Vivendi has asserted that Telecom Italia (TIM) must value its fixed landline network at €31 billion ($33 billion) in any sale, far above any market valuation, a source close to the French media group, TIM’s apex investor, told Reuters.
Vivendi’s stance might make it tough for TIM to sell its network, a possibility the former phone monopoly is currently exploring in discussions with its second biggest investor, after Vivendi, national investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP). Vivendi believes a sale had to meet certain criteria in the interest of all of TIM’s shareholders, reports Reuters.
Vivendi owns 23.8% of TIM and its support is vital if any asset separation deal is to get accepted. TIM declined to comment. TIM’s landline grid should carry at least 10 billion euros of the company’s debt were it to be separated from the group’s services arm, sources said.
TIM’s new CEO Pietro Labriola is working on plan to separate the wholesale fixed network operations from its services businesses and will present his strategy to investors on July the 7th. As part of the plan, TIM is considering an outright sale of its domestic landline grid and its international cable unit Sparkle.
TIM is discussing the potential sale with state lender CDP after they signed a non-binding accord last month to create a unified broadband champion in Italy combining TIM’s network assets with those of CDP-controlled rival Open Fiber. CDP would control the combined network entity.
Discussions involve also infrastructure funds Macquarie and KKR, who would also need to back a deal. Macquarie is a minority investor in Open Fiber.
New York-based KKR, which last year offered to buy the whole of TIM for 33 billion euros including debt but was rejected, holds a stake in TIM’s last-mile network. Both funds would remain as minority investors in the TIM-Open Fiber single network operator.
After opposing the idea that TIM could lose control of its main infrastructure asset, Vivendi has opened the door to supporting Rome’s efforts to create a single broadband operator under state oversight. Its CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine has warned Vivendi would only back a sale of the network that valued it fairly, rejecting as inadequate analyst valuations for the grid of 17-21 billion euros before synergies.
The value is also far higher than a price tag for the business estimated by TIM of about 20 billion euros including debt. Reuters’ source close to Vivendi said the French media group was a long-term investor in TIM and, following a split, would focus its strategic efforts on the group’s services arm which it ruled out selling.
Pain will get worse when Data Governance Act kicks in
European mobile operators should invest more time on data strategies, according to Dufrain a data strategy vendor. Data disorders will cost mobile operators millions in fines and could prove fatal when they try to ‘scale up’ in a business environment that supports mergers and acquisitions, the consultant has warned. Merging two sets of unstructured data creates a fatal toxic mixture that can both clog the circulation of the growing telco and lead to haemorrhaging of its information ‘lifeblood’.
Compliance
Dufrain cited Google and Vodafone Spain, who were fined €14 million in May by Spain’s Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD), as reported here in Compliance Week. The AEPD alleged Google violated Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding lawful data processing and Article 17’s right to be forgotten. Dufrain claimed the aggregate avoidable loss to GDPR enforcement fines totals €1.6 billion.
GDPR
Four years after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in the EU, there’s a growing danger of fines being imposed, according to Gerry Goodwin, sales director at Dufrain. “The fine imposed on Google and Vodafone shows that the regulators are as stringent as ever in its enforcement.” Now a host of new regulations and enforcements are set to come into effect this year, including the Data Governance Act and ePrivacy Regulation, which threaten to hit telcos even harder.
Immunity
However, some might think it’s more profitable to ignore the regulations and take the occasional GDPR fine as a cost of doing business. The fine is the fourth for Google under the GDPR and second highest in value following the €50 million penalty (then-U.S. $57 million) the company was hit with in France in 2019. Other countries to sanction the tech giant include Sweden and Belgium. Google has yet to be fined in its European home country of Ireland, where its primary regulator is located in accordance with the one-stop shop mechanism of the GDPR.
Governance
Dufrain said proper data governance processes will protect both the telcos and their customers from data breaches. It outlines the steps telcos can take to manage their data effectively and mitigate risk. It unveiled a three point plan: structure data, prepare for mergers and govern your data.
