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March 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Poland to auction off 5G frequencies by April 23
Poland will hold an auction for 5G mobile data frequencies by April 23, the country’s telecom regulator UKE said.
The auction will cover four nationwide frequency licenses in the 3.6 GHz band. Each booking will include an 80 MHz block and will be valid until the end of June 2035, UKE said in a statement.
The starting price of each license is PLN450mn (€104.2mn), the regulator also said.
The auction winners will be obliged to launch a minimum of 700 base stations using the allocated frequencies by the end of 2025, resulting in at least 2,800 5G stations across Poland by that time.
Earlier this year, Warsaw-listed Polish media and communications company Cyfrowy Polsat said that it would build a commercial 5G mobile data network in seven big Polish cities throughout the first quarter.
Russian Magnit retailer starts digital transformation
Russian retailer Magnit launched a Digital Transformation programme, putting the internal operations on SAP-powered software, the company said on February 26, aiming to ensure stable growth and increase shareholder value.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Magnit has been struggling to catch up with the market leader
X5 Retail Group, which is focusing on digital innovation. Magnit has also seen a top manager exodus after CEO Olga Naumova quit the company last year.
Now the company will test new digital solutions, which could increase performance by improving stores, customer offering and business processes. Magnit expects that the impact from the program will reach billions of rubles over several years and
the full rollout could take up to three years.
Magnit, reported 2019 IFRS revenue growth
of 11% year on year, in line with consensus expectations, but missed its own official Ebitda margin guidance at 6.2%. The company’s Ebitda missed expectations by 15% and declined by 12% y/y. Magnit’s bottom line dropped by 52% y/y.
BlaBlaCar stops offering its services in Crimea to avoid EU sanctions
BlaBlaCar, the carpooling giant born in France, has stopped offering its services in Crimea, where it had been operating since 2014. The decision aims to avoid being targeted by the EU sanctions against firms operating on the peninsula, according to company representatives cited by local news website Crimea.Info.
Since Russia took control of Crimea, a Ukrainian territory, in the spring of 2014, both countries have been claiming sovereignty over the peninsula. The EU, the USA and a range of other countries have seen Russia’s move an illegal annexation.
Crimean politicians blasted BlaBlaCar’s latest decision. “BlaBlaCar has lost its chance because of their short-sightedness. Crimea is one of
the most popular travel destinations,” Aleksey Chernyak, head of the local parliament’s tourism committee told the Russian media, as reported by The Moscow Times.
BlaBlaCar entered the Russian and Ukrainian markets in January 2014 – just weeks before Russia took control of Crimea – through the acquisition of Ukrainian site Podorozhniki. Activity in Russia quickly reached a phenomenal level as this country became the company’s largest market, ahead of France. In 2018, BlaBlaCar asserted its leadership in Russia even more strongly with the acquisition of BeepCar,
a competing carpooling service run by Mail.Ru Group.