Open AI raises $6.6 billion in latest funding round 

News  

The cash injection makes it one of the most valuable private companies in the world 

OpenAI, the AI company behind tools like ChatGPT, has raised $6.6 billion in a new funding round, with giants such as Nvidia and SoftBank as key investors.  

The latest investment brings OpenAI’s valuation to $157 billion, nearly doubling from $86 billion in January this year.  

The capital injection comes from investors including Microsoft, SoftBank, and Nvidia, who are betting on OpenAI to lead in the growing AI sector.  

Microsoft remains the largest cumulative investor in the company, having ploughed more than $13 billion.  

A report from CNBC suggested this week that over 250 million people use OpenAI’s products weekly, with over 11 million subscribed to the paid ChatGPT Plus plan. 

The newly raised capital will be used to strengthen OpenAI’s AI research, focusing on improving large language models and scaling its computing power.  

Despite the ongoing investment success, OpenAI has yet to tur a profit and is set to lose around $5 billion this year, with its high expenses related to developing and maintaining its infrastructure. 

However, with this significant financial boost, OpenAI plans to push further ahead in AI innovation. The company is not only focused on software but may also venture into hardware. Rumours are swirling that OpenAI is potentially designing its own machine learning chips.  

While rival companies like Anthropic are also seeking fresh investments, OpenAI’s increased valuation places it firmly at the forefront of the sector.  

“This credit facility further strengthens our balance sheet and provides flexibility to seize future growth opportunities,” said Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI in a statement. “We are proud to have the strongest banks and investors in the world supporting us.” 

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Also in the news:
Vodafone and Three defend merger amid CMA warnings
Verizon offloads mobile towers to Vertical Bridge for $3.3bn
Korea Telecom and Microsoft sign multibillion-dollar AI partnership 

1p Mobile UK Reduces PAYG Minimum Spend Period from 90 to 60 Days UPDATE

Mobile network operator 1p Mobile appears to have recently reduced the “minimum spend requirement” period on their classic Pay As You Go (PAYG) plans from at least £10 every 90-days, to £10 every 60-days. But the provider’s Terms & Conditions appear to be confused about when this change was actually introduced.

The change, which was spotted by one of our readers (credits to Ben), appears to have occurred sometime over the past few weeks. But a quick look at 1p Mobile’s T&Cs (here), which at the time of writing are dated to be “Effective from 08 February 2024“, confusingly suggests that it was introduced a long time ago, when it wasn’t.

NOTE: 1p Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on EE’s UK platform.

A quick history check via the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) shows that both the PAYG page and T&Cs were still showing the previous 90-day period up to around the end of August 2024. In other words, somebody has updated the T&Cs, albeit without correcting the date at the same time or uploading a historic ‘version‘ copy to help customers identify exactly when the change to their legal text was updated.

We’ve notified 1p Mobile of all this and so hopefully the issue should be resolved soon, although it’s currently unclear why they’ve reduced the minimum spend requirement. But it may result in some very casual PAYG mobile users having to pay more.

UPDATE 6:31am

A spokesperson for 1p Mobile has informed us that the incorrectly dated T&Cs was likely to have been a “server cache” issue, which has now been resolved. The new terms appear to be dated to 3rd October 2024. In addition, the reason given for the change to the minimum spend requirement is indicated to be because their costs have increases and “until this year we haven’t increased our prices since 2019.”

One Touch Switching Company Sees 100,000 Broadband ISP Switching Orders

The industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo) has issued a progress update on its work to support Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching (OTS) system, which started to go live last month and aims to make it easier for consumers to change broadband ISP. A total of 100,000 switch orders have been placed since launch, albeit with only 32,000 successful completions.

Progress is clearly being made, with 265 brands (i.e. internet providers and related companies) now live on the messaging platform and the switch match success rate reaching 60% this week. But TOTSCo acknowledges that it still needs to improve the success rate of the “matching process” (i.e. ensuring that customer switches are correctly verified and migrated between ISPs) before the backup is removed on the 24th October 2024. Ofcom required ISPs to maintain the old migration process until that date, as a fallback for switching failures.

The regulator recently drafted in the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to help “coordinate and facilitate industry efforts“, not least by helping to identify the sources of the remaining issues and get them resolved before the deadline (here).

