Page 106 - SAMENA Trends - February 2020
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WHOLESALE UPDATES  SAMENA TRENDS


                                              WHOLESALE NEWS





        Mobile Roaming Between Congo and Gabon Working Well, Claim Regulators


        The   heads  of  Gabon’s  Regulatory  de Regulation des Postes et des    removed, the regulators have called on
        Agency  for Electronic Communications   Communications  Electroniques, ARPCE)   operators  to  introduce  free data  roaming
        and Posts  (l’Agence  de Regulation des   have announced that free mobile roaming   between  the two  countries,  as  set  out in
        Communications  Electroniques  et  des   between the two countries, introduced on   the memorandum of understanding (MoU)
        Postes, ARCEP) and the Republic  of   1  January  2020,  is  working  as  planned,   signed in October last year.
        Congo’s Regulatory Agency for Electronic   reports  Adiac-congo.com.  With the tax
        Communications  and Post  (L’Agence   on international call termination  now




        EC Vetoes Swedish Fiber Market Decision


        The EC has rejected a move by Sweden’s   the entire country to conclude  on  one,   high  speed  broadband  is  important  for
        Post  and  Telecom  Agency  (Post  &   national market.’ Rikard Englund, head of   Sweden  but also for the EU  Commission
        Telestyrelsen, PTS) to implement a single   market regulation at the PTS, commented:   and other  EU  countries.  It  is therefore
        national market regulation  for wholesale   ‘That the regulation has the right balance   positive that the issue will  be carefully
        local  access  to  fiber-optic  services.  The   between  competition  and investment in   investigated in this context as well.’
        PTS,  which  was  the  first  regulator  in
        Europe to define a separate market for fiber
        network regulation,  says it will  resume
        its  market analysis  in light of the EC’s
        ruling. The EC  statement says: ‘Typically,
        fiber  networks  in  Sweden  do  not  overlap
        geographically;  only limited numbers  of
        larger apartment buildings are connected
        to more than one network. Prices for
        wholesale access are often different across
        the country,  depending  on the provider
        and other  conditions  such  as  density.
        There is no evidence of either demand or
        supply substitutability between operators.
        For these reasons, the Commission
        considers  that  competitive conditions
        are  not  sufficiently  homogeneous  across




        Investors Buy  Wholesale  Fiber                        49%. The two companies  said that over the coming  years they
                                                               would invest more than $7 billion to roll out high-speed internet
        Company  Deutsche  Glasfaser  for                      infrastructure in Germany.  The  German government  has  put a

        Close to $3B                                           plan in place to provide nation-wide gigabit internet infrastructure
                                                               across the country by 2025. In order to meet that goal, companies
                                                               such as Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have ramped up their
        Investment firms EQT Infrastructures and OMERS bought fiber-  fiber  deployments  efforts  in  rural,  underserved  areas  of  the
        to-the-home company (FTTH) Deutsche Glasfaser from another   country. Last month, Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Glasfaser
        investment company. According to Reuters, EQT and OMERS paid   announced they would jointly use Glasfaser’s fiber-optic network,
        KKR about $2.74 billion plus debt for Deutsche Glasfaser. The deal,   starting with a pilot project in the city of Lüdinghausen. Deutsche
        which is expected to close in the second half of this year, gives EQT   Glasfaser, which was founded  in 2011 by investor Reggeborgh,
        a 51% stake in Deutsche Glasfaser, while OMERS has the remaining   provides internet access to more than 600,000 homes and 5,000


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