1&1:5G Infrastracture: Difference between revisions

==1&1 5G Partners==

Telefonica is one of the Gernan's four MNOs. It had a revenue of 8.224 billion euros in 2022<ref>https://www.telefonica.de/investor-relations-en/publications/financial-publications.html</ref>. The network operator currently has more than 99% 4G/LTE coverage across Germany. Additionally, its 5G currently covers more than 80% of German population. It plans to achieve nationwide 5G coverage by 2025. Its 4G/LTE customers enjoy network speeds of up to 225 Mbit/s<ref>https://www.telefonica.de/network/mobile-network/network-coverage.html#:~:text=Telef%C3%B3nica%20Deutschland%20offers%204G%2FLTE,up%20to%20225%20Mbit%2Fs.</ref>.

Vantage Towers is Europe's largest tower company. It constructs, builds and rents out mobile towers or sites. Vantage Towers was formed in 2019 by Vodafone with the aim of using it to rent out its European mobile masts. It has operations in 10 markets in Europe and has around 82,000 sites.<ref>https://www.forex.com/en/market-analysis/latest-research/vantage-towers-ipo-background/</ref> In the year ended March 2022, it generated a profit of €251 million before tax and had gross assets of €10.5 billion.<ref>https://www.vodafone.com/news/corporate-and-financial/vodafone-enters-co-control-partnership-gip-and-kkr-vantage-towers</ref> Vantage Towers was IPOed in March 2021 at €12.1 billion euros valuation and an offer price of 24 euros. Its headquarters is in Düsseldorf, Germany. Vodafone has 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers. However, there is a joint venture deal that will see transfer of 40% of its stake to a Consortium by the first half of 2023. The deal will see Vantage Towers becomes less dependant on Vodafone, hence accelerating its growth potential.<ref>https://www.vodafone.com/news/corporate-and-financial/vodafone-enters-co-control-partnership-gip-and-kkr-vantage-towers</ref>

On September 16 2022, 1&1 announced that it was not going to meet its obligation of 1,000 5G antenna sites by 2022 due to supply bottlenecks experienced by its major partner(Vantage Towers). Vantage Towers was supposed to provide around two-thirds of the 1,000 antenna sites by the end of 2022. 1&1 added that its other partners were performing as expected and that the delay was not expected to affect the planned launch of its 5G network in 2023. Additionally, the delay was not going to affect the fulfillment of its 50% network coverage by 2025. 1&1 hoped to close the gap with its other partners. However, the 1,000 5G sites was not going to be reached untill Summer 2023.<ref>http://88.217.133.43/link.php?isin=DE0005545503&typ=corporate&von=19970101&a=10&sprache=en&id=1654697</ref>

[[File:Rakuten Mobile.png|thumb|590x590px|https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/]]

Rakuten is a Japanese multinational company with operations in more than 30 countries and regions. It has over 28,000 employees and operates more than 70 businesses which span retail, financial services, mobile carrier services, fintech, security, etc. In the financial year 2022, Rakuten achieved a revenue of 1.9 trillion yen, representing 14.6% year-on-year growth. It also recorded 39 million active users or growth of 11.2% year-on-year in Japan alone. However despite its massive revenue and size, the group continues to record operating losses, driven mainly by ongoing investments in the mobile division, which also still struggles to attract clients. In the year ended 2022, the group recorded operating losses of 325.6 billion yen, representing year-on-year growth of 44.71%. The good news is that the operating losses in Rakuten Mobile continues to contract sequentially after peaking in Q1 2022. In Q4 2022, Rakuten Mobile operating losses declined by 5.33% to $ 114.43 billion yen from $120.869 billion in Q3 2022. Rakuten Mobile also keeps seeing substantial growth in revenue. In Q4 2022, its revenue grew by 75.2% year-on-year to $114,430 million. The division now has 52,003 4G base stations, with 15% of  base stations left to be constructed. It aims to achieve 99%+ coverage before the end of 2023<ref name=":0">https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/</ref>.  

So far, the partnership between 1&1 and Rakuten is going on well as 1&1 CEO Ralph Dommermuth said during Q2 2022 earnings call, " Maybe I can start with our cooperation with Rakuten, which is going on very well. And I stated yesterday in a Supervisory Board Meeting, if it continued as is, that will be perfect. We really have the best possible partner there. And I and the whole team, are enthusiastic about it. Of course, it has to remain as as is now over the years, but what we've seen so far is really pleasing. Now concerning performance optimization, we didn't take a lot of time there. The test began in July, the friendly user test did. And I'd say we're three weeks into it now. And at the beginning, of course, we didn't have the values we have now. But within 2 to 3 weeks, the desired values did show and hasn't been a problem for us so far."<ref>https://quartr.com/companies/11-ag_12498</ref> Dommermuth's words were echoed by Azita Arvani, Rakuten's CEO of North America who noted that the test results are impressive<ref>https://www.investmentwiki.org/wiki/Assessment_of_Open_Ran#:~:text=Given%20that%20it,%5B37%5D.</ref>.

America Tower Corporation(ATC) is one of the leading real estate investment trusts in the world. It owns and operates wireless and broadcast communications infrastracture in 6 continents. It has over 220, 000 communications sites in 25 countries. In Germany a lone, it has around 15,000 communications sites<ref name=":1">http://88.217.133.43/link.php?isin=DE0005545503&typ=corporate&von=19970101&a=10&sprache=en&id=1557041</ref>. Its revenue in 2022 was $10.711 billion while its AFFO was $4.517 billion<ref>https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230223005434/en/American-Tower-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2022-Financial-Results</ref>.