The founders of London-based investment group LetterOne have resigning from the board following EU imposed sanctions on the Russian billionaires this week…

The founders of London-based investment group LetterOne have resigning from the board following EU imposed sanctions on the Russian billionaires this week. Founded in 2013 by Mikhail Fridman, LetterOne has investments in telecom CSP’s including Turkcell, Veon, and Upp as well as cloud-based provider of BSS software, Qvantel.

Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven who have both stepped down, together own slightly less than 50 per cent of the group and whilst the businesses they invest in are not directly affected by sanctions, the move has meant to remove the risk of reputational damage. Former UK Labour government minister Lord Mervyn Davies will take control of the group.

LetterOne hit the UK headlines last year as a major investor in Upp who plan to invest £1billion to deploy a full fibre network to one million premises by 2025 in Eastern England. Upp is currently live in Stamford in Lincolnshire and Diss in Norfolk.

MTN have reiterated their commitment to supporting innovation by becoming the the first African company to enter the metaverse. Today they have announced the purchase of 144 plots of digital land in the Africarare metaverse Ubuntuland…

MTN have reiterated their commitment to supporting innovation by becoming the the first African company to enter the metaverse. Today they have announced the purchase of 144 plots of digital land in the Africarare metaverse Ubuntuland, which will showcase some of the best of African art, fashion, entertainment, sport, tech and creativity.

Ubuntuland is being developed by Africarare and Mann Made Media. Mic Mann, co-founder of Africarare was quoted as saying “We’ve seen an immense amount of growth in the NFT space marketplace and Metaverses across the US, Europe, Asia, there hasn’t been much coming out of Africa. We feel there’s a great opportunity for Africa to take part in this new world.”

MTN‘s move is part of it’s wider policy of positioning itself as a technology company, rather than a telecommunications company and is aligned with the companies Ambition 2025 strategy. Bernice Samuels, MTN’s Group Executive for Marketing said « We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers’’.

Tell us about your start up Our vision is to develop innovative IT solutions in a socially responsible way that benefit society in terms of improved effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. Our activities include product and service development, 3D remote services and blockchain-based operational processes. We are currently working intensively in the industry 4.0 ecosystem on innovative solutions for the use of technologies such as WebRTC…

Tell us about your start up
Our vision is to develop innovative IT solutions in a socially responsible way that benefit society in terms of improved effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. Our activities include product and service development, 3D remote services and blockchain-based operational processes.

We are currently working intensively in the industry 4.0 ecosystem on innovative solutions for the use of technologies such as WebRTC, Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) in use cases specifically designed for data centres, telecommunication companies as well as automotive, utilities and services.

We are partners with large corporations such as Equinix, SAP and Volkswagen and have a global reach with 3PP located in Asia and Americas.

What is your USP, how do you stand out from your competition?
We create solutions for digitalization and preparation for the requirements of the industry 4.0 by offering:
• Higher operational efficiency
• Lower operational costs
• Enhanced productivity
• Improved health and safety
• Reduction of routine tasks or of tasks with no added value
• Remote in-service audits and inspections
• UX/CX for on-the-job learning
• Lower carbon footprint by reduced commute and travel time.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
Our aim is to create a profound impact on the productivity of operations and maintenance by offering Extended Reality and WebRTC-based applications for equipment installation and maintenance for the Telco sector (Network Equipment Providers, Operators, Tower companies). Telecommunication carriers remain our core customer profile.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
We are not part of incubators or accelerators as of now. FroXx is both privately and publicly funded.

Why did you establish the business?
The business was established to address a clear need of operational reliability with remote assistance in Telco operations. We are using accessible technology to improve general efficiency and sustainability. The Leadership Team of FroXx combines 150+ years of ICT experience having served major companies such as Ericsson on key strategic positions.

What is your motivation?
Our CEO’s extensive experience in the Telco industry has clearly demonstrated to us how the sector is on the verge of a major acceleration of the innovation cycle. The increasing adoption of IoT devices, growing investments in smart city projects and 5G infrastructures, and the need for high-speed internet connectivity around the world remain our main motivation to meet these industry’s leaders’ objectives.

What does the future hold for your business?
We target a niche market and plan a strategic move this year to offer and implement our solutions in other industries aiming at accessing Industry 4.0, notably with automated processes for enhanced productivity.

HEADQUARTERS: Potsdam, Germany
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 10
LAST FUNDING TYPE: Institutional funds (ILB Germany Investment Bank) – Federal and European institutions for the development of ICT industries and initiatives in Germany
WEBSITE URL: froxx-industries.com
FOUNDER: Rodrigo Beyer Fernandez, CEO and Founder

Meet FroXx at CONNECTED GERMANY which takes place in Mainz, Germany on the 5-6 April 2022. Free tickets are available for consumer-facing Germany-based operators, stadtwerke and German-based members of the public sector. Find out more here.

In a bid to prove the commercial value of investment in subsea infrastructure, Meta has commissioned two studies by Analysys Mason and RTI International to explore the economic impact of their investments in APAC and Europe…

In a bid to prove the commercial value of investment in subsea infrastructure, Meta has commissioned two studies by Analysys Mason and RTI International to explore the economic impact of their investments in APAC and Europe. It is hoped that these findings will demonstrate that subsea cable projects are economically viable for local providers in both developed and emerging markets.

The study by Analysys Mason suggested that Meta’s investments in the APAC region, where the company has developed two subsea cables (the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Jupiter), are expected to add approximately $422 billion in GDP between 2021 and 2025. It is also estimated that 3.7 million new jobs will be created in the region as a result.

Meta has significant growth plans in the APAC region with plans having been announced for eight new submarine cables which are due to be ready for service by 2025.

In Europe, where Meta has invested in the transatlantic Marea system as well as several other systems (such as AEC1 and Havfrue), RTI International found that the investment has been contributing about $18 billion per year since 2019 to Europe’s economy (equal to approximately 6 percent of its current average annual growth). 

Meta also has plans to land two new cable systems in Europe in the next five years. By 2027, the new systems will be contributing roughly $65 billion per year to the European economy.