Showing posts with label LEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LEO. Show all posts

Monday, March 15, 2021

Week 10 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Updates
    • Elisa: Capital markets day: targets 2020-23 rev growth CAGR >2%, EBITDA growth CAGR >3%, capex/sales max 12%, net debt/EBITDA 1.5-2.0x, equity ratio >35%, profit distribution (dividend, capital repaymnet, purchase of treasury shares) 80-100% of previous year's net profit; To grow in global telco software business (customers include DT) and industrial software for manufacturing [Consumer NPS 31.8]
    • Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile US Analyst Day    
    • AT&T: Analyst Day Strategy Update & 5G Strategy    
    • Verizon: Investor Day    
    • US Cellular (TDS): Acquired 254 C-band licenses covering 94% of subs in FCC auction 107, $1.46b
  • Towers
    • Monaco Telecom (Xavier Niel): Sells towers Malta, Cyprus to Phoenix Tower (815 towers + build-to-suit sites), to close end 2021
    • Vodafone: Vantage Towers Sets IPO price range EUR 22.50-29.00, market cap EUR 11.4-14.7b; to sell stakes in IPO to investors Digital Colony (EUR 500m) and RRJ (EUR 450m); tosell 88.9m shares to raise EUR 2.0-2.8b (incl 25% upsize & 15% greenshoe), 19.1-24.6% to be listed; subscription period until 210317, first trade Frankfurt 210318
  • Other
    • Dropbox: Acquires DocSend, $165m: document sharing via secure link
    • PayPal: Acquires Curv (crypto security, Israel), rumored price <$200m
    • Stripe: Raises $600m at $95b valuation from Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency, Allianz, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, AXA, Sequoia Capital
    • Airspan Networks plans IPO via SPAC merger on NYSE, symbol MIMO
    • RTL: 20Q4

Networks

  • FTTH
    • UK: CityFibre (Antin, Goldman Sachs) plans Phase 2: adds 216 towns (3m homes, GBP 1.5b) to cover <33% by 2025 (England, Scotland; 8m homes, 800k businesses, 400k publi sector sites, 250k 5G sites); currently 650k homes, 14 ISPs
    • DE: TNG (= Intermediate Capital Group) raises EUR 73m debt for rural FTTH (200k premises) from UBS, others
    • DE: Telekom DE plans 600k FTTH lines in Berlin by 2025, 1m by 2027
    • DE: Deutsche Glasfaser plans 300k FTTH lines in Saarland, EUR 500m
  • LEO

Services

  • Deutsche Telekom
    • T-Mobile US plans opt-out advertising program from 210426 (excl business accounts & children): targeted ads based on anonimised online activity
    • Telekom DE partners with Envision Digital (Charging by EnOSTM) for home EV charging solution, with SIM and IP-VPN, from 37 EUR/mo (incl 100 kWh)
  • Video

Regulatory

  • Spectrum auctions
  • ACCC publishes Issues Paper on the impact of default settings for search engines & browsers on mobile devices, consultation until 210415 - Plans report on app marketplaces 210331
  • EC publishes Digital Decade plan, proposes Digital Compass: 1. Digitally skilled citizens and highly skilled digital professionals (incl 20m ICT specialists), 2. Secure, performant and sustainable digital infrastructures (gigabit connectivity, 5G, quantum computer, 10k climate-neutral secure edge nodes), 3. Digital transformation of businesses (cloud, Big Data, AI; double the number of unicorns), 4. Digitalisation of public services (incl e-medical records) - BEREC supports


at 9:50 am 0 comments
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Saturday, February 06, 2021

