Week 41 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

CORPORATE

• Plume raises $300m from SoftBank et al at $2.6b valuation; total raised $697m
• OVH Groupe: IPO price EUR 18.50, valuation EUR 3.5b
• GitLab:
• Prices IPO at $77, valuation $11b, to raise $801m selling 10.4m shares
• IPO: opens at $94.25, closes at $103.89

M&A

• EQT: Sells Adamo (80% (mgt 20%); OA FTTP Spain; 1.8m premises, 250k subs incl wholesale and mobile; 300 employees) to Ardian Infrastructure [owns 30.2% stake in Inwit, 26% in EWE]; to close 22Q1; rumored valuation: >EUR 1b
• Telefonica: Sells Movistar El Salvador (60%; 40% held by Corporacion Multi Inversiones) to General International Telecom Ltd, $144m = EUR 125m (7x EBITDA 2020) o/w EUR 75m for Telefonica
• KKR: Rumor: interested in Reintel (= Red Eléctrica de España), Allianz, Axa, PGGM, Vauban (Natixis), QIC also interested; 49% stake to be sold; full valuation EUR 1.2-1.3b

INFRASTRUCTURE

• KPN:
• Orders Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite (ERP, SCM, HCM), to be implemented & managed by Deloitte and Oracle Consulting; to streamline operations (finance (planning & forecasting), procurement, supply chain mgt, HR) while reducing opex and energy consumption
• Copper to fiber migration lowers maintenance opex 67%, churn 40%, raises ARPU 8.6% to EUR 54; cloudification, move to cloud-native apps reduces datacenters from 30 to 4
• Telefonica: Orders TREE platform from Atrebo (digitisation) to manage infra (200k towers & other sites) by 2022, based on Telefonica Tech's blockchain platform (TrustOS); to provide real-time status
• HFC:
• VodafoneZiggo orders High-Density R-PHY Shelf from CommScope to push fiber deeper
• Comcast and Cox test Docsis 4 - Comcast demos network to modem connection of DOCSIS 4.0 tech - Demos e2e Full Duplex (FDX) Docsis 4.0
• Virgin Media O2 demos 2.2 Gb/s over Docsis 3.1
• Shaw Comms plans migration to Docsis 4.0 by 2030, to complete mid-split architecture by early 2022
• Telekom DE (DT): BNA proposes (draft decision) no ex-ante regulation for FTTH networks, relying on non-discriminatory access based on obligation of equal treatment under the Equivalence of Input principle; Telekom has an obligation to declare in good time any migration to fiber from copper infrastructure and to present its plans
• Sharing
• Stratix for ACM report (literature review) on Dynamic Spectrum Management & Sharing (overview of spectrum sharing methods, technologies and (potentially) usable frequency bands, an assessment of aspects relevant for potential pilots, and recommendations on feasible pilots and proof-of-concepts)
• Telenet: Bloomberg: plans to sell 3k mobile sites (o/w 75% rooftops, shared with Proximus and Orange BE), EUR 600m [EY: specialised manager can boost efficiency 40% relative to telco owner]
• SoftBank and KDDI order shared Multi-Operator RAN (sites, equipment) for 4G, 5G, DSS from Nokia
• Tutela Global State of Mobile Experience (2021 annual report, 2b crowd-sourced tests from 830m users in 30 countries on 30 networks): By operator: #1 TDC NET, #2 T-Mobile NL, #3 Telenor NO #4 VodafoneZiggo, #8 KPN; By country: #1 DK, #2 FI, #3 SK, #4 NL, #5 AT; By video experience by operator: #1 SoftBank, #2 Elisa, #3 NTT DoCoMo
• GSA NTS Snapshot: total 5G commercial networks 180 in 72 countries; 465 operators in 139 markets invest in 5G
• Nokia launches 360 High Gain 5G mmWave technology to overcome LoS requirements for indoor mmWave FWA over 5G, boosts capacity 5-10x (captures a 360 mmWave fingerprint of the indoor environment, picks up direct and reflected signals from any direction, and adapts to the changing environment, through advanced analytics)
• OneWeb adds 36 sats, total 358 (of planned 648), to be operational mid 2022

CLOUD

• Google: GCP Cloud Next '21: launches Google Distributed Cloud solutions for telcos

AI

• Facebook: Launches research project Ego4D: personal video (from GoPro cameras and AR glasses) + AI to develop “episodic memory” (answering questions like “where did I leave my keys?”) and “audio-visual diarization” (remembering who said what when); with 13 universities; collected 3205 hr of video from 855 participants in 9 countries

CPE

• HTC launches Vive Flow, $500: VR headset (functions as virtual laser pointer with buttons for selecting items and calling up the homescreen, with smartphone as remote control)
• Ziggo offers Chromecast With Google TV for whole home service (max 2 per address), EUR 80, with dedicated Ziggo Go TV app (Ziggo Go app is for mobile devices)
• Telegeography: internet bandwidth 2021 +29% (2020: +34%)

SERVICES

• Altice USA launches Optimum FlexAbility [a la KPN Hussel, Verizon Mix & Match]: no contract, select services from BB (100 Mb/s, 300 Mb/s for 30 $/mo, 500 Mb/s, 1000 Mb/s for 50 $/mo), mobile data (1 GB for 14 $/mo, 3 GB, unlimited for 45 $/mo; no discount for additional lines), TV (Basic for 29 $/mo (50 channels), Premier for 94 $/mo (420 channels + HBO Max, Starz, Showtime), Stream TV 5 $/mo (free for 1 Gb/s subs))
• Apple TV+: Report on piracy (up to 125k seeders per title)
• Sports:
• Prime Video presents Sport 2021 showcase (London)
• Viaplay: Pricing NL to be 'very affordable', not just for sports
• 20210919: Netflix: CEO Hastings claims streaming market is far from saturated; linear TV to disappear in 10-20 yr; will not do news/journalism or sports (except possibly when source can be controlled, as with Formula 1)
• Walt Disney: Rumor: plans to spin-off ESPN - Rumor: denies

PLATFORMS

• Gvt NL publishes Preliminary Netherlands' input for proposed European Chips Act
• Techdirt report on Section 230 reform
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ) proposes Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act (to replace Section 230)
• US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) & Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) propose American Choice and Innovation Act: prohibit dominant platforms from discriminating among businesses that use their platforms in a manner that would materially harm competition on the platform
• FTC warns businesses against placing fake reviews, fine max $43,792 per violation
• European Digital SME Alliance publishes position paper on EU AI Act