News

Vodafone investors withdrawing over the last year has opened the door for the Emirati operator group to increase its stake in the business

It is no secret that Vodafone has been facing serious financial pressures recent years, with investors squeezing the multinational operator to implement major changes and turn its fortunes around.

Indeed, for many years Vodafone has been relying on the prospect of consolidation in its most competitive markets ­­– including Spain, Italy, and the UK – to alleviate the financial strain. However, despite rumours (and seemingly progress with Three in the UK), few deals have ultimately been struck, leaving the company’s management to face the ire of its disgruntled shareholders.

By October last year, one Vodafone’s most outspoken investors, Cevian Capital, had sold most of its stake in the company, arguing the operator’s situation appeared unlikely to improve. Just a week ago, another of Vodafone’s activist investors, Coast Capital, was reported as offloading its shares, saying that the strategy behind its initial investment had proven ‘incorrect’.

Not all of Vodafone’s investors appear to be so pessimistic, however.

e&, formally Etisalat, took a near 10% stake in Vodafone back in May last year for £3.3 billion, saying at the time that the opportunity would allow them to “gain significant exposure to a world leader in connectivity and digital services” as well as develop their international portfolio.

Since then, the Emirati operator group has gradually increased its stake in Vodafone, upping its investment to 11% in December last year and reportedly now 12%.

“Executed at what we believe is an attractive valuation, the investment rationale is unchanged from our announcement on the 14th of May 2022, specifically to obtain significant exposure to a global leader, and leverage potential commercial partnerships, and realize a future return on our investment,” explained the operator in a statement.

Etisalat rebranded as e& back in February, splitting its operations into various arms, including e& Life (consumer services), e& Enterprise (enterprise services), and e& Capital (investment). The move was aimed not only at increasing the company’s ability to capitalise on emerging opportunities, but also at expanding into international markets – both of which will seemingly be facilitated by its stake in Vodafone.

For Vodafone itself, meanwhile, major changes are already taking place. Vodafone’s CEO of four years, Nick Read, stepped down from the role at the end of last year and additional executive positions have been reshuffled since the start of the year.

Vodafone’s head of finance, Margherita Della Valle, is serving as interim CEO until a replacement for Read can be found.

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Exploring a collaborative approach to digital skills development
Israel’s Cognyte embroiled in Myanmar spyware scandal

Virtual Panel

Solid digital infrastructure is the foundation for carriers to seize opportunities and achieve business success

Networks are carriers’ core assets and major channels of transmitting data and computing power. It can better boost the digital transformation of thousands of industries and accelerate the development of the global digital economy.

What capabilities do carriers need to address unprecedented opportunities and increasingly complex global challenges? How can they build high-quality networks to deliver superior user experience? How will connectivity technology evolve on the journey to an intelligent world?

This virtual panel discussion will explore the ways of maximizing ICT business value through future-oriented networks.

Our panelists include:
Mohammed Abdulaziz AlNujaidi, CTO Delegate, Zain KSA
Elif Kaya, Deputy CTO, Turkcell
Dr. Mohamed Madkour, VP, Global Carrier Networks Solutions & Marketing, Huawei
Moderator: Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director, ABI Research

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Reports suggest the company won a tender to sell spyware to state-run telecoms operator Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) just one month before the military overthrew the Burmese government

Israeli software firm Cognyte is coming under scrutiny this week following media reports that the company’s surveillance technology may have been used to commit human rights abuses in Myanmar.

Documents shared by activist group Justice for Myanmar show a January 2021 letter from MPT to the Burmese regulator referencing Cognyte as the winning vendor for an intercept technology tender.

The documents show that the purchase order was issued “by 30th Dec 2020” – a little over a month before a military junta overthrew Myanmar’s civilian government.

Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer, has reportedly sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney General calling for a criminal investigation into Cognyte and the nation’s defence and foreign ministries, accusing them of aiding the Burmese military to commit crimes against humanity.

