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Telia slashes headcount, moves to country-led model to save €255m pa

Annie Turner
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Telia slashes headcount, moves to country-led model to save €255m pa

Last week Telia Finland handed responsibility for the operation and development of its cable broadband and TV services to Teleste

Telia Company says it has completed the change programme it announced on 4 September. It aims to cut costs by shedding 3,000 jobs and decentralising the organisation, shifting to a country-led operating model.

The changes are intended to provide annual savings of at least SEK 2.6 billion (€255.6 million) and the restructuring charges are expected to amount to less than previously communicated, at around SEK1.3 billion instead of SEK 1.4 billion, with effect in Q4 2024.

From 1 December, each Telia opco in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania and Estonia is, in the main, responsible and accountable for commercial planning and execution. Capabilities in IT, analytics, products, customer contact and strategy have moved from Telia’s central units to the countries to support this.

However, Telia is retaining the scalability and expertise in a central strategic Technology unit and Group functions for group finance, corporate affairs, people & culture, and communications, brand & sustainability. Each has “refocused scopes and responsibilities in the new operating model”.

Telia claims that interfaces between Technology and group functions and the countries have been simplified, “as part of a broad evolution of Telia’s ways of working that will strengthen collaboration, increase efficiency and empower local organisations”.

Patrik Hofbauer, Telia Company’s President and CEO states, “We are creating a Telia fit for the future…We have made tough but necessary changes, and our employees’ dedication during this time has been exceptional. Through our new operating model, we can serve customers better, build performance in our teams, and grow in a way that supports investment and attractive shareholder returns.”

The operator said that restructuring charges of around SEK 1.3 billion in Q4 2024 will not affect Telia’s full-year 2024 financial outlook statements, which relate to service revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA growth, capex excluding fees for licences, spectrum and right of use assets, and the structural part of operational free cash flow.

Telia Finland brings in Teleste

Last week, Telia Finland and Teleste announed they had signed a multi-year agreement to transfer the operation and development responsibilities for broadband and TV services in Telia Finland’s cable network to Teleste.

The service transition is expected to complete by the end of 2024, with “a select group of key personnel joining Teleste as part of the transfer”.

“Our deep experience as a technology supplier and network operations expert gives us a unique perspective on the future of broadband networks. We are committed to supporting Telia Finland in the long-term development of their broadband and TV services, ensuring seamless service continuity while aiding strategic decision-making,” said Hanno Narjus, Head of Teleste’s Broadband Networks business.

The move should bolster Teleste in its domestic market after a tough year in which sales were lower than in its other European markets.

In 2022 Teleste updated Telia Finland’s video streaming platform for its cable network.

Telefónica’s Peruvian fibre sale falls through 

Simon Dux
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Telefónica’s Peruvian fibre sale falls through 


More bad news for the Spanish telco after booking a non-cash €314 million write-down on its Peruvian unit in Q3

Despite Telefónica stating it was on-track to hit its 2024 financial targets even after the Peruvian impairment,  the ongoing sale of its stake in its neutral fibre optic network in Peru has fallen through, according to regulatory filings in the country. The Spanish telco wanted to sell its stake to  private equity fund KKR and Chilean telco Entel, and Reuters reported the transaction valued 100% of the network at about €550 million, including debt. 

This deal was first announced in in July 2023 when Telefónica said it had agreed to sell a 54% stake in its fibre network to KKR and a 10% stake to Entel. If the transaction had been completed,  KKR subsidiary Pangea Luxco would have obtained 54% of the shares of Telefónica-owned fibre company PangeaCo.

In a separate filing, Entel stated that talks were still ongoing with Telefónica and KKR but given the wider market conditions, the price the Spanish operator hopes to get may no longer match the price the buyers are willing to pay. Cinco Dias suggests that it was Telefónica that has chosen to terminate the deal. 

Earlier this month, chief financial and control officer & head of Hispam Laura Abasolo (above) told Reuters, the deteriorating outlook for the Peruvian economy, tougher competition and political and judiciary instability pushed the telco to review the present and future value of its whole business in Peru.

According to Entel, the deal fell through “due to the breach of certain closing conditions” it did not specify. Telefónica did not disclose the value of the transaction but said the deal would cut its debt by €200 million.

Peru accounted for 3.5% of overall revenue in the first nine months of the year, Telefónica said at its results in early November. As a result of the write-down, the telco’s overall net profit fell to €10m in the third quarter, down from €502m in the same period a year ago.

Taxing issues

According to Bnamericas, Telefónica del Perú is facing difficulties due to a tax controversy and intensifying competition, leading shareholders to reduce share capital by 1.15bn soles ($302m) to rebalance the company and help offset a 2.8bn-sol loss in 2024. In April, Telefónica announced the payment of 1.36bn soles to Sunat after losing a court case regarding income tax declarations for fiscal years 2000 and 2001.

