The founders of London-based investment group LetterOne have resigning from the board following EU imposed sanctions on the Russian billionaires this week…

The founders of London-based investment group LetterOne have resigning from the board following EU imposed sanctions on the Russian billionaires this week. Founded in 2013 by Mikhail Fridman, LetterOne has investments in telecom CSP’s including Turkcell, Veon, and Upp as well as cloud-based provider of BSS software, Qvantel.

Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven who have both stepped down, together own slightly less than 50 per cent of the group and whilst the businesses they invest in are not directly affected by sanctions, the move has meant to remove the risk of reputational damage. Former UK Labour government minister Lord Mervyn Davies will take control of the group.

LetterOne hit the UK headlines last year as a major investor in Upp who plan to invest £1billion to deploy a full fibre network to one million premises by 2025 in Eastern England. Upp is currently live in Stamford in Lincolnshire and Diss in Norfolk.

MTN have reiterated their commitment to supporting innovation by becoming the the first African company to enter the metaverse. Today they have announced the purchase of 144 plots of digital land in the Africarare metaverse Ubuntuland…

MTN have reiterated their commitment to supporting innovation by becoming the the first African company to enter the metaverse. Today they have announced the purchase of 144 plots of digital land in the Africarare metaverse Ubuntuland, which will showcase some of the best of African art, fashion, entertainment, sport, tech and creativity.

Ubuntuland is being developed by Africarare and Mann Made Media. Mic Mann, co-founder of Africarare was quoted as saying “We’ve seen an immense amount of growth in the NFT space marketplace and Metaverses across the US, Europe, Asia, there hasn’t been much coming out of Africa. We feel there’s a great opportunity for Africa to take part in this new world.”

MTN‘s move is part of it’s wider policy of positioning itself as a technology company, rather than a telecommunications company and is aligned with the companies Ambition 2025 strategy. Bernice Samuels, MTN’s Group Executive for Marketing said « We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers’’.

Tell us about your start up Our vision is to develop innovative IT solutions in a socially responsible way that benefit society in terms of improved effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. Our activities include product and service development, 3D remote services and blockchain-based operational processes. We are currently working intensively in the industry 4.0 ecosystem on innovative solutions for the use of technologies such as WebRTC…

Tell us about your start up
Our vision is to develop innovative IT solutions in a socially responsible way that benefit society in terms of improved effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. Our activities include product and service development, 3D remote services and blockchain-based operational processes.

We are currently working intensively in the industry 4.0 ecosystem on innovative solutions for the use of technologies such as WebRTC, Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) in use cases specifically designed for data centres, telecommunication companies as well as automotive, utilities and services.

We are partners with large corporations such as Equinix, SAP and Volkswagen and have a global reach with 3PP located in Asia and Americas.

What is your USP, how do you stand out from your competition?
We create solutions for digitalization and preparation for the requirements of the industry 4.0 by offering:
• Higher operational efficiency
• Lower operational costs
• Enhanced productivity
• Improved health and safety
• Reduction of routine tasks or of tasks with no added value
• Remote in-service audits and inspections
• UX/CX for on-the-job learning
• Lower carbon footprint by reduced commute and travel time.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
Our aim is to create a profound impact on the productivity of operations and maintenance by offering Extended Reality and WebRTC-based applications for equipment installation and maintenance for the Telco sector (Network Equipment Providers, Operators, Tower companies). Telecommunication carriers remain our core customer profile.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
We are not part of incubators or accelerators as of now. FroXx is both privately and publicly funded.

Why did you establish the business?
The business was established to address a clear need of operational reliability with remote assistance in Telco operations. We are using accessible technology to improve general efficiency and sustainability. The Leadership Team of FroXx combines 150+ years of ICT experience having served major companies such as Ericsson on key strategic positions.

What is your motivation?
Our CEO’s extensive experience in the Telco industry has clearly demonstrated to us how the sector is on the verge of a major acceleration of the innovation cycle. The increasing adoption of IoT devices, growing investments in smart city projects and 5G infrastructures, and the need for high-speed internet connectivity around the world remain our main motivation to meet these industry’s leaders’ objectives.

What does the future hold for your business?
We target a niche market and plan a strategic move this year to offer and implement our solutions in other industries aiming at accessing Industry 4.0, notably with automated processes for enhanced productivity.