Fatally unstructured
Unstructured data, that cannot be used or detected by technology, presents a serious compliance risk for telcos because it’s typically exposed to huge amounts of personal customer information, according to Dufrain. Microsoft Teams and emails are a particular threat as more people work from home. Any documents saved via Microsoft Teams meeting, such as PDFs, mean that businesses breach data protection laws and face the threat of potentially crippling fines. Telcos must use specialist systems that bring unstructured data under control in the same way as structured data, according to Dufrain.
First degree merger
The deal value for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the telecoms sector rose by 48% in 2021 with scale deals, according to Dufrain. But the value is dissipated if the data from the companies cannot be merged successfully. Expediting the data migration process will be the deal breaker in the next few years, said Dufrain. “A data strategy that encompasses all aspects of data usage, ownership and management is vital for avoiding potentially crippling fines,” said Goodwin, “that means knowing where all their data is and how it’s stored and used, both to mitigate data breaches and ensure that they can make the most of the [intelligence it presents].”
They won’t go into the metaverse without a blockchain
The metaverse is perceived as a potential crime scene where consumers will be mugged for their confidential informant by data merchants who keep issuing the duplicitous warning that they “value your privacy”. That is one of the revelations from Accenture’s Technology Vision 2022 report surveyed 1000 British consumers and over 150 senior British business leaders about their views on ‘the next era of the internet.’
Confusion
The report found that a third of UK consumers have never even heard of the metaverse but by contrast two in three UK business executive think the metaverse will have a major positive impact on their organisation in the future. Within that margin of variation lies the key to the successful exploitation of the metaverse by mobile operators, according to Nick Rosa, Metaverse and Extended Reality Lead at Accenture. There is much confusion over the undefined quantity that is the Metaverse. According to the report a fifth of UK business leaders expect the metaverse to have a ‘transformational impact’ on their organisation, so presumably four fifths (80%) don’t.
Experiments
Of the minority who are believers, many are already experimenting with metaverse technologies. Though only 20% of businesses believe in the metaverse, Accenture claimed that 38% of UK businesses are piloting experiences in it. People don’t realise they are already using the thing they are afraid of. While some metaverse applications have 50 million users a day, the term causes confusion over the range of experiences it can generate, according to Rosa. “Businesses must do a better job of educating consumers and winning their trust on the metaverse for their investments to pay off,” said Rosa.
Virtual reality
A third of British consumers are interested in virtual reality for socialising (33%) and online shopping (31%) in the next five years. For Generation Z respondents, a third would also be interested in attending entertainment events, such as concerts, in virtual reality. Three quarters of consumers want more control over their data and a single digital connection to all their accounts across streaming platforms, social media or even work. Three quarters of UK organisations are exploring Web3 technologies like blockchain and tokenisation with these confidence inspiring improvements in mind.
Trust issues
Trust is the key issue and if telcos can earn that they could crack the metaverse opportunity, according the report. The three most reassuring features of the metaverse will be honesty, visibility and ease of use because consumers hate juggling multiple accounts and losing control of their private information, which is what earlier incarnations of the Internet brought. “Businesses can learn a lot from the dot com era and build the next phase of the internet in a way that addresses these frustrations,” said Rosa.
The Nth Floor
Researchers working on Accenture’s Technology Vision 2022 report surveyed 1000 British consumers and over 150 senior British business leaders about their views on ‘the next era of the internet.’ Accenture operates its own metaverse, known as the Nth floor, where the company’s people participate in new hire orientation and immersive learning or meet and socialise as teams. This year, the company expects 150,000 or more new hires will work in the metaverse on their first day – 3,000 in the UK have already participated.
French Court taking it seriously as 5G meets opposition
“People are starting to fight back against [telco’s electromagnetic fields] and are winning,” according to Christian news site The Wine Press. The activist’s reportclaimed that since telco infrastructure caused the unexpected death of cattle in Mazeyrat-d’Allier, in France’s Haute-Loire country, more European mobile operators may face opposition their infrastructure building. Could this be a portent of things to come? Mobile Europe reported in May that one of Britain’s most influential media outlets is giving mobile operators hostile coverage over allege mis-treatment of both consumers and infrastructure partners.
