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Regulators ◦ Now more than ever, use independent tools and expertise

Posted on September 22, 2020October 14, 2022 by admin

Is this the perfect storm of telecoms technical complexity?

As network deployments get more complex, capacity management more difficult to predict, and customer demands rise, how can Telecoms Regulators help deliver the best customer experience?

Globally, 5G deployments are picking up pace, and 2G and 3G networks starting to be retired – engineers at MNOs and CSPs* are knee-deep in complexity, managing technology sunset strategies, IoT connectivity migrations, and adding new layers of 5G components into the patchwork of systems from multiple vendors. This activity brings with it more new operational systems and alarms to integrate (and disentangle), and extra work to try to bring everything together into a cohesive system.

On top of that, the operational teams within MNOs and CSPs have been working hard this year to reconfigure networks to handle shifts in demand, as the pandemic forces huge numbers of people to suddenly work and study from home, and unpredictable demand patterns are addressed as best as possible.

Is this the perfect storm of telecoms technical complexity? How should Telecoms Regulators respond and ensure customer Quality of Experience and Quality of Service are maintained? With so many technical changes occurring in a short space of time, how can technical regulatory staff keep pace with technology, anticipate the future, and ensure their knowledge-base remains unbiased?

Digis Squared has over 50 industry experts with 10 or more years’ multinational mobile operator and vendor experience.

Use our expertise to work alongside your teams and augment their skills and capability,

Independent tools for QoE & QoS network benchmarking
Band & spectrum strategy consultation
Competence development to keep pace with new technologies.

“The Digis Squared team has a depth of experience and knowledge of implementations that you only acquire through years of working on difficult projects and tricky technology deployments. The team bring these insights to all their work, whether that’s with MNOs, CSPs or Regulators.“
Mohamed Hamdy, Digis Squared CCO

Independent tools for QoE & QoS network benchmarking

Regulatory coverage and performance concerns vary by market, but in general fall into 3 distinct areas,

Many telecom network licenses have requirements to achieve specific KPIs: Geographical coverage, data throughput rates, QoS requirements.
Legacy benchmarking solutions are often expensive, no longer supported by the vendor, and have a long and slow process to deliver the final report.
When the report is eventually available, it is often a readout of dry statistics, with no clear recommendations on improvements. And with multiple solutions from multiple vendors implemented across the MNOs and CSPs in your territory, there is no standard process to rank and compare network operators.

Since the inception of Digis Squared the leadership team decided to invest and develop its own in-house, vendor-agnostic, multi-technology and scalable automated solutions, to ensure its staff and clients have access to vendor-independent assessment and testing of networks. Today, we are able to provide our clients with these tools to ensure they have an independent assessment of network capabilities. MNOs use our tools to help them accelerate network upgrades and network transformation, ensuring they are able to manage their network traffic growth and network complexity efficiently. Regulators use our tools to ensure they have the insights they need to assess KPIs independently.

INOS is the AI-led QoS and QoE benchmarking tool developed in-house at Digis Squared, using no network vendor tools.

Automated and efficient solution for fast and accurate reporting
Analysis and recommendations on improvements
Cross-check performance against the license to help regulators identify the gaps
Proven in the field with MNOs and Regulators
Interacts with all major vendors’ platforms, including Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia
Covid19 safe solution: our tools need just one person in the vehicle or building – no engineers are needed on-site, ensuring that they can do their work safely and together we can keep our communities connected.

When used by Telecoms Regulators, INOS delivers,

One independent, vendor and network agnostic solution
Fully automated reports, just 15 minutes after tests end
Failure insights: empowered by automation and analytics, we can deliver detailed insights into failure reason
INOS BM score – rank and benchmark all operators, by all services tested, across all network technologies and vendors
Independent and transparent scrutiny: Operators can access INOS platform, with limited and agreed privileges to review their log files and reports.

INOS KPIs include, but are not limited to,

Coverage & quality radio conditions
Field KPIs: CST, CSSR, HOSR, CDR
Throughput DL & UL: FTP, HTTP, HTTPs
Voice quality: POLQA
Video Quality: PEVQs
OTTs KPIs
Adopted optimisation strategy
Overlapping and needed neighbours’ optimisation
UE Happy Index

Get in touch to talk with us informally about how we can help your Regulatory teams with independent tools and expertise for network benchmarking, and discover INOS here.

Band & spectrum strategy consultation

The Digis Squared team have decades of experience working in telecoms operators and telecom equipment providers, with huge experience across many countries, implementations, technology deployments, and vendor solutions. We can work alongside your teams, or independently, to share our insights and assess innovative and commercial uses of your spectrum, to ensure optimum utilisation in your market.

