Telefonica and Qwilt target improved content delivery collaboration

Telefónica and Qwilt agreed to implement a content distribution system based on the union of both companies’ technologies. The alliance enables Qwilt to expand its coverage and delivery capacity in Spain by relying on Telefónica’s Content Distribution Network (TCDN) deployed in Telefonica’s network.

The collaboration is the first commercial integration based entirely on Open Caching standards promoted by the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA), to which both companies belong. This facilitates the delivery of content from third parties through the two CDNs in a transparent manner, benefiting both from Qwilt’s global server deployment operation around the world and from the physical proximity of the TCDN to Telefónica customers.

Telefónica already delivers Movistar Plus+ content through its TCDN, a self-developed product that has the greatest capillarity and points of presence in Spain, while Qwilt has an extensive network of servers installed in operators’ networks around the world. Through this collaboration and by means of an API-based integration, the exchange of content between both CDNs will be streamlined. In this way, the user connected to Telefónica’s networks will have better quality access to the traffic channeled by Qwilt, optimizing their experience.

“Internet traffic is increasing rapidly, and content providers need delivery services that are increasingly efficient in light of the competition we are witnessing for Internet bandwidth. With this agreement, Telefónica’s TCDN and Qwilt’s delivery capacity are strengthened, but, above all, we make sure that consumers of the content within Telefónica’s network are satisfied,” says Francisco Javier Pascual, Director of Product Marketing, Telefónica Companies.

Alon Maor, CEO of Qwilt, adds: “As one of Spain’s leading service providers, Telefónica is a fantastic addition to our global network and allows us to further develop our content delivery service offering. We are delighted to see such rapid momentum from our global partners as we continue to build the highest performing edge delivery network in the world.”  

https://www.telefonica.com/en/communication-room/telefonica-and-qwilt-partner-to-provide-content-delivery-service/

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AT&T posts milestones in 5G and fiber to rollouts

AT&T has invested more than $140 billion primarily in its U.S. wireless and wireline network over the past 5 years (2018–2022), including capital investments and acquisitions of wireless spectrum.

The carrier reported the following network milestones:

• The AT&T mobile network now covers more than 2.91 million square miles, an increase of about 100,000 square miles in 2022. This represents a population coverage of 290 million people.
• AT&T has increased coverage by more than 40% on federally recognized tribal lands in the last 2 years (2020 – 2022) thanks to public-private partnerships like FirstNet and those created through the American Rescue Plan.
• As of the end of 2022, more than 150 million people could take advantage of AT&T's mid-band 5G spectrum – more than double the company's original end-of-year 2022 target. 
• AT&T has doubled the number of venues and airports with AT&T 5G+ last year to now bring super-fast speeds and increased connectivity to parts of more than 50 cities and nearly 70 venues and airports in the U.S.
• FirstNet already covers 99%+ of the U.S. population, covering more first responders than any network. 
• AT&T has now surpassed 99%+ of its Band 14 coverage target with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), delivering more dedicated connectivity to federal, state, tribal, territorial, urban and rural first responders when they need it.
• In 2022, AT&T laid more than 60,000 miles of fiber in the U.S. alone. 
• The fiber network is carrying more than 594 petabytes of data traffic on an average day, up 23% year-over-year (or the equivalent of streaming nearly 40 million 2-hour long movies in HD).
• Currently, AT&T Fiber has passed 24 million locations – including 4 million business locations – in 100+ U.S. metros – that's on track to pass 30+ million locations by the end of 2025.
• AT&T also highlighted its efforts to establish a 3rd "emergency" pathway to each mobility network hub (MTSO) to combat extreme weather and climate events as well as increasing instabilities in the commercial power infrastructure landscape. This reduces the likelihood of major outages by nearly 35%.

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AT&T tests Nokia's Open RAN compliant near real-time RIC

AT&T completed a test of Nokia's near real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) xApps with the native E2 interface. 

The trial was implemented on Nokia’s commercial near real-time RIC platform, running on Nokia AirScale base stations on AT&T’s network. 

