Month: May 2025

Italy said on Wednesday it is considering handing KKR-backed FiberCop part of the work assigned to rival Open Fiber to speed up a European Union-funded fibre network rollout plan as it tries to meet COVID-19 recovery plan targets.

FiberCop and its smaller rival Open Fiber were entrusted with cabling more than 3 million buildings across Italy by the end of June 2026 under a 3.4 billion euro ($3.9 billion) programme aimed at rolling out ultra-fast broadband networks.

About 1.7 million of the currently targeted 3.4 million buildings were cabled by the end of February, government data showed, with Open Fiber, which has more buildings to connect, lagging behind FiberCop.

The latter in April told the Italian government it was ready to take over in full the work assigned to its rival.

During a meeting with government officials on Wednesday, representatives of both companies said they were open to start discussions to hand FiberCop the areas where Open Fiber is lagging far behind the scheduled programme, the government statement said.

Both FiberCop and Open Fiber are backed by the Italian state, and the government is considering a potential combination of their respective network infrastructures.

FiberCop was spun off last year from Telecom Italia and sold to a KKR-led consortium, including Italy’s economy ministry, under a deal worth up to 22 billion euros.

Open Fiber is 60% owned by Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), with Australian fund Macquarie holding the remainder.

The country lags European peers in high-speed fixed-line internet coverage, with some 59% of households having access to ultrafast broadband against an EU average of 79%, according to the latest EU data. Reuters

Seventy-four percent of B2B buyer teams demonstrate unhealthy conflict during the buying decision process, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.

Unhealthy conflict occurs when buying team members have conflicting objectives, disagree on the best course of action, or are overruled by external decision-makers.

A survey of 632 B2B buyers conducted in August through September 2024 found buying groups that reach consensus are 2.5 times more likely to report that their deal was high-quality.

“Buying groups are more diverse than ever, ranging from five to 16 people across as many as four functions. Each member may have differing priorities and opinions,” said Delainey Kirkwood, Principal, Research in the Gartner Sales Practice. “Fostering buying group consensus and minimizing conflict must be a key priority for chief sales officers (CSOs).

“CSOs must properly equip their sellers to foster agreement and alignment among diverse buyer groups. By focusing on buying group relevance, sellers can aid members in understanding each other’s viewpoints and validate the decision-making process. In doing so, sellers can secure a higher number of high-quality deals.”

Tailored Content Drives Consensus, Leading to Better Deal Outcomes
While many sales leaders believe the key to driving buying group consensus is tailored content, the survey found the level of relevance is crucial. Tailoring for buying group relevance positively impacts consensus by 20%, aiding members in understanding each other’s perspectives and validating the decision-making process.

However, content that focuses on individual-level relevance can create conflict within the buying group, resulting in a 59% negative impact on buying group consensus.

“Messages that are tailored to the buying group or the organization can foster understanding and consensus among stakeholders,” said Kirkwood. “However, content with individual-level relevance can lead to confirmation bias, reinforcing individual perspectives so that stakeholders are less likely to embrace a unified direction as a group.”

The survey revealed that when buyers experience buying group relevance, they are three times more likely to report a high-quality deal. This highlights the importance of prioritizing shared interests and goals over individual buyer priorities. Gartner

There’s a high risk of cyber attacks on India’s digital infrastructure, government officials and cyber and telecom experts warned hours after Operation Sindoor.

The department of telecommunications (DoT), along with the telecom operators are evaluating measures to enhance telecom security infrastructure in border and sensitive areas, according to officials.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), under the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) has issued advisories to high risk stakeholders such as banks and financial institutions informing of the cyber attack risks and the need to strengthen their systems, a government official said.

Queries emailed to CERT-In, telecom operators and DoT, on Wednesday, did not initiate a response.

India launched targeted missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Occupied Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday in an operation codenamed “Sindoor” in retaliation of the Pahalgam terror attacks.

Since the Pahalgam attacks, there have been numerous attempts to hack Indian websites and change their content or appearance, the official added.

On Tuesday, minister of state for communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani also acknowledged that Pakistan has been attempting to hack cyber networks in India.

“DoT is actively reviewing network security measures. Monitoring has been intensified in sensitive regions, and telecom operators have been issued directives to strengthen security protocols,” a second government official said, adding that the home affairs ministry has also issued directions.

According to industry executives, lawful interception and real-time surveillance capabilities, prevention of mobile signal spillover into neighbouring countries, and monitoring of unauthorized roaming connections near the borders, are among key steps that can be taken.

“With cloud infrastructure holding vast amounts of sensitive data, cyber domains are now the first lines of attack and in the coming years cyber sabotage could be as damaging as a missile strike,” said Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general at Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE), which represents domestic telecom equipment makers and solution providers.

