Aamir Ibrahimn (pictured), CEO of Pakistani operator Jazz, has revealed that the Veon-owned company is expanding its services into healthcare as part of its growth strategy.

Speaking to Developing Telecoms at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ibrahim highlighted how Jazz has evolved beyond traditional telecoms to establish itself as a technology company.

“We were a lot more intentional in 2023 in terms of redefining our purpose—from being a traditional telecom company to becoming a dynamic digital services provider,” said Ibrahim.

He noted that this shift mirrors the broader transformation of telecoms operators worldwide, which are increasingly positioning themselves as service providers rather than just mobile network operators (MNOs).

“The connectivity part of the business will always remain with us—we’re really proud of it, and it gives us a ticket to play the game,” he said.

The “game” Ibrahim refers to is Veon Group’s strategy of driving growth through digital services, with a goal of engaging consumers for “1,440 minutes per day” across its markets.

Betting on digital services

Two years ago, Jazz made three key strategic bets to expand its services. The first was investing in mobile financial services through JazzCash, its digital payments platform. The second focused on growing its digital content offerings, including streaming and insurance services. The third bet was on cloud and analytics technology, helping to enhance its digital capabilities.

Ibrahim considers these bets successful and is now doubling down by expanding into new sectors.

“Our priority for 2025 is to continue evolving this service-led model. We’ve had success in financial services and entertainment, and now we’re building out new segments in health and education,” he said.

Reshaping the business model

To facilitate this expansion, Jazz restructured its business model eight months ago, shifting from a “monolithic single company” into multiple specialised units. This includes its financial services arm, which now oversees Mobilink Microfinance Bank.

In December, Jazz also announced the sale of its tower business to Engro Corporation for US$563 million, providing funding to support its strategic shift.

Jazz has already made strides in insurance with the launch of its platform, FikrFree, which has sold around 3 million insurance policies and generates US$2 million in recurring monthly revenue.

Tackling Pakistan’s healthcare challenges

Jazz is taking aim at another potential vertical and that is the Pakistan’s overstretched healthcare sector.

Multiple barriers prevent people from accessing treatment. Ibrahim sees this as an opportunity for technology to bridge the gaps.

Jazz is developing an AI-powered healthcare app that will allow patients to describe their symptoms in voice or text, generating an automated transcript. This system aims to speed up the diagnosis process, taking inspiration from e-commerce platforms like Shopify.

“The interaction between the patient and our AI bot will be captured in voice, with a transcript produced, allowing for faster recommendations,” Ibrahim explained.

If a physical consultation is required, the platform will facilitate bookings, and Jazz will partner with pharmacies to ensure a seamless e-commerce experience for purchasing medicines.

“This is still in development, but this is the direction we’re heading in. Like many of our other products, we will learn as we go. We may end up with exactly what I’ve described, or we may refine our approach based on customer needs,” he added.

A ‘service company’, not a ‘Techco’

Despite its transition from a traditional telecoms player to a technology-driven company, Ibrahim is cautious about embracing the “techco” label, which has become an industry buzzword.

“We avoided calling ourselves a techco because we wanted to be more humble in our approach. Technology can sometimes alienate customers—there are concerns about data privacy, surveillance, and an arrogance that can come with technological sophistication.

“We want to be a service company—one that serves its customers with humility, passion, and dedication,” he concluded.

During MWC 25 Barcelona, Huawei held the Intelligent Operations Summit to bring together global carriers, industry partners, and industry organizations and discuss how carriers can upgrade their operations in the intelligent era, enabling new experiences and of course new growth.

Addressing the summit, Xun Su, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Dept, said: “In the next decade, operators will accelerate the intelligent operations process. By in-depth integration of digital twins and GenAI+Predictive AI, a new operations paradigm of ‘human + AI agent collaboration’ is built, and scenario-based value closure is implemented along the end user journey and carrier value stream.”

