* British Telecom is rolling out its 5G next-generation wireless network in a number of locations in the U.K. on Oct. 11. BT customers in select areas will be able to experience speeds typically 100 Mbps to 150 Mbps faster than 4G connections. The initial 5G rollout will cover 20 towns and cities, London's The Sun reports, citing BT's announcement.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. closed the transaction that will enable the company to form an e-commerce joint venture in Russia. The joint venture involves Alibaba's AliExpress Russia business unit as well as internet company Mail.ru Group Ltd., mobile operator MegaFon OJSC and the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
* Equinix Inc. completed the more than $1.0 billion joint venture with Singaporean wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. that will develop and operate data center facilities in Europe. The partnership's initial facilities will comprise a site in Amsterdam, two sites each in London and Frankfurt, Germany, and one site in Paris.
* With U.S. subscriber numbers plateauing, Netflix Inc. is increasingly looking outside its home market for growth.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* European Union member states released a report assessing cybersecurity risks associated with the use of 5G networks across the regional bloc, according to a statement. The report did not mention China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The Chinese company said it welcomed the European Union strategy statement on 5G mobile networks, Reuters reports.
UK AND IRELAND
* BT launched a new range of products, services and initiatives as part of the company's ongoing transformation. The telco introduced a converged product called Halo as well as cloud services for businesses. It will also create a team of "home tech experts" for residential subscribers and specialist "tech experts" for small businesses, among other plans.
* BT CEO Philip Jansen called on Sky Ltd. and Virgin Media not to pursue their broadband tie-up, saying the deal would "beat up" the business of BT, London's The Daily Telegraph reports.
* Facebook Inc. said it does not earn from illegal or upsetting content posted on its platforms, adding that such content actually hurts its commercial revenues, Dublin's Irish Independent reports, quoting the tech giant's statement in an Irish parliamentary hearing.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* German classified portal Scout24 AG could expect a price of more than €2 billion for the sale of its car advertising unit AutoScout24 GmbH, Handelsblatt reports, citing sources. Some of the nonbinding purchase offers could reportedly range from €2 billion to €2.3 billion.
* Swiss sustainability rating agency INrate AG recommended that Sunrise Communications Group AG approve a capital increase to fund the acquisition of Liberty Global PLC unit UPC Schweiz. Sunrise shareholders will meet Oct. 23 to discuss the takeover.
* Axel Springer SE could be closing its offices in Hamburg as part of a savings plan, New Business reports, citing sources. The move would reportedly affect 80 to 100 employees.
* German media company Südwestdeutsche Medienholding GmbH announced a wide-ranging investment and restructuring program for its publications, including major German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten. The company plans to invest €100 million in digital offers over the next two years.
FRANCE
* Orange SA launched its new Livebox 5 decoder, which offers download speeds of up to 2 Gbps and upload speeds of up to 600 Mbps. The operator said the device's carbon footprint has been reduced by 29%.
* Orange announced a partnership with the Global Fund to develop m-health platforms to speed up action against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa using Orange's mobile technology. The services will initially launch in Morocco, to be followed in 2020 by Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burkina Faso.
* Lagardère SCA placed a €500 million, seven-year bond issue due to mature October 2026, with an annual coupon of 2.125%. The company said the bond issue will enable it to extend the average maturity of its debt and maintain liquidity.
* French telecom regulator ARCEP estimates there are about 1 million IPv4 addresses available to distribute, enough to last only until November, Challenges reports. When it was created, the IP address protocol was not designed to extend to so many connected objects.
NETHERLANDS,
* Telenet will begin discontinuing analog radio and television signals on its cable within 2020 to free up space for the "ever-increasing" digital traffic. The Belgian provider said a large portion of customers with analog television will only need to adjust television settings once to switch to digital TV.
* Former Electrabel Customer Solutions NV/SA boss Jean-Pierre Hansen, Aviapartner Board Chairman Laurent Levaux and former Ethias SA CEO Bernard Thiry will be presented as the new directors of Liège-based group Nethys SA d/b/a VOO during the company's general meeting on Oct. 11, Le Soir reports. The trio will reportedly be tasked to find additional directors for the company.
* Data analytics company Databricks Inc. is preparing to invest more than €100 million over the next three years to support its European expansion in Amsterdam.
* Belgian operator Proximus will increase monthly speed limits for fixed internet connections with "unlimited data volume" to 3 TB from the current 750 GB, Tweakers reports. The new rules apply to the Internet Maxi and Internet Comfort subscriptions.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Telia Co. AB introduced the first 5G devices and subscriptions in the Finnish market. Telia Finland will sell the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G and Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, as well as the Nokia 5G FastMile gateway and Huawei 5G CPE Pro router for mobile broadband customers. Meanwhile, the subscriptions will offer maximum speeds of 1,000 Mbps and 450 Mbps.
* Nokia Corp. said it has declared more than 2,000 5G patent families to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute since it made the first declaration in September 2018. The patent families are considered essential for the 5G standard.
* Nordic Entertainment Group AB is planning several redundancies in its Danish business, in line with an ongoing reorganization, Mediawatch reports. The group did not give specific figures. NENT earlier said up to 50 employees will be made redundant in its Norwegian operations.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* GED Iberian Private Equity GED Iberian Private Equity SA SGEIC agreed to sell its stake in Spanish telecom company Telecom Castilla-La Mancha SA to European infrastructure fund manager Equitix Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is expected to close upon receipt of antitrust clearance and other conditions.
* Spanish regional operator Euskaltel SA is planning to sell its fiber-to-the-home network assets, in a bid to finance expansion plans in Spain, Advanced Television reports. Workers at the Zegona Communications PLC-owned company, however, oppose the plan as it would reduce Euskaltel's infrastructure resources.
* Altice Portugal unit MEO will need to begin migrating digital TV frequencies for multiplex A on the third week of January 2020, under a new plan approved by Portugal's National Communications Authority, Advanced Television reports. The migration, which will cover mainland Portugal and the Azores and Madeira islands, will clear up the 700 MHz band that will be used for 5G services.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection approved ITI Neovision's proposed acquisition of a 70% stake in film distributor Kino Swiat, Telecompaper reports, citing Telepolis.pl. ITI Neovision owns satellite service Platforma Canal+, formerly nc+.
* Lawmakers supporting the Russian government proposed legislation that would require internet companies to ban email or online messaging users who circulate banned content, Reuters reports. Companies that do not comply would face a fine of 1 million Russian rubles.
FEATURED NEWS
Data Dispatch: Disney's aggressive moves with other streamers could lift all platforms: Walt Disney Co. is leaping into the competitive streaming business, barring Netflix ads and pulling its CEO from the board of Apple Inc., but analysts said much of the effort is posturing, and the hype could create more buzz for streaming TV in general.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Economics of TV & Film: Global Film Release Report – August 2019: The Global Film Release Report for August 2019 is now available.
Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, Charlotte van Hek and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.
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