ZTE’s CEO Xu Ziyang awarded the Outstanding Contribution to the Asia Mobile Industry Award

ZTE announced that its CEO Xu Ziyang was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to the Asia Mobile Industry Award at the GSMA’s Asia Mobile Awards (The AMOs) 2022 in Hong Kong on July 29th.

The award recognizes Mr. Xu Ziyang’s outstanding leadership in leading ZTE to continuously promote industrial innovation, increase cross-industry cooperation and boost the development of the global mobile industry.

Mobile communication technology has become the key driving force in the booming digital economy for enriching people’s lives, accelerating the digital transformation of industries, and promoting economic growth. To cope with the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic with innovative ICT technologies and facilitate the digitalization and low carbonization of the industry for healthy development of the economy, ZTE has carried out in-depth cooperation in digital infrastructure construction, digital industry development and more with its global partners. To date, ZTE has entered into cooperation with more than 110 operators worldwide on 5G, while working with over 500 partners to jointly explore more than 100 innovative 5G application scenarios in 15 industries.

Moving forward, with a focus on the construction of ICT infrastructure, ZTE will keep working with the whole industry to expand the application scenarios of digitalization to build a green digital and intelligent world, and contribute to the sustainable development of the global mobile communications industry and society.

The GSMA’s Asia Mobile Awards are the Asia Region’s leading stage for excellence, innovation & achievement. As the highest honour in the Asia Mobile Awards, the Outstanding Contribution to the Asia Mobile Industry Award recognizes sustained or extraordinary contributions by individuals, organizations or collaborative achievements that advance the value and benefits of mobile communications for people, business and societies in Asia.

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India’s 5G spectrum auction draws to a close; 5G testing continues

Day four of the Indian 5G spectrum auction is drawing to a close, and we hope to have a clearer idea of the winners and losers by early next week. But in the meantime 5G testing is continuing, with Vodafone Idea (aka Vi) now involved in a pilot project run by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Vodafone Idea has been selected by TRAI to conduct a trial on the use of street furniture for small cells and aerial fibre deployment.

The idea is to look at how to make infrastructure more accessible for the quick rollout of 5G networks. Small cells – low-powered, compact, easy-to-deploy radio access nodes with a coverage range from a few metres up to a few hundred metres – will play a major role in this.

Hence street furniture – such as electric poles, bus stands and traffic lights – is being used for testing 5G small cells, in this case at Namma Metro Bengaluru, a rapid transit system serving the city of Bengaluru (or Bangalore), the capital and largest city of the state of Karnataka.

India’s Economic Times says that the Bengalaru trial is targeting 5G coverage at road level, in the concourse area, on the platform and on tracks. The learnings of this project and others like it will, in turn, be used for 5G deployment in other metro rail systems in the country.

As for the spectrum sale, a continuing battle for 1800MHz spectrum in the key Uttar Pradesh (East) market between the three big operators has unexpectedly pushed the auctions into a fourth day. The would-be buyers are battling it out for influence in an area with the highest number of mobile users in India – at 101.54 million, almost 10% of India’s total wireless subscriber base.

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SpaceX to launch Starlink in the Philippines

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BT and Openreach workers begin national strike

Today sees the start of a two-day strike by BT and Openreach workers, with over 260 picket lines being set up across the UK, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The conflict has arisen as a result of a companywide flat rate pay rise of £1,500 announced back in April. BT says this is the largest frontline worker pay rise it has given out in 20 years, but the unions say that this is a ‘pay cut in real terms&’…

Today sees the start of a two-day strike by BT and Openreach workers, with over 260 picket lines being set up across the UK, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The conflict has arisen as a result of a companywide flat rate pay rise of £1,500 announced back in April. BT says this is the largest frontline worker pay rise it has given out in 20 years, but the unions say that this is a ‘pay cut in real terms’, given that inflation is nearing 10% in the UK.

At a time when the cost-of-living crisis is hitting everyone across the country, BT has also been accused of setting up a ‘food bank’ for staff at one of its EE call centres in Tyneside, with critics suggesting this was normalising in-work poverty. 

The operator argues that its “CommunitEE pantry” is not a food bank, but rather a voluntary initiative where staff can take and leave food, saying staff might use it on days when they “don’t have time to visit the supermarket”.

This was also announced against the backdrop of a largely successful year for BT, which last year saw profits of £1.3 billion. Roughly $700 million was paid out to shareholders in 2021 and CEO Philip Jansen received a pay rise of 32% to £3.5 million. 

