Xiaomi could reportedly face more heat in India after the country’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) called for a probe into the Chinese manufacturer over its business model and compliance with investment law.

Reuters reported the SFIO released a document recommending authorities look into the movement of funds and whether Xiaomi secured mandatory investment approvals, after India turned the screw on Chinese companies following political tensions in 2020.

Xiaomi is already facing a tax bill in the country and had some banking assets frozen in 2022 for illegal remittances, an allegation it denies.

Reuters reported the government is reviewing the SFIO recommendations and action could be taken.

The SFIO reportedly stated in the document: “The most important part of the proposed investigation should be examination of the beneficial ownership of foreign investors and group entities.”

It added any investigation “should verify whether any direct or indirect beneficial ownership, control or change in control was disclosed and approved as required”.

The SFIO did not specify what it wants investigated. Reuters explained the agency is tasked with looking into corporate fraud, and has the power to arrest and prosecute offenders.

Xiaomi’s smartphone share in India has reduced significantly in recent years.

Counterpoint Research figures indicate the vendor holds fourth-place, with a 13% share.

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Liberty Global agreed to sell towers owned by VodafoneZiggo to an entity owned by funds managed by a trio of companies in a €670 million deal, while revealing more asset sales are on the way.

The transaction, struck with infrastructure specialists DigitalBridge, TD Greystone Infrastructure and L&G, values the Dutch tower assets at 16.2x of their 2025 EBITDA.

Liberty Global has moved quickly since sealing its acquisition to take majority control of VodafoneZiggo early last month, which consequently led to the creation of Ziggo Group.

The holding entity holds Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet.

Through the tower sale, Liberty Global stated it will use the proceeds to retire debt across Ziggo Group, before adding further sales processes are underway.

It is looking to raise €1.2 billion to €1.4 billion from non-core asset disposals to support its intended listing of Ziggo Group in Amsterdam in the middle of 2027.

Mike Fries, chairman and CEO of Liberty Global, said the sale represents an important step towards the listing, as well as creating a platform for long-term value for shareholders and investors “who want to own part of this regional telecoms powerhouse.”.

The tower sale is subject to regulatory approval.

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Europe’s biggest mobile operators reportedly entered discussions to create a consortium that will bid on spectrum suitable for satellite services, with the view of launching joint direct-to-device (D2D) services in the continent.

Bloomberg reported Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica are looking to combine to secure airwaves that the European Union (EU) has earmarked for a European company, as part of a plan to bolster sovereignty and raise competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which dominates the global D2D sector with Starlink.

The EU has indicated it will set rules around the distribution of 2GHz spectrum, reserving a third of the allocation for local companies, a plan which has drawn fire from SpaceX.

As per the EU’s proposal, a satellite operator securing a bulk of the spectrum will have to be majority controlled by a European business, Bloomberg noted.

Vodafone is already notably involved in a satellite joint venture with US-based AST SpaceMobile, designed to offer D2D services. Bloomberg stated the 50-50 ownership of the company would need to be adjusted for Vodafone to be in the running to secure the spectrum.

Current licences for the spectrum are due to expire in 2027.

The EU also plans to reserve a third of the spectrum for the IRIS2 European satellite network, a project led by the European Commission and European Space Agency.

The constellation is being built by a consortium consisting of Hispasat, SES and Eutelsat, offering mainly broadband services with limited D2D capabilities.

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Huawei reportedly emerged as Malaysia’s preferred supplier of AI chips, with serious consideration being given for the Chinese vendor to provide the hardware for a MYR2 billion ($494.3 million) sovereign AI initiative.

Bloomberg reported the country is leaning towards Huawei to drive its AI efforts, in a move which would prove unpopular with the US government but be a significant victory for Chinese AI technology.

Malaysia outlined a digital transformation project in October 2025 involving numerous initiatives including adopting blockchain, quantum computing and AI to give it more control over national data, while pledging to establish itself as an “AI nation by 2030”.

Bloomberg reported Huawei could provide the backbone for the push in what it believes would be the first known instance a foreign government opted for Chinese AI technology over US options.

