News

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea argue there is no need for separate licencing process for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) spectrum

India’s mobile operators are this week clashing with technology and automotive groups over the handling of the wireless spectrum crucial to delivering V2X services.

V2X technology – encompassing the wireless exchange of real-time data with other vehicles (V2V), road infrastructure (V2I), pedestrians (V2P), and mobile networks (V2N) – is expected to have a major impact on road safety, but its technical deployment is contentious.

Last month the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) initiated a consultation on a new V2X framework, hoping to create an environment supporting the rapid rollout of V2X technology. The regulators proposal includes the allocation of 30 MHz of 5.9GHz-band spectrum for initial Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) deployments, with an additional 20 MHz reserved for future Intelligent Transportation Systems.

This week, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing mobile operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, has submitted a response to the consultation, arguing that the spectrum should be auctioned commercially, like traditional mobile spectrum, rather than specially allocated.

The operators broadly claim that the V2X services of the future will fundamentally rely on 4G and 5G, and so should be treated as typical mobile spectrum under the “same service, same rules” principle.

They also claim that the creation of a separate authorisation would result in the needless duplication of telecoms infrastructure, a process which is both expensive and inefficient.

However, this view runs contrary to those held by organisations like the Broadband India Forum (BIF) and the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), which argue that V2X technology is primarily focussed on public safety and thus warrants being allocated on a shared, non-exclusive basis. This, they claim, will allow for a faster rollout of the technology in key areas.

Indeed, the Indian government is highly motivated to clear the way for V2X’s deployment as soon as possible. India’s roads are some of the most dangerous in the world, seeing the equivalent of roughly one death every three minutes in 2023.

As TRAI weighs the competing arguments, the outcome of the consultation will help determine not only how V2X services are deployed, but also who captures value from the emerging connected mobility ecosystem. With operators pushing for a commercial spectrum model and automotive and technology stakeholders prioritising rapid, safety-driven deployment, regulators face a delicate balancing act between fostering innovation, ensuring efficient spectrum use, and addressing an urgent road safety challenge.

The decisions taken in the coming months will likely shape India’s intelligent transport landscape for years to come.

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Four bits of partnership news and one M&A. … [visit site to read more]

Alibaba Cloud said on Tuesday it has launched a new public cloud region in Johor, Malaysia backed by two new data centres to meet the country’s growing demand for cloud and AI services – particuarly agentic AI.

The new facilities in Johor offer cloud computing products from compute, storage, container, networking, big data, security, and databases to cloud-native services.

Alibaba Cloud said it also plans to introduce a suite of agentic AI services to Malaysia in the second half of this year to meet growing demand for enterprise agents in the region.

Agentic AI products planned for launch in Malaysia include AgentRun, a one-stop intelligent agent development and build platform; STAROps, a comprehensive intelligent operations platform; ACS Agent Sandbox, which provides hardware-level security isolation while reducing operational costs of AI agents; Agent Security Center, an integrated defence platform for AI agents; AI Security Guardrails 2.0, an upgraded security solution with end-to-end risk detection capabilities; and Agentic SOC, an enterprise-grade, AI agent-driven security operations platform.

Alibaba Cloud said the new products are designed to streamline the building and running of enterprise-scale agents in a secure environment, providing enterprises with full cycle management of agent engineering.

Alibaba Cloud has been operating in Malaysia since 2017. The launch of Johor region and its two data centres brings Alibaba Cloud’s total data centre footprint in Malaysia to five facilities, which marks its largest infrastructure presence in Southeast Asia so far, said Choong Hon Keat, GM of Malaysia for Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

“This expansion in Malaysia is a direct response to surging customer demand as local businesses scale cloud-native operations and integrate AI at scale,” he said in a statement. “Our new data centres in Johor will enable us to deliver more resilient, low-latency services, helping companies innovate faster, scale securely, and operate with greater efficiency in the AI era.”

Including Johor, Alibaba Cloud’s global infrastructure now comprises 104 availability zones across 32 regions.

