Week 23 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

CORPORATE

• FD: EQT and Stonepeak end acquisition plan
• Orange
• Acquires (with AXA Assurance Maroc) majority of DabaDoc (health tech; founders Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni & Driss Drissi-Kaitouni maintain minority), to close 21Q3
• Orange Bank partners with Younited (fintech)
• Establishes JV Future4care with Sanofi, Capgemini, Generali: health-focused startup accelerator program
• Telefonica
• Sells Nubico (e-book subscriptions, 50/50 JV with Grupo Planeta) to Nextory as of 210601
• Acquires (also Singtel) stake in Monogoto (IoT platform, Israel)
• BT
• To establish SoHo unit (max 9 employees) 210701 as part of Enterprise division (addressable market 5.7m potential customers); offers WiFi, full workplace coverage, tech support
• Deployed Qlik for data analytics for 1200 BT Consumer staff, saves GBP 2m
• Altice UK (Patrick Drahi) acquires 12.1% stake (~GBP 2.2b), no plan for full takeover
• TDC: To complete separation of TDC Net and Nuuday 211231
• Gamma: CMD
• Virgin Media O2: To sell datacenter Leeds, GBP 7m
• Digital Realty: Considers IPO for Singapore Trust (10 datacenters) to raise $300-400m
• QTS: Acquired by Blackstone, $10b

NETWORKS

• FTTH
• DT: Telekom DE partners with M-net (= Stadtwerke Munchen (SWM)) for access to fiber (600k HP = 70%); to invest EUR 500m by 2030 in Munchen fiber & 5G
• KPN: Names FTTP JV with APG Glaspoort; plans 750k [760k?] homes (raised by 75k) + 225k businesses = 985k lines in underserved areas, EUR 1b in 5 yr (creates 1000 jobs); targets 70k lines YE 2021; open access with KPN as anchor tenant [see 210323]; appoints Jan Willem Scheerder CEO & Ferry Niers CFO
• Liberty Global: Rumor: Liberty Global did market research (as VividFibre) to gauge interest in FTTH in Benelux (Ziggo, Telenet, Eltrona); 400 Mb/s to 20 Gb/s for 45-75 EUR/mo
• Point Topic for INCA report: altnet FTTP coverage 2.586m premises YE 2020 (take-up rate 32.7%), expects 6.64m YE 2021, joint target 29.9m YE 2025 on GBP12b investments
• ITU to complete Higher Speed Passive Optical Network (G.9804 series / G.hsp) standard 50G-PON 21H2
• 5G
• Analysys Mason report for Ericsson & Qualcomm (Status, costs and benefits of 5G 26GHz deployments in Europe): economic impact of mmWave (26 GHz) 5G in Europe
• UScellular (with Nokia, Qualcomm) demos extended-range 5G over mmWave (28 GHz): 1 Gb/s down & 57 Mb/s up at 10 km (750 Mb/s down at 11 km)
• 6G
• 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA) report European Vision for the 6G Network Ecosystem; to launch Smart Networks & Services (SNS) European Partnership (in the framework of the Horizon Europe program)
• Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium (Japan; University of Tokyo, NTT Corp, NTT DOCOMO, KDDI (au), SoftBank, Rakuten Mobile) to team with 6G Flagship (Finland;University of Oulu, Nokia) on 6G development
• Tom Marzetta (NYU Wireless) expects 6G to be about AR
• US and UK governments plan joint 6G R&D

SERVICES

• B2B
• Telekom DE launches Conversational AI Suite (developed by Cognigy): solution for customer contact management, automates and processes frequently occurring customer requests based on AI
• DIGITALISATION
• Ericsson ConsumerLab report The future urban reality
• VIDEO
• NENT Group: Content deal for Copa América 2021 & 2024, South American FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, Brazil & Argentina’s friendly matches 2022-2024
• Walt Disney: Rumor: Comcast opposes Hulu not expanding internationally, buy-out (33%) 2024 to be $9-13b - Comcast stopped funding
• WarnerMedia: LA Times: Warner Bros to release 20 films in 2022 o/w half exclusively in theaters for at least 45 days. half on HBO Max
• Netflix: Launches Netflix.shop: branded merchandise (exclusive limited editions of selected high-quality apparel & lifestyle products tied to shows & brand)
• GAMING
• Google expands Stadia to Chromecast With Google TV, Hisense Android Smart TVs, Nvidia Shield TV, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, Onn FHD Streaming Stick and UHD Streaming Device (Walmart), Philips 8215, 8505, and OLED 935 / 805 Series Android TVs, Xiaomi MIBOX3 and MIBOX4
• Microsoft plans to expand Xbox Game Pass subscription to more screens (3rd-party smart TVs, onw built streaming devices)
• WEB SERVICES
• Twitter: To add newsletter subscription button on profile page of users with Revue account (to create free or paid newsletter, Twitter takes 5% of paid subscriptions)
• Apple: WWDC: plans iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12 Monterey, watchOS 8, tv)S 15 (public betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, tvOS 15, watchOS 8 from July 2021), updates privacy features, updates FaceTime; launches iCloud+ (3 new features: Private Relay, Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video), enhances Health app; Apple TV adds Shareplay feature (share content from several apps: Apple TV, Safari browser, Apple News; Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+, Pluto TV, others to integrate SharePlay into their apps); App Store reaches 600m WAU in 175 countries, paid out $230b to developers since launchl Siri to be available on 3rd-partye devices; launches Digital Legacy feature

REGULATORY

• Spectrum
• Anatel (Brazil) plans 5G auction July 2021
• NKOM (NO) plans 5G (2.6 and 3.6 GHz) auction start 210927: 2.6 GHz (14 lots of 2x5 + 1 block of 1x50 MHz; available 230101), 3.6 GHz (4 blocks of 40 MHz, 24 blocks of 10 MHz; available 220101)
• FCC (US) auction 110 (3.45-3.55 GHz) to start 210105: 4060 licenses, 10 blocks of 10 MHz
• Google
• Fined EUR 220m in FR in antitrust case: abused dominant position in advertising server market
• AP (NL) advises gvt institutions to stop using Google services over not complying with EU's AVG
• Agrees with CMA (UK) on implementation of Privacy Sandbox
• Amazon
• FT: CMA (UK) plans investigation into usage of 3rd-party sellers' data
• WSJ: CNPD (Luxembourg) proposes privacy fine under GDPR of $425m (0.1% of sales, 2% net income) over personala data collection & use
• Platforms: US bipartisan 5 bills propose splitting platforms (market cap $600b, 50m consumer MAU or 100k business MAU, critical trading partner): Ending Platform Monopolies Act (bans platforms from using it to sell its own products & services over conflict of interests), bill banning self-preference, bill forcing interoperability, bill banning large platforms from making acquisitions, bill proposing higher filing fees large mergers (>$1b)