New partnership aims to use railway lines to boost 5G in Brazil

A project that could massively expand the available infrastructure for 5G in Brazil has been mooted by two major players in their fields in that country.

Brazilian telecoms company Surf Tech has reportedly signed a partnership with Rumo, a logistics company with a strong focus on railways, to jointly implement a rail-based fibre optic network on the country’s railway lines – to the benefit, it is hoped, of 5G.

The Tele.Síntese telecommunications, internet and ICTs portal says that the initial investment is estimated at R$1.5 billion (about $275.5 million), which will be raised through the issuance of debentures by Surf Tech.

Rumo’s participation appears to involve the assignment of the right to deploy optical fibre along the railway tracks it manages. The project could target as much as 14,000 kilometres of tracks managed by Rumo.

Local newspaper reports suggest that the network, designed to handle traffic of up to one billion Gpbs, could be a million times more powerful than an undersea cable connecting Brazil to the United States, with a transformative effect on the implementation of 5G in Brazil.

In fact more than 500 municipalities that currently host train lines managed by Rumo could benefit. Implemented by Surf Tech, such a project could be a major boost to sectors such as logistics, health and education.

Both parties are understandably upbeat about the prospects for such a project. According to the Executive Consulting Manager of Rumo, Renato Caldo, the partnership is “a milestone for the country’s infrastructure”. However, it’s now a question of when and how it might actually happen.

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Six Tips to Personalize Your Sales Pitch

Personalize your Sales Pitch

Sales presentations are proposals for a product or service and can be either formal or informal. A sales pitch is more relaxed than a presentation template and is often used to make initial contact with potential customers. It should always have three things:

  1. A clear introduction of who you are
  2. What you’re offering
  3. The benefits of your offer

This blog post is about personalizing your sales pitch. A good sales pitch appeals to the needs and desires of the person on the other side of the table. But how do you tailor your pitch when you do not know who your audience is? 

Keep reading to learn six tips on personalizing your next sales pitch.

1. Do Your Homework

Leads and customers will respect the fact you took the time to research them and their company. You do not need to go to the extent of internet stalking to know where their last family vacation was. But you should be familiar with the company, their key priorities, and where they have offices. Doing your research will show how invested you are in taking this connection seriously.

2. Use Their Name

Thanks to your research, you should have all the information you need about the contact. Whether writing an email or making a phone call, you should always state the lead’s name, title, and company. 

A good backup plan is to research additional persons in the company with a similar role or title. In case the lead you are trying to contact is unavailable, you can quickly ask to speak with someone else. 

3. Say Your Name

While you’re at it, make sure you say your name! Stating your name more than once will ensure the person you speak to will remember it. Start the conversation with your name, title, and company. If it comes up naturally throughout the conversation, drop your name again. If not, wait until the end to remind them. It is best practice to share credentials often to establish credibility and add a personal connection.

4. Have a Solution to Their Problem

By researching your customer, you should be aware of one of the biggest problems they are facing. Perhaps their current provider has unreachable sales quotas, or their solution does not offer the latest unified communications features. Not all problems are surface-level, and your lead may not even know them. 

For example, in your research, you may have found your lead currently does not offer SMS. You now have an opportunity to showcase the benefits of adding this additional feature to their existing offering. 

Everyone has the ‘best’ solutions, but your customer wants to hear how your solutions can help them. If you can not provide the results, do not waste your time by contacting them.

5. Match Their Behavior

If you connect with a direct and results-driven person, match their attitude by showing them stats and getting to the point. But, if the lead is friendly and chatty, don’t be afraid to open up and give them the floor to speak. 

No person is the same; therefore, no sales pitch will be the same. Adjust your strategies accordingly and treat the exchange as a conversation rather than you reading directly off a script.

6. Make them Feel Important

As we draw our post close, the most essential tip is ensuring your lead feels important. Let the person know how you found their company and discuss their recently published blog post. Or tell the individual that your marketing department identified their company as a good fit for a partnership.

When you make your lead feel important, you can gauge their timeline and assist them in deciding if they want to proceed with the next steps. 

Do you want to hear our sales pitch? Contact our sales team today!

Last minute Brookfield bid wins DT’s towers

Today, Deutsche Telekom has announced that it has agreed to sell a majority stake in its tower unit to Brookfield and DigitalBridge, after the pair submitted a late bid of €17.5 billion.
 
The duo will subsequently own 51% of the tower unit, with Deutsche Telekom retaining the remaining 49%.
  « We crystalise the value of our tower assets…

Today, Deutsche Telekom has announced that it has agreed to sell a majority stake in its tower unit to Brookfield and DigitalBridge, after the pair submitted a late bid of €17.5 billion.

The duo will subsequently own 51% of the tower unit, with Deutsche Telekom retaining the remaining 49%.

