Two bits of M&A and a minority stake: … [visit site to read more]

Malaysian broadband operator Time dotCom announced on Friday it has formalised a strategic Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with local cybersecurity services company LGMS to strengthen Malaysia’s cybersecurity ecosystem.

Under the MoC, Time and LGMS aim to establish an integrated cybersecurity collaboration framework tailored to Malaysia’s regulatory, operational and threat environment, as well as joint innovation in AI-powered cybersecurity technologies, threat intelligence, security analytics and advanced security operations.

The framework is intended to help enterprises, public sector organisations and regulated industries strengthen cyber resilience, improve operational readiness and support secure digital transformation, said LGMS founder and MD Fong Choong Fook.

“Cybersecurity today requires more than individual technologies. Organisations need an integrated engagement framework that brings together advisory, governance, continuous monitoring, incident response and operational intelligence,” he said in a statement. “By partnering with Time, we are combining complementary strengths to deliver cybersecurity capabilities designed specifically for Malaysia’s regulatory and operational environment.”

Time and LGMS said the collaboration will also focus on developing joint cybersecurity go-to-market initiatives to accelerate cybersecurity adoption across Malaysian enterprises and public sector organisations, and strengthening Malaysia’s digital sovereignty through locally hosted infrastructure, sovereign AI capabilities and local cybersecurity expertise.

Time and LGMS also aim to develop capabilities through knowledge exchange, skills development and operational readiness initiatives.

The project will combine Time’s digital infrastructure, secure connectivity, managed security operations centre (SOC) capabilities and network intelligence with LGMS’ cybersecurity advisory, governance, risk and compliance, security assessment, threat intelligence and incident response expertise, said Azhar Adnan, CEO of Time’s Enterprise & Public Sector unit.

“Cybersecurity is no longer just about protecting systems. It is about enabling organisations to innovate with confidence,” he said in a statement. “As businesses embrace AI, cloud and digital transformation, trusted digital infrastructure becomes the foundation that underpins resilience, governance and business continuity.”

The UAE-headquartered operator group e& is selling its 16.21% stake in Vodafone Group to Vega, an acquisition vehicle wholly owned by the family of French billionaire Xavier Niel, for £4.4 billion (US$5.95 billion).

The deal values the stake at £1.10 a share, and confers upon Vega 17.13% of the total voting rights in Vodafone Group. Through the acquisition, Niel is now the largest shareholder in the UK-headquartered operator.

In a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, e& stated: “following a comprehensive strategic review of its international investment portfolio, e& Group terminated the relationship agreement with Vodafone and its board representative has stepped down from his position as a non-executive director of Vodafone.”

The board representative in question is e& Director Hatem Dowidar, who has held the seat on Vodafone’s board since the two operators signed a strategic partnership in May 2023. E& first acquired a 9.8% stake in Vodafone in 2022 and has increased this holding in the years since.

Manish Pravinkumar of Canalys told us that the move should not be read as e& losing faith in Vodafone, but instead stepping back from its ambition to be a global telecom and tech player, and refocusing capital on its core, home-market businesses.

Noting that e& described the sale as a “natural evolution of its strategic priorities, enabling it to sharpen strategic focus on core businesses while unlocking the value created through this investment”, Pravinkumar argued that this indicated that the decision was based on capital discipline rather than a negative view of the asset.

« e& has decided a large, non-controlling minority stake in a European turnaround doesn’t fit with where it wants to deploy capital right now”, said Pravinkumar. “The roughly $1.3 billion in net cash this frees up is likely headed toward markets where e& has direct operational control and clearer near-term growth visibility — its home base in the UAE, along with key growth markets like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and its wider Africa footprint, where it can shape strategy directly rather than sit as a passive minority shareholder overseas.”

While the deal awaits regulatory approval, e&’s shares are to be sold off simultaneously and held by three financial institutions. The deal is expected to provide e& with a net cash return of around AED 4.7 billion (US$1.3 billion).

India has approved a joint venture between Chinese smartphone vendor Vivo and electronic manufacturer Dixon Technologies, as the government continues to strengthen domestic electronics manufacturing under its Make in India strategy.

The approval was granted on 8 July, allowing Vivo’s Indian unit and Dixon to move ahead with plans first announced in December 2024 to establish an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) focused on producing electronic devices in India.

In a statement, Dixon said the joint venture will manufacture electronic products, “including smartphones”, subject to customer requirements and the completion of the proposed transaction.

