What’s up with… Telefónica, Orange, KKR, TIM

• Telefónica takes a hit, sells unit, unveils Digital Deal
• Orange weathers Covid-19 storm
• KKR bids for a chunk of TIM’s access network

Three major European telcos -- Telefónica, Orange and TIM – are making the biggest waves in today’s news pool.

• Telefónica, which has 337 million customers across its European and Latin American markets, felt the full force of the Covid-19 pandemic in the second quarter of the year, as reported revenues dipped by 14.8% to €10.34 billion compared with a year ago and its operating profit plummeted by more than 25%.  See its second quarter reports for more details.
• The Spanish giant also announced today the sale of its Costa Rica operations to Liberty Latin America for €425 million. Telefónica announced late last year that it would focus on its core markets in the future.
• And there’s more… Following the announcement of the Spanish government’s Spain Digital 2025 strategy, which involves a mix of public and private investments to boost connectivity and cybersecurity, Telefónica has unveiled its Digital Deal, a pledge to achieve 100% fibre coverage in Spain by 2025 and “be a leader in the implementation of 5G technology.” We’d expect nothing less.
• Orange also announced its second quarter financial results today but fared much better than its Spanish neighbour, reporting revenues roughly in line with a year ago at €10.38 billion and little change in its outlook for the full year. 
• Private equity giant KKR has reportedly made a binding offer of €1.8 billion for a 38% stake in the fixed access network of TIM (Telecom Italia), reports Reuters. KKR began talks with TIM in March, with industry observers linking the move to the potential unification of the access networks run by TIM and Open Fiber. 
• The TIP OpenRAN 5G NR project group has started a new R&D group focused on RAN Intelligence and Automation (RIA). Open RAN is one of the hottest topics in the market right now, but there are lots of technology, economic and operational hurdles to overcome before it can start to attract serious operator investments. (See Vodafone, Dell’Oro add fuel to the open RAN fire.)
• Harmonic is pumped that its virtualized access tech is being used by Vodafone Germany to take high-speed cable broadband services to millions of German homes.
• Axiata is to deploy Ericsson’s cloud packet core and NFVi technology in East Indonesia.

- The staff, TelecomTV