News

The move will allow Lumos to ramp up its fibre network rollout across America 

Wireless carrier T-Mobile US has joined forces with EQT, a Swedish investment firm, to launch a new joint venture (JV), through which they will acquire fibre provider Lumos.   

Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provider Lumos currently provides fibre broadband and Wi-Fi services to 320,000 households focussing on Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

Following its acquisition by the newly formed JV, the business will transition to a wholesale model. T-Mobile will take over customer relationships and use its brand to attract new subscribers.  

The joint venture will focus on identifying markets, engineering and designing networks, network deployment, and customer installation, according to T-Mobile. 

As part of the acquisition, T-Mobile says it will invest $950 million in the JV, giving it 50% equity in the business.  

T-Mobile is expected to invest an additional $500 million by 2028, which Lumos will use to expand its fibre rollout to 3.5 million homes by the end of 2028.  

“As the demand for reliable, low-latency connectivity rapidly increases, this deal is […] a significant step forward in expanding on our broadband success and continue shaking up competition in this space to bring even more value and choice to consumers,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert in a press release. 

EQT has already been a key investor in Lumos for six years, scaling the company and rolling out fibre to underserved areas.  

“We look forward to continuing to leverage EQT’s considerable digital infrastructure and fibre expertise to support the significant fibre  buildout ambitions of T-Mobile and the JV,” said EQT Partner Jan Vesely.  

“This new effort will build critical fibre broadband infrastructure that will enable remote work, education, and healthcare use cases across the country,” she continued. 

The transaction is expected to close in to early 2025 at the latest, pending regulatory approval.

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China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile were ordered by the Federal Communications Commission to halt their fixed or mobile broadband internet operations in the United States, further escalating tensions between the two countries. 

Reuters reported, the order will also apply to another Chinese telecoms firm Pacific Networks and its subsidiary ComNet.

The Chinese companies must discontinue their services within 60 days from the net neutrality order approved on April 25.  

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the commission had evidence that the telecom operators were provisioning broadband services in the US, and it had cited national security concerns to revoke or deny Chinese firms to provide telecom services. 

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks pointed out China Telecom advertised on its website that it operates 26 points of presence in the US and offers colocation, broadband, IP transit, and data centre services.

The commission had stated national security concerns surrounding Chinese access to POPs located in data centres.

« They are interconnecting with other networks and have access to important Points of Presence and data centres, » Starks said, urging « a closer look at the threats that adversarial providers pose to our data and data centres, » said the FCC.  

Previously the commission had denied requests by US companies to sell equipment to Huawei and ZTE stating it posed “an unacceptable risk” to national security. 

TikTok on the clock

On another front of the trade war between the US and China, ByteDance, owner of popular social media app TikTok, prefers to shut down its app if all legal options are taken to prevent its ban on app stores in the US. 

US officials touted the Chinese company selling its app and its algorithms to a US buyer, but ByteDance refuses to give up its core algorithm that recommends videos to users, as it is essential to its business, said a source speaking to Reuters. 

Around 170 million users are recorded in the US. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said he expects the company to win a legal challenge to block a legislations signed by president Joe Biden to ban the social media app. The legislation was launched on the grounds that it can access American citizen data or use the ap for surveillance. 

News

The plastic waste removed is the equivalent weight of five double decker buses 

UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has announced that it has successfully removed 65 tonnes of single-use plastic from its operations and products since 2021. 

The effort is part of the company’s Better Connections Plan, which broadly commits to ensuring the business operates in a sustainable and ethical way. One of the plan’s primary aims to achieve zero waste operations and products by the end of 2025. 

In partnership with engineering company Technetix, VMO2 has removed almost 18 tonnes of single-use plastic from the equipment and tools used by engineers. This includes eliminating plastic bags, foam, blister packs, and plastic straps from packaging. The company has also replaced plastic ties with paper ties on cables. 

Collaborating with logistics firm GXO, the company has also reduced single-use plastic from packaging containing products sent to cable customer by 94%. 

Additionally, adopting plastic-free packaging for product delivery and returns has allowed the company to prevent approximately 22 tonnes of single-use plastic going to waste each year. 

“GXO and Virgin Media O2 are working together to create a supply chain that is as environmentally responsible as it is efficient and reliable,” said Meagan Fitzsimmons, GXO’s Chief Compliance and ESG Officer in a press release. 

“Companies have to reduce single use plastics from their supply chain to meet regulatory requirements and environmental goals. These results show what’s possible with a best-in-class partnership,” she continued. 

In related news, this week it was revealed that VMO2 was one of three operators (in addition to Three and Vodafone), who had their plea for a deadline extension of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) denied by the UK government. 

Dean Creamer, the head of Building Digital UK (the government body overseeing the project) confirmed this week that the authority has denied a request by the three mobile operators to delay the first phase deadline by 18 months.  

The current deadline to remove all ‘partial not-spots’ is in June. Only EE, the UK’s largest operator, met this deadline so far, doing so in January. Last October, The Telegraph reported that Vodafone and Three in particular were operators were “miles behind” in the project, according to unnamed sources. 

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Malaysia’s wholesale 5G operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) announced on Thursday that it has appointed new members to its board, whose first mission will be to finalise stakeholder ownership details and review DNB’s due diligence findings.

The five new board members represent Telekom Malaysia, Maxis, U Mobile, YTL and CelcomDigi’s Infranation, all of whom signed share subscription agreements (SSAs) in December 2023 to collectively take a 70% stake in DNB, with each taking a 14% stake, while the Minister of Finance (MOF) will hold the remaining 30% as well as a “special share”.

