Press Release

AXIAN Telecom, one of the leading pan-African telecom groups, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Vivek Badrinath to its Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director (NED)

Before his new appointment, Mr. Badrinath spent three years at Vantage Towers AG where he was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board. He led the establishment of the towers company in 2020, facilitated its IPO in 2021, and eventually its sale to Private Equity in 2023. Under his leadership, Vantage Towers effectively managed 88,000 telecom towers across eight European countries.

Mr. Badrinath has held extensive leadership roles within the telecommunications sector. In 2016, he assumed the position of CEO of Africa Middle East Asia Pacific at Vodafone, joining their Executive Committee. In this capacity, he provided oversight to Vodafone’s operations across various regions including the Vodacom Group, India, Australia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and New Zealand. Additionally, he served as the Interim CEO of Vodafone Business during his tenure. Prior to his time at Vodafone, Mr. Badrinath held key positions at Orange, starting in 2004 as the CTO of Orange Mobile before advancing to the Group CTO. His journey at Orange culminated in his appointment as CEO of Orange Business Services and subsequently as Deputy CEO of Orange Group, where he spearheaded initiatives in Innovation, Marketing, and Technology.

He also served as the Deputy Chief Executive at the renowned international hospitality group Accor Hotels where he was responsible for overseeing marketing strategies, digital solutions, distribution channels, and information systems.

Hassanein Hiridjee, Chairman of the Board commented: “We are delighted to welcome Vivek Badrinath to the AXIAN Telecom Board. Badrinath’s leadership in managing telecom infrastructure and driving strategic growth aligns perfectly with AXIAN Telecom’s vision of responsible expansion across Africa. With his wealth of knowledge and commitment to excellence, we are confident that he will make significant contributions to our mission of enhancing connectivity and improving the lives of communities throughout the continent. On behalf of the Board, I extend our warmest welcome to Badrinath.”

 “I’m thrilled and deeply honored to become a part of AXIAN Telecom. Drawing from my experience and expertise in the telecommunications sector, I am looking forward to playing a pivotal role in driving AXIAN Telecom to new heights in Africa. I firmly believe that together, we can make a substantial and noteworthy impact across the continent,” said Mr. Badrinath about his appointment.

Mr Badrinath also previously served on many boards as a Non-Executive Director including Nokia, GSMA, Atos and Accor Group.

He is a recipient of the French Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit.

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Also in the news:
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News

The telco has been hard at work upgrading its network to the new architecture since the start of the year 

This week, Vodafone Germany has announced its network construction update for the first quarter of this year. Within this time frame, Vodafone has made strides in bolstering mobile connectivity infrastructure across the country, completing over 1,200 construction projects.  

According to the company, this effort, which averaged 13 projects daily, underscores the company’s commitment to enhancing its LTE and 5G network capabilities. 

During this period, Vodafone commissioned 155 new base stations and upgraded almost 500 existing stations to 5G standalone (SA), which Vodafone calls 5G+. Nearly 170 measures were implemented to address LTE dead spots, ensuring more consistent coverage across the country. 

Deploying 5G SA constituted almost 40% of the total construction efforts. As a result, approximately half of Germany’s population now has access to Vodafone’s 5G+ network. 

Favourable weather conditions in March 2024 further expedited construction efforts, with over 550 locations seeing project completion. On average, three new mobile phone stations were activated daily during this period, contributing to the integration of 67 new locations into the Vodafone network. 

In related company news, last month Vodafone Germany announced that it will cut 2,000 jobs over the next two years as part wider company restructuring. It is hoped that the move will save the company €400 million. 

The cuts are part of cost-cutting measures announced by new Group CEO Margherita Della Valle in May last year, in which 11,000 jobs are expected to be cut globally over the next three years. 

 “Vodafone wants to make itself even simpler, faster, leaner and therefore more powerful in the next two years,” said Vodafone Germany CEO Philipp Roggein a speech to employees. 

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

Also in the news:
FCC rejects SpaceX’s request for spectrum
Amazon invests $2.75 billion in AI startup Anthropic
T-Mobile gets green light to appeal class action lawsuit

Remittances are in the news yet again, this time in the shape of LemFi, a cross-border payment solution that allows people in the diaspora to send and receive funds back home. LemFi has announced that it has secured the approval of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to operate remittances in Kenya.

LemFi, formerly Lemonade Finance, provides a mobile app that enables Kenyans in other countries to send money home. As the Techpoint Africa news service explains, Kenyans in the United Kingdom, the US and Canada, for example, can send funds to Kenya in minutes via financial institutions such as M-Pesa, mobile money wallets, and bank accounts, with no fees.

The LemFi app also provides a Kenya shillings wallet offering, allowing users to fund their accounts with mobile money and to open accounts. Users can exchange their shillings for a number of foreign currencies including US dollars and British pounds.

In Nigeria LemFi is licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria as an International Money Transfer Operator. This enables it to directly partner with banks to deliver its services and conduct inbound money transfers to Nigeria in line with regulations. It also operates in Ghana and recently signed a new deal with Visa’s Cross-Border Solutions division to expand its operations into new global markets like China, India, and Pakistan.

With the new Kenyan licence, the company says it can focus its resources and efforts on providing secure and efficient services while adhering to CBK’s regulatory framework.

LemFi is part of a burgeoning and highly competitive remittance market. Less than a month ago we reported that, in LemFi’s home market of Nigeria, neobank Kuda had won a licence allowing it to offer remittance and multi-currency wallet services to Africans living in Canada.

