Eurobites: Nokia reshapes top table, adds AI to network automation

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Somalia's Hormuud Telecom extends its mobile money platform; Elisa's Q3; Ken Campbell gets top job at Poland's Play; Sparkle's BlueMed has its day in the sun.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

October 18, 2024

3 Min Read
Nokia offices in Keilaniemi
(Source: Timo Viitanen/Alamy Stock Photo)
  • There's Nokia news a-plenty today, as the Finnish vendor announces changes to management team, sprinkles AI fairy-dust on its Altiplano Access Controller and lays off a fifth of its workforce in China – according, at least, to a Reuters report.

    The management reshuffle sees Nokia's Corporate Affairs unit split into two separate sub-units, namely Geopolitics and Government Relations, and Communications. Finland's former Ambassador to the US, Mikko Hautala, joins the company as chief geopolitical and government relations officer, while Louise Fisk has been promoted to chief communications officer. Heading for the exit are Melissa Schoeb, erstwhile chief corporate affairs officer, and Jenni Lukander, president of the Nokia Technologies business group.

    The AI telecom tsunami continues with Nokia announcing the integration of AI-driven operations (AIOps) into its Altiplano Access Controller, which is described as an automation platform for broadband networks. The new AIOps uses AI from applications in Nokia's Altiplano Application Marketplace to analyze network data and drive network automation.

    Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Nokia has laid off around a fifth of its 10,400-strong workforce in China and plans to shed another 350 jobs across Europe as part of a drive to cut costs. A Nokia spokesperson confirmed the latter but not the former. This week Nokia revealed that quarterly headline sales fell 8% year-over-year, triggering a 5% fall in its share price on the Helsinki exchange.

  • Angola Cables has set up a European subsidiary, TelCables Europe, to support its growing international network and act as a "digital bridge" to connect to other Portuguese-speaking countries across the world. It will offer a range of products, including peering and cloud services, to customers across Europe and around the Mediterranean. As part of this initiative, the new company will also be establishing a new point of presence at the carrier-neutral Sines DC facility in Portugal.

  • Finnish operator Elisa saw third-quarter revenue fall by €9 million (US$9.7 million) year-over-year, to €536 million ($581 million), mainly, says Elisa, due to lower equipment sales and the impact of acquisitions and disposals. Mobile service revenue, however, grew by 4.8%, to €254 million ($275 million), while EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) also rose, by €7 million ($7.6 million), to €206 million ($223 million). EBITDA guidance for 2024 has been upgraded to "slightly higher" (previously it was "same level or slightly higher").

  • Somalia's Hormuud Telecom has formed two new banking partnerships to advance its mobile-money offer, one with MyBank and the other with Agro Bank. The agreements should enable full integration between Hormuud's EVC Plus mobile money platform and their respective banking services. More than 70% of Somalis use mobile money but only 15% of them hold a traditional bank account, according to Hormuud.

  • Ken Campbell, a serial telecom CEO with spells as top dog at Wind Mobile, Ooreedoo and Bite Group on his resume, has been appointed CEO of Polish operator Play, succeeding Jean-Marc Harion, who is heading to Sweden to become CEO of Tele2.

  • Sparkle, the international services arm of Telecom Italia, has won "Project of the Year" at the Global Connectivity Awards for its BlueMed subsea cable system. The judging panel described BlueMed, which boasts four fiber pairs and an initial design capacity of more than 25 terabits per second (Tbit/s) per pair, as "the most ingenious, visionary and demonstrably impactful digital infrastructure project of the year."

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About the Author

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.

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