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We recently wrapped up our participation in Capacity Middle East 2024, an event that brought together key players from the ICT sector across the Middle East and beyond.
Our delegation had the privilege of engaging with representatives from a diverse array of industries, including carriers, cloud service providers, peering networks, hyperscale companies, and content providers alike, paving the way for insightful discussions on cutting-edge solutions and the formation of significant partnerships.
With representatives from TM headquarters, TM Dubai, and TMUK, our team was able to cover a wide spectrum of topics, including updates within the carrier community and innovative solutions aimed at #KeepingTheWorldConnected.
We recently participated in the annual Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference held in Hawaii from January 21-24, 2024. The delegation, led by Covering EVP Khairul Liza Ibrahim, showcased TM Global's commitment to advancing digital connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region. The event provided a platform for TM Global to engage with industry leaders, discuss emerging trends, and explore collaborations.
Highlighting the global reach of TM Global, the presence of our regional office team led by Country Director Hafiz Lockman at the conference emphasised the company's strategic foothold in the USA, playing a pivotal role in fostering international partnerships and contributing to the growth of Malaysia's digital ecosystem. The conference served as a testament to TM Global's dedication to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and furthering its role in shaping the digital landscape, both regionally and globally.
We are delighted to share that we have been honoured with Zero Outage Supplier certification for the fifth year in a row. This recognition from Deutsche Telekom Technik GmbH demonstrates our commitment to maintaining the highest service performance quality, exceeding industry standards, and prioritising customer experience excellence. We feel honoured to be acknowledged as a reliable partner in ensuring zero outages for our customers.
The ASEAN region holds tremendous digital business potential for global service providers, hyperscalers, content providers and OTT players. TM Global is empowering them with comprehensive digital infrastructure solutions to provide a seamless gateway into the region.
Today, the ten countries in ASEAN are collectively equivalent to the fifth largest economy in the world. They are expected to grow by over 5% year-on-year over the next 10 years, a growth rate that is above the global average, according to a study¹ by Asialink Business.
With a population of 600 million and 460 million internet users in Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, ASEAN is increasingly becoming a lucrative digital market.
In the coming years, ASEAN is poised to hold tremendous business potential, considering its determined effort to create the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025² that aims at improving the connectivity and telecom infrastructure in its member countries.
The plan states: “There is high quality and ubiquitous connectivity throughout ASEAN, delivered through the underlying telecommunications infrastructure. Excellent, ubiquitous and high-speed connectivity is clearly essential to enable digital services. This means both improving infrastructure in those areas that are already connected and bringing connectivity to unconnected and underserved areas.”
TM Global, the global and wholesale business arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) recognised this immense potential and has laid the groundwork for global and domestic service providers, content providers, hyperscalers and OTT players across the globe to penetrate the ASEAN region. It has established an ecosystem that provides value-driven connectivity and customised solutions to help them grow their business.
Six regional offices was set up in Australia, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, which allow TM Global to respond swiftly to enquiries and personally advise service providers from these areas on the best solutions to penetrate ASEAN.
Malaysia, strategically located at the heart of ASEAN, has enabled TM Global to own and lease 30 submarine cable systems for domestic and international connectivity. The submarine cable systems span more than 320,000km which provide reliable, diversified and uninterrupted connectivity solutions.
TM is also a consortium member for the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable that will land at its new cable landing station in Morib, the latest addition to TM’s existing international cable landing stations in Malaysia. Its strategic proximity to Klang Valley, which is close to most hyperscalers’ data centres, positions it as a key cable landing site for Malaysia.
In addition to submarine cable systems, TM carries internet traffic to Thailand and Singapore via terrestrial links. TM has also established 29 Points of Presence (PoP) worldwide that function as international gateways, five of which are located in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Indonesia.
The rapid digital transformation in ASEAN has led to an increasing demand for scalable data centres that provide adequate data storage, reliable disaster recovery and efficient data management. TM operates six data centres in Malaysia, three of which are Tier III certified and directly connected to the international gateway that hosts major hyperscalers and OTT players from the United States and Asia. These data centres provide options for bundling with other services to create a total end-to-end solution that combines co-location, capacity, connectivity and IP. The combination of data centres and extensive connectivity enables TM Global customers to enjoy seamless, secure and uninterrupted internet connectivity.
