A recent study from business comparison service Bionic claims to have identified the best and worst UK train line operators for onboard WiFi internet access, which was achieved by analysing negative reviews that mentioned the service. The results suggest that the best operator for WiFi is ScotRail, while the worst came out as Cross Country trains.

In order to arrive at its results, the study examined both the percentage of negative online reviews that referenced WiFi and the train line’s overall rating. Conversely, this means that, for the Wi-Fi ranking, the closer the score is to one, the better the onboard broadband connectivity is (i.e. for Wi-Fi on trains).

However, we would have much rather seen a more scientific or crowd-based study, ideally one that specifically examined onboard WiFi performance via network testing / speedtests than relying on flaky online consumer reviews. In addition, we don’t know how many negative reviews were collected for each operator or from where, which suggests to us that these results should be taken with a big pinch of salt and not treated too seriously.

Overall, ScotRail came top because just 1% of their online reviews related to the onboard Wi-Fi and the operator itself had an overall rating of 3 out of 5, giving them an overall score of 2.5 on Bionic’s index. By comparison, Cross Country trains had the worst onboard Wi-Fi in the UK, with a score of 21.8. This poor score is a reflection of the 4.74% of reviews that include a negative sentiment towards Wi-Fi performance, and the low overall ranking of the train operator itself (1.5 out of 5).

Alternative broadband ISP Connexin, which is currently aiming to deploy a new 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network across 500,000 premises in East Yorkshire and beyond (England), has today announced the appointment of Shameel Ahmed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Prior to Connexin, Shameel was at London focused altnet CommunityFibre, where he oversaw the network rollout of 1.3m homes across much of London. Shameel also played a key role in the acquisition of CommunityFibre by Warburg Pincus and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners.

The new CFO is also a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) from PwC and holds a Masters in Financial Strategy from Said Business School (University of Oxford), as well as an Executive MBA from London Business School.

Furqan Alamgir, Co-Founder and CEO of Connexin, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Shameel to Connexin as our new Chief Financial Officer. Shameel has a significant track record of fundraising, having raised over £1.5bn across multiple debt and equity rounds as well as the execution and integration of successful M&A activity, his experience will turbocharge business growth.”

News 

The sale is the first time a former phone monopoly in a major European country is divesting its landline grid

Telecom Italia (TIM) has finalised the sale of its fixed line network ‘NetCo’ to KKR, in a deal worth up to €22 billion. 

The sale saw TIM transfer its fixed network infrastructure and wholesale activities to its subsidiary FiberCop, which was then fully bought out by KKR, who already owned a minority stake in the business. 

The deal was first announced in November last year and received the go-ahead from the European Commission at the end of May, with the Commission having concluded that the transaction “would not significantly reduce the level of competition” in the European market. 

The expected deleverage upon completion of the deal is €14.2 billion, which is expected reduce TIM’s net financial debt by €13.8 billion. 

“The completion of the transaction with KKR and the Italian Ministry of Finance is the result of two and a half years of intense work, during which we have improved the management of TIM and identified industrial and financial solutions that will enable us to meet future challenges”, said Pietro Labriola, CEO of TIM. 

“As the first European mover, we chose to separate the fixed network infrastructure services from the other services we provide, to ensure the best, sustainable and fastest possible development of TIM. TIM will remain the reference Telco in Italy and will continue to be the country’s most infrastructure-rich operator, offering innovative services, across both fixed and mobile services, serving families, the Public Administration and businesses,” he continued. 

As is common during acquisitions of this scale, significant job losses are expected. According to the company statement, TIM’s employee count is set to be reduced from 37,065 to 17,281 people. The time scale for these job cuts have yet to be announced. 

TIM confirmed that more details on the deal will be provided during the Q2 2024 results conference call on 1st August. 

Keep up to date with the latest telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Dutch operators finally get their hands on midband 5G spectrum
Virgin Media O2 completes first stage of Shared Rural Network
Xavier Niel’s $4.1 billion bid for Millicom is too low, company says

Press Release

1 July 2024, London: Vodafone, the Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, Wimbledon, has pledged to donate up to 75,000 connections over the course of this year’s event to help people and sports clubs cross the digital divide.

