Tier III certified data centre in Iraq.

This has created the country’s most secure and reliable cloud data centre. As part of the collaboration, Huawei will also share its expertise with Asiacell engineers through consultancy services to serve its enterprise customers.

Asiacell already operates three data centres with Uptime Tier III certification, obtained in September 2020. The latest partnership with

ASIACELL

Complete Focus on the Customer

“ We are here to serve Iraq by supporting culture, the arts, sports, and youth development throughout the country” CHRA HUSSAIN, CCO, ASIACELL

30

September 2021

internal efficiency or profit, rather than the customer’s needs, are the true driving forces behind these companies,” she says.

“Asiacell’s mindset starts from the premise that everyone in the company is here to serve the customer, from the CEO to the customer service representative to the data analytics professional.”

Asiacell’s staff is in a constant state of training and development to keep up with the latest trends in customer service, and the company is heavily focused on leveraging technology to better understand and listen to its customer base. “Asiacell is making considerable efforts to know and understand its customers by constantly improving our channels for customer feedback. That feedback then goes into the customisation

Chra Hussain TITLE: CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER COMPANY: ASIACELL INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: SULAYMANIYAH, IRAQ

EXECUTIVE BIO

Chra Hussain is the beating heart of Asiacell’s marketing and sales business units and its Chief Commercial Officer. As the CCO, Chra Hussain leads Asiacell’s communications with the public and media while managing various parts of the consumer segment, B2B, sales, and digital transformation.

Her journey with Asiacell started seventeen years ago in the Marketing Department as the Vocal Services Product Manager, where she learned the GSM fundamentals. She then became the Marketing Project Manager and Planning and Research Senior Manager, learning analytics and understanding customers.

Hussain holds a master’s degree in business administration from the American University of Sulaymaniyah.

“ Ensuring that our service remains the best in the market is our priority” CHRA HUSSAIN, CCO, ASIACELL

ASIACELL

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September 2021

“ Asiacell’s mindset starts from the premise that everyone in the company is here to serve the customer” CHRA HUSSAIN, CCO, ASIACELL

and personalisation of our services in order to make sure that we are doing our best to meet those customers’ needs,” says Hussain. “It’s about creating an adaptive learning process focussed on serving the customer better for everything the company does.”

She emphasises that any effective approach to designing new services requires solid customer insights to understand what customers are looking for in a telecommunications provider. At Asiacell, that commitment to understanding customers’ needs and wants is baked into operations at a fundamental level. “Asiacell is the only telecom company in Iraq that conducts extensive user research before even generating its first design specifications for a new product,” she explains.

Whether it’s the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, or agile organisational methodologies, Hussain stresses the fact that “Continuous improvement is key to the success of any digital transformation mission.” mobile-magazine.com

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ASIACELL

PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS Iraq, Hussain explains, is not without its share of infrastructure challenges. Over a decade of political instability and conflict have left the country with holes in its network coverage, and connectivity that, in some places, lags behind other markets. In order to surge ahead in the quest to deliver globally competitive mobile network coverage to Iraqi citizens, Asiacell has leveraged its partner ecosystem to great effect.

“We have widened our network enormously with a substantial chain of partners,” Hussain says. In addition to network optimisation projects with Nokia and a user experience partnership with Ericsson, Asiacell has developed a strong relationship with Chinese tech giant Huawei, as a keystone partner in the ongoing development of its network coverage.

“Our relationship with Huawei is very solid and our partnership has been nothing less than a huge success,” says Hussain. “Huawei helped Asiacell with the development of our infrastructure in Iraq, which enabled us to take the leap to 4G. We are grateful for the fruits that the partnership has yielded. China is a major global player these days when it comes to technology, especially telecommunications.”

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September 2021

“ We take pride in the fact that we are serving our own people, who remain our only priority” CHRA HUSSAIN, CCO, ASIACELL

ASIACELL

Building for the Future As the decade continues, Asiacell plans to hold onto its position as Iraq’s number one telecom carrier, leveraging cutting edge technology, a strong partner ecosystem, and a relentless focus on improving its customer experience. From a customer service point of view, Asiacell is in the process of transforming its touchpoints. “We have added many new customer service channels, such as kiosks, a WhatsApp channel, and many more still to come,” explains Hussain.

“We’re also developing more digital

payment options for our customers.”

Going forward, Asiacell is committed to maintaining its status as the best telecommunications company in Iraq.

“We are the country’s only nationwide telecom company, and we’re very proud of that fact,” says Hussain, who concludes: “We take pride in the fact that we are serving our own people, who remain our only priority.”

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

SURVIVING THE GREAT RESIGNATION 36

September 2021

DIGITAL ECONOMY

Zoom’s head of UK&I, Phil Perry, discusses the hybrid future of work as the world struggles to find a good reason to come back to the office.

WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

Phil Perry, Head of UK&I, Zoom

A

s global vaccine rollouts allow the world’s richer economies to edge closer to a “postpandemic” landscape, there’s an increasingly fierce debate raging over whether we even need to come back to the office at all.

The “Back to Work” Fiasco In June of this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out a company-wide memo saying that all staff would be required to return to the office some time in September. Apple, like pretty much all tech companies, had been working more or less fully remote since the start of the pandemic, and Cook’s memo wasn’t exactly wellreceived. Employees pushed back with their own open letter to management, highlighting the false narrative pushed by the company’s executives about just how eager they were to return to in-person work. In the letter, employees wrote that “Messages like, ‘we know many of you are eager to reconnect in person with your colleagues back in the office,’ with no messaging acknowledging that there are directly contradictory feelings amongst us feels dismissive and invalidating… It feels like there is a disconnect between how the executive team thinks about remote/location-flexible work and the lived experiences of many of Apple’s employees.” The dust up between mobile-magazine.com

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

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Aiming to shape the future of connectivity, the event’s general session will be kicked off by this year’s program chair, Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer at Cox Communications. Hart will be joined by powerhouse technology executives whose organizations play a key role in moving the industry forward.

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

41%

workers considering quitting or changing professions in 2021

Image© Rachel Flores

4m

“ The increased flexibility helps workers operate from anywhere, fitting their jobs around their individual needs” PHIL PERRY

HEAD OF UK&I, ZOOM

There were 4,000,000 people who quit their jobs in April, 2021

Apple’s management and its workers led to a slew of resignations throughout the supposedly hip, progressive firm.

Apple isn’t the only company to have faced backlash from disgruntled employees in the face of the decision to return to the office. A global survey of 30,000 workers conducted by Microsoft found that 41% of workers were considering quitting or changing professions this year. In the UK and Ireland, another study revealed that 38% planned to quit. In the US, more than 4mn people quit their jobs in April alone including the entire staff of a Burger King in Nebraska, who definitely take the top prize in the “quitting in style” category.

Of course, the now-viral Burger King walkout from a branch where employees mobile-magazine.com

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

The Remote Slacker Fallacy When the pandemic started, there was a great deal of grumbling by management that, without anyone looking over their shoulders, workers’ productivity would plummet. What actually happened - something which several four-day workweek trials have also pointed out in the past couple of years - is that the extra time, flexibility, and peace workers at home found in the remote lifestyle actually boosted productivity.

A two-year study by Great Place to Work of more than 800,000 employees at Fortune 500 companies found that workers were just as productive (if not more so) when working remotely. Another study by Stanford University of 16,000 US workers found that working from home increased productivity by around 13%, and another by ConnectSolutions found that remote workers accomplished 30% more work in less time than they would spend working in the office.

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September 2021

“ [Hybrid] offers a better worklife balance, where employees have more time to take care of their families or themselves” PHIL PERRY

HEAD OF UK&I, ZOOM

had been working 60 hour weeks Gorman said he’d be “very with no air conditioning in the disappointed if people haven’t middle of one of the hottest found their way into the office” summers on record wasn’t about by early September, adding productivity having to return to the office that “Then we’ll have a different increase those essential workers never kind of conversation.”) have when working from home left. But in an economy where prompted millions of workers wages have remained stagnant to decide they’ve had enough. while productivity (as well as corporate As usual, pearl-clutching economists profits and executive bonuses) soared have even given it a catchy name: over the last decade, where billionaires are The Great Resignation. more interested in spending their tax-free fortunes on a space-based pissing contest Zoom to the rescue… Again than meaningfully contributing to society, Employers are, quite understandably, it’s not all that surprising that patronising nervous about the return to the office. memos and threatening comments Sure, some back-to-work orders are the from CEOs (Morgan Stanley CEO James result of managers’ antiquated attitudes

13%

mobile-magazine.com

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

“ Remote meetings eliminate commutes, encourage inclusivity, and improve work between teams” PHIL PERRY

HEAD OF UK&I, ZOOM

Hybrid Workplace with Zoom & Neat

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September 2021

DIGITAL ECONOMY

Better than the Office “In the hybrid office of the future, collaboration tools will be a vital part of productive cooperation.

Our goal is to one day make Zoom meetings even better than face-to-face meetings by adding features faceto-face can’t replicate. These include AI-generated meeting transcriptions, meeting summaries, and real-time language translations.”

- Phil Perry, Head of UK&I, Zoom

towards the fact that, if they can’t see employees working, they aren’t actually working - something that multiple studies have found to be demonstrably untrue.

But there are plenty of companies where a fully remote approach just isn’t viable.

There is a middle way, however. “We are now seeing the rise of a hybrid model that gives employees the choice to work in the office, remotely, or a mixture of both,” says Phil Perry, the UK and Ireland boss at Zoom. Hybrid work, he continues, is increasingly emerging as a way for companies to meet their in-person needs while giving employees the flexibility that has proved so beneficial over the past 18 months. “The increased flexibility helps workers operate from anywhere, fitting their jobs around their individual needs.

It offers a better work-life balance, where employees have more time to take care of their families or themselves,” Perry explains, adding that the hybrid model has also been shown to improve companies’ access to talent, “as the pool of candidates widens beyond the commutable location towards a global marketplace.”

It’s worth noting that Zoom itself has a lot riding on the future of hybrid work.

When I asked Perry about the experience of going from being a business tool to the bedrock of human civilization more or less overnight, and what a return to the office would mean for Zoom, he reflected that the growth that Zoom experienced was “seismic.” In 2019, Zoom clocked about 10mn meeting participants per day. Last year, that number repeatedly exceeded 300mn as people turned to Zoom’s platform both for work and human connection. “For many, video conferencing offered a respite to the isolation that people felt during the pandemic. It’s mobile-magazine.com

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

“ All of these benefits were felt during the pandemic, and workers want the advantages to stay afterwards as well” PHIL PERRY

HEAD OF UK&I, ZOOM

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DIGITAL ECONOMY

been incredible to see how communities, organisations, friends and families have stayed connected with a tool that was traditionally used by businesses,” says Perry. He adds that one of his favourite stories from the pandemic was the Scout Association, which turned to Zoom “to provide virtual experiences for 475,000 young people, providing a sense of community and connection during ongoing national lockdowns.”

Now, however, Zoom’s future very much depends upon the hope that the next six months won’t see a reversal of all the progress we made over the past 18. Perry is confident, however, that “the shift towards the hybrid work model has already begun,” adding that “remote meetings eliminate commutes, encourage inclusivity, and improve work between teams.” In a year when it feels like the patience of the global workforce with its employers is hanging by a very precarious thread, using collaboration tools in support of a hybridised working model might be just enough of a compromise to prevent the analysts at Bloomberg’s worst fears (“WE QUIT - SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE” signs outside every Burger King in America) from coming true.

For the companies already experimenting with hybrid working models - in July, TikTok announced that it was transitioning to a workweek that would remain fully remote two days out of five the benefits are already being felt. From bigger talent pools and better collaborative tools, to happier, more productive employees given greater freedom to get on with their jobs, Perry emphasises that “All of these benefits were felt during the pandemic, and workers want the advantages to stay afterwards as well.” mobile-magazine.com

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SUNRISE UPC

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INTELLIGENT CONNECTIVITY OF THE FUTURE

WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING mobile-magazine.com

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SUNRISE UPC

Fabrizio Campanale

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September 2021

SUNRISE UPC

The merger of UPC and Sunrise ushers in a new dawn for seamless connectivity powered by 5G and fixed network infrastructure for millions of Swiss customers

H

ow many connected devices are in a typical home? It may come as a surprise that on average a family of four has 30-40, from smart TVs to tablets and Xbox's that are used to stream, chat, and game - usually all at the same time - with every member of the household demanding seamless connectivity.

“The race for speed is on”, said Fabrizio Campanale, Senior Director of Entertainment and In-Home Connectivity at Sunrise UPC, speaking from his office in Zurich, Switzerland.

“People are looking for a seamless service, for streaming their favourite film to working from home, and many are becoming agnostic as to what network they use, as long as it is fast and reliable- which is what Sunrise UPC can offer”.

In one of the largest mergers of two companies in recent Swiss history, UPC and Sunrise are now perfectly placed to meet the changing habits of their customers, who have adopted hybrid working due to the pandemic, and offer even more business power to the self-employed, SMEs and large-scale companies.

Sunrise and UPC complement one another perfectly as customers benefit from the fastest 5G network from Sunrise and the reliable UPC Giganet. The company is a leading provider mobile-magazine.com

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of communication and entertainment with a focus on innovation, untethered connectivity, personalised entertainment, and digitisation. It offers a wide range of broadband, TV, mobile, and telephony services to its two million customers.

This includes an extensive range of TV channels, seven days of replay, and thousands of films and series available on-demand plus the MySports channel and online platform esports.ch which offer the best sports entertainment.

Seamless connectivity for ‘happy moments’ The man driving the connectivity for the Sunrise UPC audience to enjoy “happy moments” such as seeing their country lift the Euro 2020 trophy or the final episode of 50

September 2021

a Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is Campanale.