Assess the utilisation of all existing bands
Evaluate service usage and importance with stakeholders
Policy & procedure updates
Spectrum audit and redeployment strategies: identify, complement, and refine all data on national spectrum use
Future policy: balancing the needs of end-users and spectrum-users are met to encourage investment
Emerging technologies: implementation scenarios and spectrum allocation recommendations for 5G, WLAN, LPWA and more.

Competence development & training

We recognise the difficulties in identifying the vendor-independent training necessary to ensure your teams are not unconsciously biased towards specific solutions.

Our team of experienced staff are well placed to deliver a broad range of technical and non-technical training.

Our approach for competence development utilises different methods to best suit the client, their culture and team needs, with an emphasis on on-job training as well as classroom training, delivered as active, participatory workshops and webinars by our technology experts. We can deliver training on-site, remotely via video link, or in your own time via online material.

Get in touch to arrange a no-obligation discussion with our team, or request a copy of our Technical Training Catalogue: sales@DigisSquared.com

“In my view, it’s more important than ever that Telecoms Regulators use independent expertise and tools in their assessments, to ensure they have a complete view of their ecosystem, and prepare for whatever storms are on the horizon.”
Mohamed Hamdy, Digis Squared CCO

Now more than ever, use independent tools and expertise in regulatory assessments.

To discuss how our independent tools and vendor-agnostic expertise can help your Regulatory Teams, please use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com to arrange a video call.

Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

Abbreviations

CSP: Communications Service Providers
INOS: Intelligent Network Optimisation Solution, one of Digis Squared’s AI-led automated tools.
MNO: Mobile Network Operator
QoE: Quality of Experience
QoS: Quality of Service

Image credit: Michael D.

5G ◦ Now more than ever, deliver the robust capability you need

Posted on July 7, 2020October 14, 2022 by admin

5G in 2020: the time to build is now

In the last quarter of 2019, the number of 5G subscriptions had more than quadrupled to reach at least 17.73 million (1), and the GSMA was forecasting that “…2020 is set to prove the year for mass-market adoption around the world” (2). Although forecasts have changed, 2020 is still the year to build 5G, its capacity and robustness is needed now more than ever.

Covid-19 & 5G rollout

At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, as workers and students rapidly adjusted to working from home where they could, mobile data demand shifted rapidly and operators worked hard to keep pace. Some demand was displaced to fixed broadband and fibre connections, whilst others used mobile data to deal with competing demands of online gaming and video calls within the same household.

Even at the start of the crisis, a European IT Buyer Sentiment Survey conducted by IDC revealed that “58% of spending on 5G technology will be increased or will remain the same”, (3).

Now, as the pandemic continues to disrupt lives and society globally, with staff and students continuing to work and study from home, high speed, reliable connectivity has become essential. Home broadband has often struggled to meet demand, and 5G can often provide a better, more reliable and stable solution. As mobile network capacity has flexed to try and address the unpredictable demand, end customers have been very aware of which powerful, flexible and stable networks have adapted to meet their needs. 5G’s ultra-low latency and high-reliability has ensured that those customer’s with the ability to access it, have benefited from an excellent customer experience.

“5G will play a critical role in the digital economy for decades to come. This new era of intelligent connectivity offers the chance to recast customer value propositions, accelerate industrial transformation, and reinvigorate the digital society.”
Source: EY (6)

In the initial stage of the pandemic, many mobile network operators and service providers put their investment plans on hold, realigning resources to meet the immediate needs of network re-dimensioning. Now, as the world starts to address mid to long term strategies, mobile operators and service providers are re-considering their 5G plans. As IDC portray in their graphic below (3), as we move forward through the different economic phases ahead of us, business focus changes.

Today, as business confidence slowly rebuilds, and commercial activity picks up pace, adjusted 5G strategies and rollout plans are progressing. As this GSMA map illustrates, as of June 2020, there are now 79 commercial launches globally.

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise

In the months ahead, as we move through the cycles IDC identifies, our experienced, independent and multi-vendor team at Digis Squared can help and guide your teams as they,

Reassess and revise technical and commercial network strategies, and budgets
Reconsider network vendor selection options commercially and technically
Review and revise rollout plans to address changes in working patterns, shifts in geographical demands and deliver extra flexibility for the future
Re-test and optimise existing network infrastructure, to ensure your existing investments are working as effectively as possible.

Perhaps, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) or Mobile Network Operator, you are considering whether to roll out 5G at all, and want to better understand how you can utilise your existing technologies for longer. We can help you assess this, and dimension your legacy infrastructure and licenses to optimise their use for a longer than originally anticipated lifespan.

