News

The move comes as the European Union grows increasingly wary of its reliance on Elon Musk’s Starlink

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have announced the signing of a letter of intent to explore a potential joint bid for the future allocation of spectrum for Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in Europe.

The move would see the group build key ground network infrastructure required to support a satellite network. The satellites themselves, however, would be owned and operated by an as-yet-unselected partner.

When combined, the operators would be able to offer customers open and non-discriminatory access to offer Direct-to-Device (D2D) services, as well as enhancing European network resiliency.

The decision relates to spectrum in the 2 GHz band, frequencies ideal for the delivery of D2D services. This band is currently occupied by Viasat and EchoStar, but their licences expire in May 2027.

In May, European policy makers proposed dividing the band into three, with one third reserved for governmental use, another for commercial EU operators entering the market, and one for EU and non-EU satellite operators. This, the European Commission said, would “strengthen the EU’s competitiveness and critical communications capabilities”.

“Satellite connectivity is a key piece of our technological sovereignty, our security, and our defence. technological sovereignty, our security, and our defence,” said the Commission in a statement.

While the proposal received support in Europe, it was lambasted in the US, with representatives threatening retaliation for what they claim would be unfair discrimination against US companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The news comes at a time when Europe is growing increasingly wary of handing control of critical infrastructure to US companies that may be compelled to follow the whims of President Donald Trump.

Last week, Ukraine reported that SpaceX had introduced restrictions affecting military satellite connectivity without advance warning, impacting both battlefield communications and early warning of incoming Russian attack.

Sources speaking to Reuters subsequently indicated that the order to reduce Starlink service to Ukraine came from the White House. President Trump denies these claims.

The incident caused a major diplomatic rift between Washington and Kyiv, with Germany – which pays for Ukraine’s Starlink service – also notably angered.

Ukraine has been using Starlink-supported drone and missile strikes to hit oil infrastructure deep inside Russia, a move which has contributed to the rise of global energy prices.

President Trump – whose approval rating has fallen to a record low ahead of the Midterms, largely due to the surge in household energy costs because of the war in Iran – has decried Ukraine’s targeted attacks as ‘a disgrace’.

It is unclear whether the Starlink and Starshield services have now been fully restored in Ukraine; reports from October 16 suggested they had largely improved but denied a return to previous service quality.

Against the background of this furore, it should come as little surprise that Europe’s biggest telcos are looking for alternatives to Starlink. In fact, Europe has long aspired to create its own satellite communications system in the form of IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite), a LEO platform designed to support defence and government users across the bloc.

IRIS²’s delivery, however, has been slow. The constellations first satellites are currently targeted for launch in 2029, with full operation via 348 satellites expected in 2032.

The proposed mobile satellite partnership could therefore offer Europe a more immediate route to sovereign D2D connectivity while IRIS² remains years from full deployment, reducing reliance on US-controlled satellite infrastructure.

How is the UK’s satellite landscape evolving? Join the discussion at Satellite Live 2027, co-located with Connected Britain 2027

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Interview

At Connected Britain 2026 we caught up with NETS International MD, Jahangir Ahmad, to discuss the company’s entry into new markets and its embrace of new verticals like the smart home and even electric vehicle (EV) charging

Having entered the UK market in 2020 with just two people, NETS has grown to approximately 180 employees, contributing to the expansion of fibre networks and the creation of jobs across the industry. With operations now spanning the UK, Germany, and the United States, the company is applying its infrastructure expertise to new markets while expanding into data centres, 5G, and energy infrastructure.

In this interview, Jahangir discusses the company’s journey so far and how it has adapted to a maturing UK telecom market where customer installations, network maintenance, operational efficiency, and long-term value are becoming increasingly important.

Check out our full interview with Jahangir below!

How is the UK’s digital economy evolving? Join the connctivity industry in discussion at Connected Britain 2026

Press Release

Compact customer-premises appliance pairs with the MaiaEdge PBC 2000 to deliver automated, encrypted Ethernet connectivity over any available transport

MaiaEdge has introduced the PBC 100 Series, compact customer premises equipment (CPE) that helps fiber operators and service providers extend private Ethernet beyond their owned fiber footprints, directly to customer sites.

With the PBC 100 Series, part of the Path Border Controller product family, a service provider’s reach no longer stops where its fiber ends. Operators can extend private Layer 2 services to off-net customers over available transport, without an expensive new fiber build or a manually negotiated NNI. Instead of spending weeks or months extending network reach, providers can automatically establish the connection and start delivering services faster.

