From around the world this morning and late last week: a couple of interesting executive moves over in Europe, a rebranding, a new data center campus, and a network upgrade project. … [visit site to read more]
19
Déc, 2022
19
Déc, 2022
Twelve carriers selected for second section of Brazil’s Amazon fibre project
The Brazilian government has qualified 12 companies to operate the second section of Norte Conectado, an Amazon River fibre backbone project, as a consortium.
The 12 companies selected were Telefônica, TIM, Claro, Aquamar, ClickIP/ICOM Telecom, SEA Telecom, BR Fibra, Mobwire/DB3, Ozônio Telecom, PPLINK, VOCE Telecom and V.tal. These companies will be able to operate, maintain and commercially use the optical backbone section for a 15-year period, which can be renewed.
According to news service BNamericas, the project, known as Infovia 01, will involve the installation of about 1,100 kilometres of a sub-fluvial fibre cable that will connect the city of Santarém, in the state of Pará, and Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, through fibre laid along the Amazon River. There will also be a number of branches to other towns.
This initiative is part of the second section of the eight that make up the Norte Conectado programme, which seeks to expand the communications infrastructure in the Amazon region of Brazil through an underwater fibre trunk network. This network is said to have a low environmental impact as it uses river beds to reach the population and does not require deforestation.
Infovia 01 adds to the 770km first section, Infovia 00, plans for which we reported in January. Six companies have signed up to form the consortium to use and operate the first section.
Infovia 01 is being deployed and should be completely rolled out by the end of January, according to the government. The infrastructure should be available for use by March.
BNamericas reports that Chinese fibre optics manufacturer Hengtong will be the cable supplier for Infovia 01.
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Resilience in the face of war: Kyivstar talks challenges and collaboration
Interview
We were privileged to speak to Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov about the enormous upheaval caused to the telecoms industry in Ukraine following the Russian invasion and the incredible work he and his team are doing to keep people connected
It will soon be a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, plunging the nation into chaos and beginning a humanitarian crisis that continues to this day.
In the face of a myriad of new challenges, the Ukrainian telecoms operators have done an amazing job at keeping their infrastructure operational, working together with each other, the government, and international organisations to provide support for citizens at home and abroad.
In the interview below, Oleksandr Komarov, CEO of Kyivstar, shares the company’s journey over the past year, from the challenge of keeping nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees connected to their loved ones, to maintaining an operational network as Russia continues to shell critical infrastructure this winter.
You can view the full interview from the link below.
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Earlier this year, Kyivstar won the coveted Crisis Response Award at the World Communication Awards for the brilliant work they are doing to keep people connected during, both at home in Ukraine and for refugees abroad. Learn more about the World Communication Awards here.
16
Déc, 2022
Oi Brasil ends recovery process – but still has a long way to go
The judicial process involving the recovery plan of Brazilian service provider Oi seems to be over – after more than six years of negotiations with creditors.
Judge Fernando Viana of the 7th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro has now decreed that all obligations assumed by the company have been fulfilled. His decision noted that the judicial recovery plan was the largest in the country’s history and one of the most complex cases in the contemporary legal world.
Brazilian press reports say that as a result of the merger between Oi and Brasil Telecom, Oi filed for judicial recovery in the Rio de Janeiro Court in June 2016. At the time, the company owed BRL 65.4 billion (about US$12.3 billion but possibly closer to US$19 billion at today’s rates) and renegotiations with creditors to restructure the debts had failed. It was the largest bankruptcy request in the country’s history. The gross debt is now about a third of that amount.
In December 2017, creditors approved the judicial recovery plan, which reduced liabilities by 40% through the conversion of debts into equity interest in the company. The sale of Oi’s assets – mobile operations, a submarine cable company, a fibre optic company and around 8,000 fixed telephone towers – followed a few years later. There was also a debt reduction agreement with the Attorney General’s Office.
But the story isn’t quite over yet. The company still has around 22 billion reais (US$4.2 billion) of debts, and Oi, with limited cash-generating assets, will probably be loss-making for a while yet.
In addition unpaid creditors will still be able to continue to make claims. Oi faced claims from some 65,000 creditors, and not all cases have been settled to date. However, according to TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the judge noted that “it is not the objective of the judicial recovery process to check whether the debtor will fulfil all the obligations contracted in the plan”.
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16
Déc, 2022
Vodafone Hungary taps Netcracker for cloud upgrade
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Zayo Details A Few Upgrades and Expansions
As 2022 comes to a close, Zayo released some details on where it has been investing in its network. The list gives us a sense of not just 2022, but where the company is headed as we move into 2023. … [visit site to read more]
BT seeks £100m in savings by merging Global and Enterprise units
News
The UK incumbent operator said that the merger to create a single B2B unit called BT Business would deliver various synergies and scaling opportunities
This week, BT has announced that it will consolidate its Enterprise and Global business units into a single unit, BT Business.
The move comes as the latest step in a wider rebrand for BT, first announced back in April, which centres around EE becoming the primary company brand for consumers, and BT for business customers.
BT says the consolidation of the two units will not only simplify their operations, but will generate at least £100 million in savings through 2025 through economies of scale and various synergies.
