Spanish incumbent Telefonica announced a major restructure this week that will see its domestic business folded into its broader European operations and a new digital division formed. Meanwhile, Sprint turned up the heat on AT&T’s bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom’s US business, and Thailand got its first telecoms regulator in 14 years.

 

Telefonica won tentative thumbs up from analysts over its restructuring plans. Informa Telecoms & Media analyst Dario Talmesio said the decision to merge its domestic business into its Europe division makes sense, but should probably have happened sooner. While he is generally positive about the move, he notes the firm still faces risks in what is its biggest structural change since taking over O2.

 

The operator also revealed plans to launch a new London-headquartered digital business, tasked with identifying and pursuing new growth opportunities. The business will have regional outposts in Madrid, Sao Paulo and Silicon Valley, along with “strategic hubs” in Asia Pacific.

 

European rival Deutsche Telekom is unlikely to be announcing any similar restructuring in the form of the sale of its US business to AT&T, after Sprint filed a second lawsuit against the deal in as many weeks. The carrier claims the sale will leave it unable to compete against AT&T and Verizon, and will catapult the US market back to a 1980s style duopoly.

 

Conflicting operator interests are also a key concern for Thailand’s new National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) – a super regulator some 14 years in the making. In addition to addressing the competing interests of state-owned CAT and TOT and private operators DTAC, True and AI, the regulator must also steer the country towards an auction of spectrum in the 2.1GHz frequency.

 

UK counterpart Ofcom, meanwhile, was focusing on high definition (HD) TV services, inviting public service broadcasters to pitch for a fifth free-to-air HD license. Demand for the service certainly seems to be high, with 1.8 million HD-ready freeview set-top boxes sold since launching in May 2010.