Once the company is formally established, Vivo Mobile India and Dixon will finalise the operating structure and governance of the partnership.

The venture comes as India continues to position itself as a global smartphone manufacturing hub, attracting major investments from companies including Apple suppliers such as Foxconn, Tata Electronics and Dixon itself. The country has become an increasingly important alternative manufacturing base as global technology firms diversify production beyond China.

The partnership also aligns with the Indian government’s Make in India initiative, launched in 2014 to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on imports. A key pillar of that strategy has been the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, under which the government committed around INR1.97 trillion (US$23 billion) across multiple manufacturing sectors, including INR410 billion (US$5 billion) specifically for large-scale electronics manufacturing.

The programme has helped drive billions of dollars in smartphone production and exports, with Apple and Android device makers increasingly using India as both a manufacturing and export base.

This Industry Viewpoint was written by Todd Humphreys, WEI GTM Cybersecurity GTM Leader

AI is now embedded across modern security tools and systems that help telecom operators detect vulnerabilities and threats faster and at a greater scale. Security processes that once took weeks of manual analysis can now be completed in just minutes, dramatically increasing visibility across distributed Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure, core networks and virtualized environments. … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

The former BT Openreach executive brings more than 25 years of broadband and wholesale telecoms experience

nexfibre, the joint venture between InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global and Telefónica, today announced the appointment of Ses Indy as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), strengthening its senior leadership team as the company executes its mission to build a scaled national wholesale alternative to BT Openreach.

Indy joins nexfibre from BT Openreach and brings more than 25 years of experience across digital infrastructure and fixed telecommunications. Throughout his career, he has held senior commercial leadership roles and worked closely with major communications providers, including Sky, Vodafone and PXC with a particular focus on wholesale strategy and customer growth.

At nexfibre, Indy will lead the company’s commercial strategy, revenue growth and customer engagement activities. His appointment comes at a significant moment for the business as it progresses its planned acquisition of Netomnia, a transaction expected to unlock £3.5 billion of international investment and create a combined network footprint of approximately 8 million premises by the end of 2027.

A three-time recipient of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work award, nexfibre is continuing to scale its wholesale platform and accelerate the rollout of next-generation digital infrastructure across the UK.

Ses Indy, Chief Commercial Officer at nexfibre, said:

“I am delighted to be joining nexfibre at such an exciting and important stage in its growth journey. I look forward to working with the leadership team to drive commercial growth, deepen partner relationships and help deliver the benefits of high-quality full-fibre connectivity to homes and businesses across the country.”

Rajiv Datta, Chief Executive Officer of nexfibre, said:

“The board and I are delighted to welcome Ses to nexfibre. He brings deep industry expertise, a strong track record of commercial leadership and extensive experience of the wholesale broadband market. As we enter our next phase of growth and work towards creating a scaled national wholesale challenger, his leadership will be instrumental in expanding our commercial reach, strengthening customer partnerships and delivering on our long-term ambitions.”

How is the UK connectivity landscape changing in 2026? Join the industry in discussion at Connected Britain 2026

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Multinational cloud telephony provider, LoopUp, and leading Caribbean and Central America communications provider, Digicel, have formed a strategic partnership to sell LoopUp’s Operator Connect telephony platform and service for Microsoft Teams across the Caribbean region.

Service will be offered to the enterprise market, leveraging Digicel’s extensive reach, in-country presence, and trusted business relationships. Customers will be able to integrate their regionwide business telephony with Teams in accordance with Microsoft’s certified deployment model, Operator Connect. Users will be able to make and receive calls from any device running Teams, benefiting from a simple and unified communications experience, and enterprises will be able to make significant cost savings by eliminating all legacy PBX equipment.

“Partnering with Digicel is a significant milestone in LoopUp’s international expansion,” said Steve Flavell Co-CEO of LoopUp. “Not only are we bringing the first Operator Connect capability to the region with Digicel, but we’re also extending our market-leading global country coverage for our multinational enterprise customers, who are headquartered elsewhere in the world but have operations throughout the region.”

For Digicel Business customers, the partnership adds a flagship, next-generation enterprise voice capability to the operator’s growing portfolio of cloud services. Digicel Business serves thousands of organizations across sectors including financial services, hospitality, government, and energy, many of whom have standardized on Microsoft Teams, and are now looking to bring their telephony under that Teams-first, unified communications umbrella.