“We need to ensure that our users always have the best quality TV experiences in their connected home.

“From one side, there is the planning and preparation for the evolution of technology - the innovation pillar - and on the other side, there is the project execution - the delivery pillar - and then there is the running and operating of the platform and infrastructure which is 24/7 to ensure the right quality”, he said.

“What we learned in the last year is that it is not possible anymore to consider the TV service separated from the home connectivity service. The way customers consume content today is becoming network and device agnostic”, commented Campanale.

SUNRISE UPC

FABRIZIO CAMPANALE TITLE: SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT AND IN-HOME CONNECTIVITY LOCATION: SWITZERLAND

“There are on average 30-40 connected devices in the home. From a smart TV, a set-top box, or a PC the customer expects a seamless and high-quality experience. We have learned that focusing only on broadband connectivity or the box is not enough.

“We need to look at the KPIs that all contribute to the quality of the experience end-to-end, which is why we look at this as a unified platform not isolated to the TV, connectivity, or one modem. Today, we have to ensure our connectivity works perfectly, and only then our customers can enjoy the great product we put on the TV. Campanale predicts the number of devices per household is only set to rise and could reach a peak of more than 40. With the evolution of in-home connectivity going

EXECUTIVE BIO

INDUSTRY: TELCOMS Fabrizio Campanale drives the Video and In-Home connectivity platforms for Sunrise-UPC. With his team he manages the local video infrastructure, serving more than 1.5 million TV users and leads the deployment of new products in the Entertainment and In-Home domain. As part of the Liberty Global Technology & Innovation, he is heading the UPC and Sunrise TV platforms integration in Switzerland, aiming for the best connected entertainment customer experience. Leading the In-Home connectivity, he drives the introduction of multiple access type Modems and Wi-Fi extenders and the adoption of cloud operated dynamic Wi-Fi, keeping the optimal Interoperability between TV and In-Home internet services. In his former role as VP Engineering in UPC Switzerland he has a track record of product launches including the Gigabox modem and the Horizon STB family.

He has more than 20 years of experience in various roles in the telecommunication, electronics and semiconductors industry and is author and co-author of 16 patents.

How Infosys is supporting the fixed-mobile convergence road map at Sunrise UPC Picture your subscribers making calls via the Wi-Fi network, then stepping out, and continuing their conversation on the mobile network. Say hello to fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), a service that combines the finest features of wireline and mobile networks. Its efficacy lies in offering the convenience of seamless connectivity while being agnostic to underlying technologies.

Fixed-mobile convergence enables telcos to pivot to a hyper-personalized experience supported by enabling technologies of software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), multi-access edge computing (MEC), and 5G.

Sunrise UPC pivots to FMC Telcos in Europe are adopting fixed-mobile convergence, notably Sunrise UPC in Switzerland, a subsidiary of Liberty Global. The FMC program at Sunrise UPC is championed by its CTO, Elmar Grasser, who is a member of the Mobile Convergence Committee (MCC) of Cablelabs. This global multiple system operators (MSOs) network establishes industry standards / specifications to bolster the convergence architecture and realize user-centric networks.

Sunrise UPC is implementing fixed-mobile convergence at a pivotal moment after the merger of two companies, allowing the telco to combine its leading 5G capabilities with a robust and unique fixed network infrastructure.

The Sunrise UPC-Infosys partnership

“Sunrise UPC envisions becoming the preferred digital services provider of Switzerland. We are accelerating our digital transformation journey to become even more responsive to customer needs. With Infosys as our partner, we are implementing fixed-mobile convergence to enhance the digital lifestyle of our subscribers.”

For its fixed-mobile convergence journey, Sunrise UPC has partnered with Infosys, a strategic technology partner of Liberty Global. Infosys is a global digital services and consulting company with rich experience in mobile technology.

Infosys navigates the digital transformation journey of the world’s leading telcos having developed code, tested code, and made it production-ready for multiple OEMs, telcos and Open Source initiatives. Liberty Global selected Infosys to implement an automationdriven network operations system for Sunrise UPC. Infosys will develop automated solutions for fiber deepening, closed loop assurance and inventory digitization.

Sunrise UPC and Infosys are working closely to develop automated solutions across the network rollout lifecycle and automated onboarding of remote active nodes via intelligent configuration push and remote monitoring of devices. As a digital services orchestrator, Infosys will transform OSS / BSS systems, convert network-facing systems to a ‘network-as-a-platform’ stack allowing rapid introduction of new customer services.

Infosys is establishing the foundation to provide an omni-channel experience for Sunrise UPC subscribers by transforming customer-facing systems of CRM, billing, rating and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) systems to model any customer service without affecting underlying technologies. Sunrise UPC is set to realize the potential of fixed-mobile convergence with Infosys as its implementation partner.

- Markus Bucher, Senior Director of Fixed Access & Fiber, Sunrise UPC

“A digital lifestyle drives seamless and ubiquitous connectivity across touchpoints. After the merger of wireless and wireline networks, Sunrise UPC is well positioned to offer a digital lifestyle to customers.

Infosys is excited to partner with Sunrise UPC in its digital transformation journey. We are accelerating fixed-mobile convergence with a platform mindset across the ecosystem and by leveraging automation.”

- Tejas Jaiswal, AVP & Client Partner, Communications, Media and Technology, Infosys

Learn more TWITTER

FACEBOOK

LINKEDIN

YOUTUBE

SUNRISE UPC

“ The 5G and mobile superiority of Sunrise and a strong, fixed network infrastructure of UPC is the perfect combination for today’s market” FABRIZIO CAMPANALE

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT AND IN-HOME CONNECTIVITY, SUNRISE UPC

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toward IoT, and you start thinking about virtual schooling, gaming, smart light control, and all the devices that are intelligently controlled, you will very easily reach this number of devices that need to be connected”.

Fibre optic network With Sunrise UPC’s mobile and hybrid fibre network customers can do all of these things without experiencing a loss of performance.

The network has the technological advantage that it can increase the internet capacities to several Gigabits per second if needed – without any construction work being necessary - paving the way for future digital trends.

SUNRISE UPC

LIBERTY GLOBAL - INVESTING IN RELIABILITY Liberty Global acquired the company in November 2020 for a reported $7.4bn in order to create a stronger challenge to incumbent Swisscom. Mike Fries, CEO, Liberty Global, said the merger “marks another important step in our strategy of creating leading national fixed-mobile champions across Europe. “By bringing together UPC’s leading gigabit broadband network and the most advanced 5G network of Sunrise, the combined company will provide seamless connectivity for millions of Swiss consumers and thousands of Swiss businesses”. Fabrizio Campanale, Senior Director of Entertainment and In-Home Connectivity at Sunrise UPC, welcomed the acquisition as the company has a reputation for investing in reliability and innovation.“This is cascading in all the countries where Liberty is present,” said Campanale. “We have the same objective and

the same commitment toward our customers.

We can benefit from the exchange of experience and improvements among all the countries to improve the product quality.

We have a constant alignment and knowledge sharing and learning experience. This is extremely helpful and the cascading and the sharing information of being part of a large-scale enterprise.“Liberty Global is like being part of a family as you always feel the most ambitious goal can be accomplished as everyone supports you. They have been constantly investing in infrastructure. From the early days of the deal and throughout the integration, the backup from the central corporation has been - and still is - constant.

We have had an enormous investment in technology, the product, and the strategic investment to keep the commitment we took at the beginning of the deal.

mobile-magazine.com

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Smart homes are evolving.

So should you.

With the explosion of devices, data demands, and security risks, today’s smart homes need Adapt.™ Part of our HomePass™ suite of services, Adapt is a cloud-coordinated system that offers the first and only self-optimizing, whole-home WiFi technology.

Learn more at plume.com

© 2021 Plume Design, Inc. All rights reserved.

Plume : In-home connectivity of the future ®

Plume provides a feather in the cap for Swiss-based Sunrise UPC as they pave the way for fast in-home connectivity with Wi-Fi pods and 6G. Millions of Swiss customers look set to benefit from the partnership between Plume and Sunrise UPC as they move towards faster in-home connectivity with WiFi pods and 6G. This follows the recent merger of UPC and Sunrise who are working to expand the nextgeneration network structure.

The move to partner with Plume, which offers an Intelligent Wi-Fi Plus service that provides fast broadband speeds for homes, is vital at a time when more people are working remotely due to the pandemic.

So how does it work? Plume offers fast Wi-Fi, not through mesh, but through Adapt which offers a new level of dynamic response and signal steering. Beyond just coverage Adapt uses AI and machine learning to map Wi-Fi channels and usage around the home, learning from a customer's connection patterns how to distribute Wi-Fi perfectly.

The Wi-Fi pods are powered by Plume’s award-winning SaaS experience platform that combines sophisticated cloud management, AI technology, and OpenSync™ open-source software, to enable proactive management of a subscriber’s smart home experience.

Fabrizio Campanale, VP Entertainment & In-Home, Technology & Innovation Sunrise UPC Switzerland welcomed the partnership.

“Plume is the frontliner and most promising innovator in this technology. We share

their vision for the future and that journey towards a cloud-managed service for the best in-home connectivity quality of service.”

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Plume serves more than 30 million homes in 22 countries. “We are now introducing the Plume Wi-Fi extenders replacing the old Powerline technology to enable more efficient mesh NW in the home and we will progress harmonising the products and extending these functionalities to all products, including the Sunrise ones.

Campanale pointed out that Sunrise UPC only partnered with “best in class cloud services” for both entertainment and inhome internet.

Learn more at plume.com

SUNRISE UPC

1931

the year Rediffusion company was founded

1994

Cablecom was founded and in 1996 purchased Rediffusion.

2005

Liberty Global purchases Cablecom

2020

Liberty Global purchase Sunrise and form Sunrise-UPC

1.5mn

Swiss TV customers and 1.2Million Internet subscribers served by Sunrise UP

3,000

plus combined employees of Sunrise and UPC

30+

connected devices in an average home

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SUNRISE UPC

Power of Sunrise and UPC The combination of Sunrise and UPC will continue to expand the next-generation network structure, including 5G and future technologies, to be able to supply up to 90% of Swiss households with gigabit Internet during 2021. The speed will gradually be increased to 10 Gbit/s.

“The 5G and mobile superiority of Sunrise and a strong, fixed network infrastructure of UPC is the perfect combination for today’s market,” said

“It's an exciting moment because we are leading an incredible technology revolution combined with a radical change of our customer habits” FABRIZIO CAMPANALE SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT AND IN-HOME CONNECTIVITY, SUNRISE UPC

Campanale. “Thanks to its fastest 5G network and the leading Giganet in Switzerland, Sunrise UPC offers 360° communication solutions for the digital, mobile, and secure workplace. 5G and IoT solutions increase the agility, innovative strength, and productivity of companies.

“It's an exciting moment because we are leading an incredible technology revolution combined with a radical change of our customer habits. We have in front of us a unique opportunity to offer better services tailored for the new habits and needs and, together with our new combined company, we have created a unique DNA confident, and willing, to provide these services to the Swiss market”, said Campanale. mobile-magazine.com

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5G Network Slicing to Drive Next-Generation Performance Building tailored end-to-end networks enabling premium customer experiences.

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GAMING

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SUNRISE UPC

EOS box

“ We need to ensure that our users always have the best quality TV experiences in their connected home” FABRIZIO CAMPANALE

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT AND IN-HOME CONNECTIVITY, SUNRISE UPC

Race for speed Commenting on how Sunrise UPC responded to the challenges of the pandemic, Campanale said: “We were in the

frontline to support the population during this terrible period of lockdown. At the first sign in February 2020, we started simulating and testing the boost of network bandwidth consumption and preempting what was going to happen. I am proud of how we responded to this emergency to ensure the constant, reliable service to our customers who were working from home or the families consuming entertainment or engaging with remote schooling.

Furthermore we provided a number of supporting enhancements for the customers due to the difficult situation: we quickly opened a few extra kids channels for free and we enabled higher upstream speed for the lower tier internet products. mobile-magazine.com

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90 YEARS OF HISTORY UPC has a long and proud history as a pioneer in the telecommunications sector. Over the past few decades, they have shown one thing: that they are - and have always been - able to react flexibly to change while constantly being ahead of their time. It all began in 1931 when they were called Rediffusion, and it still holds true today, as they continue to advance into the age of digitisation, entertainment, and technology.In June 2017, they became the first provider in Switzerland to offer Mobile

Campanale pointed out that with a new hybrid working environment, he does not anticipate a return to normal life. “The race for speed is on. We are accelerating and investing to improve the service. We will go to the 10 Giganet and we will enlarge the pipe and the bandwidth so that you can have multiple utilisation.

“We will utilise our bandwidth and the Giganet, to ensure the network is stable and reliable and support the new way of working with the reliability, the quality, and the added value services that we will put on top.

“This shift of habits, such as smart working with video conferencing and downstreaming movies from Netflix or Disney or watching TV in the day, has accelerated our investment in the features, and the value of the services we are putting in, such as a strong push toward more apps and streaming”.

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subscriptions with EU roaming included.

In early 2000 the company was acquired

by Liberty Global and in 2020 merged with Sunrise. The TV platform and the UPC TV app offer access to a broad OnDemand choice along with Netflix along with their own MySports TV channel. Their hybrid cable fibre network means customers are well connected at all times and can browse the web at a breathtaking speed of 1 Gbit/s – both in the city and in the countryside.

