Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
Apple has announced a new multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement with Broadcom, a leading U.S. technology and advanced manufacturing company. Through this collaboration, Broadcom will develop 5G radio frequency components — including FBAR filters — and cutting-edge wireless connectivity components. The FBAR filters will be designed and built in several key American manufacturing and technology hubs, including Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major facility.
“We’re thrilled to make commitments that harness the ingenuity, creativity, and innovative spirit of American manufacturing,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “All of Apple’s products depend on technology engineered and built here in the United States, and we’ll continue to deepen our investments in the U.S. economy because we have an unshakable belief in America’s future.”
Apple already helps support more than 1,100 jobs in Broadcom’s Fort Collins FBAR filter manufacturing facility, and the partnership will enable Broadcom to continue to invest in critical automation projects and upskilling with technicians and engineers. Across the country, Apple supports more than 2.7 million jobs through direct employment, developer jobs in the thriving iOS app economy, and spending with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers and manufacturers of all sizes in all 50 states across dozens of sectors.
5G technology is shaping the future of next-generation consumer electronics — and Apple is spending tens of billions of dollars to develop this field in the U.S.
These investments are part of the commitment Apple made in 2021 to invest $430 billion in the U.S. economy over five years. Today, Apple is on pace to meet its target through direct spend with American suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the U.S., and other domestic spend.
Following the introduction of 5G technology to Apple devices in 2020, Apple has helped expand and expedite 5G adoption across the country, driving innovation and job growth among companies that support 5G innovation and infrastructure. 5G coverage and performance also continue to expand around the world, and more users are benefitting from faster connectivity as they upgrade to 5G-capable products.
A subsea deployment, two data center buildouts, and some Ethernet for AI: … [visit site to read more]
Less than a year after we reported that Brazilian data centre firm Odata had opened its first Mexican data centre to add to its operations in Brazil, Colombia and Chile, it has been sold.
Aligned Data Centers, a technology infrastructure company, offering innovative, sustainable and adaptive scale data centres and build-to-scale solutions for global hyperscale and enterprise customers, has completed the acquisition of the Latin American data centre provider.
The completion comes five months after the deal was unveiled and four months after it was okayed by Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade.
It’s a very big acquisition. In fact the transaction positions Aligned among the largest private data centre operators in the Americas, with a footprint spanning in excess of 2.5 GW of critical capacity across over 40 data centres at full buildout. Odata will not disappear, however. It will now operate as Odata, an Aligned Data Centers Company, led by CEO Ricardo Alário.
With operational facilities strategically located across Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as additional data centres currently under development across Latin America, Odata is among the fastest growing hyperscale data centre platforms in the region.
An important factor, and one that Aligned weighed heavily when evaluating its acquisition, is Odata’s long-standing investment in renewable energy. This is said to be consistent with Aligned’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives. In fact, Odata recently acquired a minority stake in Omega Energia’s 212 MW wind farm, located in the northeast region of Brazil. Currently, approximately 85 to 90% of the energy consumed by the company’s data centres is renewable.
Today, following a public consultation, the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced that it will allow Openreach’s proposed Equinox 2 fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) discount scheme.
The scheme, building on the previous Equinox 1 offer, will see Openreach charge cheaper wholesale rates for ISP customers purchasing FTTP products, a move which they say will allow ISPs to become more competitive with alternative network providers.
The regulator said that the decision is “consistent with promoting investment in gigabit-capable networks by Openreach and other operators and promoting network-based competition”. They note that while Equinox 2 will make competition for altnets more intense, the conditional terms in the offer “do not create a potential barrier to using altnets”.
“This is good news for customers as it means lower prices and long-term certainty – encouraging the switch to faster, more reliable broadband connections. It’s also good news for the UK, as it supports our continued multi-billion-pound investment in upgrading the country’s broadband infrastructure,” said Katie Milligan, Openreach’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We take our legal and regulatory obligations extremely seriously and we’ll continue to compete fairly whilst delivering an unrivalled, nationwide service and choice for customers.”
For the UK’s altnet community, however, the decision is much more troubling, with some having previously claimed that Equinox 2 is anticompetitive, serving to lock-in ISP customers with Openreach by offering prices that altnets cannot match and creating a major barrier for entry for new prospective network builders.
Part of the fear here is that Equinox 2 could be merely a stepping-stone to even greater discounts in the future, with Ofcom offering no real resistance; indeed, Openreach’s proposals for Equinox 2 came less than a year after Equinox 1 first came into effect in 2021.
In this regard, however, the altnets are likely to have a level of certainty, with Openreach saying that they will not change the Equinox 2 pricing scheme or introduce further changes (i.e., a potential Equinox 3 scheme) until the end of March 2026.
“We are disappointed Equinox 2 has been approved and will be undertaking a thorough review of Ofcom’s decision. We are, however, pleased to see Ofcom’s pressure has brought about the end of Equinox, with a commitment from Openreach to make no further changes to its wholesale pricing until April 2026,” said Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, the UK’s largest altnet.
“We must not forget that while introducing price discounts to bind its wholesale customers and damage emerging competition, BT is at the same time significantly increasing prices for millions of its retail consumers. Ofcom must ensure that competition is effective and sustainable if consumers are to benefit.”
BT, like many UK telecoms providers, increased their prices above inflation rates earlier in March this year, with BT increasing the prices for consumers by 14.4%.
The potential effects of Equinox 2 on the UK fibre market were one of the major talking points at this year’s Connected North conference in Manchester, with Openreach, Ofcom, and a number of ISPs and altnets sharing their views with the wider community.
