Back in 2020, buoyed by an international campaign led by then-President Donald Trump, numerous countries around the began to ban Huawei from their telecoms networks to various degrees, citing national security fears. Countries adopting this hard-line approach include the US, UK, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, most of which have plans to phase out any existing Huawei equipment from their networks over the next decade…

Back in 2020, buoyed by an international campaign led by then-President Donald Trump, numerous countries around the began to ban Huawei from their telecoms networks to various degrees, citing national security fears. Countries adopting this hard-line approach include the US, UK, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, most of which have plans to phase out any existing Huawei equipment from their networks over the next decade. 

Far more countries, however, have decided to take a more indirect route to tackling the issue of untrusted vendors, with most countries rejecting outright bans on companies like Huawei and ZTE in favour of increased regulation.

India too falls into this category. In summer last year, India’s Ministry of Communications gave permission for telcos to begin running 5G trials with a select list of vendors from which Huawei and ZTE were notably absent. This is tied to new procurement rules introduced for the sector last year, which limits the equipment operators may deploy to that approved by a specially appointed National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC). 

Though not quite the infamous US Entity list, which bans all equipment from listed vendors, this measure is nonetheless close to operating as a de facto ban for Chinese equipment suppliers in India. 

India is planning its first 5G auction to take place later this year.

Now, reports suggest that Vodafone Idea is in discussions with Finnish vendor Nokia to replace the company’s existing Huawei 4G RAN equipment.

According to a report from Reuters, the deal will see Nokia deploy 12,000 5G-ready radio sites and 4,000 small cells in Delhi.

Operators in other markets around the world, such as BT in the UK and Orange in Belgium, have conducted similar swaps of Huawei equipment for Nokia’s in recent years. 

The replacement process for Vodafone Idea could reportedly start next month. 

Huawei has continuously denied that it represents a security risk, saying that it is complying with all relevant regulations surrounding telecoms security. In some countries, like Sweden and Estonia, the Chinese vendor has event launched legal challenges against their exclusion from national networks, claiming that they are being discriminated against on the basis of their country of origin. 

Huawei also supplies equipment to Vodafone Idea’s rival Bharti Airtel, alongside Ericsson. Airtel has not yet announced if it will look to swap out Huawei from its own networks.

India’s largest telco, Reliance Jio, does not use Huawei equipment in its networks. 

In related news, Vodafone Idea earlier this year converted all of the debt it owes the Indian government into equity, equating to a roughly 35.8% stake.

Also in the news:

The TWF was established back in 2016 with the stated goal of increasing the value of state-owned assets in its portfolio. By 2020, it had acquired public shares in 22 companies, including airlines, banks, oil and gas, and satellite companies…

The TWF was established back in 2016 with the stated goal of increasing the value of state-owned assets in its portfolio. By 2020, it had acquired public shares in 22 companies, including airlines, banks, oil and gas, and satellite companies. At the end of September 2022, the TWF acquired a 26.2% in Turkish mobile player Turkcell. 

Now, the company is expanding its holdings in the country’s telecoms sector, buying a majority state in formerly state-owned Turk Telekom for roughly $1.65 billion.

« As (Turkey’s Wealth Fund), we believe that we will add extra value to telecommunication sector by contributing in the digitalisation process, while focusing on efforts to further strengthen the technological infrastructure of our country, » said CEO Salim Arda Ermut.

Turk Telekom’s ownership has been in crisis for some time. In 2013, OTAS, a unit of Dubai-based Oger Telecom, had taken a $4.75 billion loan to acquire a 55% stake in the business, but repeatedly defaulted. 

In 2018, , against the backdrop of the Turkish lira crash which left Turk Telekom floundering in billions of dollars of debt, a combination of Turkish and international creditor banks formed a special purpose vehicle to take control of the business. 

This banking consortium has been trying to sell its stake in the business since at least 2019.

As always, the share purchase is subject to regulatory approval. 
 

Back in November, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO, Tim Hoettges notably that the company was interested in finding for an industrial partner with which to potentially deconsolidate the company’s tower infrastructure. Both Vodafone and Orange were speculated to be viable options for some kind of partnership, with the former having spun off its own tower infrastructure unit to form Vantage Towers in 2020 and taken the company public in 2021…

Back in November, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO, Tim Hoettges notably that the company was interested in finding for an industrial partner with which to potentially deconsolidate the company’s tower infrastructure. Both Vodafone and Orange were speculated to be viable options for some kind of partnership, with the former having spun off its own tower infrastructure unit to form Vantage Towers in 2020 and taken the company public in 2021.

By December, the Deutsche Telekom’s willingness to sell a minority or majority stake in its towers had become more overt, with German media reporting that the company was looking to make a sale by Q1 of 2022. At the time, the media valued Deutsche Telekom’s tower assets – roughly 40,600 mobile towers – at up to €20 billion.

Now, a trio of inside sources speaking to Reuters are suggesting the sale process is already underway, with the company expecting indicative offers in the coming weeks. 

According to these sources, both Spanish infrastrucwww.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/exclusive-deutsche-telekom-launches-20-bln-auction-mobile-towers-2022-03-10/ture giant Cellnex and US-based American Tower Corp are both preparing to make offers for the towers. These are some of the largest independent tower operators in the world, with portfolios of roughly 130,000 and 220,000 towers, respectively. 

To say both of these companies have been on a shopping spree in recent years would be an understatement. In 2020, Cellnex agreed to purchase all of CK Hutchison’s European towers for roughly €10 billion; most of these deals have since closed, with the more complicated acquisition process in the UK being given the green light by regulators just last week. 

American Tower, meanwhile, bought Telefonica’s tower unit, Telxius, for $9.4 billion last year, as well acquiring data centre real estate investment trust CoreSite Realty for roughly $10 billion a few months ago.

However, it may not be just these independent tower operators that are interested in some form of tower deal. Vodafone’s Vantage Towers, with roughly 82,000 towers, and Orange’s tower unit Totem, with 26,000 towers, are also viable options for M&A. Both Vodafone and Orange have previously indicated that they would be open to merging their tower units with those of another European player.

Finally, private equity firms can also not be ruled out, having shown a strong appetite for investing in telecoms infrastructure in recent years, viewing towers as a reliable investment that will deliver predictable returns for many years.

If a tower sale does come to pass and overcomes the necessary regulatory hurdles, the funds raised by Deutsche Telekom will primarily go towards reducing the company’s debt pile of over €130 billion, as well as further expanding their 5G and fibre rollouts. 

Over two years ago, India’s government expressed its intent to set the reserve price for 5G airwaves at 4.92 billion rupees ($64.1 million) per megahertz of spectrum in the 3,300MHz to 3,600 MHz bands. 
 
Since then, the Indian operators have repeatedly complained to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that this price was extortionate…

Over two years ago, India’s government expressed its intent to set the reserve price for 5G airwaves at 4.92 billion rupees ($64.1 million) per megahertz of spectrum in the 3,300MHz to 3,600 MHz bands. 

This proposed reduction of the reserve price, combined with the potential development of the Made-In-India 5G sub-standard called 5Gi, would be substantial in combatting the enormous costs associated with rolling out this new network technology. 

While some telcos have expressed concern with the costs of designing 5Gi networks, telcos like Jio have revealed their readiness to switch to 5Gi if vendors can promise lower prices for 5Gi-compatible hardware. 

The spectrum auction, due to take place in September or August, will determine whether India will begin catch up with its 5G competitors in other major Asian markets, such South Korea, Japan, and China. All three of these competitors having launched 5G services years prior, with China noting almost half a billion 5G subscribers in December last year.