Press Releases
The UK’s Underground Infrastructure Is Better Protected Than Ever
71 percent of all digging work that takes place in the UK is now preceded by a thorough search for pipes and cables, according to Digging Up Britain 2020. The report by LSBUD, which provides a free to use, online asset search facility, reveals that a record 2,832,027 enquiries were registered on its collaborative portal in 2019, a 10 percent increase on the previous year, and almost double that of just five years ago. In essence, a search was placed every 3.7 seconds during a typical working day.
Richard Broome, Managing Director of LSBUD, comments: “We have reached a ‘tipping point’ in terms of safe digging – both for the UK’s underground pipes and cables, and those who dig near them. Our data suggests asset searching on the LSBUD portal has rapidly become second nature for people. It’s now a standard step in the vast majority of excavation projects. This is clearly very good news for asset owners such as telecoms companies as the last thing they need is a spade or digger hitting their networks.”
Telecoms companies were the most active users of the LSBUD service in 2019. Of the 2.8 million searches, telecoms operators and their contractors were responsible for 911,455, some 32 percent of the total.
The large amount of activity within the telecoms sector is likely due to the ambitious targets put in place by Theresa May and her Government, who promised 15 million homes to be connected to full-fibre broadband by 2025, and a nationwide network to be in place by 2033. Boris Johnson continued this pledge, stating he wanted ‘gigabit-capable broadband’ nationwide by 2025, as well as a clear industry focus on 5G rollout.
Richard Broome adds: “Given these ambitions at Government-level, I think it is fair to say telecoms will continue to top the charts in terms of searches for a while to come.”
Whilst the telecoms sector conducted 3.5 percent more searches, its share of the overall pie fell by two percent. This is due to a major surge in usage of the portal by private individuals, whose searches increased by 10 percent in just 12 months. There was also a 42 percent jump in agricultural projects. This suggests that the awareness of safe digging practices is growing not just among core construction and contractor communities but also amongst the wider general public.
Digging Up Britain 2020 also identifies a change in asset owners’ behaviour. 2019 saw more telecoms and other utility companies using the data generated by the portal to manage risk, futureproof their networks, and better identify areas of potential weakness. Utilities are increasingly using historical data to predict who is likely to work within the vicinity of their network, the type of work they are going to do, when they are going to do it and the exact locations.
“Risk management is a critical activity within a modern utility, and our data appears to be playing an important role in this”, adds Richard Broome.
Digging Up Britain 2020 not only analyses the volumes but also the type of digging work taking place. It reports that ‘emergency searches’ increased by 59 percent on the previous year and 197 percent on two years ago with 316,922 searches deemed as urgent in 2019.
This trend is not an issue for the LSBUD collaborative portal, which deals with search requests in minutes, but it may present a challenge to asset owners such as telecoms companies handling search enquiries themselves. Some can often take up to 28 days to provide information about their networks. The increase in ‘emergency’ requests will put huge pressure on these timescales and the companies’ enquiry teams.
Digging Up Britain 2020 also outlines the type of work which is taking place. Similar to previous years, utility works top the list with more than 2.15 million searches, a six percent jump on last year. In addition to the rise in agricultural activity, highways projects grew by 17 percent in 2019, prompting 421,452 searches. Searches for domestic building projects were up by 54 percent. Planning applications also saw an enormous jump, increasing by 825 percent.
Richard Broome concludes: “Clearly there’s a lot of excavation activity taking place right across the country, but the good news is that this is routinely accompanied by a thorough search before a spade hits the ground. We’ve enquiries going through the portal every few seconds. So, I’d urge any telecoms companies who have yet to do so, to make sure their own assets are visible in these millions of searches by sharing their information through the collaborative portal.”
Press Releases
Monty Mobile: The First Company in the Middle East & Africa to Provide 5G End-to-End Solutions for Telcos
Monty Mobile provides an in-house, cost-effective, well-optimized 4G+ and 5G end-to-end wireless solution serving both small and large-scale mobile and fixed operators targeting both urban and rural areas.
Moreover, operators are offered flexible payment plans for up to 5 years, first payment after 3 years, helping them stay ahead of their competitors.
This on- cloud solution guarantees improved scalability, mobility and security in addition to great savings on both CapEx and OpEx.
With this solution, Monty Mobile is introducing an alternative to Tier1 Telecom Suppliers such as Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, and ZTE.
“The best is yet to come; stay connected!”, says Mountasser Hachem, Founder & Chairman of Monty Mobile.
