Interview 

At MWC 2026, we caught up with George Held, CTIO of Azercell, on how the company’s infrastructure is turning Azerbaijan into a regional digital hub 

“We were able to switch the traffic automatically from one place to another,” he said. “This delivered unprecedented experience to our customers.” 

Speaking to Total Telecom at the WinWin studio, Held explained how Azercell’s infrastructure backbone was a key foundation for the nation’s future growth. 

“In our part of the world, we have a saying: if you want happiness and prosperity, you build a road […] In our world nowadays, it’s building a digital road,” he explained. 

In recent years, Azercell has focused on nationwide fibre deployment, including upgrading to the latest GPON technology. 

“At first, we built just a normal GPON network, and now we’re bringing it to GPON with speeds of 50gbps,” said Held. 

This powerful network, Held said, holds the keys to capitalising on Azerbaijan’s strategic geographic position as a transit corridor linking Asia, Europe, and beyond. 

“The role which we play is just absolutely unbelievable because we are connecting East and West, North and South. And by doing this, we are making life so much better for people in our countries. We’re bringing employment. We’re bringing opportunities. And, at the same time, we’re bringing the global economy together,” he said. 

Embracing the AI era 

Beyond deploying high quality infrastructure itself, Azercell is also implementing AI within network management, with a strong focus on developing autonomous, self-healing networks aligned with TM Forum frameworks. These systems dynamically reroute traffic and optimise performance in real time. 

“With autonomous networks we will be able not only to connect people, but give different experiences, different speeds of connectivity. And some elements like low latency bring absolutely different experiences,” said Held. “We’re putting lots of elements on the network just to make sure that the experience for users is absolutely uninterrupted.” 

Held pointed to major live events as proof points of this technology’s effectiveness, including the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix and a recent Justin Timberlake concert in Baku.  

The same capabilities apply to environmental disruptions, including the harsh weather conditions faced in part of the country’s most mountainous regions. 

“Huge winds, huge amounts of snow, rain — they all impact day to day operations,” said Held. “Self-healing networks address this by optimising traffic, bringing the capacity to the places where it really matters.” 

From network performance to commercial growth 

With a more optimised and resilient AI-powered network, opportunities for revenue growth are myriad.  

“Commercial impact is fully related to the customer experience,” said Held, highlighting the importance of network reliability over pure speeds. “If we provided uninterrupted service, the volume of traffic would really see growth.” 

Low latency is also becoming a key differentiator, particularly for cross-border traffic and AI applications. 

“Latency […] is starting to play a really important role,” he said, noting its importance for emerging enterprise services and emerging use cases. “With low latency, all AI advanced applications and all the automatic processing is done in a much more elegant way.” 

In addition to better customer experience across a raft of new services, AI serving as a leveller, allowing junior engineers to learn more quickly and compete with senior colleagues that have many years more experience. 

“Our young engineers came up with a really cool AI tool where all the documents [about the network] are actually installed into one database and they can use natural language processing to pull any of the documents, and the system gives you a response on the network,” Held explained. “It gives a chance for young kids out of the university to deliver quality of service and compete with somebody who has been doing the job for 20 years.” 

More than this, it gives Azerbaijan an opportunity to compete on a global level. 

“Innovation has no ZIP code,” said Held. “AI for us is not just a gimmick. It’s not something which is invented in Cupertino or Mountain View. It can be invented in Baku. It works in Baku and makes lives better for our people.” 

Five items from around the industry: … [visit site to read more]

Digicel Samoa announced on Tuesday it’s teamed up with Euronet Worldwide subsidiary Ria Money Transfer to enable people outside of Samoa to transfer money to Digicel’s MyCash mobile wallets.

The collaboration deal offers an alternative to traditional cash pickup, although Digicel Samoa said users who prefer cash will still have the option of collecting the money transferred via Ria from participating Digicel Samoa retail stores.

As part of the initial launch, Digicel Samoa said, the services will be available at three of its retail locations: SNPF Plaza, Faleolo International Airport, and Salelologa in Savai’i, with additional locations expected to roll out soon.

