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Telecom News

Telefónica sells its fiber assets in Colombia

By Aiste Kryzanovske July 20, 2021

Spain’s leading telecommunications group, Telefónica, has announced the sale of a controlling stake in its fiber network in Colombia to a global investment company KKR. With the sale of this majority stake, the telecommunications company expects to reduce its debt by $169 million. As part of the agreement, KKR will hold 60% of the shares in the new Colombian fiber company, and Telefónica will retain the remaining 40% and contribute its existing fiber assets in the country. The new company will start operating with a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, covering 1.2 million locations in 50 cities and municipalities and serving 380,000 customers by the end of the first quarter 2022. In three years, their goal is to reach 4.3 million sites in almost 90 cities. The deal between Telefónica and KKR values the new company at $500 million. This entity will be the first independent Colombian open access wholesale…

Telecom News

Virgin Media O2 officially launches

By Aiste Kryzanovske June 3, 2021

The new UK joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica officially became operational on 1 June, merging the two household names to form Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). This joint venture has committed to providing a unique choice to consumers and has also promised to boost the UK economy. While, at the moment, the company is not changing any of its current services, later this year it plans to offer seamless broadband, entertainment and mobile services all in one place. The Liberty Global-Telefónica merger is devoted to investing at least £10bn in the UK over the next five years. This investment will help businesses further contribute to the UK Government’s goals of connectivity, upgrading infrastructure all around the country, creating stiffer competition and providing a wider variety of choices for customers. The merger instantly makes the new business one of the largest in the UK, with 47 million…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #18

By Aiste Kryzanovske May 7, 2021

DIDWW joins GSMA DIDWW, a global cloud communications service provider, has announced that it has become an associate member of the GSMA, an industry organization that represents the interests of mobile operators around the world. The GSMA supports the latest technological innovations and the development of the mobile ecosystem to promote digital transformation and industrial growth. GSMA membership allows DIDWW to actively take part in technical working groups, establish new business relationships, and develop strategies that will greatly contribute to the wider adoption of hosted VoIP services. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/4urtcbtz Mediacom to expansion broadband to 500K locations The US operator Mediacom has revealed its plan to provide high-speed broadband to another 500,000 under-serviced homes and businesses over the next three years. This scaling-up will include a combination of new facilities supported by state and federal broadband grants, line extensions and the development of fixed wireless access (FWA) using recently…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #7

By Aiste Kryzanovske February 19, 2021

FCC establishes Emergency Broadband Benefit program The FCC has recently held an open meeting in order to discuss its next priorities. One of the most important matters discussed was the new Emergency Broadband Benefit program, which Congress has instructed the FCC to initiate. As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress has allocated $3.2 billion for the program. Broadband providers participating in the program will be able to offer discounts of up to $50 per month for Internet services and up to $75 per month for those services on tribal lands. Currently, it is unclear how long these broadband benefits will last. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/jj52hlfl Sinch acquires Inteliquent Sinch AB, a Sweden-based company primarily engaged in the provision of cloud computing services, has signed a final agreement to acquire Inteliquent, the largest independent voice communications provider in the US, for an all-cash offer of $1.140 billion. The deal expands…

Telecom News

Orange lays its hands on Telekom Romania

By Aiste Kryzanovske November 10, 2020

Orange Romania, the largest provider of broadband Internet and mobile services in Romania, has entered into an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in the fixed operator Telekom Romania Communications (TKR) in order to strengthen its position in the country and increase its market share in the sector. The reason given for Orange paying over $268 million for TKR, is that it is aiming to become the popular choice among customers for combined services in the Romanian market. Orange will gain a controlling 54% stake from the Greek company OTE, most of which is owned by Deutsche Telekom. According to Orange, the deal gives TKR a value exceeding $590.5 million. The transaction is subject to normal regulatory scrutiny and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021. TKR, being the second largest fixed line provider in the country, achieved revenues of over $739 million in…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #21

By Vilija Simkiene May 22, 2020

Openreach adopts Nokia’s 10Gbps FTTP broadband kit for the UK The Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia has announced that Openreach will deploy its next-generation fiber solutions. This will help meet Openreach’s target to bring ultra-fast and reliable broadband access to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s. Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said, “This new digital platform will help our economy to bounce back more quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic – enabling people to continue work from home, and millions of businesses to operate seamlessly online for decades to come.” This supplier agreement also marks a shift away from reliance on Huawei equipment for the UK’s largest broadband networks. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yb6cj6jn Google and Apple’s joint COVID-19 contact tracing API now available to health authorities Apple and Google have released the first public version of their jointly developed API for COVID-19 tracing apps. This software will enable public health authorities to…

Telecom News

GSA announces 50th commercial 5G network is now live

By Vilija Simkiene November 6, 2019

The latest report by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) indicates that the 50th commercial 5G network has now been launched, following the activation of 5G services in China. All the three state-backed telecom operators, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom have launched next-gen networks and have already registered more than 9 million 5G subscribers. The GSA 5G Market Snapshot marks this deployment as the 50th commercial roll out of a 5G network. Joe Barrett, the President of the GSA, said, “I think that we have all been surprised by how quickly 5G has taken off, with deployments and commitments from across the globe gathering pace. This latest milestone, combined with commercial launches in the world’s largest mobile market, is set to lead to an explosion in 5G users and also have a knock-on impact on driving both use cases and innovation.” By the end of October 2019, the…

Telecom News

Verizon has launched the world’s first 5G network

By Rugile Bertule October 3, 2018

October 1st, 2018 will be remembered as the date when the first 5G broadband network went live, with the telecommunications giant Verizon launching its 5G network in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. The company confirmed that it will be expanding its coverage shortly, pending the installation of new standards-compliant equipment. “The world’s first commercial 5G service is here. We’ve formed incredible partnerships with many of the world’s leading technology companies, the international technical standards bodies, public officials, developers and our own customers to drive the 5G ecosystem forward, faster than most had predicted. And now, actual customers. It’s been an incredible journey…and we’re just at the starting line,” the president of Verizon Wireless, Ronan Dunne, expressed enthusiastically. The very first user on this network, a resident of Houston, Clayton Harris, became one of the early adopters by setting up a “5G Home” service, an ultra-fast…

Market Trends

5G is coming soon. How will it affect you?

By Gideon Hack June 21, 2018

After years of hype, we are looking forward to the impending rollout of 5G networks. This transformational technology will lay the foundation for many future services and change how we view productivity. But how will 5G affect you? Speed and responsiveness It is not yet possible to state definitively what network speeds will be reachable, but it is fair to say that the biggest benefit of 5G to the average user will be the speed of this service. Early estimates have shown that data rates could be up to a thousand times faster than 4G, potentially exceeding 10 Gbps. In practical terms, everything we currently do on the Internet would be significantly faster, and these speeds would enable users to download an entire HD film in a few seconds. Responsiveness or latency refers to the time between a request and a response. The ultra-low latency of 5G will result in response…