Eurobites: KPN turns a corner in Q2

In its second-quarter figures Dutch incumbent operator KPN has returned to mobile service revenue growth in its consumer segment for the first time since Q1 2017, a turnaround that helped push mass-market service revenues up by 0.5% year-on-year. This partially offset lower service revenues from its business and consumer landline units. Overall, adjusted EBITDA al (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, after leasing) was up 0.6%, to €589 million. In the results statement, CEO Joost Farwerck assured stakeholders that the company was on track to reach its full-year outlook.

Deutsche Telekom’s IT services subsidiary, T-Systems, is extending its collaboration with Google Cloud in the hope that this combination will prove irresistible to companies and government institutions grappling with the ‘digitalization’ process. In terms of technologies, the focus will be on artificial intelligence and machine learning applications, while industry sectors being targeted will initially include healthcare, automotive and public transport.

French communications regulator Arcep has published its latest ‘Customer satisfaction observatory‘ and it makes happier reading for mobile operators than it does for the fixed broadband fellers. As with all these things, the scoring system is a little byzantine but, in a nutshell, mobile operators scored 7.7 on average while the fixed internet service providers could only muster 7.3. On fixed networks, 61% of respondents said they had had a problem with their ISP over the past 12 months, though those with fibre access reported fewer issues than those with an ADSL connection.

Telefónica Tech is getting positively promiscuous: yesterday the Spanish giant’s cybersecurity spin-off revealed a hook-up with Canadian video analytics outfit C2RO; today it’s the turn of CrowdStrike to fall into the Iberian embrace. Telefónica Tech plans to use the CrowdStrike Falcon platform to beef up its managed detection and response (MDR) offering as part of its NextDefense security offering.

UK broadband provider TalkTalk is to supply mesh Wi-Fi routers from Amazon-owned Eero to its full-fiber customers as standard. The Eero 6 comes with a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 system for homes with up to 500Mbps internet connections, while the Eero Pro 6 has a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 system, which supports up to 1Gbps internet connections. TalkTalk reckons it is the first UK ISP to offer Wi-Fi 6 router technology.

HMD Global, the Finnish company that confusingly sells smartphones bearing the Nokia brand, has brought out three new handsets. In no particular order, they are: the XR20, which can apparently survive anything that life can throw at it; the 6310, a “reimagined noughties classic”; and the C30, which comes with the “largest battery and biggest screen yet” on a Nokia smartphone. HMD Global has also done some sort of deal with Spotify, meaning that the irritating ad-supported version of the Swedish-owned music streaming service appears on the Nokia phones ‘out of the box’, saving users literally seconds downloading it off the Google Play app store.

The business arm of UK mobile operator O2 (which has recently merged with Virgin Media) has launched something it is calling a “new engagement programme”, which it claims will offer support to its partner companies, making it easier for them to work fruitfully with their O2 overlords.