In addition to data centres, TM Global is also offering Edge Facilities, an integrated digital infrastructure to support 5G roll out, Edge Compute Platform (ECP) requirements and TM’s Internet Exchange (TMiX).
The Edge Facilities serve as neutral locations to host TM Global partner’s 5G regional Point of Interconnect (POI) for interconnection with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Since the facilities are connected to the partner’s 5G Core Network, MNOs can integrate their networks at the regional POIs before launching their 5G services. Edge Facilities can also serve to facilitate content delivery network requirements, bringing content closer to end users.
In order to help content creators combat the challenges of network infrastructure, coverage and footprint, insufficient capacity and quality degradation, limited network capacity, high cost, and longer lead time, TM Global has introduced TM Edge.
TM Edge provides holistic content and digital ecosystems to facilitate network operators, video streaming providers and content providers in delivering their content to ASEAN. Among the services provided under TM Edge are Content Delivery Service (CDS), Last Mile Delivery (LMD), Edge Compute Platform (ECP) and Edge Gaming (e-Sport and cloud gaming).
With more than 90 in-deep country cache node presence, TM Global is able to provide faster content delivery into ASEAN and the rest of the world via its cloud-based content delivery platform. TM Edge brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, reducing the distance between the end-users and servers, and, as a result, improving the latency. Live video streaming and online gaming providers are among the digital players that can benefit from TM Edge, as it will reduce the round-trip time lag between game devices and servers and improve the quality of images and video.
With rapid 5G development in the future, TM Edge is essential for next-generation content play. Digital providers may develop more applications that provide a 3D virtual space for people to work, shop and have fun. Such applications require a much-needed high-power bandwidth that can be achieved through the combination of 5G and TM Edge.
Domestic and International service providers can also leverage TMiX, TM’s wholly owned IP peering network that ensures optimised connection to the internet for peak performance, resilience and efficient exchange of local and regional traffic. With TMiX, specific traffic is localised within Malaysia and ASEAN, reducing the dependency on costly international links without affecting internet experience.
TM has deployed 62 TMiX nodes nationwide to serve as a regional IX, with options for users to interconnect at convenient locations. TM is a gateway for service providers, content providers, hyperscalers and OTTs across the globe to enter the ASEAN region to deliver exceptional customer experience, cost-effectiveness and profitability.
Get started on your journey to ASEAN with TM Global.
Source
1 https://asialinkbusiness.com.au/news-media/southeast-asias-digital-boom
2 https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ASEAN-Digital-Masterplan-2025.pdf
This article was first published in The Edge Malaysia
Through its global infrastructure, TM Global’s edge services not only help online providers transform the way they cater to their audience but also optimise cost efficiency and profitability.
In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the surge in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices has ushered in a new era of connectivity. This shift is generating massive amounts of data that require real-time processing and analysis. Industries, such as retail, are striving to meet customer demands by providing robust and user-friendly e-commerce platforms that offer convenient, personalised experiences, and secure transactions. Additionally, the swift rise in entertainment demands, like AR gaming and video streaming, has led to a marked increase in bandwidth requirements and heightened quality expectations from end-users.
Consumers nowadays rightly demand the highest quality experiences that top providers strive to offer. With the increased number of converged services, customers will quickly switch to alternative service providers if their expectations are not met.
Delivering high-quality user experiences
To address these mounting demands, service providers are turning to edge services. These services allow them to process data closer to its source, resulting in enhanced performance, heightened security, and real-time insights across various applications and industries. By harnessing edge computing, service providers can offer superior user experiences, characterised by reduced latency, increased responsiveness, and optimised network resources.
To optimise performance, service providers are moving towards co-locating their content closer to the network's edge. Co-locating data ensures high-performance delivery of content and services to end-users, whilst leveraging a data centre or Edge facility's reliable infrastructure and connectivity.
This strategy presents a cost-effective and scalable solution for service providers to roll out and manage their edge services. Recognising this need, TM Global, the wholesale business arm of Telekom Malaysia (TM), has set up edge facilities and strategically positioned nodes throughout Malaysia and the Asean region. This move effectively addresses the requirements of service providers seeking high-performance content delivery.
