Earlier this year, it was revealed that Denis O’Brien—the Irish businessman who founded international telecom group Digicel in 2001—could lose up to 90% of the company to U.S.-based investment firms.
These firms are poised to seize control of the business in exchange for writing off up to $1.8 billion of Digicel’s debt.
The revelation that O’Brien could lose his empire follows a tumultuous period for Digicel. Today we take a look at the rise and fall of a Caribbean communications kingpin.
Back in 2018, the Panamanian government rubber-stamped long-gestating plans to reduce the mobile market from four players to three, seeking to make better use of the country’s spectrum resources.
Despite multiple meetings, no breakthroughs were achieved, and all four operators were unwilling to concede ground.
Five years later, multiple international telecom groups have exited Panama and the authorities find themselves in the unusual position of trying to attract a new operator to fill the void.
Today, we track the key events that led to this point.
Our daily CommsUpdate newsletter has featured a staggering 82,000 telecom stories since making its debut back in December 2002!
Twelve months is a long time in the world of telecom. So as another eventful year draws to a close, we’re looking back at the telecom stories that captured our readers’ attention during 2022.
From SIM card registration to Simba Telecom, satellite broadband to Standalone 5G, the CommsUpdate team left no stone unturned in their quest to bring you the biggest daily news stories from around the world.
Read on for the most popular CommsUpdate stories of 2022.
Since making its debut back in December 2002, our daily CommsUpdate newsletter has featured a staggering 82,000 telecom stories and now ranks as one of the most extensive telecom news resources in the world.
Born out of desk research for TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database Service, CommsUpdate is produced by a team based in the historic city of Exeter in Devon, England.
CommsUpdate actually has its roots in the Communications Update newsletter launched by CIT Publications on September 6, 1999. CIT Publications eventually merged with TeleGeography to create the telecom research giant you now know.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of CommsUpdate, let's take a look at some of the choice telecom headlines of December 2002. We'll see what has changed in this ever-evolving industry—and what (if anything) has stayed the same.
Last month, it was revealed that South Africa’s MTN Group received a $31 million offer from an unnamed buyer for 100% of the shares in its Afghanistan subsidiary. The deal means that MTN is another step closer to exiting the Middle East.
Today, we take a look at how MTN set about dismantling its Middle Eastern portfolio and examine its exit strategy.
Welcome to Part 2 of our analysis of the regional cellular scene in the United States!
In this installment, we scrutinize some of the most interesting cellcos operating in far-flung corners of rural America.
If you missed Part 1 of our deep dive, you can catch up here.
The U.S. mobile market is notoriously ultra-competitive, and household names like Sprint aren't the only ones to have been squeezed out in recent years.
Since 2020, Verizon Wireless has snapped up regional players such as Chat Mobility, Bluegrass Cellular, Triangle Mobile, and Chariton Valley Communications.
Tellingly, all four operators were participants in the telecom giant’s “LTE in Rural America” program, which leased 700MHz of spectrum to regional players in areas where Verizon had no intention of deploying infrastructure. After going live in 2010, the project was completed in October 2015, when all 21 participants were confirmed to be operational.
At the program’s peak, operators collectively covered more than 2.7 million people across 169 rural counties in 15 states.
Despite Verizon’s low-key takeover spree, dozens of smaller players continue to thrive in the U.S. This week we take a deep dive into the regional cellular scene and uncover the cellcos serving rural America.
Last year we investigated how major Scandinavian telecom groups Telenor, Telia, and Tele2 have followed a similar international strategy over the past decade: divesting the bulk of their Eastern European and Asian operations to concentrate on business closer to home.
Today we examine their ongoing activities within Scandinavia and the Baltic States and inspect how 5G and M&A continue to drive their respective strategies.