Ria said its global network includes over 635,000 locations worldwide – including Australia, New Zealand and the US – and digital connections to 4.1 billion bank accounts, 3.4 billion digital wallet accounts and 4 billion Visa debit cards through Visa Direct payments.

Digicel Samoa CEO Karl Vizvary said the Ria service will serve growing demand for quick, safe, and easy digital payment options, and simplify remittance for customers.

“Our collaboration with Ria makes it easier and more convenient for families and friends overseas to send money to people in Samoa,” Vizvary said in a statement. “By enabling transfers to the MyCash mobile wallet, as well as cash pickup at Digicel Samoa’s retail locations, we are providing our customers with more flexibility, security, and access to modern financial services.”

The high cost of missing equipment in field interventions is becoming a thing of the past. With Brady’s complete RFID solution, telco providers and field service operators can now digitise vehicle inventory checks, ensuring every asset is accounted for in seconds.

Instantly see which tools are present in a vehicle – and what is missing. Easily save substantial time per vehicle, per intervention, with automated equipment inventory checks that take only seconds. 

By labelling equipment with passive, battery-free UHF RFID labels, we can let an RFID reader in your vehicle detect which tools and items are present. The RFID reader can check detected tools versus a list of expected items to confirm a complete vehicle inventory or to highlight missing equipment on your phone. 

Be fully equipped before leaving for a field intervention. Avoid losing tools after interventions. Don’t waste time checking visually where every piece of equipment is. Just scan, get confirmation in seconds, and drive to your next destination.  

Solution components 

We develop and manufacture every component in our solution. Tested in in-house laboratories, each component is designed to withstand the wear and tear of field interventions, including exposure to UV, dust and moisture. 

• RFID labels: Brady offers industrial grade on- and off-metal RFID-labels and tags that stay attached and remain legible on your equipment. 

• Fixed RFID readers: Equipped with patented data capture technology, Brady’s fixed RFID readers collect data on items passing through their read range. 

• Portable RFID readers: With intuitive displays, portable RFID readers and SLEDs from Brady deliver unmatched mobility, data collection and interaction. 

Find out more details about the Van Scan solution from Brady! 

Ready to optimise your fleet? Find out more about the Van Scan solution from Brady:

London, March 2nd 2026 – Colt Technology Services (Colt), the global digital infrastructure company, today announced a successful proof of concept for an agentic AI engine it has developed together with Microsoft, to accelerate, simplify and clarify complex deal pricing for customers and enhance the Colt customer experience. As Colt’s customers grow, scale and expand their global presence, pricing can be complex, particularly across global markets, and a lack of transparency can be confusing and costly. The new agentic AI engine reduces time spent on developing and sharing pricing from days to just 10 minutes, giving customers fast, accurate competitive deal pricing to help drive decision making and manage cost control.  

Colt is exploring ways to apply agentic AI throughout the customer journey, from pricing to onboarding and beyond. This pricing agent is one of the first proofs of concept to be explored and delivered as part of the Colt programme. In just three days Colt and Microsoft trained the agent to deliver complex deal pricing across the majority of its markets, with 99% accuracy. While the quotes are generated by the agent, Colt’s skilled teams check them before issuing to customers.  

This agentic AI engine is one of the first tools to be developed as part of Colt’s broader ‘people first’ AI strategy, which focuses on creating secure, scalable and responsible AI ecosystems for its employees and customers, empowering them to face an AI defined future with confidence.  

Frank Miller, chief AI and platforms officer, Colt Technology Services says, “Enterprise IT buying has always been complex. A large-scale global infrastructure project can take weeks for providers to generate accurate pricing, but there’s no question it can slow down delivery. Together with Microsoft, we wanted to explore how AI capabilities can break this pattern. By accelerating and clarifying pricing, our customers can focus on achieving their goals, faster, while we keep them connected across the world. Businesses deserve connectivity without complexity and its down to global digital infrastructure providers to make sure this happens.” 

Frank added, “We’ll continue the innovation journey with Microsoft in building the factory for agentic application in telecommunication with a specific focus on the best possible customer experience; fast, simple, accurate, secure and reliable.” 