At the last shareholders meeting, it was agreed to cover the accumulated losses with an issue premium of 2.02bn soles and the capital reduction. In addition, Telefónica Hispanoamérica provided loans of 2.8bn soles this year.

Telefónica del Perú reported revenues of 4.53bn soles in the first nine months, a decrease of 7.2% year-on-year. Competition in the fixed and mobile businesses is also mounting, according to Bnamericas. In the second quarter, Telefónica had a mobile market share of 28.3%, behind Claro with 30.1% and 12.6m lines. Entel had 22.3% and Bitel 18.8%.

Home growth

Peruvian problems aside, in Brazil, EBITDA declined 5.9% in the quarter to €1,030 million, due to the impact of exchange rates, but in the first nine months it grew 2.2% to €3,066 million. So a Peruvian exit is not a signal for a Latam exit, particularly as the region was 24% of group revenues in the first nine months of 2024. 

In Spain, Telefónica Infra ended September with 24 million premises passed with fibre. Telxius, the telco’s submarine cable management company, reported year-on-year traffic growth of 12% in the first nine months and maintained its high profitability ratio (48.9%). Telefónica also did well with fibre. Its international footprint of ultrafast networks in September stood at 178 million premises (+4%), of which 81.6 million were FTTH (+13%). This figure includes a total of 24.1 million premises from the Group’s various fibre vehicles (+19%). Most recently, the telco signed a five-year wholesale network deal with Zegona-owned Vodafone and Bluevia Fibra as part of that telco’s plans to bolster its fibre footprint. 

Spain, UK step up efforts to harness quantum tech

Annie Turner
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Spain, UK step up efforts to harness quantum tech

Viasat and Vodafone join state-backed initiative in UK; Telefónica Germany, Telefónica Tech and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid join forces with AWS in Spain

First up, the UK. Seven businesses have joined the Digital Catapult’s latest quantum innovation accelerator. The plan is to speed up the development of solutions and their practical application for sectors including transport, defence and telecoms, while removing risk through supporting consultancy.

McKinsey reckons quantum technology could contribute up to $450 billion to the global economy by 2040. The Catapult claims its work will play a key role in scaling solutions and increasing investors’ confidence in “early stage deep tech”.

The Quantum Technology Access Programme is part of a wider project funded by Innovate UK, Quantum Data Centre of the Future. It was set up to embed a quantum computer in an ordinary data centre to explore real-world access to quantum technologies. Partners include ORCA Computing, Riverlane and PQShield.

The organisers say the inaugural programme saw a 26% boost in confidence about quantum computing from firms such as Rolls Royce, Airbus and the Port of Dover. 

Now seven more companies have joined the endeavour. Through its participation, Vodafone is to explore use cases to address complex telecoms challenges, including the NP-Hard Steiner Tree problem which could optimise networks by finding the most efficient way to connect multiple points. The operator group provides mobile and fixed services to more than 330 million customers in 15 countries, partners providers of mobile networks in 45 more and has one of the world’s largest IoT platforms. 

The other six new member are:

  • Autonomia – is a technology start-up specialising in the development of intelligent software solutions for mobility and energy ecosystems.
  • BAE Systems – a global defence and security company
  • Origami Labs UK – works on AI and autonomy technologies to speed turning invention into deployable capabilities.
  • SIMULEX – an R&D startup working on how to integrate hydrogen into carbon capture and storage, geothermal, renewables and fossil sectors to accelerate energy’s transition through chemical and reservoir engineering.
  • Viasat – a global satellite comms company offering broadband and secure networking.
  • ZF Automotive UK – a global technology company offering mobility products and systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology.

Spanish steps

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of activity in Spain regarding quantum tech too. Telefónica Deutschland (which operates under the brand of O2 Telefónica), AWS, parent company Telefónica with subsidiary Telefónica Tech, and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) are to run a joint pilot project.

It will investigate the possible use of quantum technologies in planning, optimising and securing mobile networks, for example, to calculate the best place to site towers in Munich (pictured, illustration courtesy of Telefónica Deutschland), and the use of QKD and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to develop a quantum-safe networking strategy.

According to this detailed statement issued by the operator, the pilot will build on multiple strands of R&D concerning quantum technology explored over the last 10 years in Telefónica’s Technology and Automation Lab in Madrid.

This new phase, the participants says, represents one of the first coordinated efforts globally to test multiple quantum technologies in a cloud environment. Cloud trailblazer Mallik Rao, whose role was recently expanded when he become Chief Technology & Enterprise officer at O2 Telefónica, said, “We are entering the quantum age of digital networking. Quantum physics will enhance digital communication. With our pilot project, we are taking a significant step towards quantum-safe mobile networks of the future.