« This dispute sits squarely at the feet of Philip Jansen (BT’s chief executive). He represents everything that needs to change about big business in Britain,” said the CWU’s general secretary, Dave Ward. « Our members kept the country connected during the pandemic. They deserve a proper pay rise, and that’s what they’re going to get. »

BT, however, says that its exhaustive negotiations with the unions have failed and that it is not prepared to offer a pay increase to workers.

When asked by the Financial Times if he would consider increasing staff salary further, Jansen reportedly answered “why would I do that?”, telling the newspaper “it’s history”.

« We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could,” said BT in an official statement. 

« We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.

« While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected.”

Unlike rail and postal strikes, striking telecoms workers will not mean an immediate shut down of services for customers. BT says it has implemented “tried and tested processes” to manage any disruption that the strikes may cause to its operations.

Nonetheless, the walkout of around 28,000 engineers and 9,000 call centre workers today and on Monday next week is sure to cause some disruption, the true extent of which has yet to become clear. 

Will industrial action have a major impact on BT’s ability to meet national rollout goals? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:

Cellnex to focus on organic growth – but future M&A not ruled out

The company announced that it plans to spend €6.5 billion by 2030 to deploy 22,000 new sites across its 12 European markets, indicating a shift away from M&A activity following the recent failed attempt to acquire Deutsche Telekom&’…

The company announced that it plans to spend €6.5 billion by 2030 to deploy 22,000 new sites across its 12 European markets, indicating a shift away from M&A activity following the recent failed attempt to acquire Deutsche Telekom’s towers portfolio in Germany and Austria, which was eventually purchased by investors DigitalBridge and Brookfield two weeks ago.

Cellnex had previously acquired sites across Europe at a rapid pace, including a €10bn deal to acquire CK Hutchinson’s European portfolio back in 2020. However, Cellnex are now pivoting to focus on consolidation and organic growth, with CEO Tobias Martinez indicating that the focus for the short term will be on potentially bolting on projects and smaller scale acquisitions, though he didn’t rule out a return to large-scale M&A if the opportunities were there.

While Cellnex lost out on DT’s tower portfolio, the company are in a strong position overall, posting revenues of €1.69bn in the first half of 2022, a 59% increase on the same period last year. While costs have also increased, this is expected given the growth of its portfolio across Europe. As the operator described, “the key financial indicators continue to reflect Cellnex’s expanded geographic footprint – after integrating the sites acquired in 2021 – and the strength of the Group’s organic business.”

As always with Europe’s passive infrastructure market – watch this space.

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Also in the news:

Liberty Global, Telefonica, and InfraVia set up UK fibre JV

Another national fibre network player is set to hit the UK market, with Liberty Global and Telefonica teaming up with InfraVia Capital Partners to create and operate a wholesale FTTH JV. The JV will be owned 50% by Liberty and Telefonica via a holding company…

Another national fibre network player is set to hit the UK market, with Liberty Global and Telefonica teaming up with InfraVia Capital Partners to create and operate a wholesale FTTH JV.

The JV will be owned 50% by Liberty and Telefonica via a holding company, with the remaining 50% held by French investment firm InfraVia.  

The partners will invest roughly £4.5 billion in rolling out fibre, with the JV will initially target 5 million homes, none of which will overlap with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2)’s existing fibre footprint. A further 2 million homes could be added at a later stage.

Virgin Media O2 itself is currently working to upgrade its own national footprint of 16 million homes to FTTH, hence the two combined networks aim to cover 23 million premises with fibre.

“This JV will take our aggregate FTTH footprint to up to 23 million homes, reaching around 80% of the UK. VMO2 will bring significant build expertise, and will benefit from a meaningful off-net growth opportunity and as the anchor client will support attractive returns for the JV – a winning combination,” explained Mike Fries, CEO and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global. “Finally, we are very excited to be working with InfraVia who we already partner with in Germany, and welcome the expertise they bring to the JV.”

VMO2 will be the anchor client of the new network.

The deal is expected to close in Q4 this year, pending regulatory approval.  

The creation of this new JV will be a headache for BT, which is today in the news as a result of nationwide strikes by the Communications Workers Union.

Much like VMO2, BT is currently in the process of increase its fibre rollout, targeting 25 million homes by the end of 2026.


How will this new JV shake up the UK’s connectivity industry? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

Also in the news:

Ooredoo posts strong profits

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