Three UK eyes potential 5G data core shift away from Nokia

PARIS – Network X 2023 – Most telcos are in no hurry to copy Dish Network, a US devotee of the public cloud. Although some of their IT workloads are being hosted in facilities owned by AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, operators have tended to cling more protectively to their telco workloads, including the new-look 5G core networks slowly sprouting across the planet. A case in point is Three, the smallest of the UK's four mobile network operators (MNOs).

Currently owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison, Three today uses a Nokia core in a private cloud, relying on the Finnish vendor for systems integration as well as underlying tech. Distributed across 20 sites up and down the country, it uses virtual network functions and has worked well in the age of 4G services and non-standalone 5G, where 5G connectivity is paired with the existing 4G core. But it will be due an overhaul with the looming rollout of a standalone (SA) 5G core, said Anil Darji, Three's chief network architect.

"This core is now five or six years old and by the time we move to the next phase a lot of the hardware is going to be end of life and we're going to move to a containerized core, so full CNFs, full stack, 5G SA-enabled," he told attendees at this week's Network X show in Paris, France. Instead of needing a separate operating system (OS) for each application, these CNFs, or cloud network functions, would all sit above a single OS. Like other telcos, Three believes this cloudification will make deploying new services speedier and more efficient.

But owing to a mixture of legal, security and technical concerns, it has effectively ruled out putting this new core network in the public cloud. One of the chief issues is the distance a signal would have to travel between a public cloud facility and an end-user device. "In moving to the public cloud, we're not clear that our latency requirements can be supported," said Darji. "We are looking at some functions that would go to public but in general it is still a private cloud."

One throat to choke

Three's other big requirement is that just about everything – meaning the main applications and the containers-as-a-service (CaaS) platform – must come from the same supplier. "Our policy is to have a single throat to choke," explained Darji. "We are quite small, we're not system integrators, and we want one supplier that is accountable to deliver the full stack."

This would not necessarily rule out continued engagement with Nokia. Until this year, the Finnish vendor was investing in two platforms to host its 5G core technology, Nokia Container Services (NCS) and Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure Software (CBIS). But it is now transferring this expertise to IBM-owned Red Hat under a new agreement. Henceforth, Red Hat will be Nokia's default platform. And provided those two present a single face and contract to Three, Darji sounds prepared to extend the relationship with his existing supplier.

"Nokia just recently announced that they are not going to be producing their own infrastructure anymore. They have an arrangement with Red Hat, so it could be that it's an open stack, but we are going to contract only the one supplier and you bring the stack that you want," he said. "The contract is with you, and if it goes wrong, you fix it. I don't want to have to deal with the whole ecosystem."

Even so, the Nokia deal is clearly up for grabs with Darji revealing that his employer is in discussions with numerous alternatives. They include VMware, a rival to Red Hat (the key difference is that VMware uses proprietary technology while Red Hat is a prominent cheerleader for open source), as well as AWS and Microsoft Azure, names usually associated with the public cloud. In this instance, however, Three would be deploying CaaS technology from one of those hyperscalers inside its own private cloud, meaning the 20 facilities that currently host the older Nokia core.

What's more, Darji sounds particularly enthusiastic about Microsoft. Thanks to acquisitions it made several years ago, the software giant owns a developer of core applications called Affirmed Networks, he noted. "Microsoft, for example, have their own core network. They purchased Affirmed and they have some other third parties, and the idea is one throat to choke," he said, emphasizing the point about having a single supplier contact.

Nordic nerves

All this sounds alarming for Nokia, which seems to count Three as its only MNO core network customer in the UK. BT is in the process of moving from Huawei to Ericsson, having been ordered by government authorities to remove the Chinese vendor by the end of this year. Vodafone is also shifting to Ericsson, after it previously worked with Cisco as its main core network vendor. And Ericsson is additionally in use at Virgin Media O2.

The complication is a planned Three merger with Vodafone, which would be left with majority ownership of the new entity. UK authorities are taking a long, hard look at that deal out of concern it would distort competition and ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers. But an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority has only just begun. Regardless of what happens in the meantime, if a deal is allowed to go through, the new company would find itself with two separate mobile cores. In the long run, one of them would be unlikely to survive.

A Three deal with Microsoft would be significant. In the US, AT&T is relying on the software company for its 5G core and cloud, having sold some of its own core technology expertise to the hyperscaler. But there has been little obvious progress by Microsoft in other parts of the world. Three would be something to celebrate.

Update: Three contacted Light Reading after this article was first published to clarify that Nokia will remain in the voice core for the foreseeable future and that only the data core is up for tender, with several vendors now being considered. The headline has been amended to reflect this feedback.