What’s up with… Intel, Mellanox, FCC, Telefónica

• Intel’s fab first quarter
• Mellanox gives NVIDIA a present
• FCC’s 6GHz ruling a boost for Wi-Fi
• Telefónica linked to towers deal

Here’s what caught our eye on the wires today:

• Intel reported a 23% year-on-year leap in first quarter revenues, to $19.8 billion, a 69% increase in operating profit to $7 billion and a 42% leap in net profit to $5.7 billion, all of which was better than financial analysts had expected. The chip giant’s Data Center Group had a particularly good quarter, with sales up by 43% to $7 billion. While providing a financial forecast for the second quarter (expected revenues of $18.5 billion), Intel declined to provide full year guidance due to the “significant economic uncertainty.” The full financial details can be found in this press release. 

• Ethernet and InfiniBand components vendor Mellanox reported a stellar first quarter, with revenues up by 40% year-on-year to $429 million and operating income more than doubling to $102.3 million. The news will put a smile on the face of execs at NVIDIA, which has just received clearance to complete its Mellanox: The $6.9 billion deal is expected to close early next week. For more details, see this announcement. 

• The FCC, as we anticipated, has made the whole 6GHz band available for unlicensed use in the US. That means next generation Wi-Fi gets a major leg-up, but so too might LTE and 5G, the public-spectrum versions of which will also have access. However, there’s no doubt that the Wi-Fi community counts the FCC’s decision, which was opposed by US telco industry body the CTIA, as a major victory. Taken together with the considerable upswing in Wi-Fi usage experienced through the lockdown, it looks likely to set Wi-Fi up for a burst of growth. However, this is no overnight fix: Experts caution that it will still take some time for next gen Wi-Fi devices to be fitted out with appropriate antennas and speedy chipsets. 

• Telefónica is reported to be lining up a deal to sell its tower assets in Germany to Telxius for €1.5 billion, though it should be noted the telco giant is the majority owner (just over 50%) in Telxius, a joint venture it set up a few years ago with private equity fund KKR and Spanish investment fund Pontegadea. News of a potential deal comes on the heels of other European towers M&A action in Italy and the UK. 

• In France, Bouygues Telecom has teamed up with Vauban Infrastructure Partners to help co-finance the construction of fiber-to-the-home infrastructure in “moderately dense areas.” The partners are committing more than €1 billion during the next four years to the fiber line construction, which is being undertaken by Orange. For more details, see this announcement.

• China Telecom reported 16.6 million 5G customers as of 31 March, up from 4.6 million at the end of 2019. The operator has about 337 million mobile customers in total. The numbers were included in its first quarter financial report, which you can read in full here. 

• Industry analyst Patrick Donegan has highlighted the importance of two new open standards, STIX and TAXII 2.1, to security specialists that need to organize and share vital threat intelligence information. “Threat intelligence sharing is one of the aspects of cyber security that most needs improving,” notes Donegan in a new report that can be downloaded here.   

• The staff, TelecomTV

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