Week 5 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Telefonica: Moody's rates Telefonica Europe's hybrid debt (deeply subordinated, guaranteed fixed rate reset securities, fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Telefonica on a subordinated basis) Ba2, outlook stable - Issues first green hybrid bond, raises EUR 1b
  • Rumor: Vodafone ES plans InfraCo with Orange ES to pool towers (as alternative to MasMovil merger) - Rumor: MasMovil plans merger - To include ES & PT
  • Altice Europe: To sell 50.01% Hivory (10500 towers) stake to Cellnex at EV 100% EUR 5.2b; to add 2500 sites over 8 yr for EUR 900m [build-to-suit]; to close 21H2; SFR to remain anchor tenant under 18 yr lease (renewable in 5 yr periods); Starlight Holdco (49.01%) also sells stake to Cellnex; Cellnex total portfolio up to 120k sites in Europe
  • Delta Fiber (= EQT; currently 800k premises, target 1m end 2021) acquires Rekam (>50k lines), excludes RekamGlasDraad JV (Rekam & GlasDraad (= TINC, Mabin))
  • Shell Energy: Acquires 450k BB subs from Post Office
  • Box: Acquires SignRequest (NL), $55m: cloud-based electronic signature tool, can be integrated with many enterprise tools, to be relaunched as Box Sign summer 2021
  • Vivino: Raises $155m
  • RTL: Sells SpotX to Magnite, $1.17b (EUR 977m EV) in cash ($560m = EUR 468m) & stock (14.0m shares); to close 21Q2l acquired SpotX in 2014 (65% for EUR 107m) & 2017 (35% for EUR 123m); to focus on European ad tech via Smartclip and Yospace
  • BBC: Publishes report BBC Value for Audiences: funding freeze since 2010 reduced effective real-terms income by 30%, average 5m users at any given moment, 45m DAU

Earnings

  • BT: 20/21Q3; maintains outlook 20/21: EBITDA GBP 7.3-7.5b, FCF GBP 1.3-1.5b (narrowed); 5G reaches 125 towns, 790k FTTP subs; Strategic Pillars: 1. build the strongest foundations , 2. create standout customer experiences, 3. lead the way to a bright, sustainable future; Ultrafast BB (>100 Mb/s) reaches 6.88m premises o/w 4.05m FTTP, current FTTP rate 42k premises/week
  • Swisscom: 20Q4; plans cost savings 2021 CHF 100m (on operational business), 2022 CHF 100m (on digital transformation); outlook 2021: rev flat CHF 11.1b (8.5 in CH, 2.4 in IT), EBITDA slightly down CHF 4.3b (3.4 in CH, 0.8 in IT), capex slightly up CHF 2.3b (1.6 in CH, 0.6 in IT), div CHF 22; broadband coverage targets: 80 Mb/s for 90%, 10 Gb/s for 39% YE 2021; 300-500 Mb/s for 90%, 10 Gb/s for 60% YE 2025; 5G coverage targets: 99% YE 2021 (with 5G+ forced expansion), 99% YE 2025 (with nationwide 5G+)
  • Orange BE: 20Q4, div 50c; outlook 2021: rev growth LSD, EBITDA AL EUR 320-340m, capex 200-220m
  • Vodafone: 20/21Q3; maintains 20/21 guidance
  • Telenor: 20Q4
  • DNA: 20Q4
  • Tele2: 20Q4
  • Alphabet: 20Q4; to extend useful life of equipment (servers from 3 to 4 yr, network equipment from 3 to 5 yr) from 2021, positive impact oper result 2021 $2.1b
  • Amazon: 20Q4; guidance 21Q1: net rev $100.0-106.0b (growth 33-40%), oper income $3.0-6.5b (incl $2.0b corona virus related costs); CEO Jeff Bezos to step down to and become Executive Chair 21Q3, Andy Jassy (AWS) to become CEO, Bezos to focus on Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post; to invest $2.5b in HQ2 in Arlington (Virgoinia) over 10 yr for 25k employees
  • Snap: 20Q4, Spotlight reached >100m MAU; guidance 21Q1: rev $720-740m, adj EBITDA loss 50-70m
  • Pinterest: 20Q4; guidance 21Q1: rev growth low 70s'priorities for 2021: the Pinner experience, advertiser success, shopping; plans int expansion
  • Spotify: 20Q4 - ESOP (31.9m shares at $322.11 = $10.3m) - CEO Daniel Ek 32,773,691 votes = 17.2% (same for DGE Holding, DGE Investments) -  Martin Lorentzon 21,176,660 votes = 11.1% - Holds 282,830,698 shares = 21.1% of Tencent Music Entertainment

