Latest – Page 241
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Partnerships & Alliances
UK telcos face missing out on Horizon Europe funding
Political brinkmanship between London and Brussels threatens access to €95.5bn R&D pot. UK preps Discovery Fund as alternative, but unlikely to match largesse of Horizon Europe.
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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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Partnerships & Alliances
Vodafone ‘doubles up’ in Serbia
Group’s Partner Markets federation adds Telekom Srbija to its line-up. Deal, which comes amid an attempted revamp of Partner Markets, encroaches on territory already covered by Vodafone’s long relationship with A1 Telekom Austria.
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Products & Services
Telefónica “aiming for deflation” in La Liga rights tender
League offers up to five-year contracts, ignoring regulator advice. Depreciation anticipated following Lionel Messi departure. Companies have until mid-December to apply.
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Network & Infrastructure
BT implements riskmethods to tackle supply chain issues
riskmethods’ management application delivers “multi-tier transparency”. Move forms part of a wider supply chain management refresh.
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Venturing & Investments
Vodafone veterans steer mimik to $14m funding
mimik Technology, founded and led by former Vodafone venturing executives, to use Series-A investment round to develop go-to-market strategy. T-Mobile-backed 5G OI Lab graduate picks up funding from multiple US VCs.
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Premium
DT heads down under for fibre mate
Australia’s IFM named as Gigabit investment partner following long period of speculation. Move adds to TDE CEO Gopalan’s box of tricks as he seeks to pragmatically accelerate the Group’s slow-building fibre deployment. Startup JV embedded with various protective measures for DT, such as balance sheet deconsolidation, and long-term/standalone strategic ...
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Strategy & Change
Openreach off the table as BT drives fibre efficiency
Group ends talks on InfraCo JV as rising fibre demand and lower build costs dilute benefits of external funding. Virgin Media O2 firmly in BT sights as it aims to lock up wholesale market, and move fast on convergence. Future revenue growth anticipated, but greater efficiency and lower spending ...
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Strategy & Change
Telefónica cools on Spanish fibre sale (for now)
Vilá says domestic retail and wholesale FTTP operations “probably not reflected” in Group valuation. Repeats company line that Spanish fibre infrastructure is “strategic asset”, but doesn’t rule out monetisation in the future.
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Public Affairs
Phones 4u saga continues with ‘burner’ phone allegation
Former Orange exec Benoit Scheen attempted to arrange untraceable call to collude with Vodafone, according to High Court claim. Illicit text messages uncovered as part of evidence discovery.
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Financial & Performance
Telefónica passes €1bn in shape shifting Tech push
Telefónica Tech division hitting €1bn in annualised revenue flagged as a highlight in Group’s Q3 results presentation. Growth business’s expansion still being significantly driven by M&A, obscuring ‘organic’ progress. Operator maintains rebound from pandemic with growth in earnings and revenue, and confirmation of guidance.
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Premium
More 3G networks head for retirement in Europe
NatCos in Hungary and Poland announce 3G switch-off plans. T-Mobile Poland reuses spectrum to add capacity to 4G and 5G services.
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Strategy & Change
Vodafone Technology embeds ‘build over buy’ mentality
Vodafone Global Digital Engineering head Ahmed El Sayed updates on Netcracker-backed transformation pilot in Hungary. Software engineering “the future” for Vodafone, as Group looks internally for revamped tech stack under ‘build not buy’ vision.
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Network & Infrastructure
Colloms: DCMS must “crack on” with reform to back fibre
Openreach MD of Corporate Affairs confident on business’s ability to meet government goals on fibre deployment, but commercial programme will need support to maintain momentum. Physical access to sites potentially a huge obstacle to the rollout in both urban and rural areas, but “common sense” updates to legislation could ...
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Suppliers & SCM
Vodafone Supplier Awards 2021: winners
Winners announced across nine categories for the second – and, COVID-permitting, final – digital edition. Ciena headlines as ‘Supplier of the Year’, doubles up with ‘Outstanding Technology Performance’. Ericsson and Huawei return to form after absence in 2020.
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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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Financial & Performance
T-Mobile rides cyberattack storm
Operator’s Q3 numbers indicate few customers ditched its services in wake of high-profile data breach in August. Competitor exploitation of Sprint integration challenges highlighted as bigger issue, albeit one T-Mobile intends to make “short-lived”. T-Mobile highlights organisational and cultural changes in response to attack.
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Suppliers & SCM
Safaricom in talks with Kenya Power to install smart grid
Build, operate, and transfer deal reportedly under discussion.
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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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Network & Infrastructure
BT says 5G-VINNI paves way for E2E network slicing
Muschamp hails EU-funded project a success in laying groundwork to support “end-to-end” 5G network slicing across multiple sites and different vendors’ equipment. By exposing inadequacies of current industry standards, claims Muschamp, industry better placed to develop a standardised approach and avoid margin-squeezing headache of bespoke deployments. BT expects to ...