News

The Canada Pension Plan Investments Board (CPP) will invest $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the newly spun-off business

On Friday, the CPP announced that they would be the latest company to invest in the highly prized fixed network assets of Italian incumbent operator TIM.

The pension fund will invest roughly $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the business, with the deal giving NetCo an enterprise value of $27.5 billion.

The deal sees CPP join a growing number of investors in TIM’s spun-off fixed networks unit, which includes all of the company’s fibre network assets but excludes the company’s submarine cable unit, Sparkle.

TIM announced plans to separate the unit last year as part of a new strategy under CEO Pietro Labriola seeking to better monetise the company’s assets. The announcement quickly drew interest from numrous major players, most notably US investment firm KKR, who would go on to to acquire the whole of NetCo for €18.8 billion at the end of last year.

Since then, various additional players have joined the growing consortium, including a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Italian infrastructure fund F2i and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

For CPP, the stake represents the first step of their infrastructure investment strategy in Italy.

“Our investment alongside these key partners with a shared long-term vision will help deliver high-quality digital infrastructure across Italy as well as generating long-term risk-adjusted returns for the fund,” said James Bryce, a managing director and global head of infrastructure at CPP Investments. “We are optimistic that NetCo can represent the first of several infrastructure investments in Italy for CPP Investments.”

The deal is expected to close in the summer, subject to typical regulatory clearances.

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News 

The generative AI platform was originally developed for the use of Deutsche Telekom employees, but after successful trials, was added to its external portfolio 

Deutsche Telekom has this week signed up UKA Group, a manufacturer and operator of renewable energy farms, as the first customer for its new Business GPT generative AI platform. 

Deutsche Telekom explained that by using their generative AI tool, companies can increase efficiency and productivity in their workforces, through reducing the effort expended for repetitive tasks and speeding up their workflows.  

The solution is tested for IT security and data protection and hosted on Telekom’s cloud environments, with the client company able to integrate their own internal documentation. 

Though the press release was relatively vague in explaining Business GPT’s specific uses for UKA, explaining only that “the multilingual tool is particularly useful for efficient research and information procurement in day-to-day work as well as content creation.” 

Business GPT was originally developed for the German operator’s own employees and how since been adapted for enterprise us.  

In future, “it will be possible to connect company applications directly via programming interfaces.” 

“Business GPT makes us absolute pioneers. With this tool, we enable our employees worldwide to test use cases for AI language models in a secure environment and use them profitably. That’s what I call real innovation!” says Christian Schmidt, Head of IT and Digital at UKA in a press release. 

Catch Deutsche Telekom at next year’s Connected Germany – get your tickets now!

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Insight

At Mobile World Congress 2024, speakers from Kingfisher, CCS Insight, Vodafone, Samsung, and Telefonica sat down to discuss strategies focussed on changing consumer mindsets with regard to device lifecycles

Sustainability was, as ever, a major focus at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will operators and vendors alike keen to show off their green credentials when it came to energy usage and carbon emissions.

However, it was a perhaps less headline-grabbing – but no less important – element of sustainability that was the topic of an insightful panel discussion on day three of the conference, seeking answers to the crucial question: what should we do about the billions of mobile devices that are discarded every year?

A circular approach to the device lifecycle

The scale of the issue at hand should not be underestimated. According to the GSMA, over 5.3 billion devices ended up in drawers or landfills in 2023. At the same time, each time a new smartphone is manufactured, around 80kgs of carbon is introduced into the atmosphere.

This unsustainable cycle clearly needs to change, but to do so requires not only buy-in from the entire mobile ecosystem but also changing the mindset of customers.

For Kingfisher, a company that works with partners to help facilitate second lives (and beyond) for devices, the key lies in making trade-in programmes more flexible.

“We allow customers the opportunity to return and upgrade their device at any time, in any condition, for any reason,” explained Georgiann Reigel, CEO of Kingfisher. “The benefit of that is obviously that device has now been handed back in, so we’re able to take that phone get it back to a good condition through repair or refurbishment, and then get that device back out to another customer and begin a second life.”

