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Reports from the Wall Street Journal earlier today suggesting that US firms Dish Network and EchoStar are close to finalising a merger deal have since been confirmed.
Earlier last month, Total Telecom reported that the two firms had hired advisors to iron out the details of the merger, which is now set to be completed by the end of the year.
Chairman and founder of both companies, Charlie Ergen, said the move will provide Dish Network with the financial freedom it needs to build a nationwide wireless network that is able to compete with the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
“This is a strategically and financially compelling combination that is all about growth and building a long-term sustainable business,” said Ergen.
In recent years, Dish has been rapidly evolving from a pure satellite television operator to a major player in the wireless market. Dish agreed to purchase Sprint’s pre-paid mobile brand Boost as part of the mega-merger between T-Mobile and Sprint back in 2020, in a bid to become the country’s fourth national mobile network operator. Since then, the company has won 5G spectrum at auction and has been busy rolling out infrastructure across the US.
Dish has said that it will invest up to $10 billion to deploy its 5G wireless network.
Now, this new merger will combine EchoStar’s satellite communications structure with Dish’s pay-TV business and 5G network.
Dish network is valued at around $4 billion, and Echostar at $2 billion. Dish is notably laden with debt, while EchoStar is not, hence the merger appears primarily motivated by the financial support it will lend the mobile operator in continuing to finance its rollout of 5G infrastructure.
Ergen currently owns 60% of EchoStar shares and over half of Dish’s. Under the terms of the new deal, EchoStar shareholders will receive 2.85 Class A shares from Dish per share of Echostar with the exchange ratio representing a 12.9% premium on EchoStar’s shares closing valuein early July, when reports of the merger first surfaced.
“Ergen has been trying to win back investor confidence in his wireless strategy. Dish shares have hit lows not seen in more than two decades this year as analysts question whether his project will pay off before billions of dollars of debt come due in the coming years,” the Wall Street Journal article states.
Dish shares have been trading at their lowest level since 1999 and are down 41%, while EchoStar shares are up 41%.
After the signing of the deal, Erik Carlson (CEO of Dish) is set to depart, leaving current EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan to take over as current CEO and president of the combined company.
You can hear more about US mergers at next year’s Connected America – secure your place here
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Some backhaul, some FTTx, and a bit of biomass energy: … [visit site to read more]
According to a report from MyBroadband, both the WACS and SAT-3 cables have experienced breaks off the coast of West Africa.
Reports suggest that the breaks took place on the cable sections situated between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, likely due to a submarine mudslide around the Congo Canyon.
Congo Canyon is a steep submarine valley carved into the seabed around the mouth of the Congo River. The area is well known for cable disruption, with huge aquatic mudslides occurring when the Congo River floods heavily. This was the case in early 2020, when the Congo River saw its worst flooding for half a century, resulting in an underwater avalanche that heavily disrupted both WACS and SAT-3.
Now, it appears that similar activity has once again impacted these cables, with Telkom SA’s wholesale fixed-line division Openserve confirming that both cables have been severed.
The company also noted that service disruption from the event should be low due to the availability of alternative data transport routes.
“The impact on our network is limited to customers on the international private leased circuits (IPLC) services,” explained Openserve in a statement. “The Openserve network remains robust due to our investment in other international cable capacity, hence all Openserve IP Transit services (WebReach) traffic have been automatically re-routed, ensuring our customers stay seamlessly connected.”
The two cables in question are follow a similar route, travelling roughly 14,500km up the west coast of Africa and connecting South Africa to Portugal, with numerous international branches along the way.
SAT-3 is by far the older cable, coming into service in 2002, while WACS was activated in 2012.
The task of repairing the cables has already been allocated to the cable ship Leon Thevenin, but the process is likely to take some time; according to reports, the ship has only recently arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, and hence will travel south, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back up the west coast of Africa to reach its destination.
