An iconic brand has been reborn in the world of subsea cable operators. Global Cloud Xchange has announced that it is rebranding, and will now be known as FLAG. … [visit site to read more]

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (India) has announced plans open a new artificial intelligence (AI)-ready data centre campus in New Town, Kolkata, the primary financial and commercial centre of eastern and northeastern India, in the second quarter of 2025. The planned investment is said to be INR4.5 billion (aboutUS$52.7 million).

Spanning 5.59 acres, the campus is engineered to support the growing demands of AI computing with high-density rack configurations, advanced cooling systems, and a scalable, modular design, according to STT GDC.

It adds that the campus also provides a significant boost to digital infrastructure creation in the eastern part of the country, with a scalable capacity of up to 25MW in terms of overall IT load.

Bimal Khandelwal, chief executive officer (CEO) of STT GDC India, explains: “Our Kolkata campus is specifically designed to support the burgeoning AI ecosystem, from startups developing local language AI models to enterprises deploying large language models.”

The Economic Times news service points out that the Kolkata facility expands STT GDC India’s nationwide footprint to 30 data centres across ten cities with a total IT load capacity of 390 MW.

It adds that its strategic location in New Town’s Silicon Valley positions it as a crucial hub for AI development, serving enterprises, hyperscale cloud service providers, and government organisations.

Lightpath has announced its entry into a new metro fiber market. Backed by a major hyperscaler partner, the infrastructure provider will be building 102 route miles of fiber and conduit in Columbus OH. … [visit site to read more]

News 

T-Mobile and EQT have finalised their joint venture to acquire US fibre provider Lumos, as the operator looks to expand its fixed broadband offering 

The deal, which was announced last April, will see many Lumos customers transition to T-Mobile Fibre, with the mobile operator assuming responsibility for customer experience, service delivery, and marketing.  

Post acquisition, the business will transition to a wholesale model. T-Mobile will take over customer relationships and use its brand to attract new subscribers.  The joint venture will focus on identifying markets, engineering and designing networks, network deployment, and customer installation. 

As part of the acquisition, T-Mobile will invest $950 million in the JV to fuel the expansion of Lumos’s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. 

Lumos currently operates a 7,500-mile fibre network serving around 475,000 homes in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US.

T-Mobile is expected to invest an additional $500 million by 2028, which the joint venture will use to expand its fibre rollout to 3.5 million homes by the end of 2028. Lumos customers will keep their current fibre service, but will gain access to T-Mobile’s support infrastructure, including its retail presence and bundled offerings. 

“T-Mobile is already the fastest-growing broadband provider in America, and expanding into fibre helps us take the next big step in delivering what customers truly want – faster, more reliable internet that simply works,” said Mike Katz, T-Mobile President of Marketing, Strategy and Products in a press release. 

“People deserve better when it comes to their home internet: fewer disruptions, more value, and support that actually feels supportive. We’re excited to welcome Lumos customers to the T-Mobile family and bring them the Un-carrier experience – built around their needs, fuelled by innovation, and focused on making life easier,” he continued. 

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

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Alcatel is planning to restart mobile phone sales in India – or, more accurately perhaps, French technology brand Alcatel, operated independently by China-headquartered TCL Communications under a license from Nokia, is making a comeback in the Indian market.

The brand plans to bring a range of premium smartphones to India, beginning with a model that includes a stylus. It plans to target the mass market.

Importantly this launch seems to be designed to support the aims of the government’s Made in India policy. The smartphones will be made locally, though it’s not clear where the facilities will be sited. There are also plans to establish a pan-India service network to ensure after-sales support.

According to the Economic Times news service, Ansh Rathi, chief operating officer of Alcatel India, says: « By producing our devices within the country, we aim to enhance supply chain efficiency, ensure superior quality, and contribute to India’s growing technology ecosystem.”

India is the world’s second largest smartphone market though not, apparently a fast-growing one. Nevertheless over 150 million shipments every year is a significant number, and one that has already attracted a number of Chinese smartphone brands. India is also receiving a more focused effort from Apple, not yet among the top players, which is now said to be aggressively expanding in India to enter the top five.

The Alcatel announcement follows Acer’s decision last year to sell smartphones through Indkal Technologies. Alcatel started selling mobile phones in India in late 1996, but due to ownership changes was not a part of the smartphone era. It was acquired by Nokia in 2016.

News

The ‘keyless solution’ will allow drivers to access and turn on their vehicle using an app

This week, Vecttor, a subsidiary of Spanish vehicle for hire company Cabify, has announced it will incorporate a new digital key solution from Telefónica Tech and its partner Geotab.