Campanale pointed out Sunrise UPC is always anticipating a special event like the release of an update to Fortnite, or Call of Duty. “We watched very carefully to the point that we dabbled with the pipe for new series on Netflix. With everybody binge-watching at the same time you never know what is going to happen so we want to be ready.“But a live event, such as the Euro 2020 final or Formula 1, is a little more dangerous as there is not so much time shifting from our perspective. Also, teenagers waiting for the precise moment of a gaming release creates a spike”.

Excellent user experience Sunrise UPC is using the connected entertainment as a unit. “We are leaving the old way to operate the internet services where we were supporting the user experience, isolating the single element of the value chain, the network, the hardware,

SUNRISE UPC

and the software. We try to look at this from end-to-end, and the KPIs which are relevant for users, and then we collect all of them from the modem, from the box and in the cloud, and then we utilise sophisticated analytics and Artificial Intelligence to improve this

customer experience.

“It could be by optimising the Wi-Fi through dynamic Band steering (switching automatically from 2.4GHz to 5GHz) or through Channel Optimisation” , said Campanale.

“We offload from the customer this with mobile-magazine.com

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SUNRISE UPC

Intelligent connectivity of the future

complexity and need of configurations, regardless of the complexity of the environment. We can warn customers through our digital app if the coverage is not good enough and ask them to please request a WI-FI extender or install the modem in a different place elsewhere as you are having poor coverage in this corridor.

“We want to introduce mesh network topology so that we can add coverage in a house, which you will not have with a single device. All this is through this cloud-based managed service up to the point that we can preempt what is going to happen to

the customer and call them to proactively support them. This will not only improve the customer quality but also will improve our investment, reducing the need for a technical swap of the modem where it is not needed. So we have this exciting possibility in front of us”.

“We want to browse the web, stream, chat, and game – all at the same time. With Sunrise UPC’s fibre optic cable network you can do all of these things without experiencing a loss of performance.

“In addition, with our network, we have the technological advantage that we can increase

SUNRISE UPC

the internet capacities to several Gigabits per second if needed. And so we are ready for future digital trends”.

Fixed-mobile convergence national champion Commenting on plans for the future Campanale said; “We want to fulfil the commitment to be the fixed-mobile convergence national champion. We will not be slowing down because of the merge, but we will keep accelerating. We will contain with our digital transformation, that we started as two independent companies, and since getting together has become more important. We intend to become a fully digital service provider, enabling our customers with personalisation with a choice of digital apps and our entertainment offers to become a more cloud-based service”.

LIFE OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Fabrizio Campanale, Senior Director of Entertainment and In-Home Connectivity at Sunrise UPC What is your favourite movie?

Gladiator and Interstellar.

Best box-set?

Game of Thrones and Vikings.

Music experience?

I like rock and jazz soul.

Favourite Xbox, PS5 or Nintendo Switch, computer game?

I remember with romanticism playing on the Wii. Televised sporting experience you are most looking forward to this year?

All of them, but I have enjoyed Euro 2020 - as I am dual nationality (Swiss and Italian) it is interesting for me to watch.

Most memorable Virtual Reality experience?

When I was at Legoland I watched The Lego Movie with my kids which was a visceral reality experience.

Top app on your mobile phone?

YouTube consumes my content.

Best podcast?

German podcaster (Slow German mit Annik Rubens) who I listened to in the car to improve my language.

Connect box

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SUNRISE UPC

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SUNRISE UPC

Citing the competitive edge of Sunrise UPC, Campanale said there were a number of key factors. “First of all, we now possess the perfect complementary combination and strengths of two companies. We have the 5G and mobile superiority of Sunrise and a strong, fixed network infrastructure that we offer at UPC. This is top, but we also have this scale and resources LGI, which offer opportunities for investment in innovation, not available for new incumbents and the small players. These factors give us the competitive advantage in the market”.

Power of partnerships Campanale commented on the importance of Sunrise UPC’s partnerships with EPAM, PLUME, Infosys, and Huawei especially in relation to the end-to-end service of entertainment and connectivity in the home.

“If you look at how we need to analyse KPI’s and interoperability of the multiple devices in the in-home connectivity, the only way is through a cloud-based managed service and third-party application. Our partners are key to this strategy. We have built that connectivity excellence centre in Liberty thanks to EPAM and PLUME. We are constantly improving cloud service-based management, thanks to these partners. We have a service platform built together with Huawei and products and support services with Infosys.

“The ecosystem is supporting infrastructure for in-home entertainment and connectivity. Our ecosystem is built, conceived, and designed together with our partners, and we only choose the partners that are best in class”, he said.

mobile-magazine.com

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5G

REVOLUTIONISING THE INDUSTRIAL IOT FROM LOW EARTH ORBIT Experts from OneWeb, OQ Technology, and Avnet Abacus discuss the potential for LEO to revolutionise the future of 5G and IIoT WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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I

t’s been a good year for space-based networks. Even as public opinion has decidedly turned against the incredibly expensive vanity projects emblematic of the inane billionaire space race, several companies have had significant success working on developing low earth orbit (LEO) networks for much more useful applications.

We’ve covered the possibility for satellite networks to combine with 5G technology before but focused largely on the potential for the technology to broaden high-speed

internet coverage in rural areas. However, this isn’t the only frontier where LEO networks are pushing the boundaries of connectivity.

“Space is increasingly becoming commercialised, specifically with much more terrestrial technology use in mind,” wrote Martin Keenan, Technical Director at Avnet Abacus, in a recent breakdown he did for us on the development of LEO network applications. According to him, the combination of 5G networks and LEO coverage “is likely to become increasingly mobile-magazine.com

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5G

146

Number of OneWeb satellites launched (March, 2021)

“ LEO coverage is likely to become increasingly relevant for IIoT deployments in the very near future” MARTIN KEENAN

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, AVNET ABACUS

relevant for industrial internet of things (IIoT) deployments in the very near future.”

Even Keenen admits that, at first, the idea “might sound like an implausible leap,” so we got in touch with some of the companies actively developing this new generation of networks in the stratosphere to get their take on the potential for LEO satellite constellations to shake up connectivity on the planet far below.

254

Number of OneWeb satellites launched (August, 2021)

OneWeb For a while last year, it seemed as though the number of competitors in the satellite telecom space had shrunk, with UK-based provider OneWeb declaring bankruptcy in March of 2020 due to issues securing the necessary funding to get its array of microsatellites into orbit.

OneWeb was bailed out, however, by the British government and Indian telecom company Bharti Global. It has since resumed operations with a vengeance, launching dozens of new microsatellites from its staging ground in the Far East of Russia.

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1,338

Number of Starlink satellites launched (March, 2021)

1,740

Number of Starlink satellites launched (August, 2021)

Starlink Never one to do anything by half measures, Elon Musk is adopting a policy of total LEO domination at his own satellite internet firm Starlink (currently a subsidiary of SpaceX, although Musk has hinted at an IPO once the company "has its affairs in order").

Assuming Musk’s very public rocketmeasuring contest with Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson doesn’t get in the way, and Starlink continues putting its nanosatellites into orbit 240 at a time, the night’s sky could soon be home to more than 10,000 satellites, the first of which are already supporting satellite internet trials in some of the world’s most remote markets.

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Hybrid IoT From Above and Below Omar Qaise, the founder and CEO of Luxembourg-based startup OQ Technology, is flying high right now. Last month, his fledgling company launched the Tiger-2 the world’s first satellite designed to support the delivery of 5G IoT networks from space.

“The demand for globally connected devices is growing,” Qaise explains to us.

“To connect billions of sensors and devices, the infrastructure of the IoT will have to evolve.” In order to facilitate this evolution, Qaise posits that satellites in LEO are “the only cost-effective way that can push the network beyond what terrestrial providers can offer.” The startup has already seen some early success, with Qaise explaining that two of OQ’s early customers include the European Space Agency, which so far has signed four contracts, worth several

5G

“ Satellites in LEO are the only cost-effective way to push the network beyond what terrestrial providers can offer” OMAR QAISE

FOUNDER AND CEO, OQ TECHNOLOGY

million Euros, with the 5G satellite operator, and the Luxembourg Space Agency.

Whereas some companies are pushing to build completely space-based networks, OQ is “building a global hybrid system, using 5G connectivity, that combines both satellite and terrestrial wireless networks to provide commercial IoT and M2M (machine-to-machine) services to

traditional operators.”

The company is focusing on Africa, Middle East, Asia and Latin America, where shortcomings in some traditional terrestrial networks have left populations underserved. The idea is to use its LEO 5G networks to facilitate greater IoT connectivity in less densely connected areas. Earlier this year, OQ partnered with Brazilian company Neo Things IoT to address the satellite IoT market in Brazil, with a particular focus on the agribusiness field, which accounts for more than 25% of the country’s GDP. The two-year partnership, Qaise explains, involves channelling IoT services and user terminals to end users in a way that strengthens the mobile-magazine.com

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“ Imagine the potential unlocked once maritime, aviation, and other sectors have easy access to highspeed internet all over the world” PER BORGKLINT CCO, ONEWEB

capabilities of Brazilian agricultural firms to monitor and analyse their operations.

It’s classic IIoT but partially delivered from space.

By launching its shoebox-sized satellites into space, OQ’s plan is to democratise IoT connectivity in underserved and remote regions, as well as markets where terrestrial networks aren’t yet up to the task. To do this, Qaise stipulates, “access to satellite services needs to be easier and cheaper than what’s on the market now,” adding that “OQ Technology has made the first step with the launch of its Tiger-2 nanosatellite offering commercial 5G IoT connectivity.”

The Newest Final Frontier Whereas companies like OQ are looking to use satellites as a way to augment existing terrestrial networks, companies like OneWeb are looking to go a step further.

Per Borgklint, OneWeb’s Chief Commercial Officer explains that his company’s evergrowing network of satellites “promises high-speed and low-latency connectivity around the globe, available via a new class of LEO user terminals which are suitable for all types of needs from aviation to maritime, to users on the move.”

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Just as with OQ, OneWeb’s strategy is to offer connectivity where existing service is poor or nonexistent in order to spur “a wave of innovation and adoption in IoT.” Borgklint explains that some of the most promising industries and areas for IIoT applications “also happen to occupy some of the least connected parts of the world,” like the open ocean or the skies. “Think of the potential unlocked once maritime, aviation, and other sectors have easy access to high-speed internet all over the world,” he says.

Currently, IoT in isolated areas that are reliant on terrestrial networks continues to bump against one particularly thorny pain point: cost.

“It's expensive to build out conventional broadband to remote areas. Even with heavy subsidies, the economics rarely work to extend sophisticated infrastructure — miles of fibre, countless wireless towers, and all the gear and monitoring required to light up those with connectivity — into thinly populated, very remote parts of the world,” Borgklint explains.

While it might seem even less financially viable to strap your network hardware to a rocket and fire it into the outer atmosphere, the economics surrounding getting stuff (particularly small stuff like a nanosatellite) into space have changed pretty radically in the past few years. With companies like SpaceX essentially applying Uber’s ride-sharing model to rocket launches, the process of sending a few dozen satellites into space today is significantly less costly and faster than it was just a few years ago. A series of contracted launches by SpaceX for the US Space Force hints that future rides on reusable rockets could cost as little as $36mn for the whole payload. SpaceX’s website claims that if I set my launch date a year from now, I can put a 10 kg nanosatellite into LEO for a cool $1mn.

Space has become remarkably accessible. mobile-magazine.com

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OneWeb coverage: Northern Europe, the UK, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Iceland

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“Access to satellite services needs to be easier and cheaper than what’s on the market now” OMAR QAISE

FOUNDER AND CEO, OQ TECHNOLOGY

OneWeb - which actually sends up its satellites aboard Soyuz rockets from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East of Russia - has been steadily building up its LEO satellite network over the past year. The latest launch of another 36 at the beginning of July brought its network to 254. However fast OneWeb is launching satellites, Borgklint is confident that demand is growing even faster. “In industries such as maritime, for example, data demands are doubling each year, and lack of high speed, low latency access to enterprisegrade connectivity services is limiting the effectiveness and uptake of IIoT-related innovation,” he explains. “We believe that fibre-like connectivity should be as accessible at sea as it is in the home, so that shipping fleets, floating communities, and offshore operations can become more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.”

Regardless of the scale of deployment - whether it’s a single nanosatellite or a constellation tens of thousands strong space is filling up fast in the race to make internet connectivity a truly global affair.

The result, both Qaise and Borgklint are sure, will be a new level of IoT ubiquity delivered to remote, underserved, and inaccessible parts of the world. The potential impact is breathtaking. mobile-magazine.com

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TELENET

NEW ERA OF

IN-HOME ENTERTAINMENT WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

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TELENET

Telenet is marking its silver anniversary in an era where in-home entertainment is shifting towards a partnership-based model

T

elenet is marking its 25th anniversary and is shaping its in-home entertainment choices through broader partnerships both locally and internationally, which includes awardwinning content providers like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon.

“Telenet has now reached the age of maturity and is now more than ever looking responsibly towards its customers, partners and shareholders - we are not the rebellious teenager anymore,” said Ivor Micallef, Director of Entertainment.

Micallef is executing the entertainment platform vision for the Belgium-based telecommunication company and revitalising the brand for the digital age by infusing it with targeted advertising, quality international content, and a local streaming service.

“My focus is on shaping Telenet's entertainment strategy to deliver the right solutions, quality, and user experiences, in order to meet the business objectives,” said Micallef.

Micallef provides an insightful look at how Telenet is working with both local and global partners such as Netflix, Disney, and Amazon to provide the ultimate in-home entertainment experience to refresh the brand which was founded in 1996. He points out how advanced advertising solutions which digitally target an advert into homes on live TV - and streaming have become an integral part of their platform strategy.

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TELENET

Ivor Micallef, Director of Entertainment.