Other businesses are experiencing supply chain disruption and bottlenecks in raw material access, production, and distribution. These, in turn, may cause you to re-assess commercial contracts and technical options – our teams can help you understand options and impacts, and ensure you have the flexibility and capability to be as ready as possible for whatever happens next.

As 5G rollout plans change and flex in ways we never envisaged, now more than ever, work with flexible partners to support your changing needs and deliver robust 5g capability.

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

Now more than ever, deliver the robust capability you need with 5G

E2E radio services ◦ Now more than ever, use independent expertise to manage your multi-technology, multi-vendor networks

Posted on June 1, 2020October 14, 2022 by admin

Ensuring telecom network infrastructure is managed efficiently is complex – highly interconnected globally, expensive infrastructure with a large base of legacy systems and technologies, combined with multiple vendors and interoperability concerns, plus demanding customers expectations.

Managing the complex commercial and technical issues of E2E Radio Services should not be under-estimated.

With the rollout of 5G, and growth in IoT deployments, additional stress is added to the operational teams as they grapple to gain the knowledge needed to successfully optimise and manage the new capabilities, and evolving commercial expectations.

This growth in operational demands, in combination with the extra strain on communications systems created by COVID-19 globally, means that even more efficient methods of delivering end to end radio services are needed.

“Operators will need to consider new ways of generating capex efficiency as they strive to meet growing demand for high-speed and low-latency data services.”
Source: EY (1)

Competency development

With so much change occurring simultaneously, as well as high operational demands, finding the time to invest and deliver training is difficult but vital. At Digis Squared our teams understand this, and have developed training solutions which can be delivered remotely, or on-site when social distancing and travel permits.

We ensure MNO staff-readiness for the future, and emergencies, as well as developing their capabilities to robustly address today’s demands.

“Missing skills, poor data quality and a lack of long-range planning are holding back the transformation agenda.”
Source: EY (2)

Independent expertise

As a flexible and experienced independent partner, we help service providers fill in the gaps in their end to end radio services capabilities – whether that’s through providing resources to address short-term skills gaps, strategy advice, new analysis tools, innovative solutions, or bespoke competency development, we are there when we are needed, providing expertise across the entire network lifecycle: R&D, strategy, planning, integration, in-field, optimisation & benchmarking, operations & support, customer care.

Relentlessly focussed consulting

In a multi-vendor, multi-technology field, ensuring interoperability and identifying areas of improvement is complex – our team is independent, business-aligned and relentlessly focused on realizing the value of your network. Digis Squared consulting services steer you towards the networks of tomorrow, anticipating changing commercial, technical, regulatory and customer demands, and developing detailed strategies and plans to ensure your business can address them.

“5G will play a critical role in the digital economy for decades to come. This new era of intelligent connectivity offers the chance to recast customer value propositions, accelerate industrial transformation, and reinvigorate the digital society.”
Source: EY (2)

RAN solutions

Our services scale to help our customers manage increases in network complexity, and growth of network traffic effectively and efficiently. We provide the expertise necessary to support your network transformation goals, with our multi-vendor and multi-technology capabilities, our services adapt to meet the emerging needs of your network.

Innovation

We leverage state-of-the-art techniques to help service providers to design, deploy and operate the latest network technologies, so that they can provide the new services subscribers want, while ensuring network quality remains high, E2E radio services are optimised and operating margins respectable.

5G: our teams accelerate the transformation of mobile networks, enabling new services, new applications & even new industries. Digis Squared provides end to end support for service providers to deploy their 5G networks, starting with planning support, and extending to 5G network optimization
Automation & software solutions: Automation is key to ensuring operational efficiency as network complexity increases. The Digis Squared RAI solution delivers powerful integrated capabilities, using AI & ML, providing network insights, configuration management and performance monitoring processes, and energy saving. We build tailored automation solutions for MNOs, to help them address any challenge.
IoT: The driving force of digital transformation, IoT has complex technology requirements, including a cascade network architecture consisting of massive number of devices, and each design has a different design objective. Optimizing the network and delivering the required capacity and coverage for each IoT use case are challenging tasks for IoT implementations, and our solutions address them.
Drive-less tuning: Minimizing drive test (DT) efforts, our INOS solution automates all reporting types i.e. SSV, customer complaints and cluster benchmarking. Robotic post-processing capabilities help MNOs to speed up logfiles analysis, as well as resolving field problems.

In a world of technical and commercial complexity, seeking an independent experienced voice to guide your teams, and extra resources when you need them, will help ensure that your E2E Radio Services are fully optimised and able to handle new technology from new vendors.

Now more than ever, use independent E2E radio expertise to manage your multi-technology, multi-vendor networks.

To discuss how our E2E Radio Services experts can help your business, please use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com to arrange an informal conversation.

Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.

Sources

Image credit: James Padolsey