5G theory
With unexplained incidents of mass cattle death growing in the US and Europe, telephonophobia may be growing and could slow the roll out of 5G in European nations. The Wine Press anti-5G activist report also cited a recent case in the US where the Board of Health in Pittsfield, Massachusetts made legal history by imposing a cease and desist order on Verizon Wireless over the construction of a cell tower in the county.
Bad moos day
In the recent French court case, farmer Frédéric Salgues alleged that a 4G cell tower was damaging his cows’ health. According to the farmer, the antenna’s installation in July 2021, 200 metres away from his farm, coincided with 40 of his normally-200-strong herd dying and milk production falling by a fifth “within days of the antenna being switched on,” said sources. The mayor of Mazeyrat-d’Allier, Philippe Molhérat, had originally authorised the construction of the tower. However, for unexplained reasons he has switched sides and testified in court on behalf of the farmer.
Evidence
The owner of the equipment, the Orange Group, is now subject to monitoring, by the judicial expert, of the behaviour of the herd and of the dairy cows in particular, during this period. If the court finds against it, Orange’s tower company Totem must comply with the order within the next three months, shutting down the tower while ensuring emergency communications can be made. The farmer called the court ruling, “a major relief and a victory.” Lawyers for Orange had asserted that there is “no scientific evidence” to show that electromagnetic fields surrounding mobile phone antennas can cause health issues in animals.
Cease and desist
In April 2022 residents that live near a Verizon Wireless tower in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, said they are experiencing health issues from the radiation emitted from 4G. Verizon has since tried to fight this in court, pleading its case that the tower should remain operable. Media outlet The Wine Press argued there are many documented side-effects and ailments created by 4G/5G-EMF radiation. It warned potential infrastructure hosts to ‘be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. It warned telcos that: “I have not found thy works perfect before God.”
Revelations
“There is no way we can stop the sinister rollout of these EMFs, per the smart city and transhuman agendas but those that are saved are commanded to fight against these evil works of darkness, shed light on what is going on, so that people may stand up to it as well,” said the Wine Press report. It cited a passage 32:2, from the Bible’s book of Revelation: “It is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.” However, it also cited a passage from Corinthians (9:7-10) that could give European mobile infrastructure builders hope for a more agreeable outcome to the infrastructure dispute: “He that ploweth should plow in hope; and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.”
Would give controlling interest in long term steady earner
KKR, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Stonepeak Partners have jointly made a binding offer of €21 billion for a controlling stake in the Deutsche Telekom (DT) towers unit. A Bloomberg report said the private equity/alternative investor pact is in direct competition with a consortium of Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management and Spain’s Cellnex Telecom, which made a confirmatory bid for DT’s tower company.
Auction
DT created the tower auction in March, with Goldman Sachs handling the sales process for a bundle of 40,600 masts. Deliberations are still proceeding and other bidders, such as the American Tower Corp may still emerge, Bloomberg’s sources said. One insider said Vodafone Group’s infrastructure unit, Vantage Towers, is keen on DT’s towers assets and could make a bid on its own or with a partner. Investment firm DigitalBridge has also been evaluating the towerco sector and in March it announced a deal to buy Belgian mobile operator Telenet’s towers for €745 million. Bloomberg News reported in May that further acquisitions are in order.
Merger frenzy
Cellnex, Europe’s biggest mast operator, already jointly owns towers with Deutsche Telekom in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Germany is the only major European market where Cellnex hasn’t been able to build a presence. In May Nicholas Roy, CEO of Orange Group’s spin-off tower company Totem, told Mobile Europe that as the ‘uncontested fibre optic leader of Europe’ he was ready for deals. Private equity firms like buying telecoms infrastructure because it generates steady, long-term returns, whereas Europe’s mobile operators need ready cash to fund their immediate expansion. KKR raised $17 billion for its latest global infrastructure fund earlier this year, while GIP is targeting $25 billion for what would be the world’s biggest pool of capital dedicated to infrastructure investments.
