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Tranny co Arqiva reshuffles deck

250 jobs to go in reorg

Transmission company Arqiva is making 250 redundancies, around 10 per cent of its workforce, in a major company reorganisation, staff were told this week.

Spawned from the transmission operations of the BBC and the IBA (Independent Broadcast Authority), the company traded as NTL Broadcast, but has been known as Arqiva since merging with National Grid Wireless (the UK subsidiary of Crown Castle) in 2008. Arqiva operates 1,000 transmitters for TV and radio broadcasters and mobile phone companies.

The re-org sees Arqiva merge its various divisions into two units: satellite and broadcasting divisions in one, and government mobile and enterprise IT in the other. The move also eliminates duplication that arose with the 2008 merger, such as consolidating disparate customer service units. A 90-day consultation period started on 11 October, Arqiva confirmed.

The company has been kept busy by network operator consolidation and the roll out of FreeView, in which it is a partner. It recently completed Project Godiva, the consolidation and upgrade of the networks for T-Mobile and 3 UK, who merged their infrastructure under the umbrella company Mobile Broadband Network Ltd, or MBNL. (Orange joined MBNL earlier this month.)

But Arqiva can also anticipate growth from the rollout of 4G, and is a bidding partner in Ofgem's ambitious smart metering program.

Arqiva operates two four FreeView multiplexes* which it acquired with National Grid Wireless, and picked up the Digital One multiplex used by commercial radio broadcasters for DAB broadcasts. That had been doing the rounds with a sale tag of £1.®

*Or multiplexi.

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