Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Italtel board accepts bid from PSC Partecipazioni; A1 Telekom Austria joins HERE's data exchange; Vodafone does deal with Discovery.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

January 5, 2021

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Ericsson elbows its way into Ooredoo's 5G RAN

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Italtel board accepts bid from PSC Partecipazioni; A1 Telekom Austria joins HERE's data exchange; Vodafone does deal with Discovery.

  • Ericsson's march to 5G glory continues with its signing of a five-year radio access network (RAN) agreement with Ooredoo. The deal covers all ten of Ooredoo's operating companies in Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, Myanmar and the Maldives (though Ericsson RAN gear is already used by several of these companies already). In Qatar, which is preparing to host a number of global sporting events (not least the soccer World Cup in 2022), Ericsson is deploying 5G midband Massive MIMO radios to help meet the needs of sports fans in stadiums, at home or in transit. In March Ooredoo surprised industry observers by deciding to source 5G kit from Huawei in both radio access and core networks in five of its ten markets. (See Huawei picks up five-market 5G deal from Ooredoo.)

    • The board of Italtel, the Italian telecom equipment manufacturer and IT services company that once employed more than 30,000 but now gets by with around 1,300 willing hands, has accepted a €44 million (US$54 million) bid from PSC Partecipazioni for 100% of the company. That bid won out over another, from Exprivia. Italtel believes its "extraordinary skills" can play an important role in the development of high-speed broadband and 5G networks in Italy.

    • A1 Telekom Austria has joined the HERE Marketplace, a data exchange platform created by HERE Technologies, the location data company that was once a part of Nokia but is now majority-owned by a consortium of German automotive companies. A1 claims to be the first telco to join the exchange, and says it will use HERE Marketplace as a new distribution channel, offering location and mobility analytics based on anonymized movement data provided by its cellular network.

    • Vodafone has signed a multi-year deal with Discovery that will allow the operator's TV and mobile customers in 12 of its European markets access to the Discovery's various channels via the Vodafone platform (though in the UK and Turkey the service will only be available to Vodafone's mobile customers). It will also, for a limited period, allow access to the new Discovery+ streaming service, which is trumpeting itself as the "Home of the Olympics in Europe," beginning with wall-to-wall coverage of the Tokyo Games next year.

    • Virgin Media has announced average price increases of 4% for its broadband, TV and phone services in the UK. As the BBC points out, this is roughly 13 times higher than the current inflation rate in the country, and may be considered something of an own goal given the third national lockdown announced by Boris Johnson on Monday evening.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Read more about:

Europe

About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like