Vodafone will remove Huawei equipment from the core of its mobile networks across Europe. Following the release of its quarterly financial report, Nick Read, Vodafone's Chief Executive, said the cost of deactivating the Huawei gear will amount to EUR 200 million over 5 years. The company's UK operations are already compliant with the government's recently imposed 35% cap of infrastructure sourced from "high-risk vendors."
For the quarter ended 31-December-2019, Vodafone Group revenue increased by €0.8 billion to €11.8 billion, reflecting the contribution from the acquired Liberty Global assets,
partially offset by the disposal of Vodafone New Zealand and foreign exchange headwinds of €0.1 billion. Group organic service revenue increased by 0.8%* (Q2: 0.7%).
Vodafone Group Plc will spin off most of its European tower infrastructure into a new, fully independent "TowerCo" company.
TowerCo, which will be operational by May 2020, will comprise 61,700 towers in 10 markets with potential proportionate EBITDA of around EUR 900 million.
Vodafone has recently announced active and passive network sharing agreements in Italy, Spain and the UK.
Vodafone said it believes that there is significant scope to generate operational efficiencies and increase tenancy ratios across the portfolio by creating an independent company. Based on market benchmarks for anchor tenant lease rates, existing third party revenues and the attributable cost base, TowerCo could generate proportionate annual revenue and EBITDA of around €1,700 million and €900 million, respectively. TowerCo’s attributable annual maintenance and expansion capex could be up to €200 million.
A future IPO for the new organization is a possibility.
NTT Ltd.’s global data center portfolio ranks as the third-largest data center platform in the world, with over 160 data centers spanning more than 20 countries and regions.
"Our strong fiscal first quarter financial performance reflects a significant inflection point for Qualcomm as we begin to realize the benefits from the ramp of 5G,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of QualcommIncorporated.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated a proposal to his fellow commissioners that would provide new opportunities for unlicensed white space devices for wireless broadband services in rural areas. Specifically, Chairman Pai is proposing to permit higher transmit power and higher antennas for fixed white space devices in rural areas. If adopted, these changes would allow white space devices to reach users at greater distances, thus enabling improved broadband coverage. Higher power would also enable signals to better penetrate foliage, buildings, and other obstacles. Additionally, his proposal would permit higher power mobile operations within geo-fenced areas and proposes rule revisions to facilitate the development of new and innovative narrowband Internet of Things-based services. The FCC will vote on the proposal on February 28th.
"Verizon's products and services have benefited from patented technology that Huawei developed over many years of research and development," said Dr. Song Liuping, Huawei's Chief Legal Officer.
In addition, Carrier will use AWS data warehouse, analytics, and machine learning (ML) services to identify efficiencies in its manufacturing processes and supply chains, and AWS Internet of Things (IoT) services to underpin a new line of intelligent, networked products and services for the home, workplace, and refrigerated logistics chain.
GAAP loss from operations of $93.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared with GAAP loss from operations of $44.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2018.