More details regarding this full end-to-end solution will be disclosed in the Inside Telecom magazine next month in an exclusive interview.
Press Releases
Africa’s Leading Independent Telecommunications Services Provider, Phase3 Telecom moves onto Digital Connectivity Enterprise in Nigeria and West African Sub-region
The upgrades will cover security features, performance enhancements. agile update capacity and quality delivery mechanisms.
ABUJA, Nigeria, March 10, 2022: Africa’s leading independent aerial fiber optic network infrastructure and telecommunications services provider, Phase3 Telecom, is enabling advanced digital connectivity, improved performance and enhanced network security for enterprise. This drive is targeted at cost efficient and unified network endpoint management for businesses in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.
This development is also designed to amplify Phase3 enterprise value active network deployments for MSMEs, large scale corporates and institutions.
According to the company’s executive chairman – Stanley Jegede, “this expansive service optimization is targeted at improved coverage on Phase3 network routes through Africa as well as to assure solutions that help businesses transform and scale seamlessly.
He says, “Phase3 current network upgrades is an ongoing exercise and will cover security features, performance enhancements, agile update capacity, and quality delivery mechanisms for enterprise segments. Especially in the areas of productive work-from-anywhere or do-business-from-anywhere and digitized remote connectivity solutions”.
In addition to the company’s focus to increase enterprise based networks data handling capacity and their capability to access data within dissimilar sources faster vis-a-vis smarter, as today’s global clime demands.
Jegede, in his concluding statement says, “Phase3 layered digital capabilities will both enhance Phase3 network architecture and compliment legacy connectivity service experience in remote locations with significant Phase3 presence and network access points.
About Phase3 telecom
Phase3 Telecom is a leading independent fiber optic infrastructure with Points-of-Presence (POPs), colocation, and NOCs in Nigeria. Issued a National Long Distance Operator (NLDO) license in 2003 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and with a vibrant as well as a dedicated team of experienced professionals, we are the network of choice for high-performance, data-intensive and low latency connectivity that span dedicated internet access, MPLS VPN, metro ethernet, wide area network solutions etc. We currently operate across the ECOWAS region and international markets through strategic partnerships that allow us to connect our clients across 400 cities worldwide. And ours is an extensive and secure network with end-to-end capabilities that service providers and businesses can rely on to scale, manage costs and assure efficiency. As our network continues to evolve into other layered service streams, including cloud-based and network security solutions – our invaluable clients will continue to remain the core of every investment that we make; innovation that we create; and technology that we adopt during the 4th industrial revolution to position us as the network of the future.
Press Releases
Digital Therapeutics Revenue from Health Insurers to Reach $8 Billion Globally by 2026
Hampshire, UK – 14th March 2022: A new study from Juniper Research has found that digital therapeutics revenue from health insurers will increase to $8 billion by 2026, up from $1.1 billion in 2022; representing a growth of 610 percent over the next four years. Digital therapeutics are clinically validated software programs for the treatment of chronic medical conditions, either independently or in conjunction with other therapies.
The report found that digital therapeutics facilitate the proactive mitigation of chronic medical conditions before they require costly interventions; enabling health insurers to reduce long-term costs per patient. However, it highlighted that these savings will be limited to health insurers in developed regions, where consumer devices and digitalized health infrastructure are ubiquitous. As such, it noted that health insurers in Africa and Latin America will contribute less than 2 percent towards health insurer-led digital therapeutics revenue in 2026.
A new research, Digital Therapeutics & Wellness: Key Trends, Business Models & Market Forecasts 2022-2026, identified that insurers will also benefit from an ongoing shift among digital therapeutics vendors towards engagement- and results-based payments. It recommends that therapeutics providers looking to leverage this trend prioritize the development of performance benchmarks, as demonstrating improvement and preventing patient abandonment will become a direct monetary issue.
Machine Learning to Move into Advisory Role as Liability Issues Emerge
The report forecasts that the number of people using digital therapeutics will increase by 381% over the next four years, and recognizes that machine learning will be key to this growth by facilitating advanced data analytics, remote patient monitoring, and real-time conversational coaching. However, it cautioned that an ongoing lack of standards surrounding the use of machine learning within digital therapeutics will result in vendors limiting its role in their offerings.
Research author Adam Wears explained: “As developers and healthcare providers increasingly grapple with issues of liability and malpractice, machine learning will transition from a patient-facing role to a diagnostic tool offered through provider-facing dashboards; to be used by clinicians and specialists in a manner akin to traditional computer-aided diagnostics.”
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