« We crystalise the value of our tower assets, thereby creating value for our shareholders, » said Deutsche Telekom CEO, Timotheus Höttge, noting that this could open the door for further consolidation of the European tower market.

The unit has roughly 40,600 sites across Germany and Austria, supported by roughly 800 staff.

Deutsche Telekom first began the process of selling a stake in Deutsche Funkturm back in March, initially drawing much interest not only from private equity but from a rival tower companies like Vodafone’s Vantage Towers and Orange’s TOTEM.

In fact, Brookfield itself had initially partnered with Spanish towers giant Cellnex for a bid, but this offer was withdrawn on Wednesday for undisclosed reasons.

At the time, it appeared to onlookers that the withdrawal by Cellnex left just one suitor in contention for the tower unit: a KKR-led consortium backed by fellow private equity firms Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Stonepeak.

However, reports late last night revealed Brookfield’s new bid alongside DigitalBridge, seemingly sweeping the rug from underneath KKR and co at the last moment. 

According to Deutsche Telekom, the deal will allow them to reduce their debt pile of roughly €136 billion by around €10.7 billion, as well as helping them fund the further rollout of 5G and fibre in various markets. 

In addition, the money will also be used to fund the purchase of further shares in T-Mobile US, with Deutsche Telekom inching ever closer to a controlling stake in the business over the past few years.

Telekom currently owns a 48.4% in the US giant, having paid $2.4 billion to SoftBank Group back in April to increase their stake by 1.7%. 

Naturally, the deal with Brookfield and DigitalBridge deal is subject to all the typical regulatory approvals, with an anticipated closing date yet to be announced. 
 

How will this sale affect the German mobile market? Find out from the operators themselves at this year’s live Connected Germany event 

Also in the news:

Oppo raided in India for customs duty avoidance

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Cellnex drops bid for Deutsche Telekom towers

This week, Cellnex has announced that it will no longer bid for a stake in Deutsche Funkturm, leaving KKR the last remaining suitor for the German towers unit, valued at around €18 billion.
Deutsche Telekom first began hinting at its desire to sell off a stake in its tower unit late last year, aiming to follow in the footstep of numerous mobile operators worldwide, including European rivals Vodafone and Orange…

This week, Cellnex has announced that it will no longer bid for a stake in Deutsche Funkturm, leaving KKR the last remaining suitor for the German towers unit, valued at around €18 billion.

Deutsche Telekom first began hinting at its desire to sell off a stake in its tower unit late last year, aiming to follow in the footstep of numerous mobile operators worldwide, including European rivals Vodafone and Orange, that had sold off their towers in exchange for much needed quick cash.

By March, the stake sale process was already underway, drawing considerable interest from the likes of Cellnex, American Tower Corporation, and Vodafone’s Vantage Towers. The latter, however, quickly ruled itself out of the running due to anticipated regulatory hurdles, with such a merger potentially creating an enormously dominant market leader within Germany. 

Cellnex, on the other hand, presented a much more natural partner. The infrastructure specialist already owns and operates roughly 137,000 tower sites in various European markets, including the UK, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Austria; in fact, in Switzerland and the Netherlands, Cellnex already owns tower businesses in direct partnership with Deutsche Telekom. 

Germany, however, has remained notably out of reach for the Spanish giant. 

By the end of June, however, reports were suggesting that another highly appealing bid had been tabled by a rival consortium, led by US private equity firm KKR. According to sources, the bid would allow Deutsch Telekom to retain control of the towers unit, though gives KKR some corporate governance control.

KKR has been on a major acquisition spree over the last year when it comes to telecoms infrastructure, which investors increasingly view as being a reliable long-term investment. The company notably presented Telecom Italia with a roughly €10 billion takeover offer late last year, which has since fallen through

Seemingly in response to this bid by the KKR consortium, Cellnex made its own binding offer for the coveted towers, giving Deutsche Telekom the opportunity to take a stake of less than 10% in Cellnex itself in an effort to sweeten the deal.  

It seems, however, that this was not enough to entice Deutsche Telekom, with Cellnex this week withdrawing its offer, leaving only the bid from KKR remaining, according to sources. 

No official decision from Deutsche Telekom has yet been announced. 

If a deal does materialise for the German operator, the funds raised will likely be used to reduce its debt pile of around €136 billion, as well as to help fund the further rollout of its fibre and 5G networks.

EDIT: Bloomberg is reporting that Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has teamed up with DigitalBridge Group for a last minute bid for the tower company. Brookfield had been previously in discussions with Cellnex for a joint bid.

How would the sale of Deutsche Funkturm impact the dynamics of the German mobile market? Find out from the operators at this year’s live Connected Germany event

Also in the news:

Paratus announces major plans for Angola

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
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