Paul Bradbury, TOTSCo’s CEO, said:

We’re now into the third week of One Touch Switch (OTS) operations, with over 70 brands placing a total of 100,000 switch orders, resulting in more than 32,000 successful completions. This upward trend is highly encouraging and signals strong progress towards achieving full adoption of OTS for all switches in the coming weeks.

With over 265 brands now live and a switch match success rate at 60%, our focus remains firmly on helping the industry achieve full OTS adoption. Meetings have already begun as part of the ‘matching improvement activities’ outlined in Ofcoms open letter to the OTA2, and we are actively supporting these efforts. We are also working closely with the OTA2 to publish key lessons learned from this exercise as soon as possible.

As I have mentioned previously, we are seeing a number of issues that can be easily resolved by following thebest practice guides.

At least one of the remaining problem areas could potentially be linked to TOTSCo’s move to offload their telephone support and backend to India, which some ISPs have told us has resulted in various problems with the new call centre staff struggling to understand many of their requests or being unable to help.

Otherwise, readers can see how the matching process is gradually improving here, and the hope is that they’ll be achieving a success rate of 100% or thereabouts before the deadline.

ISP Home Telecom UK Spotted Selling Virgin Media Powered FTTP Broadband Plans UPDATE2

Some of ISPreview’s readers have spotted that internet provider Home Telecom, which is part of the wider Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group that also has an established strategic partnership with TalkTalk, appears to be selling broadband plans that are “Powered by Virgin Media” (VMO2). But seemingly only in FTTP areas that have been built for nexfibre.

Just to recap. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre (FTTP / XGS-PON) network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises (Virgin shares some of the same parentage). Nexfibre have already covered over 1.3m premises (here).

NOTE: TALs other brands include Fleur Telecom, Eclipse Broadband, OpenFibre and more. The provider currently employs over 200 members of staff.

At present, Virgin Media is the only retail ISP selling packages over nexfibre’s network, although more providers are expected to be added in the future (here and here). In addition, Virgin Media’s own FTTP network will open up to wholesale via a new company – NetCo – in the future too (here), but that isn’t expected to happen until H1 2025.

Suffice to say that we were a little bit surprised to find (credits to Daniel and Chris) that the availability checker on Home Telecom’s website had begun optionally returning results for packages “Powered by Virgin Media O2“, albeit seemingly only for addresses that have been built for nexfibre (we say “for” because nexfibre are utilising Virgin Media’s engineers to do the civil engineering).

As per the picture above, related addresses currently list a 400Mbps and 1000Mbps package at £42 and £50 per month, respectively. This appears to be offered on a 24-month minimum contract term and includes a router. Some additional upfront fees are also listed, such as a £10 installation fee, £20 for “priority booking” (it’s unclear why that’s included by default, as it sounds like it should be optional) and a router delivery fee of £9.95.

Naturally, we have shot off several messages in order to try and get an official clarification from the related parties, but our suspicion is that Home Telecom are either conducting a trial for a future product (one that has now been stumbled upon) or it’s simply an accident, albeit a curiously well-prepared and structured one. Either way, we should have the answer soon. But this could potentially be nexfibre’s first non-Virgin retail ISP partner.

UPDATE 3:52pm

Thanks to our readers for helping to spot that the same packages also show up in some, albeit not all, of Virgin Media’s RFOG and Hybrid Fibre Coax areas. This seems far too soon for NetCo and so is more likely to be a mistake on Home Telecom’s part, but we await something more concrete to clarify. The fact the ability exists at all to show such packages is interesting.

UPDATE 4:23pm

Virgin Media has confirmed there isn’t a wholesale arrangement with their side, although they’re still investigating. But we have been given a hint from elsewhere that it might be more of a retail level / commission-based arrangement. Currently, we probably won’t get the full context until everybody is back at work on Monday.

Sky Mobile and Sky Talk Offer Free Calls and Texts from UK to Lebanon

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband’s phone (Sky Talk) and Sky Mobile service, including those with a phone service via NOW Broadband (NOW TV), have – due to the current conflict – been given the ability to make free calls and texts between the UK (inc. Ireland) and Lebanon until the end of 2024.

From 4 October 2024 – 31 December 2024, we’ll be crediting Sky Mobile and Sky Talk customers who call and text people in Lebanon from the UK and Ireland. You won’t be charged for any calls and texts made during this time,” said Sky’s statement. “Your bill will show that you’ve made the calls and texts, however, we’ll apply a credit within 14 days, so you won’t be charged for them.”