Moreover, TM Global’s Edge suite of solutions is designed to boost service providers’ ability to deliver an enhanced user experience. This is achieved by reducing latency, speeding up load times and ensuring high-quality streaming. With the backing of over 90 Content Delivery Network nodes, 32 subsea cable systems spanning more than 340,000 km worldwide with over 80 Tbps of capacity, and 29 points-of-presence globally, TM Edge Content Delivery services offer reliable, diverse, and continuous connectivity not just in the Asean region, but worldwide.
Furthermore, TM Global’s Edge Compute Platform (ECP) enables the rollout of distributed edge infrastructure that brings computation and data storage closer to end-users’ locations. This closer proximity drastically reduces latency, resulting in an overall better user experience.
For instance, the field of AR gaming, which is rapidly gaining traction, is emerging as one of the industries poised to benefit immensely from edge solutions. TM Global is primed to support developers and service providers in this fast expanding industry via its Edge Gaming service. This offering particularly caters to the demand for placing game data closer to players, ensuring low-latency experiences and setting up a complete and integrated edge gaming ecosystem. By leveraging TM Global's Edge Facility and 5G technology, developers and providers are empowered to provide the much-coveted high-quality digital gaming experience with minimal latency.
A strategic partner for the Asean region and global market
TM Global serves a central role in rolling out a carrier-neutral edge ecosystem, propelling the next wave of technologies and applications. TM Global's expansive network and on-ground expertise stand ready to help businesses unlock the vast potential of edge computing, capturing new growth avenues.
Khairul Liza Ibrahim, TM Global's vice president of product and marketing, says: “As a trusted wholesale partner to both local and global technology leaders, we not only provide a strategic gateway into the Asean region but also consistently strive to elevate customer experiences, enhance cost-effectiveness, and boost profitability for service providers, content creators, hyperscalers, and OTTs worldwide.”
This article was first published on StraitsTimes.com.
TM Global, the wholesale domestic and international business arm of TM, secured a prestigious accolade at this year's W.Media Asia Pacific Cloud & Datacenter Awards, for its Edge Facilities project aptly titled 'Delivering the Edge'. Effectively meeting the global demand for decentralised data hosting via co-location, this achievement solidifies TM Global's commitment to enhance the country’s digital ecosystem and position Malaysia as a trusted digital hub for the Southeast Asian region.
Functioning as a regional data hosting facility, the project involves transforming existing TM exchanges into Edge Facilities across seven states, including Seberang Jaya (Penang), Tasek Ipoh (Perak), Seremban (Negeri Sembilan), Kuantan (Pahang), Kuala Terengganu (Terengganu), Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) and Kuching (Sarawak). Strategically positioned close to the edge of TM’s network, TM’s Edge Facilities significantly reduce the distance between the content hosting location and end-users. This closeness supercharges the velocity of data transmission with ultra-low latency, leading to an enhanced digital experience for all users.
Commenting on this regional recognition, Khairul Liza Ibrahim, TM Global’s Covering Executive Vice President said, "We are pleased that our innovative ideas and meticulous execution have garnered regional acclaim, and will continue these efforts in other states to meet the ever-growing data co-location demand. TM’s Edge Facilities effectively bridge the gap and seamlessly complement our existing data hosting solutions. While our large-scale data centres excel in intensive computing and data storage, TM’s Edge Facilities specialise in rapid, real-time data processing for edge computing services.
The design of TM’s Edge Facilities replicate key features of a data centre, which includes a carrier-neutral network with service level availability of 99.7%, enabling service providers to capitalise on the flourishing landscape of real-time applications. TM’s Edge Facilities significantly enhance cost-efficiency, accelerates time-to-market and offers scalability to meet the growing demands for both domestic and international service providers.
By winning this prestigious award, TM Global reinforces its commitment to elevate the digital landscape and shape the future of data and cloud technology in the Southeast Asian region. Now in its third year, the award encourages industry transformation and innovation. It recognises achievement and excellence in championing the 3P’s for the cloud and data centre industry: Planet, Project and People. Winners were presented with the awards during a ceremony held at the Kowloon Shangri-La, Hong Kong on 30 November 2023.
Earlier this year, TM won another two awards at the Asian Telecom Awards via TM Global. These accolades, namely “Telecom Company of the Year” and “Wholesale Company Initiative of the Year” recognised TM’s exceptional performance in spearheading significant advancements within Malaysia and the region's telecommunications landscape. The accomplishments underpin the transformation of TM Global’s wholesale business into a new era, marked by the expansion of its Edge capabilities.
