News

Shortlisted bidders include KKR, Macquarie, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), and Global Infrastructure Partners

According to a report from Bloomberg, numerous major players are lining up to bid for Altice Group’s 50.1% stake in XpFibre, France’s largest alterative fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) wholesaler.

Potential suitors for the stake include KKR & Co., Macquarie Group, CDPQ, and Global Infrastructure Partners, according to anonymous sources.

No financial details behind the potential bids have been revealed.

The news comes just months after billionaire Patrick Drahi announced that numerous Altice Group assets were being put up for sale, including a minority stake in Altice France, to tackle the Group’s $60 billion debt pile.

However, it has quickly became apparent that a stake in mobile operator Altice France (SFR) is in fact far less appealing than that of FTTH unit XpFibre, which currently covers more than 5 million premises across France.

XpFibre was created from the spin off of Altic France’s FTTH unit back in 2018, with Allianz Capital Partners (ACP), AXA Investment Managers, and Canadian investment firm Omers Infrastructure investing in the venture to jointly acquire a 49.9% stake in the business for €1.7 billion.

Stakes in Altice France and XpFibre are not the only assets from Altice to be put on the chopping block. In December, Altice Portugal received a €6 billion takeover offer from Warburg Pincus, with additional companies such as stc and Iliad potentially also looking to make a bid for the business.

Altice also recently spun off its data centre assets into a separate business, selling a 70% stake in the new entity to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for just over half a billion euros last month.

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Press Release

Kicking off LBN’s 2024 plans it was announced that they are deploying their full-fibre broadband network across the Black Isle. This further expansion is part of LBN’s plans to give the entirety of the Highlands access to ultrafast broadband within the next three years.

LBN who have already built network and provide services across much of the Highlands from Evanton up to Helmsdale including Alness, Tain and Invergordon will commence building the network on the Black Isle in February.

The new network build will tackle the challenge of poor broadband speeds and unreliable connectivity experienced by many throughout rural Scotland. Trading as Highland Broadband homes in the area will be able to access a range of competitively priced broadband packages with speeds ranging from 100Mbps up to 2Gbps; LBN also offers social tariff products for anyone who is in receipt of a universal credit or on a state pension.

Gavin Rodgers, CEO of LBN:

“It is thrilling to be able to continue to expand our ultrafast broadband network throughout the Highlands. While the Black Isle is the first new build of 2024, we will shortly announce further expansion plans which will further close the digital divide during 2024.

“One of the most encouraging things about being the leading broadband provider in the Highlands is the reception we get from customers. In terms of data usage our customers in the Highlands use twice the UK national average showing the level of appetite there is for gigabit capable digital connectivity.”

Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said:

“With digital connectivity becoming an increasing necessity, access to fast and reliable broadband is more important than ever.

“I hope that improved connections will continue to unlock key opportunities for those households and businesses on the Black Isle and the wider Highland digital economy.”

ENDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN) media enquiries, please contact:

Sara Johnson, Senior Manager Brand & Experience

T: 07948 505322

E: sara.johnson@lothianbroadband.com

 

Notes to editors – LBN

LBN is the parent company of the Highland & Lothian Broadband brands and is Scotland’s leading rural fibre company and currently provide broadband services across East Lothian, Fife, Stirling, and the Highlands with plans to extend their service into other areas of Scotland throughout 2024 and beyond.

The company is led by experienced industry executive Gavin Rodgers. Gavin was formerly head of a national fibre delivery organisation at Virgin Media and has a record of deploying fibre at scale.

LBN deploys XGS-PON technology to deliver fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) with symmetrical upload and download connection speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). This compares with BT/Openreach’s fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) product which delivers speeds of typically less than 40Mbps download and 20Mbps upload [source: Think Broadband].

www.lothianbroadband.com

News

Reports suggest that Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) is seeking to purchase TalkTalk’s separated consumer division

This week, a report from The Telegraph suggests that VMO2 is once again in negotiations with TalkTalk related to the acquisition of the latter’s consumer business.

If such a takeover were to take place VMO2 would see TalkTalk’s roughly four million UK broadband subscribers added to their books.

Discussions are said to be in the early stages, with no deal yet agreed.

VMO2 have long expressed an interest in purchasing TalkTalk, having entered negotiations on the matter multiple times in recent years without success. Perhaps the most notable of these discussions came in 2022, when VMO2 was reportedly working towards a £3 billion takeover bid that was ultimately shelved due to unfavourable regulatory and macroeconomic conditions.

Since then, TalkTalk has struggled under the weight of its £1.1 billion debt pile and, in September last year, announced plans to break up the business into three standalone companies, focussing on wholesale, consumer broadband, and small businesses, respectively.

The company’s Business Direct unit has already been sold to the company’s own shareholders for £95 million, while the wholesale unit is currently the subject of separate discussions with both infrastructure fund Digital Bridge and Macquarie, according to reports.

In other news, VMO2 announced today that they have partnered with Hiya to make use of the latter’s AI-powered scam call blocking Hiya Protect technology. The solution uses Adaptive AI to analyse call number behaviour to help in blocking nuisance and fraudulent calls for customers.

EE is notably also partnered with Hiya for this technology.

The news comes just weeks after Ofcom announced a further crackdown on scam callers, including introducing new measures to ensure that operators are doing all in their power to prevent scam calls.

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Over a decade has now passed since the BBC released its iPlayer Downloads app for PC and Mac users in the UK to “make offline viewing more simple“, which is a useful tool for those who may not always be close to a working broadband connection (e.g. when travelling). But sadly, the desktop download app […]

The Shetland MSP, Beatrice Wishart, has called on the Scottish Government (SG) to “rethink” the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) after it was revealed that only around 3-4% of the c.80,000 homes and businesses eligible for support under this measure had taken it up. The voucher scheme is designed to complement the SG’s £600m Reaching […]

European benchmarking firm nPerf has just published the results from their annual 2024 crowdsourced study into UK fixed broadband ISP performance, which finds that subscribers of Virgin Media, Fibrus and Vodafone enjoyed the best internet connection performances over the past year. The nPerf study is said to be based on thousands of tests carried out […]

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 have today announced that they’ve become the second major UK telecoms provider, after BT (EE), to adopt Hiya’s AI-based technologies, which can analyse call behaviour in real-time and determine whether to flag an incoming call as ‘suspected spam’ or block fraud. Most of the major broadband, […]

Mobile operator Three UK has today suffered a third major network outage in the space of four days, which began at around 10:30am today and seems to have been largely resolved by 12:30pm. The latest outage attracted many more complaints than the previous event and also impacted customer services (probably due to being swamped by […]

News

The network was deployed at one of the country’s best universities, Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Monterrey

This week, AT&T Mexico has announced the activation of what they are calling the nation’s first private 5G network.

The network has been deployed at the business and technological development centre (CEDETEC) of Tecnológico de Monterrey university, one of the country’s leading universities.

Equipment has been provided by Swedish vendor Ericsson, with the project further supported by additional partnerships with Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and local startup hub Endeavor.

The financial details of the deal were not revealed.

“5G networks will increase productivity in manufacturing, reduce CO2 emissions and save lives in mining, to name a few examples of the potential for prosperity, inclusion and sustainability in Mexico,” said AT&T México CEO, Monica Aspe, in a statement.

“Together with allies such as Ericsson, Endeavor and Tec de Monterrey, we are excited to contribute to inserting Mexico into the economy and digital society of the 21st century.”

According to AT&T, the private network will support new use cases, including AI applications, blockchain technology, improved IoT devices, and various industrial solutions.

More specifically, it will support a 5G-enabled robotics project led by the university’s robotics expert David Romero, including the development of a 5G testbed.

AT&T has been gradually growing its market share in Mexico in recent years, with private 5G deployments for enterprise and industry seen as a major opportunity for revenue growth. For the time being, however, the company remains dwarfed by America Movil in the consumer segment, with the former controlling roughly 60% of the market compared to AT&T’s 16%.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Bell Canada announces plans to cut almost 5,000 jobs
EE to invest £6 million in retail stores
Mexican president calls for dissolution of telecoms regulator