Vodafone Europe’s revenue growth declined again, as it underperformed a weak market, with pricing pressures still suppressing growth despite recovering macroeconomic conditions

Project Spring is a limited step in the right direction, with European mobile network investment only £3bn out of the £7bn total, but the potential network outcome – 4G coverage better than 2G is now – is impressive

Improving regulatory and economic conditions will give a limited boost in the short term, and the network investment will take years not months to pay off, leaving a long wait before sustainable improvement is seen

Following its return to revenue growth, France’s sole cable operator has merged with its B2B sister Completel and was floated on the Paris Bourse on 8 November

Numericable wants to cling to the momentum behind the European cable sector – but, due to its limited scale in a mature market, it has lower growth potential than its peers

Guidance given to investors for modest revenue and profit increases is credible, but Numericable faces the strategic challenge of Orange’s fibre upgrade which, in our view, calls for a partnership with a bigger altnet

The Vivendi empire is shrinking in revenues, cash flow and also in debt: Activision Blizzard and Maroc Télécom were sold in 2013, SFR will be spun off

We expect SFR’s topline revenue decline to halt in H1 2014, ending the pain from the disruptive launch of Free Mobile in 2012. With SFR and Bouygues Telecom intending to conclude a network-sharing agreement outside urban areas by the end of 2013, SFR should have a more positive story to tell investors when it comes to the Paris stock market in late 2014

With SFR spun off, Vivendi 3.0 will own just Canal+, Universal Music Group (UMG) and GVT (telecoms operator in Brazil), three companies without visible synergies. The end point appears to be the full dissolution of the Vivendi conglomerate

BT has doubled the price of the live ECL/EEL rights to £900m in order to outbid Sky and ITV and become the sole owner from 2015/16 to 2017/18 BT can easily absorb these extra costs through cost savings in other parts of its business, but the direct revenue returns through subscription charges and advertising on BT Sport are expected to fall far below the annual rights payments of £300m BT’s Euro victory is not a game changer in itself, but eyes are now firmly fixed on the next auction in about 18 months time of live PL rights, which could prove to be an inflationary bloodbath for all market participants

Virgin Media had a very solid quarter, with cable households returning to growth, cable revenue up 4%, underlying group revenue up 2%, and underlying OCF up 3% despite extra content costs weighing

Subscriber net adds were not as strong as last year, when DSL competitors were weakened by supply constraints, but there is little sign of a substantial impact from BT Sport or TalkTalk and BT’s YouView-based TV offerings

BT’s foray into sport has however had an effect on profitability, as it has with BT itself and Sky, with Virgin Media’s premium content costs rising from both BT and Sky

BT’s subscriber and revenue results continued to show strong progress, with its consumer business gathering momentum even excluding the direct impact of BT Sport

BT Sport had a discernible impact, but this was modest given the spend levels involved. However, the negative impact will only improve from this point, with BT sounding cautious about bidding for new rights

Fibre growth has at last started to accelerate at BT’s competitors, with the potential wholesale revenue from this truly game-changing for BT

Amid ongoing speculation that AT&T will make a bid for Vodafone post its Verizon Wireless divestment, in this note we consider the validity of AT&T’s hypothesis that there is "a huge opportunity for somebody" to repeat the US experience of heavy capital investment coupled with firm pricing in Europe

EE’s 4G base continued to accelerate, with 8% of its contract subscribers now on a 4G plan less than a year after launch, and it should accelerate further with the launch of cheaper 4G handsets allowing much lower entry price points from next month

However, the market remains weak, with EE’s underlying growth still negative, and any benefits of 4G being more-than-countered by accelerating weakness in overage and prepay revenues

Firmer price increases are needed for full market repair, but these appear more evasive than ever with Ofcom’s recent decision severely restricting the scope for mid-contract adjustments

2014 will be a tough year for Sky as it strives to improve the connectivity across its base while facing the challenge of BT in premium sports. 2014 has started well in terms of product growth and BT Sport has had no discernible impact on Sky broadband take-up and little, if any, impact on acquisition and retention discounts offered to new and existing Sky customers. With eyes focused on the impending auction of European Champions League pay-TV rights, we think BT has every incentive to push the price up, but not actually to win them.

Apple’s two new iPhones both secure its grip on the high end (for now) and extend a cautious toe into (slightly) cheaper waters. They will not deliver a step change in global sales growth, but should deliver solid performance

9m unit sales at launch are impressive, but 200m updates to iOS 7 (double last year’s figure) point to the continuing strength of Apple’s ecosystem and its ability to deploy innovative new features

We continue to believe there is room in Apple’s portfolio for a $350-$450 phone without weakening Apple’s quality of experience or brand positioning, but this is clearly now off the agenda for another year