Bouygues Telecom in talks to buy La Poste MVNO for €950 million 


News 

The deal is expected to begin around 2026 

Bouygues Telecom, the telecoms unit of French conglomerate Bouygues, has announced that it has signed an exclusivity agreement with La Poste Group, to purchase La Poste Telecom for €950 million.  

This total is set to be adjusted according to the timing of the transaction itself, with current estimates sitting at approximately €963.4 million. 

Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) La Poste Telecom is currently 51% owned by La Poste Group, with the remainder (49%) owned by Bouygues rival French telco SFR. 

Bouygues will buy 100% of the company. 

La Poste Telecom currently serves 2.3 million customers, generating roughly €300 million in annual sales, via a wholesale agreement with SFR. This agreement is set to expire at the end of 2026, at which points the La Poste Telecom customers will be migrated to Bouygues own mobile network. 

According to Bouygues, while this will entail integration costs, it will not require the deployment of additional network capacity. 

Bouygues Telecom currently has over 23 million mobile customers, which the company expects to grow as a result of the new deal by leveraging La Poste’s distribution network and benefitting from a brand that is strong and recognised for its values of “trust and proximity.”  

“Thanks to this agreement, Bouygues Telecom will be able to increase its customer base and strengthen its position in both mobile and fixed services drawing on La Poste’s distribution network throughout the country,” said Benoît Torloting, CEO of Bouygues Telecom in a press release. 

“Bouygues Telecom will bring its expertise and the quality of its fixed and mobile infrastructures to La Poste Mobile, on which La Poste Mobile will be able to draw to continue its development,” he continued. 

The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval, and is expected to close by the end of the year. 

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The 5G Landscape in Europe: Lessons for Emerging Markets

A new report from connectivity testing company MedUX has found that London’s 5G network speeds and performance fall significantly behind those of other major European capitals.

The 5G Quality of Experience benchmarking study reveals that in 2023, out of 10 cities tested, London ranked last across key metrics such as speed, reliability and overall user experience.

The report shows that Londoners suffer from both lower download and uplink speeds compared to their European counterparts. The city’s average download speed of 143 Mbps is 75% lower than best-in-class Lisbon at 528 Mbps, and considerably lower than that of its European peers with Porto at 446 Mbps and 326 Mbps for Barcelona. Munich in Germany, the second-worst city for 5G download speeds, had average download speed of 259 Mbps.

The company also adds that London has the second lowest reliability (service consistency) and accessibility (time-to-content) scores across Europe. This means that for 5G users in London, accessing websites will take longer than in Europe, watching movies on the go is more likely to result in lagging and drop outs and anyone gaming is more likely be frustrated by slow response times.

This is in stark contrast to Berlin, which has emerged as Europe’s 5G performance leader. Berlin’s success in 5G deployment is attributed to several factors, with the report giving the German capital an overall Quality of Experience (QoE) score of 4.69 out of 5.

MedUX says the city boasts the highest 5G coverage among European cities, with 89.6% of its population having access to 5G. This extensive coverage is complemented by Berlin’s network consistency and low latency. Its 5G infrastructure provides Europe’s best overall 5G streaming experience, with an average latency of less than 40 milliseconds.

MedUX Chief Marketing Officer Rafael Galarreta pointed to the UK’s decision to ban Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G infrastructure as a possible reason behind London’s lagging 5G network.

“This delayed deployment has likely affected overall coverage, availability, and user experience, particularly considering that the Huawei ban came after the initial rollout had already commenced,” Galarreta told CNBC.

UK telecoms operator BT Group estimated it would cost around £500 million over 5 years to remove existing Huawei gear and replace it with other vendors’ equipment. The lack of suitable vendors and the right equipment to replace Huawei gear has been a major issue. Such added capital costs and distractions for telecom operators like BT and Vodafone appear to have slowed London’s 5G rollout at a critical time. In contrast, Germany has based its decisions on which vendor to use in its networks on the equipment’s technological capabilities and internationally recognised security standards.