“We are creating the necessary conditions today to leverage quantum technologies and their possibilities in our O2 network for the benefit of our customers. SIM cards, text messages, and video calls for consumers, companies, and public authorities are secured with advanced security features in the 6G era.”

He continued, “The question is no longer whether quantum-based encryption will be required, but when. With this pilot project, we are looking ahead and testing the necessary technology in real-life use in the network today.

“We are implementing quantum technologies on AWS because they can be applied there more efficiently and quickly than building our own infrastructure. We can also combine quantum-safe connections more easily with the increasingly cloudified telecommunications services.”

Professor Vicente Martin, Director of the UPM research group on quantum information, added, “Quantum communications technology is extremely demanding due to the need to deal with single-quantum signals. This pilot shows how QKD [quantum key distribution] technology can be usefully integrated in a very complex production network to secure real-world use-cases.”

AWS hosts the operator’s 5G core system, developed by Nokia. The operator started to migrate 5G customers to the public cloud platform in May.

How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | Have telcos got the right data in the right places to harness AI?

Tiffany Amorós
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How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | Have telcos got the right data in the right places to harness AI?

From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/

  • Daniel Dobos, Research Director, Swisscom

How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: How far can AI go in redesigning core and transport operations?

Tiffany Amorós
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How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: How far can AI go in redesigning core and transport operations?

From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/

  • Moderator: Emma Buckland, Principal Analyst, Telco Cloud & Networks, STL Partners
  • Goran Klepac, Director of Big Data Analytics, Hrvatski Telekom
  • Alexis Koalla, Director Operations Strategy and Transformation, Orange Business
  • Christos Koimtzis, Business Development Manager, Deutsche Telekom
  • João Antunes, Head of Autonomous Networks, Celfocus

How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | In conversation: Ensuring trust in autonomous networks: the role of AI in service assurance

Tiffany Amorós
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0
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | In conversation: Ensuring trust in autonomous networks: the role of AI in service assurance

From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/

  • Matthew Twomey, Head of Marketing, Anritsu

How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: How can AI help in IT and Network elements to and in the cloud, and especially automation?

Tiffany Amorós
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0
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: How can AI help in IT and Network elements to and in the cloud, and especially automation?

From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/

  • Moderator: Moderator: Adaora Okeleke, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason
  • Diego Olerni, Principal Cloud Architect, Vodafone
  • Nektaria Efthymiou, Network Platform Security Director, BT

How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: Is AI really transforming the telecoms business?

Tiffany Amorós
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0
How AI is Transforming Telecoms – November 2024 | PANEL: Is AI really transforming the telecoms business?

From Telecoms Europe Events: https://www.telecomseuropeevents.com/

  • Moderator: Robert Curran, Consulting Analyst, Appledore Research
  • Ayesha Temuri, Enterprise Data Officer, Telenor
  • Eva Ulicevic, VP/Director of Architecture, Strategy and Analytics, Telefonica Germany
  • Beatriz Ortega, EMEA Telco Business Development Manager, Red Hat

Swisscom launches NVIDIA SuperPOD system for corporates

Simon Dux
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Swisscom launches NVIDIA SuperPOD system for corporates


The telco’s IT services business and Fastweb were the standouts in its nine-month results so why not accelerate them?

Swisscom has deployed what it claims is Switzerland’s first NVIDIA SuperPOD system which gives enterprises the chance to run AI applications in its data centres – essentially offering guaranteed data storage and processing in-country. The operator said it is already working with customers to test initial applications on the platform. It provides everything, from consulting to operation, from a single source. Swisscom will also offer platform and application services as the system is modular. 

The operator argues that AI can only unleash its full potential when enriched with company data. This requires an independent AI infrastructure to guarantee complete data sovereignty across the entire processing chain, as well as data storage and processing in Switzerland, naturally. Swisscom said it is seeing high demand from the financial and public sectors for a secure environment for AI projects to guarantee compliance with the strictest data protection regulations.

Maximum “Swissness”

In its announcement, the operator emphasised, repeatedly, that the service was so sovereign it provides companies with AI infrastructure and applications offering “maximum Swissness”. Yes, it is a thing. The operator has been able to take advantage of a test tun too given its Italian subsidiary Fastweb announced almost a year ago that it will install 31 NVIDIA DGX H100 in its datacentres in Lombardy, powered by renewable energy. That system runs on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture and has 248 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. 

Swisscom wants to give enterprises choice so customers can choose between the Swiss AI Platform, infrastructure operated by global public cloud providers and integrated AI solutions in standard software applications. The Swiss AI Platform offers an AI infrastructure, platform and application services. The modular design gives customers this flexibility to select and combine components according to their requirements. 