Sponsored: Preventing low-level street crime is important in protecting public safety and property – and as an investigative gateway into larger criminal enterprises.
Drug and human trafficking are common examples of complex, multinational criminal operations that depend on hyper-local foot soldiers. Uncovering such relationships sets the stage for law enforcement to turn small-time players into cooperating witnesses that can help agents work upward in the illicit organization.
While lawful intelligence solutions continue to adapt to sophisticated new financial realities like cryptocurrencies, applying modern technologies to traditional targets remains vital. Some low-level foot soldiers are responsible for transporting and laundering the millions of dollars in small bills collected from street crimes. Identifying these ‘money mules’ using location-based services allows law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to both de-fund criminal enterprises and rehabilitate the disadvantaged individuals often lured into these serious criminal roles.
Recruiting money mules and the cycle of exploitation
Organized crime gangs have refined a technique that uses ATMs to launder their ill-gotten gains while perpetuating a cycle of exploitation for the money mules making the illicit transactions.
The cycle begins with the recruiting step, where a criminal identifies people willing to help launder profits in exchange for a small portion of the money. Contact may be made in person, by e-mail, or through social media and often takes the form of a fraudulent job offer, meaning the recruit may not even realize they are committing a crime. Those targeted to be money mules are often the most vulnerable members of society, including the young, the elderly, and the poor.
The financial stage of the crime begins with the criminal organization depositing cash from illegal sources into a mule’s bank account. The technique requires breaking the large sums of cash into many small deposits to avoid triggering reporting thresholds that notify authorities, which vary by jurisdiction and are well-known to criminals.
This means the illegal enterprise recruits many mules specifically for this purpose. In addition to keeping transaction amounts low, criminals must control the number of deposits to one person to avoid bank analytics that might flag a large aggregate inflow of money to the account of someone on welfare or other social aid, for example.
Once the funds have been deposited, the mule is instructed to withdraw them from a local ATM, then transfer the cash. In some cases a second mule – usually a foreigner from a country with weak money-laundering safeguards – completes this step, using a service like Western Union to send the money to their home country, where another member of the illegal entity retrieves it.
At that point, the criminal origins of the money are effectively untraceable, and the mules are left with significant criminal liability in exchange for relatively little. Even worse, the cycle of exploitation may continue if criminals extort a mule by threatening to turn them in to law enforcement, reveal their financial details, or worse.
Using lawful intelligence to counter money mules
To detect this type of money laundering, law enforcement starts by querying a particular ATM’s data. For example, ATM withdrawals within a given time and geographic area, in amounts just below the reporting threshold, may be of interest.
Successful criminals are experienced in covering their tracks, however, and will avoid obvious indicators such as numerous withdraws of the same amount from several ATMs in close proximity, but modern lawful intelligence measures can help tilt the balance of power back to law enforcement.
Location-based services are a central pillar of this effort, providing insights into a person of interest’s patterns of behavior in relation to one or more ATMs. It is common, for example, for a member of the criminal organization to chaperone the money mule during the transaction. By establishing geofences around targeted ATMs, for example, authorities can identify a mobile device that repeatedly enters the area many times per day, staying just a few minutes each time.
These evidentiary patterns are contextualized with other information such as source data about ATM transactions from the central bank’s anti-money laundering software, human and open source intelligence from the field, anonymized or warranted call data records (CDRs), additional location data, and other lawfully intercepted information.
Conclusion
SS8’s MetaHub empowers LEAs to identify and prosecute the individuals in charge of criminal enterprises by efficiently fusing and analyzing all these data sets to form a cohesive case. Its purpose-built, automated queries search for sequences or patterns of events as well as individual ones, with text and email alerts to notify analysts.
MetaHub also provides robust but intuitive tools to visualize the results using dashboards, delivering advanced insights to help stop financial crimes. SS8’s acquisition of Creativity Software also enhances our solutions with precise location capabilities encompassing the Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) and Location Management Function (LMF) for 5G networks, as well as the Serving Mobile Location Center for 4G and prior networks. This allows for more robust active and passive geofence monitoring, even in crowded areas, and enriches data with real-time and historic location information, giving LEAs the tools they need to arrest criminals and end the exploitation of money mules.