HEADQUARTERS: Potsdam, Germany
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 10
LAST FUNDING TYPE: Institutional funds (ILB Germany Investment Bank) – Federal and European institutions for the development of ICT industries and initiatives in Germany
WEBSITE URL: froxx-industries.com
FOUNDER: Rodrigo Beyer Fernandez, CEO and Founder

Meet FroXx at CONNECTED GERMANY which takes place in Mainz, Germany on the 5-6 April 2022. Free tickets are available for consumer-facing Germany-based operators, stadtwerke and German-based members of the public sector. Find out more here.

In a bid to prove the commercial value of investment in subsea infrastructure, Meta has commissioned two studies by Analysys Mason and RTI International to explore the economic impact of their investments in APAC and Europe…

In a bid to prove the commercial value of investment in subsea infrastructure, Meta has commissioned two studies by Analysys Mason and RTI International to explore the economic impact of their investments in APAC and Europe. It is hoped that these findings will demonstrate that subsea cable projects are economically viable for local providers in both developed and emerging markets.

The study by Analysys Mason suggested that Meta’s investments in the APAC region, where the company has developed two subsea cables (the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Jupiter), are expected to add approximately $422 billion in GDP between 2021 and 2025. It is also estimated that 3.7 million new jobs will be created in the region as a result.

Meta has significant growth plans in the APAC region with plans having been announced for eight new submarine cables which are due to be ready for service by 2025.

In Europe, where Meta has invested in the transatlantic Marea system as well as several other systems (such as AEC1 and Havfrue), RTI International found that the investment has been contributing about $18 billion per year since 2019 to Europe’s economy (equal to approximately 6 percent of its current average annual growth). 

Meta also has plans to land two new cable systems in Europe in the next five years. By 2027, the new systems will be contributing roughly $65 billion per year to the European economy.

Through this event, we aim to:
• Fully unleash the value of 5G networks, develop new applications and business models, and accelerate 5G business success.
• Share best practices in developing green networks and explore ways to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
• Develop efficient, intelligent, and green IT infrastructure to enable digital and intelligent transformation for new growth…

Through this event, we aim to:

• Fully unleash the value of 5G networks, develop new applications and business models, and accelerate 5G business success.

• Share best practices in developing green networks and explore ways to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

• Develop efficient, intelligent, and green IT infrastructure to enable digital and intelligent transformation for new growth.

To view the live stream, please click below:

[embedded content]

Event Schedule:

16:00-16:10: Welcome Speech – Ryan Ding, Executive Director, President of the Carrier BG, President of the Enterprise BG, Huawei

16:10-16:20: Embracing the Green Deal for Sustainable Development  – Massamba Thioye, UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub

Session 1: 5G Lighting up the Future – 16:20-17:10

• Leading 5G Development to Build a Digital Intelligence Future – Li Huidi, Vice President of China Mobile Communications Corporation

• 5G Leading Network Brings Business Success – Mallikarjun Rao, Chief Technology & Information officer | Member of Executive board at Telefónica, Deutschland

• Exploring the Road of 5G Success – Alan Loh, Innovation & Solutions Executive General Manager, Zain KSA

• Thailand 5G+Smart Hospital – Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa, M.D. Dean of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital

• Green Terminal, Digital Twin and 5G, A Realised Vision – Dr. Adam Talosi, Deputy CEO, Member of the board, East-West Intermodal Terminal

Session 2: More Bits, Less Watts – 17:10-18:05

• Mobile Net Zero: State of the Industry on Climate Action – Steven Moore, Head of Climate Action, GSMA

• 5 Misconceptions of Green Development – Dr. Philip(Xiaodi) Song, Chief Marketing Officer, Huawei Carrier BG

• Orange Energy Challenge – Hervé Suquet, Group Energy SVP, Orange Group

• ICT Enabling Sustainability – Luis Neves, CEO of GeSI

• Our Path to Net Zero – Bernd Leven, Head of Energy Performance, Vodafone Group

• Energy Efficiency- “Getting the Grip” – Tanveer Mohammad, SVP, Head of Global Operation, Telenor Group

Session 3: +IT, New Growth – 18:05-18:45

• +IT, New Growth – David Wang, Executive Director of the Board, Chairman of ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, Huawei