Telenet

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TELENET

New era of in-home entertainment

“As a mature company, we now rely on our ecosystem more and more as this allows us to focus on the work we do best which is bringing in-home connectivity and entertainment to our Belgian customers. We believe in the tremendous potential of digital and we are committed to helping people and businesses to stay one step ahead in the digital age.

“We've grown from being a regional cable operator to a national player. We now own our own mobile network and a fixed network, accessing millions of customers, which has helped us generate more than €2.5bn in revenue on a yearly basis.

“We own a production company and the second national commercial broadcaster in Flanders and this has helped us become a much more established entertainment player in Belgium. We also have a 50% stake 82

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in a local streaming service, which is called Streamz, which we only launched last year with our partner DPG media,” said Micallef.

Telenet prides itself on its excellent customer experience with its connectivity via the internet, mobile or fixed telephony for home and business currently provides a service for: • 1.6 million broadband • 1.7 million B2B customers • +1.6mn broadband internet subscribers • 641,800 WIGO and YUGO subscribers • +2.8mn mobile phone subscribers • 1.8mn video subscribers

TELENET

IVOR MICALLEF TITLE: DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: BRUSSELS

EXECUTIVE BIO

Collaboration with Netflix, Amazon, and Disney Micallef said it was vital to have a strong ecosystem of partners today if you want to offer your customers the best experience. “It’s no longer just about your brand and service that serves all the consumers' needs.

People want to talk to Alexa, watch a movie on Netflix or listen to their favourite music on Spotify. It’s very much about connecting with our partners and bringing added value to the consumer.”

Streamz, Netflix and Amazon are already choices available for Telenet consumers.

“These are now household names but in

Ivor Micallef has built his career around television and entertainment within the telco business. In his current role at Telenet in Belgium, Micallef is an advocate for partner collaboration with entertainment players to bring win-win-win value in the evergrowing fragmented entertainment ecosystem and value chain.Micallef joined Telenet in 2012. Since then, he has been involved in the product definition of Horizon 4, Liberty Global’s flagship video product. As Telenet has evolved into an agile organisation, he is now responsible for partnering up with entertainment players to shape their commercial strategy. Prior to Telenet, Micallef worked at Melita in Malta.

TELENET

Driving next generation viewing experiences Gracenote video entertainment solutions fuel content discovery and engagement across platforms Get in touch to find out how Gracenote can help you connect audiences to the content they want www.gracenote.com

Gracenote, the Gracenote logo and logotype are either a registered trademark or a trademark of Gracenote, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

TELENET

“ The drive for the future success of the local media players is based on advanced advertising solutions, which is becoming an integral part of our platform strategy” IVOR MICALLEF

DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT, TELENET

the past, as a cable operator, we used to fear collaborating with these international companies because we thought they would enter our space. But in the last few years, we've learned to embrace them on our platforms and even work with them on joint marketing campaigns on how watching Netflix or Prime Video is better, and more convenient with us.

So we've learned to really collaborate with these players and find common ground on how we can work together.”

Advanced advertising solutions In a bid to serve local broadcasters and continue attracting advertisers, Telenet have pioneered advanced advertising

solutions to revitalise interest in TV advertising. This has proved to be a highly successful move. In a way similar to digital advertising on Facebook and Google adverts are targeted to complement a customer’s lifestyle and are currently shown during live TV. “The drive to future success of the local media players is based on advanced advertising solutions which is becoming an integral part of our platform strategy,” commented Micallef.

“This is essentially targeted advertising during traditional live TV so that your neighbour will have different adverts to you based on their preferences to cookery, gardening or sport. For example one household will have a BMW advert if they’re interested in cars while another household will have a Pampers advert if they have kids.

This provides a real benefit to the advertiser mobile-magazine.com

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Telenet in numbers over 25 years

2.5mn mobiles

1.6mn broadband

1.7mn end-to-end

+€2.5bn revenue

€591mn investments

+1.6mn

broadband internet subscribers

3,431 employees

641,800 WIGO and YUGO subscribers

30%

women in leadership at Telenet

€9.9

mio investments in local media productions

+2.8mn

mobile phone subscribers

1.8mn

video subscribers

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TELENET

who knows they can target the right people for their products - very similar to targeted advertising on websites.

“We pioneered this in Europe, so we're very proud of that. We're now looking at taking advanced advertising to the next level . We hope this will bring advertising revenues back into the market to fuel the local entertainment economy instead of advertising money flowing to companies such as Facebook and Google.”

Pioneering partnership model Telenet’s three-point partner-orientated model is proving to be a highly successful move for Micallef and his team. “With most of our partners, we would typically have a commercial partnership where we are

TELENET IN THE SPOTLIGHT Telenet is divided into two main brands: Telenet (available in Flanders and Brussels) Telenet inspires their customers to get the most out of their digital lives and businesses and the best experience in the digital world.

Telenet Business offers connectivity, hosting and security solutions for the business market in Belgium and Luxembourg.

BASE (available in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia) BASE focuses on continuously challenging the mobile market by launching products and services that ensure the customer always wins. ‘Go mobile’ captures the essence of the BASE brand. Telenet was founded in October 1994. The Flemish Government, led by MinisterPresident Luc Van den Brande, wanted

to develop a second telecommunications network alongside Belgacom. In 1996 the first commercial offer was launched. Ten years later in October 2004, Liberty Media International, subsequently renamed Liberty Global, became a shareholder of Telenet by partly buying out Callahan.Telenet continued to develop its network into one of the most state-of-the-art networks in Europe, bringing high-quality Internet, telephony and television to the home and the office. In 2019 the operator launched its Giga-Network, allowing speeds up to 1 Gbps on its entire footprint covering the whole of Flanders and parts of Brussels. The first venue of the Park opened in 2018 in Antwerp. Three years later this VR start-up has grown to 12 locations in Belgium and The Netherlands. Telenet opens a new virtual reality venue, The Park, in the centre of Brussels.

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Only Cadent brings together TV inventory and audience data in a single platform—at national scale. Buying and selling cross-screen TV advertising has never been easier.

cadent.tv @CadentTV ©2021 Cadent. All rights reserved.

TELENET

Telenet - klaar voor morgen

agreeing with our partners what we will both deliver and what we expect from each other.

This is the general approach we have with our partners.

“Next to that we have a vendor-client type of relationship with more technologytype providers in which they help us deliver

“ The streaming services became strong companions during the lockdown, and due to limited travel, we have seen an increasing demand for live TV” IVOR MICALLEF

DIRECTOR OF ENTERTAINMENT, TELENET

services to our customers. Finally, we have partnerships with companies where we have a more mutual interest. We have established joint ventures such as our streaming service, Streamz, as we wanted to invest in having our own local streaming platform and built a joint venture with our partner DPG media.”

Streamz, which is a mix of local and international entertainment, enjoyed a timely launch in 2020 just as people were looking for more community content from their TV service as they navigated the challenges during lockdown.

“During Covid-19 we saw some really impressive numbers for in-home entertainment. Due to the closure of cinemas, the streaming services became strong companions during lockdown and limited travel and we have seen a strong demand for local services. Another interesting successful experiment was mobile-magazine.com

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TELENET

Play Fit, which had a timely launch prior to the pandemic, and harnessed customer engagement as more people aimed to get fit from the comfort of their homes.”

Micallef pointed out the importance of the key collaborations with Gracenote and Cadent.

“Our work with Gracenote over the last few years has enabled us to deliver enhanced viewing experiences to our sports-loving users. Leveraging Gracenote’s sports data and real-time statistics from live events, we’ve been able to enrich sports broadcasts and engage sports fans in new ways. We're now looking at extending our collaboration with Gracenote around TV and movie metadata.

This will help us guide our customers through the wealth of content that exists across all services that are available on our platform and ensure they are able to easily find and watch the programming they will enjoy most.”

Cadent is also an important technology provider, which helps Telenet deliver advanced TV advertising solutions in Belgium.

“Cadent is helping us play a pivotal role in the increasingly demanding advertising landscape. We've put our trust in them to help us launch our next generation advanced advertising solutions which will ultimately help us deliver even better models and capabilities towards the local broadcasters. We plan to go beyond live TV and bring these advertising solutions and be more ubiquitous across our platforms.”

Micallef said he believes in “win, win, win strategies” and focuses on creating the best customer experience as he moves forward with plans to further boost Telenet’s entertainment offering in the coming years.

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TECHNOLOGY

The RCS Revolution is Getting Left On Read Despite tremendous promise, a series of setbacks are throwing serious doubt on the potential for RCS to successfully challenge OTT platforms.

WRITTEN WRITTEN BY: BY: HARRY MANEAR HARRY MENEAR

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S

ince its earliest days of development in 2007, Rich Communications Service (RCS) has existed inside a growing bubble of hype. The technology has been lauded by everyone from telecom carriers, who see it as a way to coax users away from so-called Over the Top (OTT) platforms with the spiritual successor to SMS, to marketing execs who want to use direct RCS messaging to open up new, more profitable routes to consumer eyeballs left cynical and disengaged by a lifetime of online ads.

That bubble swelled again in 2019 when after a few tepid years in the care of various telecom carriers, who largely had other fires to fight at the time - Google took the reins of the project from the GSMA to orchestrate a worldwide rollout. Updates were pushed, improvements were made, and over the past two years, RCS adoption has exploded throughout the Android community. Last year, Juniper Research found that the global RCS user base reached 1.2bn people. By 2025, they predict, that figure will swell to just shy of 4bn (more than all the people

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TECHNOLOGY

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

TECHNOLOGY

“ Telcos have lost the messaging market over the last decade” GEORGE GLASS CTO, TM FORUM

who own a smartphone today). That being said, mass adoption doesn’t necessarily equate to the success of the RCS revolution that carriers and advertisers are hoping for. Juniper Research’s report definitely paints RCS’ progress so far in a positive light, claiming the technology “will enable rapid development of new services over RCS clients, and will allow other market stakeholders, such as advertisers, to play a much more prominent role in the messaging space over the next five years.”

However, as the rollout has gotten underway over the past two years, this “RCS revolution” has bumped up against a number of hurdles which might mean that, even if

What is RCS? Rich Communication Services (RCS) is often pitched as the successor to SMS messaging. It’s a communication protocol like SMS for exchanging messages either user-touser, between a carrier and its users, or between a brand or government organisation and users via the carrier.

So far, just like SMS. Where RCS differs is in the fact that the technology allows for the incorporation of “rich” features like video, gifs, payment integration basically everything that’s allowed OTT platforms like WhatsApp to steal users away from SMS by the billion. Even if RCS can effectively replicate the same service that OTT platforms now provide, largely for free, the question remains: is it too late for it to matter?

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15%

Mobile Users With Access to an RCS-Compatible Network (2020)

40+%

Mobile Users With Access to an RCS-Compatible Network (2025)

the technology does become an available option on every smartphone in the world, that might not actually translate into the sea change that Google, the GSMA, telecom operators, and ambitious new age marketing firms are hoping for. In the increasingly harsh light of this inconvenient truth, is the RCS hype bubble about to pop?

RCS vs the Status Quo The 4G era brought about better connectivity across larger networks, ushering in the services that pretty much define the lives of billions of consumers around the world today. OTT streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu rewrote the rulebook for the entertainment industry. Apps like Uber, Deliveroo, and Postmates have absolutely transformed the way we travel and consume (in a very literal, food-related sense of the word). And OTT communications platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger came to dominate how we talk online.

As our data connections got better, we collectively gravitated away from SMS messaging towards the feature-rich, free, highly integrated experiences provided by those OTT messaging platforms. For the telcos, this has been a disaster. “They’ve lost the messaging market over the last decade,” explains George Glass, the Chief Technology Officer at TM Forum. Now, he continues, “It’s hard to see how mobile operators or CSPs 96

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can move into a market where the product, WhatsApp, is free, doesn’t promote adverts and offers such a rich experience. There doesn’t appear to be much of an angle.”

It’s a troubling thought that carriers (and Google) might be investing so heavily to provide an alternative to a problem that, from the consumer point of view, doesn’t exist. Despite Google’s attempts to “use RCS to catch up with WhatsApp and others like it,” Glass reflects that it’s hard to see how it will gain penetration.” One of the biggest sources of this stumbling block is the fact that, since RCS is a Google-developed technology, it has yet to make the jump to

TECHNOLOGY

“If Apple adopts RCS, there could be movement, but RCS is unlikely to generate much breakthrough until that point” GEORGE GLASS CTO, TM FORUM

Apple’s iOS and (for what it’s worth) other smartphone operating systems. Perhaps a little hyperbolically (iOS users currently represent just over a quarter of the global market), Glass says that RCS being an Android exclusive, “immediately cuts out at least 50% of the market.” The damage, he elaborates, isn’t just being done by the users who have an iOS device, but the Android users who regularly message with Apple customers. “Friends and families who use Android and Apple devices will likely stay with WhatsApp because they can message across devices with no issue,” Glass explains.

“If Apple adopts RCS, there could be

movement, but RCS is unlikely to generate much breakthrough until that point.” RCS is supposed to be taking back messaging from OTT platforms like WhatsApp, but has it already missed the boat?

All Hope is Not Lost The current issues with RCS adoption aren’t insurmountable, however, and several experts in the industry remain confident in its ability to shake the grip of OTT platforms on the messaging market. “It’s still a growing market,” says Nick Millward from Kaleyra (previously mGage), one of the marketing companies experimenting enthusiastically mobile-magazine.com

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“ The pandemic highlighted just how reliant the world is on telcos, and telcos are finally starting to take notice” KERSTIN TRIKALITIS CEO, OUT THERE MEDIA

with the remarkably high engagement rates that RCS manages to produce in customers. His company recently launched an RCS-based campaign that integrated 98

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rich content with mobile payments on behalf of a large charity which, along with other trials of the technology, “have already provided very positive results.”

Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO of Out There Media, is even more bullish about RCS’ chances. “This technology has the potential to completely change the consumer experience and how they engage with brands,” she explains. When asked about the issues with RCS fighting for a market that is essentially already at saturation, she’s quick to point out the biggest argument that’s been levelled against the companies behind OTT platforms in recent years: privacy.

“While OTT apps continue to be popular, what is becoming increasingly apparent is a clear consumer shift in OTT trust—more and more consumers are worried about their

data, about their privacy, and more and more are choosing to abandon certain messaging apps,” she says with practised delicacy.

While OTT platforms struggle with their public perception, Trikalitis adds, “the mobile operator has never been in a better position.”

She explains that “The pandemic highlighted just how reliant the world is on telcos, and telcos are finally starting to take notice.”

The growth of RCS, when combined with telecom carriers’ huge reams of personal consumer data (I refrain from pointing out the irony), “presents a huge opportunity to use RCS as a new communication channel and revenue generating tool,” offering more granular ad targeting based on more useful identification factors than current digital marketers like Google and Facebook have access to.

So, Where Does That Leave the RCS Revolution?

In all probability, RCS alone isn’t going to topple Whatsapp, or Messenger, or KaKaoTalk. The ease and ubiquity of these OTT platforms is probably going to ensure their survival for a very long time - although it might light a bit of a fire underneath their UI design teams if they realise that users actually have a viable alternative elsewhere. Millward thinks that there’s still a tipping point to be reached, adding that “It would be great to see a stronger push for RCS from operators and handset manufacturers to boost the number of handsets enabled and investments made in marketing RCS to consumers and businesses, which should further increase adoption.” mobile-magazine.com

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“ Even if OTTs can replicate similar levels of engagement, the power of the telco lies in its reach, its scale, and the trust it has built with its subscribers” KERSTIN TRIKALITIS CEO, OUT THERE MEDIA

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1.2bn RCS messaging users (2020)

3.9bn RCS messaging users (2025)

Trikalitis also points out that the security and trust that RCS offers could elevate its usage beyond user-to-user communication and marketing. “As we see RCS become more mainstream, we’ll begin to see its use vary—for example, RCS could go beyond brand engagement and could be used to save lives,” she says.

The tech-for-good arm of Out There Media, Out There Impact, worked with the WHO over the past year to run an RCS-based campaign to help combat COVID-19 misinformation. They managed to reach more than 300mn people using a combination of telco data, smart analytics, and feature rich messaging.

Trikalitis says that the campaign produced “stunning results, such as 96% read rate, 42% engagement rates, and 40% of users opting in to receive more information from the WHO.” In a world where the average user engagement rate for an online banner ad is around 2%, it sounds like cause for optimism. “Operator-owned RCS provides a trusted, safe, and secure medium through which brands, as well as organisations, can communicate their messages and achieve impactful and engaging results,” she concludes. “Even if OTTs can replicate similar levels of engagement, the power of the telco lies in its reach, its scale, and the trust it has built with its subscribers.” By harnessing those telco assets, the RCS Revolution might yet have a chance. mobile-magazine.com

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PCS WIRELESS

POWERING THE SECONDARY

DEVICE MARKET

WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

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LOGO/GRAPHIC IN BACKGROUND (DELETE THIS)

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A sustainable lifeline for business and healthcare is the focus of PCS Wireless who is recirculating mobile devices to connect the people that need it most

A

n entrepreneur will always find a niche in the market. Twenty years ago in New York, the founders of PCS Wireless seized on the potential of a secondary market for mobile phones as they found slightly used devices had a market as consumers sought the latest offerings from Nokia or Ericsson, Motorola, and others.

Today, with sustainability being at the top of the agenda, PCS is a telecommunications company with a turnover of over US$1.3 bn.

They have a footprint in four continents, operating in 80 countries, selling affordable Apple or Samsung smartphones along with tablets and wearables to people who need a cost-effective option.

Bashar Nejdawi, Chief Operating Officer of PCS, spoke from his New Jersey office on how the company is leading the way in powering the secondary device market.

This is not only giving a boost to developing economies, but also offering a lifeline to people who can now own a reconditioned mobile to finally connect with family and friends.

Billions of smartphones are used around the world and, according to recent research, a new phone will now have three or more owners in its lifetime thanks to the secondary market − “which is good news for the environment,” said Nejdawi.

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Title of the video

“Sustainability is very important for PCS, because all the devices we circulate back into the secondary market would have just ended up in landfills, or worse, not disposed of correctly. Reducing the carbon footprint is critical. PCS is in the centre of the global sustainability movement. We offer the chance for mobile devices to be refurbished and properly graded before they are re-circulated.”

Nejdawi highlighted that by circulating secondary devices into a developing market from Africa to SE Asia, there is a focus on three areas: • Sustainability • Positive social impact • Economic advantage “From a business perspective, this allows people to have the connectivity, to be able to conduct business. As the infrastructure 106

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“ Everything we do is based on our technology platform. Working with companies like FutureDial on automation is the key for our development” BASHAR NEJDAWI

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PCS WIRELESS

in these countries develops further and moves towards 4G and ultimately 5G, these cost-effective devices are a critical part of the economic growth of those countries.

“A reconditioned mobile also provides a lifeline for many people who can now access healthcare and connect with loved ones which was crucial during the pandemic.

BASHAR NEJDAWI TITLE: CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: UNITED STATES

EXECUTIVE BIO

People don’t want to live in a throwaway world any more,” said Nejdawi.

PCS has developed and grown a multichannel customer base and network of industry partners including FutureDial and RevalueTech along with OEMs, wholesalers, retailers, e-commerce and logistics providers in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA. “We also have device processing capabilities in five countries and sell devices in more than 80 countries worldwide,” commented Nejdawi.

Access to supply, analytical capabilities of data - that offers best value for their partners on buyback and trade-in programmes have given PCS the competitive edge. “Leveraging our operational capability has also given us a key advantage because we have flexibility and agility. Our presence in a number of strategic locations has allowed us to be close to the market.”

Bashar Nejdawi has extensive leadership experience within the global telecommunications and mobility industries worldwide, and holds a Doctorate in Management, an MBA and a Master’s in Engineering Telecommunications.

Nejdawi oversees global operations, e-commerce, Strategy, and M&A for PCS.

Over 200 Million Mobile Phones Processed with FutureDial Robotic & Software Solutions The most robotic solutions deployed with customers.

Device Inventory Receiving and Routing Consistent, Accurate Functional Testing Cosmetic Grading and Resale Valuation

Learn More

FutureDial, Incorporated 392 Potrero Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085

PCS WIRELESS

Quick-fire questions Bashar Nejdawi, Chief Operating Officer of PCS Wireless How do you see wearables adapting to help post-pandemic?

“Wearables have really taken off, especially during the pandemic, as a lot more people were stuck at home doing their own exercise routines and managing their own programmes and health. Therefore, we’ve seen a lot of growth in wearables during the past 18 months. Headsets were also selling like crazy as people adapted to working from home.”

Most exciting technology trend at the moment?

“The one that I find to be the most interesting is the utilisation of robotics and how this will enhance business in the future. Some people view robotics as replacing people, but I see that robotics will focus our people on a much higher level

of technology-based activities. We can be more productive and upgrade a lot of the skill sets that we have for our operations and warehouse, but more importantly, it is going to drive Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This is going to be a critical part of the analytical decisionmaking for a technology platform company in terms of analysing the pricing trends, the residual value curves, the purchasing, and the lifecycle.”

How important is sustainability to PCS and how do you practice this?

“Sustainability is very important for PCS, because all those devices we circulate back into the secondary market would have just ended up in landfills, or worse still not disposed of correctly. Reducing the carbon footprint is critical. PCS is in the centre of the global sustainability movement. We offer the chance for mobile devices to be refurbished and properly before they are circulated back into the market.” mobile-magazine.com

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PCS WIRELESS

We make maximizing the value of inventory simple.

Our custom-tailored Buyback Trade-in solutions simplify the upgrade process without sacrificing value or security.

Simple Secure Sustainable LEARN MORE

PCS WIRELESS

“ Sustainability is very important for PCS, because all the devices we circulate back into the secondary market would have just ended up in landfills…”

BASHAR NEJDAWI

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PCS WIRELESS

Entrepreneurial spirit Reflecting on its humble beginnings back in 2001 in Brooklyn, Nejdawi points out how the founders saw an opportunity grow from their original business of selling new devices into the retail or wholesale market. The wireless device reseller has now grown to become the global leader in the secondary mobile device industry.

“When people wanted to upgrade, they were bringing devices back which just needed to be refurbished. However, there was no ecosystem that took these devices. tested and connected them, and put them in the hands of the people who could use them and did not want to pay the full amount,” commented Nejdawi.

“PCS founders saw an opportunity as they were getting used devices back through retailers they were working with. These mobiles just needed to be refurbished and tested to ensure they were properly graded before being re-sold, but there was no ecosystem for these devices. To ensure they were put into the hands of people who could use them, such as those who didn't want to pay the full amount but simply wanted a functional used device, PCS’s original business of selling new devices grew into the secondary market and has been driving the market ever since with a growing business model.”

Gold medal for the ultimate recycling of smartphones Strong technology partners are critical to the success of PCS. “Everything we do is based on our technology platform. Working with companies like FutureDial on automation is the key for our development. It is vital for our future technology base and building our technology platform for our processing capabilities and the ability to be able to do diagnostics and grading,” said Nejdawi.

“Working with Revalue Tech in Enterprise Mobility has allowed us to extend the availability of used devices into that segment of the market as well as develop innovative enterprise grade service offering in partnership.

“Mobile devices and other consumer devices require a new ecosystem that can deliver convenience, savings, and transparency throughout the device ownership experience.”

Nejdawi commented that the future of mobile devices will revolve around content and content delivery. “Video streaming and availability of the content through the various sources is what's going to drive the next evolution for technology.”

With a local presence in every major market, and a strong leadership team that’s passionate about building the secondary market, PCS is focused on helping their partners achieve objectives year after year.

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2001

The year PCS Wireless was founded in New York

1,000

employees worldwide

$10mn

handsets a year are warehandled by PCS Wireless

Global presence PCS works with global companies to source and re-allocate mobile phones and to extend device life cycles. The company operates from six warehouse facilities across the world’s major hubs for smartphone sales: New Jersey (HQ), Dubai, Japan, HK, and the Netherlands.

“We have a total of 300,000 square feet of warehouse space which enables speedy and efficient turnarounds of products. Our commercial offices are based in New Jersey (HQ), Australia, Dubai, Japan, UK, NL, and Taiwan,” said Nejdawi.

PCS handles 10 million handsets a year in terms of processing and has more than 3,000 SKU’s in their system. They have more than 1,300 channel partners and 1,000 employees 112

September 2021

across the world. “We work to ensure we match each customer’s precise needs.”

5G boost for future secondary market PCS is predicted to grow to US$5bn by 2025. The launch of 5G is expected to result in millions of 4G and 3G devices in the secondary market. Devices such as wearables will also come through the IoT ecosystem, which will shape the future of the secondary market.

“We are followers of technology that is launched in the marketplace. The growth of 5G in the next couple of years is a key driver for the secondary market as there will be so many 3G or 4G devices that people will replace with the new models. This will allow other players in the marketplace to

PCS WIRELESS

with OEMs as well as working with our key technology partners.

“At PCS, we look at data and analytics as a technology platform and utilise those internally to help us with operational decision-making and purchasing as well as leveraging it for the services and capabilities that we offer to our channel partners.”

utilise those older devices, and we can feed them back into the system. The technology platform for buyback and trade is also being deployed across OEMs, carriers, retailers, and online.

“This is going to be a fairly substantial volume globally and great for our industry and developing economies as we can make those devices available at a much more affordable cost into a variety of countries.

“We also keep a close eye on technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), in terms of the type of equipment that's being used, and expect that to transition into the secondary market,” said Nejdawi.

“We have to understand new technologies to allow us to build up the capabilities to process them which is a critical part of working

Critical role of global partners Strong technology partners are critical to the success of PCS. “Everything we do is based on our technology platform. Working with companies like FutureDial on automation is the key for our development. It is vital for our future technology base and building our technology platform for our processing capabilities and the ability to be able to do diagnostics and grading,” said Nejdawi.

“Working with Revalue Tech in Enterprise Mobility has allowed us to extend the availability of used devices into that segment of the market as well as develop innovative enterprise grade service offering in partnership.

“Mobile devices and other consumer devices require a new ecosystem that can deliver convenience, savings, and transparency throughout the device ownership experience.”

Nejdawi commented that the future of mobile devices will revolve around content and content delivery. “Video streaming and availability of the content through the various sources is what's going to drive the next evolution for technology.”

With a local presence in every major market, and a strong leadership team that’s passionate about building the secondary market, PCS is focused on helping its partners achieve objectives year after year.

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FRAUD AND CYBERSECURITY IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the global cyber threat landscape, and security professionals are fighting a frantic battle to stay ahead WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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O

ver the past 18 months, the world has undergone a radical experiment with remote and hybrid work due to global lockdowns and social distancing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as many employers are pushing for a return to the office, many of them are being faced with aggressive pushback from workforces that have come to realise over the last year and a half that full-time in-person work is about as outdated as fax machines and dial-up internet. As the “Great Resignation” looms, businesses are being forced to recognise that a key differentiator when it comes to attracting and retaining top tier talent

(or any talent at all for that matter) will be a flexible, hybridised approach to work.