This represents a fundamental shift from the typical customer journey, where a customer buys a phone and is trapped with it until the end of their contract, regardless of whether it becomes damaged, or a more desirable device becomes available.

Indeed, building this concept of device trade-in into the very first steps of the customer journey is one of the main drivers for the World Phone Amnesty initiative, which aims to see 100% of devices returned, repaired, repurposed, or recycled.

“It’s a very simple concept: when you get a new phone, hand in your old phone,” said Reigel, noting that circularity rates are only at 5–10% on global scale. “We need to push for a 1:1 trade-in rate to make the industry truly sustainable and we’re a long way from that right now.”

Changing the consumer mindset

Of course, while customers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their activities as a consumer, incentivising people to make more sustainable choices remains a challenge.

“The core hook for all of this of course comes from the planet and the sustainability agenda, but I think ultimately customers want value as well,” said Varun Krishnan, Managing Director – FinTech & Connected Devices Tech at Vodafone. “This ecosystem around trade-in, financing, and extending device lifetimes actually gives a lot of value back to customers.”

Vodafone itself has introduced more flexible 36-month contracts, helping to extend the life of purchased devices beyond the norm. In addition, Krishnan noted that Vodafone’s global footprint also plays a role in repurposing these devices; a returned three-year old device may not be particularly attractive to a customer in the European market, but in less developed markets like Africa these devices can still be a major upgrade for consumers.

Meanwhile, Daniel Hernandez Ortega, SVP Devices & Consumer IoT at Telefónica, emphasised the importance of creating new ways to communicate the impact of device decisions to customers.

“We want to emphasise the use of the devices in a more responsible way,” said Ortega “We’ve launched very innovative solutions based on blockchain, Web3, and tokenomics, dealing with how people can compensate their carbon footprint.”

In Spain, for example, Telefonica’s Living Apps help the customer track the carbon emissions from their device activity, allowing them to make more sustainable decisions. They also reward the customer with tokens for making these sustainable decisions, which can then be spent to support local or international sustainability programmes that the consumer is particularly passionate about.

Both of these approaches encourage customers to think, at the point of purchase, about what will happen to their device when they no longer need it.

Push and pull: New technology versus longer device lifecycles

At the core of this discussion around device sustainability is something of a paradox. Operators and device manufacturers, naturally, want customer to upgrade to the latest models so that they can take advantage of the latest services. On the other hand, a more sustainable device lifecycle would see customers stick with their existing devices for increasingly longer periods of time. How do you reconcile these seemingly disparate drivers?

For Reigel, the solution lies in making the latest devices more affordable, a quality that will seem move on to their secondary and tertiary lives more quickly. Currently, devices being returned are three- to four-years old in typical exchange programmes. By contrast, Kingfisher’s programme in Australia, which has been running for three and a half years, is seeing one- and two-year-old devices returning to market.

“These are 4G and 5G devices, helping them meet the demand that the second-hand market has,” explained Reigel. “We’ve seen a 15x increase in the rate of returned devices by having a flexible ownership programme in the market […] We’ve seen the success of that programme without even telling people this is green, this is sustainable – we didn’t even communicate that. Customers were just 15x more likely to bring in that phone. If we can take that and scale it around the world, we’re going to be in a much better place.”

“It’s actually the supply that’s the challenge,” she added. “The demand globally dramatically outstrips demand.”

You can view the full panel session on the Kingfisher YouTube channel from the link below.

[embedded content]

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News 

The campus is set to put Taiwan on the map as a global data centre player 

Colorado-based Vantage Data Centers, a global provider of large-scale data centre campuses, has announced that is has secured a $64 million loan from two Taiwanese banks (CTBC Bank and Cathay United Bank) to support the development of its first data centre in Taipei, Taiwan. 

