Meta’s introduction of usernames for WhatsApp has hit a snag in India, as the government seeks to crack down on anonymous messaging as part of a wider campaign against fraud on global technology platforms.

India is Meta’s largest WhatsApp market and the company began rolling out usernames globally last week, allowing users to create a unique username instead of sharing their phone number. The feature also allows users to adopt their Instagram username, making it easier to connect across Meta’s platforms.

However, Reuters reported the Indian government has ordered WhatsApp to justify the feature and halt its rollout in the country while officials assess its impact. In a letter seen by Reuters, authorities gave the company three days to respond and argued that usernames could make it easier for fraudsters to carry out phishing attacks and impersonate users without revealing their phone numbers.

The move follows India’s temporary ban on Telegram last month over similar concerns that anonymous messaging was facilitating cybercrime. Telegram ultimately lost a legal challenge against the suspension.

The government’s letter warned that WhatsApp could lose legal protections under India’s IT laws if it failed to comply with due diligence requirements. Officials argued the username feature could materially increase online fraud by making it harder to identify malicious users.

WhatsApp said the feature is not yet live and will be introduced gradually later this year. The company stressed users will still need a phone number to register an account, while people will only be able to message others if they know their exact username. It added that safeguards against scams include limits on how many new users an account can contact and protections against repeated attempts to guess usernames.

The dispute marks the latest clash between India and major technology platforms as the government tightens oversight of online services. It also comes just a week after Meta appointed CRED founder Kunal Shah as WhatsApp’s global head, highlighting India’s strategic importance to the platform.

Press Release

Government, industry and education unite to inspire the next generation of professionals who will build, maintain and protect critical digital & energy infrastructure  

While recent headlines have focused on the importance of protecting submarine cables, government and industry leaders gathered at London’s BT Tower this week to highlight another vital part of the story: the people who build, install, maintain, repair and protect the infrastructure that keeps the world connected. 

The UK’s Minister for Digital Economy, Baroness Lloyd, joined representatives from government, industry and academia to discuss how the UK can attract and develop the skilled workforce needed to support one of the world’s most important yet least visible industries. 

Subsea telecommunications cables carry more than 99% of intercontinental digital communications, enabling everything from financial transactions and cloud computing to international communications and global trade. Behind this infrastructure is a highly skilled workforce working both offshore and onshore, requiring a diverse skillset including mariners, engineers, technicians, environmental specialists, manufacturers, and project managers. 

Hosted by BT and delivered in partnership with the European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA), the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) and the SubOptic Foundation, the Subsea Cables Summer Reception brought together government, industry and education to explore how awareness of these careers can be increased and how the skills pipeline can be strengthened for the future.   

Opening the event, Baroness Lloyd, Minister for Digital Economy, and Gus Jaspert, Managing Director – Marine at The Crown Estate, highlighted the importance of developing the workforce that will support the UK’s future digital infrastructure. The Minister also met engineers, cable specialists and offshore professionals responsible for laying, repairing and protecting submarine cables, alongside members of ESCA’s NextGen Subgroup—a network of around 120 students and early-career professionals committed to encouraging the next generation into the sector.   

The event showcased the wide variety of careers available across the industry, demonstrating that there is no single route into the sector. Alongside graduate opportunities, speakers highlighted the importance of apprenticeships, vocational training and technical education in developing the workforce needed to support future digital connectivity.   

Baroness Lloyd, Minister for Digital Economy said: 

“Subsea cables are the hidden backbone of our economy and everyday lives, carrying the data that keeps people, businesses and public services connected. Building a resilient future for this critical infrastructure means investing not just in technology, but in the skilled people who install, maintain and protect it - and events like this are vital to inspiring the next generation to take up those opportunities.”

Gus Jaspert, Managing Director – Marine at The Crown Estate said:

“Subsea cables are a critical part of our national life and complex marine ecosystem. However, the infrastructure itself is only part of the story. Our resilience as a nation depends just as much on the people who operate, maintain, and restore these systems – sometimes in very difficult conditions. It is great to come together with partners from across this vital sector to champion their work, and underline the importance of encouraging young people to consider careers that will underpin our resilience and security for future generations.”

John Wrottesley, Executive Director of the European Subsea Cables Association, said:

“Subsea cables often make the headlines, but far less attention is given to the people who build, maintain, repair and protect them. If we want resilient digital infrastructure in the future, we need to invest in the workforce that makes it possible. That starts by inspiring more people to see this as an exciting, rewarding and globally important career.”

As demand for digital connectivity continues to grow, organisations across the subsea cable sector are working together with governments and education providers to raise awareness of the industry and encourage more people to pursue careers that will help underpin the resilience of the global digital economy.

The submarine cable industry is evolving rapidly. Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA 2027

There was some interesting fiber M&A in one of the biggest infrastructure markets in the world the other day. SummitIG has announced the acquisition of Dark Fiber & Infrastructure. SummitIG is majority owned by SDC Capital Partners, while DF&I was part of the portfolio at Blue Owl Capital, and the two both have substantial assets in northern Virginia. … [visit site to read more]

News

The regulator is exploring whether the £2 billion merger between the fibre network players will harm competition

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced it will move directly to the more in-depth Phase 2 of its competition review into the of nexfibre–Netomnia merger.

