What’s up with… Vodafone, Telenor, BT, digital platforms and services

In today’s roundup of industry news: Vodafone Italy’s CEO to step down in November, with unit’s CFO to take over until sale to Swisscom is complete; Telenor boasts ‘solid performance’ in Nordics and Asia, helped by increased focus on cybersecurity and technology investments; two private equity firms reportedly emerge as potential bidders for BT’s assets in Italy following accounting scandal;and more!

Vodafone Group announced that Aldo Bisio will step down as CEO Vodafone Italy November 15 to “pursue an external opportunity.” However, he will continue to serve as a non-executive board member of Vodafone Italy and oversee the unit the sales process to Swisscom. Vodafone’s current Italian CFO, Sabrina Casalta, will become interim CEO until the transaction is completed. “In Italy, despite challenging market conditions, Vodafone has enjoyed success under Aldo’s leadership and has developed a series of innovations that have been adopted in our other markets. He has also recently led the simplification and streamlining of our group’s commercial operations,” said Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle. read more.

Telenor reported year-on-year growth in service revenue of 4.5% in the second quarter to NOK 16.3 billion (US$1.5 billion), while total revenue remained unchanged at NOK 19.9 billion (US$1.8 billion), driven by “solid performance” in both regions where it operates – Nordics and Asia. Net income increased from NOK 821 million (US$76.3 million) to NOK 2.5 billion (US$232 million), while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 3.8% to NOK 8.8 billion ($817.8 million). “Telenor is on track and continues to execute a strategy that is working. We continue to have strong and profitable growth and solid cost control in the Nordic region – led by Sweden and Finland in the last quarter. In Asia, we saw positive growth in Thailand, partly due to the revival of tourism, as well as synergies,” said Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor. In its earnings report, the company noted that its strategic investments in technology and cybersecurity have provided it with a “solid foundation for further growth.” Some of these moves include the formation of Telenor Cyberdefence in June to develop security offerings for the corporate market, strategic partnership with Nvidia as part of Telenor’s plan to invest in artificial intelligence and investment in data center company Skygard.

BT GroupApparently there is great interest in taking over the Italian company. According to Bloombergprivate equity firms Asterion Industrial Partners and Nextalia have emerged as potential bidders and are preparing to submit indicative offers before a late July deadline. However, the report suggests that negotiations are still ongoing and that potential buyers could pull out. BT is reportedly looking to shed its Italian unit after an accounting scandal in 2017 that led to a £530m provision for related costs and an extensive process that led to conviction of eight peoplesome of whom were former employees, earlier this year. BT Italia offers security, cloud and network solutions to large and international companies, as well as wholesale customers.

Telia reported a slight improvement in its results in the second quarter of the year, with total revenue up 2.3% year-on-year to PLN 22.4 billion Swedish krona (SEK) ($2.1 billion) and service revenues increased by 2.5% to SEK 19.4 billion ($1.8 billion). The Swedish operator’s net income increased from SEK 917 million ($86.8 million) to SEK 4.8 billion ($454.6 million). “The revenue dynamics in our telecommunications operations continued in the second quarter, and customer satisfaction improved further,” noted the operator’s president and CEO Patrik Hofbauer. He also highlighted the stability of the operator’s mobile revenues and the entire Enterprise division in Sweden, where “revenues are stable after a period of strong growth in larger customer projects.” However, Telia reported a decline in copper revenues and modest growth in its broadband portfolio. It also reported mid-single-digit growth in service revenues in Lithuania, while revenues from its Estonian operations improved slightly. Telia reported “less satisfactory” results in Finland, where the company is facing headwinds from legacy services and where it is simplifying its operations by phasing out low-margin, non-core services. Norway is also seeing a slowdown in growth after what Hofbauer described as “strong growth” last year. He added that the company aims to improve its operational efficiency and speed of execution by simplifying and streamlining its operations. read more.

Strengthen Mobilea retail wireless service provider owned by EchoStarupdated its branding to lure customers away from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. In the statement, Dish (which merged with EchoStar earlier this year) announced that Boost’s prepaid and postpaid plans will now be offered under the Boost Mobile umbrella. The company also unveiled new simplified pricing and unlimited data plans starting at $25 per month and said its portfolio allows customers to access “more towers than any other carrier, offering coverage in 99% of the country.” According to the provider, Boost Mobile also has “unique cloud-based Open RAN 5G network technology” that can deliver “fast 5G speeds and the latest network technology.”

– TelecomTV Employees