TM Global is poised to drive the next wave of technologies and applications to supercharge its growth and meet consumers’ evolving needs.
The global telecommunications landscape has been in a state of transition for the last decade. Once primarily associated with facilitating domestic and international connections, they now play pivotal roles in shaping our interconnected world, offering a myriad of services that encompass more than just bandwidth for voice and data.
TM Global, the wholesale business arm of Malaysia’s telecommunications company, TM, has long recognized this trend and has broadened its horizons in the last few years to become an integrated player in digital innovation and advanced connectivity. This has led the company to develop a comprehensive range of cutting-edge wholesale communications services and solutions for a global market.
“While maintaining and growing our connectivity infrastructure remains our core focus, we are centered on creating value for our stakeholders by developing new innovations. We also embarked into a new age of wholesale business where we expand our offerings toward enabling the diversification of edge and platform play services in supporting hyperscalers and digital players for greater customer experience,” says Khairul Liza Ibrahim, Executive Vice President of TM Global.
TM Global’s transformational journey involved the company venturing into a holistic and comprehensive assessment of its current businesses. This included conducting due diligence exercises aimed at determining where the targeted business opportunities lay.
Concurrently, the company ensured it augmented desirable skill sets, particularly in new business ventures, so that it was able to understand and address customers’ needs effectively.
The company began focusing on how market conditions were evolving in the digital space and ensured that it remained up-to-date with the latest technologies so that it could accelerate the development of new digital solutions. Realizing no one company can do it all, it also fortified its market position by expanding its partnership ecosystems while providing mutual benefits to all parties involved.
A Trusted Wholesale Provider
TM Global’s advanced connectivity and digital infrastructure solutions include a vast fiber cable network, submarine cable systems, points-of-presence, content delivery networks, TM Internet Exchange, Edge Facility, data centers, as well as its regional offices worldwide to support these services.
Recognizing that gaming will largely benefit from edge and 5G technology, with APAC as the world’s largest gaming hub, TM Global has delivered a broader range of edge services that can be tailored to each vertical’s needs for low-latency and high-bandwidth utilization. The ultimate goal is to further strengthen its position through innovative approaches that foster exceptional customer experience, maximize cost-effectiveness, and drive profitability for its customers.
In Malaysia, TM Global will continue to play the role of the trusted wholesale infrastructure provider by driving the digital industry and 5G ecosystems through nationwide infrastructure deployment. Internationally, TM Global remains focused on positioning itself as the preferred digital hub for ASEAN via strategic collaborations with hyperscalers and global service providers.
“We are continually on the lookout for cutting-edge platform solutions that enable various type of applications, such as multi-access edge computing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and many more that will lead to our next phase of growth. This is parallel to market needs while enhancing the customer experience for all our stakeholders,” says Khairul Liza.
This article was first published in Forbes Asia, November 2023 issue
TM Global, the wholesale domestic and international business arm of TM, today announced the successful deployment of two additional International Internet Gateways (IGW) in Sabah and Sarawak.
These IGWs will serve as crucial hubs for international Internet traffic exchange, reflecting the business’ commitment to continuously expand its local network infrastructure and offer high-speed Internet connectivity in East Malaysia.
This network expansion will enable TM’s customers in East Malaysia and the neighbouring region to access global internet traffic via the most efficient route. By reducing the need to route traffic back to West Malaysia, these IGWs will significantly enhance connectivity speed and reliability for businesses, service providers and their end-customers.
The two IGWs are located in Penampang (Sabah) and Stampin (Sarawak), strengthening TM Global’s existing Internet Exchange (IX) nodes across Sabah and Sarawak. The existing nodes in Sabah are in Kota Kinabalu, Inanam, Elopura, Menggatal and Putatan. Meanwhile, in Sarawak the nodes are in Kuching, Bintulu, Miri, Petra Jaya, Kuala Baram and Tabuan Jaya.
Commenting on the initiative, Khairul Liza Ibrahim, TM Global’s Executive Vice President said, “As a strategic partner to enable Malaysia’s digital agenda, the deployment of these new IGWs reinforces our mission to connect Malaysia globally.
