Eurobites: Telecom Italia gets go-ahead for Oi carve-up

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: SA president finally pins down spectrum auction date; European publishers get the hump with Google; YouView exec heads to TalkTalk.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

February 11, 2022

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Telecom Italia gets go-ahead for Oi carve-up

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: SA president finally pins down spectrum auction date; European publishers get the hump with Google; YouView exec heads to TalkTalk.

  • Italy's antitrust authority, CADE, has given the go-ahead to the acquisition of mobile assets belonging to Brazil's Oi by TIM Brasil, Telecom Italia's South American subsidiary, as part of a joint bid with Telefônica Brasil and Claro. Oi filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016, citing a debt load of $19 billion. No financial details of the deal have been disclosed.

    • The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has used his "state of the nation" speech to, among other things, signal the start of the high-frequency spectrum auction in three weeks' time and commit to facilitating the "rapid deployment of broadband infrastructure across all municipalities by establishing a standard model for the granting of municipal permissions." The auction has been subject to years of delays, with operator Telkom being a particular thorn in the side of regulator ICASA. (See SA spectrum showdown gets April court date.)

    • The European Publishers Council has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Google in a bid, it says, to "break the ad tech stranglehold" the search giant has over publishers and other businesses in the ad tech ecosystem. Specifically, the Council calls on the Commission to "hold Google accountable for its anticompetitive conduct and impose remedies to restore conditions of effective competition in the ad tech value chain."

    • UK operator TalkTalk has appointed Susie Buckridge as general manager of group product, a new role at the company. She will lead a new department encompassing TalkTalk's consumer, wholesale and B2B units. Buckridge joins TalkTalk from YouView, the TV platform part owned by TalkTalk which was set up to bring together in one place the various catch-up services of UK's public service broadcasters.

    • The African Development Fund and the government of Malawi have signed a grant agreement for $14.2 million to carry out infrastructure upgrades and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system. The project is intended to boost financial inclusion in the country, particularly with regard to women and those living in rural areas.

    • UK mobile operator Three has introduced an in-stadium network at Stamford Bridge, home to English Premier League soccer heavyweights Chelsea FC. Fans equipped with a 5G device will be able enjoy speeds of up to 250 Mbit/s. According to Three, this makes it the first Premier League stadium in the UK have switched on 5G "across its entirety."

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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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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