The new ‘Connect Better’ challenge will take the on-court competition to new heights this year, with Vodafone challenging the players to hit their fastest serve and help them smash the donation target of 75,000 connections.

Vodafone will be tracking the fastest serves achieved every day across the gentlemen’s, ladies’ and wheelchair singles competitions and will match the total miles per hour (MPH) in donated SIMs, tech and resources.

To serve up a grand total in the tens of thousands, Vodafone will be turning the players’ power into real-world impact by multiplying the final MPH number by 14, the number of days the event runs.

Based on the fastest serves recorded by IBM during last year’s Wimbledon, this could mean 71,148 donations provided to people, businesses, and communities without access to digital connectivity. Game on.

Vodafone ambassador and British tennis legend, Tin Henman, commented; “I’m calling on all the tennis players at this year’s Championships to hit their fastest serves, not just for the glory of the game, but to support Vodafone’s Connect Better challenge. Each powerful serve will directly contribute to donating essential digital resources to those who need them most.”

The initiative comes as research by Vodafone uncovers the impact of the digital divide on grassroots sports and accessibility, with 43% of Brits admitting they’d find it difficult to identify opportunities to get involved in sports without digital connectivity, while a third (33%) would struggle to do so for their children.

Nearly a third (31%) say they use digital connectivity to find out information about local sports clubs, book themselves into classes or sessions (27%) and to get hold of required kit and equipment (18%).

Over a quarter (26%) rely on the internet to connect with other people, such as other parents, who are involved in local sports clubs, while one in eight (12%) use it to book their children into sports classes.

In fact, 63% of new sports club sign ups – for adults and parents doing so for their children – are all done online.

As well as the impact on participation, digital access is key for viewing sports, 42% of the population admit they are reliant on the internet during Wimbledon to check results and look at the order of play (38%), while almost a quarter (24%) watch the matches online during the event.

The challenges presented by digital exclusion extend to the sports clubs themselves, with research conducted by Vodafone’s charity partner, Sported, revealing that 66% of Sported’s member clubs do not consider themselves well connected. In fact, nearly a quarter (23%) say they are poorly connected – or not connected at all.

A further 88% would find improving digital skills from online resources and support valuable to their business.

Sarah Kaye, Chief Executive of charity Sported, said: “Poor connectivity and a lack of resources severely limits the potential of sports clubs in deprived communities.

“Access to the internet, modern devices, and essential digital skills are crucial for these clubs and organisations to thrive. Unfortunately, many are left behind due to a lack of these resources, restricting their opportunities for growth, collaboration, and exposure.

“71% said a free 6-month SIM plan would be valuable to how they operate. That is exactly why programmes like Vodafone’s everyone.connected are essential in helping to bridge the digital divide. It not only equips these difference-makers with connectivity but also fosters a sense of community and inclusion, ensuring no one is left behind in our increasingly connected world.”

The research from Vodafone also found that over two thirds of adults (67%) admit that having access to the internet plays a huge role in keeping them fit and healthy and ensuring they take part in sport and exercise.

Nicki Lyons, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer at Vodafone UK, adds: “As the Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, we recognise that the digital divide extends to the world of sport. Many individuals, communities and businesses lack the necessary connectivity to fully participate in and enjoy sports activities. This divide poses a barrier to accessing training resources, engaging with sports communities, and even promoting local clubs effectively.

“Our everyone.connected initiative is designed to help address these challenges. By providing essential digital resources and support, we aim to empower sports enthusiasts and the organisers of grassroots clubs and businesses – who are often volunteers – to ensure that more people in sport can benefit from the opportunities that connectivity brings.”

The Connect Better challenge is part of Vodafone’s everyone.connected programme, which aims to help four million people and businesses cross the digital divide by the end of 2025.