The announcement marks the first financing deal for a hyperscale data centre in Taiwan and is Vantage’s first collaboration with Cathay United and its third transaction with CTBC globally.  

The company’s Taiwan data centre campus was initially announced in December last year, and is currently under development, expecting to open in the summer. The campus will offer 16MW of IT capacity across a 215,000 square foot facility, catering to hyperscalers, cloud providers, and large enterprises, contributing to Taiwan’s emergence as a significant digital infrastructure hub in the region. 

“Vantage is proud to lead the way in marking the first financing of a greenfield data centre project in Taiwan,” said Joel Cheah, Vantage’s CFO in the Asia-Pacific region in a press release. “We appreciate CTBC Bank’s continued confidence in Vantage’s data centre platform and are pleased to have the Cathay United Bank team join us in this innovative financial milestone in the next phase of Taiwan’s growth as a regional data centre market.” 

According to Vantage, the Taipei data centre market is expected to more than double from $1.42 billion in 2022 to $3.21 billion by 2028, which it says is driven by growing cloud service adoption and demand for AI. 

Throughout 2023, Vantage raised $10 billion in incremental debt and equity to support the growing data centre demand from the world’s largest hyperscalers. 

“In 2023, we entered emerging and high-demand data centre markets to meet the needs of our customers as artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies continue to advance,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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News

The operator says the bot can deliver ‘human-like interactions with customers’ and is able to handle sophisticated consumer requests

Today, Vodafone UK has become the first operator in the country to launch a large language model (LLM) chatbot, introducing the novel technology for its VOXI customers.

The chatbot, which has been developed in conjunction with Accenture UK, is built on ChatGPT architecture and will reportedly be used to deliver more nuanced customer service.

According to Vodafone, the new chatbot can successfully handle ‘sophisticated consumer requests’ delivered in naturalistic language. The example provided below shows the chatbot handling a relatively sophisticated request around pricing, which would typically be hard for a more generic chatbot to answer accurately.

“VOXI is using generative AI to fundamentally reinvent its business. The customer experience is only the start of how this technology can be adopted at scale across the organisation,” said Accenture UK’s Generative AI Lead, Mark Farbrace.

Vodafone also notes that the AI has been developed using an AI safety framework aimed at protecting customers and ensuring ‘the responsible and ethical deployment of AI technology’.

The chatbot will initially be trialled with a small number of customers, with a wider rollout expected to follow once any initial issues have been identified and corrected.

Chatbots are certainly nothing new for the telecoms industry, which has used them to various degrees of success for many years. GenAI-based chatbots, however, are potentially far more exciting, offering not only a more flexible and personable experience for the customer, but also the potential for individually personalised consumer offerings.

Is AI going to reshape what it means to be a telco in 2024? Join the discussion at Connected North 2024, live in Manchester

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News

Cellnex revealed late last year that its Irish unit was likely to be sold 

Florida-based wireless infrastructure company Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has announced a deal with Cellnex to acquire 100% of the latter’s Irish business for €971 million. 

Cellnex has been operating in Ireland since 2019, when it when it acquired tower operator Cignal as part of an agreement with CK Hutchinson to acquire its infrastructure portfolio in six European countries (which included Ireland). Since then, the number of towers Cellnex owns and operates in Ireland has grown to around 1,900 sites all of which will now be handed over to PTI. 

“The sale of our business in Ireland – at an appropriate valuation– is one further step within the company’s ‘Next Chapter’, in line with our strategy, to achieve the goal of consolidating, simplifying our corporate structure and focusing our efforts in the existing growth opportunities in the main markets in which we operate,” said Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano in a press release. 

Cellnex is on a mission to get its finances in order after its major M&A activities in recent years have left it  with a debt of €17.2 billion. 

