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According to media reports, discussions are ongoing that could see the pre-paid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) swap its mint green for magenta

This week, reports from Bloomberg suggests that T-Mobile is currently in talks to purchase Mint Mobile, the MVNO backed by film star Ryan Reynolds.

The intricacies of the discussions have yet to be revealed, with both Mint and T-Mobile refusing to comment on the matter.

Mint has experienced a relatively meteoric rise to prominence since beginning life as Mint SIM back in 2015. A subsidiary of US MVNO Ultra Mobile, Mint has promoted itself as a cheaper alternative to the major mobile operators, marketing itself as the ‘first online-only phone service provider’.

Since then, the company has seen rapid growth, aided in no small part by the deluge of adverts featuring Ryan Reynolds, who purchased a stake between 20% and 25% in the business in 2019.

By 2021, the company was reportedly the fastest growing business in the US, as well as winning praise for its positive workplace culture.

But despite this success, or perhaps because of it, Ultra Mobile has been trying to sell Mint Mobile for some years now. In 2021, the business was up for sale for between $600 million and $800 million, drawing attention from companies including Altice USA.

However, no deal materialised and by the summer of 2022 reports suggested that Ultra Mobile was reaching out directly to major US network operators in the search for a buyer.

Out of the major US wireless operators, acquisition by T-Mobile would probably make the most sense. Mint, like Ultra Mobile itself, already operates using T-Mobile’s 4G and 5G networks, hence the brand’s incorporation into the larger operator would be a relatively simple process.

The appetite of T-Mobile’s rivals to potentially acquire Mint is unclear, though Verizon spent $6 billion on acquiring the budget MVNO Tracfone last year, making them an unlikely suitor.

If such a sale does go ahead to T-Mobile, it’s unclear if Mint would retain its own brand name or be melded into T-Mobile’s own budget pre-paid brands, such as Metro by T-Mobile.

How is the battle for the pre-paid mobile segment playing out in the US market? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s live Connected America conference

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Information supplied by BT has revealed that customers on their core fixed broadband ISP network (including Consumer, Enterprise and EE) consumed a total of 141PB (PetaBytes) of internet data on Boxing Day 2022, which is up by 17.5% from 120PB on the same day in 2021. The Boxing Day increase of 17.5% almost mirrors the […]

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Telkom and Rain have ceased acquisition negotiations, saying that a workable deal could not be reached

Today, South African telecoms operator Telkom has announced that it has ceased negotiations with Rain over a potentially acquiring the smaller mobile provider.

Telkom had first been approached by Rain back in September last year, with Rain pitching its acquisition in exchange for fresh shares issued by Telkom. Discussions continued until a predetermined deadline at the end of December, at which point the duo were set to re-evaluate whether it was worth continuing discussions.

The deadline now passed, it seems that the two companies have decided to pull the plug on negotiations.

“After initial discussions, but prior to any due diligence, the parties have decided that a suitable transaction is not possible at this time,” said Telkom.

No specific details have been revealed as to why a deal was unreachable.

While this is presumably disappointing news for Rain, Telkom shareholders seem far more optimistic, with the news sending Telkom’s share’s surging almost 12% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; investors are presumably hopeful that the collapse of talks with Rain will open the door once again for South Africa’s second-largest telecoms operator, MTN, who has been interested in purchasing Telkom for many years.

MTN had attempted to acquire Telkom back in 2014, but the South African competition regulator ultimately blocked this initial tie-up attempt. Since then, rumours of talks between the two companies have never been far away, with the duo entering into official talks once again in summer last year.

However, when Telkom indicated that it could be interested in purchasing Rain, who had approached the larger telco seeking a buyer in September, the discussions with MTN were quickly brought to a close.

Now, with Rain out of the picture, Telkom’s acquisition by MTN could once again become a very real possibility. If such a merger were to materialise, it would immediately create a new market leader in the mobile sector, overtaking current hegemon Vodacom.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest news from the international telecoms market? Click here to receive the Total Telecom newsletter straight to your inbox!

Also in the news:
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News

The Carbon Network Dashboard and Digital Carbon Calculator will leverage AI to help enterprise customers optimise their power usage and reduce their carbon footprint

BT has kicked off 2023 by reiterating its commitment to a more sustainable future, announcing the launch of a suite of new digital tools to help multinational enterprise customers better understand their carbon footprint.

The Carbon Network Dashboard will give enterprises a real-time view of their networks power consumption, including which devices are the most energy hungry. The Dashboard can also provide AI-driven insights based on previous usage data, predicting anomalies in power consumption as well as forecasting future usage.

In conjunction with this information about the enterprise networks, the Dashboard will also display data from the regional power grid, including when renewable energy is available.

