Headlines – Page 226
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Partnerships & Alliances
Kenyan waterco taps Safaricom for IoT data stream
Safaricom provided network connectivity for Kenyan utilities provider, monitoring water flow with IoT devices to improve efficiency and management.
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M&A
Fries on VM-O2 merger: don’t mention the tax breaks
Liberty Global anticipates substantial opportunities for savings by injecting Virgin Media tax losses into O2, but Fries wary that such behaviour may not chime with goal of creating new UK “national champion”.
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People
Höttges continues shake-up with Germany CEO switch
DT’s leadership bowls a googly with appointment of Europe boss Srini Gopalan to head German NatCo. Message: nothing is sacred, as DT’s focus turns to re-imagining Europe-side businesses over 2020s.
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M&A
VodafoneZiggo-Telenet merger has ‘logic’, says Liberty
Vodafone’s co-parent in Netherlands JV notes potential synergy benefits of a Belgian-Dutch cableco combination, but indicates deal would be more complex than it first appears.
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M&A
Telefónica wraps up Atresmedia content JV
New joint venture Buendía Estudios is to be 50% owned by each partner.
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Strategy & Change
O2’s Haas lukewarm over Germany’s rural wirelessco
Operator predictably wary over the potential of planned mobile infrastructure company to disrupt MNOs, despite rural-focused mandate.
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Network & Infrastructure
Safaricom continues to eye Ethiopian expansion
Kenyan operator continues to edge towards its northern neighbour for next expansive step, with Ethiopia opening its markets to two new mobile competitors. Vodafone and associates reaching out to investment groups to back bid.
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Network & Infrastructure
FCC wants answers on T-Mobile network outage
Nationwide disruption of voice and text services for more than six hours. FCC Chairman calls for an investigation. TMUS says “trigger event” caused by failed leased fibre circuit.
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Suppliers & SCM
Telefónica in a bind as US pressures Brazil on Huawei
US Ambassador warns of financial cost to Brazil of permitting Huawei 5G presence, while talking up favourable loans for Ericsson and Nokia kit. Comments follow fulsome praise for Chinese vendor from Telefónica|Vivo CEO as an innovative and trusted partner.
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Enterprise (B2B)
BT defends role in poor-value NI land registry project
Audit Office critical of Department for Finance in failing to deliver taxpayer value from Land Registry contract, and for not securing sufficient transparency on BT’s slice of the income.
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Partnerships & Alliances
Droniq goes long-range with UAV control
Sky Drone tie-up adds to new JV’s ”command and control” product suite.
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Products & Services
Vodacom moves benefits scheme to next phase
Vodacom aims to boost revenue by offering SwitchedONBenefits to businesses, supported by Australian partner Mobecom.
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Partnerships & Alliances
T-Mobile Netherlands taps Telindus for automation
TMNL partnered with automation provider Telindus for network maintenance, monitoring, and security.
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Partnerships & Alliances
Deutsche Telekom and Orange join at IP
Operators’ international wholesale divisions collaborate on new IPX proofs of concept.
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Partnerships & Alliances
DT signs up to IBM’s blockchain buyer group
Trust Your Supplier consortium, launched in 2019, aims to ensure sellers are who they say they are.
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M&A
Slovak Telekom exits Zoznam portal
Wholly owned subsidiary Zoznam will be sold to its current CEO Martin Mác “in the coming weeks” as ST focuses on new tech challenges.
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Network & Infrastructure
Vodacom doubles down on smart-site tech
With access network emissions continuing to grow, subsidiary IoT.nxt’s technology being expanded to most of Vodacom’s SA sites. Vodafone interested for other markets.
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Public Affairs
DT tracing COVID app finally set for take off
German authorities muse a ten-day earlier hand-off to DT and SAP could have seen Germany’s tracing programme accelerated by up to three weeks. T-Systems’ staff beta testing app, while DT contact centres will manage manual test result communications.
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Enterprise (B2B)
Telefónica veteran lights Rio with Smart Luz tender
Smart Luz consortium wins tender to overhaul Rio street lighting; Consortium includes High-Trend, founded by ex-TBS CEO Juan Revilla.
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Network & Infrastructure
BT’s McRae on edge: “we want to do a lot more”
Chief Architect Neil McRae outlined key drivers for edge compute, and role of network operators in adoption. Edge forecast to be “everywhere”, with telco operators needing to reposition and collaborate in order to keep hyperscalers at bay. Private networks, eHealth, and remote monitoring flagged as key early use-cases.