If Malaysia did push ahead with Huawei’s technology, Bloomberg noted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would effectively be defying US efforts to control global AI infrastructure and warnings not to buy from the vendor.

Malaysia is apparently assessing Huawei’s Ascend 910C product rather than the more advanced Ascend 950, which is limited in production.

The outlet recently reported Huawei is vying to build a data centre for the Egyptian government.

Huawei is racing to catch up to US rivals in the development of AI computing platforms, outlining its roadmap in 2025 and revealing plans to release “the world’s most powerful single system” in the fourth quarter this year.

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O2 Business claimed to be the first operator in the UK to offer satellite services for companies with the launch of a direct-to-device (D2D) offer which extends the reach of its connectivity beyond its mobile network.

It pitched O2 Satellite for Business as helping companies and staff to stay connected in more places across the UK.

O2 Business pointed to government figures showing 526,000 registered businesses in England are based in rural areas, which the operator stated makes providing reliable connectivity beyond the reach of mobile networks critical.

The service initiates automatically when customers move beyond O2 Businesses’ mobile coverage, connecting compatible smartphones without the need for additional satellite hardware or apps.

O2 Business stated the service essentially extends landmass coverage from 89% to 95%, giving “businesses greater confidence that their people can stay connected when working in remote parts of the UK”.

Services on offer include messaging, maps, weather and location share.

It is free on O2 Business Ultimate mobile plans, or £2.50 per month for customers on Plus plans.

O2 Business added it tested the satellite service in “challenging real-world conditions”: it provided 100 compatible phones to crews tackling a recent major wildfire in the county of Derbyshire.

“Businesses increasingly rely on always-on connectivity, but work doesn’t stop where mobile coverage ends,” CEO Jo Bertram said.

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ByteDance is reportedly in the process of developing an AI model which could rival Anthropic’s Mythos system as part of a bid to establish itself as a leader in China’s AI ecosystem.

Financial Times (FT) reported the TikTok owner is in the early stages of training a model with as many as 10 trillion parameters.

This would put ByteDance’s offering ahead of Anthropic’s cutting-edge Mythos and make it three-times larger than Moonshot Kimi K3, the biggest model to come out of China so far.

While Anthropic does not reveal the size of its models, FT reported the most advanced Mythos 5 system has 8 trillion parameters and its Fable 5 about 5 trillion.

ByteDance’s model is apparently being pre-trained, a stage in development which typically takes three-to-six-months. It would then be fine-tuned and released, provided there are no issues.

Chinese companies are showing their hand with regards to AI model development, with Moonshot and Alibaba highlighting releases in recent weeks.

FT added ByteDance invested more aggressively in AI than other Chinese companies, building data centres and attracting talent in the sector.

Founder Zhang Yiming reportedly told staff he wants the team to target “world-leading model capabilities” during an internal meeting last month.

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The European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) named Spain-based Hispasat as the lead contractor for its IRIS2 European satellite network, handing it a budget of more than €1.6 billion.

Owned by Spanish defence company Indra Group, Hispasat has been charged with providing antenna infrastructure, control systems and ground network connectivity for IRIS2.

It will also lead the development of the system’s very low Earth orbit layer, operating at altitudes below 750km. This layer is designed to provide direct connectivity services to mobile devices and for IoT, providing access for European startups and SMEs.

The agreement further guarantees Hispasat access to non-geostationary orbits in regions of high strategic interest, complementing its range of capabilities and geographic coverage.

To that end, Hispasat has committed an investment of up to €600 million in exchange for obtaining “exploitation rights” in regions of high strategic interest and commercial value for the business it already operates through its geostationary fleet.

The award comes following talks between the EC, ESA and SpaceRISE, a satellite consortium formed between Eutelsat, SES and Hispasat.

Luis Mayo, CEO of Hispasat, noted the agreement helps it strengthen its position among the leaders of the European space industry and in its main business areas.

The IRIS2 programme will deploy a network of 330 new LEO satellites and 12 medium earth orbit (MEO) birds, with initial services due to begin in 2030. In total, €15.6 billion will be invested in the project, with €11.6 billion coming from public funds and €4 billion from the SpaceRISE consortium.

