- Niel invests in Vodafone; GSMA forms post‑quantum taskforce; Sitetracker secures fresh investment.
- Atlas Investissement acquired a 2.5% stake in Vodafone. In a short statement, the investment vehicle, owned by French billionaire and Iliad Group founder Xavier Niel, said it had identified Vodafone as an “attractive investment opportunity, as per the quality of its assets portfolio and the solid underlying trends in the sector”. The company further cited “opportunities to accelerate both the streamlining of Vodafone’s footprint and the separation of its infrastructure assets”, as well as “accelerating broadband development in Germany and other geographies”. In mid‑February 2022, Vodafone rejected a reported €11bn (£9.7bn) offer from France‑based Iliad and private equity fund Apax Partners for its Italian assets (Vodafonewatch, #204).
- Vodafone partners Dell and Wind River teamed up to co‑engineer a cloud infrastructure solution tailored to the telco industry. Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks is claimed to take an “entirely new approach” to overcoming challenges encountered when deploying cloud‑native networks. Designed to help communication service providers (CSP) simplify and accelerate said deployments, the solution, according to data from ACG Research cited by Wind River, can reduce CSPs’ operating expenditure “by 42%, resulting in a 134% return on investment over five years versus deploying telecom cloud infrastructure without the Dell solution”. Andy Dunkin, Head of OpenRAN RF & Digital Platforms at Vodafone, said the introduction of Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks represents the “type of collaboration and innovation needed between vendors to affordably scale open RAN”.
- The GSM Association (GSMA) formed the ‘Post‑Quantum Telco Network Taskforce’ with aim to help define policy, regulation, and operator business processes for a “future of advanced quantum computing”. Vodafone was named among initial members of the taskforce. Luke Ibbetson, Head of R&D, Vodafone, noted that while quantum computing is “by far the biggest revolution in computing since the 1950s” and although “most of it” will positively impact the industry, future quantum computing could “inherently undermine the cryptographic principles relied on today”. “That is why Vodafone is committed to working with the GSMA to protect and secure customer data”, he added.
- Vodafone‑backed project management platform provider Sitetracker secured a $96m (£86.6m/€98.5m) cash injection. The investment consisted of $66m from a Series‑D investment round, led by global alternative investment manager Energize Ventures, and a $30m revolving credit facility from Bridge Bank. US‑based Sitetracker provides cloud project management software for the smart city, telecoms, and utility industries. Deutsche Telekom’s Telekom Innovation Pool is also a backer, and customers include BT Group and Ericsson. Vodafone is a long‑term supporter of Sitetracker, having named it Breakthrough Scale‑up of the Year at its annual Supplier Awards in 2020 (Vodafonewatch, #191). It has received business support from Vodafone’s scale‑up centre Tomorrow Street. Vodafone is also listed as a Sitetracker partner, with the supplier working with Vodafone Group Property, Vodafone Procurement Company, and Vodafone UK (Vodafonewatch, #186).
