BT agrees sale of Italian unit 


News 

BT is to sell its remaining stake in its Italian unit to local telco Retelit, the Financial Times has reported today 

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but the unit sold generated revenues of approximately €160 million in 2024. 

The “expansion will further strengthen Retelit’s coverage of the Italian corporate market, providing a more comprehensive suite of ICT infrastructure and services to support the innovation and the digital transformation of Italian enterprises,” said Retelit in a press release. 

Speaking to the Financial Times, Karen Egan, Head of telecoms at Enders Analysis, explained that the unit has been “quite a thorn in the side of BT over the years” and that Kirkby “will be very pleased to have a deal done to sell it”. 

BT CEO Allison Kirkby is focussing BT’s attention on the UK market in an attempt to cut costs. 

Last May, the company said it had hit its target to save £3 billion by 2025 a year early, with much of this total being driven by the company’s ongoing job cutting programme that will see 55,000 jobs eliminated by the end of the decade.   

Kirkby now says it will aim to repeat this, cutting a further £3 billion in costs by 2029.   

In addition, the latest UK budget posed new hurdles for BT. The government’s decision to hike employers’ National Insurance contributions could cost BT an additional £100 million annually. In response, CEO Allison Kirkby outlined several measures to mitigate this impact, including potentially passing costs on to mobile and broadband customers. She also said that cost-cutting initiatives through automation and AI would be accelerated. 

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Safaricom CEO pledges M-Pesa upgrade with zero downtime

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa has pledged to elevate the company’s mobile money platform, M-Pesa, into its next phase-emphasising the need for stronger cybersecurity and uninterrupted service.

Speaking about the upcoming M-Pesa 2.0, Ndegwa said the upgrade would be rolled out within the next 6 to 12 months, citing an urgent need to “keep ahead of the crooks” attempting to breach their systems.

He added that the upgrade would come with a major shift in reliability, claiming there would be zero downtime during deployment. In contrast, earlier versions of M-Pesa – such as those introduced in 2021 – often required full system outages, with customers unable to transact and banking partners forced to suspend services for several days due to tight integration with the platform.

Currently, downtime during updates averages around 10 minutes, but Safaricom aims to carry out future upgrades without taking the platform offline.

A central focus of the upcoming update will be cybersecurity resilience. Ndegwa explained that making M-Pesa safer “requires a lot of investment, as the core needs to be ring-fenced.” He also noted that Safaricom mobile sites typically have a backup site in place to minimise the impact of any unexpected outages. However, having backup infrastructure also introduces an additional entry point that must be defended against potential cyber threats, adding complexity to the company’s security strategy.

Safaricom currently invests US$300,000 annually in maintaining and updating M-Pesa, which had over 60 million users as of the company’s financial year ending 31 March 2024.

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du and Microsoft sign AE $2 billion hyperscaler deal 


News 

The facility will be delivered in phases and is aimed at meeting rising demand for AI, cloud, and digital services in the region 

UAE operator du has unveiled plans for a new hyperscale data centre worth AED 2 billion ($544.54 million) with Microsoft confirmed as the lead tenant at AI week in Dubai. 

“This marks a significant investment in digital infrastructure, reinforcing Dubai’s leadership in adopting the latest technologies, innovations, and digital services,” said the Crown Prince of Dubai in a LinkedIn post. 

“This deal represents a pivotal leap in our strategic goal to revolutionise the digital ecosystem of the UAE,” echoed Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du. 

As lead tenant, Microsoft is expected to occupy a significant share of capacity to support its Azure cloud platform, helping to anchor the project and attract other enterprise customers. 

du already operates five data centres across the UAE and said the new site will provide more capacity for businesses looking to scale cloud operations locally, while meeting requirements around digital sovereignty, ensuring that data is stored and managed in line with national laws and regulatory frameworks. 

The announcement reflects a wider push in the Gulf to invest in data infrastructure, as governments and enterprises ramp up efforts around AI, cloud and sustainability. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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Virgin Media O2 to continue 3G switch off in Norwich, Telford, Guildford and Torquay
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Amazon reassesses data centre expansion 


News 

The shift comes as cloud providers face growing investor scrutiny over AI-related infrastructure spend 

Amazon Web Services (AWS), is reassessing its approach to data centre leasing, with a particular focus on international markets, according to analysts at Wells Fargo.  

The report suggests AWS has paused some leasing discussions, indicating a short-term slowdown in large-scale infrastructure expansion. Rather than cancelling existing agreements, the move appears to reflect a reassessment of recently secured capacity, as AWS looks to align its growth with projected demand over the next two years. 

“It does appear like the hyperscalers (big cloud companies) are being more discerning with leasing large clusters of power, and tightening up pre-lease windows for capacity that (would) be delivered before the end of 2026,” Wells Fargo analysts noted. 

This comes on the heels of Microsoft’s decision to shelve data centre projects totalling 2 gigawatts across the US and Europe, citing oversupply concerns based on revised demand forecasts. 

