Sunday, January 17, 2021

Week 2 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Deutsche Telekom: FD: plans to sell T-Mobile NL, EUR 4-5b, PE candidates: Apollo, Cinven, Providence, Warburg Pincus, Apex - Handelsblatt: to sell T-Mobile NL or sell minority of T-Mobile NL + IPO of infrastructure [Deutsche Funkturm]
  • Orange: Spins off Orange Ventures, allocation EUR 350m; focus on cybersecurity, digital enterprise, mobile financial services. e-health
  • Telefonica: Telxius Telecom (Telefonica Infra 50.01%, KKR 40%, Pontegadea (Amancio Ortega) 10%) sells Europe & Latam units (30722 towers in ES, DE and Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile; EBITDA AL TTM EUR 190m) to American Tower, EUR 7.7b cash (pro forma 30.5x EBITDA AL), capital gain EUR 3.5b, reduces net debt EUR 4.6b, reduces leverage 0.3 pp; ATC to expand tower network by 3300 in DE, Brazil for $500m by 2025
  • BT: Establishes BT Digital 210401, appoints Harmeen Mehta (formerly Bharti Airtel, BBVA, HSBC, BoA) to head as CTIO: accountability for IT, digital innovation, BT-wide business transformation, data & product strategy - Appoints Howard Watson CTO: network strategy, network transformation & service platforms, cyber & information security; establishes Technology Advisory Board with Daniela Rus, Mike Young, John Stecher, Shweta Sharma, Steve King, Dame Wendy Hall; CSTP Mike Sherman exits, roles move to Digital and CFO
  • Vodafone
    • Vodafone UK transfers 50% stake in Cornerstone (Telefonica O2 UK 50%; 14200 macro sites, 1400 micro sites; 2019/20 EBITDA AL GBP 111ml leverage remains 3.0-4.0, distributes 100% of excess cash) to Vantage Towers (total 82k macro sites in 10 countries), reaches Master Services Agreements for 8 yr; to add 1200 new macro sites by 2025 & 1950 new passive tenancies by 2024 (FY EBITDA GBP 17.5m by 2026E)
    • Vodafone IE launches sub-brand Clear Mobile: low-cost, SIM-only, online-only; 13 EUR/mo for unlimited voice, text, data (max 5 Mb/s)
  • Bouygues Telecom: Capital Markets Day (Ambition 2026) - Details
  • Elisa: Acquires camLine Group (industrial software) for smart factory applications
  • MasMovil (KKR, Cinven, Providence): Nowo (Portugal, won 1800 spectrum for EUR 54m) to enter PT market with 4G network
  • Gamma: 20Q4 trading statement, expects 2020 EBITDA above forecast; full results 210323
  • Snap: Acquires StreetCred (platform for location data)
  • Poshmark: Prices IPO at $14, raises $277m from 6.6m new shares, valuation $3.5b (fully diluted)
  • Affirm: Prices IPO at $49 (range was 41-44), valuation $11.9b, raises $1.2b by selling 24.6m shares; symbol AFRM - First trade at $90.90, closes at $97.24 (+98%) 
  • Walmart: Plans fintech company, with Ribbit Capital

Networks

General

  • Deutsche Telekom: Launches Access 4.0 platform (A4; software-defined, disaggregated, highly automated, microservice-based), first for FTTH line in Stuttgart, also supports other telco edge (incl Open RAN); BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) functionality developed by RtBrick

