Telefonica: Smart Energy Solution

The evolution of the Internet Of Things (IoT) and the rise in industrial automation are helping provide Smart Energy Solutions that can be applied to our everyday lives and industry.

Telefonica has launched a Smart Energy Solution for companies which aims to yield a deep understanding of energy usage in any building or location and to give advice of the actions to be taken.



The smart solution allows the remote and centralised measurement, control and management of high energy consumption equipment in any installation. The service especially focuses on high consumption points such as air conditioning, heating and lighting, providing control of a whole building or set of buildings.  Here is an example:

Some benefits of such a smart energy solution:

• Lower energy consumption and bill, by providing valuable information on critical points of consumption and possible improvements.
• Improved efficiency and obtain operational improvements by managing your energy infrastructure.
• Make better investment decisions based on data (return on investment).
• Centralised access to energy consumption informtion from all the infrastructures
• Reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
• Improved energy operations due to a better knowledge of the functioning status of the facilities.
• Adapt the use of energy facilities to business needs by remote management and control of the equipment.
• Optimise the performance of the facilities by automating operations.

This service is geared to customers that have high energy consumption, especially three sectors; Industry, utilities and services (e.g. banking, hotels, retail, shopping centres). The service provides every required tool for building managers to lower energy consumption and achieve savings.

Millicom targets Leadership Position in Central America with acquisition of Telefónica Subsidiaries

Millicom announced last week that it has closed the acquisition of Telefonía Celular de Nicaragua, S.A., the number one mobile operator in the country, adding to its existing cable operation of TIGO Nicaragua. This is the first transaction to close since Millicom announced in February an agreement to acquire three subsidiaries of Telefónica in Central America in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Telefonía Celular de Nicaragua, S.A. adds approximately 4 million mobile customers to TIGO with a 4G network accessible to 51% of the population in Nicaragua. The transaction accelerates the execution of Millicom’s fixed-mobile convergence strategy, it helps consolidate the company’s leadership position in Central America, and it diversifies and balances the geographic footprint of the company in its mission to build digital highways that connect more users and develop communities throughout the region.

For people who are not aware, Central America consists of 7 countries, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Of these, Millicom is present in 5 of them with their brand Tigo.

This transaction in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua will allow Millicom to accelerate its Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) strategy.

In Panama, after the acquisition:

• #1 mobile operator in a four-player market with 1.6 million customers
• 4G network covers 74% of population
• Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA CAGRs of approximately 4% and 7%, respectively, in 2015-2018, in US dollar terms
• 2018 revenue of $223 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $90 million, resulting in a margin near 41%
• Dollarized economy and investment grade country increasing Millicom’s US dollar revenue sources

In Costa Rica, after the acquisition:

• #2 mobile operator in a three-player market with 2.4 million customers
• 4G network covers 85% of population
• Revenue CAGR of approximately 13% in 2015-2018, in US dollar terms, drove much faster EBITDA growth over the period
• 2018 revenue of $253 million and EBITDA of $60 million, resulting in a margin near 24%

In Nicaragua, after the acquisition:

• #1 mobile operator in a two-player market with 4.7 million customers
• 4G network covers 51% of the population
• Revenue has declined at a 2.5% CAGR in US dollar terms in 2015-2018, due in part to a weaker currency and to slower overall economic activity
• 2018 revenue of $232 million, nearly 50% of which are denominated in US dollars, and Adjusted EBITDA of $92 million, resulting in a margin near 40%

Finally, with regards to Spectrum the three countries:

Reasonable amount of spectrum is available for existing 3G & 4G services. Our assumption is that these will increase with arrival of 5G in these countries.

Source.

World's largest mobile networks by subscriber numbers - Jan 2019

Here is a list of top 10 mobile networks by subscribers. The list is very dynamic as some operators grow while others shrink. The best example of operator that has been growing rapidly, overtaking others is Reliance Jio.

1. China Mobile, China, 925 million [1]

2. Vodafone Group, UK, 536 million [6]
Note: Vodafone Idea, India has 422 million subscribers [2]

3. Bharti Airtel Group, India, 413 million [4]
Note: Airtel India has 329 million subscribers [3]

4. China Unicom, Hong Kong, 315 million [1]

5. China Telecom, China, 303 million [1]

6. Reliance Jio, India, 280 million [6]

7. América Móvil Group, Mexico, 279 million [5]

8. Telefónica Group, Spain, 272 million [7]

9. MTN Group, South Africa, 221 million [9]

10. Veon Group, Netherlands, 211 million [8]
10. Orange Group, France, 211 million [10]*

* = added later

[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/china-telecom-narrows-subs-gap-to-unicom/
[2] https://discover.vodafone.in/about-us/home?section=consumer
[3] https://www.airtel.in/about-bharti/equity
[4] https://www.airtel.in/about-bharti/about-bharti-airtel?icid=footer
[5] http://q4live.s22.clientfiles.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/604986553/files/doc_financials/quarterly/2018/3Q18.pdf
[6] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/jio-profit-surges-on-continued-subs-gains/
[7] https://www.telefonica.com/en/web/shareholders-investors/financial_reports
[8] https://veon.com/Global/Files/Reports/3Q18/Q3%202018-Full%20announcement.pdf
[9] https://www.mtn.com/MTN%20Service%20Detail%20Quarterly%20Quarterly%20Trading%20Upd/MTN_Q12018_Results.pdf
[10] https://rai2017.orange.com/orange2017-content/uploads/2018/05/orag_1802135_ra_150x210_gb_mel.pdf

Telefónica's AI based assistant, Aura, is serving more than 1.5 million customers per month in Brazil

In an earlier post, I talked about Telefónica's launch of Aura at MWC 2018. Aura is an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant that is designed to transform the way customers interact with Telefónica and manage their digital life with the company. They first release of Aura was made available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Aura is available on customer devices via a mobile application and also via other third-party channels including Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

Anyone interested in details of Aura can check out the official page here.