Designed to complement the PBC 2000 deployed at an operator’s point of presence (PoP), Metro Ethernet edge or data center, the PBC 100 Series brings the same automated path-provisioning capabilities to the customer premises. Operators can use available fiber, dedicated internet access, satellite or other IP transport to automatically establish a Layer 2 connection to a customer site. A single interface abstracts routing complexity and gives operators end-to-end visibility.

The PBC 100 Series is built on SD-Ethernet, the architecture behind MaiaEdge’s ability to extend Ethernet services simply and programmatically over any available transport. The PBC 100 Series is the newest building block in that architecture, and the first to bring it to the customer premises. This is giving operators a faster, simpler way to reach more customers and deliver more services without waiting on new physical infrastructure.

“For decades, where your fiber ended, your service opportunity ended with it,” said Abilash Menon, CEO and Co-Founder of MaiaEdge. “The PBC 100 Series breaks that link. Providers can reach off-net customers without building fiber or negotiating a new NNI, then turn that connection into private connectivity, cloud access, AI infrastructure, and more. We’re giving operators a way to expand their addressable market without expanding their physical network.”

Beyond the initial connection, the PBC 100 Series turns a newly reachable customer site into a platform for additional services, whether from the operator’s own network or from MaiaEdge-enabled partners. An operator can extend cloud on-ramps, distributed AI access and future services to that same connection, without a separate integration project for each one. With the PBC 100 Series, operators aren’t only able to reach customers they couldn’t before, but can also unlock new revenue from services they couldn’t previously deliver.

For data center and AI infrastructure operators, the same model can speed tenant onboarding by reducing the manual configuration typically required to connect a new customer.

“With the PBC 100 Series, we’re delivering Layer 2 services to customer sites that simply weren’t practical to reach before,” said Victor Rodriguez, CTO at HDCO Group. “It gives us a simple Ethernet experience over infrastructure that may come from multiple sources. Compared with the networking approaches we’ve used before, it is five times easier to operate, and it opens opportunities we previously could not pursue.”

A fiber footprint used to be where Layer 2 services ended. The PBC 100 Series removes that boundary. The first device in the series, the PBC 124-C, is available now. Read the full story at maiaedge.io/pbc100.

Contributed Article

By Jabbor Kayumov, Chief Executive Officer, Beeline Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s geography has always shaped its economics. It is the ninth-largest country in the world, with communities spread across vast steppe, desert and mountain terrain. For generations, distance has influenced the cost of connecting a clinic, a school, a farmer or a small business to markets and essential services.

Digital infrastructure is beginning to change the economics of that distance. But a signal bar alone is not digital inclusion. Connectivity creates lasting value only when three conditions come together: people can reach it, the technology can understand them, and the services available through it allow them to do something meaningful.

I lead Beeline Kazakhstan, and across my career with digital operators in Central Asia, South Asia and the Caribbean, I have seen very different markets confront the same challenge. Demand for digital participation almost always arrives before the infrastructure that enables it. A rural clinic, a family farm or a first-time online seller does not need to be persuaded that connectivity matters. They need access that is reliable, affordable and relevant to their lives.

The first requirement is reach

Terrestrial mobile networks will remain the backbone of connectivity. In Kazakhstan, Beeline has extended its network to villages with populations of around 100 people and has used solar power for base stations beyond the electricity grid. Yet in a country of this scale, the economics of a conventional tower will not close every remaining coverage gap.

That is why we are working with Starlink Direct to Cell to introduce satellite-to-phone connectivity in areas beyond the reach of terrestrial networks, beginning with messaging and expanding to data in a later phase, subject to the required approvals. The technology is designed to connect ordinary compatible mobile phones without a separate satellite terminal. It is not a replacement for terrestrial infrastructure. It is an extension of it, particularly where distance makes traditional deployment slow or uneconomic.

The real breakthrough will not be a successful demonstration. It will be a service that works reliably and can be sustained at scale. Technology must change not only the map of coverage, but also the economics of providing it.

The second requirement is relevance

Even universal coverage would be incomplete if the digital tools available through it could not properly understand the user’s language and context. Many of today’s leading AI systems perform best in languages with the largest digital footprints. Kazakh, like many national languages, remains underrepresented in the data on which global models are trained.

KazLLM is therefore more than a technical milestone. Developed through a national collaboration coordinated by the government and led by the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University, with contributions from QazCode, Beeline Kazakhstan and Astana Hub, it gives developers an open-source foundation on which to build services in Kazakh. The larger point is simple: people should not have to leave their language behind to participate fully in the AI economy.