Networks

  • FTTH
  • 5G
    • Lufthansa deploys 2 Private SA 5G networks at Hamburg site (3.7-3.8 GHz): 1 from Vodafone DE, 1 from Nokia; latency 7ms and 16 ms; Lufthansa manages both
    • NTT, AIS, Fujitsu, NEC, Activio, AGC, Exeo Asia, Loxley, Mobile Innovation establish 5G Global Enterprise Solution Consortium (5GEC) for APAC (first for Thailand): Private 5G (mgt services)
    • Chuan Chih develops terminal simulation systems & 5G vertical applications to help companies accelerate efforts to develop, build, operate & maintain 5G private networks
    • Cyta (Cytamobile-Vodafone) launches 5G with 70% pops coverage (target 98% in 12 mo), no extra cost
    • DISH orders access to towers, rooftops, utility transmission structures, billboards, convenience stores & other sites used for wireless infrastructure deployment from Vertical Bridge REIT
    • PwC report (Powering Your Tomorrow): 5G adoption to boost global economy by USD 1.3t by 2030
    • BCG for CTIA report: 5G to add $1.5t to GDP and 4.5m jobs in US over 10 yr
  • FWA
    • Voneus (Macquarie) launches FWA in Ouston and Perkinsville (County Durham), 30-50 Mb/s
  • LEO
    • Starlink (SpaceX) plans phone service; reaches 10k users of beta BB service

Services

  • B2B
  • Smart City
  • Video
    • Netflix: Raises prices in Japan, Basic/Standard/Premium from 880/1320/1980 to 990/1490/1980 JPY/mo Rumor: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 plan AVOD service for live & catch-up TV
    • NAACP Image Awards nominations (winners 210327)L Netflix 14, Amazon 3
    • Golden Globes 2021 nominations (winners 210228): Netflix 20, Amazon 3 in TV; Netflix 22, Amazon 7 in movies
    • Writers Guild 2021 nominations: Netflix 10, Amazon 3
    • Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021 nominations (winners 210404)

  • Music
    • Sony: SME acquires AWAL(recorded music) & Kobalt Neighbouring Rights from Kobalt, $430m [Kobalt Music Group continues Kobalt Music Publishing, publishing collection society AMRA and Kobalt Capital]
    • Round Hill: Acquires 18k songs from Round Hill Fund One, $282m (incl The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, John Lee Hooker, Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson etc); to acquire 29% stake in set of 100k songs formerly of Carlin
    • Hipgnosis: Raises GBP 75m equity from Morgan Stanley & existing shareholders
    • The Music Acquisition Corp: IPO on NYSE, ticker TMAC.U, IPO rpice $10, via SPAC
    • SoundCloud: Rumor: plans service allowing users to pay creators directly; currently 175m MAU

  • Hardware
    • Apple: Rumor: to partner with Hyundai and PSA on electric cars - Rumor: to order Kia (= Hyuandai) to produce electric cars, $3.6b, to produce 100k EV cars/yr in Georgia by 2024 - Hyundai denies
    • Google: Partners with Ford, 6 yr from 2023: GCP, Android (incl apps: Assistant, Maps, etc) to be built into cars, establish Team Upshift to transform Ford
    • Xiaomi launches smartphone with 'quad-curved waterfall display'

Regulatory

  • CRC (Bulgaria) plans 3.6 GHz auction 210303, 3 blocks of 100 MHz; valid 20 yr, starting price $2.5m, submission by 210225
  • Ofcom (UK) proposes one-touch process for switching ISP
  • EC: nat roaming prices from Telefonica DE for 1&1 Drillisch not compliant with E-Plus acquisition conditions; Telefonica DE submits new rates, to be accepted by 1&1 Drillisch by 210219 (to increase earnings by EUR 30m in 2020)


at 11:35 pm 0 comments
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Sunday, January 31, 2021

Week 4 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • KPN
  • Orange: Partners with Sanofi, Capgemini, Generali to establish e-health JV platform, funding EUR 24m, to launch June 2021 (virtual), Dec 2021 (physical)
  • TIM: Establishes Noovle: cloud & edge services for enterprises [see 200527], to be based on 17 datacenters, targets rev CAGR 20% to EUR 1b by 2024 with EUR 400m EBITDA
  • Telia: 20Q4 final, Annual Report 2020, motto Dare Care Simplify; Strategy update Reinventing a Better Telia; establishes Telia Asset Mgt (towers & fiber); focus on raising mobile ARPU (from improved customer experience & 5G monetisation), FMC (reduces churn, upselling potential), ICT (new rev streams), FWA; to establish separate Infra Cos (to crystalize infrastructure value & accelerate investments); Outlook 2021-23: service rev  growth LSD, adj EBITDA growth LSD-MSD, capex/sales from 17% down to 15%; leverage target 2.0-2.5x, div floor SEK 2.00 with ambition of MSD growth
  • Elisa: 20Q4
  • Vodafone
  • Liberty Global: Plans more M&A deals, interested in VOO (Wallonia), MNO Ireland
  • RTL
  • Vivendi: Closes stake sale to Tencent 210129, UMG plans IPO 2021/22
  • Vimeo: Raises $300m equity from T Rowe Price Group and Oberndorf Enterprises at $5b valuation; spin=off planned 21Q2; 200m users in 190 countries, 1.5m paying subs
  • Facebook: 20Q4; outlook 2021: commerce ongoing shift to online and consumer demand shifts from services to products positively impact advertising, yoy rev growth 21H1 stable to modestly accelerating, 21H2 pressured (due to reversal of corona virus trends), ad targeting headwinds from platform changes (iOS 14 from March 2021), 2021 total expenses $68-73b, capex $21-23b, tax rate high teens; expands SBB by $25b
  • Twitter: Acquires newsletter publishing platform Revue (NL, 6 employees)
  • AT&T: 20Q4; charges $15.5b on pay-TV, $650m on WarnerMedia
  • Verizon: 20Q4

