Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat advances as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority grants unconditional approval, easing market competition concerns for in-flight Wi-Fi services amidst a rapidly evolving satellite communications sector.
MTN Considers Axian Telecom Bid MTN is considering a bid from Axian Telecom for its operating units in West Africa, specifically Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, and Liberia. The potential deal is aligned with MTN’s ongoing efforts to reshape its portfolio, and the three units collectively account for 6.1 million of MTN’s customers and contributed to 0.7% of EBITDA. MTN’s first quarter financial results reported an 8.6% EBITDA growth and revenues of ZAR52.8 billion ($2.8 billion), a 15.6% YoY increase. With discussions with Axian Telecom still at an early stage, any announcement on a final agreement might not be expected soon. Read the full article. Deutsche Telekom Sees Q1 Success Deutsche Telekom (DT) has raised its earnings guidance for 2023 to around €40.9bn, up from its previous forecast of €40.8bn. This follows strong Q1 results, with the group’s US business T-Mobile US a key driver behind the raised forecast, having recently raised its…
Reinvent Telecom, a private-labeled unified communications provider, has announced the introduction of MyCloud Contact Center, its Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) platform. The cloud-based solution is intended for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs), and it will be priced accordingly. The platform will integrate voice, email, and webchat into a single workflow for agents. It will offer interactive voice response, skills-based routing, queue callback, supervisor control, contact center agent client, Salesforce CRM integration, screen pop, real-time wallboards, and historical reporting. Contact center technologies have traditionally targeted large and midmarket organizations, but Reinvent Telecom saw that SMBs also required multichannel contact center solutions to improve their customer experience. MyCloud Contact Center was created to fulfill this demand, allowing Reinvent’s reseller partners to provide enterprise-level contact center features to SMB clients at a low cost. Delivering CCaaS will aid Reinvent Telecom reseller partners in remaining competitive in the market as feature parity in UCaaS platforms…
AST SpaceMobile has made history by successfully connecting a direct voice call between the United States and Japan via its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, using standard smartphones. The use of standard smartphones makes this a world first, as no one has previously achieved a direct voice connection from space to unmodified cellular devices. AST SpaceMobile partnered with some of its mobile operator partners, including AT&T, Rakuten, and Vodafone, to make the connection. The test call was made using AT&T spectrum and a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone in the Midland, Texas area, connecting to Rakuten in Japan. The successful test call validated AST SpaceMobile’s network architecture and systems, including its BW3 satellite, which it describes as the largest commercial communications array in low-earth orbit. The call also paves the way for space-based cellular broadband. AST SpaceMobile’s goal is to provide coverage to close to 50% of the world’s population…
The European Commission has given Orange Belgium permission to purchase 75% of the capital, less one share, of VOO SA. The decision, which was made public on March 21, allows Orange Belgium to proceed with the proposed acquisition and strengthens the business’s convergent multigigabit strategy on a national scale. Orange Belgium’s undertakings, according to the European Commission, completely resolve the competition issues discovered during the purchase process. On completion of the acquisition, Orange Belgium hopes to run a high-speed network across Wallonia and a portion of Brussels. The company’s ambitious investment strategy, along with the combined personnel talent and knowledge of VOO and Orange, is anticipated to raise the standard of services provided to clients and boost competition in the Walloon and Brussels areas. Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer at Orange Belgium, expressed his satisfaction with the European Commission’s decision: “We are thrilled by the decision of…
The European Commission has approved a joint venture founded by several of Europe’s leading telecommunications providers, including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone. The goal of this partnership is to create a revolutionary type of digital advertising platform that will offer a technology solution for digital advertising, while putting privacy first. The holding company, which will be headquartered in Belgium and managed independently, will include a 25% ownership position from each of the major telecom companies. The platform was created with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union in mind, and it has already undergone successful testing in Germany. The platform will be made accessible to any operator in Europe. To activate messages from marketers via publishers, consumers must explicitly opt-in to the new platform. The only item communicated is a “pseudo-anonymous digital token” that cannot be reverse-engineered. With improved transparency, protection and supervision over…
Broadvoice recognized as a top UCaaS provider by TrustRadius In its Winter 2023 “Best of” awards, TrustRadius named Broadvoice, a provider of hosted voice and unified communications as a service (UCaaS), as one of the top three products for Best Relationship, Best Value for Price and Best Feature Set in the UCaaS category. The awards are based on key data and unbiased user ratings from July 1 to December 31, 2022. The b-hive unified communications technology from Broadvoice offers virtual contact centers, cloud PBX, UC, collaboration tools and the next-generation b-hive Communicator for employees to use in streamlining communications and collaboration capabilities. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/237r7ms2 Zoho announces their Trident UC platform Trident, a new platform for collaboration, productivity and communication experiences, has been unveiled by Zoho Corporation. Trident provides users with a single platform and lessens tool ambiguity by bringing together mail, messaging, audio/video conversations, calendar, tasks, and more…
Deutsche Telekom named the most valuable brand in Europe The Brand Finance Global 500 has rated Deutsche Telekom (DT) the most valuable brand in Europe, bringing it up six places to 11th overall. The company ranks second amongst worldwide telecoms, trailing only Verizon and ahead of AT&T. Only Samsung, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and TikTok break the US company’s dominance of the top 10 most valuable brands in the world. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/57u59bbw e& increases stake in Vodafone to 12% In recent years, Vodafone has suffered financial setbacks and investors have pushed the corporation to make adjustments and restore its fortunes. e& (previously Etisalat), one of Vodafone’s investors, has purchased a nearly 10% share in the company for £3.3 billion and has since steadily raised its stake to 12%. The transaction will provide e& with considerable exposure to a global leader in connectivity and digital services,…
XConnect, a provider of numbering intelligence solutions, has announced a partnership with IDT Global, the wholesale voice and SMS subsidiary of IDT Corporation. The partnership will see IDT Global utilize XConnect’s RealNumber DNO database, which contains over 6 billion local and toll-free numbers in North America, in order to enhance its customers’ voice experience and protect them from fraudulent calls. The RealNumber DNO contains numbers that should never be used for call origination, assisting in the prevention of telecom fraud on known inbound-only and invalid numbers. By accessing the RealNumber DNO, IDT Global will be able to identify invalid calls and increase the quality of its traffic. This database is updated daily and includes North American toll/local and toll-free lines, providing IDT Global with a complete and trustworthy additional layer of defense in its role as a gateway operator. The collaboration also further expands XConnect’s optimization of…
Viasat, a leading global communications company, has announced that it has been awarded a contract extension worth up to $325 million over a five-year period by the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). This indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract is an extension of a previous IDIQ contract worth $350 million that was awarded to Viasat in 2017. Under the terms of the contract, Viasat will continue to provide advanced mission equipment and services, and support to SOCOM forces in order to improve their situational awareness, integration, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), tactical satellite communications, information assurance and network management capabilities. This IDIQ contract is intended to be flexible in order to respond to rapid technological advances and the changing mission needs of SOCOM forces. This latest deal allows for the implementation of new concepts of operation (CONOPS) and the achievement of desired mission outcomes through the rapid deployment…