However, during the pandemic and going forward into this brave new hybrid world, business leaders are also being forced to contend with the rapidly evolving threat landscape thrown into overdrive by the pandemic. “The last 18 months have shown us that we are in for going forward,” explains Ian Keller, director of customer security at Ericsson. “There has been a dramatic increase, not only in the number of attacks but the number of successful compromises.”

These increasingly common security breaches, Keller continues, haven’t just been affecting “small companies with tight mobile-magazine.com

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ring; Count int64; }; func main() { controlChannel ke(chan ControlMessage);workerCompleteChan := make(c IOTstatusPollChannel := make(chan chan bool); work ol); 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

IOT

“ There has been a dramatic increase, not only in the number of attacks but the number of successful compromises” IAN KELLER

CUSTOMER SECURITY DIRECTOR, ERICSSON

budgets and limited skills, but companies that have long been deemed bastions of security and good practice.”

As more of the world works online, and every industry from retail to defence becomes increasingly tech-saturated, the potential threat of fraud and cybersecurity breaches looms larger every day as we get closer and closer to a “post-pandemic” world - if such a thing even exists.

The COVID-19 Cybercrime Wave A huge part of the spike in cyber attacks that enterprises and governments have experienced during the pandemic is, Keller explains, a direct response to new opportunities and vulnerabilities created by remote work. mobile-magazine.com

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“ We all know security is only as good as its weakest link” IAN KELLER

CUSTOMER SECURITY DIRECTOR, ERICSSON

He notes that, as companies have scrambled to remain operational (and profitable) during the crisis, “Good security practice has gone out the door for the sake of expediency; freeware tools and weak passwords are being used for remote access to infrastructure.” The subsequent 118

September 2021

attacks have successfully hit everything from Fortune 500 companies to critical government infrastructure, “with Hospitals being held to ransom and potentially lethal changes made to the water supply.” These decidedly Tom Clancy-esque, high-profile breaches, Keller adds, “are just the tip of the iceberg as most breaches are not even reported on.”

Even in the less dramatic setting of the everyday home, Keller notes that many remote workers are even less safe than they think. “Consider your new home office,” he says, explaining that even if you’re working from a fully-protected corporate laptop “with all the security bells and whistles,” most people share their home network with their “kids and their devices, which typically have a freeware antivirus on it…..all on the same network. We now have numerous

The Hybrid Work Age companies on the same internet link and on one internal wi-fi network, and we all know security is only as good as its weakest link,” Keller warns.

The Hybrid Problem Adam Philpott, a Senior VP at McAfee, stresses to me that “the threats which organisations have been facing since the start of the pandemic have been facilitated by an increase in remote working – which as we know isn’t going to end any time soon, if ever.” Even if the world boomerangs back to the proportion of in-person work that we saw before the pandemic - which all the data, from Kickstarter’s recent experiments with a four day workweek to the findings of a study by McKinsey which found that between 20-25% of the workforces in advanced economies

44%

US Employees who want to work from home after getting their COVID-19 vaccine

35%

US Employees who want to shift to hybrid after getting their COVID-19 vaccine

21%

US Employees who want to come back to the office

57%

US Employees currently happy working in a hybrid model

mobile-magazine.com

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“ It’s unlikely that levels of cybercrime will be drastically reduced over the next couple of years” ADAM PHILPOTT

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MCAFEE ENTERPRISE

The Cybercrime Spike

15%

Annual growth in cybercrime “cost”

$10.5trn Cost of cybercrime in 2025

500%

Increase in ransomware attacks since March 2020

43%

Increase in paid ransom sizes in Q4 2020

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September 2021

could work from home between three and five days a week, is highly unlikely - Philpott says that “it’s unlikely that levels of cybercrime will be drastically reduced over the next couple of years.”

As much as the shift to remote work has turned the past year into one long nightmare for cybersecurity teams, Philpott says that a hybrid world will be even more dangerous. “The main difficulty with hybrid working from a cybersecurity perspective is that compared to either fully remote or full on-prem, IT teams are having to simultaneously manage security risks that occur both in and out of the office,” he says. “As a result, the workforce is exposed to a larger number of threats and IT teams’ workloads are subsequently increased.”

Keller agrees that “The hybrid network has also dramatically increased the attack surface of a company. Where traditionally we had very tight control over the networks’ ingress and egress points, we now have thousands of points.”

The Solution?

There are a number of different approaches that companies can supposedly use to tackle this radically more dangerous threat landscape. The ones that will be successful (this state of affairs, even in Philpott’s most optimistic projection, isn’t going away for another couple of years, remember?) are those that attack the problem from multiple angles.

Keller explains that, while the threat of IoT is not in the device but in the ease in which they can be procured and added to the network, many IoT devices are “plug and play”, which means they often end up as endpoints to secure systems while still using default passwords and security configurations. “For me, there is

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“ It’s getting harder for IT teams to identify who and what should be trusted in an organisation’s network” ADAM PHILPOTT

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MCAFEE ENTERPRISE

122

September 2021

IOT

only one way of dealing with this threat, and it’s a combination of solid governance throughout the company, from finance through procurement and to technology, where spending is investigated to stop or prohibit the purchasing of IoT technology that is not approved through the relevant governance forums,” he adds. This approach, in combination with strict network access controls that ensure “no device should be able to connect to the network if not clearly identified and evaluated for risk and compliance to policy,” can help IT departments go a long way towards safeguarding their assets.

Philpott advocates going even further.

He’s a huge advocate of the Zero Trust approach, which “means that organisations trust no one when it comes to security – not trusting anything outside or crucially, inside of their networks.” This mindset, he adds, will be especially important as more and more enterprises move towards the cloud post-pandemic. “Our research saw a 50% increase in enterprise cloud use between January and April 2020 alone. As cloud plays an increasingly important role in business operations, it’s getting harder for IT teams to identify who and what should be trusted in an organisation’s network.

A zero-trust approach allows teams to reduce the risk of their cloud and container deployments while also improving governance and compliance,” Philpott says.

The change currently sweeping the cybersecurity and fraud-prevention sector is seismic. While rumblings have been felt “for years”, according to Keller, the pandemic threw into stark relief the fact that “we should move away from the reliance on firewalls to secure our networks and move the defences to the device - if not the data itself.” mobile-magazine.com

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF

PROCUREMENT WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Reinhard Plaza-Bartsch, Global Head of SCM Development, Operations & Digital

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Reinhard Plaza-Bartsch, Global Head of SCM Digital & Operations, Vodafone on empowering procurement through digital transformation

D

efining the efficacy of a digital transformation in procurement seems straightforward on the surface. You can consider the facts by measuring efficiency and productivity metrics or tally up the black ink on quarterly financial results. But the full story is written in the detail. In making areas of user experience and ESG commitments tangible, reportable and manageable.

As Global Head of SCM Digital & Operations at Vodafone, Reinhard PlazaBartsch is driving the telecoms giant’s supply chain digital transformation journey. His vision is that digital will transform the way we work, fostering a culture of innovation and driving more sustainable value creation.

It will empower individuals to do more, through outstanding user experience, boost productivity and reshape how we collaborate across organisations.

“Digitalisation will unlock exponential value for our business,” he says. “As a function, we want to push the boundaries of what can be achieved through technology and innovation.

Having a vision and lining up a clear roadmap of new capabilities interlocked with the business is an essential part of the journey.

“You need to start from the basics - typically opportunities that will free up capacity of commercial teams so that they can devote more time to more value-adding activities.

However, you need to shift gears quickly, go beyond simple automation, and equip teams with new digital solutions that go beyond bridging process gaps and providing data mobile-magazine.com

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Title of the video

insights to enable business foresight. In other words, enabling fully end-to-end connected solutions that provide transparency about what is happening in their area of spend. Extending the reach to identify external factors that will influence the business and leveraging artificial intelligence to advise and recommend the best course of action to minimise risks and maximise the value for the organisation.”

Plaza-Bartsch joined Vodafone 14 years ago in the nascent era of digitalisation, when centralization and standardization were the buzz words of the hour. That initial unification process took some years to accomplish but resulted in “a data foundation for the supply chain organisation” that has been instrumental in accelerating the digital transformation over the past five years.

“The degree of insights that we can get from the data that we've created over those years is tremendous,” says Plaza-Bartsch. “We can see how our operations perform in realtime, identify patterns and behaviors in our business and take laser sharp actions to drive performance. We can see how our users are 128

September 2021

“ Digitalisation needs to be very much linked to the actual expected business outcome” REINHARD PLAZA-BARTSCH

GLOBAL HEAD OF SCM DEVELOPMENT, OPERATIONS & DIGITAL, VODAFONE

leveraging certain datasets, what is becoming more relevant to them and how they are unlocking value for the business. Beyond our operations, we are helping our suppliers and partners improve their performance through our insights and the actions we have taken.

“We are now also using some predictive models to proactively manage and mitigate risks, although this is an area where there is still a big opportunity to scale further.

Getting access to data has been one step in our journey; this has now moved towards

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

turning data into business insights that are meaningful and relevant. This has enabled us to achieve world-class performance and drive consistency across all categories and regions.

“What’s great in our function is that no matter where you are in the business, you will have access to the same information, same dashboards and analytics, and enjoy the same and unique user experience across our processes.”

While business insights are a great asset to give you a view of what is happening, we are already leading into applications that provide business foresight. We want to take a more proactive and long-term perspective to potential risks and issues that may impact our supply chain. This can range from simple business trends being contextualised for category teams, to more advanced risk modelling solutions that enable our business to take data-driven decisions on more complex scenarios.

The next step in the journey is to make data actionable, and where possible autonomous.

You can think about this being a “companion or assistant” for a category manager, PlazaBartsch says, which equips them with the information they need to make decisions based on empirical evidence, rather than relying on heuristics or decontextualised data.

“Going a step further, we intend to leverage artificial intelligence to autonomously identify

REINHARD PLAZA-BARTSCH TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SCM DEVELOPMENT, OPERATIONS & DIGITAL INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: LUXEMBOURG Reinhard is currently the Head of Digital Supply Chain & Operations at Vodafone. He is spearheading the digital transformation of Vodafone’s supply chain by accelerating innovation and adoption of new technologies, driving operational excellent performance and unlocking new sources of value for the function.

His career spans across a number of different industries with roles ranging from managing large scale logistics operations to leading complex transformation programmes along the supply chain.

At Vodafone, Reinhard has been pivotal in the establishment and operation of the Vodafone Procurement Company and the transformation of the global supply chain (which now oversees Vodafone’s 25bn€ global spend). He has successfully delivered major transformation programmes that have delivered multimillion Euro in benefits for Vodafone and have also gained external recognition Reinhard is passionate about the role that

1982

Company founded

€44bn+

Revenue in the 12 months to 31 March, 2021

EXECUTIVE BIO

technology can play in shaping the future of procurement, and is actively engaged in customer advisory boards for a number of procurement technology solution providers.

Vodafone in partnership with Block Gemini Has created a commercial contract management (CCM) platform based on blockchain Since 2016 when Chris Fernandez founded Dubai-based Block Gemini, it has been meeting a growing demand for blockchain implementations particularly in the supply chain and fintech space. “The fact that we are now working with a company like Vodafone on a truly innovative blockchain project is testament to what we’ve been able to achieve in such a short span of time,” he says.

Any industry that deals with transactional ecosystems that are tracked and monitored digitally can be greatly improved through the use of blockchain technology. “The project we’re currently deploying for Vodafone, using blockchain and smart contracts to manage complex contractual agreements with their suppliers, is an example of the value that blockchain can create. Of course, managing procurement contracts is not specific to the telecoms industry, but there are many other areas specific to the telecoms industry that can benefit from the use of blockchain.”

Over the last two years the collaborative relationship between Block Gemini and Vodafone has grown steadily. “From consulting and advisory services, to design and development, every aspect of the project has been managed and delivered by our dedicated in-house team - I believe this has been the strongest driver for our continuing partnership with Vodafone on this project. I see Block Gemini bringing a great deal of value to the future growth and expansion of this solution across Vodafone’s internal procurement systems.”

Blockchain has the power to transform the global telecoms ecosystem, Chris Fernandez concludes: “Take the example of fixed-line leasing services - huge amounts of bandwidth are bought and sold across millions of customers worldwide. “These transactions need to be negotiated and settled discretely between many telecoms service providers, and that’s a very resource-intensive process. With blockchain, the entire manual settlement could be replaced by a smart contract settled instantaneously!”

Learn More

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

“ Supply chain is a key contributor to Vodafone’s purpose agenda” REINHARD PLAZA-BARTSCH

GLOBAL HEAD OF SCM DEVELOPMENT, OPERATIONS & DIGITAL, VODAFONE

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patterns and prompt action, and eventually… enable our systems to autonomously take decisions,” he adds.

While all the new tech is great, securing a consistent and outstanding user experience is a cornerstone to any successful digital transformation. “You need to keep a close focus on user experience to drive adoption,” says Plaza-Bartsch. Enhancing user experience has been a long objective of Vodafone’s supply chain digital transformation. As far back as 2017 the company began measuring user experience across all its procurement processes and systems. Using a net promoter score - a simple but effective questionnaire, that is automatically triggered when people interact with the digital solutions, asking users to gauge how likely they would be to recommend the SCM solutions - the results were underwhelming. On a scale from -100 (everyone hates the system) to +100 (everyone loves the system) the score came back at -37.

“Naturally what this told us was we needed to do something, and so we did,” Plaza-Bartsch says. “While we couldn’t find any company trending on the positive side of user experience with procurement systems, we are strong believers that improving user experience helps our organisation to become leaner and more agile. It also helps us drive operational excellence and attract talent. People want to work with companies that have great tech, where they can unlock their potential and mobile-magazine.com

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Start Today

SIRIONLABS, EMPOWERING TRUE COLLABORATION AND PARTNERSHIP Ajay Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder of SirionLabs, discusses their fruitful partnership with Vodafone and how CLM enables smarter contracting enterprise-wide.

