Ken Wieland
Ken has been writing about developments in the fixed and mobile markets for over twenty years. He has been a contributor to TelcoTitans since 2015.
Contact info
OperationsVodafone Germany to trim management and hire new sales staff
CEO Philippe Rogge flags “restart” with 1,300 full-time jobs, mainly in management and admin, in line for the axe.
- Public Affairs
Deutsche Telekom in firing line over Deutsche Bahn, Huawei deal
Operator feels backlash over reported supply of Huawei components to rail company via Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions.
- Venturing & Investments
Austrian fibre challenger raises nearly half of €1bn funding target
Syndicate of six European banks provide €417.5m in financing to Magenta Telekom and Meridiam’s new fibre JV.
- M&A
Liberty CEO ‘in M&A talks with CityFibre’
Not a done deal. Discussions are preliminary and large-scale consolidation in UK altnet market likely to attract sharp scrutiny from regulators.
- Partnerships & Alliances
Virgin Media O2 wheels in greener 5G kit from Ericsson
Awards Swedish supplier “multimillion GBP” contract as part of network modernisation programme.
- Partnerships & Alliances
DT picks first suppliers for commercial open RAN rollout
Fujitsu, Nokia get the nod in Germany; Mavenir for European markets.
- Network & Infrastructure
Vodafone Spain taps Nokia for 5G core
Vodafone said to be last MNO in Spain to pick 5GC suppliers, marking the end of Huawei’s Spanish presence in core networks.
- Network & Infrastructure
Hrvatski Telekom spends most in multiband auction
Snags 2×105MHz in nationwide frequencies for €135m.
- Public Affairs
Ofcom launches probe after price hike frenzy
UK regulator starts review into UK operators’ inflation‑busting mid‑contract price rises.
- Innovation (R&D)
Open RAN MoU report card shows room for improvement
Vodafone and fellow MoU signatories say technology gap between open and closed RAN is closing, but lots of industry work still to do.
- M&A
INWIT flags ‘pipeline’ of potential M&A add-ons
TowerCo boss caveats that any deal-making will be local, small scale, and funded by organic capex.
- Products & Services
BT’s Sutton highlights timing issues with open RAN
Group’s Principal Network Architect says vRAN will need “hardware assistance” to deal with timing and sync between different components.
- Public Affairs
BT says UK on edge of investment precipice
Urges government to rethink rise in corporation tax and scrapping of the Super Deduction investment scheme.
- Public Affairs
Telstra CEO says customers will suffer if TPG deal blocked
Vicki Brady expresses “disappointment” with ACCC for blocking “landmark” regional RAN-sharing deal with TPG.
- Public Affairs
Deutsche Telekom distances itself from Lufthansa IT fiasco
Hundreds of flights grounded as “third-party” workers accidentally cut through fibre-optic cables and disrupt airline’s IT system. DT spokesperson says construction work that caused the damage was not commissioned or carried out by the operator. DT’s own technicians “acted quickly” to restore connectivity. Aviation expert puzzled why Lufthansa didn’t ...
- M&A
Telefónica, Liberty step back from Cornerstone
Duo said to be putting wheels in motion to halve their stake in UK TowerCo to 25%
- Events
Vodafone: EMS “slows everything down” in 5G cloud network; calls on vendors to fix
Operator network consultant says typical Element Management System is a blocker to OSS automation.
- M&A
Vodafone CEO lauds Vodacom amid M&A speculation
Della Valle says pan-African operator is “one of the best assets in the Group”.
- Consumer (B2C)
Virgin Media O2 joins massive price-hike club
Operator confirms average yearly prices will shoot up 13.8%.
- People
Safaricom gets political ducks in row with Ngumi replacement
Operator confirms appointment of lawyer Adil Arshed Khawaja as Chairman.
