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News 

The formation of the joint venture had been under discussion for over a year 

Telefónica’s proposed sale of its Peruvian fibre optic network to private equity firm KKR and Chilean telecom operator Entel has collapsed, representing a major setback in the Spanish telecom giant’s efforts to streamline operations and reduce debt.  

The deal, announced in July last year, would have seen KKR and Entel acquire a 54% and 10% stake in the network, respectively, valuing the business at approximately €550 million, including debt, according to reports. The newly created joint venture, dubbed On Net Fibra de Peru, would become Peru’s first open first independent open access wholesale fiber optic network, with KKR aiming to more than double the network’s coverage to 5.2 million by the end of 2026. 

The deal was cleared by the Peruvian competition regulator in September, leaving the way seemingly clear for the deal to go ahead. 

Last week, however, Entel disclosed the breakdown of negotiations in a Peruvian regulatory filing, citing unfulfilled closing conditions.  

“Pangea has communicated that, due to the failure to comply with certain closing conditions stipulated in the SSA (in reference to the agreement), related to a parallel transaction between KKR and Telefónica Hispam regarding Pangea that will not materialize, Telefónica Hispam has expressed its intention to formally document the termination of the SSA. To date, the parties to the SSA are in discussions regarding the terms and conditions of said termination,” explained Entel in a statement. 

Telefonica had planned to use the sale proceeds to cut its debt by €200 million, aligning with its broader strategy to divest non-core assets and focus on key markets like Spain, Brazil, and Germany. 

Telefónica has been actively selling off assets in recent years, including its tower businesses and shares in fibre ventures across Europe and Latin America. These moves are aimed at tackling its €26 billion debt burden and free up capital to investment in 5G and digital infrastructure in key markets. 

KKR has a history of investments in critical telecom infrastructure – including most recently in Telecom Italia – has partnered with Telefónica in other fibre-related ventures, including acquiring its Chilean wholesale fibre optic network in 2021. 

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South African telco Vodacom says it has launched the first 4G base station in the village of Thathe Vondo in Thohoyandou, Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo province as part of its effort to expand rural coverage in the country.

The new 4G site, located in Thathe Vondo’s Tshivhase Nature Reserve, will serve thousands of households in the area that up to now had no mobile coverage at all, Vodacom said in a release issued Thursday.

Vodacom said the site in Thathe Vondo is part of the telco’s Rural Coverage Network Expansion Programme, which aims to expand network coverage for people who live in deep rural areas of South Africa.

Vodacom said it has invested over R750 million in network rollout and capacity upgrades in the past two years across Limpopo province. In the past financial year alone, Vodacom Limpopo has deployed 14 new base station sites in Thohoyandou.

Earlier this month, Vodacom Limpopo said it had activated ten new base station sites, including two 5G and eight 4G LTE sites, connecting people in Malamulela, Polokwane, Lebowakgomo, Burgersfort and Hoedspruit.

Omphile Mosegedi, executive head of operations for Vodacom Limpopo, said the base station in Thathe Vondo will empower communities there to gain access to digital services and the economic benefits therein.

“As a result of this deployment, school-going kids can now access the internet for the first time and have the option of using online learning platforms, whilst those who are actively looking for jobs can now use their smartphones to access jobs portals that are zero-rated for Vodacom subscribers,” he said in a statement. “Crucially, community members who previously had to travel long distances to make calls and do banking will be doing this on their devices from the comfort of their homes without incurring and save on travelling costs.”

Benin-based broadband provider Isocel Telecom has announced ambitious plans to expand its network to reach up to half a million households, emphasising that fibre is still essential to fill the gaps that mobile connectivity cannot yet address.

Speaking to Developing Telecoms at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, Isocel Telecom’s Founder and CEO, Robert Aouad (pictured), revealed that the company has already connected 100,000 households with 80,000 serviceable plugs and is now entering the second phase of its deployment. This next phase will increase the number of active plugs from 20,000 to 80,000, supported by €20 million in funding. The expansion aims to improve service quality and enable the launch of new offerings, such as on-demand Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

Aouad explained that the first phase of Isocel’s rollout focused on densely populated urban areas, resulting in the provider now serving between 8,000 and 10,000 subscribers. The company also offers Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services for areas not yet covered by its fibre network. FWA accounts for 10% of Isocel’s subscribers, catering to customers in regions without broadband infrastructure.

Reflecting on the journey, Aouad highlighted a significant reduction in the cost of internet access, which now stands at $25 per month—down from hundreds of dollars a decade ago. A key factor in achieving this affordability, he noted, was Isocel’s access to international bandwidth through its participation in cable consortiums, including the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system. “That helped a lot because we’re not buying IP on the market. Also, because we own the network, we can reduce costs, and our return-on-investment model focuses on the mid- to long-term rather than the short term,” Aouad explained.

The CEO also echoed calls from telecom executives across Africa for lower taxes on the sector, arguing that such reductions are critical to financing costly network expansions. High tariffs imposed by governments seeking to fund public services have posed challenges to operators, he added.

