What’s up with… Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Rakuten Mobile

• Vodafone Germany delivers 5G-in-a-box for enterprises
• Deutsche Telekom invests in security and cloud gaming startups
• Rakuten Mobile considers the edge with Glasgow University

Vodafone’s 5G-in-a-box offer for medium and large enterprise private networks and Deutsche Telekom’s security and cloud gaming investments are the tastiest morsels on this news platter. 

• Vodafone Deutschland is building what it says is Europe’s first 5G clinic in Düsseldorf – a “complete 5G campus network on the state capital’s medical campus.” The technology being deployed is the operator’s recently-launched Vodafone RedBox, comprising 5G antennas and edge compute elements that can control a multi-module system using both Vodafone’s and existing industrial frequencies. The RedBox is at the heart of Vodafone’s ‘Private Business Campus’ offering, a 5G ‘network in a box’ product for medium and large German enterprises developed in collaboration with Ericsson. There are indoor and indoor/outdoor models that can cover a whole multi-building campus, and the offer essentially involves a public/private hybrid where the company concerned uses Vodafone’s public infrastructure and frequencies for both voice and data where appropriate, while deploying their own industrial frequencies on campus for secure and real-time network of machines and sensors. The result is a campus network with bandwidth of up to 3.7 Gbit/s – twice as fast as the performance obtainable using Germany’s existing industrial frequencies only, it’s claimed.  
• DT’s strategic investment fund, the Telekom Innovation Pool, has invested in two companies in recent days: It participated in the $18 million Series B round raised by autonomous breach protection specialist Cynet, which has now raised a total of $38 million; and it invested €2 million in Polish streaming gaming company RemoteMyApp, which is already working with Deutsche Telekom on a beta version of a cloud gaming service for the operator’s customers. 
• Rakuten Mobile again: The cloud native mobile infrastructure wunderkind is tapping more bricks into its platform via a knowledge exchange agreement with Glasgow University. It’s contracted a postdoctoral research assistant and two PhD students to complete a multi-year research project on edge computing – specifically on monitoring models and future transport protocols. The aim is to prototype next generation edge management tools to simplify the operation of large-scale edge compute infrastructure. Rakuten Mobile is not only building a cloud native mobile network, it’s also building a business model, dubbed Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), to place all its learnings, blueprints and technologies at the service of aspiring next gen mobile network builders.    
• Openet has expanded its existing relationship with BT by landing a deal to provide its cloud native Evolved Charging Suite to EE, the mobile operation of the UK incumbent operator. The Dublin-based vendor has been supplying its real-time charging technology for a number of years to BT, which is reducing its reliance on legacy systems and reducing the number of software systems it uses as part of an IT efficiency drive that aims to achieve overall cost savings of £2 billion. Earlier this week, Openet announced that its Evolved Charging Suite had been selected by MVNO Lebara.  
• Amdocs has landed a systems integration deal with Three UK, which will partner with the vendor to build an “Omni Channel digital business system” to service the operator’s enterprise customers. “We have an ambitious plan for the growth of our enterprise operations, building on the successful launch of our SME offer, Three Means Business, in 2019,” noted Elaine Carey, Chief Commercial Officer at Three UK & Ireland. “This partnership with Amdocs will enable us to create modern and innovative solutions that will challenge the status quo and meet the evolving needs of UK businesses.”

- The staff, TelecomTV