Networks

  • FTTP
    • TIM: Proposes co-investment in OA FTTH via FiberCop to Agcom: fiber to 1610 munis in grey & black areas (urban & semi-urban) to connect 75% of premises by 2025; atrchitecture to balance eficiency, infrastructure competition, simple customer migration; to comply with EU Telecom Code
    • CETIN: Avege download speed 2020 105 Mb/s (+25%); to expand FTTP/FTTB to 150k YE 2021, 1m by 2027 
    • Virgin Media plans FTTP at new homes built by Barratt Developments, 15k in 2021 - Rolls out FTTP in Shrewsbury - Launches FTTP in Debdale (Greater Manchester), 5k HP
    • GlasVoorNop starts roll-out in Noordoostpolder (10 villages, total 47k pops), first in Creil; RSP: KPN (incl Solcon, XS4ALL, RoutIT), T-Mobile (incl Tele2), Online (= Canal+), Youfone, Tweak, Kliksafe, Freedom Internet, Oxxio, NEM, Budget, ONVI, Qonnected, HeldenVan.nu, hallo,
    • Google Fiber launches 2 Gb/s in Salt Lake City and Provo (Utah) and in Atlanta (Ga)
  • Mobile network sharing
  • 5G
    • Ericsson launches 5G RAN slicing, proposes slicing for high-revenue generating use cases (cloud gaming, smart factories, enhanced video, smart healthcare), enables 1 ms latency at RAN (with SA 5G)
  • 6G
    • EU launched Project REINDEER (REsilient INteractive applications through hyper Diversity in Energy-Efficient RadioWeaves) as part of 5G PPP, funding from Horizon 2020, 210101 until 240630, Ericsson to develop multi-antenna-based smart connectivity platform, with KU Leuven, Linköping University, Lund University, etc; RadioWeaves technology is key deliverable: fabric of distributed radio, compute & storage, to enable large-scale intelligent surfaces & cell-free wireless access to offer capabilities far beyond future 5G networks, to offer capacity scalable to quasi-infinite, perceived zero latency & interaction with a large number of embedded devices
  • LEO

Services

Regulatory

  • Auctions
    • Ofcom (UK) delays auction (700 & 3.6-3.8) by 2 mo over corona virus to March 2021
    • MNUs HU (Magyar Telekom, Vodafone, Telenor) extend 900 & 1800 licenses by 15 yr until 370409, HUF 150b (EUR 418m); Magyar Telekom 16 MHz in 900 & 40 MHz in 1800; Telenor 26 MHz in 900 & 40 MHz in 1800; Vodafone 2x9 MHz in 900 for HUF 22.7b & 2x20 MHz in 1800 for HUF 26.4b
  • Switching


at 2:40 pm 0 comments
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Sunday, December 27, 2020

