What’s up with… 6G forecasts, Telecom Italia, Vodafone

• GSMA Intelligence predicts 50 million 6G connections by the end of 2030
• Poste Italiane takes TIM stake to almost 86%
• Vodafone teams with Digital Virgo to push payment APIs

In today’s industry news roundup: the GSMA’s research arm forecasts there will be more than 50 million 6G connections by the end of 2030 and more than 740 million by the end of 2032; Poste Italian’s takeover of TIM sees its stake bumped up to 85.82%; Vodafone strikes an API partnership with Digital Virgo to support payment providers in Europe and Africa; and much more!

While some pre-standards deployments are expected in markets such as China and the US over the next couple of years, we’re still years away from the mass global rollout of 6G cellular services, with initial commercial launches expected in some key markets in 2030. But the excitement about 6G’s potential is ramping up, especially in relation to integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) capabilities, and industry analysts are already peering into their crystal balls. The team at GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi), the research arm of industry body GSMA, has just issued its 6G customer uptake forecast: It expects about 50 million 6G connections by the end of 2030, “representing only around 0.5% of the mobile connections base,” followed by steady uptake that will result in 275 million 6G connections at the end of 2031 and nearly 740 million in 2032. “During 2033, 6G crosses the 1 billion mark, ending the year at approximately 1.3 billion connections, before reaching 1.9 billion in 2034 and 2.4 billion in 2035,” notes the GSMAi team, adding: “The 2.4 billion connections forecast for 2035 should not be interpreted as representing a mature 6G market. More than three-quarters of the world’s mobile connections will still be using an earlier technology, leaving considerable scope for migration beyond the end of the forecast period.” For more on 6G developments and how some major mobile operators, including the likes of Verizon, SK Telecom, SoftBank Corp and BT are thinking about the next generation of mobile technology and services, see TelecomTV’s recent free-to-download editorial report, The AI-Native Path to 6G. 

Poste Italiane’s perseverance (and improved takeover offer) has paid off, as it now owns 85.82% of Telecom Italia (TIM) shares following an extended acquisition process. The state-owned provider of mail, financial and communications services had achieved majority ownership (66.62%) earlier in September, but its decision to extend its offer to buy stock from other shareholders has bumped its holding to almost 86%. Poste Italiane first announced its intention to acquire the national Italian telco in March. 

Vodafone has partnered with mobile payments firm Digital Virgo in an effort to drive adoption of standardised Open Gateway Network APIs across mobile payment providers in Europe and Africa. The partnership will see Digital Virgo integrate Vodafone network APIs into its monetisation offering, which is already used by more than 300 merchants and over 150 operators, while also working to make the new capabilities available to other companies in the payments space. Together they will integrate operator-grade identity, authentication and fraud prevention capabilities into carrier billing and mobile payment systems in order to make smartphone payments more trusted and reduce friction. Initially, the partnership covers five markets, including Germany, Greece, Spain, South Africa and the UK, with plans to extend it to more countries. Vodafone and Digital Virgo will focus on two key areas: Replacing SMS one-time password with Number Verify; and combining Open Gateway APIs to boost onboarding, account protection and fraud controls for merchants and digital service providers.

SK Telecom has partnered with Samsung to build South Korea’s first private 5G smart office at Hana Financial Group’s new headquarters in Incheon. The connected office spans 16 floors and will support thousands of employees with connectivity for 5G-enabled laptops, tablets and mobile devices. For the project, Samsung provided its full-stack network of network solutions, including radios, baseband and cloud-native core to build a private 5G network on the dedicated 4.7GHz spectrum band. Samsung’s standalone core solution enables network slicing, which will be used to provide Hana Financial Group and its subsidiaries access to separate network slices, allowing them to build dedicated environments tailored to their individual needs and security policies. Due to the high compliance requirements placed on financial institutions, Samsung and SKT also focused on security, with the private network encompassing enhanced encryption, a firewall, DDoS protection and a USIM-based authentication system which grants network access exclusively to authorised devices. “For AI and data to be used widely in day-to-day work, employees need a network that gives them secure, reliable access to internal systems and data from anywhere,” said Kim Goo-Young, head of the Enterprise Business Office at SK Telecom. “Built on Samsung’s core and radio solutions, that secure foundation is now in place – making this smart office a leading example of how we innovate the way the financial sector works.”

Helios Towers has announced a multi-year partnership with UNICEF that aims to expand internet connectivity and digital learning access for young people across Africa. The independent towerco, which operates in nine markets across Africa and Oman, will support the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in two of its flagship digital inclusion initiatives: Giga, which aims to connect every school in the world to the internet by 2030; and Learning Passport, which gives young people access to learning online and offline. The partnership will initially focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Tanzania, with additional support planned for a yet-to-be-named country in West Africa. Helios will provide its expertise in telecom infrastructure and work alongside UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to expand connectivity for schools and young people in underserved communities. UNICEF already works with a number of telco partners on its projects, including IHS Towers, which signed up to Giga in 2022.

– The staff, TelecomTV