Compute capacity matters as well. Beeline Kazakhstan is building Hyper Cloud, a Tier III data center in Almaty targeted to come online by the end of 2026. It will provide domestic capacity for enterprise, cloud and AI workloads and help organizations keep sensitive data within Kazakhstan. The purpose of sovereign infrastructure is not isolation. It is the ability to participate in global technology with greater resilience, capability and agency.

The third requirement is utility

A connected person is not necessarily an included person. A signal reaching a remote community has limited impact if the person receiving it cannot open an account, receive a payment, access a public service, learn a new skill or sell a product beyond the local market. For a farmer, the value of connectivity may be payment for a harvest. For a small retailer, it may be accepting a digital payment without investing in expensive equipment. For a student, it may be accessing a course or paying a fee without traveling to a branch.

This is why connectivity, trusted digital identity, payment infrastructure and locally relevant services should not be planned as separate agendas. Each increases the value of the others. Kazakhstan’s work on the digital tenge is one example of financial infrastructure evolving alongside communications networks. The opportunity is to connect these layers so that access can translate into participation in the economy.

That also changes how we should think about investment. VEON has announced its intention to invest an additional $1 billion in Kazakhstan over the next three years. Capital on that scale must do more than add equipment. It should expand the number of people and businesses able to participate in the digital economy, strengthen domestic technological capability and create services that customers choose to use every day.

For that model to endure, inclusion must also be commercially sustainable. Remote communities cannot depend indefinitely on pilots or one-off interventions. Satellite connectivity can improve the economics of reach. Local-language AI can make technology useful to a wider population. Digital financial services can turn access into everyday economic activity. Built together, these capabilities reinforce one another.

Kazakhstan’s experience points to a broader lesson for other large and sparsely populated markets: digital inclusion must be built as a complete system. Reach without relevance leaves people behind. Relevance without useful services produces novelty rather than impact. And services without resilient infrastructure cannot scale.

Distance will remain a fact of Kazakhstan’s geography. It does not have to remain a limit on opportunity. If we build reach, relevance and utility together, a customer in a remote community is no longer at the edge of the digital economy, but fully part of it. That is the future we intend to help build.

Jabbor Kayumov was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Beeline Kazakhstan in April 2026.

Before his appointment, he served as Chief Executive Officer for the Telco Business at Beeline Kazakhstan. Prior to that, he held leadership roles across multiple international companies, including serving as CEO of Ncell in Nepal and leading Digicel’s operations in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, where he oversaw their transformation into digital operators. He also served as CEO of Beeline Tajikistan. His leadership experience spans strategic transformation, commercial growth, organizational development, and digital innovation.

News

The deal is expected to boost the lifespan of the company’s aging submarine cables around Svalbard 

Space Norway has announced a new deal with Ciena to modernise the Svalbard Undersea Cable System and its upcoming Arctic Way cable system with the latest optical technolgy.

The deal will see Space Norway’s existing infrastructure upgraded with Ciena’s latest optical technology, including the Ciena 6500 Optical Platform, WaveLogic 6 Extreme, Spectrum Sharing, and the Navigator Network Control Suite.

The same technology will also be used in the upcoming Arctic Way Cable System.

This, the company said, will ‘expand the operational lifespan’ of the Svalbard Undersea Cable System and expanding secure, high-resilience connectivity across the Acrtic region.

“Reliable connectivity is essential in the Arctic, where our infrastructure supports critical activities and demanding operational requirements,” said Pia Birgitte Bruhn, acting Vice President of Cable Systems at Space Norway. “By working with Ciena, we are extending the operational life of our existing Svalbard cable systems while preparing Arctic Way for service. This investment will strengthen the resilience and capacity of our subsea network and support the region’s long-term connectivity needs.”

Space Norway is a satellite company owned by the Norwegian state that operates hybrid infrastructure, comprising satellites, teleports, fibre networks, and subsea cables. The company provides mission-critical communications relied upon by research, scientific, and national security organisations.

The company operates the Svalbard Undersea Cable System, which began service in 2004 and spans roughly 2,714 km from Breivika in northern Norway to Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s largest town.

Currently, Svalbard only has one other submarine cable: the Longyearbyen–Ny-Ålesund route on the west of the archipelago operated by Sikt, the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research.

However, this will change in the coming years through the deployment of Space Norway’s upcoming Arctic Way system. Announced in 2025, will connect Bodø, Norway, to Longyearbyen, with separate branch to the remote island of Jan Mayen, home to Beerenberg, the most northern active volcano in the world.

