BBWN Bites: Sony Goes Orange for Security
Also today, Huawei's Polish proposal, Belgian regulator's changes bump stock, GTT to buy KPN, Serbian operator keeps shopping, Vodafone and Liberty Media make executive changes, and CityFibre gives political tour.
Sony Group chose Orange Business Services to connect more than 500 locations in 50-plus countries across five continents at its two largest operating companies. The operator will build Sony Group's new communications infrastructure atop the Orange Flexible SD-WAN solution to enhance Sony's performance, security and scalability. Over time, Orange -- which is now Sony's top global provider -- expects to deploy a totally automated, intelligent network to all Sony's business units across the world. (See Telcos Top Managed SD-WAN Services Market Share: Report)
Doing the Org Chart Shuffle
Liberty Media and Vodafone made executive announcements, and acquisitions by GTT and Telekom Srbija eventually may generate some org-chart changes.
Mark Carleton, Liberty Media's chief financial officer since 2016, retired, the company announced today. Brian Wendling, a Liberty employee since 1999 and controller since 2011, will add the role of principal financial officer to his responsibilities, and continue as CFO to Liberty TripAdvisor. Rich Baer, current general counsel and chief legal officer, will assume the added title of chief administrative officer, emphasizing recruitment and talent development, while Courtnee Chun, who runs Liberty Media's investor relations group, was named chief portfolio officer.
Huawei expects to shell out 3 billion zlotys ($790.11 million) in Poland over five years on 5G deployment -- although the Polish government in January said it would not use Huawei products after it arrested a Chinese Huawei employee and former Polish security official on allegations of spying, according to Reuters. Huawei fired the head of sales in Poland after the arrest. (See Huawei's Head of Sales in Poland Arrested.)
Belgian telecom regulator BIPT crimped Telenet's share price today after it recommended lower wholesale rates for operator access to several of Belgium's cable networks, including Telenet's. Stakeholders can comment on the financial and other effects of these proposals through September 6.
US-based cloud networking provider GTT Communications will pay Netherlands-based KPN about €50 million ($65 million) cash for KPN International, which operates a global IP network delivering connectivity plus services to Dutch and international enterprise and operator clients. If approved, the deal is slated to close in the third quarter 2019, and will deepen GTT's Tier 1 network, complement its existing portfolio and transfer 400-plus clients to the US provider while making GTT the preferred supplier to 400 clients that KPN retains.
Way across Europe, Telekom Srbija bought Telemark, which has more than 25,000 TV and Internet subscribers in western and central Serbia, according to Kamatica. Last year, Telekom Srbija expanded within its home market of Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, by acquiring several providers including Kopernikus Technology.
Tata exec Vinod Kumar is leaving the large integrator to become CEO of Vodafone Business on September 2, reporting to Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read. On that date, he'll also join the Executive Committee. Kumar succeeds Vodafone Group CEO Rest of World Vivek Badrinath, interim CEO of Vodafone Business since March 2019 and managing director plus CEO of Tata Communications since 2011.
On the Stump in Cambridge
British MP Daniel Zeichner (left) toured the full-fiber infrastructure being constructed as part of CityFibre's gigabit network in Cambridge, coordinated by Charles Kitchin, city manager for Cambridge at CityFibre (right).
CityFibre gave a tour of the gigabit infrastructure it's deploying in Cambridge to the city's Member of Parliament, Daniel Zeichner. Over the next two years, residents of the renowned UK university area are slated to get city-wide high-capacity gigabit service via Vodafone's use of the wholesaler's full-fiber network, which could generate millions of pounds in economic benefits over the next 15 years, said Charles Kitchin, city manager for Cambridge at CityFibre.
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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.
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