Week 44 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

CORPORATE

• Alphabet establishes Isomorphic Laboratories: uses AI (based on DeepMind research) for drug discovery, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis to be CEO
• Amazon
• WFH: Launches Amazon FamilyFlex: program that provides employees flexibility & expansive benefits for themselves & their families, provides resources to create the right balance between home life & work life (incl pregnancy & parental leave, adoption assistance, the ability to swap shifts & create custom schedules)
• Chair Jeff Bezos sold shares (from 51141599 to 50533149 = 608450 shares) at average roughly $3330 = $2.03b
• Chair Jeff Bezos sold shares (from 50533149 to 50141599 = 391550) at average roughly $3390 = $1.33b

FIBER & TOWERS

• Deutsche Telekom: Establishes GlasfaserPlus: 50/50 JV with IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (= IFM Investors = 23 pension funds); IFM to contribute EUR 900m; plans 4m rural OA FTTP lines in DE by 2028, Telekom DE to be wholesale customer; to raise bank debt; total DT FTTP investment 2022-2030 (incl GlasfaserPlus) EUR 30b
• Orange:
• Operational launch of TOTEM (towerco); owns passive mobile infrastructure assets (sites, land, leases, leases to third parties); open for other operators; to keep control; 150 employees (100 in FR, 50 in ES); >26k sites in FR (18500 sites o/w 58% tower sites, 30% flat roofs, 12% other) & ES (7900 sites o/w 50% towers, 50% flat roofs); considers incorporating passive assets from other Orange companies in Europe
• Operational launch of Orange Concessions (Orange 50%, consortium (La Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts), CNP Assurances, EDF Invest) 50%); comprises 24 PINs (to cover 4.5m HH), 100 employees, valuation EUR 2.675b; target 30% coverage of rural market by 2025
• TIM: Bloomberg: considers relinquishing control of network to revive merger talks for FiberCop with Open Fiber
• BT: cancelled search for co-investment partner for Openreach, FTTP roll-out cost dropped to 250-350 GBP/home (from 300-400)    
• Liberty Global:
• considers (slide 8) establishing NetCos (with wholesale) for Virgin Media O2, Virgin Media IE, VodafoneZiggo    
• Virgin Media IE plans full fiber upgrade (10 Gb/s): 952k premises by 2025, open network with wholesale; EUR 200m (excl success-based customer connection costs), 500 jobs
• EQT: Closes EQT Infrastructure V, cap EUR 15.7b, total 12 portfolio companies (ferry line operators Molslinjen and Torghatten in Nordics, energy transition companies Covanta and Cypress Creek in N America, digital infrastructure operators Deutsche Glasfaser, DELTA Fiber, Fiberklaar in Cont Europe), 60-65% invested
• GSMA survey report (103 CSPs): rising energy demand and costs are critical issues; along with the use of renewables, AI energy management software is central to many CSP strategies to shrink their environmental footprint
• Oxford Analytica report for Virgin Media O2 (Digital Connectivity Index): digital connectivity upgrading (full fiber & Mobile) boosts economic growth; becoming OECD leader (currently #11 or #8 shared with Lithuania, NO, ES) would add GBP 70b in GDP & 510k jobs by 2026, annual GDP growth rate to rise by 0.88 pp by 2026
• Italian gvt plans tenders early 2022 for EUR 4b for 6.2m rural & semi-rural premises
• UK:
• KCOM reaches 250k FTTP premises
• CityFibre reaches 1m HP; works with 30 ISPs

SERVICES

• 5G
• IBM proposes maintenance (robot Spot) killer app for 5G
• T-Mobile US: smartphones are 5G killer app
• GSMA Intelligence brief: FWA is one of the most promising 5G use cases
• Telstra launches 5G FWA service (average 378 Mb/s during daytime, coverage 75% of pops, target 95% 250630), 85 AUD/mo, no contract, incl router, data cap 1 TB/mo
• Far EasTone (Taiwan) demos network slicing (simultaneously connecting multiple network slices per device running on Android 12), with Ericsson
• Google: Android 12 to support network slicing, 2 versions: 1. for enterprise-owned handsets (routes all data sent and received by a device over the network slices provided by that company's mobile operator), 2. implemented in the work profile (enterprises will be able to route data to and from separate repository over a network slice)
• CLOUD
• France gvt launches EUR 1.8b cloud research support fund (incl edge computing) over 4 yr (667m from gvt FR, 444m from EU, 680m from private sector)
• SMART CITY
• Smart City Observatory annual IMD-SUTD Smart City Index (SCI) based on economic & technological aspects (survey of 15k city dwellers in 118 cities): Singapore #1, Zurich #2, Oslo #3, Taipei City #4, Lausanne #5, Helsinki #6, Copenhagen #7, Geneva #8, Auckland #9, Bilbao #10
• VIDEO
• Discovery: Discovery+ integration with HBO Max (will result in a service that appeals “to all demographics,” global addressable market “should be on par with the biggest streaming services”) may initially be offered as bundle    
• Netflix: Expands mobile games to all subs on Android (downloadable from Google Play store), 5 titles at launch: Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP), Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP), Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop), Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games), Teeter Up (Frosty Pop)
• Amazon: Trials Prime Video Channels data sharing with Discovery in Europe
• Conviva State of Streaming report 21Q3

PLATFORMS

• Facebook shuts down Face Recognition system on Facebook (over societal concerns, awaiting regulation), to delete >1b facial tenmplates - Meta may use facial recognition for Instagram, Portal, metaverse
• Microsoft Ignite developer event; launches Microsoft Mesh for Teams (AR/VR; build spaces, bring avatars); launches Loop: app (combines a flexible canvas with components that sync across Microsoft 365 services to help teams communicate and work remotely together)
• Draft impact assessment (by Regulatory Scrutiny Board) of EU Data Act rejected (over not providing sufficient information on the conditions for public bodies to access data, the compensation for businesses and the relation with other legislative measures)
• Data Governance Act is aimed at sharing data protected by laws that impede access (such as personal data, data protected by some intellectual property provisions or by specific trade secret laws, etc)
• EP special committee on AI roadmap report to be debated in EP 211109
• EU Council proposes exclusive power to enforce obligations on VLOPs (very large online platforms) under DSA (country of origin principle would bottleneck enforcement with countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg)
• Australian privacy commissioner: Clearview AI breached privacy by scraping biometric information from the Internet and releasing it through a facial recognition tool; required to delete all data of Australians

RESULTS

• Telefonica, Telefonica DE, BT
• Liberty Global, VodafoneZiggo, Sunrise UPC, Virgin Media O2, Virgion Media IE, UPC    
• RTL, Mediaset, ProSieben
• ViacomCBS, Discovery, Lionsgate
• Pinterest, Airbnb