Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom raises outlook on strength of Q2 numbers

Deutsche Telekom has revised its guidance upwards on the back of its second-quarter results, predicting full-year EBITDAal (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, after leases) of €41.0 billion (US$45.2 billion), up from the previous guidance of €40.9 billion ($45.0 billion). Adjusted group EBITDA was up 1.3% year-over-year, at €11.62 billion ($12.8 billion), though net revenue fell 2.4%, at €27.22 billion ($29.9 billion). Within Germany, mobile customers grew 2.9%, to 57.69 million, 24.39 million of them postpaid, while across the rest of its European footprint the group's mobile customer total grew by 2.4%, to 47.58 million, of which 26.75 million were postpaid. CEO Tim Höttges' verdict? "Our businesses are developing well, despite complex market environments. This is underscored by our organic growth rates for service revenues, earnings, and free cash flow."

BT and Ericsson have successfully demonstrated the transmission of 5G services in a wideband FDD (frequency division duplex) radio carrier within a sub-3GHz spectrum band in what they say is a European first. The trial, says BT, demonstrated the benefits of configuring a wide carrier bandwidth of 50MHz (50MHz downlink + 50MHz uplink) in EE's 2.6GHz band and performing downlink aggregation with two TDD (time division duplex) carriers in EE's 3.5GHz band. The trial was carried out on BT's live network using existing Ericsson commercial hardware in combination with MediaTek Dimensity powered handsets.

There's more fancy 5G footwork at Nokia, which has showcased a live 360-degree video broadcast powered by the vendor's 5G uplink carrier aggregation technology. The broadcast, which centered on the future of the metaverse and 360-degree video's place within it, took place on TPG Telecom's commercial 5G network, and drew on MediaTek's 5G mobile chipset technology.

A UK government minister has been defending proposals in the controversial Online Safety Bill which would compel messaging apps to access the content of encrypted private messages if asked to so by communications regulator Ofcom. As the BBC reports, Michelle Donelan said: "I, like you, want my privacy because I don't want people reading my private messages … However we do know that on some of these platforms, they are hotbeds sometimes for child abuse and sexual exploitation." The government hopes that the Online Safety Bill will ultimately protect children from potentially harmful online material posted on social media and elsewhere. (See Eurobites: UK's Online Safety Bill reaches lawmakers.)

The European Commission says it will closely analyze the executive order signed by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, which prohibits UK investments in technology areas deemed sensitive from a national security viewpoint, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. As Reuters reports, the Commission said it looked forward to "close cooperation on this topic."