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China’s cyberspace agency launched an investigation into products sold in the country by Palo Alto Networks, as the government turns up the heat on US suppliers.

In a short statement, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) explained it had launched a cybersecurity review into the company, as part of its bid to ensure safe and stable operation of critical information infrastructure, prevent risks and vulnerabilities, and safeguard national security.

It did not disclose potential penalties for violations or which products it is looking into.

Palo Alto states on its website it has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Macau. It sells network, cloud and other cybersecurity products in the country, but does not break out individual sales figures for the market.

China’s review comes the same week its commerce ministry barred domestic companies from doing business with seven US entities, while beefing up export controls on the US drone market.

Reuters reported Beijing has said the moves are in response to recent US restrictions impacting the Chinese technology sector, including controls put on the nation’s telecoms operators.

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Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges declared all areas of the business delivered impressive growth in the first half of 2026, highlighting continued momentum in the US and demand for its MagentaTV service in Germany fuelled by the football World Cup.

An earnings statement for Q2 2026 showed group revenue rose 4.4% year-on-year to €29.9 billion, while net profit was up 11.1% to €2.8 billion. The top line growth was driven by a 5.2% increase in the US to €19.6 billion and a 3.5% uplift in Germany to €6.5 billion. T-Mobile US earnings were reported on 23 July.

The rest of Europe rose 1.5% to €3.2 billion, while Systems Solutions was a sour point with revenue declining 13.4% to €998 million.

In Germany, the second quarter “was dominated by the FIFA World Cup”, with the company broadcasting all of the matches on MagentaTV. It said a million new customers signed up to the TV offering, with a large majority opting for its flex rate plans.

The company also pointed to an increase of 161,000 customers for its fibre offering and 218,000 new contract subscribers in mobile.

In Europe, it added 189,000 mobile contract customers, 56,000 broadband net additions and 16,000 across various TV offerings.

The decline in Systems Solutions was put down to low orders, however it still anticipates an overall rise over the full year.

For the full year, the company increased its guidance for free cash flow after leases from €19.8 billion to around €20 billion.

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Global revenue from private mobile networks is estimated to grow from $2.3 billion in 2025 to $22 billion in 2030, according to an STL Partners forecast, with the manufacturing industry vertical leading the way in terms of spending.

In a new report, the research company stated the five-year uplift represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 58%, as the number of private network sites increase from 4,000 by the end of 2025 to more than 40,000 by 2030.

Manufacturing is “by far the largest vertical” and will continue to be so, growing at 59% CAGR on the back of AI-driven automation and Industry 4.0 use cases. Logistics, meanwhile is emerging as a fast grower at a CAGR of 86%, driven by labour shortages and a push into automation.

It also cited growth in utilities and construction, which will move ahead of transport by the end of the decade.

Rosalind Craven, principal analyst at STL, said private networks remain a fast-growing market, but cautioned growth alone will not make success straightforward for vendors and telcos operating in it.

“Enterprises are not buying networks for their own sake; they are solving specific business problems and chasing measurable outcome,” she said. “Private networks can support many of those goals, but success hinges on communicating that value clearly and winning budget priority against competing investments.”

STL said it gathered data from across 15 vertical industry verticals, seven use case groups and nine value chain components across 33 countries for its report.

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Samsung Electronics took the wraps off AI memory technology it stated can deliver eight-times the performance of its previous generation, as the vendor presented its vision on how to address growing demands for compatible infrastructure.

Unveiled at the Future of Memory and Storage 2026 event in Santa Clara, California, the company showcased the first concept models of zHBM and zNAND-O, which it stated represent the next-generation of 3D memory architectures.

It stated zHBM is designed for advanced AI computing, presenting a new architecture which vertically stacks high bandwidth memory directly above AI accelerators, “moving beyond conventional designs in which HBM is positioned alongside the processor”.

Samsung explained a next-generation interface system incorporating zHBM is expected to deliver an eightfold performance uplift over HBM5.

With next-generation wafer bonding technology, it can deliver more than 10-times the memory density of HBM5 while enhancing energy efficiency threefold and reducing thermal resistance by more than half.

It also apparently supports customer-specific designs, enabling customised IP to be integrated into “the interlayer between the memory and AI accelerator to expand memory capacity and enhance accelerator performance”.

