Sunday, December 13, 2020

Week 50 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Telefonica: Rumor: may sell Movistar Uruguay to Telecom Argentina
  • BT: Sells 2 BT Italy units (serving Public Administration and SME) to TIM, completing Phase 1 of transformation (sold units in FR, DE, NL, ES, China, Singapore, 15 Latam countries); Phase 2 to focus on growth    
  • MasMovil (KKR, Cinven, Providence): Rumor: offers EUR 90m for Ahimas (Ahi+) (wants EUR 170m)
  • Altice Europe: Lucerne Capital files petition at Amsterdam Court of Appeal asking for inquiry into corporate governance; asks for appointment of 3 independent non-executive directors to the board, prohibit EGM 210107; hearing 201223
  • Belgium
    • Orange BE: Polygon European Equity Opportunity Master Fund (holds 5.29%) opposes Orange offer 'derisory', wants 39.50-47.25 EUR/share; Orange BE owns 3100 towers at 300k EUR/tower (sale of 66% could raise EUR 600m)
    • Cegeka: Acquires majority of Citymesh, to concentrate 4G/5G in Citymesh
    • Proximus: To reduce office space at CHQ from 105k to 40k m^2 due to corona virus
  • VodafoneZiggo:
    • Launches Green Bond Framework, pillars: Use of Proceeds, Process for Project Evaluation and Selection, Management of Proceeds, Reporting, External Review (KPMG);  launches new CSR (ESG) strategy (‘People, Planet, Progress’), goals: 'halve our impact on the environment and help two million people move forward in society' (2% energy efficiency improvement every year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and we use 100% wind energy), focus on ' climate crisis, pollution and social inequality'; 5 areas: 1. Everything for a healthy environment, 2. Equal opportunities in the digital society, 3. A diverse and inclusive culture, 4. Technology for society, 5. Sustainable purchasing of services and products
    • Launched first Green Bond 201207: settlement 201218, EUR 700m 2.875% notes due 2029 to refinance existing debt (EUR 600m 2.5% Vendor Financing due 2024 & EUR 100m Vendor Financing due 2021), 'to invest an amount equal to the net proceeds of the Green Bonds in existing and/or future green projects'
  • Delisting
  • AT&T
    • WSJ: offers for DirecTV reach $15b
    • WarnerMedia sells Crunchyroll to Funimation (= Sony Pictures Ent, Aniplex (= Sony Music Ent); 3m SVOD subs, 90m r'red users for AVOD), $1.175b cash
  • Modern Times Group: Acquires Hutch (free-to-play mobile games), $375m (275 cash + 100 earn-out)
  • Google: Acquires Dataform (UK, B2B, manage data warehouses) 
  • Amazon: Rumor: to invest $100m in Apollo Pharmacy (India)
  • ByteDance: Federal Court Washington grants injunction against TikTok shutdown in US
  • Uber
    • Sells Advanced Technologies Group (self-driving car tech) to Aurora Innovation, rumored price $4b, to close 21Q1; Uber to invest $400m in newco at $10b valuation, Uber to own 26%, ATG investors to own ~14%
    • Sells Elevate (flying taxis) to Joby Aviation, to invest $75m in newco
  • IPO
    • DoorDash: IPO price $102, first trade $182, closes at $189.51
    • Airbnb: IPO price $68, First trade $146, closes at $144.71
    • C3.ai: IPO price $42, first trade $100.00, closes at $92.49
    • Roblox: Postpones IPO to 2021; "Based on everything we have learned to date, we feel there is an opportunity to improve our specific process for employees, shareholders and future investors both big and small" [DoorDash, Airbnb, C3.ai exploded on first day of trading, implying IPO price was too low]
    • Affirm: Postpones IPO to 2021 

Networks

FTTP
  • Proximus launches Fiber in Brussel: plans full FTTH coverage (600k HP) in Brussels (Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest) by end 2026, partners Actiris, Bruxelles Formation, VDAB Brussel (600 jobs); target 4.2m HP YE 2028 (currently 400k, rollout in 16 cities); plans 50k in Brussels YE 2020, to add 100k/yr from 2022; ultimate coverage target BE 70%
  • Ulysse Group orders XGS-PON from Iskratel for network in Luik
  • Telekom DE plans nationwide FTTH by 2030, to add 600k HP in 2020 (2019: 270k), to rise to 2m/yr; currently 13k employees in Fiber Factory
  • Orange RO to increase FTTH 50% in 4 yr
  • CityFibre plans expansion to Plymouth, GBP 52m, roll-out to start Jan 2021 - And Dewsbury, GBP 40m - And Bradford, GBP 75m
  • Hyperoptic plans FTTP at large proportion of L&Q (housing ass London & SE England, total 90k)
  • Mediacom sues to block West Des Moines' partnership with Google Fiber
5G
  • DoCoMo demos CA, with Qualcommm: 100 MHz in 3.5 GHz & 100 MHz in 4.5 GHz, max 4.2 Gb/s
  • Slovak Telekom launches 5G (DSS of 15 MHz in 2100 MHz band) in Bratislava, down 300-600 Mb/s, up 60-80 Mb/s; launches Privat 5G at CEIT (R&D center in Zilina)
  • T-Mobile US launches 5G mobile hotspot from Inseego (5G MiFi M2000); 500 MB for 5 $/mo, 100 Gb for 50 $/mo
6G
  • EC appoints Nokia leader of 6G project Hexa-X (210101 - 230630): research, pre-standardisation process, use cases, scenarios; 6 challenges: 1. Connecting intelligence (AI/ML for improved efficiency & service experience), 2. Network of networks (digital ecosystem), 3. Sustainability (reduced global ICT environmental footprint), 4. Global service coverage (incl connecting remote places), 5. Extreme experience (extreme bitrates, extremely low (imperceptible) latencies, seemingly infinite capacity, precision localization & sensing), 6. Trustworthiness (confidentiality & integrity of communications and delivering data privacy, operational resilience & security) - Ericsson to co-lead - Partners: Orange, TIM, Telefonica, Intel, Atos, Siemens, universities, other
LEO