Week 52 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Vodafone:
    • Terminates discussions with STC over a sale of 55% stake in Vodafone Eqypt [see 200129]
    • Closes merger of Vodafone GR's towers assets with Wind Hellas towers to form Vantage Towers Greece (Vodafone 62%, Crystal Almond 38%), call option until 211231 to buy out Crystal Almond for EUR 288m cash by 200630, 5% more by 211231, to be triggered by Vantage Towers IPO announcement
    • To buy out minority shareholders from KDG (17.1%), 103 EUR/share, stake to rise to 93.8%, total cost EUR 1.557b (2.119b for 100%) [see 130624]
  • Liberty Global: To be removed from Nasdaq-100 index 201221
  • Telenet: Liberty Global changes chain of control (transfers Binan shares to LG Broadband, transfers to UnitedGlobalCom, transfers to LG Holding); after transaction: Binan owns 66,342,037 shares (58.28% of votes), Telenet owns 4,598,558 shares (4.04% of shares)
  • Tele Columbus: Offer from Kublai (= Morgan Stanley Infrastructure), 3.25 EUR/share = EUR 400m; shareholders United Internet, Rocket Internet support, to close 21Q2; proposes capital increase EUR 475m for fiber roll-out (EGM 210120, Kublai to take part for EUR 75m, United Internet pro rata); to invest EUR 2b over 10 yr in fiber (2m HP by 2030), 1&1 Drillisch to be RSP on fiber network
  • Play: Iliad launches squeeze-out procedure for remaining 3.3% (8,494,848 shares)
  • BT: Openreach CEO Clive Selley positive on selling minority stake to investor
  • Cyfrowy Polsat: To acquire 114,173,459 Netia shares (34.02%) at 4.80 PLN/share, subscription period 210115 - 210226 (current holding 221,404,885 shares = 65.98%)
  • Netia: Rumor: to acquire several ISPs
  • Euskaltel: Expansion: 3 bidders for max 49% in fiber JV: Fiera Capital, First Sentier Investors, Infravia Capital Partners
  • Viasat: Acquires RigNet, $222m in shares
  • AT&T:
    • NYPost: may cancel DirecTV auction if offers don't improve
    • WarnerMedia acquires You.i TV (cross-platform development tools for TV and media, delivers video apps across mobile, tablet, game consoles, streaming devices, STBs, Smart TVs using a single codebase)
  • MGM (Anchorage Capital): WSJ: considers sale, valuation $5.5b
  • IAC: Plans to spin off Vimeo as listed company 21Q2
  • Tidal: Bloomberg: Square (Jack Dorsey) interested
  • ByteDance: Rumor: interested in CMGE Technology (mobile games), to acquire 27.6% stake (or part) from Fairview Ridge Investment, 4-5 HKD/share (30-60% premium)

Networks

FTTH

    • Full Fibre raises funds from Basalt Infrastructure Partners to expand FTTP (rural, semi-urban; OA via wholesale arm iNeedFibre) to 500k premises by 2025
    • Wildanet raises GBP 50m from Gresham House British Strategic Investment Infrastructure Fund for FTTP investment in Cornwall [see 201012]

5G

LEO

  • BNA (DE) provides temporary (1 yr) spectrum license to Starlink (SpaceX)
  • ACMA (Australia) provides mmWave spectrum (26, 28 GHz) to SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb, New Skies Satellite/SES, O3b/SES, Inmarsat, Viasat, Telstra, Optus, Vocus, Nokia, NBN, Opticomm, other
  • EC orders study (EUR 7m) to design, develop & launch European-owned space-based communication system (LEO, BBoS) from Airbus, Arianespace, Eutelsat, Hispasat, OHB, Orange, SES, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space

Services

Content

Streaming

  • Samsung TV Plus (free OTT TV, 742 channels) expands to 12 countries (60m installed base, 15m active users): US, Canada, Australia, UK, FR, DE, CH, AT, IT, ES, S Korea, Brazil; plans expansion 2021 to Mexico, India, Sweden, more European countries

Web applications

Regulatory

TIM: AGCM starts antitrust investigation of FiberCop (TIM 58%, KKR 37.5%, Fastweb 4.5%)

Spectrum

  • AKOS (Slovenia) plans 5G spectrum auction 2021, combined starting prices EUR 69m
  • ACMA (Australia) awards 5G mmWave (26 GHz (24.7-25.1) & 28 GHz (27.5-29.5) bands) licenses to 15: MarchNet, Dreamtilt, Field Solutions Group, Opticomm, Nokia, NBN Co, Optus, Telstra, Vocus, Starlink (SpaceX), WorldVu (One Web), Inmarsat, Viasat, O3B/SES, New Skies Satellites/SES

Government funding

Other

  • ACM (NL) Telecommonitor 20Q3: Mobile: 4G data traffic 254m GB (+20% qoq), 10.3b min, 617m SMS; Fixed: 1.94b min over BB, 263m min over PSTN
  • DNA (Telenor): Publishes Technology Trends for 2021 guide: 17 trends



at 8:28 pm 0 comments
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