The letter claims that Cognyte “should have known” they were providing technology that would be used to commit crimes against humanity, noting that the Burmese military had already openly rejected the results of the November 2020 democratic election when the contract was signed.

But beyond the moral implications of selling surveillance technology to repressive regimes, there is also a legal element at play here.

Back in 2016, the Myanmar military became infamous for their genocidal oppression of the Muslim Rohingya people, killing thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands more to flee to neighbouring countries. In response, various nations placed sanctions on Myanmar, with the US and the EU both ceasing to supply the Myanmar government with military equipment.

Israel, however, continued to export weapons and equipment to the Burmese government until 2018, only stopping when media pressure grew too intense.

As such, Mack argues that any 2020 deal between Cognyte to sell this equipment to MPT was illegal, with intercept spyware tech classified as defence equipment under Israeli law.

It is currently unclear whether the spyware technology has been actively deployed by MPT, though anonymous sources speaking to Reuters confirmed that the technology was tested by the operator. Other sources also confirmed that some form of intercept spyware was used by the operator, though Cognyte was not referenced specifically.

Cognyte and MPT have refused to comment on the matter.

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News

The operator group will eliminate hundreds of jobs as part of wider efforts to generate €1 billion in cost savings

Back in November, Vodafone’s announcement of its most recent financial details was met with concern as the multinational mobile network operator group continues to struggle to turn its fortunes around. The company’s results in highly competitive markets like Germany and Spain were particularly poor, adding further weight to the operator’s long-held beliefs that consolidation is needed in various European markets.

Following these results, Vodafone announced that it would seek to cut its costs by €1 billion by 2026, partly though simplifying their portfolio. At the time, CEO Nick Read hinted that some of these cost-savings could be derived from job cuts, though the scale of these cuts was not yet clear.

Now, the first wave of cost-saving job cuts, with the Financial Times reporting that the company is seeking to cut “several hundred jobs”, with sources suggesting that most of these will come from Vodafone’s London office.

Vodafone reportedly employs around 104,000 people globally, around 9,400 of which are in the UK.

The news follows announcements earlier this week of a major leadership reshuffle within Vodafone, with the CEO of Vodafone Spain, Colman Deegan, stepping down from the role, and Vodafone Italy CEO Alado Bisio appointed group chief commercial officer.

This leaves Vodafone now hunting for two new CEOs, with Group CEO Nick Read having stepped down from his role at the end of last year.

Margherita Della Valle, previously the Group’s head of finance, is serving as interim CEO until the position can be filled.

However, the start of 2023 has not been all doom and gloom for Vodafone. At the start of this week, the company announced that it had agreed to sell its Hungarian unit to local IT specialist 4iG for €1.7 billion.

The operator said that the funds would be used to pay down the company’s debt.

What impact would the merger of Three UK and Vodafone UK have for the nation’s mobile market? Join the debate at the upcoming Connected North conference 

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Press Release

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions, and Microsoft, have announced a strategic collaboration to enable cloud-powered 5G core network modernization for telecom operators globally. The 5G core network transformation will help telecom operators to develop 5G core use cases and meet their customers’ growing technological (Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), IoT (Internet of Things), and edge computing) requirements. It will further enable them to modernize, optimize, and secure business operations and develop green networks with reduced costs and a faster time to market.

As a part of the collaboration, Tech Mahindra will provide its talent expertise, comprehensive solutions, and managed services offerings like “Network Cloudification as a Service”  and AIOps to telecom operators for their 5G Core networks. The modernization of network core systems and operations powered by AIOps will enable operators to deploy and manage their 5G Core networks and leverage the power of the cloud to deliver new and innovative services to their customers quickly and easily. AIOps will help operators combine big data and machine learning to automate network operations processes, including event correlation and anomaly detection, predicting fault and performance issues, thereby enabling self-serving network operations.

CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, “Today, it is critical to leverage next-gen technologies to build relevant and resilient services and solutions for customers across the globe. At Tech Mahindra, we are well-positioned to help telecom operators realize the full potential of their networks and provide innovative and agile services to their customers while also helping them meet their ESG commitments. Our collaboration with Microsoft will further strengthen our service portfolio by combining our deep expertise across the telecom industry with Microsoft Cloud. Further to this collaboration, Tech Mahindra and Microsoft will work together to help telecom operators simplify and transform their operations in order to build green and secure networks by leveraging the power of cloud technologies.”

Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said, “Harnessing the power of Microsoft Azure, telecom operators can provide more flexibility and scalability, save infrastructure cost, use AI to automate operations, and differentiate their customer offerings. The collaboration between Tech Mahindra and Microsoft will help our customers build green and secured networks with seamless experiences across the Microsoft cloud and the operator’s network.”

Tech Mahindra will leverage the Microsoft cloud for its Sustainability solution iSustain to measure and monitor KPIs across all three aspects of E, S & G. iSustain will help operators address the challenge of measuring and reducing carbon emissions from the networks while meeting demands of the countless energy intense digital technologies, from AR / VR to IoT. In addition, Tech Mahindra will further enhance the security posture of the operator’s network and operations powered by SenTindra, a cloud-based virtual security operations center developed on Microsoft Sentinel. SenTindra platform offers 300+ scenarios and workflows to support Telecom operators’ Cloud Visibility, Monitoring, and orchestration requirements, making the networks secure and free from downtime.

The partnership is in line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOW^TM framework, which aims to enhance the ‘Human Centric Experience’, Tech Mahindra focuses on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enable digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Click here to have the Total Telecom daily newsletter sent straight to your inbox!

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Press Release

Virgin Media O2 will be giving millions of its customers more data and extra benefits this year as it begins moving all Virgin Mobile customers over to O2’s range of plans

From February, the company will start sending communications to the first group of Virgin Mobile customers to let them know that their current service will transfer over to a new O2 plan. As part of this migration, millions of customers will receive unlimited texts and voice calls, and either double the data or unlimited data for the same amount each month – no customers will see the cost of their plan rise as a result of this move. This will be alongside access to Priority from O2 and other O2 benefits such as extra roaming destinations and continued inclusive EU roaming, something not offered to all customers by any other major mobile network.

The move will occur seamlessly and over the air for the vast majority of customers with no need to replace SIMs, port phone numbers or change billing dates or information. Exact details of the changes and steps will be outlined clearly to individual customers at least 30 days ahead of their migration taking place. Migrations will occur throughout the year, and by the end of 2023 all existing and newly joined Virgin Mobile customers will have been moved to O2 plans.

This represents a key pillar in Virgin Media O2’s integration, with the first stage of this plan completed at the end of last year when the entire Virgin Mobile base transferred over to using the O2 network – so all data, voice and text traffic is already using the company’s connectivity. This latest stage now marks the moment when customer plans start moving over to O2.

Virgin Mobile will continue to offer flexible handset contracts and 30-day rolling SIM only plans this year, with a variety of options under consideration regarding the use of the Virgin Mobile brand in future.

Gareth Turpin, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Media O2 said: “This is a major milestone moment for Virgin Media O2 as our Virgin Mobile customers start moving over to O2 plans, receiving added value and benefits on top. Our teams will guide customers through every step of the migration, and we’re laser focused on making sure this all occurs in the most hassle-free way possible. With all of our mobile brands now powered by the award-winning O2 network, we are making fantastic progress in our integration plans while continuing to deliver a range of knockout mobile services that cater for all needs.”

Virgin Media and O2 merged in June 2021 creating the UK’s largest telecoms challenger with award-winning mobile services and the fastest widely available broadband in the market all under one roof.

O2 provides 4G services to 99% of the UK and 5G services to more than 800 towns and cities with a plan to cover 50% of the UK population with 5G this year. It also stands alone as the only major mobile network to not reintroduce EU roaming fees and, since the app launched, has provided more than £200 million of savings to customers through Priority from O2 which offer customers exclusive access to rewards, unique experiences and daily perks, as well as Priority Tickets for thousands of gigs and events across the UK.