The vendor positioned zNAND-O as a high-performance set-up combining high efficiency and low latency which is optimised for edge AI environments and capable of handling related real-time, data-intensive applications.

Finally, it showed off what it stated is the industry’s first V10 BV-NAND architecture featuring new wafer bonding with more than 400 layers capable of increasing storage density by 60% compared with previous generations.

$1 trillion market
Samsung is battling with the likes of SK Hynix and Micron to secure a leading position in the memory market and lucrative data centre contracts from major AI players.

In Q2, Samsung registered another all-time high in overall earnings, driven by memory sales.

Counterpoint Research estimates global semiconductor memory revenue will hit $1 trillion this year compared with $240 billion in 2025, due to demand from AI data centres and constraints on supply.

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French state investment bank Bpifrance sold a 2.5% stake in Orange for approximately €1.1 billion, but maintained its position as the operator’s largest shareholder.

In a statement, the investment bank disclosed it successfully placed 66.5 million shares at a price of €16.57 each, a move made in conjunction with the state.

Following the transaction, it separately holds approximately 7.1% of share capital and 5.9% voting rights.

Acting jointly as the group’s shareholder with the French state, the duo hold a stake of approximately 20.4% and 27% of voting rights. Board representation remains unchanged.

Reuters first reported the French stake was planning to sell a small stake in Orange yesterday (30 July).

“Bpifrance reiterates its support and confidence in the Orange management team and in the strategy pursued within the framework of its Trust the Future plan,” the investment bank added.

Orange CEO Christel Heydemann laid out the five-year strategy in February, focusing priorities on customer growth, AI investment and monetising infrastructure assets.

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Anthropic disclosed it is investigating three instances of its Claude AI models conducting hacks into companies during a testing process, a week after OpenAI revealed a similar incident.

The company explained its Claude models “reached the internet” from within or while interacting with a third-party evaluation environment and then gained access to the real systems of three different organisations.

Anthropic blamed a “misunderstanding” between it and a partner, which resulted in the model being able to access the internet during a cybersecurity testing process.

This then led the model’s search to real systems on the open internet, treating them as part of the exercise.

“Operating under the false belief that all accessible entities were intended to be in-scope for the exercise, Claude compromised the impacted organisations’ infrastructure using basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints,” Anthropic stated.

Anthropic added it did not find or “exploit any complex weaknesses”.

It did not reveal which companies had been attacked.

Review
The company stated the OpenAI incident, in which two models attacked Hugging Face, prompted it to conduct a large-scale retrospective review of its own cybersecurity evaluations.

In particular, it looked for evidence Claude, like the OpenAI models, was able to access “the internet from the testing environments that should have been sealed off”.

It found the breaches after reviewing 141,006 evaluation runs where Claude could have obtained internet access.

The incidents occurred on Claude models Opus 4.7, Mythos 5 and an internal research test model.

“Ultimately, many factors contributed to these incidents, but consistent with a blameless post mortem culture, we’re approaching the fixes as if the responsibility were ours alone,” the company added.

Nvidia this week led the way in the formation of an AI safety coalition in response to the OpenAI incident.

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The European Union (EU) outlined plans to provide €10 billion in funding to build seven AI gigafactories in addition to unlocking €20 billion in private investment for the project.

In its latest push to accelerate Europe’s technological sovereignty and close the gap to the US and China, the EU stated the initiative would expand AI compute capacity and give start-ups, SMEs, industry and others access to infrastructure for training, inference and tuning of advanced frontier AI models.

It explained the gigafactories would be used to combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres.

They will add to Europe’s network of 19 AI gigafactories with the aim of ensuring the continent can develop advanced AI on its own infrastructure in line with EU rules, following standards on data protection, security and ethics.

The first step is a call for tenders, with the EU inviting consortiums or special purpose vehicles bringing companies, public entities, investors and other partners to apply.

It explained the facilities can be established in a single member state, either on one site or across several locations.

They may also include cross-border developments in several member states through distributed AI computing facilities.

Applications will undergo a competitive valuation to select successful projects. The application process closes on 12 November, with successful bidders to be announced in 2027.