Smart products run is perfectly timed for Fifa World Cup 2022
Vodafone Qatar has launched a Smart Tracker of valuables which, according to a report in The Peninsula, is the world’s first consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) service. Smart Tracker locates anything valuable that you’re likely misplace and can save the user hours of hunting time looking for wallets, bags, luggage, laptops, motorbikes and even cars. The Vodafone Smart Tracker, built on the Vodafone IoT Platform, was designed to help users find and track their most important belongings locally and globally. The dedicated app was developed in-house by Vodafone is available to download on both Android or IOS devices.
Three tracking technologies
The system is lightweight, easy to carry and comes with a built-in SIM, connecting all the time users are on the move, said Vodafone. Unlike Bluetooth-only trackers, the Vodafone Smart Tracker uses three different tracking technologies; GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular, to provide a more reliable connection for customers. The Smart Tracker’s versatility means that users can keep track of their items not only in Qatar, but also while traveling in more than 155 countries.
More smarts to come
“We are excited to enhance our product portfolio with an [innovation] which makes our customers’ lives easier and more comfortable than ever before,” said Diego Camberos, Chief Operating Officer at Vodafone Qatar, “our research has demonstrated just how important it is to create a versatile product that allows users to keep track of their belongings and stay connected to what matters most, and our IoT Platform has enabled us to respond to the clear consumer demand.” This launch is the first in a series of new smart products that Vodafone Qatar has promised to unveil in coming months.
LMT to create new systems for shipping in Baltic ports
Latvian mobile system maker LMT has signed a memorandum of understanding with port services provider Rigas Brivostas Flote (RBF) to create new 5G inventions for the maritime sector. The memo alludes to creating and testing 5G for ships and ports but some fear that ports may have wider importance soon.
Demos
The first demos of how 5G will orchestrate ship-to-port and ship-to-ship communication will take place in the Gulf of Riga in 2023. This could be useful if transport and logistics becomes an important national issue in the case of an escalating conflict among Latvia’s neighbours. Fears over the war in Ukraine are sending tremours up to the Baltic, according to a report in Politico. Meanwhile 5G network connectivity presents massive innovation and digitalization potential for the maritime sector and ports, according to LMT.
Challenges
Installing 5G-enabled at sea presents many challenges, notably ensuring offshore 5G network infrastructure. The LMT and RBF pact is a significant step toward bringing 5G to sea to improve real-time communication between ships and ports, promote the digitisation of port services, and develop new systems for everything from loading, through inspection, to freight tracking and container management in the maritime industry.
5G-on-sea
“Bringing 5G to the sea is the key to moving towards a connected maritime mobility ecosystem,” said Arturs Lindenbergs, Mobility Innovation Lead at LMT, “but this area of invention is globally dormant due to the infrastructural complexity, which is why this memorandum is not only of local but also of global importance.” LMT has been widely testing and implementing 5G innovations in smart mobility, public safety and defence, claimed Lindenbergs: “We have vast expertise in using 5G for mobility, and we’re eager to begin developing smart maritime innovations.”
Heavy machinery
With ports facing changing weather conditions, organizing safe movement of heavy machinery and coping with the prospect of an escalating war, 5G could be particularly useful. Along with initiating faster and more efficient data exchange between ships and the coast, it could improve port technical services such as depth measurements. Additionally, 5G-enabled sensors and devices can give highly-accurate information on a ships’ whereabouts, making daily port operations more efficient, safe, and sustainable. These would well become more critical in a time of conflict.
Environment
The use of 5G in the maritime sector is significance from the environmental too. It would support the collection of data on the changing coastlines, the state of coastal seas and the pollution caused by wars. 5G-enabled devices can observe and record environmental parameters, providing an accurate and data-based outlook on the current ecological state, crucial for making sustainability-led decisions. “With this collaboration we aim to enable the use of 5G in the port and the Gulf of Riga and eventually everywhere in the Baltics,” said RBF CEO Kaspars Ozolins.