The Johor facility is part of Alibaba’s previously announced plan in February 2025 to invest US$53 billion globally in AI and cloud infrastructure. In August last year, the company launched its third data centre in Malaysia whilst also announcing plans to expand its presence in Southeast Asia with new data centres in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Press Release

Orange today announced that it has completed the acquisition of the 50% stake in MasOrange held by Lorca, its joint venture partner in Spain. The Group now owns 100% of the operator’s capital and will fully consolidate MasOrange’s results in its financial statements from going forward.

This transaction follows the  signing of a binding agreement with Lorca on 12 December 2025, under which Orange agreed to acquire full ownership of MasOrange for a cash consideration of €4.25 billion. Since then, Orange has obtained all the necessary approvals for the transaction to be completed, including from the European Commission.

A key milestone in the Group’s strategy in Spain

Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange group, said: “Acquiring full ownership of MasOrange is a strategic step of our Trust the future plan and strengthens Orange’s position in Spain, our second-largest market in Europe. It paves the way for accelerated industrial, operational and commercial synergies, supporting greater value creation. With full ownership comes full agility, MasOrange can now move at full speed backed by the strength and scale of the Orange group.”

Meinrad Spenger, Chief Executive Officer of MasOrange, added: “By becoming fully part of the Orange group, MasOrange now has an even stronger foundation for future growth. It will allow us to accelerate our momentum in the Spanish market, supported by a greater capacity for investment and innovation as well as global expertise. This is good news for the Spanish consumers, enterprises and public administrations, since we will continue to provide them high-quality and innovative services, while benefiting from the Orange group’s industrial strength and scale to create even more value in Spain.”

As a follow-up to this transaction, Meinrad Spenger will join the Orange group’s Executive Committee. This appointment reflects the strategic importance of Spain for the Group and will further leverage his recognized experience in the telecommunications market and his leadership in advancing MasOrange’s development.

MasOrange is currently the leading operator in the Spanish market by customer base and customer satisfaction. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, it had 26 million mobile customers and 7.1 million fixed broadband customers. MasOrange relies on the most advanced leading fiber and 5G mobile infrastructure, enabling it to provide high-quality connectivity and other innovative services across the country to meet the needs of public administrations, consumer and business customers.

After closing, the Group intends to refinance MasOrange financial debt over time.

Four bits of expansion news from around the industry over in Europe: … [visit site to read more]

 News

The company will gain access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview to help boost its cybersecurity amidst the growing threat of AI cybercrime

BT has become the first UK company to join Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, a defensive coalition of critical infrastructure providers from around the word.

The partnership will give BT access to Anthropic’s powerful frontier AI model Claude Mythos Preview, which recently shocked the global cybersecurity community by discovering decades-old vulnerabilities hidden in what were considered highly secure foundational systems.

Project Glasswing, which was launched in April, aims to give key players in critical national infrastructure access to this powerful model in order to identify and remove systemic vulnerabilities before cybercriminals begin using similarly advanced AI for attacks.

“AI models have reached a level of coding capability where they can surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities,” Anthropic explains on the Project Glasswing website. “Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely. The fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe. Project Glasswing is an urgent attempt to put these capabilities to work for defensive purposes.”

Project Glasswing was launched with 12 core launch partners, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apple, Google, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, and the Linux Foundation, alongside roughly 40 other critical infrastructure organisations.

For BT, joining this group emphasises the company’s key role in securing the UK critical national infrastructure.

“AI is changing cyber security fast, and businesses need trusted partners who can help them stay one step ahead. By joining Project Glasswing, BT will strengthen its own cyber security capability to protect our networks, our customers and the wider UK,” said Jon James, Chief Executive Officer of BT Business.

How is AI supercharging the UK’s digital economy? Join the discussions at Connected Britain 2026

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Telecom Namibia has signed its second open-access fibre deal in the past week – this one with fibre infrastructure provider Lightstruck – as part of its ongoing plan to accelerate its fibre broadband business and replace its fixed copper network.

Under the partnership deal announced Monday, Telecom Namibia will lease Lightstruck’s open-access fibre network to deliver high-speed internet services to residential and business customers.