This new focus was one of the main topics at Cellnex’s Capital Markets day in London this week, outlining its plans for the year ahead as the company switches its focus towards capital preservation. The company unveiled four new strategic pillars for their future organic expansion: 

1. Simple: Cellnex will undertake a strategic portfolio review to focus on core markets and divest from non-core business lines.
2. Focused: Towers will remain at the core of the business, but Cellnex will invest in selected business lines – DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems), SCs (Small Cells) & RAN (Radio Access Network) as a service; and wholesale fibre, connectivity & housing services – aiming to grow these from 11% to 15% of total revenues by 2027.
3. Efficient: Cellnex will launch a comprehensive efficiency plan to improve the EBITDAaL margin by 500 basis points to 64% in 2027.
4. Responsible: Cellnex will continue to commit to its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles within its strategic framework.

The full Capital Markets Day details can be found here. 

For PTI, on the other hand, appears to be on the opposite trajectory, with this purchase the latest in a number of moves in the European tower sector.  

Back in September, PTI announced the acquisition of 2,000 cell sites in urban France, now making it the largest market of the 21 in which PTI operates. In 2020, the PTI also struck a deal with Bouygues Telecom to build and operate 4,000 new tower sites in France over the next 12 years. 

The closing of the deal is subject to standards regulatory approvals. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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DALLAS, Texas, USA, Mar. 4, 2024 – DZS (Nasdaq: DZSI), a global leader of access, optical and AI-driven cloud software solutions, today announced that Rural Telecommunications America (RTA), a leading provider of next-generation internet services to rural communities across the United States, has deployed key products from the DZS Velocity fiber access and Helix subscriber edge portfolios complemented by the award-winning CloudCheck and Expresse software solutions to deliver “gigFAST^® ” internet, voice and video services to RTA’s residential and business customers in Texas’ Bolivar Peninsula. RTA, which manages more than 13,000 fiber route miles across its 22-state footprint, is upgrading targeted fixed wireless access (FWA) networks to state-of-the-art fiber-to-the-premises (FTTx) access networks. By upgrading its Bolivar Peninsula network to DZS solutions, RTA will be the first to bring fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and multi-gigabit speeds to more than 6,000 residential and business customers in the region.

“DZS is the ideal partner to help us to continue delivering on our mission to bring gigFAST INTERNET communications services to rural communities across America,” said Donald Workman, Chief Operating Officer, RTA. “After a thorough due diligence process during which we evaluated numerous vendors to upgrade our FWA network to a FTTH network in the Bolivar Peninsula, DZS and their best-in-class fiber access, ONT and AI-driven cloud technology were the clear choice. Their multi-gig services ready technology and advanced experience management and network assurance software enables RTA to aggressively bridge the digital divide and help build economic and social prosperity for the residents and businesses in this market.”

“RTA is committed to bringing fiber and their gigFAST INTERNET capabilities to communities seeking superior broadband, voice and video services on the outskirts of Houston and across the country,” said Jeff Liening, SVP Americas Sales, DZS. “We are proud that RTA selected our Velocity, Helix, CloudCheck and Expresse solutions to support their mission after what was an extremely comprehensive evaluation process. Winning projects like this is the ultimate validation of the value our award-winning solutions can deliver, and with rural fiber deployments ramping up across the country we are extremely well-positioned with our comprehensive set of market-leading solutions to help leading service providers like RTA in their ongoing efforts to close the digital divide and make high-speed communications services accessible to all Americans. We look forward to continuing to support RTA as they rapidly build out and upgrade their network to fiber.”

DZS solutions deployed by RTA include:

• DZS Velocity V16 – this environmentally hardened access edge system offers a “system-on-a-card” architecture and enables cost-effective support for any gigabit or multi-gigabit service from Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) to 10 Gigabit Symmetrical (XGS)-PON and beyond
• DZS Helix 2466 – a portfolio of next-generation PON home gateways featuring dual-band WiFi 6 with whole-home wireless extensions, carrier-grade voice services and support for DZS CloudCheck
• DZS CloudCheck and DZS Expresse – these AI-driven advanced network assurance and WiFi management solutions combine with advanced analytics to help ensure an exceptional subscriber experience while enabling extraordinary operational agility

The portfolio of DZS Access, Subscriber and Cloud Edge solutions are Build America, Buy America (BABA)-ready and designed to support the needs of rural fiber deployments all across the U.S. both today and in the future. DZS solutions are standards-based, have proven interoperability with most vendors’ equipment and can be readily managed and orchestrated alongside third-party solutions.

