Eurobites: Telenor and friends soup up 5G SA network slicing

UK converged operator Virgin Media O2 says it's on course to meet its full-year guidance after a first quarter that saw transaction-adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) rise 2% year-over-year, to £950 million (US$1.2 billion), on revenues that were up 3.9%, to £2.6 billion ($3.2 billion). On the Virgin Media fixed-line side, customers rose 20,900 in Q1 to reach 5.8 million, while on the O2 mobile front, total connections surged by 296,000 in the quarter, hitting 44.9 million. CEO Lutz Schüler described it as a "solid performance," adding that it "laid the groundwork for further progress through the remainder of the year."

Italian tower company Inwit is doing well, its first-quarter EBITDA rising 13.6% year-over-year, to €213.8 million ($234 million), on revenues that climbed 12.8%, to €233.6 million ($255.7 million). Inwit now lays claim to 23,300 tower sites, 2.2% up on this time last year. There were approximately 1,080 new hostings recorded, most of them from anchor customers Telecom Italia (TIM) and Vodafone.

Saudi operator STC has notched up its highest quarterly revenues ever, reaching 18.18 billion riyal ($4.84 billion), an increase of 7.45% on the corresponding quarter last year. EBITDA, meanwhile, inched up 0.68%, to SAR6.34 billion ($1.69 billion). During the quarter, STC's towers subsidiary, Tawal, agreed a €1.22 billion ($325 million) deal to acquire United Group's tower assets in Europe.

It's Pannick stations at Activision Blizzard – City A.M. reports that the computer games maker has hired the former lawyer of deposed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Lord Pannick, to represent its interests at a Competition Appeal Tribunal, after the UK's competition watchdog said no to Microsoft's proposed takeover of the gaming giant on the grounds that the proposed $68.7 billion monster-deal would reinforce Microsoft's advantage in the cloud gaming market by giving it control over blockbuster titles such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading