The latest H2 2022 study into the broadband coverage of UK new build homes reveals that 98.3% of houses constructed by the end of 2022 were covered by a fixed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (unchanged from H1 2022), which falls slightly to 98.1% when only looking at the latest early data for 2023. The data, which […]

Rural UK ISP Wildanet, which is building a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of Cornwall and Devon in England, has this week become the latest provider to sign the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) – witnessed by several of the many ex-service personnel already working for the company. The AFC broadly reflects […]

Alternative network provider Airband, which aims to cover 600,000 UK premises in rural areas via a mix of their wireless (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks by the end of 2025, has reportedly appointed restructuring firms AlixPartners and Houlihan Lokey to help find additional funding amid difficult conditions. The operator, which is supported by […]

The Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron, has once again gone to bat for UK broadband ISP B4RN after the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency unexpectedly pulled the rug out from under one of their rural gigabit voucher based full fibre builds in Cumbria (i.e. the project for Warcop, Sandford, Coupland Beck, […]

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Reports suggest the European Commission is likely to object to the $19 billion merger unless certain conditions are met

In March last year, Orange and Masmovil signed a binding agreement to merge their Spanish businesses, with the combined entity expected to have a market value of roughly $19 billion.

The new business, set to be equally owned by both Orange and Masmovil, would have roughly 7.2 million fixed broadband customers and over 20.2 million subscribers, making it a new market leader in both segments.

At the time, the operators said that they hoped to close to deal by the second half of this year.

However, the road to completion is set to be a difficult one, with the tie-up of such major players drawing significant scrutiny from European regulatory bodies.

The European Commission launched an in-depth probe into the deal in April, seeking to explore whether the merger would reduce competition in the market. In particular, the Commission feared that the move, which would reduce the number of mobile players in the market from four to three, would lead to higher prices for customers and restricted access for virtual operators.

Now, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg, the Commission is preparing to issue a ‘statement of objections’ to the operators, explaining reasons that they may yet veto the tie-up. According to the report, the statement will also offer remedies for these issues.

What these solutions to competition concerns might be was not revealed, but typically these include divestiture of key assets and assurances that other market players will have access to the operator’s combined network at reasonable prices.

The European Commission must make its final decision on the merger by 4 September.

Spain is one of the most crowded and competitive telecoms markets in Europe, driven largely by laws requiring operators to share their networks at regulated prices. Over the past decade, this high level of competition has devolved into a vicious price war that wrought havoc with operators’ revenues.

As a result, rumours of M&A have swirled for years, often with Masmovil at their centre. Indeed, Vodafone Spain has long argued that it should be the merger partner for Masmovil, arguing that their networks were more complimentary and that their combination would present less of a headache to regulators.

Nonetheless, Vodafone has been broadly supportive of Masmovil’s decision to ultimately tie-up with Orange, suggesting that this would still be beneficial for the nation’s telecoms market.

Whether the regulators ultimately agree with this sentiment, however, remains to be seen.

Is Europe’s attitude towards telecoms mergers softening in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live from Amsterdam

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Broadband ISP BT has this morning confirmed that they’ve begun the expected region-by-region roll out of their Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) based home phone service, Digital Voice, in the East Midlands of England. Once completed, the deployment will next be extended to Yorkshire & Humberside, and then Northern Ireland. Customers will be contacted at least four weeks […]

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), which is known to employ around 16,000 people across the United Kingdom, has confirmed to ISPreview UK that an unspecified number of their workers were notified this week that they were likely to be made redundant in the near future. The event was noticed after […]

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The operator becomes the third in the country to launch 5G, following in the footsteps of market leader MTN and newcomer Mafab Communications.

This week, Airtel Nigeria has announced the commercial launch of its 5G services, with its initial deployment focussed on the major cities of Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt.

According to the operator, users with a 5G-capable handset or router will now be able to access improved services, featuring lower latency, higher speeds, and increased capacity.

Airtel Nigeria firstacquired 5G spectrum in January this year, winning 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum as the sole bidder in the Nigerian Communication Commission’s second 5G spectrum auction. They soon followed up by winning two blocks of 10MHZ spectrum in the 2.6GHz band the following month.

Initial 5G services will be provided over the 3.5GHz band, with the 2.6GHz spectrum being used to boost capacity on the network.

It is worth noting here that Airtel is actually somewhat late to the 5G party in Nigeria. The operator missed out on securing 5G spectrum in the nation’s first 5G auction back in 2021, having been outbid for the two spectrum licences available by the country’s largest mobile operator MTN Nigeria and newcomer Mafab Communications.

Both operators secured 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum for roughly $273.6 million.

MTN subsequently launched commercial 5G services in September last year, doing so on a larger scale than Airtel, covering Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, and Maiduguri, in addition to Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.

Mafab Communications’ 5G launch was somewhat delayed by licencing issues, but the company nonetheless launched its commercial offering in January this year. However, the greenfield mobile operator’s 5G deployment is considerably smaller than its larger rivals, only covering parts of the capital, Abuja, at least for now.

Thus, with three operators all launching 5G services in the capital and beyond, it would seem that the race to deploy 5G across the Nigeria has officially begun. But to what extent the operators will prioritise this rollout remains to be seen.

4G services were only introduced to the country in 2017 and, since then, the operators have focussed heavily on expanding coverage of this older technology. Around 20,000 additional base stations have been deployed over the past three years, allowing 4G coverage to top three-quarters of the country of last year.

Couple this with the fact that very few customers will have 5G capable phones and it is clear that 5G adoption is unlikely to boom in Nigeria for a few years at least.

Nonetheless, Airtel’s 5G launch lays a much-needed foundation for the country’s more connected future and ensures that Africa’s largest economy will remain a technological leader on the continent.

How is the African telecommunications market evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live from Amsterdam

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Customers of UK ISP Virgin Media’s (VMO2) internet service, specifically those that still use their email platform, appear to be experiencing an outage that seems to have started late on Sunday evening. But the majority of people only began to notice it earlier this morning, and the situation is currently ongoing. At the time of […]