User Journey: Provides Rich Digital Intelligence Services and Improves E2E NPS Experience

Carriers are increasingly using AI to enhance their services, creating rich digital intelligence services to enhance their customers’ lives. In Africa, Huawei Mobile Money has benefited from AI integration, with customers now able to expand from mobile payments to other mobile financial services. By the end of FY 2024, Huawei Mobile Money  generated more than US$900 million in mobile finance revenue. At the same time, operators are using digital twins and AI technologies to reshape the end-to-end NPS journey. In the Asia Pacific region, Huawei helps customers implement multi-agent collaboration, streamline processes and data breakpoints between AICC and SmartCare, reduce the user complaint rate by 30%, and improve the service NPS. In China, Operator has worked with Huawei to build a leading N-NPS network. The detractor is reduced by 20% and the NPS is improved by 8%.

Value Stream Journey: Build « 3A » Best Cognitive Network to Monetize Differentiated Experiences

Using its pioneering network experience, Huawei has built a « 3A » experience-based network to ensure real-time service awareness, KPI/KQI achievable, and differentiated experience assurance.

Converged data and AI are used to accurately identify user profiles, helping carriers recommend appropriate packages to users at an opportune time through relevant channels. This represents a shift from only monetizing traffic to monetizing experience.

For value scenarios and services, the spatiotemporal digital twin is used to transform from best-effort to differentiated experience assurance. Huawei helps carriers build optimal delivery drivers  experience networks. In one quarter, 380,000 delivery drivers subscribed the package, and the revenue increases by 6%. Huawei uses the SRCON spatiotemporal digital twin technology to help operators build optimal live broadcast experience networks. The uplink rate experienced increases from 3 Mbit/s to over 5 Mbit/s.

Value stream journey: Upgrade the operations mode from cost center to value center

Richer service scenarios and more complex network architecture place higher requirements on network stability and operations. This means that the operations mode must be upgraded; its focus must shift from ‘people + tools’ to ‘people + AI agents’ to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Huawei has partnered with  a carrier to build the Digital Intelligence Operation Center (DIOC), which combines NOC, SOC, and NPM to reduce traffic loss by 8.4%. Huawei FME (field maintenance engineer) copilot helps onsite maintenance engineers reduce unnecessary site visits and improve the MTTR by 30%.

Xun Su called on operators to seize the opportunities presented by comprehensive intelligence, embracing human-agent collaboration, real-time data awareness, and high-quality CoT (Chain of Thought). Answering questions as a chatbot is no longer enough – operators must use intelligent operations to resolve these questions by completing tasks. However, there must also be collaboration between people and AI agents, real-time data awareness, and a high-quality chain of thought (CoT) corpus. This approach will help to resolve questions and tasks.

The CoT capability of  GenAI+ Predictive AI collaboration combines with the real-time simulation of digital twins to solve scenario-based problems and realize value closed-loop – i.e. creating value for operators. Operations should be service-oriented rather than network-oriented, and resolving issues relating to high-value services should be prioritized.

By implementing intelligent operations, telcos will be able to solve these scenario-based problems and realise closed-loop value, enabling new growth.

Contributed Article 

As 5G Advanced (5G-A) and AI continue to evolve, two industry players, Global Telecommunications Industry (GTI) and the GSMA, are taking big steps to advance their integration and commercialisation. At MWC Barcelona 2025, both companies introduced initiatives to foster innovation, strengthen industry collaborations, and explore new business opportunities in the 5G-A and AI ecosystem. With the launch of the GSMA Mobile AI Community Group and GTI’s 5G-A×AI 100 Commercial Campaign, these efforts reflect a growing focus on the role of AI-driven mobile networks in shaping the future of connectivity. 

The GSMA Mobile AI Community Group 

On the first day of MWC Barcelona , the GSMA and GTI, along with other industry leaders including China Mobile, du, Turkcell and Huawei, announced the creation of the GSMA Mobile AI Community Group at the Connect 5G Summit. The group will focus on two key areas: “Networks for AI” and “AI for Networks,” to boost 5G-A and AI integration across a wide range of industries. 

A large focus of the summit was 5G-A-driven business monetisation. GTI and the GSMA hosted discussions around the integration of 5G-A and AI technologies, with industry leaders highlighting how mobile AI can drive business monetisation opportunities. 