Sky will apply credits for:

Sky Talk: Free calls and texts to Lebanon (covers UK/ROI and NOW Talk customers).

Sky Mobile: Free calls and texts to Lebanon from the UK and Ireland.

However, roaming in Lebanon, calls and texts from ‘Rest of the World’ destinations to Lebanon and picture messages (MMS) will still be chargeable. In addition, for Sky Mobile, calls and texts to Lebanon will still count towards your monthly spend cap.

IX Wireless Temporarily Suspended from Building New Masts in Oldham

The Oldham Council in Greater Manchester has ordered broadband operator IX Wireless (supported by UK ISP 6Gi / Opus Broadband) to “temporarily … stop work across the borough” due to “safety concerns“. The operator had been deploying large metal masts for their fibre-fed fixed wireless broadband network, which has recently attracted protests.

The company, which holds an aspiration to cover 250,000 UK premises with their new network (here), is currently building their hybrid fibre and wireless broadband network across several towns in the North West of England, such as Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Nelson, Accrington, Thornton-Cleveleys, Fleetwood and Blackpool. Last year also saw them expand into the Tameside and Oldham area (here).

NOTE: Oldham is already widely covered by gigabit-capable broadband networks from Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) and Openreach, while Netomnia also has significant coverage.

However, the “up to” 15-metre-high metal poles (masts) that they build don’t always go down well with residents in the areas where they build (many people find them ugly and obtrusive), which has recently caused several “disturbances” within Oldham that involved “concerned residents, workers and the police” (here).

Infrastructure like this is typically built using Permitted Development (PD) rights, which means they don’t have to go through the usual planning process and can pop up quite quickly, often without residents getting much of a say (only minimal prior notice is required). Due to this, Oldham Council’s options are limited, but the installations do still require highways permits and complaints have recently been raised over issues of safety.

A council spokesperson said (Manchester Evening News):

“We have told IX Wireless to stop work across the borough following safety concerns. We are temporarily suspending issuing new highways permits to the firm until officers are satisfied safe working practices have been in place. Other councils have already taken this step.

The temporary suspension was put in place because over the last few weeks our highways team has received a number of complaints about work being carried out by IX Wireless.

Concerns were raised about the safety of pedestrians, motorists and the company’s own staff while work was being carried out on, or close, to our roads. Inspections have backed this up. This is not acceptable and we’d be failing in our duties if we allowed unsafe practices to carry on.”

A spokesperson for IX Wireless said:

“The safety of our staff and local residents is paramount and we are working to address any issues that have been highlighted. In this case, concerns were raised by the local authority following discrepancies between the traffic and pedestrian management information provided for the permit and live sites.

Upon investigation it became evident that one of our third-party traffic management companies had, on occasion, incorrectly chosen to downgrade the level of traffic management required during the dynamic risk assessment. This issue has been addressed and rectified going forward.”

However, this is only a temporary suspension until investigators are satisfied with the planned remedies, which means that IXW will soon be allowed to resume work and that could restart this month with a two-week trial. We should point out that the metal poles built by IXW are a fair bit bigger (taller and fatter) than the normal wooden ones (those are a common sight across much of the UK), but on the flip side, being a wireless solution means they don’t need to deploy as many of them in order to cover a wide area.

In the meantime, both the past and present UK Governments have pressured network operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here) when rolling out new gigabit-capable broadband networks. The government has also encouraged operators to “share existing infrastructure when installing broadband cables as the default approach”, but this is largely irrelevant to the wireless tech being deployed by IXW.

The government are currently in the process of responding to related complaints by proposing to revise (inc. here) the Cabinet and Pole Siting Code of Practice, which seems likely to result in greater pre-build consultation with communities. The Minister for Telecoms, Sir Chris Bryant, has even warned that he would “not shy away from changing the law, should companies fail to listen to communities” (i.e. a reference to the possibility of hardening or removing PD rights on poles).

Network operators typically like poles because they’re quick and cost-effective to build, can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or access to safely put new underground cables (irrelevant to a wireless network like IXW), are less disruptive (avoiding the noise, access restrictions and damage to pavements of street works) and can be built under the aforementioned PD rights.

