News

Cisco is set to pay Telenor $150 million for its 44.6% in the business 

This week, Cisco has signed a $150 million deal to acquire Norwegian company Working Group Two (WG2) from Telenor Group.  

Core network software specialist WG2 was spun out as a separate entity from Telenor in 2017, with the Norwegian operator retaining a significant stake in the business. At the time, additional investors included telecoms equipment specialist Cisco and digital infrastructure investor Digital Alpha.  

Now, six years later, Telenor is selling its entire 44.6% stake in the business to Cisco, which will become WG2’s sole owner. 

WG2 is a cloud-native mobile service platform provider, which offers mobile operators a cloud-based core network to increase product innovation and reduce time to market through authentication, provisioning, voice, messaging, and data services. 

According to Cisco, the acquisition will help them further develop their recently announced Mobility Services Platform. The Platform combines 5G, edge, and cloud technologies to deliver an as-a-service option for service providers, to help them build and manage new Internet of Things (IoT) networks. 

“Built for simplicity, innovation, and efficiency, WG2’s platform uses the web-scale playbook and operating models, which makes it a natural fit with our Mobility Services Platform,” said Cisco Senior Vice president Masum Mir 

“And with WG2 and the Cisco Mobility Services Platform, we’ll be able to boost our service edge deployment and API first strategy for application development partners, enterprise customers and service provider partners.”  

The acquisition is subject to standard regulatory approval and is set to close in Cisco’s first fiscal quarter of 2024. 

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Also in the news:
Polish operators line up for 5G spectrum auction
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom to share mobile networks 

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The government hopes to use a combination of public and private funding in order to shrink the nation’s digital divide 

According to a statement from the Polish Ministry of Digitalisation, 307 applications have been submitted for a portion of the PLN  9 billion ($2.22 billion) of funding available for national broadband projects.  

Of these, 64 are applications to cover 187 areas of Poland that the government has declared ‘white spots’ – areas that have no internet access at all. 

Alongside the EU-linked government funding, the private sector is expected to contribute at further PLN 750 million ($185.2 million) to fund the broadband projects. 

According to the Polish government, this will be on the country’s largest ever investment in broadband expansion.  

Poland launched the Operational Programme Digital Poland (POPC) in 2014, which carries out public broadband funding, and since then has covered more than 2 million households with broadband. In addition, over PLN 4 billion ($990 million) has been invested into broadband coverage for underserved communities. 

Poland’s national broadband plan, which was updated in 2020, aims to achieve broadband speeds of at least 100Mbps for everyone in the country, and at least 1Gbps for socio economic drivers such as schools and transport hubs. It also seeks to ensure 5G connectivity is available on all major communication routes and in major urban areas. 

In tandem with the POPC, the country has launched for the Nationwide Education Network, which aims at providing all schools in Poland (about 19,500 locations) with free internet with speeds of at least 100 Mbps. 

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Also in the news:
Polish operators line up for 5G spectrum auction
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom to share mobile networks 

The industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which has the arduous task of implementing Ofcom’s significantly delayed One Touch Switch (OTS) migration system for broadband ISPs, has today revealed that it is working toward a planned go-live date of Thursday 14th March 2024 – nearly a full year late. In case anybody has forgotten. In […]

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The government could take a stake of up to 20% in Telecom Italia (TIM)’s NetCo

US investment fund KKR and the Italian government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would allow the Italian treasury to take up to a 20% stake in TIM’s NetCo following any binding offer from KKR.

According to sources, the deal would also see the government play a “decisive role” in “defining the strategic choices” of the business.

TIM has been planning to spin off its network unit since late 2021, following a plan devised by new CEO Pietro Labriola. Spinning off this NetCo, which includes the company’s fixed network assets as well as the company’s international carrier business Sparkle, immediately drew interest from numerous investors, including US investment firm KKR.

KKR is believed to have made a nonbinding offer of approximately €23 billion for NetCo back in June, leading TIM to enter into exclusive negotiations with the American firm.

Nonetheless, the sale remains contentious, with the government having repeatedly indicated they desire a role in NetCo’s future, likely via state investor Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, considering TIM’s networks to be critical national infrastructure.

According to sources, local infrastructure fund F2I is also set to invest in NetCo, which would potentially bring the government’s stake in TIM’s networks unit up to 30%.

In addition, TIM’s key investor Vivendi has said that the current offer from KKR greatly undervalues the assets in question, arguing that the infrastructure unit is worth closer to €30 billion.

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UK ISP Sky Broadband has discounted two of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) powered “Ultrafast” (145Mbps) and “Gigafast” (900Mbps) packages, which drops the price on an 18-month term to just £31 and £49.50 a month respectively (returning to £43 and £63 after the first contract term). A small £5 setup fee is also charged. Sky’s packages are […]

Shropshire-based UK ISP and alternative broadband provider Exascale has today provided ISPreview with an update on the latest locations to benefit from their rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the West Midlands. The provider has also changed the Optical Network Terminals (ONT) they use. Just to recap. Exascale is a smaller […]

Broadband ISP 1310 (“thirteen-ten“), which offers full fibre services via Openreach’s national network and is also building its own FTTP network across parts of Hampshire (England), has this morning announced that they’ve acquired UK communications provider TxRx Communications Ltd to accelerate growth and broaden their services. Established in 2018 by Simon Green, James Rossell, and […]

A district councillor has claimed that CityFibre’s £50m project to deploy a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the Norfolk city of Norwich, which began in September 2021 and was being supported by civil engineering contractor Telec Networks, could be at risk of a protracted suspension. The new network, which was originally […]

Non-profit policy developer Promising Trouble – supported by Impact on Urban Health – are preparing to launch a new 18-month project in London (likely around Southwark or Lambeth) next year that will pilot a community-owned broadband service, offering a free or very low cost internet access to those excluded by affordability. At present very little […]

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All four of the nation’s mobile network operators – Play (P4), Polkomtel (Plus), Orange Polska, and T-Mobile Polska – have reportedly submitted their initial bids for 5G spectrum licences

Polish telecoms regulator, the Office of Electronic Communications (Urzad Komunikacji Elektronicznej, UKE), has announced this week that it has received opening bids from all four of the nation’s mobile operators, who are seemingly hungry to get their hands on the long-awaited 5G spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.

Poland is one of just two countries in the EU (the other being the Netherlands) not to have made spectrum in the highly sought after 3.5GHz band available to operators, though this was not by design; plans to auction this spectrum band were first announced back in 2020 but, like so many spectrum auctions at the time, the process was delayed significantly by outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Further delays were later caused by the uncertainty around the Polish government’s amendments to the Act on the National Cybersecurity System, which could potentially limit the operators’ choice of 5G vendors.

Today, these amendment discussions are still ongoing, but the UKE has decided to push forward with the auction process anyway, arguing that Poland is at risk of falling far behind its neighbours in terms of 5G capabilities.

The regulator launched an initial public consultation in December 2022, followed by a second in April this year. As a result, the amount of spectrum being made available for each licence was increased from 80MHz to 100MHz, while the reserve price per block remained unchanged at PLN450 million (roughly $108 million).

Now, the auction is finally taking place, with the process expected to conclude in the next few weeks.

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Also in the news:
Charlie Ergen’s Dish and Echostar set to merge
TDS considers ‘strategic alternatives’ for UScellular
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