To learn more about DZS, visit https://www.dzsi.com.

About Rural Telecommunications America

RTA’s gigFAST NETWORK^® is comprised of over 13,000+ fiber route miles and Fixed Wireless Access provides affordable gigFAST INTERNET^® to rural America; enabling residents to connect online for their entertainment, e-learning, telemedicine and telework. For more information, visit rtatel.com.

RTA, RTA logo, Rural Telecommunications of America, Inc., gigFAST, gigFAST INTERNET, gigFAST VOICE, gigFAST NETWORK are Trademarks of RTA.

About DZS

DZS Inc. (Nasdaq: DZSI) is a global leader of access, optical and AI-driven cloud software solutions.

DZS, the DZS logo, and all DZS product names are trademarks of DZS Inc. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective holders. Specifications, products, and/or product names are all subject to change.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect the beliefs and assumptions of the Company’s management as of the date hereof. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. The Company’s actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, those risk factors contained in the Company’s SEC filings available at www.sec.gov, including without limitation, the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and subsequent filings. In addition, additional or unforeseen affects from the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic climate may give rise to or amplify many of these risks. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. DZS undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason.

For further information see: www.DZSi.com
DZS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dzs_innovation
DZS on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/DZSi/

Press Inquiries:

Kenny Vesey, Thatcher+Co.
Phone: +1 973.518.3644
Email: kvesey@thatcherandco.com

NEWS

Fastwyre Broadband, a leading provider of high-speed and affordable fiber optic networks across the United States, has invested $65 million to enhance networks and expand into Louisiana regions. Formerly Cameron Communications, the company, with roots dating back to 1928, has evolved to revolutionise internet accessibility as Fastwyre Broadband.

Moss Bluff, Cameron Parish, Carlyss, and other Louisiana areas will benefit from internet speeds ranging from 2 to 10 gigabits per second, surpassing nearby city hubs.

CEO Chris Eldredge emphasises the commitment to delivering top-tier connectivity at affordable rates, aligning with the company’s deep-rooted history and pride in Louisiana.

“Our deep-rooted history in Louisiana, dating back to 1928 when our predecessor company ‘Cameron Communications’ was founded, fills us with immense pride as we continue to serve residents and contribute to the growth of businesses in this vibrant region. This connection drives our investment of over $65 million to expand and fortify our fiber optic infrastructure to digitally empower local communities for decades into the future.”

The investment focuses on fortifying fibre optic infrastructure to digitally empower local communities. Fastwyre’s reliable network, featuring symmetrical speeds, no data caps, and affordable bundles, caters to residential and business needs, fostering community support. The company stands at the forefront of innovation, investing in a rapidly growing, state-of-the-art fibre network, with a commitment to serving communities in need of enhanced connectivity.

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News 

Pressure on the public sector to embrace AI must be “constant and relentless”, he said Deputy PM Oliver Dowden

The UK government has announced that it will test AI systems to increase efficiency and productivity within the civil service. 

Roles that the AI systems could assume include administrative work, analysing responses to government consultations, and drafting preliminary responses to parliamentary inquiries. 

The number of civil servants has skyrocketed in recent years, increasing by over 100,000 since 2016, reaching 519,780 last year. During the same period, the number of employees earning a six-figure salary has also doubled. 

Therefore, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ordered public services to cut spending to pay for tax cuts, and is expected to signal reductions in income tax or national insurance in next week’s Spring Budget. 

As such, AI is seen as a key technology in making the bureaucracy of government more efficient and reducing staffing costs. 

“It really is the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction,” said Dowden speaking to the Telegraph. 

“Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and, and EU exit preparedness. We need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down,” he continued. 

Dowden also cited a recently published report from think tank IPPR which concluded the government could save around £24 billion by increasing AI adoption, which Dowden confirmed is “the sort of target we should be aiming for”. 

Similar AI trials were also announced with the NHS, covering many fields such as diagnostics and prescription tailoring, which if given the go-ahead, will save hundreds of millions of pounds.  

The Deputy PM stressed that pressure on the public sector to adopt AI must be “constant and relentless”, adding “we can’t have the private sector adopting it at pace, and then us being laggards”. 

To aid in this AI transition, the ‘i.AI’ – the team of scientists, engineers, and experts commissioned last year by the government to work with various public sector departments in the adoption of AI – will be doubled in number, reaching 70 personnel.  

Keep up to date with the latest telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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News 

At MWC this year, we sat down with Igor LePrince, Chief Executive Officer of Boldyn Networks, to discuss their European operations and recent M&A activity 

Today, Boldyn Networks has announced the completion of its acquisition of Cellnex’s private networks business.  

The acquisition, which was originally announced in November last year, will primarily consist of Cellnex’s Finnish subsidiary Edzcom, which designs, builds, and operates private 4G and 5G networks in numerous markets across Europe.  

This is quite the turnaround for Cellnex, which itself had only acquired Edzcom in 2020.  

Speaking to Total Telecom at this year’s MWC, Boldyn CEO Igor LePrince said that the acquisition was a demonstration of the company’s increasing focus on the growing private network market. 

“Private networks have been one the pillars of our strategy for the last two to three years…. and acquiring probably the biggest private networks company in Europe is very exciting for us,” said LePrince. 

Explaining the acquisition further, Le Prince explained that the deal serves three key purposes for Boldyn: 

1. Acquiring a team of around 40 people who have are experts in deploying and running private networks for the past seven years,
2. Acquiring the credentials of Cellnex in the verticals in which they operate, such as the oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and energy sectors, which Boldyn can then make use of in other parts of the world,
3. and taking over an existing portfolio of over 50 private networks across Europe.

Beyond the company’s M&A activity, LePrince explained how Boldyn has been investing hugely in Italy in preparation for the Pope’s jubilee in 2025, deploying small cells, implementing Wi-Fi coverage on the metro line, and around the main piazza in Rome.  

LePrince emphasised that this has been no easy task, describing the deployment around the city as “difficult” because of the poor quality of existing infrastructure and extensive bureaucracy related to new deployments. 

The project is one of the biggest concessions that the company are sharing with a municipality as part of a joint public–private investment. 

He draws a comparison to its partnership with the city of Sunderland, where Boldyn are deploying new use cases for smart city technology and digital infrastructure, hoping to elevate it to become the UK’s most advanced smart city. There are three networks to make these use cases a reality: a free Wi-Fi network running through the city, a narrowband IoT network, and a 5G network. 

LePrince emphasises that this is something that must be pushed on enterprises and cities to understand. Municipalities need to understand that they cannot afford to wait for operators to invest. They need to contribute to this process themselves if they really want the benefits a highly connected smart city can offer”  

When questioned on “why Sunderland?”, Le Prince explained that Sunderland Council and Boldyn shared a vision of the city’s digitalisation as a differentiator to attract investment .  

“The city and Boldyn had the same vision. The city was big enough to be able to play with everything, but small enough (with a population of around 200,000 people) to execute the project.”  

A perfect combination of scale and ambition like this is hard to find, said LePrince, and is greatly helped by the presence of a proactive council.  

Nonetheless, LePrince says there is a major opportunity for the company’s expansion of the neutral host model. Given , the capital expenditure pressure on operators today, LePrince says that there is “no way” that that cities can continue to sustainably deploy connectivity without adopting some form of neutral host approach.  

Catch Boldyn Networks’ partner Sunderland City Council at this year’s Connected North – 22-23 April in Manchester – get your tickets now!

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