Naturally, we’d all prefer it if broadband, power and mobile infrastructure was totally invisible, but that’s not always economically feasible. The government have allowed the current level of flexibility in order to support their plans for achieving nationwide (c.99%) coverage of gigabit broadband by the end of 2030. The difficulty is in balancing that flexibility with localised objections to the new infrastructure and the need to meet those coverage targets. Network operators are already facing significant financial strain and so a fine balancing act is required.

MP Criticises UK Gov Proposal to Spend Rural Broadband Money in Cities

The Shadow Technology Secretary, Andrew Griffith MP, has warned the new UK Government against a “shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” by potentially shifting public funding, which is currently earmarked for the rural-focused Project Gigabit broadband roll-out, and using it to help upgrade parts of major towns and cities (e.g. central London).

Just to recap. The £5bn Project Gigabit scheme aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 (we’re about to hit this target early), before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030. Commercial investment has already delivered more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the final 10-20% (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails.

NOTE: Project Gigabit is overseen by the government’s executive Building Digital UK agency.

The project primarily consists of several support schemes, including demand-led Gigabit Broadband Vouchers (GBVS) for specific premises (£210m), funding to extend Dark Fibre around the public sector (£110m) and general gap-funded network deployments with suppliers (rest of the funding) – known as the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS) programme.

Most of the project’s funding has already been committed, but around £2bn remains, and the new UK Government are known to be exploring how they could best utilise this in a second phase of the build programme. The first round of contracts and programmes are unlikely to deliver 99%+ gigabit coverage to every location, thus there’s still more work to be done on that side of things.

However, a new report in the Telegraph (via MSN) suggests that BDUK are exploring how at least some of the remaining public investment assigned to the project could be used to help tackle broadband slow-spots and “not-spots” in normally competitive urban areas, such as parts of central London. The article doesn’t specify how this would work, but it’s something the shadow (Conservative) technology secretary isn’t very happy about.

Andrew Griffith MP said:

“If confirmed, this would be a baffling decision by the Labour government that risks leaving people in the hardest to reach rural areas left in the slow lane without any credible path to fast, reliable broadband.

This programme was explicitly designed to build full-fibre to remote areas where the rollout is not economically viable for commercial providers.

To divert the funding to highly competitive areas such as central London would be a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money at a time the Government is snatching pensioners’ winter fuel allowances away.”

A government (DSIT) spokesperson said:

“We have been clear that addressing pockets of poor connectivity in all areas of the country is necessary to reach our goal of nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030 and grow the economy.

Rural areas remain a priority for us, with over a million rural premises now covered by contracts under Project Gigabit – with many more rural properties set to benefit in future. We are committed to exploring all avenues to achieve this ambition. No decisions have been made yet.”

Naturally, there is a bit of a twist to this story, which the Telegraph hasn’t picked up on. This reflects the fact that it was actually the previous government that, in 2023, began the process of exploring how the issue of urban slow and notspots could be tackled (here).

In fact, a trial solution was proposed earlier this year (here), which was due to have extended the gigabit broadband voucher scheme to be used in certain urban, as well as rural, areas (they also did something similar with the original ‘Connection Voucher’ scheme some years ago). But this may have been put on pause by the General Election, pending a decision by the new government.

The reality here is that some urban patches, which are typically dotted about like small islands inside major cities and towns, have long become notorious for being left neglected by commercial operators. The problem can be caused by all sorts of challenges (e.g. high build costs, issues with securing wayleave / access and permits or road closures etc.), while state aid and competition law often make it difficult to use public funding in such areas (i.e. locations where private investment should be able to resolve without intervention).

The easiest solution to the complex legal and competition dilemmas this can raise has typically been to use vouchers, hence the above proposal to extend the existing scheme. But it’s worth remembering that solving such complex areas isn’t always just a matter of money, and vouchers alone may not be enough.

The GBVS currently offers grants worth up to £4,500 to rural homes and businesses to help them get a gigabit-capable broadband service installed, which is available to areas with speeds of “less than 100Mbps” – assuming there are also no future plans for a gigabit deployment (either via private investment or state-aid). Some Local Authorities (LA) have, in the past, also provided top-up funding to boost the voucher values.

Netomnia Update on Plan for 50Gbps UK FTTP Network by End of 2024

Alternative operator Netomnia, which is currently merging with Brsk (here) and supported by broadband ISP YouFibre, has given an update to ISPreview on their plan to deploy ADTRAN’s cutting edge 50G PON kit across their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. This should start to go live before the end of 2024 and package speeds of 40Gbps will be offered.

Just to recap. The combined networks of Netomnia and Brsk currently reach over 1.82 million UK premises as ‘Ready for Service‘ and this is home to a total customer base of 190,000 (30th Sept 2024). But the merged group also has a short-term target of growing this coverage to reach 3 million premises (coverage) by the end of 2025, cementing their position as one of the largest national networks.

NOTE: The combined group is backed by more than £1.3bn of equity and debt from investors Advencap, DigitalBridge, and Soho Square Capital.

Both operators are presently using XGS-PON technology to power their networks, which is capable of delivering symmetric speeds up to 10Gbps (YouFibre already has a 7-8Gbps package for £99.99 per month). But at the start of this year we reported that Netomnia were planning a major network upgrade, which would see them rolling out ADTRAN’s 50Gbps (50G-PON) capable kit (here) – the first UK provider to do so.

However, little was known about the actual roll-out plan for this bleeding edge technology, which is perhaps understandable given that the 50 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (PON) standard is still relatively recent (here). Similarly, at the time of the original announcement, ADTRAN’s related SDX 6400 Optical Line Terminals (OLT) didn’t even appear on their website and that remains true today.

Since then another alternative network, Ogi, has recently announced plans to deploy 50G PON technology into their own FTTP network using Nokia‘s kit in Wales (here), which is due to go live sometime in 2025. Suffice to say that we thought now would be a good time to check in on Netomnia and see how they’re progressing.

What’s new?

The plan is to start rolling out the live 50G-PON service from ADTRAN by the end of 2024 and it will then take around a year to fully deploy – initially based on demand (a difficult thing to quantify for this sort of speed). The new kit will be deployed alongside their existing XGS-PON platform, without disrupting existing customers.

The service will also be launching with some new products, including a full 10Gbps symmetric service (you can’t strictly do this via XGS-PON, due to network overheads and advertising rules etc.) and a 40Gbps package to follow – available for both homes and businesses (exact launch dates for these are not yet known). But naturally this will also require a new ONT (optical modem) and a monster router, the details of which are also not yet known.

Suffice to say that this is an entirely new realm of performance for the residential market, one that will put the provider into a different league. But it’s also likely to be very expensive on the domestic side, which suggests that the real prize may be in its marketing value and bragging rights. Particularly since neither end-users nor most of the internet are really able to fully harness 40Gbps today (even 1-10Gbps is still a huge challenge – Why Buying Gigabit Broadband Doesn’t Always Deliver). But technological evolution rarely waits for the slowest users and devices to catch-up.

Naturally, there will always be those who find reason to moan, even when a member of the industry does something as striking as this. But such developments are also the reason why Netomnia are one of the most exciting alternative networks in the UK, which is in no small part down to their willingness to push the boundaries of network technology – often while setting new benchmarks for consumer speeds and affordability.

On the other hand, such ambition does have its limits, which in this case might be tempered a bit by some of the supply-side issues that ADTRAN have recently been experiencing. Getting brand-new technologies to market and in a finished state is rarely a completely smooth process.

Disney+ Internet Video Streaming Service Hikes UK Prices

Internet video streaming provider Disney+ has followed the recent crackdown on password sharing (here) by hitting UK customers with a fresh round of annual price hikes, which are due to all be introduced from 17th October 2024 for new customers and 21st November 2024 for existing ones.

The only good news is that Disney+’s “Standard with Ads” plan will remain at £4.99 per month, while “Standard” increases from £7.99 to £8.99 (or £79.90 to £89.90 annually) and “Premium” surges from £10.99 to £12.99 (or £109.90 to £129.90 annually).

Suffice to say that the endless price hikes and ever-increasing fragmentation of streaming TV and Movie content continues to get worse, which increasingly risks driving many consumers back to more unlawful pursuits.

World Communication Awards 2024 Shortlist revealed!

With over 200 entries across 23 categories, this year’s World Communication Awards is more competitive than ever.

After months of deliberation by the Award’s expert panel of over 100 judges, Total Telecom is delighted to announce the shortlisted entries below.

