Sunday, January 24, 2021

Week 3 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

General

  • Telefonica DE: CMD: Strategy update; confirms outlook 2020; raises div to 18c over 2020, sets 18c as floor for 2021-23; 3 growth pillars: 1. Mobile growth: grow market share in rural areas & reinfoice urban, 2. Smart bundling (fixed & mobile, incl FMS) based on tech agnostic approach, 3. Attack in B2B (esp SME) opportunity; takes 10% stake in FTTH venture Unsere Grüne Glasfaser, to invest EUR 100m in FibreCo; target full 5G coverage (>100 Mb/s) by 2025, to sunset 3G 2020-21; to add 1500 built-to-suit (BTS) mobile sites (via Telxius) by 2025; guidance 2020-22: cum rev growth >= 5%, margin higher, capex/rev 17-18% in 2020-21, normalising from 2022; to be climate neutral by 2025
  • Deutsche Telekom: Merges T Infra NL (3150 towers & rooftops; rev EUR 60m, EBITDA AL 30m, plus EUR 250m loan) with Cellnex NL (984 towers acquired 2016-17 for EUR 492m) for 38% stake to be held by newly established DIV, total 4314 sites (incl 180 build-to-suit sites), DT to deconsolidate, Cellnex expects rev contribution EUR 63m, FCF to increase EUR 30m, T-Mobile NL to lease for 15 yr (automatic renewal 10 yr); establishes Digital Infrastructure Vehicle (DIV, independent mgt, focus on European digital infra (fiber, tower, datacenters, open to institutional investors, DT to hold 25%), DT contributes EUR 400m, Cellnex EUR 200m, with dealflow agreement for future transactions in European towers (Cellnex to co-invest for 51% stake) `
  • Orange: Establishes Orange Concessions, 50/50 with consortium of La Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts), CNP Assurances, EDF Invest, call option for Orange to take control & consolidate, to close end 2021; co-control; 23 PIN networks, 4.5m FTTH lines (plugs) (built or to-be-built), valuation EUR 2.675b [ie sells 50% stake for EUR 1.33b]; roll-out & maintenance by Orange - To decide on towers 210218
  • Elisa: Establishes JV with Lounea (western Finland, #4 operator) to create nationwide FTTP network
  • VOO (= Nethys (= Enodia), Brutele): Rumor: Brutele (owned by 30 munis) to sell to Enodia
Results
  • Telia: 20Q4
  • ProSieben: 20Q4 prelim; Mediaset Spain raised stake by 3.43% to 13.18%
  • Netflix: 20Q4    
Other
  • Sunrise UPC: Integration leads to reorganisation and job cuts (significantly less than 30%) (Sunrise had 1763 FTE, UPC CH 1500)
  • Amazon: CIRP: Amazon Prime reaches 142m subs in US YE 2020 o/w 52% on annual tier
  • Iliad: Targets carbon neutrality by 2035, 10 pledges
  • Tele2: Launches new sustainability strategy, 4 focus areas: 1. Advance circular economy to combat climate change, 2. Maximize potential through an inclusive and diverse workplace, 3. Boost innovation for sustainability, 4. Protect children in a connected society

Networks

Fixed

  • Finder (Australia): 85% of users stream online o/w 36% experience buffering weekly, 16% daily
  • France gvt allocated EUR 570m for FTTP rural expansion (total EUR 3.57b)
  • Ookla Speedtest Global Index (Dec 20): global average FBB 96/52 Mb/s, MBB 47/13 Mb/s; FBB: Thai #1 (308), Sing #2 (245 Mb/s), HK #3 (227), RO #4 (191), CH #5 (189), NL #26 (136); MBB: Qatar #1 (178), UAE #2 (178), S Korea #3 (169), China #4 (156), Australia #5 (113), NL #9 (101)
  • EC approves public funding for FTTI (12k schools) in Italy, EUR 325m
  • FTTH

Wireless

  • Telekom DE and Telefonica DE to share several hundred sites (incl active network) for 4G (800 band) in grey areas in 2021 - Also between Vodafone DE and Telefonica DE
  • Agcom (IT): average data consumption 20Q3: 9.2 GB/mo (+48%)
  • 5G
    • Inventec and Affirm (Microsoft) partner to develop smart industry solutions
    • Salt Home (FWA over 5G & 4G; with Gigabox: outdoor antenna, WiFi 6 router) coverage reaches 2m pops (>50%); max 400 Mb/s over 4G, 1 Gb/s over 5G
    • Mobily (KSA) demos network slicing (RAN, Core & transport; separates critical traffic from general internet traffic) for FWA (over 5G and 4G) in Riyadh, with Nokia; enables prioritising customers (service tiers for consumer or enterprise) and premium services (voice, data, gaming, home office apps etc)
    • SmarTone (HK) launches 5G SmarTransport Safety Monitoring System, with Route 3: provides video footage from tunnels and highways to control room (motion-detection cameras, ML/AI analytics
  • LEO

Services

Video

  • Youfone: To expand to BE on Proximus networks (fixed & mobile), to launch April 2021
  • Pluto TV (= ViacomCBS): Expands to FR 210208, 40 channels; next to expand to IT, end 2021
  • Lionsgate: Expands Lionsgate Play to Indonesia
  • Newsplayer+: Launches in UK; live news channels, 2.50 GBP/mo; channels: Al Jazeera, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg’s Quicktake, Euronews, Newsmax, Africanews, Germany’s DW-TV, France 24, China’s CGTN, India’s NDTV 24×7, Israel’s i24, Russia’s RT, Australia’s Ticker, Turkey’s TRT, US network NewsNet
  • Critics’ Choice Awards TV nominations: Netflix 26 (6 for The Crown, 6 for Ozark), HBO 22

Smart city

  • Turk Telecom launches smart city platform (50 services: next-generation transportation, energy, environment, health, life, security) in 9 cities

Regulatory

Spectrum

  • Subtel (Chile) plans 5G auction 210208: 700 MHz (2x10 MHz), AWS = 1800 & 2100 MHz (2x15 MHz), 3.5 GHz (150 MHz), 26 GHz (400 MHz), valid 30 yr; Claro, Entel, WOM interested, to be awarded 26 GHz spectrum without tender
  • PTS (Sweden) raises SEK 2.32b from auction (2.3 & 3.5 GHz, valid 25 yr until 451231); Telia SEK 760m for 120 MHz in 3.5 GHz band, Net4Mobility (= Te;e2, Telenor) SEK 666m for 100 MHz in 3.5 GHz band, 3 Sweden SEK 491m for 100 MHz in 3.5 GHz band, teracom SEK 400m for 80 MHz in 2.3 GHz band

Platforms


at 10:12 pm
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