What’s up with… Liberty Global, T-Mobile, M1

• Liberty Global partners with Sierra for European AI rollout
• T-Mobile seeks licence for “experimental testing” in 4.8GHz band
• Singapore’s Keppel has confirmed talks over a deal to sell M1 to StarHub

In today’s industry news roundup: Liberty Global teams up with AI firm Sierra to deploy its conversational AI technology across its European operations; T-Mobile follows in Verizon’s footsteps in applying for a licence to carry out testing in the 4.8GHz spectrum band; Singapore could be set for consolidation after Keppel confirmed it is in talks to sell M1 to rival StarHub; and much more!

UK fibre broadband altnet Opus Broadband has reportedly tabled a new bid to buy the consumer business of UK broadband operator TalkTalk. According to a report from Sky News, Opus, which has been working on a potential takeover offer supported by investment firm Alchemy Partners, has made an offer worth around £100m to buy the consumer part of TalkTalk, which is being split from its wholesale division (which is also up for sale). The bid comes at the end of an exclusivity period between the two companies but it is likely to be rejected, according to Sky, as it values the consumer arm at under half the price tag it had been mooted for. It comes in the same week that TalkTalk’s efforts to sell off its wholesale division PXC also hit a setback, after lead bidder Octopus Investments ended exclusive talks over a deal without submitting a bid. TalkTalk has about 1.7 million retail customers but is facing pressure to find a buyer due to its high levels of debt. Sky News claims the company has until the end of September to resolve its future, with regulator Ofcom said to be closely monitoring the situation, according to a report in The Telegraph.

Verizon isn’t the only operator seeking to test next-generation services in new spectrum bands: Like its rival, T-Mobile US has applied for a temporary two-year licence to “conduct limited experimental testing” in the 4.8 GHz band, with plans to set up test network equipment and devices at six sites in and around its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, it noted in this application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Separately, though, T-Mobile US has also applied for a temporary two-year licence to conduct tests in the 2.7GHz band. “The testing will allow T-Mobile to contribute to advancements in areas such as band segmentation, beamforming technologies and other advanced and emerging radio technologies, and to assess adjacent-channel compatibility with incumbent users. T-Mobile’s testing will include the use of up to seven temporary fixed base stations installed at seven sites located in Bellevue and Kirkland, Washington,” noted the operator.  

Investment firm Keppel has confirmed it is in discussions to sell Singapore’s third-largest telecom operator M1, in which Keppel has a controlling stake, to StarHub, the island state’s second-largest telco after market leader Singtel. The move comes only months after the planned sale of M1 to Simba Telecom, Singapore’s fourth operator, collapsed. In a disclosure to the Singapore Stock Exchange, Keppel confirmed reports that it was in “advanced talks” regarding a potential sale. The Business Times, citing unnamed sources, had earlier reported that M&A talks were underway for a deal that would mark a major push towards consolidation in the Asian country. In its filing, Keppel said it continues to explore divestment opportunities after the deal with Simba, which would have valued M1 at US$1.12bn, was terminated by Simba’s Australian-listed parent company, Tuas, after the Singaporean regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority suspended its review of the deal. However, Keppel warned in its filing that despite the “ongoing discussions” there is “no certainty or assurance that any transaction will materialise.” This was echoed by StarHub in its own stock filing. 

Liberty Global has struck a three-year strategic partnership with Sierra to support the rollout of the conversational AI platform developer’s technology across Liberty Global’s operations in Europe (Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK) which, combined, have approximately 80 million fixed and mobile customer connections. The telco group says the agreement will provide its businesses “with a common approach to deploy AI agents capable of engaging customers in natural language, across chat, voice and text,” adding that it is “accelerating the use of AI across its businesses to make customer interactions easier, more intuitive and more effective.” It added: “By enabling AI agents to handle routine and increasingly complex interactions, the partnership will also allow customer-care teams to focus more of their time on situations requiring human judgement and deep expertise.” 

Liberty Global’s UK operation, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), has made its own announcement about how it will use Sierra’s technology. The UK operator, which is jointly owned by Liberty Global and Telefónica, has unveiled a new AI voice agent that will support calls from customers experiencing faults with their broadband service. The aim, according to the UK telco, is to help customers get faster help with routine issues, while freeing up human agents to focus on more complex cases. Customers who want to speak to a human agent will still have that option, noted VMO2, and all calls will be monitored by its team. It is part of a wider customer service transformation programme at VMO2 that recently saw the operator launch a specialist 500+ strong UK-based team to deal with the most complex customer queries. It has also partnered with the Institute of Customer Service on a structured and officially recognised training programme designed to equip contact centre employees with the skills to better manage complex calls. VMO2 has also invested in AI tools for human agents, including analytics tool Lumi AI, which provides them with real-time prompts and insights during a customer call.

Verizon has announced a further $50m of funding for an upskilling initiative that aims to help workers and job seekers across America improve their AI skills. The Verizon AI Skills for America scheme builds on the $20m of investment the US carrier has already made available for its Reskilling and Career Transition Fund for departing workers.  Combining this with the new funding to provide access to best-in-class AI training takes the total investment in the initiative to $70m so far. Verizon will launch what it calls a “one-stop-shop” portal that brings together training content from AI experts, such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, Coursera and OpenAI, at no cost to participants. The operator will also work with trusted mission-based organisations, such as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), and Goodwill Industries International, to offer hands-on coaching and practical AI guidance. “Creating meaningful economic opportunity in the AI era is not something any one company can achieve alone,” said Donna Epps, chief responsible business officer at Verizon. “We are deeply grateful to our tech partners for collaborating with us to bring world-class AI training to local communities entirely free of charge.”

Iliad, which offers its services using the Free brand, is to ramp up the pressure on the likes of Orange Business in France’s enterprise service sector by expanding the scale and reach of its B2B subsidiary, Free Pro, in order to target “major corporations and public organisations”, the telco has announced. For the past five years, Free Pro has been focused on the needs of the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) sector and has signed up 100,000 customers, but now it believes its combination of connectivity and digital services, underpinned by the sovereign cloud and AI services it can offer via sister company Scaleway, can help it win business with larger enterprises. Guillaume de Lavallade, CEO of Free Pro, stated: “In the space of five years, Free Pro has won the trust of more than 100,000 businesses and public organisations by staying faithful to Free’s DNA, ie. by keeping things simple in a complex market, and making best-in-class, innovative services available at fair prices. Our first five years have enabled us to build a company capable of partnering all B2B customers, ranging from small and mid-sized businesses through to major corporations and public organisations. Now we want to accelerate in our core areas of expertise – networks, cloud solutions, cybersecurity and mobility – driven by the same goal of shaking up the B2B market.”

– The staff, TelecomTV