Sunday, March 07, 2021

Week 9 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile US (Sprint) sold 33% Tidal stake to Jay-Z
  • TIM: TIM Brasil Day: to acquire stakes (max 30%) in unicorns
  • Altice Europe: SFR to cut 1700 jobs of 15k (11%) by YE 2021; to hire 1000 in 4 yr for cybersecurity, data analysts and AI
  • Gamma Communications: Acquires Mission Labs (developer of applications to manage cloud contact centres; UCaaS tech platform CircleLoop) to enhance CCaaS service, GBP 40.2m + 3 yr earn-out max GBP 6.0m
  • Destiny (Apax): Acquires Ulysse Group (Wallonia, 12 employees, 350 customers)
  • Tidal: Bought back 33% stake from Sprint (T-Mobile US); Square acquires significant majority stake, $297m; artist shareholders remain (Jay-Z (Shwan Carter), Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna); currently 70m tracks, 250k videos, available in 56 countries
  • eBay: CMA (UK): reasonable grounds to believe the remedies presented by eBay & Adevinta address their concerns with respect to the proposed transaction [see 200721]
  • Crisp: Raises EUR 30m; 500 employees; sources directly from >600 small & high-quality producers
  • RTL: Mediengruppe RTL DE buys out BVI Television Investments (50%; = Walt Disney) from Super RTL (kids & family channel in DE & AT)
  • Vivendi: 20Q4
  • ProSieben: 20Q4; Strategy Update
  • Annual Reports
  • IPO

Networks

  • General
    • Comcast report 2020 Network Performance Data: downstream 14x upstream, peak traffic +32%, peak downstream traffic +38%, peak upstream traffic +56%; video 71% of downstream traffic (2019: 73), videoconferencing 5%
    • Surfshark Digital Quality of Life Index 2020 report ranking 85 countries, based on 5 pillars (Internet affordability, Internet quality, E-infrastructure, E-security, E-government); DK #1, SE #2, Canada #3, FR #4, NO #5, NL #6
  • FTTP
    • Netherlands
      • Delta Fiber starts roll-out in Bloemendaal, Overveen, with BAM Infra Telecom, to activate end 2021
      • Van Gelder Annual Report 2020: total 100k connections for KPN, Delta Fiber, Kabelnoord, T-Mobile NL
      • CommScope E-Fiber (Arcus 95%) case study
      • KPN plans FTTH in Amstelveen (35k premises), deal with city; roll-out starts July 2021, completion 2024 [see 210210]
    • Telefonica Brasil & Telefonica Infra establish 50/50 JV FiBrasil Infraestrutura e Fibra Otica (FiBrasil) with CDPQ [see 210224]; CDPQ to invest BRL 1.8b ($318m); OA wholesale, to close 21Q2; target 5.5m HP in 4 yr (currently 1.6m)
    • Telefonica DE: UGG (Unsere Gruene Glasfaser, JV with Allianz) plans 2m rural FTTH lines in 6 yr in communities of max 10k pops, EUR 5b, 50k km [see 201029]; roll-out starts in Maring-Noviand (RP, 1500 pops in 775 HH); next to Malterdingen, Aach, Volkertshausen (BW) and Hermeskeil (RP)
    • Deutsche GigaNetz (= InfraRed Capital Partners, Axos Capital (Jan Budden)) plans 3m FTTP lines in suburban to semi-rural areas, EUR 1b; plans to start in Hessen, BW summer 2021 
    • TIM Brasil plans to sell FiberCo stake to IHS Brasil (negotiates until 210324)
    • Sunrise UPC: Launches campaign Together more Wow; brands to coexist; plans 1 Gb/s over fixed coverage 90% pos coverage during 2021, then gardual upgrade to 10 Gb/s
  • 5G

Services

  • Telecoms
    • FWA
      • T-Mobile US 5G Event: launches T-Mobile WFX business solutions: 1. Enterprise Unlimited Plans (4G & 5G), 2. Home Office Internet (FWA, 4G & 5G, no cap, >25 Mb/s; dedicated router, prioritises work, with filtering (gaming, gambling, porn, Netflix etc); nationwide, starts with 60m HH covered, target 90m by 2025; from 90 $/line/mo), 3. Collaborate (cloud-based suite of solutions, AI-powered; voice & video conferencing; AI-assistant for taking notes, Microsoft 365 integrated, also G Suite, Salesforce, Slack; incl Enterprise Unlimited from 37 $/line/mo incl 10 GB hotspot data over 4G & 1 hr of GoGo in-flight Wi-Fi per flight for companies taking at least 11 lines, possible throttling after 50 GB; based on Dialpad tech); T-Ventures invests in Dialpad 10s of millions of $)
    • Chat/Voice
    • B2B
      • Google Workspace adds features for remote work
      • Microsoft adds Operator Connect to Teams: adds PSTN calling; initial partners BT, DT, Intrado, NTT, Nuwave, Orange Business Services, Pure IP, Rogers, Swisscom, TATA, Telenor, Verizon
      • Dell'Oro: SD-WAN vendor market 20Q4 +50%, market leaders: Cisco, VMware, Fortinet, Versa, HPE/Silver Peak
  • Smart City
  • TV
    • Federal Appeals Court US rejects Maine law requiring cable companies to give subscribers the option of purchasing access to individual cable channels
  • Video
    • Netflix: Adds tab Fast Laughs to iPhone app: vertical comedy clips from stand-up specials, series, movies; up to 100 per day [a la TikTok]
    • Sony: PlayStation Store exits TVOD 210831
  • Music
    • SoundCloud: Plans migration to fan-powered royalties 210401 (user-centric licensing, to replace pro rata payout): “each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue is distributed among the artists that they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled”, will “benefit rising independent artists with loyal fans”
  • Web
    • Facebook: Instagram launches Live Rooms: live broadcasts, max 4 creators
    • Twitter
    • Apple: report on contribution of iOS App Store to Australian economy
    • Microsoft: Launches Intelligent Speakers (with Yealink, Epos); launches Micorosft Mesh platform: mixed reality, presents people as virtual avatars
    • Razer launches smart glasses Anzu ($200, EUR 210), 2 formats (rectangular and round frames), 2 sizes: music, voice & video calls, voice assistant, Bluetooth (latency 60 ms) for pairing to compatible device
    • Square: Launches Square Financial Services (banking services)
    • Brave (26m MAU) plans search engine for desktop & mobile Brave Search (Tailcat), based on Cliqz tech: completely independent index, without compromising privacy, does not collect IP addresses or use personally identifiable information to improve search results - Publishes paper GOGGLES: Democracy dies in darkness, and so does the Web


at 5:56 pm

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