While Svalbard and Jan Mayen have few or no permanent residents, they remain of high strategic importance for Norway. Svalbard, for example, notably hosts SvalSat, a crucial satellite ground station that monitors the Arctic region for which reliable backhaul is crucial.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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Whitepaper

As demand for faster, more reliable connectivity continues to grow, network infrastructure is under increasing pressure to deliver greater capacity, flexibility, and resilience. From broadband and telecoms networks to data centres, utilities, transport infrastructure, and connected communities, the pathways that house and protect communication cables play a critical role in keeping data moving.

Yet choosing the right innerduct is not simply a matter of selecting a product that fits inside a conduit. Network construction projects involve a range of considerations, from space availability and installation requirements to environmental conditions, costs, maintenance and future expansion. Getting those decisions right can have a lasting impact on the performance, scalability, and longevity of network infrastructure.

MaxCell’s ‘How to Choose the Right Innerduct’ whitepaper explores key considerations related to innerduct choice.

The nuance of innerduct selection

Among the key themes explored in the white paper is understanding that different deployments will have deeply different requirements. Network requirements rarely stand still, and infrastructure needs to accommodate changing technologies, increasing bandwidth demands, and additional cables over time. Understanding how innerduct can support future scalability is therefore integral to network design.

There are also major differences between indoor and outdoor applications to consider. Inside plant (ISP) environments can present tight spaces, corners and building constraints, while outside plant (OSP) deployments can expose infrastructure to corrosion, temperature fluctuations and other environmental challenges. Projects involving bridges, highways, railways, congested ducts, and other pathway obstacles can introduce even further constraints, making manoeuvrability and weight additionally important factors.

These different applications create distinct requirements that need to be considered during project planning.

Balancing performance, cost, and installation

Of course, alongside technical requirements, network operators must also consider cost. Product pricing is only one part of this equation, with labour, shipping, storage, and the practicalities of installation all impacting a project’s economics. The ease with which an innerduct solution can be installed, maintained, and adapted will also have significant implications for long-term returns.

Making the right choice for the network ahead

Innerduct selection is ultimately about looking beyond the immediate installation. Factors including application, available space, environmental conditions, installation requirements, total project cost and future network expansion can all influence the long-term performance, flexibility and economics of an infrastructure deployment.

MaxCell’s ‘How to Choose the Right Innerduct’ whitepaper provides a practical guide to these considerations across different network environments. For operators, contractors and infrastructure owners planning new deployments or upgrading existing pathways, it offers a useful framework for evaluating the options and making informed innerduct decisions.

Read the full white paper, How to Choose the Right Innerduct, to explore the key considerations, applications and solutions in greater detail.

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News

The rescue comes as TalkTalk Group heads into administration

Today, BT has announced the purchase of TalkTalk’s consumer and wholesale divisions on a debt-free basis.

The deal will see BT will absorb TalkTalk’s roughly 1.5 million retails customers and 1 million wholesale customers. Service for these customers will continue uninterrupted and will likely only change once BT begins migrating them to its own systems.

Clive Selley, the current CEO of BT International and previously the CEO of Openreach until March this year, is set to ‘lead the stabilisation and integration planning of the acquisition’, according to the company press release.

Martijn Blanken will take Selley’s place as CEO of BT International.

TalkTalk had been formally seeking buyers for its consumer unit and its wholesale unit (PXC) since the start of the year, having struggled financially for years. In recent months, excusive talks were being held with both Opus Broadband and Octopus Investments for the consumer business and PXC, respectively, but no deals materialised.

The company was due to enter administration today.

“This is a genuinely unprecedented situation, where millions of citizens and businesses were at risk if TalkTalk had collapsed. BT is the digital backbone of the country, with a presence in every postcode. We have been connecting the nation for generations, stepping up in the moments that matter, and BT acquiring TalkTalk is now the only viable option to keep millions of customers connected and supported,” said Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group.

“Our immediate priority is to stabilise the business and provide a safety net for the households and businesses who rely on TalkTalk. Once the regulatory process has been concluded, TalkTalk’s customers will benefit from access to the UK’s best network, and the full range of market-leading products and services that BT offers. And, over a period of time, the transaction will create value for all our stakeholders – customers, colleagues, the country, and our owners.”

BT’s late interest in buying the units was reported by the Financial Times last week, with BT reportedly checking for potential anti-trust pitfalls. Further reports suggested that BT’s initial approach had been rejected, leading to a higher offer being made on Sunday.

