Week 52 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

• Vodafone:
• Terminates discussions with STC over a sale of 55% stake in Vodafone Eqypt [see 200129]
• Closes merger of Vodafone GR's towers assets with Wind Hellas towers to form Vantage Towers Greece (Vodafone 62%, Crystal Almond 38%), call option until 211231 to buy out Crystal Almond for EUR 288m cash by 200630, 5% more by 211231, to be triggered by Vantage Towers IPO announcement
• To buy out minority shareholders from KDG (17.1%), 103 EUR/share, stake to rise to 93.8%, total cost EUR 1.557b (2.119b for 100%) [see 130624]
• Liberty Global: To be removed from Nasdaq-100 index 201221
• Telenet: Liberty Global changes chain of control (transfers Binan shares to LG Broadband, transfers to UnitedGlobalCom, transfers to LG Holding); after transaction: Binan owns 66,342,037 shares (58.28% of votes), Telenet owns 4,598,558 shares (4.04% of shares)
• Tele Columbus: Offer from Kublai (= Morgan Stanley Infrastructure), 3.25 EUR/share = EUR 400m; shareholders United Internet, Rocket Internet support, to close 21Q2; proposes capital increase EUR 475m for fiber roll-out (EGM 210120, Kublai to take part for EUR 75m, United Internet pro rata); to invest EUR 2b over 10 yr in fiber (2m HP by 2030), 1&1 Drillisch to be RSP on fiber network
• Play: Iliad launches squeeze-out procedure for remaining 3.3% (8,494,848 shares)
• BT: Openreach CEO Clive Selley positive on selling minority stake to investor
• Cyfrowy Polsat: To acquire 114,173,459 Netia shares (34.02%) at 4.80 PLN/share, subscription period 210115 - 210226 (current holding 221,404,885 shares = 65.98%)
• Netia: Rumor: to acquire several ISPs
• Euskaltel: Expansion: 3 bidders for max 49% in fiber JV: Fiera Capital, First Sentier Investors, Infravia Capital Partners
• Viasat: Acquires RigNet, $222m in shares
• AT&T:
• NYPost: may cancel DirecTV auction if offers don't improve
• WarnerMedia acquires You.i TV (cross-platform development tools for TV and media, delivers video apps across mobile, tablet, game consoles, streaming devices, STBs, Smart TVs using a single codebase)
• MGM (Anchorage Capital): WSJ: considers sale, valuation $5.5b
• IAC: Plans to spin off Vimeo as listed company 21Q2
• Tidal: Bloomberg: Square (Jack Dorsey) interested
• ByteDance: Rumor: interested in CMGE Technology (mobile games), to acquire 27.6% stake (or part) from Fairview Ridge Investment, 4-5 HKD/share (30-60% premium)

Networks

FTTH

• Netherlands
• KPN plans FTTH in Rijswijk, 8164 premises
• Delta Fiber
• Buys out De Fryske Mienskip op Glas from DFMopGlas; to end EUR 250 contribution
• to skip in villages (Belfeld, Steyl, Boekend, Hout-Blerick) within Venlo municipality
• GlasDraad Bollenstreek plans FTTH in Duin- en Bollenstreek (incl rural; 5 munis: Hillegom, Lisse, Noordwijk, Katwijk, Teylingen), deal with munis
• Rendo Fiber buys out Meppel muni from Glasvezel De Wolden https://www.dvhn.nl/drenthe/Rendo-krijgt-Glasvezel-De-Wolden-in-handen-26310195.html
• UK

• Full Fibre raises funds from Basalt Infrastructure Partners to expand FTTP (rural, semi-urban; OA via wholesale arm iNeedFibre) to 500k premises by 2025
• Wildanet raises GBP 50m from Gresham House British Strategic Investment Infrastructure Fund for FTTP investment in Cornwall [see 201012]

5G

• Huawei plans 4G/5G factory in France (Brumath)
• Verizon Business plans MEC-based applications, with Deloitte; focus on manufacturing, retail
• Ooredoo Maldives launches 5G in Male; mobility & FWA
• Iliad IT launches 5G in 27 cities, Flash 70 subscription 10 EUR/mo for unlimited calls/SMS (incl 60 int destinations), 70 GB/mo + EUR 10 for SIM (promo until 210121)

LEO

• BNA (DE) provides temporary (1 yr) spectrum license to Starlink (SpaceX)
• ACMA (Australia) provides mmWave spectrum (26, 28 GHz) to SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb, New Skies Satellite/SES, O3b/SES, Inmarsat, Viasat, Telstra, Optus, Vocus, Nokia, NBN, Opticomm, other
• EC orders study (EUR 7m) to design, develop & launch European-owned space-based communication system (LEO, BBoS) from Airbus, Arianespace, Eutelsat, Hispasat, OHB, Orange, SES, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space

Services

Content

• VodafoneZiggo: Ziggo Sport extends UEFA Champions League rights bt 3 seasons until mid 2024

Streaming

• Samsung TV Plus (free OTT TV, 742 channels) expands to 12 countries (60m installed base, 15m active users): US, Canada, Australia, UK, FR, DE, CH, AT, IT, ES, S Korea, Brazil; plans expansion 2021 to Mexico, India, Sweden, more European countries

Web applications

• Orange BE: Launches Crowdsurfer app, with acTVty and Cronos: information on crowd forming (related to corona virus)

Regulatory

TIM: AGCM starts antitrust investigation of FiberCop (TIM 58%, KKR 37.5%, Fastweb 4.5%)

Spectrum

• AKOS (Slovenia) plans 5G spectrum auction 2021, combined starting prices EUR 69m
• ACMA (Australia) awards 5G mmWave (26 GHz (24.7-25.1) & 28 GHz (27.5-29.5) bands) licenses to 15: MarchNet, Dreamtilt, Field Solutions Group, Opticomm, Nokia, NBN Co, Optus, Telstra, Vocus, Starlink (SpaceX), WorldVu (One Web), Inmarsat, Viasat, O3B/SES, New Skies Satellites/SES

Government funding

• Spain provides EUR 40m funding for rural FTTH expansion in 3 yr
• US Covid-19 relief bill ($900b) includes $1b for Tribal BB, $300m for rural BB, $285m for BB to Black universities/colleges, $250m for FCC's telehealth program, $98m for BB mapping, $1.9b for replacing Huawei; also 50 $/mo for low-income families to cover BB

Other

• ACM (NL) Telecommonitor 20Q3: Mobile: 4G data traffic 254m GB (+20% qoq), 10.3b min, 617m SMS; Fixed: 1.94b min over BB, 263m min over PSTN
• DNA (Telenor): Publishes Technology Trends for 2021 guide: 17 trends