Partner Article

The deployment, which Huawei says is the world’s first ‘large-scale integrated 5G-Advanced intelligent network’, will provide services to over 10 million people in the Chinese capital

China Unicom Beijing has deployed a far reaching 5G-Advanced network covering stadiums, schools, scenic areas, metro stations, commercial areas, residential areas, and other facilities in Beijing. 

The new three component carrier (3CC) network will provide 5G coverage for roughly 10 million customers within Beijing’s 4th Ring Road and the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, 85% of which will use the latest 5G-Advanced technology.  

This 5G-Advanced network offers greater speeds (up to 10 Gbps), improved network capacity, spectral efficiency, and coverage versus existing 5G networks. These capabilities make the new network perfect for supporting the latest consumer use cases, such as immersive videos, UHD live streaming, and cloud gaming, according to China Unicom and it tech partner Huawei. 

But perhaps the most important aspect of this new network – at least from China Unicom’s perspective – will be its integration with AI and machine learning.  

The operator has built in end-to-end automation for sites based on user service data, including AI-powered optimization of provisioning, services, iteration, and inspection. This will not only help the sites to operate more efficiently, resulting in cost savings for the operator, but allow for the rapid deployment of new services automatically, without manual intervention. In this way, this automated process will reduce the provisioning time from days to minutes.  

These AI capabilities will require significant compute power to function effectively. As a result, China Unicom is deploying the necessary compute infrastructure alongside the sites themselves, allowing AI workloads to be handled locally, at the edge.  

China Unicom says it is the first operator to implement this network self-provisioning and self-optimisation in lightweight scenarios.  

“Large bandwidth can quickly improve user experience. Only by providing 10-gigabit network capabilities can we guarantee a gigabit experience for all users. This time, we’ve built a large-scale integrated 5G-Advanced intelligent network to bring a better experience to all China Unicom users across Beijing,” said Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing. “We are confident that, based on Huawei’s advanced technologies and our smart operations capabilities, we will provide users in Beijing with an increasingly better network experience in the future.” 

5G-Advanced shines at Workers’ Stadium and the Great Wall 

As part of the public network deployment, China Unicom has paid special attention to the recently reopened Workers’ Stadium, one of the country’s largest football stadiums. The stadium will be supported by numerous 5G-Advanced 3CC sites, both inside and outside, allowing customers to receive download speeds of over 10Gbps. 

“Field tests recorded a downlink peak rate of 11.2 Gbps, allowing a crowd of up to 68,000 people to simultaneously and smoothly watch 1080p videos. Meanwhile, the uplink peak rate reached 4 Gbps, sufficient to support services like UHD shallow compression,” explained Huawei in a statement.  

The stadium’s 5G-Advanced network will also support novel use cases, including those related to the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Internet of Things (IoT), and extended reality (XR) split rendering. 

Alongside Workers’ Stadium, another area receiving a significant 5G-Advanced network deployment from China Unicom is the Great Wall Scenic Area, situated roughly 70km northeast of Beijing. This area is one of the Great Wall of China’s best preserved and most picturesque sections, receiving over 1.4 million visitors annually.  

Here, China Unicom has worked with the local Yanqing District Government to deploy 5G-Advanced base stations at scale, offering the area 5G coverage both on the ground and at low altitudes of up to 300 metres. This ensures that visitors to the Wall and the surrounding area can enjoy uninterrupted network coverage wherever they are, helping to support tourism, logistics, and emergency rescue. 

As user demands on the network continue to increase and AI use continues to scale, 5G networks must continue to evolve. Telcos around the world will be watching this deployment from China Unicom closely, hoping to take key lessons for their own 5G-Advanced upgrades in the near future. 

News

The European parliament has approved Ursula von der Leyen’s selected commissioners for her second term as President of the European Commission

Earlier this summer, Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected as President of the European Commission, granting her a second five-year term as head of the European Union’s most powerful institution. Now, this week has seen von der Leyen’s selection of European Commissioners ratified by parliament, setting the stage for a new European regulatory era to begin next year.

“This is the Europe that I love. And this is the Europe my Commission will always devote itself to. Because I believe that our generation of Europeans must once again fight for freedom and sovereignty. For the freedom that the people of Ukraine are heroically fighting for. For the freedom to shape our own future in a confrontational and unstable world. But this freedom is not just an abstract word. It is about Europeans knowing that their families will be safe. Their country protected. That they will be able to afford to buy food or heat their homes, with decent wages and fair prices. That they will be able to seize opportunities. And that they feel in control of the change – and the speed of change happening – in society,” said von der Leyen said in a speech this week.

“Our fight for freedom may look different to generations past. But the stakes are just as high. And, honourable Members, these freedoms will not come for free. It will mean making difficult choices. It will mean massive investment in our security and prosperity. And above all it will mean staying united and true to our values. Finding ways to work with each other – and overcoming fragmentation. This is what I – and all 26 women and men with me – will strive for every single day. We are ready to get to work immediately.”