At the event, we interviewed Gita Sorensen of GOS Consulting, who explained that much of the criticism levelled against Equinox 2 from the altnet community was not necessarily an attack of Openreach itself, but rather the transparency of Ofcom’s decision making process.
[embedded content]
Indeed, a statement from the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) today had similar misgivings over Ofcom’s methodology.
“Whilst we are still reviewing Ofcom’s statement in full, INCA is initially disappointed with Ofcom’s decision. Not only do we believe that this outcome will have a negative impact on competition and investment and ultimately consumers, we also believe that Ofcom’s approach to taking this decision was flawed,” read the statement. “This initially seems to be an illogical decision based on a questionable process. Government policy and regulatory decision making now appear to us to be out of sync when it comes to infrastructure competition. We call on government to clarify its Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom to ensure that the regulator is compelled to put issues of infrastructure competition and investment at the heart of its decision-making process.”
On the other hand, CEO of Zen Internet, Richard Tang, was a vocal defender of the offer’s competitive qualities, tackling the topic on the keynote stage and further explaining his position in an interview with Total Telecom.
[embedded content]
Tang reiterated this opinion today, saying that Zen was pleased that Ofcom had given the offer the green light, saying it was “crucial in making full fibre broadband more accessible and affordable for millions of households across the UK”.
While Equinox 2 is sure to have a significant effect on the UK fibre market, particularly when it comes to accelerating altnet consolidation, the full extent of its impact will not be apparent for many months to come.
How is the UK’s telecoms ecosystem changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference
Also in the news:
Tusass: Connecting Greenland’s remote communities
Watchdog hits Eir with €2.45m fine for overcharging customers
SENSE: Nokia and Citymesh launch national drone network in Belgium
There was a bit of consolidation in the last mile yesterday in the northeast. Archtop Fiber says it has entered into a stock purchase agreement with Momentum Telecom to acquire Warwick Valley Telephone (WVT), continuing their regional expansion in upstate New York. … [visit site to read more]
Today, Altice UK has revealed that it has increased its stake in BT to 24.5%.
Altice UK, owned by French billionaire Patrick Drahi, was already the UK operator’s largest stakeholder, having grown its stake to 18% over the past 18 months.
Drahi formed Altice UK back in 2021 with the express purpose taking a 12.1% stake in BT for around £2 billion. At the time, Altice assured BT that it had no intention of presenting the telco with a takeover offer.
Later that year, Altice increased its stake by a further 6% to 18%, a move which set alarm bells ringing at BT and set in motion a number of defensive measures to shore up the company’s operations against a potential takeover. Despite this, Altice remained adamant that stake increase was merely a valuable investment opportunity rather than a precursor to a potential takeover.
Indeed, even with the latest stake increase today, Altice says that it is not considering a takeover, with Drahi noting that he will not seek a seat on BT’s board. In a short statement from Altice, the company said it “continues to hold [BT’s] management in high regard and remains fully supportive of their strategy”.
The timing of this stake increase is interesting, arriving just days after BT announced it would be cutting 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade as part of broader cost-cutting measures. According to the operator, around a quarter of these roles will be subsumed by rapidly advancing technologies like AI and automation, allowing for increased agility and efficiencies.
The news, which was delivered alongside BT’s latest financial results, saw shares fell over 7%, perhaps making them a more attractive prospect for Altice to invest.
It is worth noting that the new stake is just below 25% is no coincidence, with the UK’s National Security and Investment Act (NSIA) automatically requiring an investigation into any foreign company that holds a 25% or greater stake in a business deemed critical to national security, such as BT.
In fact, Altice’s stake in BT already faced a probe via the NSIA last year, though this was later called off by the Secretary of State.
How is the UK’s telecoms ecosystem changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference
Also in the news:
Tusass: Connecting Greenland’s remote communities
Watchdog hits Eir with €2.45m fine for overcharging customers
SENSE: Nokia and Citymesh launch national drone network in Belgium
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
Lots of interesting items going on around the world this week: … [visit site to read more]
The slightly confusing saga of Brazilian operator Oi continues. It is now seeking a huge sum of money in emergency funding.
In other words, the judicial process involving the recovery plan of Brazilian service provider Oi, which seemed to be over in December, may be far from finished.
Now Oi plans to seek emergency funding of at least 4 billion reais (about US$805.3 million) as well as to renegotiate debts.
The company’s board approved the plan last Friday. We may have to wait for more precise details of the measures Oi and its subsidiaries will adopt in order to strengthen its capital structure. However, the emergency funding will, one assumes, support the company while it carries out some of the measures provided for in the plan, including a capital increase and divestment of assets.
It has already sold a number of assets but, according to local news source TeleTime, it may now sell almost everything else, including its corporate arm, Oi Solucoes and its stake in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) wholesale unit V.tal.
Quoted in the same news source, the company apparently says that the plan reflects the negotiations held to date with its main creditors and other stakeholders for debt restructuring. It adds: “We continue negotiations with financial creditors and other unsecured creditors regarding the specific terms and conditions.”
Oi has been under judicial protection since mid-March this year. Its judicial reorganization plan was granted by Rio de Janeiro’s 7th Corporate Court. However, as we reported at the time, the company’s board also had a 60-day deadline to submit to regulator Anatel various details of cash flow, sources of funds and financial forecasts and, notably, “justification for the differences between what was realized and what was foreseen”.
