News

The network will provide 4G services to individuals, homes, and businesses throughout the country 

Last week, Airtel Rwanda launched its highly anticipated 4G LTE Network. The firm is Rwanda’s first mobile network operator to secure its own 4G license and launch its own 4G network.  

The launch has been made possible by a government change in licensing strategy.  

Previously, Airtel could only provide their LTE services through Korea Telecom Rwanda Networks, who had a wholesale monopoly in the country.  

In February this year, however, the Rwandan government announced a change in licensing rules, which would allow other telcos to launch their own 4G networks, in the interest of increasing competition to accelerate the country’s access to high-speed mobile services. 

Airtel’s 4G tariff plans have launched at the same price point as its existing 3G plans, which Airtel Rwanda hopes will drive up adoption of 4G devices to boost digital inclusion across the country. 

“The company remains committed to leading innovation in the Rwandan market by providing choice to Rwandans because of significant investment in network coverage, consistent network quality, an improved quality of service in addition to delivery on market leading value for money,” said Airtel Rwanda’s Managing Director, Emmanuel Hamez.  

The move comes after the Rwandan government introduced The National and Broadband Policy and Strategy in October last year, aiming to transform Rwanda into a competitive digital economy.  

Airtel says it plans to expand its network infrastructure coverage and increase its support for the country’s new digital strategies. 

How is the African telecommunications market evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress live from Amsterdam. 

Also in the news:
Airtel joins the 5G race in Nigeria
Airtel Africa signs up for Nokia’s iSIM SaaS
Nigerian mobile market to welcome 25 MVNOs 

News

Market research firm Dell’Oro has revised the global market share forecast of Open RAN downwards for the first time since tracking the technology began 

According to a new report, Open RAN cumulative revenue predictions have been lowered by 5% to 10% from now until 2027. The firm cites “hesitancy about the next generation architectures” for the downward revision. 

Currently, Open RAN makes up a ‘mid-single digit share’ of the RAN market, estimated at between 6-10%. 

“We can think of this revision more as a near-term calibration than a change in the long-term growth trajectory,” said Vice President and analyst Stefan Pongratz from Dell’Oro Group.  

“We continue to believe that Open RAN is here to stay and the growing support by the incumbent suppliers bolsters this thesis.” 

This is the first negative forecast revision that Dell’Oro has given Open RAN. This follows three years of revenue accelerating faster than expected and multiple positive forecasts, most recently in January. 

Dell’Oro noted in its report that while European operators have taken a lead in announcing their ambitious Open RAN targets, their deployment has been slow, with focus remaining on building out 5G using traditional RAN technology. The forecast therefore reflects these delays and assumes further ones.  

However, the forecast still expects the European market to become a leader in Open RAN, worth over $1 billion by 2027. 

Open RAN revenue is forecast to make up 15–20% of the total global RAN network by 2027. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox 

More on this topic: 
VMO2’s deal with Nokia leaves scope for Open RAN
Ericsson shows off 5G Cloud RAN in Germany with O2 Telefónica
Dish and EchoStar consider merger 

News

Swedish equipment vendor’s staff in Iraq have reportedly had their working permit revoked due to ongoing conflicts surrounding the burning of the Quran in Stockholm

Last Wednesday, Iraqi protestors stormed and set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, in retaliation for a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm.

No embassy staff were harmed during the assault, all of whom have now been relocated to Stockholm.

Tensions between Sweden and various Islamic groups and governments had been growing for some time, ever since an Iraqi man burned the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque last month in a protest sanctioned by Swedish police. Naturally, this act was highly controversial, receiving much media attention and broad condemnation from the Islamic world.

Nonetheless, that same man announced another sanctioned book burning plan for last Thursday, sparking the Swedish embassy protests in Iraq itself.

Now, this conflict is beginning to extend beyond diplomatic channels, with reports from Iraqi state news suggesting that Swedish telecoms equipment vendor Ericsson has had staff work permits revoked by the Iraq government.

Since then, however, Farhad Alaaldin, an advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, has rejected these claims by the media, saying that no Swedish companies had had their work licences revoked as part of the ongoing unrest.

Ericsson says it is exploring the issue, noting that the safety and security of its staff remained the company’s highest priority.

Iraq is a relatively small market for Ericsson, with the company currently stationing just 30 staff in the country full-time.

However, despite its small scale, the company’s Iraq operations have been a major headache for the Swedish vendor in recent years, after an internal investigation last year revealed that the company may have bribed terrorists in the region around a decade ago.

Further investigations into the Ericsson’s conduct during this period are ongoing, though the company agreed to plead guilty and pay a $206 million fine for breaching a related deferred prosecution deal with US authorities, earlier this year.

Want to keep up with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Sign up to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Vodafone warns of investment cuts if Three merger is blocked
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Dish and EchoStar consider merger

News

Despite declines in other key markets, Vodafone UK reported an increase in sales in its quarterly results this morning 

Vodafone reported a 3.7% rise in organic revenue growth to €10.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, although reported growth fell by 4.8%. 

