• Telefónica flatlines ahead of strategic review
• Rakuten Mobile creeps over the positive EBITDA line
• SK Group shuts the proverbial stable door

In today’s industry news roundup: Telefónica records only minor organic sales and earnings growth ahead of its strategic review; Japan’s Rakuten Mobile finally reports a quarter of positive EBITDA; SK Telecom’s parent company forms a special data protection committee, but the move is a bit late in the day; and much more!

Telefónica reported first-quarter revenues of €9.22bn on Wednesday morning, representing organic (like-for-like) growth of 1.3%, and “driven by the good performance of revenues from the B2C [business-to-consumer] (+5.4%) and B2B  [business-to-business] (+1.8%) businesses.” In reported terms, revenue fell by 2.9% due to the impact of comparative exchange rate fluctuations. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at just over €3bn, up by 0.6% on a like-for-like basis. In further bad news for the vendor community, Telefónica’s capital expenditure (capex) for the first three months of this year stood at just €938m, down 2.8% year on year and giving the telco a capex-to-sales ratio of just 10.1%, way below the average of 14% to 15%. Across all of its markets and services, Telefónica ended March with 353.5 million customers. In its key markets, Telefónica España recorded organic revenue and EBITDA growth of 1.7% to €3.17bn and 1% to €1.13bn, respectively, while Telefônica Brasil grew above inflation, both in revenues – up 6.2% (organic) to €2.34bn – and EBITDA, up 8% (organic) to €964m. However, Telefónica Germany saw its revenues decline by 2% to just over €2bn and its EBITDA also drop by 2% to €640m. The operator noted its “significant progress in the execution of its plan to reduce exposure to Hispam thanks to the two operations carried out in the first quarter, the sale of the business in Argentina and the agreement to sell the stake in Telefónica Colombia, which is still pending the relevant approvals for its definitive closing. Also, the company announced the divestment of Peru last April.” And just this week, speculation emerged that a buyer is now being sought for the telco’s operations in Chile. “The results for the first quarter meet our expectations… The group’s results will improve throughout the year, in line with our forecasts for 2025. During the second half of the year, we will present the conclusions of the strategic review we are conducting,” stated Emilio Gayo, who was appointed chief operating officer (COO) in early March as part of multiple personnel changes by CEO Marc Murta, who took the helm in January, ahead of his major review of the company’s operations and structure. The results didn’t meet the expectations of investors, though, and Telefónica’s share price dipped by 2% on the Madrid exchange to €4.32, giving it a market valuation of €24.15bn.  

Rakuten Mobile has achieved its first quarter of EBITDA profitability (excluding property taxes), “marking a positive start towards achieving full-year profitability in 2025,” the operator’s parent Rakuten Group announced as it reported its financials for the three months to the end of March. Rakuten Mobile generated revenues of 87.2bn yen ($597m), up 40.7% year on year, while EBITDA (excluding property tax) hit 102m yen ($698,000), a year-on-year improvement of more than 20bn yen ($137m). The operator ended March with 8.63 million mobile users (including MVNO customers).  

SK Group, the parent of South Korean operator SK Telecom, which has been making headlines of the wrong kind following its recent major data breach, has formed a special committee on data protection as part of its efforts to improve cybersecurity across its multiple group companies, reports the Yonhap News Agency. The special committee was formed under the Supex Council, SK Group’s top decision-making advisory body, to “proactively identify and block security risks and strengthen security capabilities of affiliates within the group”, according to SK Group, which will have representatives from energy firm SK Innovation, memory chip vendor SK Hynix and SK Telecom. But, as ever, the action is being taken in the wake of a cybersecurity disaster, one that is already costing SK Telecom hundreds of thousands of lost customers and, potentially, billions of dollars in lost revenues – it’s yet another case of shutting the security door after the cybercriminals have bolted (in this case, it seems, with a lot of customer data). What needs to happen? TelecomTV partner and telecom security expert Patrick Donegan has some observations and suggestions – see Telco SecOps learnings from the SK Telecom hack.

Private networks are rapidly gaining popularity with businesses as new regulatory requirements focusing on stricter data security and accountability spread their way around the world. A new forecast from Juniper Research finds that by 2030, more than 7,000 enterprises around the world are expected to have deployed private mobile networks, up from about 2,500 currently. That represents a pretty spectacular growth rate of 194% and, as a result, the value of the sector is expected to grow from $5.5bn in 2025 to $21.4bn in 2030. The growth is being driven by increasing demands for greatly enhanced control over data, better reliability and the robust ultra-low latency needed to enable real-time threat detection and immediate response. The research firm’s Global Private Cellular Networks Market 2025-2030 report shows that, currently, growth is driven by the manufacturing sector, mainly because of its well developed infrastructure and high levels of process infrastructure. Extrapolating such essential attributes out to five years, the report calculates that manufacturing will account for 49% of the private networks market by 2030. Other sectors, such as healthcare, while important, will account for considerably smaller market penetration because of the high costs and less developed infrastructure. It seems the key factor required to enable other sectors to deploy private networks is to adopt neutral host business models wherein a third-party leases indoor telecom network equipment to multiple communication service providers. Applying such a model to private networks would lower overall cost for both enterprises and mobile network operators (MNOs) whilst enabling businesses to access secure private networks and allowing MNOs to offer enhanced indoor connectivity to their customers. Michelle Joynson, the lead author of the Juniper Research study, states: “Neutral host models will not only lower the barrier to entry for many sectors, they will also accelerate the adoption of private 5G, which has been historically slow. Vendors must focus on providing seamless integration services, enabling rapid deployment and reduced costs.”

– The staff, TelecomTV