Telstra commercial 5G sites go live with Ericsson Cloud RAN

Telstra is the first operator in the world to activate Ericsson’s Cloud Native Infrastructure solution (CNIS) for Cloud RAN in a live commercial 5G network. 

CNIS is a bare metal infrastructure that is specifically optimized for hosting cloud-native 5G applications both at central data centers and at the edge. 

Ericsson says the combination of Cloud RAN running on CNIS as a system-verified solution reduces Telstra’s deployment and operational risks and ensures the best mobile network performance for Telstra’s customers.

With Ericsson’s Cloud RAN infrastructure hosting data traffic on Telstra’s 5G commercial network, Telstra’s customers can gain access to the full power of 5G, including low-latency and high-bandwidth performance for improved user experience.

In addition, the RAN virtualisation will allow for new network features and product/service introductions requiring latency, edge computing demands and security requirements. 

Iskra Nikolova, Telstra Executive for Network and Infrastructure, says: “This step in the validation and rollout of this technology is critical to ensure we get the most out of 5G now and in the future. It will allow us to roll out network capacity and new features faster while making our networks more intelligent, automated, flexible, reliable, and secure. This is particularly important when it comes to making sure that areas of high demand, particularly large events and seasonal hotspots can operate at the high standard our customers expect. Our ongoing partnership with Ericsson has once again supported Telstra’s efforts to deliver a world-leading 5G experience for the Australian public.”

Emilio Romeo, Head of Ericsson, Australia and New Zealand, says: “The flexibility provided by Ericsson’s Cloud RAN technology delivers a more open network architecture for Telstra, one that is fully independent of hardware solutions and easily scalable to meet evolving customer demand for optimal service performance now and into the future. As Ericsson’s Cloud RAN infrastructure is rolled out to more sites around the country, Telstra’s 5G network is set to offer even more capacity, reliability and performance to its Australian customers.”

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/7/2023/telstra-commercial-5g-sites-go-live-with-ericsson-cloud-ran-technology

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KKR invests in Peru’s first open access fiber network

KKR will acquire a majority interest in PangeaCo and the existing fiber optic networks of Telefónica del Perú and Entel Perú to build Perú’s first nationwide open access wholesale fiber optics company. Financial terms were not disclosed, although KKR said it plans to make approximately US$200 million of additional investment to more than double the ultra-fast fiber network from more than 2 million homes passed today to reach 5.2 million homes passed across 86 provinces by the end of 2026.

The deal will combine the existing fiber optic networks of PangeaCo, Telefónica del Perú, and Entel Perú into an independent company called ON*NET Fibra de Perú. KKR will own a 54% interest in ON*NET Fibra de Perú alongside Telefónica Hispanoamérica, which will own 36%, and Entel Perú, which will own 10%.

Significantly, the newly formed network will be open access, allowing usage to all internet service providers for the first time.  Telefónica del Perú and Entel Perú will be anchor tenants.

Through the combination of these networks, KKR will establish ON*NET Fibra de Perú as the new name for the platform which will independently build and operate the nation’s largest fiber optic network with world-class quality standards. 

The entire ON*NET Fibra de Perú fiber optic network will be open to use by all internet service providers, increasing competition in the wholesale market.

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IDC: Worldwide public cloud services topped $500B in 2022

Worldwide revenue for the public cloud services market totaled $545.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 22.9% over 2021, according to IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker.

• Software as a Service – Applications (SaaS – Applications) continued to be the largest source of public cloud services revenue, accounting for more than 45% of the total in 2022. 
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) was the second largest revenue category with 21.2% of the total.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service – System Infrastructure Software (SaaS – SIS) delivered 17.0% and 16.7% of overall revenue respectively. 

"Given the economic challenges of the past year, it's easy to conclude that we are in a period where a focus on constraining new expenditures and optimizing the use of existing cloud assets will dominate CIOs' priorities and shape the fortunes of IT providers for the next several years. It's also a very wrong conclusion. The assessment and use of AI, triggered by generative AI, is starting to dominate the planning and long term investment agendas of businesses and cloud providers will play a significant role in the evaluation and adoption of AI enablement services," said Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC.

