Eurobites: UK Gives Huawei the Nod on 'Non-Core' 5G Network Elements

News Analysis Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe 4/24/2019

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Virgin Media CEO Mockridge departs; Tele2 earnings up, revenue down; Telia lands smart-meter deal; 5G live at Glastonbury.

The UK's National Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May, has given the go-ahead for Huawei to play a part in the building of "non-core" parts of Britain's new 5G network, the Daily Telegraph reports (paywall applies). It's a decision that could well raise the hackles of the US government, which has been clocking up air miles trying to persuade European countries that opening the doors to Huawei equates to allowing the Chinese state to spy on your communications infrastructure. (See US Won't Work With Countries That Use Huawei, Pompeo Warns, Ban Huawei in UK, Urges 'Influential' Think Tank, Eurobites: Germany Holds Door Open for Huawei, It's No Huawei or No Intelligence, US Warns Germany – Report and Where Huawei Fears to Tread.)

Lutz Schüler, the current COO of Virgin Media, is to take over as the UK cable operator's CEO, replacing Tom Mockridge, who is leaving the company to "base himself again in Italy with his family," according to a Liberty Global statement. (Liberty Global owns Virgin Media.) Schüler joined Virgin Media in September 2018, after eight years running Liberty Global's operations in Germany.

Nordic operator Tele2 recorded year-on-year organic growth of 8% in first-quarter EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), on revenue that fell 1% to 7.2 billion Swedish kronor (US$768 million). During the quarter, Com Hem, the Swedish cable operator that Tele2 acquired in 2018, launched its mobile arm on Tele2's network. (See Com Hem Mines & Analyzes Data to Boost Business Metrics.)

Still in the Nordics, Telia has signed a deal with ONE Nordic to connect around 900,000 electricity meters for Swedish electricity distributor Ellevio. Under the terms of the ten-year deal, ONE Nordic will use Telia's narrowband Internet of Thing (NB-IoT) network to connect meters across large geographic areas. Telia says the deal is its largest NB-IoT deal to date.

Yesterday Virgin Media announced it was integrating the Amazon Prime Video app into its TV platform: Today it's the turn of UK broadband provider TalkTalk to follow suit. Live Premier League soccer arrives on Amazon Prime in August, so deep-pocketed soccer nuts, if so minded, will be able to watch every Premier League game of the 2019/2020 season -- whether covered by Amazon Prime, Sky Sports or BT Sport -- through their TalkTalk set-top box.

If Stormzy, The Cure and The Killers just aren't cutting the mustard on the main stage, visitors to the Glastonbury music festival in June this year will be able to amuse themselves by trying out the 5G-powered WiFi. EE, the BT-owned mobile operator, will be installing five temporary masts across the festival site in Somerset to add to the existing permanent network, broadcasting 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G for the first time. In 2017, 54 terabytes of mobile data was used over the festival weekend by Glastonbury-goers sharing photos and videos when they should have been living in the present and just enjoying the damn music!!!! Sorry, I don't know what came over me there.

Struggling to Get a Signal

Come rain or shine, hundreds of thousands of music fans will be demanding decent mobile data connectivity at the Glastonbury music festival in June.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading