Today, Telus has announced its purchase of human-resources firm LifeWorks for $2.3 billion, including debt, with plans to combine it with the operator’s existing healthcare subsidiary, Telus Health.
Toronto-based LifeWorks currently runs pension plans, absence management, and other health support services for corporate clients…

Today, Telus has announced its purchase of human-resources firm LifeWorks for $2.3 billion, including debt, with plans to combine it with the operator’s existing healthcare subsidiary, Telus Health.

Toronto-based LifeWorks currently runs pension plans, absence management, and other health support services for corporate clients. 

These capabilities will be integrated with Telus Health’s existing service offerings, creating a holistic mental health and wellness platform.

Once combined, Telus Health will have a revenue of roughly $1.6 billion, with corporate clients in over 160 countries. 

“Today’s announcement will enable us to combine the respective skills and capabilities of LifeWorks and Telus Health, creating a globally leading, end-to-end, digital-first employee preventative and mental health and wellness platform covering more than 50 million lives,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO of Telus.

Telus Health initially began life back in 2008, when the operator purchased Emergis, a Canadian medical records business. Since then, the company has now grown to offer a wide variety of healthcare-related services, including virtual medical care, health benefits management, and e-proscription services. 

The motivation for the acquisition appears to be primarily one of scale, with Telus suggesting that the changing corporate environment post-pandemic is putting an increasing emphasis on employee-wellness services.

“Access to care is a big challenge, and mental health is a growing theme across the world,” said Telus Health’s VP of virtual care Daniel Martz. “Employees are increasingly expecting to receive broader health and wellness and work-life support in this environment.” 

As always, the acquisition will await the typical approvals from regulators and shareholders, with Martz telling analysts on a conference call earlier today that he expected the process to the “smooth sailing”. 
 

The Malaysian government is this week standing firm against pressure from telcos to change its strategy surrounding 5G mobile services. 
Rather than auctioning off 5G spectrum, as is the norm in most countries around the world, in 2021 Malaysia chose to set up a national wholesale 5G network operator, DNB. The government reasoned that this would allow for a faster and more equitable rollout of the new technology across the country and greatly reduce unnecessary overbuild by rival operators…

The Malaysian government is this week standing firm against pressure from telcos to change its strategy surrounding 5G mobile services. 

Rather than auctioning off 5G spectrum, as is the norm in most countries around the world, in 2021 Malaysia chose to set up a national wholesale 5G network operator, DNB. The government reasoned that this would allow for a faster and more equitable rollout of the new technology across the country and greatly reduce unnecessary overbuild by rival operators. 

The existing mobile players, however, disagreed, saying that the prices DNB charged were too high and that they would have been able to deploy 5G in a more effective and affordable way themselves. 

By the end of 2021, only a few very minor mobile players had signed up for DNB’s services, leading the government to change tack in early 2022 and offer the telcos a combined 70% stake in DNB.

While this plan was initially met with approval from the telcos, upon closer inspection they insisted that individual minority stakes would still not offer them good value. The four largest operators – Digi Telecom, Celcom Axiata, Maxis, and U Mobile – made a joint suggestion that those four alone should own a combined 51% stake of DNB, but this was rejected by the government last month. 

Now, the operators have a deadline of the end of the month to agree to a stake or else lose out on access to 5G spectrum entirely. 

Today, despite pushback from the mobile industry, the Malaysian government is sticking to its guns, saying that the end-of-the-month deadline will stand. If the telcos refuse, then licences could instead be offered to new market entrants.

« The larger issue is Malaysians’ and businesses’ access to 5G technology. If telcos, particularly the larger ones, continue to delay providing 5G services to their customers, as recently mentioned by the Minister of Communications and Multimedia, his Ministry will consider other options such as issuing new licences to new players to enable the speedy delivery of 5G services in the country,” said Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul to The Straits Times. « Indeed, the interests of Malaysia and its people must take precedence over the telcos’ narrow commercial interests. »

The Malaysian government has estimated that the rollout of 5G could create around 750,000 high-value jobs and boost the economy by almost $15 billion by 2030.