The partnership follows a fully managed, opex-based model, where services will be provisioned and managed through Lightstruck’s service portal. Telecom Namibia said this will streamline operations and enhance the customer experience while also enabling the telco to extend its service footprint.

“Through this collaboration, we are embracing infrastructure sharing as a strategic approach to avoid duplication of efforts, fast-track network deployment, and improve overall efficiency in the sector,” said Telecom Namibia CEO Dr Stanley Shanapinda in a statement. “We are confident that this partnership will significantly strengthen our ability to provide reliable broadband solutions and contribute meaningfully to Namibia’s digital transformation.”

It’s the second such fibre leasing deal signed by Telecom Namibia in the past week. Last Thursday, the telco announced it will lease Demshi’s network to provide fibre broadband services, with Demshi being responsible for network deployment, maintenance, and installation of passive fibre infrastructure.

Both deals have been pitched as part of Telecom Namibia’s 2025/26 annual operating plan, which aims to accelerate fibre rollout and digital transformation. The telco also said the Lighstruck and Demshi partnerships will help replace its fixed copper network, which has been plagued by copper theft and vandalism, resulting in frequent service disruptions.

“At a time when copper theft remains a daily occurrence and continues to disrupt services, the transition to fibre strengthens the resilience and reliability of our network infrastructure,” Shanapinda said.

Telecom Namibia has been under fire amid customer complaints of service interruptions and slower network performance in certain areas. Apart from copper theft, the telco has blamed its poor network performance on aging infrastructure, hardware failures on critical network systems and instability on certain international connectivity routes.

In May, Telecom Namibia kicked off an extensive network modernisation programme that includes implementing a converged FMC core, developing a next-generation OSS/BSS platform, upgrading backup power systems, and deploying advanced firewalls to safeguard customer data.

Telecom Namibia said it will complete key phases of its network modernisation programme by June 2027.

News

The vehicle will target startups across North America, Asia, and Europe to accelerate the commercial ecosystem for all-photonics networks

Japan’s largest telco, NTT, is preparing to create an investment fund worth roughly $500 million to support the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative and related AI development, according to reports from Yomiuri Shimbun.

South Korea’s SK Group, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom, and the Development Bank of Japan are reportedly partners in the ‘IOWN AI Fund’.

More than 10 additional Japanese corporations – spanning tech giants like Toshiba, Sony, and Fujitsu, alongside major financial institutions including MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho – have also expressed intent to participate.

The ‘IOWN AI Fund’, which will be set up by the end of the month, aims to expand IOWN’s growing ecosystem and the AI infrastructure supporting it. This will be achieved by targeting tech startups across North America, Asia, and Europe, focusing on photoelectric fusion, AI semiconductors, and the development of next-generation, IOWN-native AI models.

The concept of IOWN was introduced by NTT in 2019, with the central premise of shifting telco network topology from electronics to photonics (i.e., data transmission via light rather than electricity).

Currently, typical backbone networks carry optical signals over fibre but are forced to convert these photonic signals into electrical signals for processing. IOWN envisions an end-to-end optical network that would remove this translational bottleneck, delivering major benefits like lower power consumption, higher speeds, and larger capacity.

As generative AI data centres place unprecedented strain on global energy grids, it should be no surprise that the IOWN initiative is gaining momentum.

Indeed, IOWN is already beginning to show signs of moving from technical R&D to commercial scaling. In 2024 deployment by NTT and Chunghwa Telecom successfully activated a 3,000km subsea IOWN link between Japan and Taiwan, achieving a one-way latency of just 17 milliseconds.

By leveraging a formidable cross-border alliance of East Asian telecom, semiconductor, and financial giants, the IOWN AI fund is betting all-photonic network architecture will be a major alternative to traditional network strategy in the not-so-distant future.

How is AI supercharging the UK’s digital economy? Join the discussions at Connected Britain 2026

Also in the news
TELUS and L-SPARK give Canadian startups access to AI supercomputer
Belden to acquire RUCKUS Networks for $1.85bn
VMO2 taps Suffolk solar farm for 10 years of clean energy

A few interesting tidbits from around the industry: … [visit site to read more]