22
Mar, 2023

ICC finds Korek liable to pay damages to Iraq Telecom

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Unions agree early retirement plan for 2,000 TIM staff


News

The Italian operator has reportedly reached an agreement with unions that 2,000 staff will take voluntary early retirement as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures

At the start of last year, Italian incumbent operator TIM announced that the company would seek to save €1 billion by 2024 through various cost-saving measures, including cutting jobs.

At the time, reports suggested that the operator was looking to reduce its domestic workforce of roughly 42,500 staff by up to 20% by 2030.

By the summer, the first outlines of the job cutting process were becoming clear, with the operator reaching an agreement with unions to cut 1,200 jobs by the end of 2022 via a voluntary retirement scheme.

However, this was quickly revealed to be just the first round of cuts, with TIM soon back at the negotiating table with unions to cut a further 2,200 jobs by the end of 2024.

This week, nearly half a year on, an agreement has finally been reached, with unions agreeing to a new voluntary early retirement scheme encompassing 2,000 Italian employees.

In total, this will mean TIM will have cut around 3,200 of its domestic staff through early retirement by the end of the year.

In related news, TIM recently launched a bidding process for the sale of NetCo, its network unit that comprises its access network as well as its wholesale submarine cable unit Sparkle.

TIM received an offer for NetCo from US investment firm KKR back in February, which was followed up by a counter offer earlier this month from state bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and Australia’s Macquarie Group.

KKR now has the option to increase its bid.

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21
Mar, 2023

MWC23: Etiya’s Sofiène Kamoun on CX focused digital transformation

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Uni of Edinburgh spin-off WhiteHaul bags £275,000 funding for rural broadband

Press Release

A technology company that aims to bring high speed broadband to hard-to-reach areas has been awarded £275,000 in funding from Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise

Spinout WhiteHaul, from the University of Edinburgh, has developed a platform that will enable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide users with gigabit-capable broadband speeds over long distances and challenging terrain, at significantly lower cost than current network technologies.

Gigabit means speeds of 1,000 megabits per second, or 1 gigabit, the kind of speeds usually only achieved in cities and through ‘full fibre’ networks.

WhiteHaul’s novel spectrum aggregation technology enables high speed long-distance ‘backhaul’ links that cannot currently be commercially achieved by existing fibre or wireless technologies.

Existing wireless technologies suffer from high levels of radio interference resulting in poor distance performance. WhiteHaul’s technology manages radio interference, resulting in reliable network connectivity.

The technology was developed as part of Dr Mohamed Kassem’s PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, supervised by Professor Mahesh Marina, and the team is being supported to spin out by Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service.

Professor Marina said: “WhiteHaul will play an important role in supporting the UK Government’s ambition to bring gigabit-capable coverage to 85% of the UK by 2025, and close to 100% as soon as possible thereafter. We have seen from previous work the vital importance of rural connectivity for agriculture, businesses, healthcare and education.”

Dr Kassem, chief technology officer, said: “In addition, as a home-grown company, WhiteHaul will help diversify the telecommunications network supply chain – another key policy objective. And by reducing the need to travel to work, and the associated carbon emissions, gigabit broadband in rural areas also supports the transition to net zero.”

The funding, from the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spin-Out Programme (HGSP), will be used to enhance the performance of WhiteHaul’s hardware and software platform and to speed up the commercialisation of the technology. The team is also investigating other uses for the technology including connecting offshore windfarms and enabling connected farms and the Internet of Things.

Jane Martin, Scottish Enterprise managing director of innovation and investment, said: “Our high growth spin out programme continues to support exciting and ambitious new companies from the innovation that exists across Scotland’s universities through start-up advice, investment and commercialisation.

“WhiteHaul has created a novel solution for connecting rural areas with the potential to bring benefits across Scotland and boost rural economies and it will be exciting to see the team take the company to the next stage as it spins out from Edinburgh Innovations.”