Joining the DNB board are Datuk Kamal Khalid (chief transformation officer from CelcomDigi), Uthaya Kumar K Vivekananda (independent director of Maxis), Chang Yit Fei (director of U Mobile), Nik Azli Abu Zahar (group counsel for Telekom Malaysia) and Datuk Seri Yeoh Seok Hong (MD of YTL Power International).

They will serve on the DNB board alongside incumbent board members, treasury secretary general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican and Digital Ministry deputy secretary Ma Sivanesan Marimuthu, DNB said in a statement. All appointments took effect on April 24.

According to The Edge Malaysia, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said in a statement on Thursday that the new DNB board is already planning to convene a meeting to discuss the remaining details to finalise the “condition precedents” that have to be settled before the SSAs can take effect. He also said the board will review “due diligence findings”.

Last week, a report from Channel News Asia, citing anonymous sources, claimed that negotiations over the details of the SSAs have stalled over disagreement on the condition precedents, as well as the appointment of board directors and the completion of three independent confidential audits on DNB.

The report also claimed that the due diligence reviews that would help telcos decide whether to stay in DNB or move to the government’s planned second 5G operator were still ongoing, despite originally being expected to be completed in January. The report also claimed that telcos were concerned over DNB’s alleged lack of internal transparency regarding supply tenders.

DNB firmly denied that the SSA negotiations have broken down. It also denied claims that it has not been transparent in its internal operations or tender processes.

News

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp is increasing spending to become a global AI leader 

This week, Meta released its Q1 earnings report, in which the company announced a heavy increase on AI spending, and confirmed its plan to turn the group into “the leading AI company in the world”. 

Revenue for the quarter totalled $36.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27% and just above analyst expectations ($36.2 billion). Total expenses reached $22.6 billion, a 6% increase. 

“It’s been a good start to the year — both in terms of product momentum and business performance,” said CEO mark Zuckerberg in the earnings call. 

Two key factors of the report appear to have worried investors, causing shares to plunge 15% in after-hours trading. 

Firstly, a weaker-than-expected Q2 revenue. Meta’s second-quarter revenue guidance fell short of analysts’ forecasts. The company expects overall sales to be between $36.5 billion and $39 billion, with the mid-point missing the estimated $38.2 billion. This cautious outlook has raised concerns about Meta’s ability to sustain its impressive performance so far. 

Secondly, Meta have announced an increase in AI spending, including AI training and high-computing chips in its data centres. Its capital expenditures for full-year 2024 are now projected to range from $35 billion to $40 billion, up from the previous estimate of $30 billion to $37 billion. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this was so Meta can “continue to accelerate our infrastructure investments to support our AI roadmap”. While not providing expenditure guidance beyond this year, Zuckerberg noted that it is expected to increase as the company is set to “invest aggressively” in AI R&D to compete with rivals such as OpenAI and Microsoft. 

Last week, Meta released the latest version of Meta AI, which is powered by its latest model, Llama 3. In the earnings call, Zuckerberg confirmed that the “goal with Meta AI is to build the world’s leading AI service both in quality and usage.” The company believes that Meta AI is the most intelligent free AI assistant. 

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

Also in the news:
South Korea to invest $7 billion in AI semiconductors
Swisscom expands 5G partnership with Ericsson
Daisy Group set to acquire 4Com for £215m

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Thai telco True Corp has launched artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for local businesses as it seeks to increase the share of AI-driven revenue in its digital services business to 30% by 2027.

True says its AI solutions, which include virtual service agents, smart retail solutions and AI-powered content will enable businesses to leapfrog to AI.

“We aim to integrate digital services into consumer and business segments to bridge gaps, provide equal access to digital resources, and ensure technology is accessible, affordable and beneficial,” True’s chief digital officer Ekaraj Panjavinin said at a True event promoting its AI solutions this week.

True is also promoting its own internal adoption of AI as proof that its AI solutions deliver on their promise, with Ekaraj saying that the company aims to automate 100% of its repetitive processes using AI within the next three years.

“By leveraging the exceptional capabilities of AI, proficiency in processing, and analyzing extensive datasets, we are able to build AI-driven platforms which integrate data across various sources for deep analytics, providing actionable insights to expand businesses in various industries,” he said. “AI can thereby unlock new business models, increase competitiveness for sustainable business growth, and serve consumers’ needs in the digital era with hyper-personalized experiences, while also driving productivity enhancements and cost savings.”

Bandith Pangpong, True’s head of IT and Security, added that AI is being used by its teams to develop solutions more rapidly. “By using artificial intelligence, we can do in a few hours what used to take days or weeks.”

However, in order for its business customers to get the most out of True’s AI solutions, they’ll need serious reskilling to transform their culture to not just be digital-ready, but “AI-driven”, said True’s chief human resources officer Sarinra Wongsuppaluk.

“A lot of organizations in Thailand are potentially ‘AI-ready,’ meaning they do have some proprietary data and digital initiatives in place,” she said. “But to become ‘AI-first’ requires a change in culture from experience-based, leader-driven decision making to data-driven decision making at the front line.”

That change shouldn’t be limited to the IT department, but across the entire organizsation, she said, pointing to True’s AI-powered chatbot “Mari” as an example. Sarinra explained that the teams working on Mari are set up as agile squads across IT, analytics, customer experience, customer service and robotics.

All of this means change has to start at the top, Sarinra added. “AI-first organizations need a C-Suite that understands this new technology and is entrepreneurial enough to adopt it.”