The decision follows requests from both nexfibre and Netomnia, both of whom are keen to see the process progress as quickly as possible.

“We requested a fast-track to Phase 2 to get to the right answer faster; ensuring due process, while recognising urgency. We look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the CMA,” said Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre. “This deal would create the scaled, sustainable alternative to the BT Openreach monopoly, something the UK market still lacks. Every day of delay reinforces the incumbent’s advantage and slows the progress of genuine competition.”

The £2 billion merger, announced in February, would see InfraVia, Liberty Global, and Telefónica – owners of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) – acquire Substantial Group, the owners of fibre wholesaler Netomnia and ISP brand You Fibre.

Netomnia would be merged with the parties’ existing joint venture, nexfibre, bringing together two fibre networks planned to span a combined 8 million premises by the end of 2027.

This new entity – when considered alongside VMO2’s roughly 5.7 million premises passed with fibre and 10.5 million with legacy hybrid fibre coaxial technology – would create a ‘scaled, financially secure challenger’ to BT (Openreach) and unlock £3.5 billion of investment in the UK market, the companies claim.

The tie up immediately triggered a review from the CMA, with preliminary stages inviting the industry to comment on the deal beginning in April. This was expected to be followed by a Phase 1 review, a process typically taking around 40 days and designed to identify any obvious risks to competition.

Given that the tie-up in question combines two of the biggest players in the market, it seems highly unlikely that the deal would have passed this stage, hence it makes sense for the network operators to ask for an acceleration to the more detailed Phase 2.

The largest point of criticism of the deal comes from the not-insignificant overlap of Netomnia’s fibre footprint and that of nexfibre. According to a report from PointTopic, around 832,000 premises could overlap, leading to “reduced infrastructure-level competition, less aggressive pricing or promotional activity over time, lower pressure for network upgrades and service innovation, and reduced long-term competitive tension between independent fibre builders.”

CityFibre, which had been attempting to acquire Netomnia itself, has argued that the deal will “significantly reduce competition and the choice available to consumers, as well as force hundreds of thousands of Netomnia customers back to VMO2”.

These concerns are unlikely to sink the deal entirely but could prompt remedies from the CMA, including stronger wholesale pricing requirements that will ensure prices are controlled for customers.

“A timely resolution is likely to be important given risks of finance deals dissipating, and even sellers’ heads being turned by alternative offers from CityFibre, although securing the finance to beat the nexfibre offer won’t be an easy feat,” Karen Egan of Enders Analysis noted in a LinkedIn post.

The deadline for the Phase 2 review is mid-December, though discussions about potential remedies could prolong the process.

How is the UK telecoms landscape evolving in 2026? Join the discussion at Connected Britain 2026

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Less than a year after its commercial launch, the BoGuan multimodal large language model (LLM) designed for cultural tourism in China has entered broad application in Xi’an, and is generating real revenues and value for the tourism industry.

As one of the oldest cities in China with a rich cultural heritage, Xi’an is one of the most popular international tourist destinations in China. The city has increasingly turned to digital technologies to enable visitors and scholars to access cultural relics and better engage with the region’s rich history whilst also preserving its history.

Shaanxi Culture Industry Investment Group (SCG) has been working with partners like Huawei, China Telecom Shaanxi, and China West Airport Group (CWAG) to promote digital and intelligent cultural tourism by leveraging advanced technologies like AI and 5G-A to create numerous new services for visitors.

On the AI side of that initiative, SCG and Huawei unveiled the BoGuan LLM in September 2025, billing it as the world’s first commercial multimodal LLM for cultural tourism, as well as China’s first model dedicated specifically to preserve cultural heritage.

Inside BoGuan

The BoGuan LLM is built on intelligent computing infrastructure and a high-quality dataset that includes over 1.2 PB of data – including 31 million images, 4.4 million minutes of video footage, 2.18 million minutes of audio recordings, 510 3D models, and 960 million pieces of structured text.

With that dataset, BoGuan can generate highly-accurate multimodal content, such as museum-quality content about cultural relics. This capability enables it to support creation of new digital relic presentations, digitalization and preservation of traditional craftsmanship, and creation of digital IP for intangible cultural heritage.

BoGuan has also been used to develop a range of cultural tourism apps that unlock the business value of quality cultural tourism data.

For example, BoGuan powers an AI travel companion agent that had been made available to over 4 million users as of March 2026. Visitors can directly talk with this agent on the GO-SHAANXI app to create and adjust their travel itineraries in Xi’an, and get real-time recommendations for performances at various attractions.

Another app created using BoGuan is the Zhiying Camera mini programme – an AI-powered photography service that instantly integrates user photos with AI-generated scenes from history, allowing visitors to « time travel” to ancient times.

