What’s up with… SoftBank, NTT Docomo, CityFibre

• SoftBank unveils sovereign AI infra cloud service
• NTT Docomo and NEC trial 6G communications on moving cars
• CityFibre agrees contract changes with BDUK

In today’s industry news roundup: SoftBank launches a new sovereign cloud service powered by its AI cloud OS and Nvidia hardware; NTT Docomo and NEC demo stable mmWave communications across high-speed vehicles; CityFibre reaches an agreement with BDUK to “re-scope” its subsidised full fibre deployment plans; and much more!

Japan’s SoftBank Corp, which recently unveiled its new AI-centric strategy, has unveiled the “AI Data Center GPU Cloud”, a sovereign cloud service powered by its Infrinia AI Cloud OS and Nvidia hardware that will be launched as part of its Neocloud business in October this year. Infrinia is a software stack designed by SoftBank for AI datacentres that was unveiled in January this year. “Through this initiative, SoftBank will provide integrated AI computing infrastructure and software that can be securely used within Japan. Ahead of the launch, SoftBank will begin offering a beta version today and start using the service internally across its group companies,” the operator noted in this announcement. SoftBank Corp’s president and CEO, Junichi Miyakawa, stated: “As AI becomes more deeply integrated into society, the source of competitiveness is expanding beyond AI itself to include the computing power and operational software that support it. Under our new growth strategy, ‘Activate AI for Society’, SoftBank will provide integrated computing infrastructure and software that can be securely used within Japan as a neocloud provider. ‘Infrinia AI Cloud OS’ and ‘AI Data Center GPU Cloud’ will serve as core services in this initiative, strongly supporting customers’ AI development and real-world deployment.”

NTT Docomo has partnered with its parent company NTT Group and NEC to develop a high-capacity mmWave communications solution for vehicles moving at high speeds. The solution uses 40 GHz band spectrum, distributed MIMO antennas, and bespoke signal transmission to support simultaneous and stable communications between vehicles moving at high speeds. The Japanese firms conducted a trial demonstration in March at a full-scale tunnel test facility at Japan’s National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management in Tokyo, in which multiple vehicles equipped with mobile terminals travelled at high-speeds in opposite lanes, maintaining stable throughput – a major step toward 6G and vehicle communications, they claim. NEC shared a video of the trial, which you can find here. 

UK wholesale fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) operator CityFibre has reached an agreement with Building Digital UK (BDUK) to “re-scope” the former’s involvement in Project Gigabit, the UK government’s fibre access delivery scheme, in response to the rollout of commercially funded fibre access infrastructure. According to CityFibre, it has already built out its network to reach almost 150,000 premises as a result of its Project Gigabit contracts, including more than 70,000 subsidised premises, and will take its fibre access network to a further 300,000 rural and hard-to-reach premises across nine Project Gigabit contracts by 2030, including 155,000 that are subsidised. However, the operator has “returned” contracts in Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire that it had taken on as part of its acquisition of Connexin’s fibre infrastructure last year, stating that accelerated market-driven commercial rollout has reduced the need for subsidised builds. 

Subsea cable firm Trans Pacific Networks (TPN) has partnered with Indigo Telecom Group for operational support for its subsea cable network operations centre (NOC), the companies announced. TPN operates the 16,000km Echo cable, which links Singapore, Indonesia, Guam and the US, and also has fibre pairs on the Tabua cable system, which links Australia, Fiji and the US. Indigo will provide TPN with provisioning, monitoring, security and service management across its portfolio. Indigo runs critical infrastructure across more than 90 countries, including round-the-clock NOC and security operations centre services for several major subsea cable systems, hyperscalers and telcos.

Cambodia’s Cellcard has more than doubled its number of deployed 5G sites to over 500 since January, and plans to reach more than 1,000 deployed sites by the end of July, it noted in this announcement. Cellcard first launched its 5G offering in January, along with rivals Metfone and Smart, and the operator says its 5G network now covers around 60% of the population of the capital, Phnom Penh, offering speeds of up to 1Gbit/s in key locations. Last month it launched 5G in its third Cambodian city, the tourist hotspot of Siem Reap, following the capital and Takhmao earlier this year. Cellcard, which has more than 4 million subscribers, said it will continue to focus on delivering indoor coverage and “accelerate nationwide deployment and strengthen Cambodia’s digital ecosystem”.

– The staff, TelecomTV