Week 41 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

M&A

• KPN: Bloomberg: EQT considers offer
• IPKO (Telekom Slovenije): Attracts >10 potential buyers, to diclose Nov 2020
• TalkTalk: Toscafund Asset Management (TAM, hedge fund, owns 28.5%) plans to offer 97 p/share, to deceid by 201105; Board supports
• Telia: Sells Telia Carrier (019: rev SEK 5.39b, EBITDA excl IFRS-16 SEK 500m, capex SEK 396m; 530 employees) to Polhem Infra (= First AP Fund, Third AP Fund, Fourth AP Fund), SEK 9.45b (EV/EBITDA 18.9), capital gain SEK 7.00b, extra div 0.65 SEK/share; to close 21H1
• 3 Group Europe (CK Hutchison): Rumor: 3 UK plans sale of rooftop locations (acquired from UK Broadband, 2017), to exit MBNL (macro sites JV with EE/BT) in order to sell
• Virgin Media
• Interim result of Sunrise offer: 37m shares tendered = 82%, minimum acceptance has been met,  additional acceptance period 15-28 Oct 2020
• Virgin Media IE considers mobile merger
• Destiny: Acquires Voips (NL)
• Vivendi: Canal+ increases Multichoice stake to 6.5%
• Quibi: Rumor: 400-500k subs, offered company to Apple, WarnerMedia etc.

Corporate

• KPN: Expects KPN Business EBITDA to stabilise during 2021 for SME, 2022 for LE (instead of end 2020)
• Orange: Scales back smart speaker & assistant (Djingo) ambitions
• TIM: S&P downgrades outlook to negative over corona virus pandemic & reduced ownership of secondary network
• Orange BE: Focus on BB-only to drive market share to 25%
• AT&T: WarnerMedia plans 20% cost redux, to cut 1000s jobs

Networks

5G

• Batelco (Bahrain) reaches near-nationwide coverage (95%)
• Vodafone CZ launches NSA 5G in 5 cities (Prague, Brno, Usti nad Labem, Jesenik, Karlovy Vary), with DSS
• O2 UK (Telefonica) plans expansion to 100 cities YE 2021 after merger with Virgin Media (Liberty Global)
• US Postal Service (31k facilities o/w 8k owned; 44m pops live within 1 mile of owned facility) proposes leasing its locations for site locations & MEC
• AT&T launches mmWave 5G (5G+) in downtown Milwaukee (3 sites), max 1 Gb/s, total 36 cities
• Telekom Slovenije launches 5G (2.6 GHz band) subscription, 29 EUR/mo for 300 GB, max 450/100 Mb/s
• DNA expands 5G to Kauniainen, total pops coverage 1.2m
• Verizon Business plans solutions (combining 5G UWB & MEC) at sports & entertainment venues, with Cisco
• O2 Slovakia launches commercial 5G pilot in Bratislava (4 sites), with Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE
• Mobilitie plans 5G DAS network at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal Mall
• Orange FR plans 5G launch Dec 2020; launches 4 5G subscriptions (SIM-only, 12 mo contract): 70 GB + unlimited voice/text for 40 EUR/mo, unlimited data/voice/text for 95 EUR/mo
• Vodafone ES expands 5G to MAS supermarket in Sevilla for AR app with 4K video
• Proximus and Orange BE order core from Ericsson, RAN from Nokia for 5G, to replace Huwei
• Post Luxembourg to launch 5G (700 & 3.6) 201016

Fiber

• Swisscom demos 50/25 Gb/s over PON
• PTS (SE) awards SEK 106m rural BB subsidies in 44 projects
• Isle of Man allocates extra funds to accelerate fiber broadband roll-out

Sharing

• Kazakh operators (Beeline (KaR-Tel), Kcell, Mobile Telecom Service (Tele2-Altel) ) sign joint rural coverage pledge to cover 600k pops

Other

• BT: Launches edge-based, open caching as a service, tech from Cisco, Qwilt, Digital Alpha
• Cellnex plans IoT networks in IT, UK, IE, with Everynet, based on LoRaWAN tech (for Industry 4.0, Smart Cities, Smart Parking, Social & Facility Management, Environmental Management, Smart Utility)
• Telefonica DE
• Extends access to Telekom DE's fixed network (VDSL, 33m lines) to include FTTH (1.8m lines, max 1 Gb/s) 10 yr, to be judged by BNA, Telekom DE to use the proceeds for further FTTH roll-out
• Reuters: plans FTTH network in DE with partners, total EUR 5b

Services

• Nvidia launches Maxine: managed cloud AI (gaze correction, super-resolution, noise cancellation, face relighting etc; dramatically reduces how much bandwidth is required to 10% of H.264) videoconferencing service for developers

Hardware

• Amazon: To launch eero for Service Providers (ISPs) in US/Canada Nov 2020: WiFi hardware & software: eero 6 Series Mesh Wifi System (WiFi 6), eero Insight (issue monitoring), eero Secure (security, privacy, parental controls; blocks blocks malware, spyware, phishing; ad blocking)

Regulatory

Spectrum

• CTU (CZ) plans multiband (700 & 3.4-3.6) 5G auction, 7 bidders, encourages newcomers
• EKIP (Montenegro) plans 5G multiband auction 21Q4: 700 (694-790), 3.4-3.8 GHz, 1 GHz in 26 GHz (24.25-27.5 & 26.5-27.5)

Platforms individually

• Google: Rumor: DoJ considers Google to separate Chrome (browser, its data fuel Google Search) & ad business, plans antitrust suit over market power abuse by Google Search - Google proposes Turtledove as alternative to cookies (to be abolished in Chrome)
• Facebook
• Instragram starts labeling state-controlled media accounts & posts
• To remove all Qanon content from all platforms
• To block political ad in US when polls close on Presidential Elections day 20110
• Bans 100s of fake accounts linked to conservative youth group Turning Point USA
• Twitter: To flag (Warnings and Restrictions) misinformation & premature claims about who won the 2020 US Presidential election
• Etsy: Removes Qanon related items

Platforms general

• Paris Court of Appeal to rule 201008 on whether competition authority has the power to require Google to negotiate with French press on neighbouring rights which allow online newspaper publishers to be remunerated for publishing extracts of their articles on Google News - Google and Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale (APIG, " Google accepts the principle of remuneration for our press titles") working on remuneration of neighboring rights - Paris Court supports competition authority for fairer negotiations between Google and publishers; APIG, FNPS, SEPM target Apple App Store, highlighting 30% commission & in-app payments, ringfencing of consumer data in media subscription packages purchased through the AppStore
• Facebook and Twitter remove posts from POTUS Trump with false corona virus claim
• US Congress (House Judiciary's Antitrust subcommittee) to report Oct 2020 on antitrust hearings 200729, delayed due to new info about Facebook's Instagram acquisition (from whistleblower) - Reports 201006: Amazon (most third-party sellers and many suppliers), Apple (distribution of software apps on iOS devices), Facebook (online advertising and social networking), Google (online search) all have monopoly powers (built on acquiitions), proposes break-ups - Republicans oppose: "Unfortunately, the Democrats’ partisan report ignores this fundamental problem and potential solutions and instead advances radical proposals that would refashion antitrust law in the vision of the far left." - Amazon disagrees - Apple disagrees
• ECJ: mass personal data collection (mobile, internet) breaks EU law (unless in a situation of serious threat)
• Ukraine considers tax on digital services (Facebook. Netflix, Amazon): 20% VAT
• Global Privacy Control (NYT, EFF, DuckDuckGo) proposes setting preferences once for global opt-out