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Telenor’s Thai unit, Total Access Communication (Dtac), was merged with rival True Corp early last year

This week, Norwegian telco group Telenor has announced it will book an 8.04 billion Norwegian kroner ($760.3 million) impairment in Q4 2023 for its investment in True Corp.

The company’s shares had fallen from 8.15 Thai Baht ($0.23) at the start of 2023 to 5.05 Baht ($0.14) at the end of the year, hence the necessity of recognising the impairment.

But despite the share price dropping by around a third, Telenor remains positive on its True Corp investment.

“This mark-to-market alignment has no cash implication and does not reflect any changes to Telenor’s view on the outlook and ownership of True,” Telenor said in a statement. “The Dtac–True Corporation transaction remains positive for Telenor and True Corporation remains a key asset.”

Telenor currently holds a 30.2% stake in True Corp, the Thai mobile operator resulting from the merger of Telenor’s Dtac and Charoen Pokphand Group’s True Corp last year.

The $7 billion merger, which had been in the works since 2021, was finally completed in early 2023.

The controversial deal faced significant delays, with detractors arguing that reducing the number of players in the Thai mobile market to just two would negative impact competition and drive up consumer prices.

Since the merger’s completion, the newly combined True has faced significant costs in integrating Dtac’s network, as well as the ongoing rollout of its 5G network.

The company is also embroiled in a dispute with rival operator National Telecom (NT) related to interconnection charges, with a tribunal in October ordering True to pay NT almost $200 million. True is appealing the ruling.

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News 

Industry associations representing the operators argue that operators would rather keep the existing legislation than implement the proposed framework 

Industry groups representing European telecoms operators have warned that the European Commission’s proposed Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) could penalise companies and damage the sector. 

The European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO), the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), the GSMA, and GigaEurope have released a joint statement outlining their concerns on the draft proposal, which comes ahead of an EU meeting next week when lawmakers will draft the final legislation. 

The GIA was first proposed by the European Commission in February 2023, with the legislation aimed at reducing the costs of deploying gigabit-capable networks and simplify the rollout process. The GIA is part of a wider EU goal of deploying gigabit-capable infrastructure across the EU by 2030, in line with the EU’s Digital Decade programme.  

However, the joint statement from the industry associations has disputed the proposed GIA’s effectiveness, saying that the current negotiations “risk turning it into a measure that penalises telecoms operators, without producing any real benefit in terms of administrative simplification”.  

The statement takes two main issues with the draft text. Firstly, the European Commission’s suggestion of eliminating the ‘tacit approval’ clause, which currently would allow operators to push through with their deployment if local municipalities do not respond to a request for a construction permit within a reasonable timeframe. The clause is controversial, with some EU companies considering it an intrusion on the rights of third parties and private property owners, but the telecoms organisations argue that to remove the clause is to remove a “key measure that would speed up network rollout”. 

Secondly, a proposal added by the European Parliament to impose price caps on calls and messages within the EU, which the group says is unnecessary due to the market’s competitive nature. 

The joint statement argues that the provision of digital networks is “critical for the prosperity of the whole of Europe, providing the backbone of a modern, efficient and sustainable economy for European citizens”. It is clear that most citizens would agree with this sentiment, but this statement is masking the real motivation from the operators: a cheaper and easier way to roll out their networks. 

The end of the statement makes clear that the “EU telecom industry” would rather retain the current laws on the subject than implement the new ones, saying that retaining the regulatory status quo would be “less damaging”. 

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‘The platform is a result of two year’s research and development  focussing on generative AI 

Jio Platforms, the parent company of Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile operator, has announced the launch of its new artificial intelligence platform named ‘Jio Brain’. 

The platform, which was announced in a LinkedIn post by Senior Vice President Aayush Bhatnagar, will “integrate Machine Learning capabilities in the telco network or any industry-specific IT environment – without undergoing network / IT transformation.” 

The platform will aid the creation of new 5G services, help transform enterprises, optimise network operation, and allow for innovation in 6G, where machine learning is a key capability, according to Bhatnagar. 

