The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) has today announced that they’ve launched a free public WiFi network across the Peterborough city centre streets and open spaces to support local businesses, keep residents connected and allow shoppers and visitors to make the most of the area. The local Connecting Cambridgeshire project has been working to […]

INTERVIEW

David Tudehope, Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Telecom chatted with Angel Dobardziev, Senior Consulting Director at IDC during this years Total Telecom Congress in London.

Macquarie Telecom position themselves as #SoUnTelco which Angel explored as he asked about:

how you take your NPS from +14 to +72
what Macquarie’s innovation focus and customer experience obsession means in reality
and why hyperscalers don’t like telco’s

He also learnt the importance of Noah’s Ark to the businesses development.

Total Telecom Congress coincided with the 2022 World Communication Awards where telecoms leading companies and individuals were recognised. View all the winners here

The post We zig when others zag… first appeared on Total Telecom.

Contract-free UK mobile operator VOXI, a sub-brand of Vodafone, will today introduce a new ‘Unlimited Music Pass‘ add-on for their various Pay Monthly packages, which when taken will give customers access to stream content from Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, Deezer, Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and Napster. The new music add-on, which is available to […]

A new survey of 2,009 UK people eligible for fixed broadband social tariffs by ISPs (i.e. cheaper packages for those on benefits), which was conducted by consumer magazine Which?, has revealed that 39% of those eligible and aware of such tariffs do not intend to signup due to concerns over slow speeds, existing contracts and […]

Press Release

Nokia today introduced its pioneering Core SaaS for 5G to provide communication service providers (CSPs) and enterprises the option of running the heart of their network through a highly flexible, fully automated, scalable software model that enables greater business agility and faster time to value for delivering and monetizing network services.

Nokia Core SaaS allows operators and enterprises to move away from the legacy practice of deploying customized software that runs on private infrastructure; and to consume Nokia’s Core software, including 5G Packet Core, on demand through a more cost-effective subscription service that eliminates large up front capital expenditure and avoids the need to perform on-site software maintenance and updates.

Nokia Core SaaS begins with 5G Core services; trials are expected to commence shortly, and commercial availability is expected in the first half of 2023.

Nokia Core SaaS is the first complete 5G core solution to market with all core cloud-native network functions available through a SaaS delivery model.

Nokia is leading the 5G Standalone Core market, with over 70 CSP customers around the world. In addition, 25 of the top 40 CSPs by revenue rely on Nokia Core network products.

Roberto Kompany, Principal Analyst, Service Provider Networks at Omdia, said: “As telecom SaaS goes more mainstream, we are seeing more solutions offered in the marketplace that provide operators with much needed options for getting the most out of the network. Nokia’s launch of its Core SaaS offering through a subscription model today is a new dimension to telecom SaaS and I would expect to see more of this into 2023, as the marketplace more closely examines the potential benefits of going down this path.”

Fran Heeran, SVP & General Manager of Core Networks, Cloud and Network Services, at Nokia, said: “Nokia Core SaaS changes the way core networks are built, deployed and run, with important customer benefits that include Network on demand, speed to market, and easy and fast scaling, in an affordable way. Nokia Core SaaS is not the core network we’ve known for decades, but something entirely different. And this reflects the technology leadership Nokia continues to deliver to the market.”

The post Nokia launches Core SaaS for 5G first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

The Norwegian operator group is set to go ahead with the sale of its Pakistani unit, having been struggling under the weight of intense competition and rising energy costs

According to reports today, Telenor has begun working with Citigroup to find potential buyers for its Pakistani unit, which sources suggest could be worth $1 billion.

These same sources explained that the first round of bidding is being invited to take place later this month, with discussions already underway with unspecified companies in both the Middle East and Asia.

The future of Telenor Pakistan has been up for debate for a number of years. With four national mobile operators, Pakistan’s mobile market is highly competitive, offering the operators little prospect for revenue growth. Indeed, despite Telenor Pakistan’s subscriber base growing by 6% year-on-year by the end of 2021, average revenue per user (ARPU) fell around 10% in the same period.

As such, rumours have been circling for years about potential consolidation in the market, including a tie-up between Telenor with the country’s smallest operator Ufone and, more recently, with incumbent operator PTCL. To date, however, none of these deals have materialised.

But while Telenor appears to have been happy to wait for the perfect merger opportunity to arise in recent years, the changing economic climate may now have forced their hand.

Back in July, Norwegian telecoms group Telenor announced that they would conduct a strategic review of their Pakistan unit, having posted a $244 million impairment to the business, largely due to the rapidly increasing energy prices in the region. One quarter later and the prognosis for the business had not improved, with Telenor Pakistan recording a 22% decline in earnings year-on-year for Q3 back in October.

A brief ray of sunshine was felt two weeks ago, when the company benefited from a legal reversal related to SIM tax within the country, gaining the unit roughly $57.79 for the quarter, but this is little panacea for the company’s long-term future.

Telenor has been reconsidering its future in all its Asian markets in recent months, recently forming Telenor Asia to centralise the management of its operations in the region, which include businesses is Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand.

Telenor is currently involved in large-scale mergers in both Malaysia (DiGi with Celcom) and Thailand (DTAC with True Corp), and recently exited Myanmar as a result of inhospitable conditions imposed by the new military junta.

Also in the news:
Remaining competitive in an evolving telco landscape
Wi-Fly: Could AFC improve rural connectivity?
BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post Telenor invites bids for $1 billion Pakistan unit first appeared on Total Telecom.

News

The deal will create a new joint venture to control the towerco, helping Vodafone to reduce its debt without relinquishing control of its strategic tower assets

This week, Vodafone has announced that it will sell up to half of its 81.7% stake in towerco Vantage Towers to a consortium led by private equity firms KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), and reportedly bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The deal, which values Vantage Towers at roughly €16 billion, will see the creation of a new joint venture, dubbed Oak BidCo, which will take majority control of the mobile mast business.