He said that no operator will be allowed to hold a stake in DNB greater than 20%, or 25% in the case of mergers between the operators, while the Ministry of Finance will retain its 30% stake.

“All 5G spectrum will be available only through DNB,” he said. “DNB is able to obtain financing to fund the network rollout because 5G services will undoubtedly be in demand in the country. I am aware that DNB has discussed financing with various banks.”

According to sources, various private equity firms are also interested in taking stakes in DNB.

Nonetheless, Tengku Zafrul said that telcos would be prioritised over any foreign investors if they do choose to invest. 

With less than two weeks to go, the future of Malaysian 5G is balanced on a knife edge.
 

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Also in the news: 
ITU’s Partner2Connect project sees $18.5 billion in pledges to connect the unconnected
Telefonica strikes deal with German fibre association to connect 5G sites
Enterprise data opportunities in the 5G era

This week, reports from the covert activist group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) suggest that Burmese operator Mytel is helping the military junta track defecting soldiers via their SIM cards. 
Back in 2018, before the commercial launch of Mytel, the operator launched a sales campaign called Aung Ta Khon (‘Banner of Victory’), handing out free SIM cards to soldiers with the backing of military leadership. 
Having been given access to data pertaining to the soldiers&’…

This week, reports from the covert activist group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) suggest that Burmese operator Mytel is helping the military junta track defecting soldiers via their SIM cards. 

Back in 2018, before the commercial launch of Mytel, the operator launched a sales campaign called Aung Ta Khon (‘Banner of Victory’), handing out free SIM cards to soldiers with the backing of military leadership. 

Having been given access to data pertaining to the soldiers’ name, rank, and ID number, Mytel then assigned SIM cards to each soldier that corresponded to the soldiers’ military ID, typically prefixed with 0969. In this way, the military could easily identify its troops by their phone numbers alone.  

It is worth noting that the choice of 0969 is seemingly no coincidence: the 696 Movement is a Buddhist nationalist movement that broadly opposes the Islamic religion within Myanmar. 

Now, JFM is alleging that the military is using these SIMs to track the movements and conversations of its soldiers, saying that a number of soldiers trying to defect had been arrested after having used their Mytel SIMs.

“Two soldiers connected with us via their Mytel SIM cards because they cannot buy another SIM card at the frontline,” explained Nyi Thuta, a former captain the Burmese military who defected after the coup and now helps others to do the same. “Later, they were arrested while on their way to us.”

Following the Aung Ta Khon promotion, similar SIM cards were given to government officials and business leaders in the country, many of whom, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, have since been detained by the military junta following the coup.

JFM is calling on Mytel to be sanctioned by the international community, saying that the company’s profits are being used by the military to commit crimes against humanity.

« Mytel is a product of the Myanmar military’s systemic corruption, supporting war criminals including Min Aung Hlaing and the illegal military junta that he is heading, with revenue, technology and intelligence,” said JFM spokesperson Yadanar Maung speaking to Radio Free Asia.

As a joint venture between the Burmese military and Viettel, controversies surrounding Mytel’s relationship to the military are nothing new.

Granted a telecoms licence in 2017, the company has since been embroiled in numerous scandals due to its links to the military, including having receiving preferential treatment by the government and launching nationalistic disinformation campaigns over social media.

Following the military coup d’état against the government in February 2021, Mytel has been boycotted by Burmese consumers, with the resulting campaign reportedly resulting in a loss of around $25 million in profits and two million subscribers in the two months following the overthrow.

Since then, the company has seen hundreds of its mobile towers sabotaged by resistance groups, with its leadership even being targeted for assassination. In November last year, Thein Aung, Mytel’s chief financial officer and a former navy officer, was shot dead outside his home in the capital of Yangon. It is currently unclear who was responsible for the attack.

