Advanced Television

Telco

AT&T to separate DirecTV from Time Warner

US telco giant AT&T will run its DirecTV pay-TV arm as a separate division following on from its $85 billion (€74bn) acquisition of Time Warner’s media assets. According to reports. The Time Warner purchase has not yet formally closed, but is expected to wrap by the end of the year. Part of the package being […]

July 17, 2017By Chris Forrester

Telenor making cutbacks

Telenor Group says it is aiming for significant savings across all functional cost areas between now and 2020. At its half-year results the Norwegian telco giant said it was looking for 27 per cent reduction in head office support functions starting next year and reaching their full effect in 2019. Additionally, a 20 per cent […]

July 17, 2017By Chris Forrester

Altice-SFR to fibre France without public money

French telco Altice-SFR has revealed plans to fibre the entire French territory with no public money, which it says will make it possible to achieve the French President and Government’s goal of giving access to high-speed broadband throughout France. Altice-SFR’s contribution to the State’s deployment programme is reflected in the creation of Altice Infrastructures, a […]

July 14, 2017By Colin Mann

Ofcom sets out Openreach delivery measures

UK comms regulator Ofcom has announced how infrastructure unit Openreach will be held to account, as it becomes legally separate from BT, to ensure it delivers for phone and broadband users. Ofcom expects the reformed Openreach to engage with industry to deliver widespread fibre networks, offering fast, reliable broadband. The new company should provide a […]

July 13, 2017By Colin Mann

Major step forward for digitalisation in Africa

Multinational telecommunications company, Angola Cables, has announced that construction has begun on its South American data centre, located in Fortaleza, Brazil. The data centre is an important next step in the company’s roll-out of promoting the digital inclusion and empowerment of Africa by the use of subsea internet cable connecting Africa to the Americas and […]

July 11, 2017

Ofcom: BT pay-TV complaints rise

BT was the most complained-about ISP in the first three months of the year, according to a report from Ofcom. The media watchdog, which publishes complaints data every quarter, also found BT to be the most criticised pay-TV company. BT received 34 complaints per 100,000 subscribers about its broadband service in the first quarter, well […]

June 28, 2017

Ericsson turns back to telecoms

Ericsson will no longer search for business beyond the telecoms sector and will refocus on selling networks to mobile phone companies in a move to cut costs and halt a dramatic fall in its share price. Its shares have fallen 30 per cent in two years. In 2014 Ericsson announced it would diversify so that […]

June 27, 2017

Deutsche Telekom: €2bn European 5G investment

Deutsche Telekom has indicated that an overall total of between €300 and €500 billion will be invested in deploying 5G in Europe. The 5G PPP is leading 5G research in Europe with €700 million of investments to be leveraged by a factor of 5 bringing total investment into the 5G PPP to more than €4 […]

June 22, 2017

Orange to sell down BT stake

Orange plans to reduce its stake in British rival BT Group from 4 per cent to as little as 1.33 per cent, according to a company statement. Shares in BT, Britain’s largest telco, have fallen by around 21 per cent since the start of the year after an accounting scandal in Italy forced the group […]

June 20, 2017

BT CEO: Brexit will damage R&D

Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO, has expressed his fear that the UK’s exit from the European Union may have an adverse effect on the telco’s R&D capabilities. Noting that the telco is the third largest investor in R&D in the UK over the last 10 years (behind the two major pharmaceutical companies) and the world’s second […]

June 12, 2017By Colin Mann