Page 119 - SAMENA Trends - Oct-Nov 2023

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

of France, is known to dispute KKR’s EUR23 billion home (FTTH) ‘or mixed fiber-copper fiber-to-the-cabinet
(USD24 billion) valuation of NetCo. The telco’s board [FTTC]’, or, ‘in marginal cases, the mixed fiber-wireless
is due to discuss the proposals in a series of meetings network (Fixed Wireless Access)’. The major batch
later this week. (October 30, 2023) www.reuters.com of copper exchange shutdown approvals follows an
initial smaller tranche of 62 TIM exchanges previously
The Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom) has evaluated and approved for decommissioning by the
announced its approval of a plan by incumbent PSTN watchdog. TIM submitted proposals for shutdowns/
operator Telecom Italia (TIM) to decommission 1,342 migrations in 2017 – covering over 6,000 of its roughly
copper fixed line network exchanges. The regulator’s 10,000 fixed telecoms exchanges, with Agcom finalizing
press release confirms that all these exchanges rules governing the process in 2019. TIM’s FTTC/
complied with requirements regarding local next- FTTH network footprint covered over 89% of Italian
generation access (NGA) network coverage and copper- households by August 2023, with FTTH alone spanning
to-fiber customer migration rates, enabling TIM to begin 33% (up from 28% a year earlier). TIM’s majority-owned
the process of shutting down wholly copper-based fixed FiberCop last-mile networks venture includes rival
voice and xDSL broadband internet services in each ISP Fastweb and US investment firm KKR as fellow
exchange area. The watchdog added that customers investors.
will be migrated ‘in almost all cases’ to fiber-to-the- (October 9, 2023) Agcom

Rakuten Mobile announced that it has received the the cellco’s parent, Rakuten Inc., released a separate
necessary approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs statement confirming its intention to invest JPY54.4
and Communications (MIC) to forge ahead with its billion (USD362.81 million) to build out the new base
‘special base station deployment plan’ for 700MHz stations, as it strives to invigorate the fortunes of its
Japan ‘Platinum Band’ spectrum. With the go-ahead secured, mobile phone business which has so far struggled
Rakuten Mobile plans to begin building a mobile
to make inroads into a market dominated by three
network utilizing the 700MHz band in order to provide entrenched incumbents. Rakuten aims to deploy 10,661
‘even higher-quality mobile service to customers. While 700MHz base stations and expects its cellphone
the dates set forth in the deployment plan take into business to turn profitable in 2026. The company is
account timelines for a range of preparations required sticking to a plan to reduce capital expenditure by about
for operations, preparations are underway with the JPY300 billion between 2023 and 2025, a spokesperson
aim of launching operations as soon as possible. In is quoted as saying.
the wake of receiving the green light from the MIC, (October 24, 2023) www.reuters.com

Plans for a secondary allocation of 5G-suitable intended to conduct a second invitation to tender (ITT)
spectrum have been delayed by the Jersey Competition process this year for 5G spectrum for the frequency
Regulatory Authority (JCRA). Earlier this year the package left over from the initial award process. Now,
JCRA accepted applications from JT Jersey and Sure however, it has said that after ‘careful consideration’, it
Jersey Jersey for two of the three ‘Full Service’ 5G spectrum has decided to delay this second ITT for 5G spectrum
until after it concludes its examination of the proposed
packages it had put up for grabs, before in April 2023
recommending to British regulator Ofcom – which is merger between Sure and Airtel-Vodafone. According to
responsible for managing Jersey’s radio spectrum – the JCRA, its decision to delay ‘will help avoid the risk of
that the two operators be awarded frequencies. In the potentially inefficient spectrum allocation’.
wake of these developments, the JCRA had said that it (November 2, 2023) www.commsupdate.com

The National Treasury has announced that, following following a decision by the private equity firm to exit
an evaluation process, it has recommended that the telecoms operator. The government subsequently
Infrastructure Corporation of Africa (ICA) acquire a decided to amend the transaction to enable another
majority stake in Telkom Kenya. The Kenyan government private investor to acquire the 60% shareholding from
Kenya agreed to buy a 60% shareholding in Telkom Kenya from Helios. A competitive process to identify the new
Jamhuri Holdings/Helios Investment Partners last year, investor was launched in January 2023, resulting in an

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