Thailand’s PROEN Corp has deployed Qwilt and Cisco’s Open Edge Content Delivery Network (CDN) solution to improve the quality and delivery capacity of its digital content and applications.

The deployment sees PROEN embed Qwilt’s Open Caching-based architecture deeply into its network edge, enabling the delivery of increased data volumes across its network and improving the quality of experience for end users throughout Thailand. The partnership equips PROEN with next-generation content delivery infrastructure and provides open APIs to content publishers looking to deliver content. With full-country coverage, the deployment will include activating Open Caching services at multiple distributed PROEN sites across Thailand.

Naris Ratyiam, Chief Commercial Officer, PROEN, said: “By building Qwilt’s Open Edge solution into our infrastructure, we’re creating an open and unified content delivery solution that will bring numerous benefits to content publishers when they utilise the service, including current PROEN partners such as MCOT, Channel 3, and Buga Boo. This deployment enables us to tackle the rapidly growing demands for live streaming, video-on-demand, and application services head-on while ensuring these experiences are delivered consistently in the highest quality.”

Theodore Tzevelekis, VP, Cisco, said: “By deploying our joint Open Edge solution with Qwilt, PROEN gains access to a platform that meets the needs for high-quality streaming experiences while opening the door to exciting future edge computing use cases.”

Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt, added: “Embedded at the edge of PROEN’s network, closest to users, our Open Edge CDN goes beyond offering traditional CDN functionality – it ensures users across Thailand experience the highest quality and fastest delivery, whether they’re consuming streaming video, playing online games, or downloading massive files.”

Today, 150+ service providers have partnered with Qwilt to enable the Open Edge in their networks, together serving over one billion unique subscribers globally. They include Verizon in North America; TIM Brazil and Telecom Argentina in Latin America; Airtel in India; J:COM in Asia-Pacific; BT in the UK; and Telefónica and Vodafone in EMEA.

News

According to reports, Danish telco TDC has hired investment firm LionTree to help them consider their strategic options as a business, which could seemingly include a partial or complete sale

Anonymous sources speaking to Reuters have revealed that TDC is currently undergoing an internal review, noting that high leverage and weak cash flow were affecting the company’s credit rating.

The report notes that discussions are still in an early stage, with no certainty that any transactions will take place.

TDC was taken private back in 2018 by a consortium led by Australian investor Macquarie. Today, Macquarie remains TDC’s largest shareholder, owning 50% of the business, with the rest of the company’s shares held by a number of Danish pension and investment funds.

In 2021, the company was carved up into two separate businesses in an attempt to unlock value for shareholders and encourage investment: TDC NET, which operates the company’s mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure, and Nuuday, the company’s consumer branch.

Since then, both TDC NET and Nuuday have reported mixed financial results, with the companies’ sluggish growth largely attributed to the highly competitive Danish market. Indeed, this environment is seemingly driving the country’s telecoms market towards consolidation, with rival telco Telia announcing earlier this year that it would sell its Danish unit to local utility giant Norlys for roughly $920 million. This deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

LionTree, meanwhile, is perhaps best known in the telecoms world as having advised Verizon on the acquisition of AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015 and later Yahoo for $4.5 billion in 2017. Verizon would go on to combine these two companies into a single business group dubbed Oath.

The ill-fated Oath would write down $4.6 billion in 2018 following the merger and, following a rebrand to Verizon Media Group, would itself be sold to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in 2021. LionTree advised on this acquisition as well.

How are telco business models evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live in Amsterdam

Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT
Sky Mobile network outages linked to removal of Huawei equipment 

Over in Europe, the nascent technology of quantum communication has crossed another threshold, or more precisely the Irish Sea. A recent set of experiments established a quantum link between two countries and spanning some 224km under the water. … [visit site to read more]

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Interview

On Day One of this year’s Connected Britain conference, we had the pleasure of speaking with Catherine Colloms, Director of Corporate Affairs and Brand at Openreach, to discuss creating a competitive UK fibre market and the UK’s rollout journey so far.

One of the hottest topics at this year’s Connected Britian conference was altnet consolidation, with rumours of M&A activity beginning to circulate in the broadband market.

For Colloms, the UK’s fibre market is highly competitive and will continue to be so, provided the regulatory environment remains stable and supportive.

“If you think about the way that the economy and the way that we live and work is developing, it all is fundamentally based on connectivity, and as a result, I think the market can grow and grow,” said Colloms.

Collom’s explains that the UK’s  fibre coverage currently stands at around 50%, noting that the rollouts are now progressing to harder-to-reach areas that are supported by projects such as the R100 and Project Gigabit.

“We need certainty and consistency in the regulatory and policy regime to ensure that we can continue to invest,” concluded Catherine.

You can watch the full Connected Britain interview from the link below:

[embedded content]
Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here     

Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT
Sky Mobile network outages linked to removal of Huawei equipment 

Three vendor wins, a subsea spead trial, and a FTTH update from around the world: … [visit site to read more]

Copenhagen, September 20, 2023 – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (“IOH” or “Indosat”) will celebrate its 56th anniversary this year. Since officially operating as a newly merged entity on January 4, 2022, Indosat was born with the larger purpose to connect and empower the people of Indonesia by accelerating the nation’s digital transformation.

During this period, Indosat continues to prove itself to be the main driver of the telecommunications industry and GDP growth of Indonesia, ASEAN’s biggest digital economy leader. As one of the largest telcos in Indonesia, once again Indosat was invited to the Digital Transformation World (DTW) 2023 Ignite in Copenhagen share how it unleashes infinite possibilities in empowering Indonesia.