The solution, simply called ‘Keyless’, will allow Vecttor’s drivers to access and turn on their vehicles via the ‘Vecttor Driver’ app, removing the need for a physical key. This, Telefónica Tech explains, will allow Vecttor drivers to share their vehicles more quickly and easily, ‘guaranteeing them a simpler, more comfortable and safer experience, while providing companies with greater flexibility and efficiency in the use of their fleet’.

Use of the app will also provide for extra security by helping to prevent misuse, as well as tracking the real-time location of cars, helping to identify the most efficient drivers.

The deal expands an existing partnership between the three companies, which saw Vecttor implement Geotab’s telematics platform across its fleet back in 2023.

“Technological innovation is fundamental to transform the transport sector and, thanks to the implementation of this solution, it not only improves operational efficiency, but also provides drivers with a smoother and safer experience. The collaboration between Vecttor, Geotab and Telefónica is leading the way towards a more sustainable, innovative and efficient mobility, in line with our commitment to constant improvement,” said Jacobo Domínguez, CEO of Vecttor.

Keyless is compatible with any car model that uses a remotely operated key and is currently being rolled out across Vecttor’s 3,000-strong vehicle fleet in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, and Malaga.

“Vecttor is at the cutting edge of technology and it is a pleasure that they continue to trust in our experience and that of our partner Geotab so that we can accompany them in their digital transformation with solutions, such as ‘Keyless’, that promote more efficient and sustainable driving. This is yet another example of the important role that connectivity plays in generating data that helps make better business decisions,” explained José Manuel Caramés, IoT pre-sales director at Telefónica Tech.

Keep up to date with the latest telecoms news by subscribing to our newsletter, three times weekly to your inbox. 

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News 

Sky has announced 2,000 job cuts across its customer services sector, the Financial Times has reported

The personnel cuts equate to around 7% of the workforce, and would see the closure of three of its ten call centres, Leeds, Sheffield and Stockport call centres, as well as affected operations at its Dunfermline and Newcastle sites. 

The company receives around 25 million customer calls from across Europe each year, which it expects to decrease by a third over the next few years, as customers apparently shift towards AI chatbots and emails. 

A company spokesperson told the FT that its site in Livingston, Scotland will instead receive a multi-million pound investment that will “deliver quicker, simpler and more digital customer service”. 

 The company is seeking to replace “labour intensive “roles with more digital and AI-enabled services, the report read. 

“This is about building a future-ready Sky that continues to put our customers and their needs first,” said a Sky spokesperson. 

“Our customers increasingly want choice, to speak to us on the phone when they need us most and the ease of managing everyday tasks digitally. We’re investing in a new centre of excellence for customer service, alongside cutting-edge digital technology to make our service seamless, reliable, and available 24/7,” they continued. 

Sky says that the implemented changes will “create a faster, smarter and more responsive experience” for customers. 

Keep up to date with the latest telecoms news by subscribing to our newsletter, three times weekly to your inbox. 

Also in the news:
Quickline to extend Yorkshire’s Project Gigabit rollout
‘Adapt or die’: VOX Solutions’ message to telcos in the age of AI
Huawei’s ushers in the AI era with raft of new solutions at MWC 2025

A Japanese consortium is preparing to demonstrate an offshore data center facility aimed at the next generation of AI. By offshore, they mean literally floating in the water. The project is expected to kick off in the fall of this year. … [visit site to read more]

Contributed Article  

At MWC in Barcelona this year, the topic of AI pervaded every aspect of the show. From AI-powered robots to agentic AI assistants, there is no doubt that we are rapidly entering the AI era  

But to make the most of this transformational technology, telco infrastructure will require modernisation. Networks themselves will need to leverage AI to become more automated and efficient, while also powerful enough to handle the unique pressures of merging AI use cases.   

To meet these challenges, Huawei unveiled a vast array of new AI infrastructure products and solutions at its Product & Solution Launch during MWC 2025, with executive team highlighting nine of their most exciting offerings on stage.  

1. AI-Centric Network solution

Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group began the Product & Solution Launch by introducing the AI-Centric Network solution. This is designed to capitalise on AI-driven opportunities. It will use AI to make networks smarter and more efficient. It helps carriers improve connectivity, automate maintenance, and offer better services to users. The solution focuses on four key challenges: 

• All-domain connectivity.With more in-depth collaboration between AI and networks, carriers will be able to optimize resource orchestration for routing, bandwidth, and so on. This will provide intelligent applications with universal network access, ultra-high uplink and downlink, and SLA assurance. 