The summit explored applications such network slicing and Massive Internet of Things (MIoT), both of which rely heavily on AI and 5G-A to function at their full potential. A highlight was the appearance of humanoid and quadruped robots from Unitree Robotics, which provided a tangible example of how 5G-A and AI can be used in the real world. The robots, which are capable of performing complex tasks, demonstrate the potential of AI-driven mobile applications that could soon be commonplace both at home and the workplace. 

As the summit came to a close, twelve industry partners (GSMA, GTI, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, du UAE, LG U+, Turkcell, and Huawei, Leju Robot, Unitree Robotics, and Zhipu A) announced the establishment of GSMA Mobile AI Community Group. Together, the companies will explore more deeply into mobile AI applications, while also focussing on monetisation. In the future, the more partners and companies will be welcomed into the group. 

The 5G-A×AI 100 Commercial Campaign 

The following day, the GTI held a summit under the theme “5G-A×AI”. Here, GTI launched the 5G-A×AI 100 Commercial Campaign, a new initiative designed to accelerate the use of 5G-A (5G Advanced) and AI technologies. 

Established in 2011, the GTI is an international industry collaboration platform set up China Mobile, SoftBank, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, and T-Mobile (then Sprint). Its latest launch, in February 2023, aims to increase the global cooperation in developing 5G-A technologies, speed up the integration of digital, IT, and telecom sectors, and support 5G monetisation. It currently has 146 operator members and 266 industry partners. 

The campaign was announced in partnership with over 30 global companies including, GSMA, Turkcell Türkiye, Telefónica Spain, LG U+ South Korea, Salt Switzerland, HKT Hong Kong, Zain KSA, MTN, Unitree Robotics, Leju Robot, Zhipu AI, and Huawei.  

According to GTI, the initiative aims to “accelerate the integration and commercialisation of 5G-A and AI technologies, which will drive the mobile information industry forward and usher in a new era of digital intelligence and unparalleled user experience.” 

Importantly, the campaign has four key objectives: 

1. Unite 100 partners to advance the innovation of 5G-A and AI applications. 
2. Make 100 capability APIs publicly available, creating an ecosystem for collaboration and technology sharing. 
3. Launch of 100 benchmark projects that demonstrate the successful integration of 5G-A and AI.
4. Then, introduce these technologies to 100 cities worldwide, helping to drive digital transformation and value creation on a global scale.

The collaboration follows the launch of the 5G-A×AI Development Program by GTI in April last year, which encouraged partnerships and innovation between 5G-A and AI across technology, services, ecosystem development, and business models through open labs and collaborative efforts. The 2025 campaign emphasises a more concrete, large-scale push towards commercialisation. 

Huawei, as a member of both the programme and GTI, has played an active role in helping to improve the practical applications of 5G-A and AI. The company has been working with global partners on several initiatives, including intelligent O&M (operations and maintenance), network optimisation, intelligent energy saving, and the monetisation of user experiences.  

The power of industry collaboration 

The creation of the GSMA Mobile AI Community Group and the launch of the 5G-A×AI 100 Commercial Campaign once again highlight the vital role of partnerships in advancing 5G-A and AI integration. By bringing together operators, manufacturers, and AI experts, these partnerships are paving the way for the widespread adoption of 5G-A and AI, driving digital transformation across a huge variety of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing. And, as the technology continues to grow, the strength of these collaborations will become increasingly important. 

TIM Group’s global operator Sparkle and Al-Bawaba for Telecommunications and Informatics, a Libyan ISP provider offering a wide range of ICT solutions, say they have enhanced their commercial partnership to provide international connectivity services to and from Libya.

The agreement is based on a state-of-the-art fully redundant infrastructure, which relies on Al-Bawaba’s Libyan national backbone and on Sparkle’s international capacity for the provision of Ethernet MPLS connectivity services to corporate customers.

As a result, say the partners, Sparkle and Al-Bawaba will provide end-to-end solutions combined with value-added services and customer care, leveraging Sparkle’s portfolio and international presence and Al-Bawaba’s local support.

Barbara Sole, Head of Data Sales for Africa at Sparkle, explains: « By combining our global expertise and extensive submarine cable network with Al Bawaba’s strong local presence and market knowledge, we are committed to delivering enhanced connectivity solutions that will empower businesses across Libya. »

Established in 2012, Al-Bawaba specialises in data connectivity solutions for multinational enterprises, government entities, NGOs, incumbent telecom operators, ISPs, and mobile operators.

