VMO2’s fixed business faced significant pressure in Q3, with ARPU declining by 1% in spite of an in-contract price-increase boost, and there is evidence of competitive intensity worsening since then.

The completion of Telefónica’s strategic review provides some clarity on VMO2’s priorities, with ownership changes at VMO2 and a NetCo sale unlikely.

Uncertainty around timing of altnet M&A and other opportunities for VMO2 is creating a lull in its growth profile, but there is reason to believe that clarity on at least some fronts will emerge fairly soon.

The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) sets out the best practices to ensure the independence of Public Service Media providers (PSMs), though it is toothless. 

PSMs play a unique democracy-sustaining role in the digital age by providing the population with balanced news coverage, thus combatting misinformation.

The UK’s BBC is the blueprint for the EMFA and the comparison with Czechia and France demonstrates how political forces challenge independence.

Enders Analysis today published a major report on the digital music sector, as part of its long term commitment to independent music industry analysis and research.

The music industry’s extraordinary recovery and digital transformation over the past 15 years has resulted in the establishment of a dynamic and competitive sector that provides a broad range of services to labels and artists in distributing recorded music.

This report explains that digital technologies have profoundly changed the music industry, and that the emergence of a large number of digital-first service providers (ALSPs) in a crowded and dynamic marketplace provides artists and labels with a myriad of choices. Those choices exist through a wide spectrum of offerings from many suppliers to meet the diverse needs of artists, labels and end-consumers. From “pipes only” products that provide an easy and direct path to access the large network of digital service providers (DSPs), through to broader service offerings, with matching breadth of service fees. Our analysis of the market shows high levels of competition, as well as innovation, making it easy and routine for artists and labels to switch providers to meet their needs.

BT’s recent protests against the very high “government-inflicted” costs in the UK versus other countries likely relate to business rates, which are already sky-high by European standards and set to rise further.

The business rates reform has some worthy aims in providing some permanent relief for shops and pubs, but at the expense of discouraging much-needed investment in utilities and telecoms by dramatically inflating the cost.

Telecoms business rates also discourage investment by being hard-to-predict, and are distortive between competitors with dramatic differences in unit costs, with these issues partially addressable through valuation reform.

Europe experienced flat service revenue growth in Q2, with French trends worsening as SFR’s woes intensified.

There are signs of better pricing momentum in several markets, particularly in Italy and in Germany where O2 has softened its aggressiveness.

This, together with expected improved momentum in the UK, and a likely resolution in France, paints a more positive outlook—and will be particularly helpful for Vodafone’s German turnaround ambitions.

Service revenues were flat this quarter, pointing to strong underlying performance in spite of the drag from changing in-contract price increases and subscriber decline.

Traffic growth has picked up to 15% over the past couple of quarters, suggesting that at least some of the recent sharp slowdown was somewhat one-off in nature.

The outlook for revenue growth is positive, particularly thanks to BT/EE leading the way on ramping in-contract price increases, but there are also inherent risks in such moves.

Tech companies are approaching terminal velocity on capex, which will surpass a $500 billion annual run-rate in early 2026. Apple is out of position on AI; CEO Tim Cook has signalled a willingness to consider M&A yet also faces acute political strain in the US

Despite revenues surpassing $2 trillion in 2025, tech is in a fragile transition as most cloud growth is still not driven by gen AI—tariffs, uneven compute build-out and US economic impacts may deliver a bumpy landing in quarters ahead

European tech sovereignty is a mounting political issue, as the continent fights the White House on its regulatory red lines. The financial and cultural impacts of Europe’s lack of tech champions remain intractable

VMO2 had a solid Q2 in financial terms, with revenue growth dipping but not by as much as we had expected, and EBITDA growth improving thanks to strong cost control

Consumer fixed is however continuing to deteriorate under altnet pressure, countered by mobile performing better than expected, with continuing weak subscriber numbers across both

Meeting 2025 full year financial guidance is looking more likely after a robust H1, but the trajectory thereafter depends heavily on how the altnet sector develops, a factor over which VMO2 has limited control now that NetCo has been cancelled

Vodafone’s financials have begun what should be a steady improvement as this year progresses, leaving behind the TV regulatory hit and benefiting from the onboarding of 1&1.

Looking beyond one-offs, the core operational metrics are mixed but skewed to the positive. Vodafone has some tricky balancing to enact to deliver a return to sustainable growth.

EBITDA growth was solid in this quarter and is likely to remain so in the medium term, thanks in particular to VodafoneThree. More evidence of fundamental commercial delivery would strengthen hope of an enduring positive trajectory.

BT started its FY26 with robust financials. Revenue was slightly weak due to handsets and international, but EBITDA was slightly ahead of expectations, and operating metrics were strong.

The highlight was Openreach posting its lowest broadband line losses for over a year despite ongoing altnet pressure, and keeping revenue growth positive despite reduced inflationary price increases.

The altnet threat is still far from over, but it is encouraging that there are signs that it is beginning to wane as the sub-sector moves to a more rational wholesale model.