• OneStorage: Launch of innovative digital infrastructure products – Dr. Peter(Yuefeng) Zhou, Senior Vice President, President of Data Storage and Intelligent Vision Product Line, Huawei 

• Safaricom PLC Discussion of Digital Transformation – George Njuguna Kamau, CIO of Safaricom

• Trend of IT Infrastructure Digitalization in Telecoms – Ajeet Das, IDC Research Director

Online Video + Broadcast – 18:45-19:15

• Transforming To The Cognitive Telco: How AIS Hopes To Change The Game And Win – Sanjay Andrew Thomas, CIO of AIS

• Diving into Digital: Everything as a Service for New Growth – Dong Libin, Director, Huawei Cloud Computing Marketing Dept

• Every day a little greener – Jeroen Cox, Strategic Lead Energy & Environment KPN

Around a year ago, 1&1 signed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom (DT), allowing its affiliate 1&1 Versatel to use DT’s FTTH and VDSL networks for the next 10 years. Included within the contract was a clause allowing for the expansion of this agreement to allow 1&1 to directly market its FTTH products in future when such services were ready…

Around a year ago, 1&1 signed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom (DT), allowing its affiliate 1&1 Versatel to use DT’s FTTH and VDSL networks for the next 10 years. Included within the contract was a clause allowing for the expansion of this agreement to allow 1&1 to directly market its FTTH products in future when such services were ready. 

Now, such an expansion is coming to pass, with DT making all of its direct fibre optic connections available to 1&1 as a direct wholesale customer, having overcame the necessary regulatory hurdles.

The first FTTH product contract has been signed, allowing 1&1 to offer its own FTTH products to consumers using Telekom’s infrastructure with immediate effect. 

“This contract is another clear signal to the market. We come to an agreement without regulation and create fair conditions. We stand for free access to our networks. And we expect other companies to commit to this principle of Open Access just like Telekom,” said Dr Kerstin Baumgart, SVP of Deutsche Telekom’s wholesale business. “Millions of people and companies benefit from sharing our network. That’s good for Germany. Telekom is Germany’s fibre optic company. Nationwide cooperation is a mainstay of our strategy. All sides benefit from this partnership: we make greater use of our network, our marketing partner gets a greater reach and the customers have a variety of providers.”

Telekom notes that it is aiming to have roughly 10 million FTTH connections by the end of 2024.

The move comes as part of the German regulator, Bundesnetzagentur’s, decision in 2021 to regulate fibre networks less strictly than the industry’s previous copper iterations, hoping to create an environment in which fibre rollouts can expand rapidly across the country. 

Also in the news: 
Tonga back online as submarine cable repaired
AT&T chasing green goals with new solar power purchase

Vodafone has this week confirmed that it has launched an initial sale of 63.6 million shares, equivalent to a roughly 2.4% stake, in India’s largest tower company, Indus Towers.
At the same time, Indian media claimed that Vodafone was also in advanced discussions to sell a further 4.7% stake, with sources suggesting that the potential buyer is likely Bharti Airtel. 
Indus Towers, previously known as Bharti Infratel, has almost 180,000 towers across India and plays an integral role in the nation&’…

Vodafone has this week confirmed that it has launched an initial sale of 63.6 million shares, equivalent to a roughly 2.4% stake, in India’s largest tower company, Indus Towers.

At the same time, Indian media claimed that Vodafone was also in advanced discussions to sell a further 4.7% stake, with sources suggesting that the potential buyer is likely Bharti Airtel. 

Indus Towers, previously known as Bharti Infratel, has almost 180,000 towers across India and plays an integral role in the nation’s mobile connectivity. According to the company, three of every five mobile calls in India are carried over the company’s infrastructure. 

In March 2021, the company had an enterprise value of roughly $11.6 billion, with each individual tower worth around $65,000.

Vodafone currently owns 28.1% in the tower company, while Bharti Airtel hold a $41.8% stake.

Reports suggest that these stake sales are just the beginning, with discussions said to be ongoing “with several interested parties” for the sale of the rest of Vodafone’s stake in the business. The whole 28.1% stake has an estimated value of around $2.5 billion.

The funds raised from this stake sale will seemingly be used to help prop up Vodafone’s Indian joint venture, Vi, which has been on the verge of bankruptcy for many years now. 