In this trial, near real-time xApps utilized E2SM Policy Services to dynamically perform targeted RAN optimization. The benefit of near real-time RIC is that it can optimize services for specific user groups, different frequency layers, or based on Quality of Service (QoS) Class Identifiers in 5G networks. Nokia’s near real-time RIC platform and xApps also bring capabilities to utilize existing interfaces to enable RAN optimization use cases that suit the operator networks.

Robert Soni, VP – RAN Technology at AT&T said: “AT&T is excited about the potential benefits offered by the O-RAN E2 interface. We are pleased to see the maturing of the Nokia Service Enablement Platform in consecutive trials over the last few years. The results of the trial demonstrated that E2 interface allows RAN policies to be updated several orders of magnitude faster than through legacy OAM interfaces, and thus unlocking new methods for RAN optimization.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/03/20/nokia-and-att-leverage-advanced-intelligence-of-the-open-ran-compliant-near-real-time-ran-intelligent-controller-with-native-e2-in-successful-trial/

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Dell'Oro: Data center physical infrastructure market up 10% in 2022

Data Center Physical Infrastructure (DCPI) market revenue growth accelerated in 4Q 2022, pushing full-year sales to 10 percent, according to a recent report from Dell'Oro Group. Growth was primarily caused by average selling price (ASP) increases as vendors passed on higher costs of raw materials, components, and logistics. ASP growth is forecast to continue in 2023, but easing supply chain constraints are expected to shift the primary growth driver to unit shipments.

“We’ve entered 2023 in unprecedented territory for the DCPI market. On one hand, DCPI vendors ended 2022 with historically high backlogs and easing supply chain constraints. On the other hand, normalizing order cycles and macroeconomic uncertainty are affecting the market’s trajectory,” said Lucas Beran, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “That means that vendors’ decision making and market positioning over the past 18 months will materially impact their performance in 2023, with market share shifts likely. DCPI vendors Schneider Electric, who currently holds the number one market share position, and Vertiv, who has the number two market share position, are prime examples of this. Based on their 4Q 2022 earnings releases, Schneider Electric is forecasting its revenue growth to slow, while Vertiv is forecasting its growth to accelerate,” added Beran.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2022 Data Center Physical Infrastructure Quarterly Report:

• Vertiv, Schneider Electric, and Eaton were the three vendors who gained the most revenue share in 4Q 2022.
• North America and Asia Pacific (excluding China) were the fastest-growing regions in 2022, at double-digit growth rates. The Caribbean and Latin American (CALA), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and China all grew at single-digit rates.
• Product growth was broad-based, but rack power distribution and thermal management grew at the fastest rates to support increasing rack power densities.
• Worldwide DCPI revenue growth is forecast to maintain 10 percent in 2023, with higher backlog supported growth in the first half of the year, before growth marginally slows in the second half.

https://www.delloro.com/news/higher-asps-push-data-center-physical-infrastructure-market-up-10-percent-in-2022/

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Australia's NBN Co raises A$2.1 billion from European Green Bond

Australia's NBN Co has successfully raised EUR 1.35 billion (A$2.1 billion) from its debut European Green Bonds issuance in debt capital markets.

The EUR benchmark Green Bonds were priced on 6 March 2023, with EUR 750 million (A$1.2 billion) of six-year bonds and EUR 600 million (A$947 million) of 10-year bonds. The combined proceeds will be fully allocated to eligible green projects undertaken as part of the company’s commitment to energy efficiency in line with its Sustainability Bond Framework1.

The transaction makes NBN Co the first Australian Government Business Enterprise to issue Green Bonds in Europe. 

Fiona Trigona, Executive General Manager Group Treasurer, NBN Co said:

“We are delighted to see nbn’s sustainability credentials tested and validated on the world stage from the global investor base through our European Green Bond issuance. In December 2022, the Australian Government issued a revised Statement of Expectations for nbn, which includes an expectation that we deliver greenhouse gas emissions reductions consistent with meeting or exceeding the Government’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

“We aim to achieve this through our near-term and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets, which are in line with the latest climate science. Our network investment plan is taking energy-efficient fibre deeper into communities to meet the growing digital demands of Australia’s homes and businesses. Fibre is inherently more capable of delivering faster upload and download speeds and is generally more reliable than copper connections.

“Embedding sustainability across the company’s activities supports our purpose to lift the digital capability of Australia, enabling long-term social, economic and environmental benefits for our people, customers, communities, partners and country.”

https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-statements/nbn-co-euro-green-bond

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Padtec posts Q4 revenue of R$105 million, up 7.5% YoY

Padtec reported record net revenue for 4Q22 of R$105.0 million (approx US$20.05 million), 7.5% higher than in 4Q21. Of this amount, R$82.2 million come from optical transport systems in Brazil, R$10.9 million from sales of optical transport systems in the foreign market and R$11.9 million from Services and Platforms.

For all of 2022, Padtec reported record net revenue of R$365.7 million in the year, 6.4% higher than in 2021.

Some additional highlights:

• Net revenue from optical transport systems (DWDM equipment) in Brazil of R$244.4 million in 2022.
• Annual record in net revenues from the foreign market: R$77.2 million, +67.0% over 2021.
• Net revenue from Services and Platforms of R$44.1 million in 2022, in line with the previous year. In addition to the revenues already accounted for in the annual result, a further R$130 million in monthly recurring revenues (MRRs) already generated for the 2023-2025 fiscal years.
• In 1Q23, Padtec announced an important milestone in its trajectory: 1,000 units sold of the 800 Gb/s transponder, which was first launched in October 2020
• More than 300 thousand kilometers of networks have already been lit by Padtec throughout the Latin American region, where the company is present in 80% of the countries. 
• Padtec opened commercial office in Lima, Peru.
• Padtec ended 2022 with 690 employees, including statutory and non-statutory directors, employees, interns and apprentices.

https://www.padtec.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2023.03.22-Release-2022-INGL.pdf

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NTT builds new Bangkok 3 Data Center

NTT Ltd. is investing THB 3 billion (approx.. US#90 million) to build its newest and largest data center in Thailand. 

The new Bangkok 3 Data Center (BKK3) will start operations in the second half of 2024 and will provide a maximum IT capacity of 12MW across approximately 4,000 m² of IT space when fully built out.

The facility is located 57km from Bangkok Central at the Eastern Economic Corridor’s Amata City Chonburi industrial estate. The new infrastructure will  cater to hyperscalers and enterprises, providing them with flexible and scalable IT infrastructure, optimum power efficiency and cost-effectiveness to support high densities of up to 30kW per rack.

Takeshi Kimura, Managing Director for NTT Global Data Centers Holding Asia Pte. Ltd., said “The economic activity based on the digital infrastructure available in South Asia is changing rapidly. High-quality digital infrastructure is required to support the accelerating digital needs of enterprises. Following the Jakarta 3 Data Center (JKT3) in Indonesia, completed in April 2022, and the Cyberjaya 6Data Center (CBJ6) in Malaysia, scheduled for completion around middle of 2023, we are pleased to announce plans to offer BKK3 services around the second half of 2024on a site adjacent to Bangkok 2 Data Center (BKK2). We plan to expand further in this area to create a critical infrastructure platform that supports the growth of Thailand's digital economy, including the surge in electronic transactions and data consumption.”

“The demand for data storage and managed hosting services is expected to grow dramatically across Thailand. BKK3 will accommodate the needs of clients, particularly cloud service providers and the financial industry, which require flexible facility designs to help them achieve their business objectives”, said Suthipat Lueprasert, CEO for NTT Global Data Centers (Thailand)Limited. He adds, “In tandem with the existing BKK2, we are continuing smart operations, scheduling and technology to improve power usage efficiency to be as low as 1.4. We continue to adopt green energy into our data centers and keep sustainability in our core planning. NTT Ltd. will continue to play a key role in providing high speed data capacity to support Thailand’s digital ecosystems.”

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