“Agentic AI has the potential to transform complex enterprise workflows in the telecom industry, where speed, accuracy and scale are critical,” said Rick Lievano, Worldwide CTO, Telco, Media & Gaming at Microsoft. “Colt’s initiative, combining deep telecom domain expertise with Microsoft cloud AI capabilities, helps automate complex processes, improve consistency, and give customers faster access to the information they need to make informed decisions.” 

The agentic AI engine for pricing is expected to become available for use later this year.  

About Colt Technology Services 

We’re Colt. We own and operate exceptional digital infrastructure which powers the global AI economy, connects societies, builds communities and transforms lives. Thousands of colleagues in 65+ offices across Europe, Asia, and North America share a deep commitment to delivering an outstanding experience and making every interaction effortless for our customers. 

Customers and partners choose our award-winning fibre infrastructure, digital platforms and security solutions, delivered across a network that spans continents and crosses oceans. We’re Europe’s largest B2B operator: we connect 40+ countries, 32,000 enterprise buildings, 275+ points of presence, and 12 cable landing stations and we manage eight subsea cable systems. We also co-manage AS3356 – the most widely peered network in the world. 

Founded in London over 30 years ago, we’re privately funded and driven by values of fairness, inclusion and equity. We’re known for our urgent call for social and sustainable change and we’re guided by our purpose in everything we do: creating effortless connections and extraordinary outcomes for our customers, communities and people. Be a part of our story: come on over to www.colt.net  or join our amazing communities at LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. Media enquiry? Email us at pressqueries@colt.net.  

You can meet Colt at Submarine Networks EMEA, in London on the 27th – 28th May 2026. Get your ticket HERE

Two from overseas, and two of regional interest from the southern US: … [visit site to read more]

Viewpoint 

The future is federated sovereignty, says Aaron Boasman-Patel of TM Forum. Learn what that means for you, from concept to architecture

By Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP, Innovation, TM Forum

Over the years, digital sovereignty was defined by borders. That mindset increasingly feels outdated and is being challenged as perceptions evolve behind how it is understood and exercised.

Across Europe, narratives of a “failing concept” and “falling behind” are gaining traction, signaling the need for organizations to move faster and strengthen the strategic position on how they manage and organize data.

It’s no longer feasible for every country to build a fully autonomous digital stack as the economics don’t add up and operational risks are high. And today’s networks, cloud, and AI systems are designed to interconnect, not isolate. These realities are forcing us to rethink what sovereignty means in a hyper-connected world. Europe is already moving in this direction with initiatives like Gaia‑X and the EU Digital Networks Act, signaling a shift from isolation to interoperability and system‑level coordination.

The future is federated sovereignty. This is where connectivity is organized around regional alliances, common standards, and shared trust frameworks that enable interoperability while keeping control of critical assets local.

From concept to architecture

Federated sovereignty means evolving into a framework of collaboration and shared responsibility rather than nationally isolated control. Initiatives such as Gaia‑X signal this shift at a policy and framework level, setting common rules for interoperability and trust across borders and moving sovereignty away from isolation and toward system‑level coordination.

Increasingly, federated sovereignty is being expressed through technical architecture. Sovereign cloud implementations such as the AWS European Sovereign Cloud illustrate how sovereignty can be enforced through technical controls, operational separation, and European governance while still participating in global cloud and AI ecosystems. Rather than fragmenting infrastructure, this approach enables interoperability by design while keeping control of critical assets local.

For telecom operators, this evolution brings both responsibility and opportunity. When sovereignty is no longer just about ownership, it becomes an issue of control, assurance, and verifiability in a world of disaggregated networks, cloud‑native infrastructure, and AI‑driven operation. Operators must answer fundamental questions in real time: Where is data processed and trained? Who controls decision-making systems? How are policies enforced? And how can outcomes be audited?

Governance and leadership in a federated world

Artificial intelligence accelerates the challenge. As networks move toward intent‑driven and autonomous operation, sovereignty shifts from physical hardware to adaptive software, policy, and model governance from manual configuration to cognitive automation.

To manage this, leadership models must evolve. Sovereignty spans networks, IT, AI, cloud, data, security, and regulation; it cannot sit solely within compliance or legal. It requires ongoing oversight, clear decision rights, and joined‑up leadership across technology, policy, and operations. Many organizations are formalizing this through introduction of a ‘Chief Sovereignty Officer’ function or equivalent operating model that unites governance, architecture, and operational assurance.