Congratulations to all of the entrants that have made it this far. We look forward to seeing you at the Awards Ceremony on 10 December at The Marriott, Grosvenor Square, London!

Book your ticket today!


AI Excellence Award

SK Telecom

Jio Platforms Limited

Netcracker Technology

Telkomsel

Tata Communications Transformation Services

Rakuten Symphony

Amdocs amAIz

 

Best Digital Transformation Programme

Verizon Business Group

Lebara

Türk Telekom with Red Hat

Netcracker Technology

TECH MAHINDRA GmbH

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison

 

Best Network Transformation Initiative

ODINE

Ericsson and Telstra

Vodafone & Celfocus

Orange Wholesale

Telecom Egypt

 

Best Operator in a Growth Market

BTS (Business Telecommunication Services)

Jazz

PLDT and Smart

TurkNet

 

Best Wholesale Operator

Arelion

BTS (Business Telecommunication Services)

EXA Infrastructure

Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

Telecom Egypt

Bayobab Group

 

Connected Communities Award

imowi

Ericsson and Telstra joint submission

HFCL Ltd.

Bahrain Network (BNET)

DZS with Connect2First, Irby Utilities & City of Cabot

  

Crisis Response Award

KT

Telkomsel

VEON and Kyivstar

Orange Wholesale

WIOCC Group

 

Enterprise Service of the Year Award

Telstra

Bridge Alliance

Singapore Telecommunications Limited

ZTE Corporation

6D Technologies

Babel PR

 

People & Culture Award

Bayobab Group

Viettel Group

Telkomsel

FreeMove Alliance

TELEKOMUNIKASI INDONESIA INTERNATIONAL (TL).S.A.

  

The 5G Award

e&UAE

SK Telecom

Singtel

Jio Platforms Limited

KT

China Mobile International

  

The Access Innovation Award

ZTE Corporation

Ericsson and Telstra joint submission

Cohere Technologies & Vodafone

China Mobile International

HFCL Ltd.

 

The Beyond Connectivity Award

Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd.

Singtel

Netcracker Technology

PLDT and Smart

Telkomsel

Lao Telecommunication Public Company

 

The Cloud Award

ODINE

Jio Platforms Limited

Rakuten Symphony

Wind River

China Mobile International

Console Connect

 

The Cyber Security Award

Liberty Global

RETN

Enea

Cradlepoint, part of Ericsson

BT Group

SK Telecom

  

The Future Award

e& UAE

LG Uplus

Viettel Group

SK Telecom, NTT, NTT DOCOMO, NOKIA

Telecom Egypt

Console Connect

  

The Platform Award

Vox Solutions

Netgem

Telkomsel

Telna

Singtel

 

The Satellite Telecoms Award

Singtel

TELEFÓNICA GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

Mavenir

Netcracker Technology

 

The Social Contribution Award

Telia Norway

SK Telecom

Hormuud Telecom

Telecom Egypt (WE)

Moldcell S.A. / Moldcell Foundation

GSM Systems

PLDT and Smart

Digicel

 

The Sustainability Award

Orange Wholesale

SK Telecom, Intel and Nokia

Ericsson

KT

MTN

Telin

 

Total Experience Award

Arelion

Ericsson

TELEFÓNICA GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

Globe Telecoms, Inc.

e& UAE

Subtonomy

 

Woman in Telecoms Award

Dr Sharlene, Thiagarajah, TM Research & Development

Carolina Bugaian, Moldcell

Elif Yenihan Kaya, TURKCELL

Magda Abdelkader, Telecom Egypt

Josephine Sarouk, Bayobab Group

Katia Gonzalez, BICS

 

CEO of the Year Award

Frédéric Schepens, Bayobab Group

Vikram Sinha, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison

Joost Farweck, Royal KPN (The Netherlands)

Ahmed Jaber Aldoseri, Bahrain Network (BNET)

Tim Höttges, Deutsche Telekom AG

Alexis Bartelds, Sam Media B.V

 

Startup of the Year Award

Shortlisted startups are invited to pitch their business case to a panel of WCA judges. Pitching competition dates to be announced shortly!

FlexiFone
Geonetworks

Cyber One

DC Smarter

JAPA

A5G Networks

OCX Cognition

Tripcel

Streetwave

SAHA

Book your ticket today!