Vodafone announced Wednesday it’s in exclusive talks with Swisscom to sell Vodafone Italia for nearly $8.7 billion. Swisscom has plans that include combining Vodafone Italia with Fastweb, its Italian network provider. “The planned merger of Vodafone Italia and Fastweb would bring together complementary high-quality mobile and fixed infrastructures, competencies, and capabilities to create a leading converged challenger,” Swisscom said.

Ukraine aligned its spectrum allocation and licensing rules with the EU's, law firm Kinstellar noted in a client alert. Asked whether the new regime has implications for Ukraine's defense against the Russian invasion, Kinstellar (Kyiv) telecom attorney Anastasiya Bolkhovitinova emailed, "Yes, although it is a very complex question." The allocation plan and licensing conditions were developed in compliance with Ukraine's undertaking to align its legislation with applicable EU regulations. Specifically, the alert noted, "the plan is intended to optimize and harmonize spectrum usage, consolidate the spectrum licensing regime, clarify frequency assignments and lay the groundwork for the introduction of new technologies in Ukraine." The plan consists of two sections. A national table of band allocations allocates radio frequency bands on a primary or secondary basis and defines which bands are for general use or are reserved for the military and other state bodies. The section on radio technologies in use, among other things, lists technologies for general and special users. The plan has three annexes, the first defines the national notes establishing particularities for radio frequency usage. The second specifies use conditions for the 56.025-157.925 MHz and 160.625-162.025 MHz bands by the maritime mobile radio service during the application of "radio communication for shore and ship stations" radio technologies. Annex 3 sets out usage specifics for the 150.05-168.5 MHz band for general users of mobile radio services. The licensing conditions affect L02 licenses, which grant nonexclusive rights to frequencies in the same region. EU governments in December agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine.

The 120-day initial national security review for Element8's acquisition of AtLink Services began Tuesday, the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector, known as Team Telecom, said in a letter to the FCC posted Wednesday in docket 23-268. Team Telecom said it will notify the FCC if an extension or additional 90-day review is necessary. Element8, a Texas-based ISP, announced the acquisition of AtLink, an Oklahoma City-based ISP, in March for "an undisclosed sum." Element8 received a $200 million investment for the purchase from Digital Alpha, a strategic investment firm with foreign ownership.

Open radio access network company Parallel Wireless announced a partnership with Hotspot Network that will provide internet for previously unconnected rural areas throughout Nigeria. “This collaboration aims to connect residents of rural regions to essential services such as health, education, and financial services, that will ultimately improve their quality of life,” a Wednesday release from Parallel said. In addition, the company said it reached a milestone of 1,500 wireless sites deployed in Africa. “Expanding mobile connectivity throughout Africa is a unique challenge due to unreliable or inaccessible sources of electricity and challenging landscapes that make physical access difficult,” the company said: As adoption expands, “Parallel Wireless is not only proving it out at scale but also preparing networks for future 5G upgrades across Africa.”

American Tower invested a cumulative $5.1 billion in its India business, which it plans to sell to Brookfield Asset Management for up to $2.5 billion (see 2401050058), MoffettNathanson’s Nick Del Deo told investors Tuesday. “American Tower’s experience in India has been, by far, the most notable black mark on what has otherwise been a very good multi-decade global capital allocation track record,” he said.

American Tower plans to sell its India operations to Brookfield Asset Management for up to $2.5 billion, said a late Thursday news release. The tower company said the announcement follows a completed strategic review of its Indian assets. A deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, American Tower said.

Huawei Technologies had some $98.7 billion in revenue in 2023, said Rotating Chair Ken Hu in a Tuesday message to investors marking the start of 2024. That reflects growth of about 9% over 2022. Huawei’s information and communication technologies “infrastructure business has remained solid, and results from our device business surpassed expectations,” Hu said: “Both our digital power and cloud businesses are growing steadily, and our intelligent automotive solutions have become significantly more competitive.” Hu acknowledged that Huawei has faced challenges in recent years resulting from “geopolitical and economic uncertainties,” technology restrictions and trade barriers. "After years of hard work, we've managed to weather the storm” and “now we're pretty much back on track," he said.

The new Belgian EU Presidency must focus on telecommunications and competition, mobile operators and competitive telcos said Tuesday. Belgium's presidency began Monday and goes through June 30. Its program includes making progress on the EU's green and digital transitions, supporting efforts toward achieving climate neutrality and digital leadership. The presidency will "prioritise a human-centred approach to the digital transformation, with particular attention to algorithmic transparency and virtual identity protection," especially in connection with AI. Other key focuses include: (1) Digital inclusivity, particularly negotiations on the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA); (2) a "joint approach to 'active cyber protection,'" such as by boosting proactive measures for preventing, detecting, monitoring and abating network security breaches across the EU; and (3) stronger international cooperation via cyber diplomacy. The GSMA urged the presidency to "work with the telecoms industry to ensure an investment culture in digital infrastructure to carry through the region's technological and economic ambitions, addressing market fragmentation and removing the regulatory barriers that hamper progress." Delivering the GIA will go a long way toward removing hurdles to buildout of very high capacity networks, it said. The GSMA said it expects the European Commission will publish a white paper on a planned digital networks act, which will explore the potential for measures to create a "true single market" for telecom. The European Competitive Telecommunications Association also wants the GIA to "come to a good end taking into account our concerns," Director General Luc Hindryckx said in an email. As for the planned digital networks act, he said, the telecom sector is the "linchpin" of social and economic dynamics in the 21st Century, enabling universal participation in digital society by ensuring affordable connectivity for all. Anchored in a pro-competitive legal framework for e-communications, the European model has consistently shown its effectiveness and "should be maintained."

France’s iliad Group Monday made a new offer to buy part of Vodafone Italia. The offer was $7 billion in cash, plus a 50% stake in a joint venture combining the two companies’ Italian operations. Last year, iliad sought to buy Vodafone’s Italian operations. New Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle will have a chance to consider this latest offer. “The market context in Italy calls for the creation of the most innovative telecom challenger, with [the] ability to compete and create value in a competitive environment,” said Thomas Reynaud, iliad Group CEO: “We believe that the profiles and complementary expertise of iliad and Vodafone in Italy would allow us to build a strong operator with the ability and financial strength to invest for the long term. NewCo would be fully committed to accelerating the country’s digital transformation and especially fiber adoption and 5G deployment.”

Germany’s 1&1 AG said Friday it initiated mobile 5G service on its open radio access network, becoming “the first network operator in Europe to rely entirely on the new Open RAN technology.” 1&1 said it became Germany’s fourth mobile operator. "We have been closely following the development of the new Open RAN technology from the very beginning,” said CEO Ralph Dommermuth: “When Rakuten launched the first fully virtualized mobile network in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, we knew for sure: This is the future! Since then, we have built internal specialist teams, established a strong partner network, and concluded tough national roaming negotiations.”