Want to keep up to date with all the latest submarine cable news? Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest submarine cable industry event
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If the shift in the data center world toward supporting AI and other next generation trends wasn’t already clear, one can just take a look at today’s news from Digital Realty. The colocation giant has introduced a new high density offering that takes direct aim at supporting AI workloads and in parallel other demands driven by the ongoing data expansion across multiple industries. … [visit site to read more]
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Two of Slovakia’s biggest mobile operators have this week finalised a long-awaited network sharing deal, which will O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom share mobile infrastructure across the country.
The duo say the deal will help them to boost service quality for customers and reduce rollout costs, particularly with regards to their expanding 5G networks.
The capital city Bratislava and second-largest city Košice are notably exclude from the arrangement, with both operators maintaining their individual networks in these areas.
“Faster deployment of innovations, better signal quality, saving costs and the environment are just some of the benefits that sharing networks will bring. The improvement of customer experience with operators’ networks will also result, for example, from an increase in the common number of base stations, an increase in network capacity, and at the same time, coverage will improve,” said the operators in a joint statement.
Network sharing will begin gradually over the coming months, with process not expected to be fully complete for two or three years.
Both operators stress that the deal will not reduce market competition, with both operators continuing to compete on mobile services.
“As one of the leaders in covering Slovakia with high-speed connections, we will develop mobile networks even faster than before and bring new technologies to areas where it would have taken longer in the past,” said O2 CEO Igor Tóth.
“At the same time, this agreement will not affect our mutual competition and we will continue to compete for the favour of customers with our unique portfolio of products and services and the quality of customer care,” he added.
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Global 5G leader Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has increased its socioeconomic contribution to Malaysia by producing its state-of-the-art 5G radio equipment in Penang – the company’s first 5G manufacturing facility in Southeast Asia.
Ericsson has been in Malaysia since 1965 and is rolling out the 5G network for Malaysia, which has already been recognised globally for its performance.
The production was inaugurated by Communications and Digital Minister YB Ahmad Fahmi bin Mohamed Fadzil (who was represented by Deputy Minister YB Teo Nie Ching), Penang Caretaker Chief Minister Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, and Swedish Ambassador to Malaysia, His Excellency Dr Joachim Bergstrom.
The 5G radio equipment being produced in Malaysia includes Ericsson’s industry-leading lightweight and energy-efficient Massive MIMO antenna-integrated radios and is produced in Prai in the northern state of Penang, in partnership with Flex, a global diversified manufacturer that operates across 30 countries.
David Hägerbro, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh says: “Ericsson is a world leader in 5G technology, currently powering 147 live networks across 63 countries, including Malaysia. The production of Ericsson’s global 5G radio equipment in Malaysia is our additional socioeconomic contribution to the country and marks the latest in a broad range of initiatives to bring our global experiences, expertise, and insights to Malaysia in support of the government’s ambition to be a digital leader.”
“Malaysia is an important market for Ericsson and domestic manufacturing in Malaysia will contribute to the local economy through employment and the transfer of technical knowledge to the local workforce in areas such as manufacturing, product engineering and equipment testing”, adds Hägerbro.
The resulting technology leadership has seen Ericsson recently topping the Frost Radar: Global 5G Network Infrastructure Market ranking for the third year in a row. It was also named a Leader in the 2023 Magic Quadrant for 5G Network Infrastructure for Communications Service Providers report by Gartner, also the third year in a row that Ericsson has earned this recognition from the independent research and advisory firm.
In addition to delivering a world-class 5G network, the selection of Malaysia for manufacturing also increases Ericsson’s socio-economic contribution to the country. Malaysia already hosts a Global Maintenance Center in Bukit Jelutong, which is one of the largest in the world, a Regional Distribution Centre at KLIA’s Free Trade Zone. It is also the base for a Regional Competence Hub that hosts 5G expertise and regional support functions, as well as promotes local talent globally.
Hägerbro says that Ericsson will continue to deliver a secure, affordable, world-class 5G network and customer experience for Malaysia.
Malaysia has already become a recognized global leader in 5G connectivity with reports stating that Malaysia has achieved outstanding results in implementing and delivering a great 5G experience for consumers as well as the 5G network delivering excellent speed and reliability, outperforming many industrialized nations.
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Also in the news:
Comcast talks building a self-healing network at Connected America
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