“More importantly, these IGWs help bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak, benefitting densely populated areas and enhancing Internet coverage for communities in smaller towns and remote locations. This will help drive digital opportunities for education, job prospects and entrepreneurship that will uplift these communities into the digital economy.
“This amplified network reach also empowers TM Global to curate a more enriched digital experience, facilitating the global dissemination of substantial content at faster speeds while minimising latency. This advancement aligns with the progressive trajectory of 5G technology, demonstrating our unwavering dedication to position Malaysia as a trusted digital hub within the ASEAN region,” she concluded.
Check out the challenges and opportunities for Industry Players embracing 5G.
Few technologies can rival 5G’s ability to transform the experience of Malaysian consumers, and the products and services offered by Malaysian businesses and governments. It’s why Internet consumers of all stripes are looking forward to using 5G.
For internet service providers (ISPs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that leverage the promise of fixed wireless access (FWA), and Over the Top (OTT) companies, 5G creates unrivalled opportunities to expand market share and revenues, generate profits, create innovative and differentiated products, and boost customer experience.
But are service providers ready to grab this opportunity and address the hunger for 5G from users?
Capitalising on 5G requires access to the right set of backhaul solutions from reputed mobile network enablers (MNEs)—allowing ISP and OTT businesses to maximise the possibilities 5G presents.
Here's how they can do that.
Malaysia: A Nation Hungry for Internet Services and Media
Malaysians are already among the most prolific users of the Internet. Data from We Are Social and Hootsuite shows that Malaysia ranks sixth on the list of countries that spend the most time on the Internet, at nine hours and four minutes a day.
The pandemic magnified that trend. More Malaysians spent more time on the Web, consuming a higher number of services including ecommerce, social media, online delivery, streaming media, telemedicine, and products from edtech and fintech companies.
This is leading to the expansion of Malaysia’s digital economy. The Malaysian e-commerce market is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16% between 2022 and 2026, hitting MYR69 billion in 2026, according to GlobalData research.
“Malaysia is among the fastest-growing ecommerce markets in Southeast Asia,” says Ravi Sharma, Lead Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData.
The demand for OTT services, too—including media, gaming and VOIP, among others—is set to rise considerably. Malaysians consume more media than other countries in Southeast Asia, reveals data from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.
According to GlobalData, “the household penetration of subscription video on demand (SVoD) services in Malaysia is expected to increase from 17% in 2021 to 38% in 2026.”
Putting the above together—and combined with organisations taking forward digital transformation agendas, remote work initiatives, and the rapidly increasing use of cloud services such as those that power big data analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, and Industry 4.0 projects, among others—Malaysia’s digital economy is likely to touch $34 billion in 2025, reveals Bain analysis.
The demand for Internet-based services and media will be spurred by the expansion of 5G, with its ability to offer faster speeds, lower latency, greater density, and newer business models thanks to network slicing capabilities. By 2025, Malaysia is projected to have 15 million 5G subscribers, according to research agency Twimbit, and about 40 million by 2030.
This represents a once-in-a-decade opportunity for ISPs and MVNOs that can leverage FWA—both of whom play a key role in creating access to 5G connectivity and associated services. Malaysian’s MVNO market size is expected to reach $2 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9% according to 360iResearch. And Ericsson Mobility Report: Malaysia Edition reports that FWA connections are forecast to grow to around 230 million by 2027, almost half of which are expected to be carried over 5G networks.
“Fixed Wireless Access is an efficient and scalable complement to fibre and cable that can help bridge the digital divide in Malaysia as it can be used to economically deliver 5G to homes and small and medium-sized enterprises,” says David Hägerbro, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.
5G will also propel the use of OTT services in Malaysia. Revenue from just the video segment will touch $606 million by 2027, growing annually at 10% between 2022 and 2027. The number of OTT video consumers in Malaysia will also rise to 25 million by 2027, with a user penetration level of 71%, compared to 61% today.
The Challenge Facing Service Providers and OTT Companies
ISPs, MVNOs, and OTT companies want to seize the most value from 5G. In the way, however, are significant hurdles that impede them from moving quickly, while simultaneously maintaining low cost-structures which could create a drag on their profitability.
Access to Cost-Effective Backhaul: MVNOs, for example, want to capture new niche markets swiftly by offering innovative services—leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) or IoT, for example—and data products at competitive price points. But they need easy, low-cost access to backhaul infrastructure—including fibre connectivity and edge computing services—which they can scale quickly, cost-effectively and compliantly.