In the past, with Vi facing enormous adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments to the Indian government and facing intense competition at cutthroat prices from Reliance Jio, Vodafone and fellow investor in the joint venture, Aditya Birla Group (ABG), had been loathe to further invest in what appeared to be a sinking ship.

However, a recently agreed relief package for the Indian telecoms market, alongside an industry-wide price hike, has made the survival of Vi far more viable, with both Vodafone and Aditya Birla saying they would continue to support the business after all, preparing to raise additional capital via the issuance of equity shares.

At the start of this year, the Indian government also agreed to take a 35.8% stake in Vi, converting the roughly $2.1 billion debt they owed the government into equity.

“The first step in this process included the conversion of $2.1 billion of AGR and spectrum interest into equity, which will make the Indian government the largest shareholder of Vi. Vodafone and ABG intend to contribute towards an issue of equity shares by Vi (a ‘capital raise’) once the terms of such a capital raise have been evaluated and decided on by the board of directors,” the company said in a statement. 

But despite fresh investment and relative relief from government dues, Vi still has its work cut out for it, with the company recording its steepest subscriber fall in five months back in November. In that month alone, the company lost around 1.9 million mobile subscribers, while its rivals, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, continue to grow, gaining 2 million and 1.3 million subscribers, respectively. 

Vi’s subscriber base, at the time, had been declining for 36 consecutive months.

With both Airtel and Jio continuing to grow, Vi will need more than just the funding from this stake sale if it is to turn its fortunes around.

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here

Also in the news: 
Tonga back online as submarine cable repaired
AT&T chasing green goals with new solar power purchase
Huawei Digital Power plans new $632m HQ

US public housing has become infamous for it’s poor quality, underfunding and mismanagement resulting in tenants living in crumbling buildings with billions in repair backlogs, whilst Americans usually see it as the last resort for those with no other options. Now a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission is going to ease one part of the puzzle for those living and working in apartments…

US public housing has become infamous for it’s poor quality, underfunding and mismanagement resulting in tenants living in crumbling buildings with billions in repair backlogs, whilst Americans usually see it as the last resort for those with no other options.

Now a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission is going to ease one part of the puzzle for those living and working in apartments, public housing, office buildings, and other multi-tenant buildings, by enhancing broadband competition. This is a crucial part of the move towards a more connected America, prohibiting broadband providers from keeping competitive providers out of buildings – typically via revenue sharing agreements with building owners – and making any information about marketing deals readily (and clearly) available.

Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said in a statement “One third of this country live in multi-tenant buildings where there often is only one choice for a broadband provider, and no ability to shop for a better deal,”

An extension to the ruling covers the wiring inside the building, prohibiting so-called sale-and-leaseback arrangements that block competitive access to alternative providers, meaning that in many multi-tenant environments already existing coaxial networks can be used by competitive providers rather than having to install expensive and labour-intensive fibre to the building.

One company that sees the advantage of this is InCoax Networks who provides fibre access extension technology which can be leveraged to enhance the capabilities of existing networks.

InCoax Head of Marketing, Sales and Product Management Helge Tiainen said “The FCC’s ruling will help open up the choice of broadband providers to empower millions of US tenants in their multi-tenant environments and lessen the barriers of broadband competition,”

“By reusing existing in-building infrastructure for broadband access, it can address the complexities that operators face when looking to bring connectivity to existing apartments and office buildings.”

Interested in more news about the changing digital landscape in America? Sign up for the Total Telecom Connected America newsletter HERE

#ConnectedAmerica 

This week, Audi of America and Verizon have announced a new partnership, aiming to use Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband connectivity within Audi vehicles to enable augmented mobile services and new driving-assistance features, paving the way for the automated vehicles of the future.
According to Verizon, embedding 5G connectivity capabilities within the vehicles should allow for a variety of novel and improved services for customers…

This week, Audi of America and Verizon have announced a new partnership, aiming to use Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband connectivity within Audi vehicles to enable augmented mobile services and new driving-assistance features, paving the way for the automated vehicles of the future.

According to Verizon, embedding 5G connectivity capabilities within the vehicles should allow for a variety of novel and improved services for customers, including the faster and more reliable streaming of video services, improved safety features, and additional driving support systems.

These vehicles’ capabilities will continue to evolve further once already in use, with software and firmware updates delivered over the air.