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

Also in the news: 
ITU’s Partner2Connect project sees $18.5 billion in pledges to connect the unconnected
Telefonica strikes deal with German fibre association to connect 5G sites
Enterprise data opportunities in the 5G era 

The top reported business challenge in the last year, according to a study on CEOs’ most important business challenges in 2022 by Forbes, Covid-19 continues to concern business leaders, alongside other worries such as rising inflation, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and changing consumer behaviours.  
More specifically, companies are struggling to provide a consistent and holistic omnichannel experience for their customers while blending remote and in-person work.  
 
For many organisations, improving the management of customer data is their top customer experience (CX) priority over the next 12 months. This is because they recognise that creating the immersive, personalised, and compelling experiences customers expect comes from integrated customer data systems, improved uses of customer data to generate insights…

The top reported business challenge in the last year, according to a study on CEOs’ most important business challenges in 2022 by Forbes, Covid-19 continues to concern business leaders, alongside other worries such as rising inflation, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and changing consumer behaviours.  

More specifically, companies are struggling to provide a consistent and holistic omnichannel experience for their customers while blending remote and in-person work.  

For many organisations, improving the management of customer data is their top customer experience (CX) priority over the next 12 months. This is because they recognise that creating the immersive, personalised, and compelling experiences customers expect comes from integrated customer data systems, improved uses of customer data to generate insights, and the combining legacy technology with modern, cloud-based solutions. 

What is the metaverse and who is using it? 

This is where the metaverse comes in. It is largely a virtual world that represents the data that companies collect about their customers – and, of course, customer data is a top CX priority for executives.  

Many notable companies are already venturing into the metaverse, such as Sky, Disney, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and Nike. However, getting started on the journey is a struggle for many businesses, who are often challenged with getting executive buy-in and with aligning internal leadership teams to support the adoption of what is a more holistic platform and accompanying strategy. 

How can you make the metaverse more immersive? 

Three of the key elements to consider when starting out on your metaverse journey are augmented reality, 3D assets and 360° video file creation and avatars. 

1. Augmented reality  

More and more businesses are capitalising on the increasing popularity of augmented reality (AR). 

However, the technology needs specialised equipment and software to create the illusion of an object added to the real world, such as smart glasses or headsets. And these in turn need cameras and sensors in order to create a smooth and seamless AR experience, not to mention 5G and enough power to process real life images, creating the AR object which will be superimposed by the projector (which is also required, at an expense!) 

2. 3D assets and 360° video file creation 

3. Avatars – 3D digital characters 

Traditionally when a customer interacts with a chat bot online, it’s been through automated messages, an often impersonal and sometimes unempathetic and frustrating experience. 3D avatars instead offer the customer a digital character to engage with, empowering companies to connect more authentically with their audiences. 

Modern avatars can show emotion and empathy through their facial expressions and speech patterns, powered by audio-driven speech animation technology. They can even react to sentiment from the customer, all of which combines to give a more meaningful interaction. 

Will there be major changes to CX in the metaverse? 

Consumers can definitely expect to see familiar services be tailored to suit the metaverse. One defining characteristic of CX in the metaverse is that it will be a more interactive and potentially more complex version of its real-world counterpart. 

Service provider brands have several key points they should consider, including: know your target audience; make sure you have the technology needed to operate optimally in the metaverse; prioritise creating virtual-first experiences that truly are virtual; and conduct studies and testing to learn more about the buyer’s journey, so that you can appropriately modify it to fit into the context of the metaverse. 

However, a word of warning. Companies should avoid adopting virtual CX and then forcing it to become something that it’s not. They should instead focus on building a metaverse channel that can be used to meet individual customer needs efficiently and with empathy in a whole new space. 

Many brands, particularly from the e-commerce and retail industry, have become early adopters of this exciting new technology – and there is no doubt that companies who are able to dive into the metaverse have an opportunity to strengthen relationships with their loyal supporters and to gain new fans. 

Find out more on how you can innovate your customer experience today in preparation for future metaverse environments, by attending Capita’s virtual roundtable Make Way for the Metaverse: Planning for the new CX Universe.