German operator Deutsche Telekom has also won the Mobile network test in Germany for the thirteenth time, with an outstanding rating. The annual test held by German magazine Connect, in partnership with Umlaut (an Accenture company) is regarded as one of the most important and widely recognised benchmarks in the industry. Deutsche Telekom led in all urban and rural regions in all categories bar one, hitting 99% and over in all categories.

More broadly across the continent, the EU has set up a program called the ‘2030 Digital Compass’, which sets out a vision for the EU to successfully achieve a digital transition by 2030. As part of the proposal, it stipulates that by 2030, “All European households will be covered by a Gigabit network, with all populated areas covered by 5G.”

The EU’s Digital Compass is an ambitious plan for digital transformation and inclusion. Faster data speeds, lower latency, and increased connectivity are essential to achieving almost every goal outlined in the plan. The mechanism for tracking the progress of this ambition is a system looks at “a structured, transparent and shared monitoring system based on the European Union’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) to measure progress towards each of the 2030 targets.”

However, using the EU’s own measure, on the DESI chart showing overall 5G coverage, the bottom 5 ranking countries are all countries which have placed some degree of restriction on Huawei.

DESI Chart 1

Source: EU Commission, 2023. DESI 2023 dashboard for the Digital Decade. https://digital-decade-desi.digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/datasets/desi/charts

DESI Chart 2

The 19th European 5G Observatory report, a website supported by the European Commission, which analyses the latest figures measuring achievements towards EU 5G targets, also shows these 5 countries at the bottom of their ranking table.

Fair Competition or Further Delay?

Restricting fair competition goes against the EU’s rules, whereas competition between companies benefits customers and spurs companies to innovate. The right for mobile operators to choose the equipment used in their networks, based on its technical capabilities and verified security standards is essential to ensure that they can offer customers the best quality of user experience, no matter where in Europe they are.

Ongoing Huawei restrictions continue to hold back the UK’s 5G roll-out with additional costs and delays looking likely. That leaves Londoners suffering the consequences, facing slow and unreliable service. So, whether it’s video calls with friends, online shopping, navigating with augmented reality maps, streaming content or gaming on the move, Londoners are getting a raw deal.

The report highlights the impact on users that politically motivated and overly restrictive regulation can produce. This goes a long way to explaining why many European commentators view London as cautionary tale for future 5G delivery.

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Verizon to deploy private 5G network at Audi test track


Press Release

Verizon Business and Audi AG today announced a partnership to build a state-of-the-art private wireless network and tech-testing environment at Audi’s automotive test track in Neustadt, Germany. The dynamic, multi-core wireless network is designed to duplicate network conditions in key markets around the world, with custom-built replicas of Verizon’s U.S. public network, local European networks, and the roaming network of Audi’s MVNO partner in Asia-Pacific. Audi and other brands from the Volkswagen Group have access to the track and network.

As the automotive industry continues its evolution toward software-defined vehicles, the geographic flexibility of the Neustadt test-track network gives Audi a competitive advantage in the global market by streamlining its multi-territory R&D test cycle, better replicating driver/passenger experiences around the world, and providing access to the latest network and application technology. Testable applications include voice, video, safety, autonomous mobility, vehicle-to-cloud communication, OEM-customer interactions, cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) features and functionalities, and more.

To achieve this blend of geographic flexibility and technological capability, Verizon Business tapped into a robust ecosystem of partners. The network uses a dual 5G and LTE Modular Private Wireless platform from Nokia, C-V2X and private MEC infrastructure utilizing AWS Outposts from Amazon Web Services, and real-time video and data-transmission technology from Smart Mobile Labs (stream management and distribution, full HD streaming, push to talk, push to video, stream recording, et. al.).

“Our needs for this test track were complex and multi-dimensional, encompassing many technologies, geographic network conditions, and industry trends. Verizon Business was able to provide a complete solution that will take time and cost out of the testing cycle and give us a competitive advantage in the global marketplace,” said Petr Kozak, Head of Development Infotainment, Connectivity, Data Management and Artificial Intelligence, Audi AG.