Facilities will need to become operational within 18-months of contracts being signed.

Henna Virkkunen, EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission, said “access to the raw scale of computing power within AI gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates”.

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Singtel confirmed it was in discussions over selling a stake in Australian subsidiary Optus following media speculation infrastructure investor Morrison is eyeing a holding in the business.

In a brief announcement, Singtel stated it is in talks with interested parties, but added there is no certainty any transaction would occur.

It pointed to a previous statement indicating a willingness to collaborate with “an Australian minority partner” while reinforcing its commitment to Optus following a series of high-profile network outages which damaged the unit’s reputation.

Singtel’s latest statement appears to be a response to an Australian Financial Review report claiming New Zealand-based investor Morrison had entered a seven-week exclusivity period to acquire a 30% stake in Optus.

The outlet reported Morrison is looking for additional investors to take part in the project, pitching a potential deal as a way to “bring Optus home”.

This week, Morrison struck a deal with Orange to set up a data centre joint venture in France at a cost of around €3 billion.

ACMA probe
Separately, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) commenced court proceedings over an Optus network outage in September 2025 which affected users’ ability to contact emergency services.

ACMA alleges Optus breached two separate legal obligations on 1,005 occasions, failing to: give end users who made emergency calls access to emergency services; and ensure those emergency calls were carried to the relevant termination point.

If found guilty, Optus could be in line to pay a maximum penalty of AUD250,000 ($174,413) per contravention.

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US chip company Marvell Technology committed to invest $250 million in India over the next three years, expanding its facility in Bangalore to drive next-generation technology development.

Marvell stated the pledge coincides with its 20th anniversary in the country, during which it focused on advancing the semiconductor ecosystem and engineering talent.

It established operations in Bangalore in 2006, a site which has since become the company’s second-largest R&D organisation worldwide.

Through the $250 million outlay, Marvell stated it plans to double headcount, scaling up its site in Bangalore and expanding its presence in Hyderabad. It expects the expansion to strengthen its global innovation network, supporting the design and development of advanced semiconductors for AI, cloud and data infrastructure applications.

Navin Bishnoi, VP and India country manager, said the nation plays a critical role in helping Marvell advance infrastructure technologies which power leading global hyperscale companies and cloud providers.

“As we celebrate 20 years in India, we remain committed to expanding R&D investments, strengthening the country’s semiconductor ecosystem and developing the next-generation of technology talent.”

India has made a big push around boosting its semiconductor sector in recent years.

Earlier this month, the government committed to invest around $20 billion to boost chip and smartphone production as part of a long-term goal to become 100% self-reliant.

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Verizon CEO Dan Schulman revealed in the company’s Q2 earnings call it had struck a deal worth more than $1 billion with Google for data centre connectivity, while teasing other agreements will be announced before the end of the year.

Schulman said it will provide dark fibre connectivity for Google’s data centres, before adding it expects to announce other deals which together will be worth “multiple billions of dollars in revenue over the next several years”.

Details about the Google partnership were not disclosed in its second quarter earnings statement.

Over the period, Schulman stated its results provide “clear, compelling evidence” a recent shake-up to its consumer plans “is driving a structural inflection point across our entire business”.

“We are accelerating across our key metrics, achieving a step-change in churn reduction while lowering our customer acquisition and retention costs,” he said, while adding its core connectivity business is gaining momentum and the emergence of AI infrastructure revenue was helping reshape its growth trajectory.

Simplified service plans and a new loyalty rewards programme helped the company draw 184,000 postpaid phone net additions during the quarter, representing the highest gains in the segment in the past five years. Mobile and broadband net additions tallied up to 550,000, up 230,000 year-on-year.

Total revenue was broadly flat at $34.4 billion. Mobility and broadband service revenue hit $23.4 billion, a 2.8% increase, but this was offset by a nearly 20% decline in equipment revenue due to lower upgrade volumes.

Net income dropped 22.9% to $3.9 billion, primarily driven by a $1.8 billion hit in pre-tax special items including a $746 million loss related to its international wireline and managed network services business.