“It looks like hyperscalers are becoming more selective when leasing large power clusters and are shortening pre-lease windows for capacity expected before the end of 2026,” Wells Fargo noted. 

AWS has downplayed the move. “This is routine capacity management,” said Kevin Miller, Vice President of AWS Global Data Centers, in a LinkedIn post.  

He addressed speculation around AWS’s data centre plans, stating that demand for both generative AI and core workloads remains strong. He noted that the company regularly evaluates multiple infrastructure options to meet customer needs efficiently. He confirmed there have been no fundamental changes to AWS’s expansion strategy. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to our newsletter 

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A Northern Ren-AI-ssance

MTN leaves Afghanistan, hands over to M1 Group

Service provider MTN has officially concluded its operations in Afghanistan, transferring its stake to the Beirut-based M1 Group. The company will now operate under the brand name ATOMA.

At a formal handover ceremony, Najibullah Haqqani, the Taliban’s Minister of Telecommunications and Technology, announced that MTN’s shares had been acquired by M1 Group for an undisclosed multi-million-dollar sum.

In November 2022 we reported that MTN Group had named Lebanon’s M1 New Ventures as the buyer of its Afghan unit. At the time news outlets suggested that M1 was set to acquire MTN Afghanistan for US$35 million.

MTN, which began operations in Afghanistan in 2007, held a 40% share of the market and was the country’s largest mobile operator.

MTN’s strategic decision aligns with its long-term goal to concentrate on African markets. MTN first announced plans to exit the Middle East in August 2020. Indeed this exit follows announcements of planned withdrawals by MTN from Syria in August 2021 and Yemen soon after. MTN’s only remaining presence in the region is a 49% stake in Irancell, its joint venture in Iran.

At the ceremony Haqqani called on ATOMA to deliver high-quality services, honour its licence obligations, and prioritise consumer rights. Hashim Ramazan, the newly appointed CEO of ATOMA, pledged to modernise the company’s network infrastructure, improve 4G services, and provide reliable, high-quality voice and internet connectivity across the country.

Despite the rebranding, ATOMA has assured customers that services will continue uninterrupted, with a focus on improving user experience and expanding coverage in rural areas.

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Synthetiko: Pioneering the Next Generation of Web Behavior Analytics


Startup stories

Introducing Synthetiko

Picture a platform that transforms the way enterprises view and act on customer behavior, one that gives them the power to train and own their own deep learning models for web analytics. That’s exactly what we do at Synthetiko. We enable businesses to dive beneath the surface of traditional dashboards and spreadsheets to uncover granular, real-time insights about how users navigate digital experiences. The ability to quickly identify and respond to user behavior can be the difference between leading the market and falling behind.

It matters now more than ever because budgets are tight, teams are being asked to do more with fewer resources, competition is fierce: A single bad user experience can push customers toward a competitor, and user behaviors change rapidly. Without real-time analytics, organisations are perpetually playing catch-up.

Synthetiko is here to bridge those gaps—helping enterprises achieve speed, agility, and deep understanding in their digital strategy.

The Spark That Drove Us Forward

Our story begins with firsthand experience. While consulting for large enterprises like Vodafone, Pernod Ricard, The AA, and NatWest, we repeatedly witnessed a glaring challenge: teams were drowning in data but struggling to interpret it in a way that led to clear, actionable insights. Traditional web analytics solutions offered dashboards of numbers and percentages but left the “why” behind user actions unanswered.

This constant bottleneck of manual effort and slow iteration became our inspiration. If businesses could quickly reconstruct every step of a user’s online journey, seeing exactly where they paused, clicked, or abandoned, imagine how effectively they could optimise digital experiences.

The Journey So Far

Building a deep learning ecosystem capable of capturing and analysing real-time user behavior was no small feat. Our earliest challenge was designing a neural network architecture that could handle the sheer volume of granular data generated by high-traffic enterprise websites. Many existing tools were built to deliver summary metrics—like bounce rates and time on site—but few could dissect a user journey down to the micro-interactions in real time.

Despite these complexities, we launched our 1.0 Analytics Neural Network for alpha partners, and the results have been remarkable:

Reduced analysis time: What once took days or weeks to interpret can now be understood within minutes.

Increased conversion opportunities: Our partners can isolate the exact moments where users lose interest or encounter friction, then optimise accordingly, often leading to immediate improvements in key performance metrics.

Stronger collaboration: Departments from marketing to engineering can finally work off the same, detailed data, speeding up the overall decision-making process.

Witnessing how this technology cuts down weeks of data sifting into a near-instant view of customer behavior is a testament to our central belief: real-time, AI-driven insights can be a game-changer for any enterprise serious about digital growth.

Future Vision

In the coming year, our ambition is to expand the scope and capability of Synthetiko in several ways with a Flagship Optimisation Model

We’re on track to launch our v1 Optimisation Model, which will go beyond identifying behavior trends. It will proactively recommend which site improvements or content changes have the highest potential to boost conversion and engagement, well before a human analyst would even suspect an issue.

Ultimately, we see a future where enterprises own an evolving intelligence layer—one that not only optimises their own user experiences but could even be licensed out, helping them generate new revenue streams from their proprietary models.

Excitement for Connected North

With all this momentum, Connected North is the perfect platform for us to share our vision. We’re eager to:

Demonstrate our technology in front of an audience ready to embrace AI-driven solutions.

Engage with forward-thinking enterprises that see the value in deep, immediate insights into user behavior.

Connect with potential investors who recognise the long-term scalability of owning a proprietary AI analytics engine.

We believe Connected North is a unique opportunity to showcase what’s next in web analytics—an approach that’s agile, granular, and truly data-driven. By telling our story and sharing our real-world results, we hope to spark meaningful conversations about the transformative power of deep learning in customer experience and digital strategy.

5G launch still on hold in Ghana

Sam George, Ghana’s Minister Of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, is widely reported to have set what is described as a firm deadline of June 2025 for the Next Generation Infrastructure Company (NGIC) to launch 5G services in the West African country. But will it be met?

Ghana’s government announced in August 2023 that it did not plan to auction 5G spectrum but would establish NGIC, a « neutral shared infrastructure company », to deliver nationwide 4G and 5G services.

In November 2024, NGIC announced its readiness to collaborate with operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to launch 5G services. It apparently claimed  that operators MTN Ghana, Airtel Ghana and Telecel would roll out the services to their customers before the end of 2024 in the cities of Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.  

However, the rollout deadlines have been repeatedly postponed. In January 2025 we reported that Sam George’s predecessor, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said that deploying 5G services depended on operators purchasing the necessary capacity and providing it to their customers. This does not appear to have happened.

A May deadline to deliver 5G services is not going to be met. Sam George has said that if a new deadline of June 2025 is missed, renegotiations will be on the table. At the moment NGIC has an exclusive right to offer 5G services in Ghana for a decade.

It’s hard to tell why this has happened. While operators may have been slow to sign up, there don’t appear to be a lot of sites available yet. News services say NGIC boasts 16 5G-ready cell sites, with its core network successfully inspected by the National Communications Authority (NCA). However, according to George, NGIC has promised 350 cell sites by June this year, 50 of them 5G-capable, with 200-250 sites focused on Accra and 100-150 sites in Kumasi.

Even if this target is met, 5G demand is not guaranteed. Many sources quote market research company Omdia, which estimates that 8.2 million of MTN Ghana’s 29 million subscribers were on 4G at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 but only 445,000 subscribers of Telecel Ghana’s almost 6.5 million subscribers were on 4G in the same period. Many other subscribers are still using 3G.

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Are We Overestimating the Power of AI?

Are We Overestimating the Power of AI?

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Jamie Dobson, founder of Container Solutions and author of ‘The Cloud Native Attitude’

While the telecoms sector can’t know when it will need to deal with curve balls such as the next pandemic, one thing is sure – new technology needs to be watched closely. AI is never far from the headlines, triggering both concern and excitement; some fear for the future of the human workforce while others see a bright future where we’re all prompt engineers. But are we getting caught up in the hype, or are we failing to see the bigger picture? … [visit site to read more]

Partnership aims to boost digital payment landscape in Vietnam

Payment and connectivity services company IDEMIA Secure Transactions (IST) and National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) have announced a strategic partnership to boost the digital payment landscape in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese domestic scheme will integrate IST’s Token Platform into its extensive network reaching over 40 banks, and empowering the Vietnamese payment community with a more streamlined and user-friendly payment experience. With its newly acquired digital capabilities, says IST, NAPAS will be able to meet the rising demand from the Vietnamese population for contactless and digital payments.

IST points out that a large portion of Vietnam’s population is under 35 years old and possesses multiple smartphones. As more consumers in this demographic pivot towards digital services, there is, says IST, a critical need for modern, secure, and convenient payment options that align with their expectations across the Asia Pacific region.

The IST Token Platform empowers payment networks to seamlessly transition their affiliated issuers to digital payment solutions. It securely replaces sensitive card information with a unique identifier, or token, that can be used for transactions without exposing actual card details.

The agnostic Token Platform caters to a wide range of use cases, including mobile NFC payments, in-app purchases, and remote and peer-to-peer transactions. IST’s solution can be easily integrated through a set of APIs, facilitating communication with various stakeholders in the digital payment ecosystem: token requestors (merchants using card-on-file methods), global xPay wallets, and participating issuers.

Through this partnership, says IST, NAPAS will be able to offer in-store payments via smartphone, using the bank’s mobile wallet for Android smartphones and Apple Pay for iOS devices. Furthermore, the Vietnamese community will be able to make e-commerce purchases using in-app payments.

IST adds that this new, modern way to pay eliminates the need for QR codes or cash, boosting contactless payments and making the experience more convenient and secure for end-users.

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