Some additional highlights from IDC:

• Spending with the leading providers of public cloud services further consolidated in 2022 with the combined revenue of the top 5 public cloud service providers – Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce Inc., Google, and Oracle – capturing more than 41% of the worldwide total and growing 27.3% year over year. 
• With offerings in all four deployment categories, Microsoft remained in the top position in the overall public cloud services market with 16.8% share in 2022, followed by Amazon Web Services with 13.5% share.
• While the overall public cloud services market grew 22.9% year over year in 2022, revenue for foundational cloud services that support digital-first strategies saw revenue growth of 28.8%. 

"Cloud providers are making significant investments in high-performance infrastructure," said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, Cloud and Edge Infrastructure Services. "This serves two purposes. First, it unlocks the next wave of migration for enterprise applications that have previously remained on-premises. Second, it creates the foundation for new AI software that can be quickly deployed at scale. In both cases, these investments are resulting in market growth opportunities."

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS51009523

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CyrusOne to build sixth data center in Frankfurt

CyrusOne plans to build its next data center in Frankfurt, named FRA6, following the acquisition of the Europark site in Sossenheim, which is situated in close proximity to several operational CyrusOne Data Centers.

The new data center will offer a total IT capacity of 72 MW delivered over four floors, with each level delivering 18 MW. The acquired site encompasses over 27,500 square meters (6.8 acres) of land.

“The acquisition of the Europark site further demonstrates CyrusOne’s commitment to Frankfurt as the digital capital of Europe and our ongoing European expansion. We are continually assessing the market with a view to increasing our presence in the Frankfurt area,” said Andreas Paduch, Area Vice President, European Sales at CyrusOne. “Initial discussions with hyperscale customers and other large enterprises have revealed significant early interest in FRA6 and we look forward to continuing these as we progress the build. This underscores both our expertise in this market and our ability to consistently deliver solutions that are instrumental to our customers’ business success and expansion goals.”

The company’s European portfolio includes over 270 MW IT capacity across Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Paris and Dublin, including all operational data centers and active developments.

https://www.cyrusone.com/resources/press-releases/cyrusone-announces-sixth-german-facility-in-frankfurt-following-europark-acquisition

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SpaceX completes 2 Starlink launches over weekend

SpaceX completed 2 Starlink missions over the past few days, bringing the numbers of Starlink satellites in orbit to approximately 4,768.

On Sunday, July 9 at 11:58 p.m. ET SpaceX launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida.  This is the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and ten Starlink missions. 

On Friday, July 7, SpaceX launched 48 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was the 12th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, and now eight Starlink missions.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-6-5

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RIP: James Q. Crowe, 74, known for MFS Com, Level 3

James Q. Crowe, a technology and telecommunications visionary and  founder of Level 3 Communications, passed away on July 2nd  in Paradise Valley, Arizona, after a battle with pulmonary arterial hypertension. He was 74.

In 1988, Crowe is credited with launching MFS Communications, the first company to bring robust local competition to the Baby Bells via fiber optic communication technology. He took MFS public in 1993 and built it rapidly into a Fortune 500 company, before it was acquired by WorldCom in 1996 for $14.3 billion.

In 1997, with the support of Omaha-based construction giant Peter Kiewit Sons', and Kiewit Chairman and Crowe mentor Walter Scott, Crowe raised $15 billion to establish Level 3 Communications. The company dug trenches and buried multiple conduits to carry optical fibers across the United States and parts of Canada, digging 16,000 miles along streets and railroads, installing electrical and optical equipment all along the path. They also built a similar network across Western Europe. 

"Ever since James Crowe brought Level 3 Communications and thousands of jobs to Colorado a quarter century ago, Jim has been an admired and active business leader among our major employers," said Colorado Governor Jared Polis. "Both my predecessors, former Governors Ritter and Hickenlooper, and I have called upon James Crowe for his creative and trusted advice on issues ranging from healthcare, technology, education and transportation to Covid response. He was a giant, and all of Colorado will miss his contributions to our civic life."

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