Fixed/FTTP

Mobile/5G

  • United Internet: To start mobile network construction summer 2021
  • GSA: 5G ecosystem at 201231: 559 devices (278 smartphones, 108 FWA devices, 26 hotspots, 9 laptops, 8 tablets) announced across 20 form factors from 108 vendors o/w 335 (233 smartphones, 35 FWA devices, 16 hotspots, 1 laptop, 6 tablets) commercially available
  • Vodafone Greece launches as #3 5G network in Athens & Thessaloniki, target 40% pops coverage by 220331
  • NBN demos long-range mmWave FWA over 5G, with Ericsson, Qualcomm, Casa Systems: 1 Gb/s at 7.3 km
  • 3 UK plans Private 5G at Port of Felixstowe, GBP 3.4m, with Cambridge University, Blue Mesh Solutions, Ericsson, Siemens (part of UK gvt 5G Trials & Testbeds Programme); remote-controlled cranes via CCTV, IoT sensors, AI to optimise the predictive maintenance cycle
  • O2 UK plans 5G mobile based platform to broadcast events in stadiums and other venues, with Digital Catapult, Global Wireless Solutions, Rohde & Schwarz, DTG; receive GBP 1.3m from UK gvt (5G Create); total investment GBP 2.3m
  • Nokia partners with GCP (Google) to jointly develop cloud-native 5G core solutions to develop the network edge as a business services platform for enterprises

WiFi

LEO
  • Starlink receives Ofcom (UK) approval for terminals (CPE); plans UK trial: 84 GBP/mo for 100-150 Mb/s, equipment GBP 440
  • Eutelsat raises EUR 200m debt from EIB to roll out Konnect VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellite) programme
  • OneWeb downsizes target LEO constellation to 7k sats (from 48k) - Raises $400m from SoftBank Group (350) & Hughes Network Systems (50); total raised $1.4b fully funds 648 sats by YE 2022

Services

IPTV

  • AT&T closes AT&T TV Now (originally DirecTV Now: OTT-TV) for new subs; adds AT&T TV tiers without contract: Entertainment Plan 70 $/mo (65 channels), Choice Plan 85 $/mo (65 chanels + RSN + HBO Max for 1 yr), Ultimate 95 $/mo (130 channels), Premier 140 $/mo (140 channels); plans contain less storage (20 hr; 500 ht for 10 $/mo), no Android TV STB
  • Community Fibre (London) launches TV service, with Netgem, 10 GBP/mo for BB subs: 135 channels, streaming (VOD (30k hr), catch-up (25 services)), 4K STB`; also fixed telephony service, unlimited nat fixed & mobile calls 10 GBP/mo
  • Swan (MNO Slovakia) plans Anroid TV based IPTV service for STB and smart TV

B2B

Bundling with non-telco service

Broadband-only

  • Jazztel (= Orange ES) launches BB-only 600/600 Mb/s service, 30 EUR/mo (add-on unlimited nat fixed & mobile calls 3 EUR/mo)

Smart city

Video

Gaming

Regulatory

Telecoms

Platforms

  • Google
    • Google Search sued by Rumble over “unfairly rigging its search algorithms” to place YouTube above Rumble in its search results
    • NOS: royalties rev 2012-2019 through NL to Bermuda EUR 128b, avoided EUR 38b in US taxes, paid EUR 25m in tax in NL
  • Amazon: Connecticut starts investigation of e-books market - Sued in CALS for driving up prices 30% in collusion with Big 5 publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster)
  • Facebook:
  • Capitol Hill attack 210106:
    • Platforms ban POTUS Trump after assault on Capitol Hill (210106): Reddit, Amazon (AWS), Twitch, Shopify, Twitter, Google (Play Store), YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Apple (App Store), Discord, Pinterest, Stripe
    • PGA Tour
    • Facebook halts political spending
    • Facebook removes content containing 'stop the steal'
    • Twitter updated coordinated harmful activity policy, deleted 70k Qanon accounts
    • Parler sues Amazon (AWS)
    • List of worries over content moderation
    • Reports: downloads for alternative social networks (MeWe, CloutHub, Signal, Telegram, Rumble) rise
    • YouTube bans Trump for 1 week
    • Amazon removes Qanon merchandise
    • YouTube blocks Trump channel for uploads and live streams
    • Snapchat permanently bans Trump's account from 210120
    • Airbnb cancels bookings in Washington DC week to inauguration day 210120
    • Google suspends political ads in US around inauguration
    • Bumble (social net) (re)instates political filter to block terrorists involved in Capitol Hill attack (also: Tinder, Match)


at 9:51 pm
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)