“Audi drivers will be among the first in the world to experience a new generation of automobiles, one in which their car is both a 5G mobile device and a vehicle,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “We’re proud to bring our transformative 5G networking expertise to a visionary partner like Audi, whose premium automotive engineering deserves second-to-none 5G technology to match.”

Perhaps most interesting here is the companies pledging to co-develop cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology, allowing the car to wirelessly communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure, providing the driver with additional information. In the short term, this technology will largely be used to improve in-vehicle safety by giving the driver more information about their surroundings, but in the long term it will be crucial to the development of automated vehicles.

To facilitate this aspect of their 5G vision, Verizon is already partnered with all three major cloud providers – Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services – which will provide the required mobile edge computing services.

These tie ups between car manufactures and operators are becoming more common around the world. Last year, for example, AT&T signed a similar agreement with General Motors, with the automotive manufacturer’s Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC models to be equipped with 5G capabilities from 2023. 

In Europe, Deutsche Telekom announced just this week that they have deepened their partnership with BMW, allowing customers to link their BMW iX and BMW i4 vehicles to Telkom’s 5G network for the first time via their MobilityConnect service. 

Meanwhile, in China, numerous automakers are already engaged in 5G. General Motors, for example, says it hopes to launch 5G-connected vehicles in China as early as this year. 

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here

Also in the news: 
Tonga back online as submarine cable repaired
AT&T chasing green goals with new solar power purchase
Huawei Digital Power plans new $632m HQ

The new year did not start on a positive note for Tonga, with the submerged Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupting with more force than an atomic bomb, according to NASA.
 
The eruption caused tsunamis throughout the Pacific, leading to at least five fatalities and causing almost $100 million in damage.
 
Naturally, such an enormous natural disaster had an immediate impact on local submarine cable infrastructure, with a large portion of the 827km Tonga Cable damaged, leaving the country largely without international communications…

The new year did not start on a positive note for Tonga, with the submerged Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupting with more force than an atomic bomb, according to NASA.

The eruption caused tsunamis throughout the Pacific, leading to at least five fatalities and causing almost $100 million in damage.

Emergency satellite connectivity was quickly deployed, but these proved of limited use in the early days after the explosion due to the amount of ash cast up into the atmosphere. 

Now, over a month since the cable first went offline, Digicel Tonga have confirmed that the international section of the cable is functional once again and connectivity has been restored, having left the country offline for 38 days.

 « We had some capacity via satellite but nothing compared to what we’re having right now with the cable being reconnected, » said Tonga Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni. « It was a major task, given the amount of damage, and we thought it would be fixed a week ago.”

Initial appraisals for the damaged cable expected it to be back online by February 10, but poor weather conditions and the damage being more severe than expected presented a significant setback. 

SubCom’s cable ship Reliance performed the repairs, reportedly adding around 92km of cable to reconnect the cable. Some of the severed sections of the cable could be recovered and reconnected relatively easily, but a section of roughly 55km could not be located at all. 

“We suspect it’s buried in an avalanche,” said James Panuve, CEO of Tonga Cable.

While this news means that Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu can now reconnect to the international community, the cable repairs are far from over. Domestic portions of the cable, Tongatapu to some of the outer islands, were much closer to the initial explosion and remain heavily damaged, with repairs to these sections potentially taking many months.

Nonetheless, the reactivation of the main body of the Tonga Cable should present some relief to these smaller islands by allowing satellite capacity previously serving the main island to be reallocated to the rest of the archipelago.

This disaster has thrown Tonga’s reliance on a single submarine cable into sharp relief, with authorities now questioning whether backup connectivity to the island is sufficient. 

The procurement of a backup cable would, of course, be the method of choice, but this is prohibitively expensive and is unlikely to materialise without major support from the governments of major economic players in the region, like Australia and New Zealand. 

Therefore, even greater reliance on satellite could be required in future. Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was reportedly at work in neighbouring Fiji to establish a Starlink Gateway, helping to provide the region with faster, more reliable connectivity. The company has reportedly donated 50 satellite terminals directly to the Tongan government to help plug the gaps while the domestic sections of the cable are repaired.

“Elon Musk has given some satellite capacity, it is very fast and the MEIDECC are deciding who and where that will be placed,” said Panuve.

Also in the news: