A week in telecoms: Orange Business targets GenAI services

Orange Business targets GenAI services

Orange Business has launched a managed service to support GenAI projects for French enterprise customers covering the infrastructure layer (IaaS) and applications (SaaS).

The SaaS product, developed in partnership with GenAI specialist LightOn, is targeted at enterprises who want a service to handle document management, reporting, content generation, and more. 

The IaaS offer, or GPU as a service, is for customers that require complete control over a trusted infrastructure that can host all types of GenAI projects. Orange Business provides dedicated hardware resources (GPUs) on its Cloud Avenue platform, allowing businesses to deploy their own large language models.

These offers have been co-constructed with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which provides the hardware infrastructure with HPE GreenLake.

Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO of Orange Business, said the GenAI offers “mark an important step forward in our commitment to support customers in their digital transformation.”

“By collaborating with partners like LightOn, we aim to reinforce our commitment to data sovereignty. These solutions underline our company’s vision to provide differentiated and trusted solutions for diverse business needs, while continuing to be a trusted player in the AI industry,” she said.

Nvidia makes splash with AI and 6G

Nvidia launched a slew of new products at its annual developer conference, including the Nvidia 6G Research Cloud platform which it said will offer researchers “a comprehensive suite to advance AI for radio access network (RAN) technology.”

Ansys, Arm, ETH Zurich, Fujitsu, Keysight, Nokia, Northeastern University, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, SoftBank Corp. and Viavi are among its first adopters and ecosystem partners.

The move follows the launch at MWC of the AI-RAN Alliance with founders including Invidia as well as AWS, Arm, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, SoftBank and T-Mobile US.

The major announcement was its next-generation AI GPU microprocessor, the Blackwell platform that, the company claims, can manage some calculations and operations 30 times faster than its predecessor. According to the vendor, Blackwell features six transformative technologies for accelerated computing, which it said will help unlock breakthroughs in data processing, engineering simulation, electronic design automation, computer-aided drug design, quantum computing and generative AI — all seen as emerging industry opportunities for Nvidia.

Blackwell-based products will be available from partners starting later this year. According to Nvidia, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will be among the first cloud service providers to offer Blackwell-powered instances, as will Nvidia Cloud Partner program companies Applied Digital, CoreWeave, Crusoe, IBM Cloud and Lambda.

It further noted that sovereign AI clouds will also provide Blackwell-based cloud services and infrastructure, including Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Nebius, Nexgen Cloud, Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, the Oracle US, UK, and Australian Government Clouds, Scaleway, Singtel, Northern Data Group’s Taiga Cloud, Yotta Data Services’ Shakti Cloud and YTL Power International.

GSMA and European MNOs unveil new ‘manifesto’

The GSMA teamed up with a group of “leading European mobile operators” to present a new manifesto that broadly outlines some of the well-known challenges facing operators in the region. 

It calls for “critical policy reforms” to ensure that Europe’s digital economy, “underpinned by strong, sustained network innovation, can re-establish a leadership position in the global tech race by 2030.”

The report notes that in order to achieve the target of universal 5G coverage by 2030, systemic challenges need to be addressed, “including market fragmentation, regulatory hurdles, and investment barriers, which have stifled the European telecom sector’s growth and competitiveness.”

As remarked by Laszlo Toth, Head of Europe and CIS for the GSMA, the manifesto lays the groundwork for Europe to “reclaim its position as a global leader in digital technology and innovation and build the next-generation infrastructure needed by European citizens and businesses to succeed and thrive beyond 2030.”

Once again, a new approach to regulation is called for, a regular refrain at annual MWCs over the years. The report highlights the fragmented nature of the European market with its 27 member states, and 100 operators. 

Reliable and affordable access to spectrum also remains an ongoing concern, as well as the perceived regulatory imbalance between operators and the large tech players. 

You can read the manifesto here. 

Vodafone to sell Italian business to Swisscom for €8bn

Vodafone unveiled a major reorganization of the group after confirming an €8 billion deal to sell its Italian operations to Swisscom, which plans to merge the business with its Italian Fastweb unit to create a new converged fixed and mobile operator. 

The sale completes a trio of transactions pursued by Vodafone to divest or strengthen its underperforming operations in Italy, Spain and the UK. It has already agreed to sell Vodafone Spain to Zegona Communications and intends to merge Vodafone UK with Three UK. The Swisscom deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.

As of April 1, Vodafone will then implement a number of organizational and management changes. In future, it will comprise five business divisions: Germany; European Markets; Africa; Vodafone Business; and Vodafone Investments. 

Philippe Rogge is to step down from his position as CEO of Vodafone Germany and exit the group with effect from March 31. He will be succeeded by Vodafone Germany’s current head of consumer business, Marcel de Groot.

Vodafone UK CEO Ahmed Essam has been promoted to the role of CEO of European Markets, with responsibility for the UK as well as Albania, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania and Turkey. He also takes on the role of executive chairman at Vodafone Germany. Max Taylor, currently chief commercial officer at Vodafone UK, will replace Essam as the CEO of the UK operator. 

In addition, Serpil Timuray, currently CEO of Europe Cluster, has been appointed CEO of Vodafone Investments and will be responsible for Vantage Towers, Vodafone Ziggo, Vodafone Idea and TPG Telecom as well as partner markets.

Altice sells Altice Media; Telecom Italia may offload further assets 

Vodafone is not the only operator engaging in M&A: two other European telecoms groups with high levels of debt are continuing to offload assets in order to improve their balance sheets.

For instance, Altice Group announced it has agreed to sell its Altice Media division, including French news channel BFM TV and RMC radio, to France’s Saadé family as part of ongoing efforts to reduce its around $60 billion debt mountain.

Saadé’s shipping company CMA CGM and investment company Merit France are to buy 100% of the media business for €1.55 billion. 

Altice is also attempting to offload its Portugal telecoms unit. Recent reports suggest that Saudi-based operator stc has emerged as the highest bidder for Altice Portugal, which has been rocked by an ongoing probe into corruption allegations over procurement activities.

Altice owner and founder Patrick Drahi is hoping to fetch as much as €10 billion for the Portuguese business, although this is seen as rather an ambitious target.

According to reports, Drahi is now willing to put every part of Altice up for sale. Last November it sold a majority stake in its data center business to a Morgan Stanley infrastructure fund. Rumors also surfaced recently that Charter Communications, as well as possibly Comcast and T-Mobile US, are exploring a play for Altice USA.

Meanwhile, Telecom Italia (TIM), which is in the throes of selling its fixed-line grid to a KKR-led investor group, is eyeing the sale of other assets worth about €1 billion to further reduce debt. 

According to Bloomberg, which cited unidentified sources, the operator may dispose of its remaining stake in mobile tower operator Inwit, valued at about €300 million. TIM is already planning to sell its Sparkle subsea unit for an expected €600 million to €800 million.

Also noted…

Cisco has completed the $28bn acquisition of cybersecurity and observability specialist Splunk.

UAE-based Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), known as du, is set to enter the financial services market after winning licenses from the Central Bank of the UAE.

Virgin Media O2 (VM O2) has completed trials of a new ‘smart pole’ solution, harnessing 5G small cell infrastructure and “digital electricity” to boost UK mobile coverage.