“This is about much more than equipping a work site with a private network. This is about bringing network conditions from around the world to one test facility, allowing Audi to exceed the already lofty demands of the mobility market looking years into the future,” said TJ Fox, SVP of IIoT and Automotive, Verizon Business. “Increasingly, vehicles are not just about transportation, but a means of communication, entertainment, education, and work — effectively, rolling cell phones and high-powered computers. That means the vehicle of the future will be packed with technology that needs to work under many different sets of network conditions, and Audi and Verizon Business are solving for those needs with this state-of-the-art facility.”

Verizon Business has end-to-end responsibility for the delivery and support of the high-performance, stable and secure private LTE/5G network, which can be adapted to the developments of the 3GPP standard over time.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest developments in the German telecoms market? Join the industry in discussion at Connected Germany live in Munich

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Dish’s 5G voice coverage passes 200m people but company’s future remains uncertain


News

The growth of Dish’s 5G coverage masks the company’s ongoing struggles, including customer acquisition, leadership stability, and $26 billion in debt

This week, Dish Network has confirmed that 5G voice services are now available to over 200 million American’s nationwide, with the company hailing the achievement as another step towards becoming the bona fide fourth national mobile operator.

Dish has so far spent around $6 billion on expanding its 5G network across the US since 2019, seeking to catch up with the enormous scale of the country’s dominant mobile trio: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

“At DISH, we firmly believe in the transformative power of communication, and as the 4th nationwide wireless network, we are bringing competition to the wireless industry and more choice to U.S. consumers,” said John Swieringa, president of Technology and COO, EchoStar. “We are proud to now offer 5G voice to over 200 million Americans nationwide, as we continue to expand, optimize, meet milestones and advance the Boost Wireless Network buildout in alignment with our network development plan.”

It should be noted, however, that of more than 200 million potential customers, Dish is currently serving only 7.5 million. In fact, this number is down around 1.5 million from the 9 million customers the business inherited from its purchase of Sprint’s wireless business Boost Mobile back in 2020 as part of the Sprint–T-Mobile merger.

In fact, this news of network expansion actually comes at quite a troubling time for the company, which is facing major challenges not only with customer acquisition and retention, but with debt financing and even leadership.

Dish’s wireless retail chief, Michael Kelly, notably resigned at short notice earlier this week, having been in the role less than a year. He is the latest in a number of executives to jump ship, including Stephen Bye (chief commercial officer), Dave Mayo (chief technology officer), and Jonathan Sipling (chief marketing officer), all of whom left since the start of 2023.

With no clear path to profitable growth for Dish, the company owner Charlie Ergen made the move to recombine Dish with its parent company EchoStar at the start of this year, with Ergen suggesting the move would “generate significant cost and revenue synergies”. Onlookers, however, felt that the merger was more likely related to mitigating the impact of looming maturities on Dish’s $26 billion debt pile.

In conclusion, while Dish’s 5G network continues to grow steadily, its ambitions of becoming a fully-fledged fourth national mobile operator are beginning to look overly optimistic.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest developments in the US telecoms market? Join the industry in discussion at Connected America live in Dallas

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Intracom Telecom brings energy-efficient data centre solutions to MWC 2024

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The future of routers requires no planned outages

The future of routers requires no planned outages

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Vinai Sirkay, VP Business Development, IP Networks, Nokia

If, like me, you have been in the telecommunications field for some time, you will remember that networks were traditionally architected to deliver to a service level. We used complex calculations to derive measurements such as 99.999 percent or “five nines” availability, which became the basis for … [visit site to read more]

BT launches new NB-IoT network in smart cities push 


News 

The rollout will allow for widescale efficiency and cost-savings in a variety of industries 

This week, BT has announced the launch of its new Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network to aid its development of UK smart cities. 

The network, which according to BT covers 97% of the population, is underpinned by EE’s mobile network and will allow for widescale IoT use across various industries, such as agriculture and manufacturing. 