• Application-oriented O&M.Advances in AI applications will give rise to more complex service scenarios and massively diverse experience requirements. This will necessitate a shift from traditional, resource-oriented network O&M to a more application-oriented approach. Huawei’s Telecom Foundation Model supports predictive and proactive O&M, experience optimization based on application-level awareness, and tailored, more fine-grained operations. Carriers will be able to significantly enhance the efficiency of network O&M while taking user experience to entirely new levels. 

• Enhanced AI-to-X services.At the individual user level, AI-Centric networks can deliver the right experience for different AI scenarios by assigning the exact levels of bandwidth, latency, and reliability needed. At the organizational level, they can break through bottlenecks in capacity and response times configured for person-to-person interactions, evolving networks to support person-to-agent and even agent-to-agent interactivity. And at the societal level, AI-Centric networks will enable ubiquitous connectivity to speed up AI adoption in public services like education and healthcare, providing more inclusive value for communities around the world. 

• Innovative business models. Different experience requirements will give carriers the opportunity to explore new business models that monetise a broader range of metrics. Essentially, AI-Centric networks will allow carriers to go beyond traditional traffic-based monetisation and start monetising experience itself. This will unleash the full potential of connectivity and open up new revenue streams. 

Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group

2. AI-Centric 5.5G solutions for the mobile AI era

Secondly, Cao Ming, Vice President of Huawei and President of Huawei Wireless Solution, took to the stage to discuss the interplay between AI and 5.5G. In the mobile AI era, mobile networks must support the fast expansion of AI applications, addressing three major transformations in the industry. 

• Evolving user experience from conventional downlink-based interactions to AI powered engagements that requires more diverse capabilities. 

• Advancing network O&M with higher levels of automation, from autonomous network (AN) L3 to AN L4 and beyond, to manage the substantial increase of AI traffic. 

• Redefining business models, shifting from traditional traffic-based revenue to experience monetisation. 

The company’s AI-Centric 5.5G portfolio includes three core solutions to help support operators on their mobile AI journey: GigaGear, which enhances network resource scheduling; GreenPulse, which delivers AI-driven energy efficiency across the network; and GainLeap, for improved network service orchestration. 

Cao Ming, Vice President of Huawei and President of Huawei Wireless Solution

3. The industry’s first AI core network

George Gao, President of Huawei Cloud Core Network Product Line, announced the launch of the industry’s first AI Core Network. This network marks a shift from AI-powered to AI-native infrastructure, capable of self-optimisation and self-management.  

The rollout of this new technology will occur in two phases. Firstly, we have the 5G-A Intelligent Core, which integrates AI agents for enhanced network intelligence. This will ultimately make way for the Agentic Core, a fully autonomous system that adapts to real-time service needs. 

George Gao emphasised that operators should consolidate 5G-A Intelligent Core with three types of AI agents and Telco Intelligent Converged Cloud to claim service, experience operation, and O&M entries and monetise intelligence now, and evolve to the Agentic Core gradually. 

George Gao, President of Huawei Cloud Core Network Product Line

4. Building an AI Optical Network (AI ON)

Next, Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, took to the stage to highlight the three defining traits of the AI era: ubiquitous AI applications, computing power, and AI-native technologies. All three of these elements put considerable strain on fixed networks, requiring that they handle data more efficiently and more autonomously. 

In this regard, Chen explains that Huawei’s AI ON solution includes five key features: 

1. Awareness: Networks must identify service types and adapt to bandwidth, latency, and reliability needs.
2. Always On Demand: Real-time, differentiated connectivity that will replace undifferentiated network access.
3. Assurance: Networks will ensure high-quality connectivity, with deterministic latency and zero packet loss, even during network fluctuations.
4. Autonomous O&M: Proactive network management will prevent faults and optimise performance autonomously.
5. AI Native: Full-stack AI integration across all network layers will enhance intelligence and service quality. 

Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line

5. The AI WAN Solution

Just as we are seeing AI playing a crucial role in the evolution of the mobile network, so too is it becoming critical to the evolution of IP networks. Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, revealed how Huawei is incorporating AI into the company’s new AI WAN solution, designed to prepare IP networks for the Net5.5G era. The solution includes building AI directly into the router, while also leveraging AI agents to help improve carriers’ O&M costs. 

The solution features three layers:   

1. AI Routers: Provide real-time flow reporting and advanced security.
2. AI New Connections:Allow flow-level scheduling to meet diverse application needs.
3. AI New Brain: Uses AI agents for simulation, fault diagnosis, and improved O&M efficiency.