The gap between people with internet access and people without it is called the digital divide. For people negatively affected by the digital divide in the UK, it’s difficult to complete everyday tasks, such as accessing online learning or staying in touch with loved ones.

Vodafone believes connectivity is essential and everyone should have access to the opportunities it provides. To date, the company has helped over 2 million people and businesses cross the digital divide by working with partners like Wimbledon to continue to donate mobile connectivity and technology to those who need it most, providing free support to digitally transform and upskill businesses and communities and by offering targeted, affordable tariffs and services that make being connected super accessible.

News

All three national mobile operators picked up additional spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band following a much-delayed auction process

This week, the Dutch telecoms regulator has announced the conclusion of its latest 5G auction, with KPN, Odido, and VodafoneZiggo all acquiring additional spectrum licences.

The auction saw each operator gain 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band, each paying just over the reserve price for the privilege.

In total, the auction raised €174.4 million, with the licences valid until 2040.

The auction has been a long time coming. The Dutch government had initially planned to hold the auction back in 2021 but was severely delayed by a legal tussle with satellite operator Inmarsat, who was already using the spectrum to provide emergency maritime communications.

This dispute was ultimately solved last year, when Inmarsat signed a deal with the government to move its affected ground station to Greece.

The additional 5G spectrum will be greatly appreciated by the Dutch operators, who have been crying out for additional 5G capacity for years. Last year, data from OpenSignal showed the Netherlands to have some of the poorest download speeds in Europe, with 5G services only delivering a small improvement over 4G. The new 3.5 GHz spectrum should play a major role in alleviating these issues, offering customers both greatly improved speeds and capacity.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the operators say that they are already well prepared to quickly make use of this new spectrum. Odido, for example, said that over half of its existing 5G sites will be able to immediately make use of the new frequencies.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
India concludes underwhelming 5G spectrum auction
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G driving change in service providers’ FWA strategies
Nap time: EE rolls out energy-saving ‘cell sleep’ tech to mobile network

New customers looking to join Grain‘s (Grain Connect) UK internet service, which has extended their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover 220,000 premises (RFS), may like to know that the provider is launching an additional discount that offers the first 3 months of service for free.

The promotion will run through July 2024 and comes in addition to their pre-existing price discounts. Customers of the new service normally pay from just £19.99 per month for a symmetric 150Mbps package on an 18-month term, which goes up to just £29.99 for their top 900Mbps plan (take note that out-of-contract prices are £5 higher than this).

All of these packages come with unlimited usage, free installation, a pledge of no upfront costs or mid-contract price rises and a router. The ISP also has a social tariff for those on benefits.

Press Release

On 1 July 2024 AbilityNet and Citizens Online charities will merge, joining forces to support more digitally excluded people, and create stronger impact.

Both charities share a common mission: to bridge the digital inclusion gap and improve lives through technology, especially for disabled people. By combining resources, expertise, and passion, the joint charity will achieve even better results in boosting digital inclusion.

A complementary offer

Citizens Online charity has worked to improve digital inclusion since 2000. AbilityNet traces its accessibility roots back to 1985: it is a national charity which focuses on helping disabled and older people to gain the maximum benefit from technology at home, work and in education.

AbilityNet is one of the UK’s leading providers of digital accessibility services to organisations that offer digital applications and services, with a broad portfolio of services, including consultancy, conducting digital audits and user research, and providing expert training and strategy guidance.

Citizens Online has a complementary consultancy offer, to improve digital transformation and inclusivity; it strives to embed digital inclusion, to ensure that the impact is sustainable. It builds local partnerships and works collaboratively to share best practice to improve digital inclusion.

Gary Moore, CEO, AbilityNet:

“By combining our two organisations, we aim to distil the best of Citizens Online and AbilityNet’s knowledge and resources to help our beneficiaries. This should also make us more efficient, improving the offer to our supporters and customers. There are substantial synergies between the two charities; each has a volunteer model; provides external digital training courses; distributes digital devices to community organisations; and both charities work closely to support older users.”