As a strategic partner of Sparkle, Al-Bawaba offers a robust and secure international network, leveraging protected international private leased circuit (IPLC), Ethernet-over-SDH (EoS), and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-capable submarine and terrestrial fibre infrastructure.

This is the latest big announcement in what appears to be a busy period for Sparkle. During MWC25, Sparkle and Turkcell signed a memorandum of understanding on a subsea cable solution connecting Izmir to Milan.

More recently, Sparkle, Gold Data and Liberty Networks, the partners behind MANTA, a new subsea cable system connecting Mexico and the USA with Central and Latin America, announced that SubCom had been chosen for the design, manufacture, and installation of the MANTA system.

News 

SoftBank has announced an agreement to acquire US based semiconductor design company Ampere Computing Holdings LLC for $6.5 billion

The deal, made through SoftBank subsidiary Silver Bands 6 Corp, highlights SoftBank’s growing interest in AI and energy-efficient computing technology. 

Ampere specialises in high-performance, energy-efficient computing solutions based on the ARM architecture. The acquisition is expected to strengthen SoftBank’s presence in AI computing, an area of increasing importance as demand for AI-driven data processing continues to grow. “The Transaction is aligned with SBG’s broader strategic vision and commitment to driving innovation in AI and compute,” the press release read. 

SoftBank’s Board of Directors has approved the deal, but it still requires regulatory clearance, including approval from US antitrust authorities and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).   

SoftBank expects the acquisition to close in the latter half of this year. Once finalised, Ampere will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank. 

Back in June last year, SoftBank was one of the founding companies of the Global Telco AI Alliance, along with Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, e& and Singtel. The joint venture was signed for telco AI development, with each company equally investing. 

The five companies have agreed to develop Large Language Models (LLMs) that are specifically designed to meet telco needs, in areas such as improving customer interactions via digital assistants and chatbots. The LLMs will be tailored to the needs of the five companies in their respective markets, allowing them to reach a combined customer base of around 1.3 billion people in 50 countries. 

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

Also in the news:
Google announces agreement to acquire Wiz for $32bn
How small moves ignite industry-wide change
Liberty Global in talks to acquire Vodafone’s stake in Dutch JV VodafoneZiggo 

A few items from around the world to keep up with: … [visit site to read more]

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement has announced an agreement with Microsoft and Core42, a G42 company specialising in sovereign cloud, AI infrastructure and digital services. G42 is an artificial intelligence development company based in Abu Dhabi.

The agreement, say the partners, will create a unified, high-performance sovereign cloud computing environment capable of processing more than 11 million daily digital interactions between Abu Dhabi government entities, citizens, residents and businesses.

The government’s ambition is to enable the world’s first fully AI-native government by 2027, one committed to three goals in particular: enhancing government services to be more efficient and accessible for citizens and residents; creating greater transparency and security for businesses and investors; and fostering a more resilient and innovative environment for the public sector workforce.

Abu Dhabi aims to automate 100% of its government processes, supported by US$3.54 billion investment in digital infrastructure through the Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025-2027.

This strategy will see over 200 AI-driven solutions deployed to improve public service delivery, boost operational productivity, and contribute to environmental sustainability.

In fact the government can already cite innovations such as TAMM 3.0, Abu Dhabi’s one-stop government services app, which has reduced the number of offline customer visits by 90% and made more than 73% of transactions instantaneous.

G42 was in the news recently when G42 and Thailand International Digital Business & Finance Centre (TIDC) announced a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing Thailand’s digital infrastructure, particularly in cloud technology and AI innovation.

We also reported in February that UAE-based telco e& had sold its 40% stake in another UAE company, Khazna Data Centres, to co-owner G42 for US$2.2 billion.

Partner Article 

As AI technology continues to mature, it is increasingly clear that the industrial sector is poised to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of integrated digital intelligence. From AI-powered robots to advanced real-time analytics and automation, the scale of the market opportunity is enormous; indeed, AVEVA’s Industrial Intelligence Index (III) Report 2024 saw 97% of manufacturing executives agree that industrial AI solutions will be required to remain competitive, with 74% prioritising investments in industrial intelligence solutions in the next 12 months. 