Ajay Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder of SirionLabs, shares how the alignment of values and the power of CLM have made for an effective partnership with Vodafone. “We believe in the power of cost savings and superior customer experience, and therein lies the synergy between our organisations. What started out as a post-signature value realisation exercise back in 2016 has since grown into a full suite CLM solution encompassing customised pre-signature features to cater to local markets spread over more than 40 countries. Nothing gives me greater happiness than a customer who has been able to gain increased visibility and get a tighter grip over their contracts.”

“Vodafone has today around 2000 strategic supplier contracts managed through SirionLabs, which oversee a spend of close to 6 billion euros annually. Through our initial discussions, we saw great potential in addressing Vodafone’s commercial engagements, tracking and realising value at scale through a myriad of systems that were retrofitted to suit existing infrastructure.”

“Our four-way automated invoice matching solution has contributed to Vodafone’s bottom line, enabling them to save hundreds of millions of dollars. It has also reduced the friction in their supplier landscape,

ranging from missed commitments or complaints to disputes or disagreements. Automation also reaps many benefits and has enabled Vodafone to cut costs in contract management and supplier governance by more than 60%, reducing manual effort by almost 50% and generating further savings through reduced headcount cost. Post signature activities have also become smoother and a lot more efficient, with one enterprise contract repository across all suppliers and managing them according to their footprint.”

By leveraging AI and extracting valuable data, SirionLabs’ CLM solution empowers collaboration and continued cooperation and partnership long after contracts have been signed.

Agrawal explains, “Collaboration is essential to any partnership. That is really the heart and soul of any SirionLabs project. Unlike many conventional contract management systems that create, store, and maybe extract information from contracts, SirionLabs is unique because it allows both contracting parties to have continued access to the system, even after the contract is signed, while giving a single, consolidated view of data, further enhanced by rich dashboards and insights which help make quick business decisions. The purpose of that continued access is true collaboration across multiple business functions.”

Digitize Your Contracts Now

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

actually maximise their contribution to the organisation, rather than being consumed by administrative activities.”

Today that score sits 117 points higher at positive 84. “User experience is and will always be something to chase, PlazaBartsch admits. “This is basically because our expectations as individuals continuously evolve. We are all exposed to great user experience in everyday applications we have in our private lives, so naturally our expectations will not be different at work.”

The improvement achieved in user experience represents a complete turnaround in the course of just three years. That development will continue as Vodafone continuously influences the innovation roadmap of its partners, but also through a new approach to partnerships which is taking shape through the development of new 136

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“ Customer experience will continue to be an uncompromised priority, combined with an obsession for speed and simplicity across all our user journeys” REINHARD PLAZA-BARTSCH

GLOBAL HEAD OF SCM DEVELOPMENT, OPERATIONS & DIGITAL, VODAFONE

SCM systems. Instead of buying ready-made solutions, Vodafone is driving innovation by teaming up with a number of partners to develop new capabilities, including software firms outside the traditional sphere of procurement software solutions.

One good example of this drive for innovation is Vodafone’s vision of autonomous journeys across the whole supply chain.

“This is a very ambitious project we are doing with Pegasystems. Today we call it Autonomous Procurement, however, we expect it to quickly expand beyond procurement to a truly integrated and automated supply chain ecosystem” PlazaBartsch says. “We’ve worked hand-in-hand with our category teams to shape the user journeys in the procurement space as a start,

and on this basis we are beginning to add on the capabilities that make buying simpler and faster for the business, while also creating competitive tensions. Our ambition is that this becomes a fully autonomous, end-toend solution, where everything from supplier selection, to contracting and risk management happens automatically, all on the platform. We are moving here clearly from a digital-first to a digital-only mindset.

“We are very proud to have launched our MVP (minimum variable product). This is truly agile development where we are getting to see how the product shapes every other week” Plaza -Bartsch adds. “The platform is still in its early stages and needs greater human oversight to function properly than when it is complete, but having an MVP up and running has been an important step in solidifying Vodafone’s leadership position. mobile-magazine.com

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With 6,000 global employees across North America, Europe, Latin America, and AsiaPacific, Pega has joined forces with Vodafone, a leading British technology communications company. We recently spoke to Joaquin Reixa, Pega’s Vice President & Managing Director, EMEA, to see what this partnership will hold.

‘This is a joint digital journey’, he told us. ‘To accelerate Vodafone’s digital transformation, Pega is focused on leveraging our unique and complementary technology and skill sets’.

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Both Vodafone and Pega bring unique strengths to this new partnership: Pega will provide the digital foundation; Vodafone will provide the procurement expertise. With

Pega’s simple yet sophisticated architecture, Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC) can rapidly build, deploy, and automate global operations to scale.

In addition, Pega’s solutions are perfect for complex supply chains. With Vodafone experts manning the controls, Pega will help create a streamlined, intelligence-driven supply chain engine. As Reixa explained: ‘You want to have a global common process, but couple it with the flavour of the local country and culture’.

Overall, Pega and Vodafone’s partnership will drive agility, optimise supply chains, offer customers a personalised experience, and accelerate Vodafone’s operations. Reixa summed it up: ‘In these moments of chaos, companies must speed up their digital transformation. If you’re not prepared, you stand the risk of irrelevance. This is the time to pursue change’.

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KEY PARTNER: BLOCKGEMINI

“We have big ambitions around our autonomous procurement journey, and we are keen to push the envelope further” REINHARD PLAZA-BARTSCH

GLOBAL HEAD OF SCM DEVELOPMENT, OPERATIONS & DIGITAL, VODAFONE

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September 2021

“We exchange a lot of pricing information with partners and suppliers, and we wanted a solution to manage that activity in a much more seamless manner,” says Reinhard Plaza-Bartsch. “So we decided to work with BlockGemini, a late-stage startup partner and Tomorrow Street portfolio company, which is not part of the traditional procurement tech space, because we had a vision of what we wanted, and it was clear that it wasn't available in the market.

“The partnership is about commonly investing from both ends to develop this solution and eventually productise it. It is already live within our ecosystem across 11 markets, with around 30 different partners operating on the platform, and we are now aiming to scale this rapidly towards the end of our financial year across all our supplier base. It has been successful so far, enabling us to track price fluctuation and identify areas of opportunity for reviewing price on an on-going basis.”

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

“When we set our vision, we initially went to market to find an off-the-shelf solution that will meet our objectives. We invited 30-plus different partners and came to realize that the landscape wasn't ready. That gave us an indication that this is an area where we should invest more time and develop something to maintain our leadership position for the future.

We believe such a solution will be relevant not just for Vodafone, but also for our partners.”

Alongside evolving the core functions of its procurement division, Vodafone is also leveraging its digital transformation to encompass environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) objectives. PlazaBartsch says: “Supply chain is a key contributor to Vodafone’s purpose agenda. This is by embedding planet and society objectives across everything we do, from how we make decisions (policies) and how we run our business (processes and systems), enabling us to influence and align our more than 10,000 global suppliers around common objectives.”

Sustainability, diversity and inclusion have become core concerns for the private sector, but many businesses continue to grapple with exactly how to quantify them, and how to link them to business objectives.

At Vodafone, Plaza-Bartsch’s approach is to make them tangible and transparent so that they can be managed.

“For example, we have embedded purpose commitments in our sourcing process,” he says. “When evaluating suppliers for new work, 20% of our scoring criteria will account for their commitments to diversity, inclusion and the environment. Enabling this through our systems has been key to secure a consistent implementation across our spend.”

Likewise, to support a reduction of carbon emissions objectives, Vodafone is leveraging big data to access and create full transparency of its CO2 footprint. "For us the use of

technology is essential to understand and predict CO2 emissions growth through our supply chain” Plaza-Bartsch says. “By creating this visibility, we can be more targeted when selecting areas of opportunity to actively drive a reduction in emissions on a year-by-year basis by working with our partners on greener technologies and solutions.

“It’s the same for ESG. We expect that the demand for information and transparency across our supply chain will continue to rise. We will see larger and more connected ecosystems that will contribute richer information to enable business foresight at scale.

“Innovation has become the new normal across our digital transformation journey and our culture. Customer experience will continue to be an uncompromised priority, combined with an obsession for speed and simplicity across all our user journeys. This will enable us to scale commercial and operational value to Vodafone, and beyond that, enable lasting and impactful improvement to society and our planet.”

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MOBILE SECURITY APPS WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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September 2021

With ransomware, malware, and other forms of cyber attack on the rise, we’ve broken down the 10 best apps to help you protect your smartphone

TOP 10

P

eople have had to adapt to a lot over the past year and a half, from lost jobs, friends and loved ones, to months spent in confinement as the pandemic raged outside. As physical interaction became much rarer over the past 18 months, people have responded by stepping farther and farther inside their digital worlds.

Increased smartphone usage (as well as time spent online in general) during the pandemic has also driven an unprecedented rise in cybercrime

- in particular, cybercrime associated with COVID-19.

Recent data from cybersecurity firm McAfee also found that, in the UK and the US, nearly half of all smartphone users (47% and 49%, respectively) don’t use any kind of mobile security software. As our phones become more and more important parts of our lives - and keeping them safe along with it we’ve broken down the 10 best apps to help you protect your smartphone.

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TOP 10

10

Bitdefender Mobile Security

Free; Premium version for $14.99/year P R O : For the quality and quantity of features, the Premium version is insanely cheap C O N : Free version caps your VPN data PRICE:

The perfect balance between everything that makes an antivirus app great. Bitdefender’s app has impeccable malware detection, integrates with your wearables, a built-in VPN, and an AdBlocker, all while leaving a shockingly light impression on your phone’s processing power.

In addition to shutting down viruses and malware, the app also brings a host of privacy features to the table, including an app-locker, anti-theft features, data-breach notification, and even scans wifi connections to detect if they are compromised or under attack.

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09 Signal

P R I C E : Free P R O : Encrypts SMS messages

even when only one participant has Signal installed C O N : Virtually none

Recommended by Bruce Schneier and Edward Snowden, Signal is the hands down best choice for a privacy-focused smartphone user. Signal is a fully open source encrypted messaging system that encrypts messages in transit, hides messages from the carrier and ISP, and keeps messages secure even if an encryption key is stolen. The App was developed by Open Whisper Systems, a group of celebrated cryptographers who created its own encryption method, the Signal Protocol.

TOP 10

08

Norton Mobile Security

P R I C E : Premium version for $30/year P R O : Flawless security features C O N : No more free version

Norton’s antivirus app would probably have ended up on the top of this list if it weren’t for the fact that the free version was recently scrapped. Nevertheless, with bar-setting security and threat detection capabilities, a great app advisor, and UI design that’s perfectly intuitive to use, this is one of the best ways to shell a reasonable amount of money each year for near-total peace of mind.

07

Google Find My Device

P R I C E : Free P R O : Significantly cheaper than

buying a new phone C O N : To find your device, Google has to know where your device is, which can be a privacy concern

We’ve focused pretty heavily on cyber security and privacy so far, but physically losing your phone or having it stolen is also a nightmare. Find my phones apps are widely used; Google has even incorporated the technology into its own suite of tools.

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TOP 10

05 06

DuckDuckGo

P R I C E : Free P R O : Browse in private C O N : No AdBlock; DuckDuckGo

runs its own ads

A privacy-focused browser is a must-have for the data securityconscious. DuckDuckGo is available as either an app or a browser extension and is a solid piece of tech that will keep Google from collecting your data in order to sell it to companies that weaponise your subconscious mind against you so you buy limited edition Funko Pops and vegan taco meat at 3 am. The DuckDuckGo browser also offers a Burn Button, which permanently wipes your cookies, cache, and browsing history from your device with a single push of a button.

Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus

Free; Premium version for $20/year P R O : No ads in the free version C O N : No auto scan for new apps in the free version; the premium version is expensive and underwhelming PRICE:

Keeping your phone safe from malware and viruses should be a priority at a time when our devices are more important to our daily lives than ever. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky makes a thoroughly respectable antivirus app that packs near-perfect malware protection and a good call blocker into one slick package. The premium version is a little expensive, and really doesn’t do much more than autoscan your new apps, so it’s probably best to stick to the basic (ad free) subscriber level.

TOP 10

04 Wire

Free (for personal use); Premium version for $5.83/month; Enterprise version for $9.50/month P R O : Encrypted collaboration tools C O N : Audio issues and call dropping have been reported PRICE:

If you’re concerned about your messages (or those being sent by your employees) getting read by anyone from hackers to your mobile carrier or ISP, a messaging encryption app can give you peace of mind. While Wire isn’t the best app for total messaging security (we’ll get to that in a minute), it does throw in some collaboration tools like encrypted file sharing, conferencing, and group chats, making it a great choice for a privacy-focused startup.

03

Hiya: Caller ID & Spam Blocker

Free; Premium version for $24.99/year P R O : Ad-free and large user community C O N : App is built on a pretty weak IT stack and can run slowly as a result PRICE:

The FCC recently found that COVID-19 related phone scams have, much like the virus, spiked over the past six months. Installing a call screener app like Hiya can help weed out malicious phone calls and spam. Hiya has an intuitive interface with no ads in its free version. There is also a business package used by the likes of Samsung, AT&T, and Telenor, which allows enterprises to avoid being labelled as spam and brand their outgoing calls when reaching out to consumers.