How is the UK telecoms sector evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion with the wider ecosystem at this year’s live Connected North conference in Manchester

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Press Release

Verizon signed four new long-term renewable energy purchase agreements (REPAs) for an aggregate of up to 410 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity. With these new agreements, Verizon has surpassed 3.0 gigawatts (GW) of total projected renewable energy capacity, as it continues to be a leading buyer of U.S. renewable energy. These agreements also position the company to meet its goal to source or generate renewable energy equivalent to 50 percent of its total annual electricity consumption by 2025.

Since 2019, Verizon has signed 24 REPAs for more than 3.0 GW of projected renewable energy capacity, which is roughly equivalent to 8.4 million megawatt hours (MWh) of annual electricity production, enough to power more than 707,000 homes for a year¹.

These agreements also support Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement.

“We are proud to be among the leading corporations in the U.S. in buying renewable energy,” said Matt Ellis, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Verizon. “We are also a leader in green financing, issuing four green bonds totaling $4 billion in as many years, allowing us to further support and invest in renewable energy to deliver on our goal to be net zero in our operational emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 2035.”

Overview of Verizon’s new REPAs

• Two REPAs with Invenergy for an aggregate of up to 240 MW of renewable energy capacity. The projects include a facility in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) regional market that became operational in 2022; and a facility in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) regional market.
• A 12-year REPA with Enel North America for an aggregate of up to 100 MW of anticipated renewable energy capacity. The wind facility, located in the SPP regional market, became operational in December 2022.
• A REPA for an aggregate of up to 70 MW of anticipated renewable energy capacity. The facility is located in the Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM) Interconnection regional market.

To date, seven renewable energy facilities relating to Verizon’s REPAs for an aggregate of more than 800 MW of capacity are operational. This includes the wind facility relating to Verizon’s previously announced REPA with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions, which recently became fully operational.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $133.6 billion in 2021. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.

Are US operators doing enough to promote sustainability and reach their carbon neutrality goals? Join the operators in discussion at the upcoming Connected America conference

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News

The Swedish Security Service (SAPO) called for vigilance from critical infrastructure operators, warning that ‘unpredictable’ Russia could disrupt key sectors using unorthodox methods

The new year is upon us and sadly the war in Ukraine shows no signs of stopping, with reports in recent weeks suggesting that Russia plans to mobilise up to half a million additional conscripts in preparation for a major spring offensive.

Now, in parallel to the fierce fighting ongoing in the Donbas, the Swedish security agency SAPO is warning Europe to remain vigilant of less direct kinds of warfare: espionage and sabotage of critical infrastructure.

Speaking at the People and Defense conference in Salen, Sweden, the head of SAPO, Charlotte von Essen, said that Russia poses a growing threat to the Sweden’s critical infrastructure – a threat that could extend beyond the country’s borders to the rest of Europe.

Von Essen noted that the Swedish telecoms sector and electrical grid were both likely targets, suggesting that “Russian security-threatening activities” against these industries were likely to increase in the coming year.

“From the Russian side, there is an interest in disturbing these areas,” she explained, highlighting the far-reaching implications such attacks could have for society, even beyond Swedish borders. “These are sectors where attacks against Sweden could cause damage to the rest of Europe as well.”

Von Essen noted that the Russian state would not only use official channels, such as government agencies, to conduct these attacks, but would leverage “the Russian diaspora, institutions and companies in Sweden”.

Russia has a long history of cybercrime against foreign nations, in recent years coming to prominence for high-profile attacks seeking to undermine various Western governments, including interference in US presidential elections.

Naturally, Russia has been conducting cyberwarfare against Ukraine on a massive scale since the start of the war, coupling the shelling of critical infrastructure with cyberattacks on the company networks. In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have called for Russian cyber attacks on critical and civilian infrastructure to be categorised as war crimes.