Combined, BT Global and BT Enterprise currently generate revenues of around £8.5 billion a year, with an EBITDA of £2 billion.
“By combining the two units, BT Business will bring the Group’s combined assets, products, capabilities and brand to the service of all of our 1.2m business customers who will benefit from faster innovation and delivery. Bas is an excellent leader and I’m confident he will build on the plans already underway and drive the combined business back to growth,” explained BT CEO Philip Jansen.
The new unit will be led by Bas Burger, current CEO of BT’s Global unit.
Meanwhile, Rob Shuter, the existing CEO of BT Enterprise, will be leaving the company in the coming months after helping oversee the integration process.
BT Business will officially begin reporting as a single unit from April next year.
Want to learn all of the latest news and strategy from the UK telecoms industry? Join the ecosystem in discussion around some of the sector’s largest challenges at the upcoming Connected North conference
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16
Déc, 2022
Enabling a ‘Dynamic Inventory’ to visualize your 5G network
This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Kailem Anderson – Vice President of Portfolio and Engineering for Blue Planet, a division of Ciena
Network engineers and architects commonly used diagrams to visualize their network architecture. However, with the advent of disaggregated networks, 5G, and edge computing, which are designed to deliver dynamic services comprised of virtualized resources that can be placed anywhere in the network, generating an accurate picture of the ever-changing network has become more challenging than ever. … [visit site to read more]
Italian govt pushing TIM to place Sparkle under Rome’s control
News
Sources suggest Italy’s new government wants control of TIM’s wholesale submarine cable network business, considering it a strategic national asset
Back in October, Giorgia Meloni took over as Italian Prime Minister, a move that had major implications for beleaguered incumbent operator TIM.
For over two years now, the Italian government has been pressuring the operator to merge its fixed network assets with those of its rival Open Fiber, aiming to create a single national network.
All of this was taking place against a backdrop of TIM’s relatively poor performance in a competitive market, resulting in a change of leadership at the start of the year.
The Meloni administration, however, has been far more forthright in their support of a single network plan, so long as the government, via investor state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), could secure control
Today, according to a report from Reuters, the government is in fact considering going one step further, with sources suggesting that the government is now seeking control of TIM’s submarine cable unit, Sparkle.
Sparkle owns and operates various submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic, its networks spanning over half a million kilometres.
According to the report, the government is seeking control of Sparkle due to the sensitivity of data it carries over these networks, with the networks being considered a major strategic asset for the nation.
In total, Sparkle could be worth around €1 billion.
It is worth noting that the submarine cable unit is not the only one of TIM’s assets that could be on the chopping block.
Earlier this week, TIM CEO Pietro Labriola said at an industry conference that the company “cannot solve Telecom Italia’s debt issue organically”, saying that they needed to “sell assets”. At the same time, the government announced that it had initiated talks with TIM’s largest investors, CDP and Vivendi, to explore “market-friendly options” for the operator.
How would the sale of Sparkle to the Italian government reshape submarine cable network dynamics in the Mediterranean? Join the experts in discussion at the upcoming Submarine Networks EMEA conference early next year
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“Indispensable”: Spain again calls for Big Tech to share network costs
News
Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calviño is once again calling for European regulators to introduce legislation forcing major tech firms to help subsidise network
The ‘fair share’ debate continues to rage on across Europe, with this week seemingly the Spanish government’s turn to speak on the controversial topic.
At a meeting with the Secretary General of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Mathias Corman yesterday, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calviño said that having tech giants subsidise telco networks would be “indispensable”.
“If we want to continue making the necessary investments in technological infrastructure, we need everyone who uses and benefits from them to contribute to financing that investment,” said Calviño, who is also Spain’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation; i.e., head of the nation’s telecommunications policymaking.
The debate as to whether major tech companies, like Amazon and Google, should help pay for telecoms networks has been around for many years, with network operators complaining that these players were growing rich off the back of the telcos’ network infrastructure investments.
But while this may be true to a certain degree, regulators have been reluctant to force these companies to help subsidise network costs. The tech companies argue that the network operators are already being paid for the use of their networks by subscribers, and to implement some form of targeted tax would be to see the operators paid twice for the same service.
Earlier this year, however, a report from the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) helped to reignite the debate, showing that top six tech companies generated over 55% of all telecom networks’ traffic globally.
Since then, the European Commission has said it will investigate the concept of a ‘fair share’ tax, launching an official consultation back in September.
As such, the recent comments from Calviño should come as little surprise. Alongside France and Italy, Spain has been one of the biggest European advocates for introducing some form of tax, with the trio making their position known via a joint paper back in August.
Other European nations, however, are far less enthusiastic about such a tax, noting its unclear long-term implications, particularly for European net neutrality, as well as difficulties in implementation.
Back in July, seven countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, sent a letter to the European Commission urging caution.
It is also worth noting that, while the majority of this debate seems to be taking place in the European theatre, similar discussions are taking place all over the world. In India, for example, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has recently called on big tech companies to pay a “usage charge” for the telecoms infrastructure they benefit from.
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