Hugo Drayton, Chair of Citizens Online: 

“In AbilityNet, I am confident that we have found a like-minded organisation, to further the mission of Citizens Online. I am immensely proud of what the charity has achieved in the last quarter century and look forward to the continued growth of this impact within the AbilityNet family. I am confident that this move will secure and expand the future for our work.”

Alan Brooks, Chair of AbilityNet Board of Trustees: 

“We are delighted to welcome the staff, sponsors and beneficiaries of Citizens Online to the AbilityNet family. Our trustees have been very impressed with the impact which Citizens Online has achieved throughout its 24 years of operation. It has been a strong campaigner for greater digital equality and has delivered against that vision for thousands of beneficiaries. With our combined resources, we will be able to achieve greater impact for the people we seek to help.”

Steps forward

Citizens Online is being merged into AbilityNet, leaving one overall charity with one board – AbilityNet. Citizens Online operational staff have now joined AbilityNet and existing Citizens Online projects will continue and expand. The Citizens Online website will remain in place for the foreseeable future, but the joint activities will be promoted under the AbilityNet brand.

Join AbilityNet at this year’s Connected Britain conference

Some customers of broadband ISP and TV provider Virgin Media (O2), such as those who have previously taken one of their ‘Maxit‘ bundles that included access to TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) TV content, have reacted with anger and confusion after the UK provider suddenly removed access to it and with only minimal prior notice.

Just for some context. The Maxit bundle was originally withdrawn from sale at the end of last summer (2023) and replaced with the Mega-TV bundle, which among other things stopped including TNT Sports and instead turned it into a chargeable (£18 per month) extra. But existing customers of the bundle were exempted from this, unless of course they changed they contract or existing bundle.

Since then it’s emerged that Virgin Media is in a dispute with TNT Sports, which is jointly owned by BT and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), over broadcasting fees (Telegraph) and the renewal terms for their contract (due by the end of July 2024). Suffice to say that these two changes might help to explain why the provider recently sent the following message to those on packages that continue to include TNT Sports, much to the annoyance of their customers.

In short, Virgin Media said they would automatically remove access to TNT Sport for customers that “haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months“, while at the same time offering no proportionate discount for the loss of the premium channel content.

Copy of Virgin Media’s Email to Customers

Hello

We wanted to let you know that we’re making a change to the way we provide TNT Sports channels in order to continue to provide the best value entertainment packages for our customers. We’ve noticed that you haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months, and therefore we’re removing automatic access to them from 30th June 2024. Don’t worry, nothing else is changing. If you wish to re-activate TNT Sports, you can click here for more information.

Thanks

The Virgin Media team

However, some customers only received the email a few days prior to the 30th June 2024 deadline, while others claim not to have received any such communication (email is not the most reliable of delivery platforms) and a few may simply have overlooked it due to the relatively short notice of such a change. Needless to say, there are more than a few gripes about this to be found via social media and Virgin Media’s Community Forum.

In addition, a number of customers have complained that Virgin Media were incorrect to state that some of those affected “haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months“, with several people complaining that they had in fact viewed the channel within that period and questioning the accuracy of the provider’s statement. Not to mention the usual issues with some of Virgin’s support agents either not knowing about the change or making incorrect account changes or statements when asked.

Sample Customer Complaint 1

“It does appear to be genuine but wth, they’re saying they’ll remove some channels and not reduce the price of my package. Why would anyone agree to that? Just like I haven’t watched any of the shopping channels. Does this mean I then have to click through every channel every so often? What nonsense.”

Sample Customer Complaint 2

“Also had this email today and am lost for words. I pay a premium price for services and channels, to be told because I’ve not viewed the channels in the last six months (which I have) that I will loose access. Virgin are quite happy to increase prices but I did not spot a price reduction or incentive in the email to loose access.”

Sample Customer Complaint 3

“I had the same email today and record TNT almost every weekend.