Russia is also accused of using stolen network data to identify and persecute Ukrainian supporters in occupied regions of the country.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest news from the international telecoms market? Click here to receive the Total Telecom newsletter straight to your inbox!

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News

Reports suggest the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite telecommunications firm has closed its Alaskan test site, with locals bemoaning its services as expensive and unreliable

This week, a report from the Telegraph indicates that UK-backed satellite operator OneWeb has closed its vaunted test site in the village of Akiak, Alaska, following complaints from the Alaska Telecom Association (ATA) and local internet providers.

Akiak was one of OneWeb’s first test sites and was notable for being a keystone the company’s marketing campaign, designed to show that the LEO satellite constellation could provide internet services to one of the most remote communities in the US.

Less than a year since activation, however, and it would seem that the test site is failing to live up to expectations.

According to sources, the ATA and local providers have written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complain that the “service is too costly to adopt” and had been discontinued “due to ongoing technical difficulties”.

The nature of these technical troubles has not been revealed.

While this closure is surely something of a blow to OneWeb’s image, given Akiak’s prominence in its marketing campaign, the material impact to the company is likely small. While OneWeb has significant ambitions in the consumer broadband segment, its focus to date has been largely centralised on government, maritime, and enterprise broadband needs.

Furthermore, according to the operator, other rural Alaskan test site are still up and running with positive results, perhaps suggesting that the Akiak site is simply an anomaly.

Nonetheless, such a closure has shone a worrying light on the challenges OneWeb may eventually face in the consumer space, particularly given the meteoric rise of rival SpaceX’s Starlink constellation in the US and beyond.

Starlink launched commercial services to consumers in Alaska in November last year and is seemingly gaining a growing market share in remote locations. The service already covers Akiak and has reportedly been well received by residents.

In a somewhat ironic twist, after OneWeb’s loss of access to Russian Soyuz rockets last year due to the war in Ukraine, SpaceX has been contracted to launch OneWeb satellites. This week marked the companies latest launch collaboration, which saw SpaceX put an additional 40 OneWeb satellites into orbit.

In total, OneWeb now has 502 LEO satellites floating above the Earth, having said they will require 648 for full global coverage. The operator expects its constellation to be fully launched by the end of the year.

What role will satellite play in expanding broadband access to the most remote US communities? Join the telecoms experts in discussion at this year’s upcoming Connected America conference

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News

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed new update that would require telcos to accelerate their reporting of data breaches for both customers and law enforcement

On Friday, the FCC began proceedings to bolster the existing rules regarding telco obligations to notify their customers when sensitive data has been compromised.

Currently, network operators are required to notify the relevant authorities – the FCC, but also potentially the US Secret Services and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – of a data breach within a maximum of seven days after discovery. Only then, assuming no objections from law enforcement agencies, can customers be notified.

Now, the newly proposed update suggests eliminating this seven-business-day window, meaning that customers can be notified more quickly, “without unreasonable delay”, when their data has been leaked.

The update would also broaden the existing scope of what is considered a ‘breach’, now including cases of “inadvertent access, use, or disclosures of customer information”, rather solely breaches as a result of cyber-attacks. In short, telcos will be required to report incidents where customer data is compromised due to their own negligence as well as those caused by malicious actors attacking the network.

“The law requires carriers to protect sensitive consumer information but, given the increase in frequency, sophistication, and scale of data leaks, we must update our rules to protect consumers and strengthen reporting requirements,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.  “This new proceeding will take a much-needed, fresh look at our data breach reporting rules to better protect consumers, increase security, and reduce the impact of future breaches.”

If passed, this update will bring the FCC regulations more closely in line with those of data protection standards found elsewhere in the world, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires customers to be notified of any breach within 72 hours.

This would be the first time the law has been updated in 15 years.

How are the latest regulatory changes impacting the telecoms landscape in the US? Learn more from the operators themselves at the upcoming Connected America conference live in Dallas, Texas

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