The DoD has launched three new 5G projects this week, hoping to capitalise on public and private sector collaboration to help develop relevant 5G technologies. 
The first of these three projects is Open6G, looking to pair universities with the private sector to co-develop 6G Open RAN systems…

The DoD has launched three new 5G projects this week, hoping to capitalise on public and private sector collaboration to help develop relevant 5G technologies. 

The first of these three projects is Open6G, looking to pair universities with the private sector to co-develop 6G Open RAN systems. Open6G will reportedly serve as the DoD’s “hub for development, testing, and integration of trusted enhancements, supporting an industry and federal government NextG ecosystem pursuing 6G technology goals”.

IB5G has awarded $1.77 million to the project, which is being overseen by the Northeastern University’s Kostas Research Institute via agreement with the Army Research Laboratory. 

Secondly, IB5G has awarded $1.64 million to Zylinium Research to further develop its Spectrum Exchange Security and Scalability project. 

The company recently demonstrated dynamic spectrum allocation on the Platform for Open Wireless Data-drive Experimental Research (POWDER) at the University of Utah. The DoD says that its new funding will help Zylinium to further leverage blockchain technology to provide scalability.

Lastly, IB5G is collaborating with Nokia Bell Labs on their Massive Multi-Input/Multi-Output (MIMO) from MHz to GHz project, providing $3.69 million in funding. The effort will explore key technology components that enable scaling MIMO technology across different bands/bandwidths and DoD-oriented use cases.

 “The DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,” explained Dr Sumit Roy, IB5G Program Director. “These efforts represent our continuing investments via public and private sector collaboration on research & development for critical Beyond 5G technology enablers necessary to realize high performance, secure, and resilient network operations for the future warfighter.”

How is government investment in wireless technologies set to impact the sector at large? Find out from the experts at next year’s inaugural Connected America conference 

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Today, international mobile operator Veon has announced that it has sold its 45.57% stake in Omnium Telecom Algeria, the company that owns Djezzy, Algeria’s second-largest mobile provider. 
 
The deal will reportedly net the company around $682 million…

Today, international mobile operator Veon has announced that it has sold its 45.57% stake in Omnium Telecom Algeria, the company that owns Djezzy, Algeria’s second-largest mobile provider. 

The deal will reportedly net the company around $682 million, increasing Veon’s liquidity to $3.1 billion. 

The buyer is the Algerian National Investment Fund (AIF), which was set up in 2021 as a collaboration between the Bank of Algeria and the External Bank of Algeria. The AIF has already been investing in Algerian start-ups alongside Algeria’s public start-up accelerator, Algeria Venture.

For Veon, the deal will help continue to simplify the company’s portfolio and focus on other markets that exhibit stronger growth. 

VEON offers services to customers in 12 markets including Russia, Italy, Algeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Laos. Of these, Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan are viewed as ‘growth engines’, while Bangladesh and Algeria were described as ‘frontier markets’ in Veon’s Q1 results presentation back in 2021. 

Veon sold its operations in Armenia, a market of similar size and slim margins, back in 2020. 

“The regulatory environment in Algeria was very restrictive in that sense […] infrastructure sharing and monetisation is also restricted,” explained Veon Chief Executive Kaan Terzioglu. “We built a beautiful enterprise. But when the strategic aspirations don’t meet, we thought it would be the best thing for us to sell our shares to the government.”

Back in April, TIM agreed to sell a 12.4% indirect stake in INWIT to a consortium led by French private equity firm Ardian. The sale would leave Ardian with a 90% stake in the holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30.2% stake in INWIT. TIM will retain a 10% stake in Daphne 3…

Back in April, TIM agreed to sell a 12.4% indirect stake in INWIT to a consortium led by French private equity firm Ardian. The sale would leave Ardian with a 90% stake in the holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds a 30.2% stake in INWIT. TIM will retain a 10% stake in Daphne 3.

Ultimately, this means that the Ardian consortium will control around 27% of INWIT and TIM just 3%. Vodafone remains INWIT’s largest single shareholder with 33%.

As a result of this shift in the company’s balance of power, reports have been circulating since the start of the month that CEO Giovanni Ferigo was set to leave his position within the company as part of a full board reshuffle, with Vodafone and Ardian lining up their own suggested candidates for the board. 

Today, INWIT has announced that Ferigo has indeed resigned, as have four additional board members: non-executive directors Giovanna Bellezza, Sabrina Di Bartolomeo, Rosario Mazza, and Agostino Nuzzolo. 

Per the company’s bylaws, this mandates a total board reshuffle. 

Reports suggest that INWIT will begin the process to select a replacement board as early as next week, with an extraordinary general meeting planned for August 9.

Sources suggest that the new CEO will likely be Vodafone’s preferred candidate, while the chairperson role will be given to Ardian’s candidate.

INWIT is Italy’s largest mobile tower operator, controlling over 22,000 towers across the country. It was created by TIM spinning off its tower unit back in 2015 and has since grown in size, considerably, most recently in 2020 through its merger with Vodafone Towers Italia. 

This week, Vodafone Group has reportedly agreed the sale of its 70% stake in Vodafone Ghana to smaller African player Telecel.
 
Telecel currently owns and operates a number of mobile operators in African and Europe, as well as providing wholesale, enterprise, and digital security services to other operators and businesses worldwide. The company has already made investments in Ghana as part of the Africa Startup Initiative Program “ASIP”.
 
