Today is finally the day! After your growing interest in our weekly tech highlights section, we decided to make it better for you. From this week, apart from our usual The Best Of Tech that will come every Monday, you will have a chance to see three new weekly segments. The new segments will focus exclusively on BioTech, FinTech, and Telecom, providing you with an even higher amount of quality news on your favorite industries. We are kicking the new series off with reporting on the most interesting and important developments in the telecom world that occurred in the last week. What have we got for you today? The 5G Spectrum Auctions around the world, Slovak Telekom with sanctions over squeezing out its competitors, Telefonica searching for a partner in their Amazon region expansion, the second-biggest telecom in India to start cooperating with the U.S Qualcomm, the forecast for the telecom industry in the Gulf region and more! Sit back, relax, and check what’s happening in Telecom this week.
Big News: 5G Spectrum Auction Rules Approved In Brazil With No Huawei Ban
Last week, the regulator of telecoms in Brazil, Anatel, has approved rules for the spectrum auction for 5G networks. Prior to the action, the public was doubtful about whether a ban on the Chinese Huawei will be enforced. Having said that, Anatel decided it will not place any restrictions on the Chinese giant as an equipment supplier. It is a big 5G News in North America.
The biggest outcomes of the newly approved rules are that telecoms will be required to build stand-alone networks with the latest 5G versions that are supposed to operate in the capital cities of each Brazilian state by mid-2022. The consequence of this decision for the telecoms will be more costly and speedy investments than they were hoping for, considering the deadline set is July 30, 2022.
The decision of not curbing Huawei in any way may come as a surprise for anybody who has been following the situation in Brazil. The right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been a critic of Huawei in the past and he also received substantial pressure from the Trump Administration to curb Huawei and ban it from the 5G market in Brazil. However, the telecoms based in Brazil were strongly against the ban and emphasized that a free market is needed as excluding Huawei would end up being too costly. At this point, equipment supplied by Huawei amounts to approximately half of 3G and 4G networks, and thus, finding a replacement would be an investment of several billion dollars.
Another rule that was confirmed is, as expected, the requirement for broadband connectivity across the Amazon regions that telecoms must supply. It will be done mostly through optic fiber cables laid in rivers.
A telecom expert at RKKG Consulting, Andre Gildin said, “Anatel found a good balance between obligations for the companies and the collection of operating rights payments.”
The President of Anatel, Leonardo de Morais, estimated that the spectrum auction this year will generate almost $15 billion dollars or 80 billion reais in investments to be spent in the next 20 years.
Slovak Telekom With Sanctions Imposed By The Antitrust Authorities
On Thursday, the EU’s top court ruled that the Slovak Telekom business owned by Deutsche Telekom will face the sanctions imposed by the Slovak antitrust authorities, despite the fact that it has already been penalized by the EU competition enforcers.
The case goes back all the way till 2009 when the Slovak watchdog started an investigation against the company that ended with the company being fined a hefty 17.5 million euros for using below-cost prices to get rid of its competitors. Then, the European Commission fined the company another time. Slovak Telekom did not agree with the decision and took the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union with the possibility of double jeopardy.
However, the European court said that it is legitimate for the company to be fined twice since the infringements differed, as reported by Reuters.
“Slovak Telekom, found liable by the Commission for abuse of a dominant position on the market for certain telecommunications services, could also be subject to sanctions imposed by the Slovak authorities for such abuse on the market for other telecommunications services,” the decision said “It appears that the proceedings conducted by the Commission and by the Slovak competition authority against Slovak Telekom had as their subject alleged abuses of a dominant position on the part of Slovak Telekom on separate product markets,”
Telefonica In Search For A Partner For The Fibre Optics Network Expansion
On Thursday, the COO of the Spanish telecom Telefonica, Angel Vila, announced that the company is seeking a partner for the fiber optics network expansion that the European telecom is planning in Brazil.
In Vila’s announcement, it was explained that Telefonica plans to fund the first stage of the expansion and for the second stage, they are “addressing through agreements with fiber owners like American Tower,”
At the end of the operation, 50% of the unit would be owned by Telefonica and its Brazilian business Telefonica Brazil and the other 50% would be owned by the partner.
Bharti Airtel News: About To Start A 5G Cooperation With Qualcomm
On Tuesday last week, Bharti Airtel Ltd announced a big 5G News. It will collaborate with the U.S-based chipmaker, Qualcomm, for supplying the 5G services in India. Artel that is India’s second-biggest telecom measured by the number of subscribers shared the news that it will use Qualcomm’s Radio Access Network platforms to roll out 5G networks in India
“This collaboration … aims to allow a faster rollout of broadband services … across India for “last mile” connectivity challenges that are becoming increasingly important in today’s remote, mobile-first society,” the statement of Airtel said.
While the long-awaited airwaves actioned ended today, bands supporting 5G will be auctioned later this year. However, rolling out of the 5G networks can provide internet speed that is 20 times faster than current networks.
Twilio Inc To Invest $750 In Syniverse Technologies
On Monday, the cloud-communications company Twilio Inc announced that it will invest up to $750 million in Syniverse Technologies LLC, a telecommunication service company. As the result of the announcement, Twilio traded at $399, almost 2% up in the premarket trade.
Carlyle Group Inc that currently holds the majority of Syniverse will still hold the majority interest after the investment and the companies will seek more financing transactions such as public market transactions or additional equity investment.
The deal is set to close at the end of 2022.
Middle East’s News: Telecoms About To Undergo A Revolution With 5G?
It looks like telecoms in the gulf region can undergo a huge change soon and change their primary focus from quality connectivity and high speed of data to the digital transformation of both the public and private sectors.
As the Gulf News reports, the telecom providers can end up with substantial gains if they play their cards right in terms of acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and successful management of the long-standing challenges.
In the last decade, the telecom providers in the Middle East focused on increasing the data speed connectivity, improving the access to technology for customers, private citizens, and businesses. Having said that, experts believe that the next decade will be spent on enhancement of the cloud technologies, AI, and blockchain.
The public sector cloud market on its own achieved a $2.35 forecast value in 2024. That is more than double the size it is today. Thus, focusing on the new-age technologies could lead to sustainable growth and big rewards for the Gulf telecoms.
India Telecom News: Spectrum Auction Ended With Reliance Jio Getting The Biggest Piece Of The Pie
In India, Tuesday marked the end of the two-day 4G spectrum auction. Unsurprisingly, Reliance Jio that is the biggest telecom as measured by the number of subscribers got the biggest bid, picking up 488.35 MHz radiowaves that account for ₹57,122.65 crores.
Following Reliance Jio is the previously mentioned Bharti Airtel that ended up picking up 355.45 MHz radiowaves valued at ₹18,699 crores. The third place went to the Vodafone Idea with a 1.80 MHz spectrum worth ₹1,993.40 crores.
The auction was concluded after 6 rounds of bidding, 4 taking place yesterday and the final two today. Anshu Prakash, the Telecom Department’s Secretary informed that the response was better than expected. The telecoms did not bid in 700MHz and 2500MHz bands.
Come back next week for another portion of news that exclusively covers the biggest development in the telecom world! If you want to read more telecom news, be sure to check out our Telecom section. Meanwhile, be sure to follow over the next few days as we unfold our newest weekly segments that are dedicated solely to FinTech and BioTech.
As always, if you have an idea about the story you think we should write about, let’s talk at info@regtechglobal.com