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Indian IT company HCLTech teamed with AI start-up Sarvam to build a data centre in the eastern state of Odisha, tapping increasing demand for the technology and cloud computing.

The project is expected to cost around INR142.6 billion ($1.5 billion), with financial assistance from the government of Odisha, HCLTech stated.

It pitched the data centre as central to boosting sovereign AI and the local developer ecosystem, employing the full-stack of its capabilities with the technology along with Sarvam’s foundation models to tailor services for private and public sector enterprises.

The company stated the data centre would also help to deliver multi-lingual AI-based services in line with calls from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the technology to benefit all citizens.

HCLTech is building its relationship with Sarvam AI after acquiring a 10.5% stake in the business for $150 million.

This month, it struck a $1.1 billion deal with an unnamed European company.

HCLTech CEO and MD C Vijayakumar said the data centre in Odisha is an important milestone in its full stack AI play, explaining the state offers “a progressive policy environment backed by excellent infrastructure”.

In November 2025, rival Tata Consultancy Services also announced plans to develop AI data centres in partnership with private equity company TPG and investing around $2 billion.

HCLTech separately outlined a plan to open a technology centre in the city of Bhubaneswar, also in Odisha.

It intends for the site to be operational by 2028, housing around 5,000 employees.

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T-Mobile US CEO Srini Gopalan (pictured) insisted its second quarter earnings are proof its strategy is working, highlighting the success of customer-focussed initiatives which are leading to a surge in adoption of its premium packages.

Gopalan stated the company’s strategy is simple: “give customers the best network, the best value and the best experience, all in one place.”

“That’s how we eliminate trade-offs for our customers, and that’s what sets us apart, and our results represent another proof point that our strategy is working,” he added.

Since taking on the role in November 2025, Gopalan has changed the reporting structure in results announcements to no longer reveal changes in wireless customer additions.

However, it recorded net account additions of 277,000 in Q2, a 13% decrease year-on-year but up quarterly by 60,000.

Speaking to Reuters, COO Jon Freier stated a push towards more lucrative subscriber plans, which include customer loyalty incentives, unlimited data and device upgrades, is beginning to pay-off.

“We are seeing new customers really kind of adopt our most premium plans at a rate of about 60% of total sales,” he said.

Total sales for the quarter increased 8% to $22.8 billion, with total service revenue up the same amount to just shy of $19 billion. Net income was broadly flat at $3.2 billion, due to the impact of related costs on its UScellular merger.  

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GSMA Intelligence estimated the cost of replacing equipment made by so-called high risk vendors (HRV) from telecoms networks in Europe will cost between €30 billion to €40 billion, based on data from operators representing almost half of the market.

In the study, independently commissioned and sponsored by seven operator groups, GSMA Intelligence put the cost of replacing mobile networks at €16 billion to €22 billion, equating to around €30 to €42 per mobile connection. This is driven by high exposure to HRV equipment and the cost of replacing equipment such as base stations.

Fixed network costs will hit up to €5 billion, representing the costs of fibre terminals, gateways and fixed wireless equipment. Transport networks, which includes optical switches, multiplexers and amplifiers will cost between €9 billion and €12 billion.

The figures cover only direct equipment replacement and exclude write-offs of existing assets, disruption cost, capacity constraints and broader impacts on future investment plans.

Higher prices
GSMA Intelligence further warned excluding HRV’s could reduce competitive pressure, leading to a 24% price increase in mobile network equipment, 19% in fixed network equipment and 10% in transport network equipment.

Higher prices would therefore raise operator investment costs by €8.5 billion between 2027 and 2030, with current budgets for mobile networks set at nearly €42 billion.

The European Commission outlined a proposal making it mandatory to “de-risk” European mobile telecoms networks from high-risk third party suppliers in January, as part of revisions to its Cybersecurity Act.

Over a five year period, it estimated phasing out equipment could lead to annual costs of €3.4 billion to €4.3 billion for operators, while investment in “trusted suppliers” could grow up to €2 billion per year.

Operators Deutsche Telekom, Fastweb, MEO, Orange, Telefonica, United Group and Vodafone Group took part in the GSMA Intelligence study, which was based on limited datasets provided by third parties.

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