This can be extremely challenging without the help of MNEs.
Expensive and Complex Fixed Line Expansion: Service operators also need competent MNEs—equipped with fronthaul and mid-haul solutions and multi-access edge compute offerings—to leverage FWA capabilities that can help them break free from the financial and operational challenges of setting up fixed line services to urban and suburban areas. By choosing wireless connectivity over expensive fibre, network operators can open up new markets quickly and inexpensively and offer ultra high-speed broadband to homes and businesses, thereby bridging Malaysia’s digital divide.
Time and Cost to Set up Edge Environments: OTT businesses require easy-to-consume multi-access edge compute capabilities, too. They want to improve customer experience by lowering latency and offering consumers innovative services—such as real-time recommendations—which require compute-and-storage-intensive capacity residing at the edge, as close to users as possible. Setting up this distributed infrastructure is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
TM Global: The Power Behind Malaysia’s 5G Throne
TM Global provides a suite of solutions that can help to iron out these challenges, allowing service providers and OTT businesses to focus on making the most of the 5G opportunity. It’s offerings include and go beyond the services offered by leading MNEs in Malaysia. By combining the power of its Fibre Network, Edge Facilities, and Edge Computing solutions, ISPs, MVNOs and OTT companies can achieve their revenue, profitability, customer experience, innovation and compliance goals, quickly, cost-effectively, and at scale.
TM Global offers comprehensive backhaul solutions for service providers to connect to Malaysia National 5G network. With an expansive network, TM Global’s backhaul solutions provide high bandwidth and quality of service with impressive flexibility and scalability. This allows service providers to be innovative and focus on their business. With enhanced performance and objective parameters in line with industry standards that are tailored for backhaul application, TM Global’s backhaul solutions are suitable for all service providers offering 5G-based services.
Additionally, TM Global’s Edge Facilities and Edge Computing–spread across Malaysia– serve as aggregation points. And offer the compute and storage capabilities to power a host of services stretching from content distribution to machine learning.
TM Edge facilities are strategically located in Seberang Jaya, Tasek Ipoh, Seremban, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. These enable service providers to leverage TM backhaul networks—a more cost-effective solution compared to carrying traffic from cell sites all the way to regional data centres or core networks.
Plus, because TM Global’s Edge Facilities are located closer to users, they shrink latency for applications and content delivery including video, gaming and social media. This results in a more immersive customer experience, which in turn lowers customer churn and revenue losses—key success metrics for OTT firms.
TM Edge facilities also offer Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) infrastructure that underpins a new breed of innovative and data-intensive services that require low latency such as those that are built using machine learning or AR/VR technology.
Put together, TM’s end-to-end backhaul and MEC services, combined with its technology prowess and wide footprint, ensure that service providers and OTT businesses do not have to work with multiple third-parties. Having a single point of contact elevates the ease, and lowers the cost, of management.
TM Global aims to unshackle ISPs, MVNOs, and OTT companies creating an environment that is conducive to the spread of the Internet, and its associated services. This shrinks Malaysia’s digital divide and grows the nation’s digital economy.
Learn more about the cornerstone to seamless of 5G high-speed connectivity.
Everyday there are new applications coming to the fore, delivering vital capabilities, and every one of them demands faster internet speeds. Their whole premise is founded on delivering real-time value. They have been built because such speeds exist in the form of 5G.
Users are gung-ho about the emergence and the potential benefits of 5G, but not many are aware of the infrastructure and the transport network that drives 5G and the significance of this network to sustain 5G. At the heart of the ecosystem that is driving faster internet connectivity, lies ethernet backhaul.
Let us take a look at a few statistics. By 2027, a mammoth 60% of global mobile data will be over 5G networks and 9 out of 10 subscriptions will be 5G. We are already witnessing a rise in interconnected, smart devices, but this IoT penetration will increase exponentially as 5G starts replacing 4G as the connectivity of choice. So, it is not just human-centric traffic that is all set to explode, machine-centric traffic will witness a meteoric rise as well.
For businesses, 5G has already started delivering immense value. Its boosting edge computing, augmenting remote work, helping deliver even more engaging and immersive brand experiences, and building ROI-driven consumer connect. We are just skimming the surface in terms of the tangible benefits of deploying 5G connectivity. The advantages are only limited by business imagination.
