The industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which is responsible for implementing Ofcom’s solution for faster consumer switching between UK broadband ISPs on different networks (aka – One Touch Switch), has announced that the now heavily delayed system will aim to go live on 12th September 2024. Back in 2021 the industry regulator, Ofcom, set […]

Several sources have indicated to ISPreview that broadband ISP Virgin Media’s (VMO2) Project Mustang programme, which is upgrading existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network areas with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) technology, has allegedly been hit by delays – partly due to issues with billing and ordering systems. At present around 14.3 million properties out of […]

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A report from Bloomberg has revealed that French prosecutors have launched their own preliminary investigations into persons linked to Altice, in parallel to separate investigations by Portuguese authorities

Last year saw a three-year corruption investigation by Portuguese authorities drew to a close, resulting in the detention of Altice co-founder Armando Pereira and two other individuals linked to the company.

While these investigations into corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering were primarily focussed on individuals and not Altice itself, the company nonetheless moved quickly to minimise to distance itself from the probe, with co-chief executive officer Alexandre Fonseca suspending himself in July.

Fonseca was ultimately placed under house arrest in October, leading to him formally exiting Altice in January this year.

Now, however, it seems that these corruption allegations are spreading, with reports suggesting that France’s Parquet National Financier had quietly launched its own probes into these issues back in September.

According to anonymous sources speaking to Bloomberg, the investigation is exploring cases of corruption of individuals who don’t hold public office, money laundering, and attempts to conceal related offenses.

The investigation comes a turbulent time for Altice, which is currently in the midst of a strategic reset that includes the sale of various business units in an attempt to shrink the company’s $60 billion in debt.

Most recently, reports suggest that Saudi Arabian telco group STC has emerged as a leading bidder for Altice Portugal, a unit that Altice’s owner, billionaire Patrick Drahi, had previously hoped to sell for roughly €10 billion.

While the exact sum offered by STC has yet to be revealed, reports suggest it is unlikely to come close to Drahi’s expectations.

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

Also in the news:
BT wins £26m contract to connect UK schools
Apple fined €1.8bn by European Commission over Spotify row
Japan to reduce regulatory pressure on incumbent NTT

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council in Staffordshire (England) has announced a new project that will seek to build up to 50km of new gigabit-capable fibre broadband infrastructure to help connect local businesses, public sector and community sites in poorly served parts of the town centre. At present, most of the town is already reached by Openreach […]

The local authority for the Merseyside (England) town of St Helens, which is home to a population of around 103,000, has notified ISPreview of a new digital infrastructure project that aims to invest £2.5m to deploy a fibre optic network to support businesses across the town centre with gigabit-capable broadband. At present, most of St […]

UK ISP Quickline, which is rolling out a gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across parts of England, has today announced that they’ve just gone live across three more villages in Rural Lincolnshire – North Somercotes near Louth, Donnington near Spalding and Alford (total of almost 4,000 premises). Residential customers reached by their new full […]

Insight

On Day 0 5G Beyond Growth Summit of this years’ MWC in Barcelona, we heard from Thai mobile operator AIS on their 5G progress and achieved milestones. The audience heard from Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Mark Chong Chin Kok, discussing the AIS highlights and future of AIS’s 5G journey  so far, and why monetisation is so essential for future success

AIS have the largest 5G network in Thailand, covering 90% of the country. Today, AIS have around 9 million 5G subscribers, roughly 20% of the customer base. But building a 5G network isn’t about claiming the number one position, ultimately the operators need to be able to use and monetise it, says Mark. Segmenting the customer base is key way to do this, so different streams of customers can be charged for desires specific to them. In Thailand, professionals and entrepreneurs, the entertainment sector and travellers and migrants were important segments.

But beyond the simple price packages, AIS came up with bandwidth services on demand, and three modes of this. Via the AIS app, customers can choose from “boost mode” which gives a much higher download speed, “live mode”, catering for social media influencers uploading to platforms such as TikTok, or “game mode”, for gamers. These are priced at 49 baht for a minimum of three hours.

The results of AIS’s efforts in the consumer space was an increase in the ARPU of the 5G subscribers by about 10-15%.

One of the biggest challenges for AIS will be to convert current 3G and 4G subscribers into 5G ones. To do this, affordable 5G handsets must become more readily available, priced between $150-200 USD.

