• Meta, NEC and Sumitomo to build transatlantic petabit subsea cable
• The EC is to gather datacentre energy use data
• T-Mobile US and India’s Jio claim 5G SA roaming first

In today’s industry news roundup: Meta is working with subsea network builder and optical fibre maker Sumitomo Electric to build the world’s first petabit capacity subsea network; the European Commission proposes a common energy usage rating scheme for datacentres; T-Mobile US and Reliance Jio enable what they say is the first 5G standalone (5G SA) roaming service; and much more!

Meta Platforms has teamed up with Japanese giants NEC and Sumitomo Electric to build Petal, a new transatlantic subsea network that the partners describe as “the world’s first commercial petabit optical submarine cable system.” (A petabit is 1,000 terabits.) Petal, which will be funded and operated by Meta, will span approximately 7,000km between the US and France and is scheduled to commence operation in 2029. NEC will design and build the network while Sumitomo Electric will supply the optical fibres. The partners note that “in recent years, the need for resilient, reliable connectivity has grown rapidly as communication traffic has continued to increase. The transatlantic route connecting North America and Europe, in particular, serves as a crucial communication infrastructure linking major digital hubs, and further increases in communication capacity and efficiency are urgently required.” The Petal cable “will employ two-core fibre, with two optical transmission paths within a single fibre and an advanced single-housing repeater technology with reduced power consumption, enabling single-end feeding for maximum network resilience,” noted the companies. “With 48 pairs of spatial channels (core-pairs), Petal will achieve a transoceanic transmission capacity that doubles Anjana, the world’s first transoceanic 24 fibre-pair system (another collaboration between Meta, NEC and Sumitomo Electric) and aims to be the world’s first petabit-class optical submarine cable system.” 

Here’s an important development for all the companies, including telcos, that are building and running AI infrastructure bigger than 500 kilowatts (KW) (about 230 square metres) in European Union countries… The European Commission has proposed a common rating scheme for datacentres “aimed at increasing transparency on their energy use and supporting their sustainable integration into Europe’s energy system”. The EC noted that “datacentres are essential to Europe’s digital future” as “increasing computing capacity in Europe is important for strengthening Europe’s technological independence and digital sovereignty,” which is “why the EU wants to triple its datacentre capacity over the next five to seven years”. However, such growth “brings challenges which need to be addressed. In addition to using more energy, an increase of datacentres could put extra pressure on electricity grids and the use of natural resources, such as water, and contribute to increased carbon emissions. To limit these impacts, it is essential that datacentres are highly energy- and water-efficient and sustainably integrated in the energy system.” To help achieve those goals, the EC’s proposed rating scheme “will help ensure that there is transparent information about the actual use of resources (energy, water) by datacentres. The rating scheme will cover individual datacentres with a capacity above 500 KW. It will also cover datacentres’ contribution to the grid, such as the reuse of waste heat, the addition of clean energy-generation capacities as well as flexibility.” The EC notes that reusing around half of all waste heat from European datacentres is “the equivalent of the total heating demand of 4 million households in Europe. Sustainable, flexible and well-designed datacentres that can adjust their electricity use to the grid’s conditions, can help lower the overall cost of the electricity system, improve grid stability, and integrate more renewable energy.” The EC has now launched a call for evidence and public consultation on minimum performance standards for datacentres operating in EU markets.

T‑Mobile US and India’s largest mobile operator, Reliance Jio, are claiming a world first with their launch of a 5G Standalone (SA) roaming connection, which will enable the 5G SA subscribers from each of the operators to experience the faster speeds, lower latency and more reliable connections enabled by 5G SA in their respective countries. Ankur Kapoor, chief network officer at T‑Mobile US, is bullish about the service interoperability, even though it is just between two markets. “This is a monumental step for global wireless, and T‑Mobile is proud to lead it. We started this journey back in 2020, laying the groundwork for a 5G Standalone future – and today, we’re continuing that leadership with Jio India as a partner on a global stage. Leave one country, land in another, and your 5G experience is just as seamless – whether you’re streaming, sharing travel reels or running business apps. That’s the breakthrough power of this technology.” Mark Yarkosky, Jio’s head of international network, partnership and services, is just as upbeat: “This is a transformational milestone and far more than just roaming – it’s about what becomes possible when two leading 5G Standalone networks work together. T‑Mobile and Jio are laying the foundation for a new generation of cross-network capabilities and services, from differentiated consumer and enterprise experiences to AI-enabled services, leveraging the unique capabilities of 5G Standalone.” The roaming service is enabled via Syniverse’s international exchange service platform, which “ensures secure, seamless interconnection between networks and helps accelerate global adoption of next-generation roaming,” noted T-Mobile US. Chief product officer at Syniverse, John Wick, noted: “Syniverse is proud to help enable this industry-first 5G Standalone roaming milestone, demonstrating how secure interworking and advanced mediation can make next-generation roaming commercially viable at a global level. Built on long-standing partnerships across the mobile ecosystem, our home-grown SEPP [security edge protection proxy] capabilities and proven platform help operators test, navigate and launch 5G SA roaming with confidence. We are able to support all 5G-ready customers from validation through [to] production as more operators come on board.”

Orange Ventures, the investment arm of Orange, has invested in Biolevate, a French health-tech startup “specialising in knowledge-driven automation to accelerate the path to market for drugs and other life sciences products”. This investment, made as part of Biolevate’s €30m Series A financing round, “reflects Orange’s commitment to support the French Tech ecosystem, helping high potential companies scale in strategic sectors,” noted the telco in this announcement. “It also illustrates Orange’s ambition, under its Trust the future strategy, to foster trusted digital solutions that combine innovation, security, responsible AI and operational value for business, especially in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.”

Building on the ‘Behind Brilliant Things’ brand campaign it launched in May this year, BT Group has launched a new promotion that aims to position it as the service provider with the most secure broadband services in the UK. The Protecting Brilliant Things campaign positions advanced protection as “an essential part of a quality household broadband connection – not an optional add-on.” The telco noted that its advanced threat protection “combines Hub Threat Protect and Cyber Threat Protect to deliver both network and device-level protection. Together they help customers stay safer online, with Hub Threat Protect currently blocking more than 10.36 million threats every month and Cyber Threat Protect having blocked more than 2 million threats since launch [in May]”. According to Broadband Genie, BT currently commands 22.7% of the UK retail broadband market, making it the leader, just ahead of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) with 21.1%.

Deutsche Telekom, via its Power and Air Condition Solution Management (PASM) subsidiary, and Google are among the companies sourcing power from Germany’s largest offshore wind farm, He Dreiht, which has just been officially launched, utility firm Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) has announced. With 64 turbines and an installed capacity of 960 megawatts (MW), the construction of He Dreiht – which has been built without government subsidies and is financed solely through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) – is now complete, but it is being commissioned in stages. Bernd Schulte-Sprenger, CEO of PASM, which acts as the energy supplier for the Telekom Group in Germany, stated: “The Dreiht project demonstrates how the energy transition is becoming a reality: Long-term, reliable and on an industrial scale. With this 15-year power purchase agreement, we at PASM have secured approximately 100 megawatts of offshore wind power for Deutsche Telekom. This strengthens the supply of renewable energy to our telecommunications infrastructure, increases the long-term predictability of our energy costs, and simultaneously contributes to the expansion of renewable electricity generation in Germany.”

– The staff, TelecomTV