But there is an elephant in the room – Network. Yes, with network technology primed to deliver 4G connectivity, we are seeing it woefully ill equipped to route data in real time across locations. Challenges abound in the form of capacity, availability, long-distance reach, need for ultralow latency and the ultra-dense nature of the 5G network.
This is where the importance of 5G backhaul comes into play. Network backhaul is a bridge between the core network and its subnetworks. In 5G, the backhaul connects the wired network to the mobile network. The significance of the backhaul cannot be overstated enough as it must support 100s of gigabits of traffic emanating from the core network, as well as supports devices across different bandwidths. If one were to pinpoint the benefits of a powerful backhaul underpinning 5G, we are looking at speed, massive capacity building and high bandwidth are the key. It is not difficult to imagine how these benefits will fuel the smart device or IoT revolution empowered by 5G.
5G technology does not exist in isolation and its rise has resulted in diverse technological changes. Radio Access Network (RAN) is becoming denser, there is a need for advanced network architectures and 5G transport technologies must deal with demanding performance requirements. Operational considerations have changed, but this also means reliability and robustness of existing transport solutions, should be maximised.
Enter ethernet backhaul.
Ethernet Backhaul is Critical To 5G Empowerment
Ethernet Backhaul is a standardised solution for 5G that provides wide coverage both at the city and regional level. The focus of ethernet backhaul is to deliver both flexible and reliable point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services with a focus on traffic prioritisation as per the requirements of the network and end users. Physical connectivity between different sites is delivered through fibre optic cables which ensures reliability and unhindered connectivity.
Think of ethernet backhaul as a traditional backhaul approach that has evolved to meet 5G requirements. It is a tried and tested format that has ably supported 4G and its advanced framework now handles 5G requirements.
The Benefits of Ethernet Backhaul for 5G
- Reliable Scalable Capacity
The challenge with 5G is that it needs more bandwidth capacity. When 5G adoption picks up speed, backhaul capacity requirements can climb to 10GBE or higher. Ethernet’s capacity to support high capacity backhaul is perfectly placed to deliver on 5G’s high bandwidth requirement and the need to oversee vast amounts of traffic.
- Better Availability
5G connectivity needs 24x7 availability especially because of the critical IoT systems and machine-centric connections that will be driven by the network. Downtime can disrupt large-scale business processes globally, and this is an understatement. The fallout of non-operational backhaul services in a 5G environment will be tremendous. However, ethernet backhaul has a safety mechanism wherein a path protection mechanism ensures continuity despite interruption. Also, another advantage of ethernet as compared to a wireless network is that it delivers high-performance connectivity even in harsh weather conditions.
- Latency
When we talk about 5G, we are talking about ultra low latency in the same breath. Therefore, 5G is being touted as the technology that can enhance a truckload of services and environments like healthcare monitoring, online gaming, metaverse etc. Ethernet backhaul delivers the levels of low latency needed and at the same time supports the enormous amount of traffic and complex service needs. There is minimal interference as the fibre optic cables are well connected with one another and can easily withstand the elements.
- Ultradense Network
Ethernet backhauls are continuously evolving courtesy the constant advancement made in ethernet technology. They are now capable of catering to higher RAN frequencies and dense small cell deployment, which makes them perfectly placed to manage 5G. The ultra-dense and heavy traffic cells in 5G can be seamlessly and reliably connected with the core network irrespective of the demanding nature of 5G in terms of capacity, high availability, latency, and efficiency.
The Importance of the Services Provider
There is no doubt ethernet backhaul is imperative to maximising 5G potential, but this can only happen if you work with a service provider that guarantees unhindered robust transmissions, and assures permanent and sustainable secure connectivity, ideal for high-speed movement of mission critical data. Also, it is important the transmission capacity can scale with your needs, with addition of new bandwidth. What we are talking about is flexible capacity building. Also, 5G is nothing without coverage and the service provider should be able to deliver extensive coverage across your target areas.
To Conclude
There is a power behind the 5G throne, and it is ethernet backhaul. It will be fair to say, the success and failure of your 5G enabled services/solutions depends on the nature and strength of ethernet backhaul. Get this part wrong and your 5G connectivity dreams will go bust. But get it right and you can get the most out of 5G.