The operator outlined some of the offers. GPU as a Service gives companies access to high-performance processing power enables the processing of large volumes of data; for instance, for the training, fine-tuning and operation of models. Swisscom’s AI Work Hub is designed for data scientists and machine learning engineers who develop and train models and therefore analyse and process large data volumes. It supports the collaborative implementation of customer-specific AI applications.

GenAI Studio will be available from spring 2025. It gives companies easy access to generative AI services via API interfaces on the platform, which they can use to create their own AI solutions with the content they need in line with company-specific requirements. As an interim step, customers can access a range of Swisscom-operated Large Language Models (LLM), to implement a chatbot, for instance.

The NVIDIA infrastructure enhances Swisscom’s existing products. Swisscom is also using the platform to develop initial applications for its own use, such as automated responses to corporate customer enquiries or generating brand-compliant images for marketing campaigns.

Initial applications

Swisscom is already testing and implementing initial applications on platform. It is working with Thurgauer Kantonalbank (TKB) to test a chatbot to query internal instructions by bank employees. A system for automated responses to customer online enquiries is also being developed with TKB. Swisscom is collaborating with emergency organisations to test the automated transcription of emergency calls. The solution interacts with the operations control system. It automatically transcribes the audio recording of received emergency calls into text for legally required documentation and enriches it with additional information.

“The Swiss AI Platform is a Swiss solution for the Swiss economy,” said presumably Swiss-based, Swisscom head of business customers Urs Lehner. “Sensitive data is in good hands thanks to our powerful, trusted Swiss infrastructure. In addition, our 400 AI and data specialists, working alongside NVIDIA’s leading global industry experts, constitute a unique Swiss Center of Excellence, enabling us to support customers with tailored AI solutions.”

UAE tops Global Digital Powerhouse list, with Finland close second

Annie Turner
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0
UAE tops Global Digital Powerhouse list, with Finland close second

New research ranks the world’s most connected countries: Italy is the only European country in the bottom 10

A new analysis finds that the United Arab Emirates (UEA) is cementing its position as a global digital leader. This is because it combines the fastest, most accessible and affordable internet with a tech-savvy population ready to harness the booming knowledge economy.

Airgain’s Emerging Digital Powerhouse Index evaluated a range of factors including average mobile internet speeds, mobile penetration, digital skills and progress in deploying 5G, alongside affordability and educational indicators including enrollment in tertiary education.  

The top 10 countries, led by the UAE, include two from the Middle East, four from Northern Europe and two from Asia, as well as the USA and Australia. 

Here’s the Top 10

RankCountryTotal score
1UAE440
2Finland431
3South Korea407
4United States406
5Denmark405
6Qatar401
7Singapore393
8Norway390
9Netherlands383
10Australia377
Source: Airgain, Emerging Digital Powerhouse Index

The UAE ranked highest for 5G connectivity and average mobile download speeds of 413Mbps compared to 350Mpbs in Qatar and 257Mpbs in Kuwait. The UAE also stands out for broadband affordability and a highly skilled digital workforce.

Ali Sadri, CTO of Airgain,said, “We conducted this research not just to understand which countries have the fastest internet. Critically we wanted to assess which countries also deliver the best access, most affordably and have an educated population with strong digital skills primed to take full advantage.”

He added, “These findings underscore the Middle East’s rapid technological progress and its growing role in the global digital economy, fueled by the adoption of cutting-edge technologies.

“Access to fast, reliable internet is a game-changer for any population. It doesn’t just boost connectivity – it fuels the knowledge economy, which now accounts for roughly 50% of global economic activity. When people have the tools to access, share, and create knowledge quickly, innovation thrives. Entire industries, from healthcare to education to technology, are transformed, opening up opportunities that were previously unimaginable.”

Italy is the only European nation in the bottom 10 of the ranking. Despite technological progress, emerging economies such as India and Indonesia still face challenges in digital infrastructure and education, placing them among the lowest-ranked countries.

The bottom 10 in the ranking

RankCountryTotal score
28Italy271
29Chile229
30Thailand218
31India207
32Brazil183
33Philippines174
34Mexico170
35South Africa138
36Indonesia135
37Nigeria0
Source: Airgain, Emerging Digital Powerhouse Index

The report says that countries aiming to enhance their digital positioning should focus on improving digital literacy, infrastructure, and mobile technology investments. However, this is often a complex and gradual process rather than a quick fix.

It continues, “Readily available, easy-to-install technologies are crucial for boosting accessibility and promoting wireless growth. In some regions, starting with foundational education in digital skills could be an effective approach.

“As we look ahead to 6G, the demand for expertise in next-generation technologies and enhanced connectivity will only grow. While some nations may currently lag behind, emerging opportunities and resources present new avenues for them to close the gap, promising a more digitally inclusive future for citizens worldwide.”

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