Reporting its first-quarter results, Dutch incumbent KPN has put the cat amongst the pigeons by cutting its forecast for 2011, from €5.5 billion (US$8 billion) to €5.3 billion ($7.7 billion) in EBITDA terms, and announcing plans to reduce its workforce by up to 25 percent. New CEO Eelco Blok is the man wielding the axe, in the face of a sluggish domestic market and growing competition. (See KPN Cuts 2011 Forecast, Plans Job Losses and KPN Makes Blok Head.)
Not many reasons to be cheerful at France Telecom subsidiary Telekomunikacja Polska SA either, which revealed in its first-quarter earnings call that net income was down by 34 percent year-on-year in a familiar tale of dwindling fixed-line business. (See TPSA Reports Q1 and TPSA Reports 2010.)
The Daily Telegraphreports that U.K. incumbent BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) and ISP TalkTalk have lost their legal challenge to the Digital Economy Act, which will essentially force British ISPs to identify those users they suspect of illegally downloading content. And just to compound TalkTalk's pain, a survey by regulator the Ofcom has fingered the ISP as the most complained-about broadband and landline provider. Three UK , meanwhile, was the most complained-about mobile operator. Congratulations to one and all. (See Ofcom Reveals UK's Least Favorite Telcos and Euronews: March 23.)
British retail behemoth Tesco has bought Blinkbox, a video streaming service, reports the BBC. The site gives subscribers online access to more than 9,000 movies and TV series. Apparently, the retailer wants to "link physical purchase of a product to the building of digital collections in a new and seamless way." You can work that one out.