All articles by Anne Morris – Page 25
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M&A
Vodacom expands into Egypt with Vodafone stake switch
Vodafone to increase its stake in Vodacom to more than 65% following the transaction. Internal deal follows STC’s failed mission to buy Vodafone Egypt during 2020.
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Partnerships & Alliances
DT and SK Telecom’s Techmaker JV launches first product
Indoor Booster 5G goes on sale in Bavaria initially. SK Telecom completes reorganisation into SKT and SK Square.
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Enterprise (B2B)
O2 Germany pinches Lebara from DT
Telekom Deutschland’s long-standing deal with ‘ethnic’ MVNO comes to an end. Deal expected to commence in mid-2022 and take full effect during 2023.
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Network & Infrastructure
DT backed Gaia-X project rocked by report of infighting
Politico report says project has lost focus. Some sources cite active role played by Microsoft. Research data shows continuing dominance of US cloud providers in Europe.
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Public Affairs
Vodafone Pass reviewed following EU judgement
ECJ goes further than expected by consumer group. VfD may be forced to provide the same terms and conditions through EU. Other European OpCos could be affected.
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Network & Infrastructure
Portugal 5G spectrum auction finally ends after 200 days
Vodafone Portugal is second-biggest spender after NOS. Auction ushers in Dixarobil and Nowo as new entrants.
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Network & Infrastructure
DT said to be closing in on partner for fibre JV
Report names Brookfield, CDPQ, and IFM as among potential investment partners. In the region of €6bn could be injected into Telekom Deutschland’s FTTP funding pot.
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Network & Infrastructure
Deutsche Telekom’s Choi sees open RAN deployments from 2023
Group’s tech boss likens RAN disaggregation complexity to landing a space rocket booster. Delayed SD-RAN trial one of many remaining legs on “journey” towards open RAN maturity. DT acknowledges geopolitical challenges around O-RAN ecosystem. Call-to-action made on collaboration.
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Premium
BT’s McRae flags benefits of Tarana’s FWA solution
McRae says customer trials have been encouraging so far. BT’s Allera and Watson tending to play down FWA’s role.
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Premium
Oracle wins new role in BT’s 5G network
US supplier to play role in 4G to 5G migration. Huawei woes could have played a role in Oracle’s selection.
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Network & Infrastructure
Vodafone takes Ofcom to task over proposed 2100MHz fees
Vodafone warns that rise in licence fees risks being passed onto end users. New annual licence fees for 2100MHz set to come into force from January 2022. Group calculates significantly lower fee compared with Ofcom’s proposal.
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Premium
TMUS takes to Salesforce unit Slack for remote working
Salesforce’s Gavin Patterson reveals US NatCo is increasing its usage of Slack. TMUS receives plaudits from Slack for its pandemic response.
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Venturing & Investments
Wayra buys into eSIM startup Airalo
Telefónica one of four telco investors in eSIM specialist. Funding to be used to expand to more countries and recruit more staff.
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Products & Services
DT hopes to get nuSIM on track after two-year delay
Four chipset makers have started nuSIM security certification process. LTE-M now deployed in four markets, with more to come in 2022.
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Premium
NEC solidifies SI position in Telefónica’s open RAN push
Japan-based vendor to coordinate live trials in four key markets. German open RAN trial seen as springboard for NEC’s leap into wider Group sphere.
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Network & Infrastructure
Citi said to be charged with Telefónica Spanish infra sale
Rumours continue to circulate around Telefónica’s fibre monetisation plans in Spain. Investment bank understood to have valued Spanish fibre infrastructure at €14bn. Sale speculation comes despite Telefónica classing its Spanish fibre infrastructure as a “strategic asset”. Report suggests Group is seeking resources to finance investments in 5G and digitisation. ...
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Strategy & Change
Adobe on rise as Vodafone signals more marketing shifts
Adobe to play further role in transformation programmes over coming months. Adobe, Dentsu, Facebook, and Google point to value of symbiotic relationships with Vodafone.
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Innovation (R&D)
Froment-Curtil highlights TOBi’s expanding role amid digital focus
TOBi now present in 15 Vodafone markets, although maturity of deployments varies. Aim is for TOBi to take over 100% of inbound conversations and limited sales transactions. Froment-Curtil sets out his stall as Group CCO.
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Strategy & Change
Gopalan highlights pros and cons of pure data reliance
Telekom Deutschland CEO warns against drawing wrong conclusions from internal data-gathering.
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Operations
Openreach’s Selley slams “shambles” of UK EV charging market
UK’s second-biggest van owner buying electric vehicles from Spain because of lack of domestic commercial electric van manufacturing. Openreach CEO bemoans thin and unreliable charging network; says UK “behind game”. Just 600 of Openreach’s 28,000 commercial vans currently electric. CEO regards hydrogen as likely candidate for heavy vehicles.