Eurobites: ASML holds steady in Q2Eurobites: ASML holds steady in Q2

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT puffs up network cloud with Juniper tech; Telefónica tackles TV piracy with Nagra; Altice co-founder up in court.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

July 19, 2023

3 Min Read
Eurobites: ASML holds steady in Q2
(Source: Unsplash)
  • Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT puffs up network cloud with Juniper tech; Telefónica tackles TV piracy with Nagra; Altice co-founder up in court.

ASML, the Dutch company that holds the monopoly on an advanced form of the chip-etching technology known as extreme ultra-violet lithography (EUV), saw its results hold steady in the second quarter, despite the threat posed by government sanctions on exports to China. Net system sales rose to €5.6 billion (US$6.2 billion), up from €4.1 billion ($4.6 billion) in the same quarter a year ago, while gross profit rose from €2.6 billion ($2.9 billion) to €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion). Commenting on the results, Josep Bori, thematic research director at GlobalData, said in a research note: "ASML's Q2 2023 results were solid, and the company raised full-year guidance. However, investors may be less sanguine about weak bookings and the fact that the quarter was driven by legacy deep ultraviolet (DUV) machine shipments to China, which has been stockpiling ahead of further export bans, rather than advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machine shipments." (See ASML's China business endangered by US sanctions and ASML, an obscure Dutch firm, may be the most vital cog in tech.)

  • BT has turned to Juniper Networks to underpin its network cloud, the operator's shared platform for core applications that run its fixed and mobile services. Amongst other Juniper tech, the operator is using the vendor's SDN platform to automate the creation and management of its OpenStack-based cloud.

  • Telefónica has chosen software from Nagra, part of the Switzerland-based Kudelski Group, to help tackle piracy of its TV services in the LATAM region. According to Nagra, its software deploys AI-powered analytics to alert Telefónica to illicit patterns of activity.

  • More bafflingly, Telefónica has added three new products to its NFT Marketplace, its blockchain-based ragbag of digital assets (or non-fungible tokens) from different artists. So, new for July 2023 we have: a Van Gogh collection by Olyverse; a "collection with social commitment" by Alexis Diaz Pimienta, called "Décimas Vivas"; and "Outer Ring," described as a "blockchain metaverse video game." Eurobites is trying to keep up, but frankly we feel so much more at home with fiber and 5G.

  • Talking of which, Nordic operator Telia has announced that by the end of the second quarter it had achieved overall 5G population coverage of 84% across Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia – up from 77% at the end of Q1. Coverage is at its highest in Lithuania, where 99% of the population has access to Telia's 5G network – this despite the fact that Lithuania's commercial 5G spectrum auctions were only held in the fall of 2022.

  • The co-founder and former chief operating officer of French operator Altice is due in court today (Wednesday) after being arrested in Portugal as part of a probe into alleged corruption. As Bloomberg reports (paywall applies), Armando Pereira will give his testimony before a judge in Lisbon. Pereira co-founded Altice with Patrick Drahi and Bruno Moineville in 2002 but is no longer with the company.

  • Openreach, the semi-autonomous network access arm of BT, has launched a new OSA (optical spectrum access) product, OSA 100G Single, which offers symmetrical point-to-point Ethernet links at 100GE or alternatively ten separate channels at 10GE, at a starting wholesale price of £863 ($1,114) per month.

  • A report from consultancy EY reveals that in the first half of 2023 four profit warnings were issued by UK-listed telecom companies, while the media sector recorded six warnings. Overall, says EY, 66 profit warnings were issued by UK-listed companies in Q2 2023, the highest second-quarter number since 2020. Persistent inflation and rising interest rates are largely to blame, says EY.

  • Croatian operator Hrvatski Telekom has chosen Austria-based Beyond Now to upgrade its B2B business support systems (BSS). Hrvatski believes that Beyond Now's Infonova SaaS BSS will, among other benefits, allow it to launch new digital services more quickly.

    — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Read more about:

Europe

About the Author

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like