But despite this acknowledgement of the technology’s necessity, exactly how to incorporate industrial intelligence into daily operations remains a challenge for most industrial players. These companies not only have very specific needs when it comes to digital infrastructure and ICT architecture but are also typically working with a wide range of legacy systems that cannot be easily replaced without major disruption.  

At Huawei’s Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit, hosted this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Leo Chen, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of Enterprise Sales moved to address these pain points, presenting a framework for accelerating intelligent transformation across industries.  

The four pathways to intelligent industry 

Speaking on the keynote speech, Chen introduced four key areas that must be considered to rapidly advance industrial intelligence: “Firstly, we must deeply integrate technologies into industry scenarios and build a target ICT architecture for industrial intelligent transformation based on industry requirements, pain points, and development stages. Secondly, we need to build advanced, AI-oriented ICT infrastructure to support the exponential growth of AI workloads. Thirdly, we must develop high-performance AI products that seamlessly integrate with open-source models, enhance AI development toolchains, and collaborate with industry partners, enabling AI to shift from technical showmanship to broad, inclusive accessibility, accelerating transformation in industries like healthcare and education. And fourthly, we must train ICT talent in a more targeted manner.” 

Taken together, these four focus points will create a powerful foundation for success in industrial intelligence. 

Successes already on show with global partners 

The results of this four-pronged approach are already bearing fruit for Huawei, who demonstrated 83 global showcases across 71 key industrial scenarios at MWC, proving a valuable reference point for industrial companies just beginning their digital and intelligent transformation.  

More impressive, however, was the launch of 10 solutions co-developed with industry partners across different sectors. These solutions, based on Huawei’s Industrial Intelligence Reference Architecture released last year, provide a suite of technologies aimed at supporting these sectors on their digital transformation journey. 

For example, the launched Digital Training 2.0 Solution offers courses in 22 technical directions and project management globally, encompassing overseas training labs in 11 technical disciplines, such as AI, cloud computing, and big data. 

Additional solutions here cover some of the world’s largest industrial sectors, including the Inclusive Connectivity – Digital Village Solution (for public utilities), the Government Service Digitalization Solution (for public utilities), the Digital Training Solution (for education), Financial Data Center Resilience Solution (or finance industry), the Intelligent Distribution Solution 2.0 (for electric power companies), the Smart Railway Yard & Station Solution (for rail), the Intelligent Multi-level Port Operation Management Solution (for ports and shipping), and the Intelligent Chemical Solution (for manufacturing). 

Collaborate and grow 

At the heart of these solutions – and indeed Huawei’s philosophy throughout the Summit – was the close collaboration with industry partners, and this was clearly reflected. 

Speaking at the summit, Ciyong Zou, Deputy to the Director General and the Managing Director of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation), highlighted “the power of multi-stakeholder cooperation”.  

“Huawei has been instrumental in the AIM Global, playing a key role in accelerating the sustainable adoption of cutting-edge technologies,” he said. “These partnerships reinforce our shared belief that technology must serve humanity—not the other way around. As we look ahead, three principles must guide us: equity, sustainability, and collaboration. Equity ensures that digital transformation benefits all, sustainability ensures that technology contributes to a greener future, and collaboration ensures that no country, industry, or entrepreneur is left behind.” 

Other partners, including French retail technology company VusionGroup, echoed this sentiment. “At VusionGroup, we aim to help build a more sustainable future by digitising physical stores, as they play a pivotal role in this respect. By partnering with Huawei, we design innovations that serve this purpose, driving a greater impact for business and society,” said Guillaume Portier, the company’s EVP. 

Huawei will continue to work with a wider range of partners to expand its industrial solutions portfolio. As AI continues to shape industries such as energy, retail, transportation, and finance, Huawei’s focus on collaboration will help deliver tailored solutions that meet the evolving needs of these sectors. This ongoing commitment to working with diverse partners will play a key role in supporting the broader adoption of industrial intelligence. 

Four regional infrastructure deals from around the US to catch up with. … [visit site to read more]

Four interesting projects to catch up with, two in Europe and two in Latin America. … [visit site to read more]