While financial details of the agreement were not revealed, BT said it estimates a roughly £400 million hit to its finances for the 2027 financial year as a result of the deal.

Naturally, a deal of this magnitude has already drawn attention from regulators, who will be concerned that the deal further entrenches BT’s dominant position in the market.

Following the deal’s announcement, the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN), obligating the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the deal.

For DCMS, the primary concern is the continuity of vital connectivity services and the “genuine risk to life and public services – including to hospitals, schools and emergency care”.

In a responding statement, BT said it welcomed the PIIN announcement, saying it would “work constructively with the Government and the CMA during their review”. Indeed, the company has pointed to ensuring continuity of service as a key driver of the deal, arguing that the acquisition was in the public interest.

The CMA is expected to report its findings on October 19.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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Press Release

ICEYE, the European leader in sovereign intelligence from space, and Nokia, a global leader in connectivity infrastructure, today announced a partnership to develop secure, sovereign and high-performance broadband low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications systems for governments, supporting missions from defense and border security to emergency services and disaster response. Built on trusted European technology, the jointly developed satellite communications systems will give nations ownership and control of the satellites, ground segment and terminals. The first communications satellites are expected to be launched in 2028.

When terrestrial networks are disrupted or compromised, defense forces, first responders and civil authorities risk losing access to the information and command systems they depend on. Governments therefore need resilient communications infrastructure that remains available under the most demanding conditions, and that they can fully own and control.

The jointly developed sovereign systems will deliver targeted, high-throughput, low-latency connectivity over priority mission areas. Designed to complement military and commercial networks rather than replace them, it will add reach, resilience and capacity, helping governments and defense organizations maintain critical connections wherever operations take place.

The partnership brings together ICEYE’s track record delivering sovereign satellite missions with Nokia’s extensive experience in secure networking technologies and growing defense portfolio. Together, the companies will integrate satellites, ground infrastructure and ruggedized end-user terminals to extend ICEYE’s sovereign intelligence from space business model to satellite communications.

“Together with Nokia, we are building on our proven space intelligence expertise and delivering sovereign, high-performance satellite communications. Nations must be able to fully own and control their communications, without dependency on a foreign commercial operator’s terms of service. We delivered Poland its own radar satellite system in under a year. Partnering with Nokia lets us move at a similar speed for satellite communications, on the timelines nations need,” said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-founder of ICEYE.

“Sovereign operations depend on the ability to sense, decide and act in real time. Physical AI makes that possible, but only with secure, resilient connectivity across land, sea, air and space. By bringing together Nokia’s trusted networks with ICEYE’s proven sovereign space capabilities, we will deliver a satellite communications capability—complementing existing terrestrial networks, and giving nations the situational awareness, connectivity, and control they need to operate with confidence in contested environments across all domains,” said Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia.

News

The Japanese conglomerate views the company as a piece of its rapidly expanding AI data centre strategy

Today, SoftBank has completed the acquisition of digital infrastructure asset manager, DigitalBridge.

The $3.1 billion deal, first announced in December 2025, makes DigitalBridge a fully owned subsidiary of SoftBank and is aimed at boosting SoftBank’s ability to “originate, finance, operate, and scale digital infrastructure opportunities worldwide”.

DigitalBridge will continue operating independently and will continue to be led by the company’s existing CEO, Marc Ganzi.

“As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure,” said SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son. “DigitalBridge is a leader in digital infrastructure, and this acquisition will strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centres, advance our vision to become a leading ASI platform provider, and help unlock breakthroughs that move humanity forward.”

DigitalBridge has around $108 billion in digital infrastructure assets under management, including data centres, fibre networks, mobile towers, wireless infrastructure, and edge facilities.

These data centres are of particular interest to SoftBank, which is pursuing an aggressive AI strategy based around building its own vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform.

The company is securing power, land, and data-centre capacity, partnering with OpenAI through the Stargate project to supply large-scale compute, and increasingly moving toward operating the compute itself through SB Neo, its planned US neocloud business.

While Stargate has moved slower than hoped – notably shelving its plans in the UK, for example – Son and SoftBank have continued to drive forwards. The company has raised around $11 billion this year in order to invest $30 billion into OpenAI, with Son notably calling talk of an AI bubble ‘blasphemy’ earlier this year.

SoftBank has said it intends to use external financing to limit its own capital burden while continuing to support its growth in the AI data centre sector.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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