The FT today cover a new report by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer showing the UK TMT sector is benefiting from a mini boom in foreign investment. Most of it is targeted to traditional media companies such as Emap & Reed, but it echo's some more encouraging results from the likes of AT&T - although caution is the watchword for Q4.
View blog reactionsThe financial crisis may have forced a number of telco players to make minor tweaks to their strategies, but one company it won't get the better of is Virgin Media.
The television and telephony company last week announced it was seeking to push back its debt refinancing deadline from 2009 to 2012.
Total Telecom's Friday Review implied in no uncertain terms that Virgin Media, along with a number of other telcos, was forced to react to the unpredictable economic conditions.
However, it seems this assertion was misplaced, since we have been informed that Virgin Media chose to react to the credit crisis, rather than let it be forced into doing anything.
"In light of the disruption to the credit markets, the company has decided to proactively address its amortization payments that are due in 2010 and 2011", said a Virgin Media statement last week.
A shrewd move, since proactively choosing not to react to the prevailing economic conditions could prove to be a tad risky.
The top ten most popular news stories on Total Telecom in September were read an incredible 19,500 time. At least I thought this was incredible until I realised that this is only around 5% of the total articles read on TT in a month. So, as everyone loves a list, what have you missed?
The top 10 most read news stories in September were:
Verwaayen outlines plan for Alcatel-Lucent
Internet Players Scrabble to The Rescue
Intelsat Drops Abominable Rules and Prepares For Market
INTUG Names Names in European Leased Line Tariff Scandal
FCC Says Universal Service Revamp is Delayed
Nokia's brand value plummets, Voda gets a boost
Verwaayen to become Alcatel-Lucent CEO
Friday Review: Moving out
Wholesale giants say Internet will no longer be free
Termination rate cuts could price out pre-paid users - Vodafone
and while we're at it, the Industry News (press releases) on Total Telecom are popular as well, so ten you might want to check out:
Global Crossing expands data centres
Sony Ericsson unveils Project Capuchin SDK
Ericsson to build mobile network for C&W
Ericsson, Hanoi Telecom network deal
Nokia Siemens, Vodafone run LTE platform trial
Ericsson hosted mobile advertising deal with KPN
Ericsson unveils IMS IPTV middleware
Nokia launches developer program
RNLI £4m NGN deal with ntl:Telewest Business
NEC secures WiMAX Forum® certification
Do let us know if this type of round up is interesting / useful....
The votes are flooding in the telecoms Person of the Decade to be presented at this years World Communication Awards.
It's Sarin vs Gates vs Jobs and more - you can see the shortlist and vote on the Total Telecom microsite
Also flooding in are the alternative suggestions, and why is so and so included - well they probably were, but didn't make the top 10 of suggestions recieved...
Make sure your favourite wins - Vote NOW!
Reports are emerging that Norway's Telenor has suspended ZTE from tenders for new business for six months after the Chinese equipment vendor breached its code of conduct.
"We have suspended ZTE from participating in tenders and new business opportunities for a period of six months ending March 3 next year," said Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard, in a report by Reuters.
Melgaard said the suspension covers the whole of the Telenor group and its operating companies worldwide, and is based on a breach in relation to a "procurement process."
Telenor had to answer some difficult questions in September after reports of poor working conditions and child labour at one of the subcontractors to its Bangladesh operation Grameenphone.
However, an un-named analyst at a European bank said in the Reuters report that he would be surprised if Telenor's dealings with ZTE have been put on hold for the same reason.
Keep an eye on Total Telecom for all the latest developments.
Sony Ericsson went all out for the U.K. launch of its W595 handset, with a spooky evening launch ceremony at a haunted London church.
Unfortunately Total Telecom didn't attend the event (our invite must have been lost in the post...), but a spokesperson explained that a woman called Mary once died in the church when she was jilted by her fiance.
"Apparently you summon her by saying 'I do'," said the spokesperson.
"We couldn't find the church on Google Maps, and it didn't show up on our taxi driver's sat nav either," she added.
She said that one of the w595's key features being demonstrated at the launch was a function that enables users to film short video clips, upload them to YouTube, and then notify contacts of their latest cinematic masterpiece via text.
Of course, what with the event being Halloween-themed, people were deliberately scaring their fellow attendees, then uploading the evidence to the Internet - people should be able to watch the videos on a dedicated YouTube site coming soon.
For the last few months we've been building our profile on LinkedIn and now have over 1,100 members of the Total Telecom Professional Network. As you'd expect we're quite picky about who we allow in and as a result we're starting to get some really interesting discussions posted on the new forum area. The most recent are:
- If connectivity is becoming a commodity and value is shifting towards applications and services, who will grab the lion's share of future revenue streams in the "communications" industry? - TTPN members can view this discussion
- What were your biggest hurdles were when you tried to introduce a new service to the portfolio of your company? TTPN members can view this discussion
Our thanks goes out to Konstantinos Apostolatos and Henk Jelt Hoving for starting these discussions... If you'd like to add your views why not join the Total Telecom Professional Network?
Word of the week at Broadband World Forum Europe is without doubt "choice".
Barely a conference presentation has passed without the speaker making some comment about how important it is to offer choice to customers. The obsession with "choice" began with Belgacom CEO Didier Bellens' opening keynote and continued throughout the event.
BT Vision's Richard Young went as far as to suggest his company is all about offering customers "choice and convenience", making it sound rather more like a TV shopping channel than anything else.
Whether it's choice of providers, access method or content, we end-users like to choose, apparently.
Personally, I'm more concerned about whether or not it's reliable, and I'm happy to report that we still have WiFi access in the press room... along with a curious, but well-received selection of miniature desserts and an endless supply of caffeine-based beverages, so thanks to the guys at BCS PR for that.
So, BBWF Europe 2008 in summary:
Content: mostly interesting
Exhibition floor lunches: poor in the extreme
Beer: plentiful (and cherry-flavoured in some cases)
Weather: grey and wet
Jokes about the weather from conference speakers: abundant
If I hear the phrase "welcome to sunny Brussels" one more time I think I might scream...