Telcos as architects of cloud sovereignty

What do telcos need to do, to ensure they are serving the needs of customers prioritizing sovereignty? Primarily, collaboration between telcos and cloud providers is essential to deliver secure, compliant, and innovative services. Telcos bring unique strengths to this partnership: trusted relationships with governments and enterprises, operation of critical infrastructure, and deep regulatory expertise.

Meanwhile, hyperscale cloud providers offer advanced technology and scalability. Together, they can create interoperable solutions that meet stringent security and compliance requirements while opening new market opportunities.

Real-world progress is underway, and multi‑cloud resilience practices reduce single‑provider risk. TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and Level‑4 autonomous network capabilities advance observability, automation, and componentized networks, the essential foundation for sovereignty by design. Across geographies, operators and network infrastructure providers are recognizing that investment in autonomous network capabilities is key to control now and into the future. Which is why ODA and Level 4 autonomy play a pivotal role, providing operators the foundation to scale intelligent and sovereign networks.

Designed trust at scale

This year, those who lead the way will be those who embed sovereignty into architectures through policy-driven control, certification, continuous testing, and clear accountability. Something this critical should never be an afterthought. Risk-based resilience will be critical, including diversified routes and mediums such as fiber, subsea, and satellite networks, and tiered service continuity for emergency traffic.

The future of digital sovereignty is not fragmentation but designed trust at scale. Telecom operators sit at the center of that future, not just as connectivity providers but as custodians of controlled digital resilience.

Building sovereignty through collaboration

The path forward is shared. It is a commitment to federated sovereignty architectures rooted in open standards and shared assurance. It is an imperative to operationalize sovereignty with joint governance and runtime verification across multi‑cloud and multi‑network domains. It requires investment in observability, automation, auditability, and sovereign key management as core capabilities, not add‑ons.

By the end of this year, we expect to see those that lead on sovereignty to have made headway on four key milestones. These are:

1. Establishing a cross‑functional sovereignty council that brings together technology, legal, security, policy within the organization;
2. Defining and publishing sovereignty Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for data residency, model lineage, policy enforcement latency, auditability KPIs;
3. Completing pilot sovereign cloud landing zones with route diversity and traffic tiering;
4. And certifying model and data provenance for critical AI workflows.

Sovereignty built this way is verifiable, interoperable, and investable. It brings structure, clarity and control to an increasingly sensitive and mission critical organizational defense. Those who move first will define the standards, architectures, and trust models that others will follow.

South America has a new optical infrastructure player. A group of investors has launched Conecta Infra, a neutral infrastructure platform targeting high capacity intercity networks acrossthe continent. They are starting out with $350M that will go toward 6,000km of infrastructure. … [visit site to read more]

Digital infrastructure operator BW Digital announced on Friday that it has successfully landed the Hawaiki Tonga subsea cable in Vava’u, giving Tonga extra international capacity as well as needed resilience.

The 383-km cable, which officially landed on March 18, connects Tonga directly to the transpacific Hawaiki Cable linking Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Oregon on the US West Coast, with branching units for American Samoa and New Caledonia.

The Hawaiki Tonga cable – which has been in the works since June 2024 – was jointly funded by Australia, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, and the Government of New Zealand. BW Digital delivered the cable in partnership with the Government of Tonga and Tonga Cable Limited.

In a LinkedIn poston Friday, BW Digital said work is now underway to prepare the system for commercial service in the coming months.

The Hawaiki Tonga cable is Tonga’s second international subsea connection, and its first direct link to a major transpacific cable system. Up to now, its only source of international subsea capacity has been the Tonga Cable – owned by Digicel Tonga, the Government of Tonga and Tonga Communications Corporation – that connects to Fiji.

The lack of redundancy has made Tonga highly vulnerable to internet disruptions. In January 2022, the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano damaged both the Tonga Cable and the Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE), the island nation’s sole domestic subsea cable that connects the main island of Tongatapu with the northernmost island of Vava’u.

The TDCE suffered damage again in 2024 due to an earthquake.