In the UK, service revenue rose by 5.7% to £1.2 billion, due in part to price rises that came into effect in April, which saw mobile contracts increase by around £3 annually.  

Strong performance in the UK will help the firm to offset declines in its largest market, Germany, along with Italy and Spain, where revenues continue to decrease.

In Germany, revenue dropped by 1.3%, which the firm says reflects “the cumulative impact of customer losses over the past 18 months”. Vodafone Germany has lost over 121,000 cost-conscious broadband consumers to rivals in the past 18 months, though this reduction in revenue was partially offset by newly introduced price rises. 

Italy and Spain also saw reductions in service revenue of 1.6% and 3%, respectively. 

The news comes as Vodafone announced today that Luca Mušić will join the firm as Chief Financial Officer in September. He will succeed Margarita Della Valle, who became CEO following the departure of Nick Read at the end of last year. 

Vodafone’s £15 billion merger deal with Three, which was unveiled last month, is set to be completed late next year and, if approved, will make the merged company the UK’s largest mobile operator. Despite facing scrutiny similar to that of 2016’s blocked O2–Three merger, CEO Margherita Della Valle said that engagement with the Competition and Markets authority is already underway, and the company expects to file the draft merger notice “in the next few weeks”. 

Vodafone’s share price rose 4.5% this morning. 

How would the merger of Vodafone and Three impact the UK’s telecoms industry?  Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:
Vodafone warns of investment cuts if Three merger is blocked
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Dish and EchoStar consider merger

News

The billionaire is reportedly considering increasing his stake to the maximum allowed before being obligated to make a mandatory takeover offer

Today, anonymous sources cited by This Is Money suggest that billionaire Patrick Drahi is once again looking to increase his stake in BT.

According to these insiders, Drahi is considering increasing his stake in the UK’s largest telecoms operator to 29.9% – the largest share possible without triggering a mandatory takeover offer for the business.

Drahi first acquired a stake in BT back in 2021, buying a 12.1% stake in the operator for around £2 billion via the newly formed Altice UK.

Less than a year later, Altice increased its stake by a further 6% to 18%, a move which set alarm bells ringing at BT and set in motion a number of defensive measures to shore up the company’s operations against a potential takeover. Despite this, Altice remained adamant that stake increase was merely a valuable investment opportunity rather than a precursor to a potential takeover.

Finally, earlier this year, Drahi again increased his stake in the business, this time to 24.5%.

At every juncture Drahi and Altice have insisted that they have no interest in taking over BT and this reportedly remains the case today.

However, it is worth noting here that if Drahi and Altice do intend to increase their stake in BT, it would trigger an investigation by the UK government under the National Security & Investment Act. This Act, made law at the start of 2022, gives the UK Business Secretary powers to veto foreign investments if an investigation finds they may represent a threat to national security.

Altice has faced such an investigation before, following its previous stake increase, and the government deemed no intervention to be necessary. Whether this would still be the case for this larger stake, however, remains to be seen.

This is especially poignant given the other headline Altice news over the past week – namely, that Altice’s co-founder and former COO, Armando Pereira, has arrested as part of a major three-year investigation into corporate corruption.

The sting operation, which took place last week, resulted in three men being arrested, roughly 90 premises searched, and around €20 million in property seized.

Authorities are currently questioning Pereira and others in relation to charges of corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering.

Altice says it is complying with the investigation and has suspended contracts with around 60 suppliers, as well as launching internal audits.

According to sources, the impact to the company’s supply chain could have significant repercussions for the company’s network rollout.

Yossi Benchetrit, Altice USA’s head of procurement and Pereira’s son-in-law, has also been suspended.

Want to keep up with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world? Sign up to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Vodafone warns of investment cuts if Three merger is blocked
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Dish and EchoStar consider merger

The ITS Technology Group, which operates 36 wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (aka – Faster Britain) across urban parts of the United Kingdom for businesses and ISPs, has been approved as a supplier on the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Network Services 3 (NS3) framework. NS3 is an update to previous Network Services 2 […]

Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has revealed that they’re working with the One Nine Elms (R&F Properties UK) site in London to deploy in-building mobile connectivity for all four mobile operators in the two towers – including in the lifts, which the company claims is somewhat of a first for a residential development. Freshwave typically specialises […]

CityFibre, which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the UK, has published their annual accounts to the end of 2022 and revealed that their losses nearly doubled. But their network coverage also doubled to 2.2 million homes (RFS) and live consumer connections surged to 174k (up from 61k). […]

Vodafone UK has today published their latest Q1 FY24 results, which saw fixed line broadband ISP base grow to total 1.265 million customers (up by 42k in the quarter vs 65k in Q4 FY23), while their mobile base increased to 18.024 million (up by 104k vs 118k in the previous quarter). The biggest development over […]

Mobile network operator Vodafone UK has revealed that 532,651 tennis-fans attended The Championships 2023 and tracking shows that over 64 TeraBytes (up by 36.5% from 2022) of mobile broadband data were consumed by Wimbledon-goers during the two-week tournament, which was also one of their first roll-outs of 5G Standalone tech. Vodafone recorded its busiest day […]