Led by interim CEO, Iqbal Bedi Singh of Intelligens Consulting, WhiteHaul’s future focus will be on attracting seed investment, building its customer pipeline and developing the operational strategy to take it forward into manufacturing.

WhiteHaul will be participating at telecoms event Connected North to be held in Manchester on 17-18 April

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20
Mar, 2023

Taiwan company plans smart retail and cloud venture for Indonesia

FunP Innovation Group, a Taiwan-based digital advertising sales and advertising technology conglomerate, has reportedly secured US$3.12 million in additional investments to fuel a smart retail and cloud drive into the Indonesian market.

The company received the support of Ennoconn Corporation, a global leader in integrated cloud management services, industrial internet of things (IIoT) and embedded technology, in the funding round.

FunP Innovation Group (BVI) controls cacaFly, a leading digital advertising sales consulting agency, and Tenmax.io, an advertising technology development. Both have spearheaded earlier initiatives in Indonesia, including a joint venture to form a data-driven digital marketing agency for Indonesia, a partnership with Google Cloud to launch a Cloud AI+ Solution Centre in Taiwan and a partnership to develop a one-stop digital advertising solution.

FunP has said that it will use the extra capital injection to develop and roll out smart retail and cloud services solutions for the Indonesian market and other Asia Pacific countries, under its cacaFly business unit and in a partnership with Ennoconn.

Quoted in a number of local reports Brian Yang, funP group Co-founder, and Chief Strategy Officer, says: “Ennoconn’s capabilities in AIoT, together with our own in cloud computing and marketing technology, equals the opportunity to develop pioneering retail solutions for Indonesia and beyond.” 

There is a wider context to this announcement, however. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has expressed his intention to focus on the digital transformation of the economy through investments in technology like cloud computing and 5G, along with a green city that will harness smart technologies, renewable energy, and IoT. CacaFly, in collaboration with Ennoconn, has committed to help in these initiatives.

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T-Mobile agrees to buy Mint Mobile in $1.35bn deal


News

The magenta giant has pledged to ‘supercharge’ the Mint Mobile brand while retaining the marketing bite of celebrity owner Ryan Reynolds

T-Mobile is set to purchase Ka’ena Corporation, the parent company of prepaid mobile virtual network operator Mint Mobile.

The Uncarrier will pay up to $1.35 billion for the company, with final amount varying based on Ka’ena’s performance during certain periods both before and after the deal closes. The sum will be paid in a combination of cash and shares.

The deal also includes the Ultra Mobile, a brand focussed on enabling cost-effective international  calls, and the wireless wholesaler Plum.

“Mint has built an incredibly successful digital direct-to-consumer business that continues to deliver for customers on the Un-carrier’s leading 5G network and now we are excited to use our scale and owners’ economics to help supercharge it – and Ultra Mobile – into the future,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “Over the long-term, we’ll also benefit from applying the marketing formula Mint has become famous for across more parts of T-Mobile. We think customers are really going to win with a more competitive and expansive Mint and Ultra.”

Following the acquisition, T-Mobile says that Mint will continue to operate largely as an independent business, headed up by Mint co-founders David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim. T-Mobile also says it will retain the company’s $15 per month price point.

Mint Mobile was formally put up for sale back in 2021, at which time it was rumoured to be worth between $600 million and $800 million. Numerous companies were hinted at as potential suitors, perhaps most notably Altice USA.

However, reports that T-Mobile was interested in acquiring the company, only surfaced at the start of the year.

Mint has seen a meteoric rise to prominence in recent years, helped in no small part by the advertising prowess of movie star owner Ryan Reynolds, who took a 20–25% stake in Mint back in 2019 for an undisclosed sum.

Since then, he has starred in numerous adverts for the company, something that will presumably continue under the company’s new ownership.

“We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom’s slightly-above-average mahjong skills,” said Reynolds in a statement.

The deal is expected to close later this year following the typical regulatory oversight.

How is the US connectivity landscape changing in 2023? Join the debate next week at the Connected America conference live in Dallas!

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