Got on the online chat and they said they could reinstate but price would go up as it’s not included in Maxxit anymore. I complained and the chat person said they spoke to a manager and it would be free til the end of my contract.

An hour later I get an email confirming a new contract that my bill was going up by £20 a month due to TNT and that the next payment would be £40 more than I normally pay!!!!

I have just got off the phone and the chap confirmed that he could see that the account has over 90hrs of viewing on TNT but explained that since January it has been separate from packages which was why the bill had gone up. I complained again saying my contract was agreed and that included BT/TNT sport. I have been assured that my account will be corrected and continue at the original price til it ends in December. But we will see I guess!!!!!”

Sample Customer Complaint 4

“I have watched TNT Sports regularly over the last six months so VM are plain wrong to suggest I haven’t (or have rarely) done so. Why have I received this email? There are lots of channels on my package that I have never watched but VM aren’t taking those away.”

One of Virgin Media’s forum support agents, Akua_A, later clarified that their email had been sent to customers who have both “zero or low usage of the TNT Sports channels“, which is a bit different from the “haven’t viewed” statement in their official email.

However, just to be clear, if you did click the email link in time then Virgin’s T&C’s say you will be “signing up to re-activate the TNT Sports subscription to your package as an optional add-on, at no additional cost“. But they add that “this offer only remains valid whilst you are subscribed to the Maxit TV product and all other components of your current bundle. If you upgrade any aspect of the service, standard pricing will apply to that upgrade.”

The other catch in the T&C’s is that Virgin said their “offer is only valid whilst Virgin Media has this content in its current form, channels and content are subject to change with limited notice,” which could spell bad news in the near future if they fail to reach an agreement for continued access to TNT Sports.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said:

“As we continue to evolve our TV offering to give our customers more choice aligned to their viewing habits, we’re making some changes to how we offer TNT Sports, whereby it will exist as an optional offering. We know many of our customers enjoy watching TNT’s channels which they can continue doing with no changes to the price they pay.”

The 30th June 2024 has of course now come and gone, which seems to have produced another set of problems, with some customers complaining that they filled out the form in time and yet the channels have still been removed. One of Virgin’s forum support agents, Tom_W, has since acknowledged that “we are working through these forms as a priority – we do sincerely apologise for the delays have brought this over the 48-hour timescales advised, but hopefully this is all resolved for you as soon as possible.”

The best advice, if you’ve been affected by this change, is to contact Virgin Media directly to complain if you feel the channels have now been unfairly or incorrectly removed and wish to reverse that, but do it quickly. Admittedly, contacting Virgin’s support teams is often an exercise in crossing your fingers and hoping that the individual you reach actually has correct knowledge of the situation, which sadly isn’t always the case.

As a side note, asking customers to click on a link in an email is generally a poor approach because such communications are often easily be copied / cloned by phishing attacks.

The UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has awarded the £73.47 million (state aid) regional contract for North Yorkshire (Lot 31) in England to ISP Quickline, which will aim to extend their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network to almost 40,000 additional premises in hard to reach rural areas.

The development reflects another significant win for Quickline, which has previously also secured the Project Gigabit roll-out contracts for both the West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8 – 28,000 premises, £60m) and South Yorkshire (Lot 20 – 32,100 premises, £44m). Suffice to say, they’ve now won the related rural builds for almost the whole of Yorkshire.

Just to recap. Project Gigabit is working to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025, before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030 (here). Commercial investment is expected to deliver more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the rest (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails.

The project uses a number of different methods to tackle this challenge (e.g. vouches and investment in dark fibre builds), but the largest part of the scheme involves a gap-funded subsidy approach – the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS). This is where smaller local, larger regional or major cross-regional contracts are awarded to network operators who can help to build their gigabit-capable infrastructure into the most challenging areas (final 20%).

The Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which manages Project Gigabit, has already awarded a sizeable number of deployment contracts to various network providers and the latest one – North Yorkshire (Lot 31) – has just gone to Quickline, which will expand their network to cover almost 40,000 additional premises in poorly served areas.