In terms of the incoming Commission’s priorities, von der Leyen spoke of closing the innovation gap between Europe, the US, and China, with a heighted focus on European R&D and international competitiveness. Digital technology, naturally, will be a keystone here, with Finland’s Henna Virkkunen being appointed to lead this strategic approach as Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.

As far as telecoms regulation is concerned, the other key figure being appointed to the Commission is Spain’s Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, who will become Executive Vice-President for the Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. Rodríguez will be tasked not only with accelerating the bloc’s decarbonisation, but also with overseeing its competitive landscape and State Aid framework.

Exactly how Virkkunen and Rodríguez will approach telecoms regulation remains to be seen, but the first significant indicator will likely be the legislative proposal for the Digital Networks Act, which Virkkunen will be required to prepare early next year. This Act will include a framework for the governance of the bloc’s telecoms sector and is likely to have a major impact not only for telcos but also Big Tech.

You can find the full list of Commissioners-designate here.

The UK’s telecoms landscape is changing rapidly. Join the operators in discussion at Connected North 2025 live in Manchester

Also in the news:
Sweden asks Chinese ship to return for investigation after Baltic Sea cable damage
Australia regulator dishes out midband spectrum for private networks
BT unveils new managed SASE service 

News 

The group’s formation is timely, following the high-profile damage to subsea cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month 

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) have joined forces to create a new advisory group focused on protecting submarine cables.  

Submarine cables carry over 99% of international data, making them essential for everything from online shopping and financial transactions to digital health services and education. However, is critical infrastructure is vulnerable to damage from fishing, anchoring, natural disasters, equipment failures, and potentially deliberate sabotage, with around 150 to 200 faults reported each year, according to data from the ITU. 

As such, this newly formed advisory body will bring together governments, industry leaders, and experts to develop best practices for protecting cables, speed up cable repairs and deployment efforts, and reduce risks to existing cables. 

“The formation of this International Advisory Body with ITU marks another step toward safeguarding our global digital infrastructure,” said ICPC Chair, Graham Evans in a press release. 

“By working together, we can promote best practices, foster international collaboration, and create a consistent approach to protect the vital submarine cable networks that underpin global connectivity,” he added. 

The advisory group currently includes 40 members, including government ministers, telecom regulators, and industry experts. It will be co-chaired by Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and Sandra Maximiano, Chair of Portugal’s National Communications Authority (ANACOM). 

The group will meet at least twice a year, with the first virtual meeting planned to take place next month. A physical meeting at the Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Nigeria will follow in February. 

The formation of this advisory group comes just days after a pair of submarine cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, putting the submarine cable industry under the international spotlight. An investigation into the cause of the damage is already underway, with European governments saying at the time that they feared the incident could be an intentional act of sabotage on behalf of malicious state actors.  

This week the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson requested that Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 return to Swedish waters as part of the investigation, as the incident occurred inside Sweden’s exclusive economic zone (the area of the sea to which a country has exclusive rights). The ship was in the area at the time of the damage. 

Just yesterday, it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal that the ship is currently surrounded European vessels after investigators suspect that the ship deliberately dragged its anchor 100 miles across the Baltic Seabed.  

The investigation is still ongoing and the ship’s crew is cooperating.  

“Neither sabotage nor an accident can be ruled out,” said Katja Bego, a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House, speaking to Reuters. 

Join us at next year’s Submarine Networks EMEA in London. Discounted tickets available here! 

Also in the news:
VMO2 launches UK’s first 5G standalone small cells in Birmingham
BT says Labour’s budget will cost company £100m
Vodafone Spain and Telefonica complete FibreCo deal

Public utility Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) and mobile network operator and ISP MTC have announced a partnership to modernise Namibia’s water sector through digital innovation – and, importantly in a country where supply is more limited than most, save water.

NamWater and MTC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) early this week with the stated aim of enhancing service delivery, optimising operations and integrating cutting-edge technologies. These technologies will include smart water metering, digital payment systems, data analytics and cloud computing, all used to streamline water management and resource allocation. The implementation of such technologies will, it is hoped, help to reduce water losses and improve services across the country.

The partners also highlight joint research efforts which, they say, will foster the development of tailored digital solutions for water utilities in Namibia.

This agreement is more than just helpful; it could be crucial. As the Ecofin news service points out, Namibia is one of the driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with limited water resources due to its arid climate. Recurring droughts and over-extraction of groundwater remain critical challenges.

Meanwhile, water demand is growing, and inefficient water management is a pressing issue. Losses from leaks, overuse, and mismanagement hit potential revenue and worsen water scarcity. Technology adoption can help to address these inefficiencies and enhance water management.

Indeed, Ecofin says that Namibia has earmarked N$10.82 billion (about US$598.8 million) for water infrastructure development, aimed at improving access and ensuring sustainable resource management.

This partnership is at an early stage; specific details and a timetable are not yet available. Nevertheless it provides a useful reminder of the positive effects IT and telecoms can have in water-deprived areas, especially at a time when data centre rollout in particular is straining water supply in places like Mexico.