President Director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Vikram Sinha, said,  » Last year in DTW 2022, I shared the transformation journey of Indosat that begun in 2019 to set the context of our next journey. Entering the 2nd year after the merger, many initiatives have been carried out in Indosat’s efforts to meet our larger purpose. We express our gratitude for the support and trust of all parties so that Indosat can be the main part of increasing industry and Indonesia’s economic growth. »

Mergers have had a poor track record and it is not just limited to telecoms. Agencies’ rating put Indosat on negative watch and labeled its merger as a high execution risk that introduces uncertainties over future financial policies. Back then, Indosat must dealt with the adversity of people writing the Company off even before it got started.

Vikram explains further, “Indosat started this monumental mission with the fundamental premise that the Company was not only serving its shareholders. Success is about serving all stakeholders. It is good for everyone, for the nation as well. The goal is bigger to ensure Indosat has the support of everyone, from its customers, partners, investors, employees, and most importantly Indonesian people.”

With that stage set, Indosat is now ready as a company for the next stage. From integration to transformation. The difference between the telco and techco are pace of innovation, high growth opportunity, and agility to address opportunities in adjacencies. Indosat’s journey to techco is built on five pillars: Empowering Indonesia, Marvelous Experience, Innovation Engine, Digital Leadership, and Gotong Royong, an authentic Indonesia spirit which translate to passion of collaboration to achieve common goals.

The success of Indosat’s transition to TechCo will be measured on these five attributes: differentiated experience provider, grow adjacencies to over 20% of revenue, reduce cost to serve by an order of magnitude, grow enterprise business to 20% of total revenue, and generate 15 – 20% of revenues from services launched less than 5 years ago.

The challenge faced by Indosat would be can it make that transition to being an experience provider. Can Indosat take the conversation away from competing on price to selling on value.

“Serving a larger purpose, serving Indonesia is our infinite journey to TechCo. We humbly thank all our stakeholders for their support so that we managed to deliver on the promise. Seen as one of the largest telecom mergers in 2022, now Indosat is one of Global 10 telcos who have 100 million subs, in the 4th most populous country. The merger proved to be a great start to our journey ahead, and we will continue to focus.

Interview

On Day One of this year’s Connected Britain conference, we had the pleasure of speaking with Jamie Hayes, Managing Director of Fiber and Streetscape at Boldyn Networks, one of the world’s largest neutral host providers

We discussed the state of the connectivity landscape in the UK from a neutral host perspective, and the most important things that Boldyn Networks look for in the areas they work in: political leadership, advance supply, and demand. 

“Its great to see all the suppliers here, it’s a thriving ecosystem of startups through to large companies,” said Jamie,  

“An event like this [Connected Britain], a concentration of demand is vital for the places that we want to go to.” 

We also discussed the company’s work with the London boroughs, helping the city to access gigabit fibre and making the London underground safer through connectivity. 

Ending on the topic of local authorities and connectivity, Jamie noted: “we’d like to see more emphasis on connectivity, because it seems to have a real close correlation to many deprivation indexes like health, wealth, income, and inward investment.” 

You can watch the full interview below:

[embedded content]

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

Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Ericsson: We’re “exploding with use cases” for private 5G
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT

News 

The newly formed entity is ‘strategically positioned to be a global leader in space communications’, according to the two companies 

Satellite operators Eutelsat communications and OneWeb have this week announced the completion of their $3.4 billion merger, following a Eutelsat shareholder meeting. 

The two companies have combined to form Eutelsat Group, which will be headquartered in Paris. OneWeb will become a subsidiary of the Group, operating as Eutelsat OneWeb, with its operations remaining in London. 

The merger will see OneWeb’s constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites added to Eutelsat’s geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, creating the “only GEO–LEO operator in satellite communications that can offer a ubiquitous connectivity service,” according to Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke 

“This is an historic moment for the satellite industry. We are bringing together two businesses that are at the forefront of delivering integrated, seamless and reliable connectivity to customers worldwide,” said Dominique D’Hinnin, Chairman of the Board of Directors in a statement. 

“This exciting combination will be transformative for communities and businesses worldwide, utilising the unique blend of GEO and LEO technologies,” said Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vice-President of the Board of Directors. 

“Closing the digital divide is a critical mission for Eutelsat Group and the combination of these two businesses, which have each pursued this goal separately, accelerates our progress,”said Sunil Bharti Mittal Co-Chair of the Board of Directors. 

The UK government owns a minority stake in OneWeb, following a rescue deal in 2020 that prevented the firm’s collapse. According to a statement released last year after the Memorandum of Understanding between the two firms, the UK government will retain this special share in OneWeb and a number of exclusive rights. 

Upon the news, Eutelsat shares rose 3.5%. 

Competition in the space communications industry is increasing steadily, with analysts at Morgan Stanley estimating that the industry could be worth more than $1 trillion by 2040, up from a $550 billion today, as the industry becomes increasingly lucrative.  

Indeed, this is not the only major satellite merger we have seen this year, with global communications firm Viasat buying the UK’s Inmarsat for $6.2 billion back in May. 

“Satellite communications is a hugely significant and strategic global market for the U.K. space sector, now poised for an exciting next phase,” said George Freeman MP, the UK’s Minister of State at the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology. 

Mergers such as these could be set to provide significant competition for Elon Musk’s LEO constellation Starlink, which has quickly established itself as one of the world leading satellite internet providers. 

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

Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT
Ofcom unveils plan for mmWave spectrum auction 

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
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