In addition to unlocking new AI capabilities, AI WAN can also greatly improve the delivery of traditional services. For example, MTN South Africa saw a 25% increase in data usage after deploying AI WAN for base station management.  

Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line

6. AI-Ready Data Storage

Peter Zhou, President of Huawei Data Storage Product Line, gave a keynote speech about how the rise of AI in various industries is creating huge demand for better data storage and service capabilities. 

Huawei is addressing these challenges with its AI-Ready data storage, which simplifies data management and access, including: 

•  OceanStor Dorado Converged All-Flash Storage and OceanStor A Series High-Performance AI Storage, offering fast and reliable performance for critical workloads like AI training and mobile financial services. 

• OceanStor Pacific All-Flash Scale-Out Storage, which stores twice the data volume with the same space and energy consumption  for large amounts of data from services like live streaming and XR games. 

• OceanProtect All-Flash Backup Storage, which offers five times faster data recovery for critical services and AI application development. 

Zhou also highlighted Huawei’s DCS AI Solution, which provides diverse data storage services and helps carriers develop AI models faster and more efficiently, and FlashEver business model, which contains an evolutionary, flexible architecture and Huawei storage platform services, to maximise customers’ investment.  

Peter Zhou, President of Huawei Data Storage Product Line

7. Huawei ICT Services & Software Enable Digital Intelligence Acceleration

Of course, in the AI era, traditional ICT functions will also need improvement. Bruce Xun, President of Huawei Global Technical Service, introduced five innovative ICT solutions at MWC, aiming to improve network performance, enhance customer experience, and support digital transformation. The solutions include:
1. CO Modernisation Solution: This solution speeds up the modernisation of traditional equipment centres, saving space, energy, and costs, while supporting new services and improved ROI.
2. Intelligent Operations Solution for MBB Cross-domain Service Keepalive: Using AI, this solution helps detect and resolve faults in mobile networks quickly, minimising service disruptions and traffic loss.
3. Mobile Network NPS Improvement:This solution improves user satisfaction by analysing network performance and making precise optimisations to reduce issues that affect users’ experiences.
4. Differentiated Service Experience Monetisation: Huawei’s AI tools analyze tariff performance and optimise network experience, improving the effectiveness of new tariff designs and customer experience.
5. Enhanced Mobile Money: Huawei’s Mobile Money solution expands into micro-finance and digital services, improving credit assessment and supporting over 250 partners to build mobile-based financial services. 

Bruce Xun, President of Huawei Global Technical Service

8. Integrating AI into the Cloud

Alongside the role of AI itself, much of the discussion among telcos at MWC was around how AI was enabling their transition from telcos to techcos. For Bruno Zhang, Huawei Cloud CTO, the key to this transition lies in the effective use of AI in the cloud. 

Speaking on stage, Zhang introduced Huawei’s CloudDC solution, giving carriers access to over 30 global data centres and accelerating the development of AI computing centres. 

In addition, Zhang also highlighted Huawei Cloud’s GaussDB for intelligent databases, DataArts for AI-powered data management, the Cloud Device solution that improves device-cloud integration, and Cloud Media Edge enhances real-time interactive experiences.  

Bruno Zhang, Huawei Cloud CTO

9. Efficient solutions for carriers’ energy infrastructure

Finally, He Bo, President of Huawei Data Center Facility & Critical Power Product Line, discussed the explosion of AI data centre investments that are currently taking place around the world, underpinning the global AI transformation. These new data centres will have far greater infrastructure demands than their predecessors, particularly with regards to energy consumption. 

As such, He introduced two supporting innovations: the Single SitePower architecture and the RAS™ AI data centre construction guideline. These solutions aim to help operators thrive as energy producers and build more efficient ICT facilities in the AI-driven era. 

Single SitePower is an intelligent architecture for telecom site power that integrates power facilities, wireless networks, and power grids. It improves energy efficiency, power availability, and reduces network carbon intensity through advanced technologies and resilient, green, and reliable design features. 

Huawei’s RAS™ guideline addresses the challenges faced by AI data centres: reliability, agility, sustainability, and high-power demand. 

He Bo, President of Huawei Data Centre Facility & Critical Power Product Line

The next steps 

As AI continues to shape the future of technology and telco, infrastructure must evolve to keep pace. Huawei’s latest innovations showcased at MWC 2025 highlight the critical role AI will play in transforming networks, storage, and operations. As the industry moves towards becoming more intelligent, the integration of AI into every layer of telecoms infrastructure will be key to driving sustainable growth and innovation.