Services

Video

    • Overall
      • Total D2C content expense 2023/24 $14-16b
      • Total streaming subs 300-350m by 240930
    • Disney+
      • Reaches 86.8m subs 201202 (o/w 24m = ~30% for Disney+ Hotstar in India), target 230-260m by 240930 (o/w/ 30-40% at Hotstar; incl Star, launch 210223)
      • Target peak oper loss in 2020/21, profitable in 2023/24
      • To raise prices March 2021 in US from 7 to 8 $/mo (70 to 80 $/yr), bundle Hulu (with ads) & ESPN+ from 13 to 14 $/mo; new bundle Disney+, Hulu (ad-free), ESPN+ 19 $/mo; in Europe from 7 to 9 EUR/mo (to add Star)
      • Plans to add new originals to Disney+ every week; distr deal with Comcast for Xfinity X1 and Flex subs; to spend $8-9b on originals in 2023/24; to add 10 Marvel series, 10 Star Wars series, 15 Disney & Pixar series & 15 features (total 100 releases/yr across all brands)
      • Pinocchio (Tom Hanks), Peter Pan and Wendy to skip theaters to premiere on Disney+; day-and-date theater release & Premier Access at $30 for Raya and the Last Dragon
      • Star (#6 tier within Disney+, next to Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, NatGeo; with parental control) to launch 210223 in continental Europe (1k titles), Canada, ANZ, Singapore
    • Hulu
      • Reaches 38.8m paid subs 201202, target 50-60m by 240930
      • 92m MAU for AVOD, Hulu With Live TV 4m subs
      • Target profitable by 2022/23
    • ESPN+
      • Reaches 11.5m subs 201202, target 20-30m by 240930
      • Target profitable by 2022/23
    • Star+
      • Incl. Disney+, ESPN, ESPN+ content
      • To launch June 2021 in Latam, ~7.50 $/mo stand-alone, ~9.00 $/mo in bundle with Disney+
      • 2k titles in first yr + 10k sports events (500 per mo)
Gaming
Web services
  • Amazon: AWS launches Amazon HealthLake: aggregates an organization’s complete data across various silos and disparate formats into a centralized AWS data lake and automatically normalizes this information using ML; first customers: Cerner, Ciox Health, Konica Minolta Precision Medicine, Orion Health
  • Brave launches Brave Today: personalised news reader (without trail for Brave, ISPs or 3rd-parties), based on CDN
Telco consumer services
  • yallo (Sunrise UPC subbrand) launches yallo Home for postpaid subs, 40 CHF/mo (new subs: 49 CHF/mo) in 24 mo contract for 10/10 Gb/s + TV (Wilmaa premium TV free for 24 mo, after 13 CHF/mo) + 2 mo free Sky Show or Sky Sport, with free Zyxel Fiber Box (with WiFi 6: max 6 Gb/s)
Telco business services
Telco web services
Smart city
  • Smart Dubai launches Leadership Dashboard for Government Resources initiative: aggregates financial, contractual, HR-related government data, to offer decision-makers a holistic view of their organisations, allowing them to make informed decisions based on real-time data 
  • Colombia to invest $1b in smart cities & educational centres. 
  • Leuven launched Digital City Pole project, with TRES, Citymesh (Cegeka, 5G) & Nokia (GPON): LED lighting, EV-charging

Hardware

Apple
Broadcom
  • FCC approves Broadcom's BCM4389 (world’s first FCC-certified Wi-Fi 6E chip), latency 2ms

Regulatory

Facebook
Platforms
  • Cnil (FR) fines Google EUR 100m, Amazon EUR 35m for breaching data protection rules by placing advertising cookies on users’ computers without obtaining appropriate consent
  • ACM (NL) starts investigation into how to oversee algorithms, publishes report (position paper); trial with Muziekweb
  • Modern Computing Alliance established by Google, Dell, Intel, Slack, Zoom, Box, Cirtrix, Imprivata, Okta, RingCentral, VMWare: to tackle joint problems around security, remote work, and other enterprise issues; focus on 4 areas: 1. performance, 2. security & identity, 3 remote work, productivity & collaboration, 4. health care; focus on Chrome browser and Chrome OS
Telecoms
  • FCC starts C-band auction: 280 MHz in 3.7-3.98 GHz band (currently at satellite operators) - Reaches $1.9b after day 1
  • Cyprus plans 5G multiband auction 201217, 4 bidders: Cyta (Cytamobile-Vodafone), PrimeTel, Epic, Cablenet: 6 lots 2x5 in 700 MHz band, 8 lots 50 MHz in 3.6 GHz band; coverage requirement: 70% of pops and major highways by 251231; reserve price CYP 6m per license


at 10:53 pm
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