However, due to the ‘purdah’ period (i.e. rules that force politicians and civil servants to limit announcements during the pre-election period), we won’t be getting the usual press release and instead this development was spotted by ISPreview while we were checking up on the status of various government tenders. As such, we don’t know much about Quickline’s deployment plan, but those details should follow after the election. Quickline has also declined to comment.

Quickline is separately being supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners. The provider currently holds a wider aspiration to cove around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” via both their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) and 5G based fixed wireless technology “by 2025” (here). Some 200,000 of those rural premises will be tackled by their wireless network, with the other half or more coming from FTTP.

Residential customers reached by their new full fibre network are typically charged from £29 per month on a 24-month term for 100Mbps (50Mbps upload) speeds with free installation, and that goes up to £49 for their top 900Mbps (450Mbps upload) tier. The first 3 months of service are also free.

Project Gigabit GIS Contract Awards History
➤ Wessex Internet for North Dorset (Lot 14.01) in August 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) in September 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in October 2022 (here)
➤ Fibrus for Cumbria (Lot 28) in November 2022 (here)
➤ Wildanet for Central Cornwall (Lot 32.03) and South West Cornwall (Lot 32.02) in January 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Cambridgeshire (Lot 5) in March 2023 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for the New Forest (Lot 27.01) in April 2023 (here)
➤ Freedom Fibre for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) in May 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Norfolk (Lot 7), Suffolk (Lot 2) and Hampshire (Lot 27) in July 2023 (here)
➤ Gigaclear for South Oxfordshire (Lot 13.01) and North Oxfordshire (Lot 13.02) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for Derbyshire (Lot 3) in Dec 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire & East Berkshire (Lot 26), Leicestershire & Warwickshire (Lot 11), West & East Sussex (Lot 16 & 1), Kent (Lot 29) and Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes (Lot 12) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Connexin for Nottinghamshire & West Lincolnshire (Lot 10) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Gigaclear for East Gloucestershire (Lot 18) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for South Wiltshire (Lot 30) in Mar 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for South Yorkshire (Lot 20) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ FullFibre for West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean (Lot 15) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ FullFibre for Peak District (Lot 3.01) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Wildanet for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Lot 32) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Voneus for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Freedom Fibre for Cheshire (Lot 17) in May 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for North Yorkshire (Lot 31) in June 2024

News

It was first revealed that Niel was pondering the Millicom acquisition in May

French billionaire Xavier Niel has offered to buy out the shareholders of Latin American telco group Millicom, valuing the group at $4.1 billion. Niel already owns a 29% stake in the company though his firm Atlas Investissement. 

In a press release published today, it was confirmed that Atlas Luxco, a subsidiary of Atlas Investissement, has made an offer of $24 per share, working out at approximately $4.1 billion. 

According to Millicom, a committee of independent members of the Board of Directors of Millicom has concluded that “unanimously believes and has informed Atlas that a $24 per share offer price would significantly undervalue Millicom and not be in the best interests of Millicom’s shareholders. The independent committee’s belief takes into consideration, among other things, Millicom management’s latest review of financial performance”. 

In May, Atlas announced its interest in exploring the acquisition of Millicom, after which Millicom Board of Directors released a statement confirming that it has received a non-binding expression of interest from Atlas. 

“Atlas believes that the Company will benefit from the Purchaser Group’s long-term knowledge and experience in the telecoms sector across numerous jurisdictions, as well as the creation of potential synergies that will allow Millicom to be better equipped to focus on long-term business goals, including pursuing any potential strategic transactions and acquisitions,” read the press release. 

Millicom has not formally rejected the offer, but has said it will “carefully review any information disclosed by Atlas in connection with its anticipated tender offer and will issue the committee’s formal recommendation to Millicom’s shareholders” in accordance with takeover rules. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
India concludes underwhelming 5G spectrum auction
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G driving change in service providers’ FWA strategies
Nap time: EE rolls out energy-saving ‘cell sleep’ tech to mobile network