02

TOP 10

LastPass Password Manager

P R I C E : Free; Premium version for $36/year (billed monthly) P R O : Feature-rich C O N : Free version makes you choose between mobile devices

and your desktop computers

A Google study in 2019 unearthed the sobering statistic that almost two thirds of people use the same password across multiple accounts, and 13% use a single password for all their accounts.

Reusing passwords is a huge vulnerability, which a password manager app like LastPass can help you address. LastPass uses bank-grade encryption technology, paired with a smooth UI, and can accommodate an unlimited number of passwords.

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TOP 10

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September 2021

Avast Mobile Security Free(mium); Premium version for $24/year P R O : Cheap, feature-rich C O N : Does a sub-par job of malware detection PRICE:

One of the most full-featured antivirus apps available on the market, Avast offers a wide range of bells and whistles, from a privacy advisor to a customisable blacklist and a useful system optimisation function. The premium version is also one of the more affordable on the market, although the free version is already crammed with useful tools. However, while there is a free version of Avast for Android, it does contain ads, and some reviewers have pointed out that its malware detection could be better.

mobile-magazine.com

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NuRAN

154 September 2021

NURAN

NuRAN WIRELESS BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

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Be fast, be first, is the aim of NuRAN Wireless as they pave the way to connect the unconnected across Africa with a CAD $500mn project with Orange

156 September 2021

T

racking big cat poachers in Africa is a result of “bridging the digital divide” in rural communities by telecommunication company NuRAN Wireless. Francis Létourneau, President and CEO, is leading the company to connect rural communities from Ghana to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - with the motto, “Be first, be fast” and has now signed a CAD $500mm project with Orange.

NuRAN Wireless provides carrier-grade low CAPEX and low OPEX mobile broadband infrastructure solutions for remote areas from the Arctic regions of Canada to the heat of the African bush. Létourneau highlighted how NuRAN is now focusing on being a network-as-aservice (NAAS) from originally being an equipment manufacturer.

With its affordable and innovative solutions of 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies, NuRAN Wireless offers a new possibility for more than one billion people to be able to communicate effectively over long distances. The company’s innovative radio access network (RAN), core network, and backhaul products

NURAN

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xG Promo – David Parsons

dramatically drop the NuRAN Wireless cites “OUR NEW VISION IS total cost of ownership. four areas in which they TO SHIFT THE BUSINESS Despite only being have a competitive edge: CEO for one year, • Ownership of the MODEL FROM BEING Létourneau is forging technology which is built AN EQUIPMENT ahead and revealed plans for that rural market MANUFACTURER TO for the CAD $500mn • Lowest total cost deal with Orange to work A NAAS AND TO INVEST of ownership for an on 2,000 sites in DRC, operator in rural areas IN INFRASTRUCTURE” which he predicts will • Flexibility of their be ready in 40 months. business model FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU “There's a lot of eyes on • Sustainability PRESIDENT AND CEO, us to succeed, so we NURAN WIRELESS have created a strong Vision for future ecosystem Létourneau spoke about stepping up to lead of partners,” said Létourneau, speaking the company at the height of the pandemic from the head office in Quebec, Canada. and at a time when NuRAN was restructuring “This is a massive market opportunity. itself following a file for bankruptcy from When we were negotiating the contract with its wholly-owned subsidiary and operating Orange, the first plan was 500 sites in five company, Nutaq Innovation Inc. years, but we wanted to see more market Within 12 months, Letourneau’s strategy penetration, so we increased the number of “be first, be fast” is now seeing multiand time frame.” million projects in Africa and SE Asia, and the 158 September 2021

NuRAN

company has a revenue of CAD $4mn. “Our new vision is to shift the business model from being an equipment manufacturer to a NAAS and to invest in infrastructure,” said Létourneau who was the only executive left standing following the challenges last year.

He pointed out that it is testament to the company’s resilience, values, and its passionate team that NuRAN Wireless can continue to pursue its inspiring goal. “Our team rose to the challenge of the pandemic and I think we are more effective as remotely working allows everything to be fast and you’re always up to speed. The challenge for me was to rebuild the team with the new vision in mind of being a NAAS with projects starting in Africa.”

TITLE: PRESIDENT AND CEO INDUSTRY: TELECOMS LOCATION: QUEBEC, CANADA

EXECUTIVE BIO

Connections from the savannah to ships The future focus for NuRAN Wireless is now DRC, but as Létourneau points out, their reach historically extends to some of the world’s most remote locations from the African savannah to ships and offshore platforms.

“No matter how far our customers are from the main cities, or how low the population of their village is, we enable them to communicate with the rest of the world. We empower them to overcome the social and economic challenges that have to be addressed in order for a community to progress,” said Létourneau.

He pointed out that NuRAN’s 2G low cost, low power solution which had a small bandwidth allowed the lowest cost of ownership. “We are now moving into the next generation, which is LiteCell xg which will support 2G, 3G, and 4G. This will be rolled out in early autumn and will benefit rural connectivity. It can also support 5G and, although the rural market is not ready for this yet, we want to be ready for when it is available. The big trend in Africa is

FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU

Francis Létourneau is a seasoned and accomplished Sales and Marketing executive with over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry.

Mr Létourneau is a results-oriented and self-driven professional with 20 years of experience at NuRAN Wireless Inc. Mr Létourneau was initially promoted to director on the Board of Directors at NuRAN in 2015.

This experience has now earned him the title of President and CEO of NuRAN Wireless. Mr. Létourneau has been instrumental in steering NuRAN into a new direction through the implementation NAAS business model, which now defines NuRAN as Mobile Network Operator. As a result of this strategic initiative, NuRAN Wireless has now generated over CAD $550mn in contracts in its initial year as an MNO. Létourneau holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Laval University, Quebec, Canada and is Registered Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

NURAN

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NuRAN

“ TODAY, TELCOM IS A BASIC NEED, ALONG WITH FOOD AND SOMEWHERE TO SLEEP”

LIFE OUTSIDE THE OFFICE What are you most looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over?

Visiting our customers in Africa, particularly the French-speaking countries - but Quebec will always be my favourite city

FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU PRESIDENT AND CEO, NURAN WIRELESS

currently having a mobile as this enables people to start doing business from within their own communities.”

Favourite movie?

I am a big movie fan and love the Avenger series, Marvel and Lord of the Rings

DID YOU KNOW...

Connecting the unconnected Bridging the digital with NAAS is all about connecting the unconnected, according to Létourneau, who is looking forward to visiting the new French-speaking sites in Cameroon and DRC once restrictions are lifted.

The challenges of connecting the vast central Africa country of DRC are huge. It has a population of 105mn and is the second largest in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world.

“Companies have tried in the past and failed. Only one has survived, which is one of our customers, Africa Mobile Network.

We admire the work of Michael Darcy. We will continue to support them, but, at the end of the day, we are focused on changing people's lives.

“Today, telcom is a basic need, along with food and somewhere to sleep. We need to bring that service. These people deserve to be connected through our new NAAS. As we invest in this service, we'll bridge this digital gap that is left behind by no investment in those areas. In light of the pandemic, I believe it is more important than ever that people are connected to loved ones and can access healthcare.”

Most exciting telco technology trend at the moment?

At the end of the day, everything will be connected

Perfect food and drink combination?

Steak and a good cabernet sauvignon What advice would you give a young Francis Létourneau as he is starting out on business? keep on fighting for what you believe – Francis Létourneau, President & CEO, NuRAN Wireless

Commenting on the NuRAN Wireless strategy, Létourneau said they now have the technology that allows them to connect with multiple operators.

“Our vision is to have multiple tenants connected to our network. We will assign with other tier one mobile network operators, or even tier two, but we would like to have a rent sharing infrastructure. mobile-magazine.com

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DID YOU KNOW...

HOW NURAN WIRELESS CONNECTED THE PEOPLE OF GHANA People living in northern Ghana were previously uncovered by any mobile network. In rural areas such as this one, it is not economical to use traditional towers found in cities, leaving rural populations unconnected and unable to make use of the life-enhancing benefits that mobile coverage can provide.

successfully deployed all seven mobile network sites in northern Ghana.

In 2020, the Connected Society Innovation Fund awarded this technology vendor with a £330,000 grant to test and evaluate their new, innovative mobile connectivity solution for unconnected rural communities in Ghana. The grant is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

“Now more than ever, the entire world needs to be connected,” said Francis Létourneau.

President & CEO, NuRAN Wireless.

In partnership with Vodafone Ghana, and with support from The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), NuRAN Wireless has now

162 September 2021

Through innovative backhaul solutions and Open RAN, these sites provide life-enhancing connectivity to several rural communities that were previously uncovered.

“We pride ourselves in developing not only accessible and affordable innovative technology, but also in pioneering solutions that earn MNO’s trust, considerably speeding up the rural connecting process. Our association with the GSMA and Vodafone has been an incredible learning experience and will, in fact, exceed expectations towards bridging the digital divide.”

NuRAN

NuRAN

This is part of our roadmap and plan for the capital and largest city is Accra; other upcoming years, the goal is to have 10,000 major cities include Kumasi, Tamale, and sites built over the next five years.”

Sekondi-Takoradi.

NuRAN’s most recent project was in the “The learning experience has been tough, vast country of Ghana in west Africa, which especially during the pandemic. It's not like Létourneau said was a steep learning curve. working in a large urban area where you have But they succeeded with the help of local streets. Sometimes in Africa you need to experts who navigated the challenges of the drive six hours just to get 20km, navigating geography, weather, and language barriers.

Ghana spans the Gulf of Guinea and the “NO MATTER HOW FAR OUR CUSTOMERS Atlantic Ocean to the ARE FROM THE MAIN CITIES, OR HOW south. It covers an area LOW THE POPULATION OF THEIR VILLAGE of 238,535km-squared, spanning a diverse IS, WE ENABLE THEM TO COMMUNICATE geography and ecology WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD.” that ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical rainforests. With more than 31mn people, FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU Ghana is the second-most populous PRESIDENT AND CEO, country in West Africa, after Nigeria. The NURAN WIRELESS mobile-magazine.com

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NuRAN

20

Countries

435 Sites

$4mn

CAD revenue

800,000 People connected

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floods and cutting down trees to where you want to go. You also need to manage your site properly to make sure the people get the coverage they deserve.”

“THERE'S A LOT OF EYES ON US TO SUCCEED SO WE HAVE CREATED A STRONG ECOSYSTEM OF PARTNERS” FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU

PRESIDENT AND CEO, NURAN WIRELESS

Power of partnerships “We rely on partners to make it work as hiring hundreds of employees is not impossible it is central to our strategy moving forward,” said Létourneau.

NuRAN Wireless currently works with the following partners such as: • AMOS Spacecom • Sagemcom • Clearblue tech • EutelSat • Smartco • Leadcom “In Cameroon, Eutelsat is the first to be under contract with us for satellite space.

They came in with a full managed service in the satellite. They will also be potentially partnering with us for Asia Pacific and in Latin America. On the ground we will be working with Sagemcom, which is an engineering service company.”

As we are moving towards DRC, Spacecom and NuRAN just entered into a game changing partnership. Spacecom invested in NuRAN Wireless with the firm intention to help accelerate the deployment and the success of this initiative. mobile-magazine.com

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QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS

QUICK FIRE Q&A...

What technology do you predict will disrupt the industry in the next two years?

“I am a tech-lover, and predict we will not see as massive a change as when the internet arrived. But I am looking forward to seeing IoT, which is going to be a massive disruption with all the mobile apps, the growth of the satellite industry, and 5G which will bring a 1000 fold capacity of the network.”

When we think of rural connections we think of remote countries - but what other more unusual places have you been involved in connecting?

“On top of connecting people, the technology we've developed is also used to catch poachers in Africa and to find people in an avalanche by running and driving a drone using the GSM or 2G beacon. It's also being used in the rainforest to catch people that are cutting trees. So the bottom line is that this technology is extremely useful and it's been extremely rewarding to see the

166 September 2021

technology we've developed over the last couple of years being used so effectively.”

How important is sustainability to NuRAN Wireless?

“We want to be compliant to as many sustainable development goals that have been set by the United Nations. Today, we comply with eight of those sustainable development goals and we want to bring it up by three more in the next three years.

We also want to bring more to the industry by bringing additional services. So it needs to be sustainable because people rely on the infrastructure and this network to stay connected with the rest of the world.”

What plans do you have for the future?

“We are planning to move into eight new counties and we are currently pursuing the licences to ensure we are ready with our mobile network operating partners.”

– Francis Létourneau, President & CEO, NuRAN Wireless

“ WE ARE NOW MOVING INTO THE NEXT GENERATION WHICH IS LITECELL XG, WHICH WILL SUPPORT 2G, 3G AND 4G... IT CAN ALSO SUPPORT 5G AND, ALTHOUGH THE RURAL MARKET IS NOT READY FOR THIS YET, WE WANT TO BE READY FOR WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE” FRANCIS LÉTOURNEAU PRESIDENT AND CEO, NURAN WIRELESS

Sustainability focus NuRAN is working to reduce their carbon footprint by adopting a carbon neutral approach by using solar and batteries.

“Solar is about 20 times lower per kilo, per hour, compared to coal. Our sites are consuming on average 100 watts. You can drive those with two and four solar panels and up to three lithium-ion batteries. So

the carbon footprint is extremely low. Our goal is, of course, to reduce the carbon footprint, but also reduce the total cost of ownership to keep viable for the operator.”

NuRAN Wireless currently has a revenue of CAD $4mn and Létourneau is confident the acceleration of projects in African will leverage profits in the near future. “We aim to do the same this year. The initial shift from being an equipment company to a NAAS company, we have seen a brief slowing down on the revenue side, but that revenue will come back and we will start seeing this revenue popping into our bank account in the coming weeks when we see the first site go live in Africa.”

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