Besides for consumers, AIS also developed Enterprise use cases.  AIS introduced a platform called the Paragon Platform. The platform is a product of Singapore based Singtel Group, of which AIS is an associate. It is a multi-cloud orchestration platform, that orchestrates workload across multiple clouds. The platform has live applications that have been deployed in real manufacturing and logistical situations such as in autonomous mining for SCG and in the Siam Toyota factory for ensuring the smooth running of factory operations.

What does the future hold for AIS? In the consumer space, AIS are trying to find more use cases to improve Consumers’ lives. In the enterprise space, AIS’ priority is to bring in an ecosystem of partners to provide 5G solutions to raise company productivity.

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News

The Canada Pension Plan Investments Board (CPP) will invest $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the newly spun-off business

On Friday, the CPP announced that they would be the latest company to invest in the highly prized fixed network assets of Italian incumbent operator TIM.

The pension fund will invest roughly $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the business, with the deal giving NetCo an enterprise value of $27.5 billion.

The deal sees CPP join a growing number of investors in TIM’s spun-off fixed networks unit, which includes all of the company’s fibre network assets but excludes the company’s submarine cable unit, Sparkle.

TIM announced plans to separate the unit last year as part of a new strategy under CEO Pietro Labriola seeking to better monetise the company’s assets. The announcement quickly drew interest from numrous major players, most notably US investment firm KKR, who would go on to to acquire the whole of NetCo for €18.8 billion at the end of last year.

Since then, various additional players have joined the growing consortium, including a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Italian infrastructure fund F2i and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

For CPP, the stake represents the first step of their infrastructure investment strategy in Italy.

“Our investment alongside these key partners with a shared long-term vision will help deliver high-quality digital infrastructure across Italy as well as generating long-term risk-adjusted returns for the fund,” said James Bryce, a managing director and global head of infrastructure at CPP Investments. “We are optimistic that NetCo can represent the first of several infrastructure investments in Italy for CPP Investments.”

The deal is expected to close in the summer, subject to typical regulatory clearances.

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Also in the news:
BT wins £26m contract to connect UK schools
Apple fined €1.8bn by European Commission over Spotify row
Japan to reduce regulatory pressure on incumbent NTT

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today announced that their 1.8Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network has now covered over 1 million premises across the South West of England (i.e. Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire), which reflects an investment of over £300m. The deployment forms part of the operator’s wider £15bn investment to […]

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In the UK, there are nearly 2 million vulnerable people who use personal alarms to call out for help 

Seven major network operators, including Openreach, CityFibre, and Sky, have agreed on new rules to protect people who rely on personal alarms as UK landlines are upgraded to a new digital network. The alarms work by automatically contracting the emergency services when a button is pressed. 

The commitment from the seven operators will ensure that the essential and lifesaving buttons are able to function, or alternatives are provided before any network migration takes place. Personal alarm systems do work with digital landlines, but power cut and other outages can cause them to fail. Copper phone lines usually continue to function, even during power cuts. 

The specific commitments outlined in the agreement are as follows: 

– Operators will have to work with partners, including internet providers, to check if their customers own a telecare device. 

– Operators will provide at least 12 months’ notice to phone providers before enforcing the switchover of a customer and will jointly discuss suitable migration options. 

– No telecare user will be migrated to a digital landline service without the provider, customer or telephone company confirming that they have functioning solution in place. 

– Telecom operators will work with Ofcom, Government, and phone providers to create a shared definition of ‘vulnerable’ customer, so it is no longer dependent on the company and establishes an industry wide standard. 

The agreement comes because in December, BT and other firms were ordered to stop providing the elderly with digital phone lines after a series of power outages left some stranded. In some instances, elderly people’s personal alarms had failed because of the digital landlines, leaving them in danger after an accident. 

“I welcome more telecoms companies joining forces to make this a priority, meaning we now have agreement from those responsible for our telecoms infrastructure and those providing mobile and broadband services,” said Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan in a government press release. 

“This will provide much needed reassurance to those relying on these vital devices and I will continue to pressure organisations to do everything in their power to make sure the switchover is seamless and safe,” she continued. 

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

Also in the news:
BT wins £26m contract to connect UK schools
Apple fined €1.8bn by European Commission over Spotify row
Japan to reduce regulatory pressure on incumbent NTT