A NB-IoT network is a type of low power wide area network specifically designed to connect low power IoT devices, such as streetlights, sensors, or meters. According to BT, this will allow IoT devices to be managed automatically over a smart network, enabling, for example, broken streetlights to be automatically identified, thereby increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs.  

BT says that the new network will enable it to “fast-track” smart cities’s development, enabling new use cases focussed on monitoring and optimising energy use, storage, or distribution. 

“Growing numbers of businesses are beginning to realise the benefits of IoT applications, and our UK-wide NB-IoT network opens up a wide range of connectivity solutions for monitors, sensors, and other smart devices,” said Chris Keone, BT’s MD of Division X in a press release 

“Whether it’s building the smart cities of the future or reducing carbon emissions, our network will provide customers with the reliability and efficiency they need,” he continued. 

This NB-IoT network will not only find use in urban settings. In fact, BT is already trialling the technology for the agricultural industry, using sensors to monitor haystack temperature and prevent fire risks, and safekeeping of livestock through gate sensors. 

Catch BT at this year’s Connected North, 22-23 April in Manchester – book your tickets now! 

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Indian government plans to develop a home-grown mobile phone brand

The Indian government is working on developing an Indian mobile phone brand, a minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, whose portfolio includes communications, said this week.

He suggested that the government would also work on creating the entire handset ecosystem in the country, arguing that the success to date of large-scale mobile manufacturing would benefit the project, encouraging ecosystem partners to come to India in the next five years.

This follows a similar initiative relating to semiconductors which has seen a Micron plant under construction and, the minister suggested, more approvals on the way. Quoted by India’s Economic Times, he apparently said: “In that sense, we are moving from the design ecosystem to fab and ATMP (assembly, test and packaging) ecosystem.”

An indigenously developed app store – Indus Appstore – has also been developed, with apps accessible in 12 Indian languages.

Of course, India does already have a home-grown mobile handset company. It’s called Lava and is a manufacturer of smartphones, feature phones, tablet computing devices and laptops or notebooks, with operations in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, the Middle East and Russia as well as India. It says it is now the only mobile handset company that makes truly ‘Make In India’ phones with complete control on design and manufacturing within India. 

Preparations are also being made to launch indigenous operating system BharOS-based smartphones on the Lava smartphone.  In the next six months there will be about 500 Lava-designed and manufactured phones in India, which will work on BharOS. 

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Türk Telekom adds xApps, 5G massive MIMO to Open RAN trial

Open RAN vendor Parallel Wireless says it has expanded its collaboration on Open RAN initiatives with Türk Telekom to include its energy-saving xApps solution and AMD-based 5G massive MIMO solution in the operator’s trial cluster.

Türk Telekom has already integrated Parallel Wireless’s Open RAN 2G, 3G, 4G technology within its field trial infrastructure, with 5G technology currently under lab evaluation.

The expansion includes the addition of Parallel Wireless’s GreenRAN xApps, which are designed to help network operators optimise power consumption by adapting to fluctuating traffic demands. Parallel Wireless says the GreenRAN suite provides companies with power-saving applications as an additional layer, running on an O-RAN-compliant near real-time radio intelligence controller (RIC) platform.

This enables Türk Telekom to enhance network performance, coverage, and energy efficiency while maintaining network performance and end-user QoE, said Steve Papa, founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless.

“Layering our GreenRAN xApps technology on top of what’s currently deployed allows us to support Türk Telekom in their journey to test and implement innovative industry developments,” Papa said in a statement.

Türk Telekom is an early adopter of Open RAN technology. In 2022, it launched a multivendor Open RAN initiative with Parallel Wireless and Juniper Networks to put together a trial Open RAN solution for testing in Türk Telekom’s Innovation Centre, as well as field environments. Juniper supplied the RIC for that initiative, while Parallel Wireless provided the Open RAN software.

“As our network grows, we are always looking for new industry developments and the best technology to allow us to stay at the forefront of advancements, to ensure superior optimization and scalable operations, while enhancing the experience for our users,” said Türk Telekom CEO Ümit Önal. “This opportunity is a win for operators who can use Open RAN to optimize network coverage and power consumption.”

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