Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
A bunch of international infrastructure news to catch up with before the weekend: … [visit site to read more]
On Thursday Mark Zuckerberg revealed his plans regarding AI to Meta employees during an all-hands meeting. An aggressive push forwards is based, he says, on “really incredible breakthroughs – qualitative breakthroughs – on generative AI” and in a statement to news platform Axios revealed that this gave the opportunity to “take that technology, push it forward, and build it into every single one of our products,”
In reality, this means that generative AI text, image and video generators will be integrated into existing products including Facebook and Instagram, as well as being included in new products such as the inhouse Metamate – a productivity assistant that takes information from internal company systems to answer queries and perform tasks.
For the consumer this could mean AI tools such as ChatGPT-style chatbots for Messenger and WhatsApp and an Instagram feature that could use text prompts to modify user photos.
As recently as last month, head of infrastructure Santosh Janardhan had admitted that despite high-profile investments in AI research Meta had “significant gap in our tooling, workflows and processes when it comes to developing for AI.” And went on to say that supporting AI needed Meta to “fundamentally shift our physical infrastructure design, our software systems, and our approach to providing a stable platform”.
According to The Verge, during the meeting, Zuckerberg also commented on his vision for headsets. He explained that he didn’t envisage a person sitting on a couch by themself, as per Apple demos, but instead saw a more social vision for the metaverse and presence that was “about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer”.
How can telco companies use the metaverse? Join David Palmer – Vodafone Business, Elmar Arunov – Deutsche Telekom, Cristina Bueti – International Telecommunication Union and Masarra Mohamed – IDC at this years Total Telecom Congress. FIND OUT MORE
Digital Realty has been a proud sponsor of Submarine Networks EMEA for several years, showcasing its strong alignment to the subsea community. As a provider of carrier neutral data center facilities and Cable Landing Stations, Digital Realty plays a vital role in establishing the connectivity ecosystem.
In this interview, Wilfried Dudink, Senior Director – Strategy & Development at Digital Realty, emphasises the company’s relationship with the subsea community and the importance of the conference.
[embedded content]
For more insights from the event: https://events.digitalrealty.com/submarinenetworksemeablog/totaltele
This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Ken Parent, CEO, Element Critical
Having become a popular buzzword, digital transformation is really the process of implementing emerging digital technologies to modify a company’s essential operations, processes, and services that provide new ways to deliver value, ease workloads, and withstand future challenges. According to a recent Data Center Services Market report, the top five drivers of demand for data centers are remote work, digitization, digital technologies, Over-the-top (OTT) services, and the Internet of Things (IoT). All five … [visit site to read more]
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.
This week marks a major turning point Italy’s incumbent operator TIM, which will soon need to decide whether to move forward with the sale of its fibre network or else rethink its strategy.
At the start of 2022, TIM’s CEO Pietro Labriola outlined a new strategic plan to help the operator cut its roughly €30 billion in debt. Alongside various job cuts and other streamlining efforts, the plan included spinning off the company’s infrastructure into a separate NetCo to entice investment.
Interest in the would-be unit was immediate. US investment firm KKR – already a major stakeholder in the company’s ‘last mile’ network unit FiberCop – quickly presented TIM with a bid for the unit for an undisclosed sum. Shortly after, the state lender the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), one of TIM’s major investors, presented a counterbid in partnership with Macquarie Asset Management, prompting TIM to launch a formal auction for the NetCo.
KKR quickly increased its bid to €21 billion, eclipsing the CDP’s bid of €19.3 billion. Subsequent reports last month suggesting that the CDP would be unwilling to increase its own bid any further and could withdraw from the process altogether.
Now, the final deadline for bids for the unit is tomorrow, with insiders suggesting that the CDP’s bid remains broadly unchanged, while KKR may slightly increase.
But despite this bidding improvement, TIM is unlikely to be overjoyed at the prospect of a sale at this price. The operator’s key stakeholder Vivendi has strongly opposed the sale of the network unit under the current conditions, repeatedly suggesting that the company’s assets are being undervalued by up to €10 billion.
According to reports, TIM’s board is divided over whether to move forward with an offer or reject the bids in favour of re-evaluating their options.
Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter
Also in the news:
More than two-thirds of U.S. commercial sites have no optical fibre access
Viasat completes Inmarsat merger deal
EXATEL talks expansion into subsea connectivity sector
Two customer deployments, one key approval, and a bit of M&A: … [visit site to read more]