According to Bhatnagar, Chinese telecom, power equipment, drones, SIM cards with their chips and operating systems can play havoc during war. “We need to be prepared based on our security considerations.”

Dhiraj Gupta, co founder of cybersecurity provider mFilterit, said, “In a military context, cyber attackers employ sophisticated tactics beyond conventional ransomware attacks, aiming to disrupt and destabilize enemy systems, create panic, or embarrass the adversary’s government.”

“Expected attack vectors include Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that crash websites by overloading them, defacement attacks that alter content for showing off the hackers capabilities, and stealthy intrusions to gather sensitive intelligence from government systems that usually go unnoticed and are a more serious risk than any other form of attack,” Gupta added.

Cyber experts caution that not just the large public and private entities but individual systems and devices are also prone to cyberattacks as a part of parallel cyber warfare that is going on with the cross border attacks.

“It is the responsibility of threat intelligence teams to monitor the dark web closely, track hacker chatter and identify vulnerabilities before they’re exploited,” said Prasanna Kumar, co-head of Financial Services and Professional Group (FSPG), India, Aon, a professional services provider.

“Based on our observation, cyber attackers are no longer targeting just individual corporations, they’re focusing on entire systems of unpatched devices, posing a serious threat not just to governments and businesses, but to every connected individual,” Kumar added.

Kumar said attackers are focusing on critical infrastructure which can disrupt public utilities, leading to a challenging environment for people. “Public infrastructure like electricity, internet, and mobile networks are modern lifelines and when disrupted, the impact is immediate and widespread,” he said.

Another top cyber security consultant, suggested companies take action to tighten their line of defence against possible cyber attacks.

“After the Pahalgam attack, amid the tension between the two nations, Pakistani hackers have been actively trying to attack government websites, specifically on the northern front of India,” said the head of forensics and cyber security at a top consulting firms, requesting anonymity.

This could be seen in Pakistani hackers defacing Rajasthan’s education department website in a cyber attack last week, he said, adding that after the latest attacks by India, “we will continue to see specific targeted attacks on Indian digital infrastructure and the cyber security industry will be operating on high alert at least for the next two-three weeks”.

“To mitigate the risk, Indian companies need to bolster their digital defence by assessing vulnerabilities, having a response plan in place, and closely monitoring network activity and the dark web for potential threats. With the situation likely to escalate, vigilance and preparedness are crucial to mitigate potential cyber risks,” this person said. LiveMint

Fixed wireless access (FWA), which leverages 5G spectrum to deliver high-speed home internet without requiring fibre connectivity, is gaining steady traction. With telecom majors Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel actively scaling their broadband offerings, the technology is emerging as a key growth lever for the industry.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of FWA subscribers rose to 6.77 million in March, up from 6.27 million in February, marking a net addition of nearly 500,000 users in just one month. This upward trend underscores the growing popularity of FWA as both an urban and rural broadband solution. Notably, TRAI began disclosing FWA-specific subscriber data only in January this year, highlighting the service’s growing importance.

FWA is currently the only consumer use case for 5G that is generating revenue for telecom operators, offering them an opportunity to scale quickly without the delays and costs associated with laying fibre. Analysts said that FWA allows telcos to immediately address markets beyond the metros, especially in regions where deploying fibre is either difficult or economically unviable.

In places like Assam, for instance, Jio has tapped into demand by providing FWA services in areas with poor fibre connectivity along the Brahmaputra. As a result, rural areas now account for roughly one-third of the total FWA user base, with Reliance Jio leading the charge in these markets.

Urban deployment has also picked up pace, especially in localities where obtaining right of way for fibre has been a long-standing challenge. Both Airtel and Jio launched their respective FWA services during the second quarter of FY24, bundling high-speed connectivity with entertainment options. Plans are priced between Rs 599 and Rs 699 per month, offering higher average revenue per user (Arpu) compared to traditional mobile services.

A recent Goldman Sachs report said that Jio’s home broadband business, including fibre and FWA, contributed about 9% to its Rs 30,018 crore revenue in the fourth quarter of FY25. Jio currently serves around 18 million home broadband users, with FWA accounting for 5.6 million of those connections. Half of these additions have come from beyond Tier-1 cities, as the company pursues its goal of reaching 100 million home connections.

While Airtel’s Q4 results are still awaited, the company has consistently emphasised home broadband as a strategic focus. As of March, it had around 1.2 million FWA subscribers, as per TRAI data.

With just 41.39 million wired broadband users nationwide, household internet penetration stands at around 14%, leaving ample room for FWA to expand. Industry experts note that Indian telcos are outperforming global peers such as AT&T and T-Mobile in terms of quarterly FWA additions, thanks to the vast scale of the Indian market and faster adoption of 5G technology. Financial Express