Nigeria will get first instant messaging app in Q3
Africans have been let down by US messaging apps so a creative Nigerian entrepreneur has stepped in and filled the gap in the market. Let’s Talk plans to launch Nigeria’s first instant messaging application, the eponymously named Lets Talk, which will be unveiled before the end of the third quarter of 2022.
What’s Lapsed?
On October 4 2021, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram crashed leaving Africans bereft. Many lost money, more were cut off from families, friends and relatives. A significant number of workers were unable to conduct business normally. Folashade Ayeni, the chief Operating officer of Nigeria’s Let’s Talk, has decided to step in because she believes Africa deserves better. The huge economic and social impact of Facebook and WhatsApp’s service failures is only possible because of the huge commitment across Africa to take business and relationships onto social media, according to Ayeni. So the creative content supplier has come up with an inventive solution for Africans and the telcos that serve them.
Let’s Talk
At the launch of Let’s Talk Ayeni told journalists in Lagos the rationale for taking on Big Tech Global with an application that’s small tech and hyper local. “WhatsApp crashed for about six hours and the reality dawned on us that really, whether it was intentional or not, we could lose everything,” said Ayeni, “so we thought about owning our social media platform, where people can have guaranteed communications and security and privacy is also guaranteed, which is Nigerian owned and indigenous for us in Africa.”
NITDA
The application was designed by a team of Nigerian software engineers within the vision of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which has appealed for indigenous companies get involved in social media. Ayeni disclosed that the company was working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other relevant agencies to ensure the success of the application and acceptability by Nigerians.
Uniquely African
There are several uniquely African features within the app, such as the 5,000-member group chat and seven-person conference calls. The app is to be end-to-end encrypted, while allowing users to listen and share music, video and audio calls. The file exchange will be limited to 2GB. “It also allows for device and cloud caching as well as sharing moments and trends which will give users very pleasant experiences,” said Ayeni. The application can be downloaded on Google Play and App Store for both Android and Apple phones.
The ICT services giant, which works on integration with many telcos, thinks breaking up might be the best thing to do.
Atos, which has headquarters in Paris, is mulling breaking into two entities, both will by publicly listed. Each would have a dedicated management team, an independent board of directors and financial structure.
The proposed new entities are: • SpinCo (Evidian) focuses on digital transformation, big data and cybersecurity markets, with the intention of delivering high growth and high margins. It has a €400 million plan to accelerate profitable growth. The idea is to merge the cybersecurity unit, BDS with Evidian’s operations. Evian’s revenues combined with those of its cyberunit BDS generated €4.9 billion in 2021, up by 5% from the previous year, and an operating margin of 7.8%.
• TFCo (Atos) concentrates on managed infrastructure services, digital workplace and professional services, and it has a €1.1 billion plan to achieve a full turnaround by 2026. Its declining and loss-making IT infrastructure management services had sales of €5.4 billion last year.
Should Atos decide to proceed, then the necessary reorganisation is expected to be completed in the second half of 2023, with listing and distribution of SpinCo shares by end of 2023.
Atos’ management will present its transformation plan at its Capital Markets Day, today, which got off to a surprising start with CEO Rodolphe Belmer announcing his departure. Belmer only assumed the role in January, and the announcement of his departure sent its shares plunging by more than 25% after months of reported fighting in the board room over strategy, and especially concerning its cybersecurity unit, BDS.
Selling assets
Investors were hoping Belmer could restore confidence after Atos losing two-thirds of its market value in the past year.
Atos will sell assets worth about €700 million Belmer said on Tuesday in a call with reporters. It has already sold its 2.5% stake in payments company Worldline as part of its disposals plan, raising €220 million .
Strategic national importance
Reuters says that Atos is to be deemed strategic by the French government for its high-tech assets such the manufacture of supercomputers and software used by the army and the finance ministry to manage tax collection. Former prime minister Edouard Philippe sits on its board.