In a recent news by Vivo (brand of Telefónica) Brazil, Aura is already serving more than 1.5 million customers per month. Accroding to the press release (translated via Google translate):

About to complete its first year of life, Aura, artificial intelligence of Vivo, already serves more than 1.5 million customers per month, responding in a personalized way on services, data consumption, account, recharge, among other questions of the subscribers. And since its launch in February 2018, Aura has already made approximately 20 million calls. 

The Aura retention rate is higher than 80%, that is, eight out of 10 customers are satisfied with the response given by Aura and do not need other information. Aura is available in different service channels, among them Facebook Messenger, My Vivo Mobile, Meu Vivo Fixo and Meu Vivo Empresas, and the Vivo site, among others.

Since the end of 2018, Aura also serves the call center - hourly, in a pilot project in a DDD of the State of São Paulo. And, to further improve the quality of service provided by Aura, Vivo inaugurated its Bots Training Center last year. The new area looks at whether Aura correctly understands customer doubts and generates inputs to correct and train the bot, and assess whether Aura's response really clarifies the customer's question, thereby ensuring continuous improvement of the customer experience. users. 

There is also an official YouTube video demonstrating Aura but it doesn't say much. There is an unofficial one that demonstrates how Aura works.


Just a matter of time before majority of customer services are handled by bots and AI assistants.

Big Data & Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Deutschland

Telefonica Deutschland, a.k.a. O2 Germany is Germany's largest mobile operator. As in case of many other advanced mobile operators, its looking at how to exploit Big Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve end-user QoE.

Telefonica's 3G coverage is close to 90% while the LTE coverage is over 80%.

Advanced Data Analytics  can be applied to big data with the intention of monetizing it. As can be seen in the picture above:

• Transport analytics can be applied to develop insights into human journeys to support customer decision-making (e.g. for traffic optimisation). This data can be useful to Transport companies, cities, out-of-home media, etc.
• Retail analytics can be used to better understand consumer behaviour in store and out of store to improve customer journeys. This data can be retail shops, operators of branch networks, etc.

At MWC 2018, Telefónica launched Aura, an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant that will transform the way customers interact with Telefónica and manage their digital life with the company. They first release of Aura was made available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Aura will be delivered to customer devices via a mobile application, but also via other third-party channels including Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

The intention of AI powered assistant is to increase customer benefits and reduce costs.

The end goal for Telefónica Deutschland is to become Mobile Customer & Digital champion. We wish them all the best!

Source: Telefónica Deutschland Capital Market Day 2018

Global Top 20 Telcos by Revenue

Source: Global 100 Total Telecom via Elena Neira

AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile and NTT have maintained their top four positions in 2017 while Softbank has slipped one place to let Deutsche Telekom become the fifth largest operator by revenue. Other top 20 players by revenue include Telefónica, Vodafone, China Telecom, América Móvil, Orange, Comcast, China Unicom, KDDI, British Telecom (BT), Charter, Altice, Telecom Italia, Telsta and KT

Related posts:

• APAC's 32 largest operators ranked by revenue

Spain's 5G Spectrum Auction Winners

Source: Elena Neira

The above picture summarises the total amount of spectrum holding by all Spanish mobile network operators. Movistar is a major telecommunications brand owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and in many Hispanic American countries. Yoigo, legally Xfera Móviles S.A., is the fourth largest mobile network operator in Spain, subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Grupo MásMóvil.

According to Mobile World Live:

Telefonica, Orange Spain and Vodafone Spain took the spoils in the country’s auction of 200 MHz in 5G-suitable frequencies, which netted authorities more than four times the original asking price.

Vodafone Spain won the largest allocation on offer, securing 90 MHz in the 3.7GHz band for €198 million. Telefonica paid €107 million for 50 MHz across the 3.6GHz-3.8GHz bands, while Orange Spain paid around €132 million for 60 MHz also across the frequency range offered.

Each operator will pay in annual installments, with the balance accruing interest each year. Including interest, spectrum reservation costs and other previously levied fees related to the auction, the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise said the treasury would earn €1.4 billion from the tender.

Spain’s other operator, MasMovil, competed in the auction but didn’t add any further 5G-suitable spectrum to the 80 MHz it obtained earlier this year from two separate deals.

The operator acquired 40 MHz from satellite company Eurona and then matched that allocation as part of its acquisition of B2B service provider Neutra Network.

The auction total surpassed the €100 million reserve price with ease and MasMovil and Telefonica were quick to note rivals had paid a greater sum for their allocations.

In a statement to Mobile World Live MasMovil said it had paid an average of €0.57 million per MHz, while the average in the auction was €2.2 million for the same amount.  

Telefonica said it “applied criteria of rationality in the auction that has allowed it to obtain the desired spectrum by paying the lowest price per MHz of all the bidders in it.”

All licences are valid for 20 years.

Analyst John Delaney notes that Spain's mobile operators paid €438 million for 200 MHz of 5G spectrum while in April, UK operators paid £1.15 billion for 150MHz.