Digging into the attached information sheet, the platform combines the speed, latency and connectivity of 5G with the data processing, analysis, and automation capabilities of machine learning, to allow any operator or enterprise to institutionalise machine learning in their day-to-day operations. 

Users will be able to integrate their own datasets using a simple interface, with the platform supported by over 500 application programming interfaces to allow for customised offerings. 

Current applications already available include ‘enterprise and mobile-ready LLM (large language models)-as-a-Service’, text-to-text translation, and speech-to-text translation services. 

Bhatnagar described the platform as a “significant milestone” for the company’s 5G/6G product line. 

Generative AI is a huge hot topic for the telco industry. Last July, four major global telcos (SK Telecom, e&, Deutsche Telecom, and Singtel) partnered to form a Global Telco AI Alliance, signing a Memorandum of Understanding to co-develop a Telco AI Platform that will serve as a foundation for new AI services such as super apps and digital assistants.  

Earlier still, in 2022, SK Telecom announced its intention to become an AI company to set itself apart from competitors. The company said it would do this in three ways: redefining its core businesses with AI, innovating customer relations through AI, and sharing its AI transformation processes with other companies. 

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Press Release

Ericsson and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) today announced a long-term co-operation for joint research in the area of AI, Compute and Radio.

As part of this collaboration, two milestone agreements were inked between both the organizations which will allow researchers from both organizations to collaborate towards developing novel AI and distributed compute technology towards 6G research.

A symposium on Radio and Network research was organized at GS Sanyal School of Telecommunications (GSSST) where leaders from Ericsson Research and IIT Kharagpur participated to discuss the developments and advancements for the future of networks and communication.

AI and Compute Research is instrumental to Ericsson’s 6G networks as the compute offload needs to be managed dynamically at edge and the policies would primarily be driven by AI. These themes of research are well aligned with IIT Kharagpur and both organizations view this partnership as a way to push the boundaries of fundamental and applied research in the Radio domain.

Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director of IIT Kharagpur, says: “In the commitment towards Digital India and making India the hub of technological innovation, this collaboration with Ericsson will be effective for next-generation technology significantly. 6G networks integrated with artificial intelligence will enable AI-powered applications to run faster and more efficiently. In the 6G era, IIT Kharagpur aims to contribute to Radio Access Technology and Network, Core Network, RF & Device Technologies, VLSI Design, Neuromorphic Signal Processing, Services and Applications. The institute also looks forward to participate in Telecommunications Standardization Process, Developing Test Beds, Prototype Development and Commercialization along with training and manpower development. This collaborative research partnership in fundamental areas as well as translational research will be transformational for our Future Network Platforms.”

Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson Research, says: “This collaboration strengthens our R&D commitments in India and is pivotal to Radio, Compute and AI research. We are excited to partner with IIT Kharagpur and look forward to collaborative research in fundamental areas as well as translational research for our Future Network Platforms”. Dr Frodigh also presented Ericsson’s vision on 6G which aims to blend the physical and digital worlds enabling us to improve the quality of life by incorporating widespread Sensor-based communications between humans and machines through digital twins.

Nitin Bansal, Managing Director of Ericsson India, says: “Ericsson is well poised to lead 6G innovation and we are making significant R&D investments in India in line with our commitment to the country. Given our 5G and technology leadership, our research initiatives are geared to provide affordable network platforms for ubiquitous connectivity all across the country”.

The Speakers and Panellists of the Conference included Prof. Suvra Sekhar Das (Head, GSSST), Prof. Debarati Sen, Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti, Prof. Soumyajit Dey and many other faculty members from IIT Kharagpur; Dr Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson Research, Dr Mikael Hook, Head of Radio Research and Dr Mikael Prytz , Head of Network Research.

Some of the key initiatives finalized by both the organizations include:

Compute offload and Resource Optimization at edge compute: The project aims to explore resource optimization, dynamic observability and sustainable distributed and Edge computing technologies.
RL based Beamforming for JCAS: Safe, Causal, and Verifiable: The project aims to explore causal AI methods for joint communication and sensing (JCAS)

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