Meanwhile, the Digital Carbon Calculator can analyse enterprise networks’ carbon footprint over time, identifying inefficient devices that are due to be replaced.

“With customers hosting more of their applications across multiple clouds, networks are now increasingly vital for all elements of business performance, including carbon impact. Our new tools empower customers to reduce their Scope 3 emissions by optimising their network or scheduling digital workloads when renewable energy is available, helping them to achieve their net zero goals,” explained Sarwar Khan, head of digital sustainability, Global, BT.

The telecoms industry itself is becoming increasingly green, with most major telcos having carbon neutrality goals set for 2030 or even sooner. However, lowering Scope 3 carbon emissions – those being generated by organisation’s wider value chain, such as suppliers and customers – remain a major challenge.

Indeed, even measuring these emissions accurately is a difficult task, which is a large motivation for BT’s launch of these latest tools.

In a report last year, BT said that its own Scope 3 emissions account for 95% of its total carbon footprint; the use of sold products by enterprises and consumers accounted for roughly 24%.

Are telcos doing enough to build a more sustainable Britain? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s Connected North conference, live in Manchester

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A new CensusWide survey, which was commissioned by Slovenia-based ICT provider S&T Iskratel, claims to have found that the vast majority of respondents (97%) favour publishing data about the energy efficiency of products and solutions. But 29% of UK broadband leaders are “not prepared to adopt this now or in the future“. According to the […]

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The Swedish Security Service (SAPO) called for vigilance from critical infrastructure operators, warning that ‘unpredictable’ Russia could disrupt key sectors using unorthodox methods

The new year is upon us and sadly the war in Ukraine shows no signs of stopping, with reports in recent weeks suggesting that Russia plans to mobilise up to half a million additional conscripts in preparation for a major spring offensive.

Now, in parallel to the fierce fighting ongoing in the Donbas, the Swedish security agency SAPO is warning Europe to remain vigilant of less direct kinds of warfare: espionage and sabotage of critical infrastructure.

Speaking at the People and Defense conference in Salen, Sweden, the head of SAPO, Charlotte von Essen, said that Russia poses a growing threat to the Sweden’s critical infrastructure – a threat that could extend beyond the country’s borders to the rest of Europe.

Von Essen noted that the Swedish telecoms sector and electrical grid were both likely targets, suggesting that “Russian security-threatening activities” against these industries were likely to increase in the coming year.

“From the Russian side, there is an interest in disturbing these areas,” she explained, highlighting the far-reaching implications such attacks could have for society, even beyond Swedish borders. “These are sectors where attacks against Sweden could cause damage to the rest of Europe as well.”

Von Essen noted that the Russian state would not only use official channels, such as government agencies, to conduct these attacks, but would leverage “the Russian diaspora, institutions and companies in Sweden”.

Russia has a long history of cybercrime against foreign nations, in recent years coming to prominence for high-profile attacks seeking to undermine various Western governments, including interference in US presidential elections.

Naturally, Russia has been conducting cyberwarfare against Ukraine on a massive scale since the start of the war, coupling the shelling of critical infrastructure with cyberattacks on the company networks. In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have called for Russian cyber attacks on critical and civilian infrastructure to be categorised as war crimes.

Russia is also accused of using stolen network data to identify and persecute Ukrainian supporters in occupied regions of the country.

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest news from the international telecoms market? Click here to receive the Total Telecom newsletter straight to your inbox!

Also in the news:
Orange opens European solar farm to boost access to renewable energy
Bullitt: Two-way satellite messaging will be available this quarter
Cox launches mobile services to bolster fixed line offerings

CityFibre has today confirmed that they will invest £25 million to deploy their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the two neighbouring towns of Rochford and Rayleigh in Essex (England), which will also include the village of Great Wakering. Construction work on the full fibre network in Rochford will begin imminently, while […]

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (VMO2) has today confirmed what we published yesterday (here), which is that, starting from March 2023, Virgin Mobile’s 3 million customers will begin being moved to O2’s own equivalent mobile plans with migrations taking place across 2023. The first customer letters about all this will go out next month. The […]

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband saw increased internet data consumption during the festive period this year, with data downloads on Christmas Day rising by 9.52% to 115PB (PetaBytes), which is up from 105PB last year. But bigger increases were reported across the rest of the festive season. As we’ve said before, demand for data […]

Network provider Broadway Partners (UK ISP Broadway Broadband), which in 2021 set a bold target to cover 250,000 premises across rural Wales and Scotland with their gigabit broadband (FTTP) network by 2025, has appointed industry veteran Steve Haines to be their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Steve, who replaces company co-founder Michael Armitage in the […]