While the financial terms of the deal are so far undisclosed…

This week, Vodafone Group has reportedly agreed the sale of its 70% stake in Vodafone Ghana to smaller African player Telecel.

Telecel currently owns and operates a number of mobile operators in African and Europe, as well as providing wholesale, enterprise, and digital security services to other operators and businesses worldwide. The company has already made investments in Ghana as part of the Africa Startup Initiative Program “ASIP”.

While the financial terms of the deal are so far undisclosed, sources suggest that Telecel plans to invest around $500 million in the first three years to bolster the Ghanaian company’s network.

There were initially rumours that the sale would be partly funded by the potential sale of Vodafone Ghana’s tower infrastructure, though this has since been debunked by Telecel.

« The acquisition is fully financed by Telecel Group and its partners. Telecel confirms that the potential sale of Vodafone Ghana Towers is not part of the acquisition funding,” said the company in a statement. 

Vodafone itself had acquired its 70% stake in what was then Ghana’s state-run telco, Ghana Telecom, back in 2008, paying the government $900 million. To this day, the government retains the remaining 30% stake.

But for Vodafone Ghana this plan never materialised, and it now seems a stake sale to a fully independent party could be more appealing. 

However, getting regulatory approval for the takeover is proving problematic. 

Speaking on the local Asaase Radio channel earlier this week, Ghana’s Communications and Digitalisation minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said that the acquisition had been denied approval earlier in the year, saying that she was “surprised at the news going around.”

“The law requires that they get regulatory approval from the National Communications Authority (NCA), and we’ve had a series of discussions with them. We were concerned that [Telecel] were a very small operator and didn’t have the technical and financial muscle to be able to take on the challenging environment that we have in the telecom sector here in Ghana.”

In a statement, the NCA noted that they had not blocked the deal, as such, but rather concluded that the sale did not meet regulatory requirements in its current form. As such, Telecel and Vodafone say they are in ongoing negotiations with the regulator. 

“We have received their responses which have not granted the approvals yet and Telecel is willing to re-engage soon after putting together the necessary clarifications,” said Telecel in a statement. “Telecel and Vodafone have been in touch with Ghana’s Ministry for Communications, Bank of Ghana, and the National Communications Authority, to finalize all the regulatory requirements related to this transaction.” 

At the end of 2021, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) completed its most recent spectrum auction, offering 16 lots in the 850 MHz and 900 MHz bands and raising over AU$2 billion.
Telstra and Optus were the only bidders in the auction and did so following relatively divergent 5G strategies: Telstra targeted the 850 MHz band, picking up the four available lots for roughly AU$615 million, while Optus won all the 900 MHz spectrum available for roughly AU$1…

At the end of 2021, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) completed its most recent spectrum auction, offering 16 lots in the 850 MHz and 900 MHz bands and raising over AU$2 billion.

Telstra and Optus were the only bidders in the auction and did so following relatively divergent 5G strategies: Telstra targeted the 850 MHz band, picking up the four available lots for roughly AU$615 million, while Optus won all the 900 MHz spectrum available for roughly AU$1.4 billion.

The licences won at the auction will come into force on July 1, 2024, and last for a 20-year term. 

Naturally, this is quite a delay for the operators, who are keen to begin making use of the spectrum as soon as possible. As such, the ACMA quickly announced that it would authorise PMTS (public mobile telecommunications service) Class B licences – essentially ‘early access’ licences that would allow the operators to make use of the spectrum at specific, registered locations.

In cases where a PMTS licence would clash with existing spectrum licences, the ACAM said it would allow whoever registered first to be given priority.  

This decision represented something of an opportunity for Telstra. The operator still owns 900 MHz spectrum that it had previously used for its now retired 2G network. Registering for PMTS licences would allow Telstra to make use of this largely unused spectrum for the first time since 2016.

As a result, Telstra quickly registered 206 additional sites to use 900 MHz spectrum, on top of the 109 sites it currently had registered. 

“We identified an opportunity to reduce congestion in a small number of places by moving 3G traffic onto our 900 MHz spectrum, given it is unused and we own until 2024. At the same time this would free up 850 MHz spectrum to meet the growing demands of our 5G customers,” explained Telstra.

However, the ACCC suggested that these deployments could hinder competition with Optus, noting that could interfere with the latter’s national 5G rollout. 

“[The registration] had the substantial purpose or likely effect of lessening competition by Optus, as Telstra knew of the importance of this spectrum band to Optus’ 5G rollout plan,” said ACCC commissioner Liza Carver.

While Telstra disagrees with this assessment, the operator has subsequently agreed to deregister 153 of the sites, leaving just 162 still registered. 

“While we do not agree with the ACCC’s view, these cases can be drawn out, costly and time-consuming, and risk distracting us from providing better service to our customers, including customers in regional Australia,” said Telstra. “To avoid that we have filed an undertaking to deregister sites in areas Optus demonstrates it will use the spectrum in its 5G rollout.”

This clash over mobile site licences is taking place against the backdrop of a far larger struggle between Telstra and Optus, with the latter decrying the network sharing agreement Telstra struck with TPG earlier this year as uncompetitive. Optus has said that the deal is “uniquely one-sided” and will largely serve as a merger disguised as a partnership. Earlier this month, Telstra struck back, accusing Optus of ‘scaremongering’ and suggesting that parts of the deal have been “twisted intentionally” to “mischaracterise” the arrangement. 

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