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications on Thursday launched a new push to drive adoption of eSIM among prepaid subscribers by allowing them to keep their existing number when they make the switch.

Under the latest promotion, Smart Prepaid subscribers can upgrade their physical SIM to an eSIM for a fee of Php99 (around US$1.75) and keep the same number.

Smart is also hoping to entice non-Smart prepaid users to switch to its service, saying that they can switch their physical SIM to a Smart Prepaid eSIM at no charge.

In both cases, subscribers must have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, and they have to go a Smart stores to make the switch.

According to Smart’s head of Prepaid, Lloyd R. Manaloto, Smart prepaid customers need to bring their current physical SIM and a valid government ID. Non-Smart have to obtain their Unique Subscriber Code from their current network provider, and submit required documents such as a valid government ID, a screenshot of their current balance, and a signed application form, among others.

Smart launched its prepaid eSIM service in July 2023, but up to now, subscribers couldn’t keep their old number. Jerome Y. Almirante, head of Innovations and Digital Services at Smart, said this is the first eSIM service in the Philippines that lets prepaid customers keep their old number.

“By being able to upgrade their physical SIM to an eSIM while keeping their number, mobile users avoid the usual hassles that come with having a new number – from tediously informing your contacts to painstakingly updating apps and online accounts linked to your number,” Almirante said. “With this new capability in place, we’re making it a lot easier and more convenient for subscribers of all networks to finally enjoy the many benefits of eSIM technology.”

Smart’s rival Globe Telecom began offering a prepaid eSIM for local users last month via its GlobeOne App after a six-month delay. However, for the time being, only iOS users can access the eSIM option in the app, according to Unbox.ph, and users must change numbers.

Globe has been offering prepaid eSIMs to tourists and business travellers visiting the Philippines since the end of last year. That eSIM is available for iOS and Android phones.

Insight  

At MWC this year, we caught up with Ari Banerjee, Senior Vice President at Netcracker Technology, to discuss the importance of data security as telcos increasingly adopt Generative AI (GenAI) solutions 

Undoubtedly, the biggest topic at this year’s MWC was GenAI and the many ways telcos are looking to incorporate it into their businesses, both to increase efficiency as well as generating new revenues. But in order for telcos to fully embrace AI effectively, a successful digital transformation of the telcos themselves is paramount. 

“What we’re seeing with our customers is that first you need to really digitally transform yourself. You need to have the right data,” says Banerjee.  

“So, data transformation becomes a precursor to any AI ML (machine learning) strategy, because at the end of the day, if you have garbage data – duplicate data and old legacy data – it just doesn’t match up with services. You are not going to be able to use AI in the right way.” 

Even when a digital transformation has successfully been undertaken, the issue of data security still looms. As more and more companies adopt the use of GenAI, data security will become more of a problem. EY’s Global head of telecoms declared the issue the biggest risk in the entire telco sector for 2024, because the rise of GenAI is putting a strain on data governance. For example, much of the data fed into GenAI models is highly sensitive and cannot be shared to the public cloud. 

Netcracker are tackling this complexity through their GenAI Telco Solution, which was launched last September. Functioning alongside the telco GenAI models (such as large language models [LLMs]), GenAI users, and the telco BSS/OSS databases, this solution supplements the GenAI model with real-time instructions to elicit the most relevant responses, and protects sensitive customer data from public models. 

Thus, Netcracker are playing the key role of an integrator, allowing telcos to make use multiple LLMs and SLMs (small language models), each specialised for a specific purpose. 

“Somebody in the middle needs to be able to take the best parts of it and then interface that and use that with the information from the network information databases […] and provide the right contextual information, whether to the internal team who’s dealing with let’s say, BSS/OSS operations, or the external teams, which is your customer,” Banerjee explained. 

“This is one of the most exciting areas for this new technology,” said Banerjee. “Providing the right contextual offer to the customer through an automated channel.”   

You can check out our full interview with Ari Banerjee, Senior Vice President at Netcracker from the link below: [embedded content]

News

The UK’s antitrust watchdog said the operators had declined to offer remedies to the Authority’s competition concerns

Today, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will launch a Phase 2 investigation into the £15 billion merger between Vodafone UK and Three UK, a move that would shrink the number of mobile players in the market from four to three.

The regulator said last month that it was considering launching this full-blown investigation into the merger, saying that the companies had “made a number of claims about how their deal is good for competition and investment” without providing “sufficient evidence to date to back these claims”.

At the time, the CMA offered the operators five days to suggest remedies to assuage these concerns. Now, a little more than a week later, the regulator has announced the investigation will proceed, noting that both Vodafone and Three declined to propose concessions to ease the CMA’s competition fears.

In a joint statement, Vodafone and Three said that this decision by the CMA was expected and that they remained confident the merger was in the interest of UK customers.

“This was an expected next step in the process and is in line with the timeframe for completion that we set out from the outset,” said the statement. “Vodafone UK and Three UK remain confident that the transaction will drive stronger competition in the mobile sector and give customers and businesses a step-change in network quality, speed, and coverage from day one.”

Results from this new investigation are expected in September.

How would the Vodafone–Three merger impact the UK mobile market? Join the telecoms ecosystem in discussion on market dynamics at Connected North live in Manchester

Also in the news:
FCC rejects SpaceX’s request for spectrum
Amazon invests $2.75 billion in AI startup Anthropic
T-Mobile gets green light to appeal class action lawsuit

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