Once the stake transfer is complete, Oak BidCo will also make a voluntary public takeover offer for Vantage’s remaining 18% stake, with minority shareholders offered a price of €32 per share.

Proceeds from the deal will allow Vodafone to reduce its debt by between €3.2 billion and €7.1 billion, depending on the size of the stake ultimately sold.

“We are excited to partner with GIP and KKR, both world-class investors who bring significant expertise in digital infrastructure and share our long-term vision for Vantage Towers,” said Vodafone CEO Nick Read, describing the deal as a ‘landmark moment’.

“[The deal] delivers on Vodafone’s stated aims of retaining co-control over a strategically important asset [and] deconsolidating Vantage Towers from our balance sheet.”

Spun off by Vodafone back in 2020, Vantage Towers is one of the largest towercos in Europe, now operating roughly 83,000 towers across ten European markets. Last year, Vodafone floated the unit on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, raising €2.58 billion and leaving the UK-based operator group with an 82% stake in the business.

Since then, with Vodafone under pressure from shareholders to streamline its portfolio and further reduce its £36 billion debt pile, the media has been awash with rumours over potential buyers for a stake of Vantage Towers.

Indeed, rival infrastructure giants, such as Cellnex, American Tower, and Orange’s TOTEM, had all been linked with potential purchase, though Vodafone’s decision in opting private equity partners instead should come as little surprise, both helping to ease regulatory and ownership structure concerns.

This approach mirrors that of Deutsche Telekom regarding its own tower unit, Deutsche Funkturm, earlier this year, with the operator choosing to partner with Brookfield Asset Management and Digital Bridge over the perceived favourite suitor, Cellnex.

Investor interest in mobile tower infrastructure has flourished in recent years, with equity firms viewing the infrastructure as a reliable long-term investment with predictable growth. In fact, for Saudi Arabia’s PIF, this year has seen numerous tower deals already; just last month the PIF reportedly agreed to purchase a 51% stake in Tawal, the tower unit of Saudi operator STC, building on the roughly 8,000 towers it purchased from Zain Saudi Arabia earlier in the year.

How is the steady consolidation of the mobile tower market in Europe impacting the German telecoms industry? Find out from the operators at this year’s live Connected Germany conference in December

Also in the news:
The missing 3.2 billion…
New EXA investment serves customers across the Iberian peninsula
Startup stories: Facing up to cybersecurity risks

The post “A landmark moment” for Vodafone as private equity consortium buys stake in Vantage Towers first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (VMO2) has today confirmed that their new ‘Essential Broadband Plus‘ social tariff is now live for those taking ‘Universal Credit‘, which complements their existing 15Mbps (£12.50 a month) ‘Essential’ plan by offering download speeds of 50Mbps for £20 per month on a 30-day term. The new plan, which was announced […]

Ofcom has today published a refreshed strategy for managing radio spectrum used by the space sector, which among other things will make more spectrum frequency in the 14.25 – 14.5GHz “Ku band” available to satellite broadband operators (capacity boost) and approve new earth stations for use by Starlink and Telesat. Until recently, most broadband internet […]

Contributed Article

By SS&C Blue Prism

Communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide have been using robotic process automation (RPA) for many years to automate repetitive, low value tasks. RPA frees up employees to focus on what they do best: helping customers and being innovative. Fast forward to today and operators are building on RPA with artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver intelligent automation (IA), which has become a strategic tool to help them reimagine their businesses.

Take the case of VMO2 and how they are using IA technology to elevate and transform their business. Every telecom company is transforming, and every transformation is challenging. But, bringing two huge UK CSPs together, with a “mid-air” merger, creating VMO2 and the resulting transformation challenge is unprecedented.

But VMO2 is succeeding. They are using intelligent automation as a platform, through which they are building their transformation at scale and at light speed. The breadth and scope of their program is significant: the customer experience, the B2B business, networks, HR, finance, and revenue assurance, plus a focus on innovation and new income streams. All this needs to deliver ROI within a year.

Challenge accepted.

Operators such as VMO2 are using IA technology to drive new customer experiences and, in parallel, automate back-office processes. Other operators are using IA to deploy and better manage 4G and 5G networks, while many more are selling it as a service to their enterprise customers. Importantly, CSPs can use IA in conjunction with a long-term strategy of adopting open application programming interfaces (APIs) and an open digital architecture, allowing them to evolve from TELCOS to TECHCOS, just as VMO2.

Telcos must become techcos if they want to find new revenue beyond connectivity. Most are working toward this goal by virtualising their networks and making them software defined and autonomous. At the same time, organizations such as VMO2 are embracing open digital architectures and cloud-native IT operations. But for some, this transition will take years, and operators are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate clear progress now.

This paves the way for Intelligent automation, which has already proven itself as way of reducing operating costs, improving the experiences of customers and employees, and preparing for the monetisation of 5G.

Organisations such as VMO2 are embracing this challenge and are meeting it head-on. It is an important stepping stone on the evolutionary path to becoming a techco.

Want to learn more about how VMO2 are executing at pace and scaling their operations using Intelligent Automation powered by Blue Prism? Please visit www.blueprism.com to find out more.

About SS&C Blue Prism
S&C Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done. At SS&C Blue Prism, we have users in over 170 countries and more than 2,000 businesses, including Fortune 500 and public sector organizations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our intelligent digital workforce is smart, secure, scalable, and accessible to all; freeing up humans to reimagine work.

The post How intelligent automation is kickstarting telco transformation first appeared on Total Telecom.