The BoGuan LLM has also been used to create digital IP such as the popular cartoon character Tang Biaobiao, which was designed by integrating local cultural heritage elements with the stone carvings of the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum. As a testament of Tang Biaobiao’s popularity, sales of related digital collectibles and creative products have exceeded CNY2 million (almost US$295,000).

Meanwhile, SCG is also using BoGuan to integrate short drama production with cultural tourism and improve production efficiency and quality in Xi’an, which is also arenowned short drama hub.

“Artificial intelligence is not simply a stack of technologies,” said Edric Chu, General Manager of Huawei’s Shaanxi Rep Office. “It has become a key enabler that can activate thousands of years of cultural heritage, reshape travel experiences, and inject new momentum into the industry.”

Powered by 5G-A

All of these BoGuan-powered digital tourism apps for Xi’an are backed by a 5G-A network deployed by China Telecom Shaanxi and Huawei – particularly in Xi’an’s Grand Tang Mall, a ang-style pedestrian street located at the foot of the iconic Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and one of the most popular tourist attractions in China.

The 5G-A network is based on three component carrier (3CC) aggregation technology, delivering peak uplink and downlink rates of 600 Mbps and 3.5 Gbps, respectively – about 10 times faster than regular 5G networks.

As an example of the network’s performance capabilities, during the 2026 May Day “golden week” holiday, the network in the Grand Tang Mall supported concurrent access for 23,000 users, guaranteeing smooth video watching and social media experiences.

This is especially important given that HD live streaming at the Grand Tang Mall has become an important way for the attraction to bring in new visitors, which 5G-A is more than capable of supporting. According to public data, the average user dwell time of these live streams has nearly doubled, while the average transaction value has increased by 62%.

Edric Chu added, “Moving forward, Huawei will continue working with our partners to enhance cultural heritage preservation with digital and intelligent technologies, and stimulate development within the cultural tourism industry.”

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Stephen Douglas, Head of Market Strategy, Spirent, a Keysight company

Most of the energy conversation in our industry right now is about consumption. How much power AI data centers will pull, where the chips go, whether the models can run cheaper. Fair questions. But there’s a quieter shift underneath them that I think matters more for telecom operators, and it has nothing to do with how much energy they use. It’s about energy they could supply. … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

BT Group and Verizon Communications Inc. have announced the signing of an agreement to combine their respective international enterprise operations into a 50:50 joint venture – in a move that is set to transform international connectivity.

The new joint venture will focus on serving multinational organisations. It is expected to serve more than 3,000 customers across more than 180 countries, representing approximately $4 billion in combined annual revenue. This breadth of operations will unlock significant scale efficiencies across the combined global network and service operations following completion.

Designed specifically for a cloud-first world in the age of AI, the joint venture brings together BT International, which serves multinational customers with secure and resilient communication and network services around the world, with Verizon’s international enterprise wireline arm, which provides secure connectivity to enterprises worldwide. Both BT and Verizon will hold equal voting rights and Verizon has agreed to pay BT an equalisation payment of $625 million.

By combining global scale with infrastructure designed and built to support local compliance and sovereignty needs, the joint venture will create a stronger platform for growth and accelerate the rollout of next-generation connectivity platforms. Customers will benefit from secure and resilient connectivity designed to meet data, operational and regulatory requirements.

At the same time, the parent companies will be better able to focus on their domestic markets, while providing support to the new joint venture as equal shareholders.

BT and Verizon have also today confirmed that Martijn Blanken has been appointed Chief Executive Officer-designate of the new joint venture, conditional on the completion of the transaction. Martijn has almost three decades in senior leadership positions across telecommunications, technology and digital infrastructure at Telstra, Openwave Systems, EXA Infrastructure and KPN, and a career spanning four continents. From 01 September he will join BT and will work with both parent companies, while observing relevant regulatory requirements, as they prepare for the launch of the proposed joint venture.

Clive Selley will continue to lead BT International as CEO, ensuring continuity of BT International’s ongoing transformation in readiness for the creation of the joint venture. Verizon’s leadership remains unchanged.

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group, said: “The world’s leading brands and international organisations trust BT International to connect them across the world. Bringing together this expertise and heritage with Verizon’s deep relationships with multinationals will create a stronger, scaled connectivity partner – one that has the reach, innovation and investment to succeed. Customers will benefit from new, secure and resilient connectivity platforms, which are designed for the age of AI and sovereign where it matters. It will create new opportunities for our people and long-term value for our owners. Today’s announcement marks a major milestone for BT International, and an important step forward for BT as a whole, as we deliver on our UK-focused strategy.”

Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon, said: “Our international customers require secure, flexible connectivity that works seamlessly across borders and cloud environments. When we thought about how to best support them, this joint venture was the clear answer: a cutting-edge, AI-ready and secure platform run by a single global organization dedicated to their needs. At the same time, our relationship with those customers will stay equally strong as we continue to directly provide them with the connectivity they need in the U.S.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory clearances and consultation with employee representations in countries where required. BT and Verizon’s international businesses will continue to operate independently until the transaction officially closes with a full commitment to their respective customers.

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Four expansion projects in four parts of the world to catch up with. … [visit site to read more]