All articles by Alex Birkhead
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InterviewCEO Interview: CityFibre on M&A watch, competition bottlenecks, BT economic rationale questioned
‘BT’ called out for obstinate, irrational, anti-competitive behaviour that penalises own shareholders — needs to prioritise copper shutdown to deliver fibre payback, and start serving consumers outside Openreach footprint. Also CityFibre’s M&A tracking/ranking and NetCo purism, big-3 ISP lockout, regulator told to keep sharp, and more…
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M&AFTTP buyer’s guide: consolidation rife among UK altnets
Fibre-building upstarts and established incumbents target multimillion-premises infrastructure within next several years, putting M&A on agenda for many.
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InterviewTIP’s Tenorio on the state of open RAN
Organisation’s chair says open RAN’s highest purpose for operators can be considered ‘optionality’.
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EventsFÿuz 2022 preview: ‘Back in your (proprietary) boxes, naysayers’ — open RAN is delivering on optionality
Ahead of the Telecom Infra Project’s three-day Fÿuz event in Madrid (25–27 October), the organisation’s leaders briefed TelcoTitans on the current state of play and what to expect on the ground, from where we will be filing reports covering key sessions.
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InterviewArch Summit 2022 — the (chief) executive briefing
Tomorrow Street CEO briefs Vodafonewatch on what to look forward to at October’s third Arch Summit being hosted by Tomorrow Street and Luxembourg.
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PeopleOpinion: Networks’ succession the final piece in recasting ‘New BT’
Domineering Chief Architect understood to be moving on; ironically, next stop rumoured to be IT-land. (Departure not yet officially confirmed, but follows months of rumours.) Updated to include coverage of Neil McRae’s own chronicle of his time and achievements at BT.
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PeopleWibergh at Vodafone: CTO’s legacy of unescaped telco legacy
Effective telco nightwatchman but existential digital challenges remain unaddressed.
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PremiumVodafone Q1 FY22–23: overall resilience masks in-country patchwork and continuing M&A hiatus
Familiarly solid set of results met with familiar lack of notable strategic activity.
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M&ADiscovery JV: BT Sport to be unbundled from BT
Another twist to the tale as BT and Discovery enter exclusive discussions. Jansen indicates agreement encompasses Eurosport UK and ‘Discovery app’, hinting at sports content tie-up; says deal has “no downsides”. The move could be a huge blow to DAZN, which appeared to have secured an $800m buyout.
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Financial & PerformanceBT Q3: king of a still-wobbly hill
Corporate weakness postpones recovery, with BT Global recuperating and BT Enterprise still in surgery. Rational rivals embraced, but warned of “Armageddon scenario”, with Sky current BFF. Discovery tie-up a win-win for BT Sport (but what about for BT itself?). Openreach charges on, hitting new records for FTTP connections and ...
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Network & InfrastructureTelefónica España shifts data analytics to cloud with Teradata
Teradata’s Vantage said to have offered “fastest and lowest-risk” cloud analytics migration project. Extends long-term Teradata relationship to migrate from on-premise. Taps into Group’s Google Cloud data lake.
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PremiumQ1 FY21–21: Consumer slips into recover mode
Work in progress to deliver on the converged, addvalue dream. Initial pandemic bounce back benefits BT Sport, but mobile still in hibernation. Strong performance on FTTP, but rivals stepping up.
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PremiumQ1 FY21–22: Enterprise down but not out
Bad ‘old’ still swamping the ‘new’. Positives in an order book rebound and improved EBITDA. Shuter has a huge task to pivot the division, but clear opportunity for ‘New BT’.
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PremiumQ1 FY21–22: Global retains Jansen’s support in adversity
Digging beneath the barrel to find positives in Q1. Jansen a true believer who sees Global keeping pace with peers, buffeted by forces beyond its control, and well placed along with Enterprise to boost BT when corporate and public sector business bounces back.
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PremiumQ1 FY21–22: Openreach shines again
It just looks so easy to upgrade and migrate the nation to fibre and IP while keeping a pack of massively funded jackals at bay. Even the odd slip looks like a sign of inherent strength. All key KPIs improving … and Gfast, too.
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Network & InfrastructureJansen now sees BT chasing 30 million premises with full-fibre
Extra five million presented as ‘infill’ and presumably more rural. Immediate competitive riposte to news of Virgin Media O2 FTTP retrofit, which it neatly doubles. Jansen says BT not concerned, but challenger altnets should be. No rush for fibre JV partner, but Jansen reveals a UK compatriot would be ...
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Financial & PerformanceBT Q1 FY21–22: another toughie, but with promise(s)
Q1 reiterated as a road to a recovery that will materialise in H2. Consumer reviving but Global eponymously damned. Microsoft deal more than slideware. Virgin Media–O2 FTTP investment could be a backhanded compliment and gift to BT.
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PeopleVodafone’s Ethiopian OpCo gets a leader
Anwar Soussa takes job as first MD of as-yet-unnamed OpCo. Industry veteran brings M-PESA experience. EOC plans and ownership remain vague.
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PremiumQ4 FY20–21 — Consumer’s sporting chances
Pandemic is serialising Consumer’s A Tale of Three Brands in quarterly instalments. Two steps backward: premium vision at odds with painful realities of ARPU and competitive reality. 2021 bounce (and digitalisation progress) cannot come soon enough, but growth seen backloaded. Latest FTTP chapter set to see retail rivals hitting ...