• DT’s ‘Mr Magenta’ gets another five years as CEO, welcomes new chairman
• BT’s mobile unit EE commits to 4G upgrades for the UK’s Shared Rural Network (SRN) 
• Nokia lands FWA and Wi-Fi deal at Ooredoo

An extended term at the top for DT’s ‘Mr Magenta’, a 4G upgrade commitment for the UK’s Shared Rural Network from BT’s EE, and a neat fixed wireless access (FWA) and Wi-Fi broadband gear deal for Nokia top today’s pile of news items.  

Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Tim Höttges has been handed a further five-year term at the helm of the German telco giant, while Frank Appel, CEO at Deutsche Post DHL Group, has been named as its new Chairman, replacing Ulrich Lehner, who is stepping down for “reasons of age.” Höttges is currently to be CEO until the end of 2023, so the extension will take his term to the end of 2028 – if he completes that term he will have been CEO for 15 years. "I am very pleased that we will be able to retain Tim Höttges at Deutsche Telekom for longer than previously planned. Like no other, he stands for the transformation and success of recent years. Over the past almost eight years, Tim Höttges - together with his team - has modernized Deutsche Telekom and consistently focused it on a course of growth and innovation. In the process, they have always exceeded their targets. With skill, tenacity and assertiveness, Tim Höttges has made Deutsche Telekom the leading telecommunications company in Europe. We are delighted to be able to keep our front man. He is Mr. Magenta and is held in high regard both inside and outside the company. His main task will be to systematically implement Deutsche Telekom's strategy over the next five years and further develop the company into the leading digital telecommunications company." Read more.

EE, the UK mobile network arm of BT, is set to upgrade 4G in more than 2,000 areas by June 2024 as part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) initiative to extend coverage in rural areas across the UK. EE says it has upgraded its 4G network in more than 800 areas across the UK since the SRN deal was signed in March 2020. “Today, EE has pledged to extend 4G in a further 1532 by mid-2024 – 925 in England, 359 in Scotland, 125 in Northern Ireland, and 123 in Wales – totalling 2,385 in this phase of the programme. All sites have been made available for other operators to share under the SRN scheme,” noted the operator in this announcement. 

Still with EE... it has been ranked by infrastructure and benchmarking specialist umlaut, now part of Accenture, as the UK’s leading mobile operator for the performance and reliability of mobile voice and data services. For further details, see this new report.

Nokia has been selected by the Ooredoo Group to supply 5G customer premises equipment (CPE) and whole-home mesh Wi-Fi solutions for use by residential and enterprise customers across the telco's operations in the Middle East and North Africa. “The Nokia Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and WiFi solutions will enable Ooredoo to create additional revenue streams through new and exciting offers, such as smart home services and Internet of Things,” noted the vendor in this press release. It added: “Nokia’s easy to install FastMile 5G CPEs will connect effortlessly to Ooredoo operating companies’ 5G network to provide seamless, ultra-high-speed broadband connectivity to premises.”