“Our customers are asking for smarter, simpler ways to communicate,” said Liam Donnelly, Chief Business Officer for Digicel Group, “and Microsoft Teams has become the platform of choice for many of them. By partnering with LoopUp, we can give our enterprise customers a seamless, fully managed Teams telephony experience, regionwide and now globally, leveraging the simpler and more cost-effective Microsoft-certified Operator Connect approach and backed by the local support and network reach only Digicel can provide.”

The service will be available to Digicel Business customers from July 2026.

About LoopUp

LoopUp helps multinational enterprises consolidate how they buy and manage their global Microsoft Teams telephony, offering phone numbers and full cloud-based, PSTN-replacement service in more than 100 countries around the world. We liberate multinationals from the frustrations, complexities and inefficiencies of working with multiple regional carriers, each with their own contracts, pricing, support teams and management portals. LoopUp offers a single and consistent global solution, combining design, deployment, service delivery and support – provided globally and all integrated with Microsoft Teams and bringing calling data into the enterprise AI dataset. LoopUp is headquartered in London with operations around the world.

About Digicel

Digicel is a leading digital connectivity and communications provider, delivering modern wireless and fiber networks across 25 markets in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Serving nine million customers through mobile, home, and business solutions, they play a critical role in enabling economic participation and digital inclusion in the region. Their commitment to strong governance, inclusive access, and long-term value creation is embedded in how they operate every day. Backed by their DIGI values – Diversity, Integrity, Growth, and Innovation – their 5,000 employees are focused on driving impact for the customers, communities, and countries they serve.

For more information, please visit: https://www.digicelgroup.com/

Three interesting new regional fiber projects, one by a new name: … [visit site to read more]

Airtel Africa reduced diesel consumption by 9.1 million litres during its 2025/26 financial year as the operator accelerated efforts to lower emissions and improve the sustainability of its network operations.

The operator achieved the reduction by decreasing its reliance on diesel generators and converting 390 network sites to grid power, improving energy efficiency while cutting carbon emissions.

Speaking at a media briefing in the Zambian capital of Lusaka,  Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar said responsible growth remains central to the company’s strategy, balancing network expansion with environmental stewardship, digital inclusion and socio-economic development.

As part of its wider sustainability programme, Airtel Africa also recycled 94% of the waste generated across its operations during the year as it continued promoting circular economy initiatives.

The operator’s network now covers 81.9% of the population across its 14 African markets, while its mobile money business continued to expand. Airtel Money ended the year with 54.1 million customers supported by 2.4 million agents, with women accounting for 44.1% of its customer base.

News

The fibre and fixed wireless access (FWA) specialist has struggled to attract customers to use its network at scale

Following a strategic review, alternative network provider Airband has begun a formal sale process.

Related documents were sent to prospective buyers this week, with the company seeking “the right long-term owner”.

It could also face debt restructuring, according to two anonymous sources speaking to the Financial Times.

“Following a strategic review of the business and its future ownership, Airband has commenced a formal sale process to identify the right long-term owner for the company,” a spokesperson told ISPreview. “Airband continues to operate and trade as normal throughout the process. Our network remains fully operational and there is no impact on customer services or day-to-day operations.”

Airband’s full fibre network currently covers around 175,000 premises and a further 265,000 are covered by FWA. Of this total footprint of around 440,000 premises, only around 30,000 premises are customers – far below the level the company would need to recoup the costs of its expensive network deployment in the short term.

Airband has been struggling to improve its position for years, with its first round of restructuring and job cuts taking place in 2024. More changes and redundancies were announced earlier this year, with the company claiming it was shifting its focus to “transitioning towards operational maturity, with a focus on long-term sustainability, enhanced customer experience and efficient delivery.”

Airband’s operating loss this year increased to £47.23 million, with total liabilities of over £224 million. Total assets were reported at £179.81 million.

Exactly who might purchase Airband remains unclear. The UK’s largest altnet, CityFibre, has long had ambitions of being the UK’s key fibre network consolidator, notably earmarking around £800 million of its £2.3 billion in fresh funding last year for M&A. However, the company has been facing its own financial challenges of late, largely related to its £3.7 billion in debt that was restructured in January.

Virgin Media O2 and its sister company nexfibre would be the next obvious choice, but these parties already have their hands full with the £2 billion acquisition of Netomnia.

At a time when altnets across the country are looking to make deals, finding a suitable partner could be a lengthy process.

How is the UK connectivity landscape changing in 2026? Join the industry in discussion at Connected Britain 2026

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