Page 69 - SAMENA Trends - November-December 2022

WHOLESALE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Deutsche Glasfaser Concludes FTTH Wholesale Agreement with Vodafone

Deutsche Glasfaser has announced that it has concluded a
wholesale cooperation agreement with Vodafone Germany for a
period of at least ten years. Under the contract, Vodafone will be
granted nationwide access to Deutsche Glasfaser’s fiber-to-the-
home (FTTH) network from autumn 2023, enabling it to reach up
to six million additional households in the future. ‘We are pleased
that Vodafone is relying on our rapidly growing fiber-optic network
in rural and suburban areas. Everyone benefits from open access:
fiber-optic customers in rural areas have freedom of choice, and
we as a company are getting closer to our goal of supplying the providers the opportunity to use our infrastructure to expand
regions with fiber-optics quickly and comprehensively through their range of services. In this way, we promote fair competition
such wholesale partnerships,’ stated Deutsche Glasfaser’s CEO between offers and services and advance the expansion of fiber-
Andreas Pfisterer, adding: ‘We offer all telecommunications optics in Germany.’

BICS Completes Live 5G SA Roaming Connection Between Proximus and

stc Kuwait

Wholesale carrier BICS, an affiliate of Belgian full-service provider protocol mandated by roaming regulators GSMA, and which can
Proximus, has successfully set up the first ever intercontinental 5G be hosted on BICS’ IPX network – for faster and more efficient
Standalone (SA) roaming connection between two live networks in implementation and management.
Europe and the Middle East. The company claims the connection
was the first of its kind to be performed in a non-laboratory
environment and demonstrated successful roaming between the
5G SA networks of Proximus and stc Kuwait. Mikael Schachne, VP
Telco Market at BICS, commented: ‘Until now, operators around
the world have only been delivering 5G Non-Standalone (NSA)
roaming that routes traffic through 4G/LTE core. By establishing
5G SA roaming, we’ve broken down the barriers to bring the
power of this technology to international communications.
This is an important step for the industry, and accelerates the
benefits of 5G to potential consumers and enterprises around the
world.’ Connectivity between the visited and home network was
established via secured gateways (SEPP) – a next-level security

TRA, Bahrain Seeks Comments on
BNET Wholesale Broadband Service

Proposals

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has
opened a public consultation on Wholesale Bitstream Service
(WBS) tariffs proposed by BNET, the Kingdom’s national fiber
network provider. In a press release, the TRA stressed it expects
retail providers to pass on the reduced wholesale prices to
end users, while also welcoming BNET’s proposal to increase
broadband speeds in support of the Kingdom’s digital development
and global competitiveness.

69 NOVEMBER- DECEMBER 2022