What’s up with… Ericsson, Iliad, Skylo

• Ericsson bangs the enterprise 5G drum
• Iliad abandons M&A talks with Telecom Italia
• Skylo adds voice to its non-terrestrial network

In today’s industry news roundup: Ericsson is highlighting the potential for 5G to transform the B2B sector in the coming years, while identifying the high hurdles standing in the way of progress, and has teamed up with some fellow Swedes for some key 6G R&D; Telecom Italia’s shares slump as Iliad CEO confirms the two companies are no longer looking to merge; Skylo is quickly becoming one of the direct-to-device sector’s most innovative players; and much more!

Ericsson has returned to one of its favourite topics, the untapped potential of 5G, in a new paper titled The Next Wave of Mobile Innovation, which suggests that, if all of the pieces of the 5G puzzle come together, the next five years could witness an “intensive period for growth in enterprise 5G-related digitalisation cases through AI, the cloud and 5G standalone [5G SA]/5G-Advanced mobile connectivity”. The challenge, though, is that those puzzle pieces haven’t yet been slotted together very well at any scale (at least, outside of China) and the industry continues to face quite a few challenges before the growth that Ericsson and others would like to see can become a reality. The report’s authors clearly identify the parties that need to be persuaded to do more – and faster. Or, to put it in Ericsson’s lingo, the report “outlines transformative opportunities to several worldwide audiences including policy makers and regulators; communications services providers; governments and enterprises; and connectivity ecosystem partners.” It also identifies the “factors” impacting the potential of 5G to accelerate the digitalisation of the business-to-business (B2B) sector, namely “spectrum allocation for 5G growth; 5G mid-band population coverage; 5G standalone adoption; and network maturity.” 5G SA uptake is still an issue: Citing statistics from the GSA, Ericsson notes that “only 26% of global operators – 163 out of 633 – have invested in standalone (SA) 5G, the architecture that unlocks the full capabilities of the technology. Without SA, operators are leaving value on the table: Automation at scale, ultra-low latency, network slicing and mission critical reliability that industries need to transform their workflows.” The report highlights “multiple examples around the world of innovative 5G-driven successes spanning sectors such as emergency service response, automotive, port operations, mining, healthcare and sports/entertainment,” and is worth a read as a reminder of how 5G can impact these verticals. As for 5G SA, the operators that have taken the plunge are starting to take competitive advantage, something we saw this week from T-Mobile US with its launch of a new mobile service for the enterprise sector called SuperMobile. 

Still with Ericsson… The giant vendor has, it seems, developed a taste for Swedish collaborations. Having teamed up with a group of companies from its homeland to develop a sovereign AI factory, the telecom hardware and software giant is now working with aerospace, defence and security giant Saab (which is also part of the AI factory group), the Gothenburg-based Chalmers University of Technology (a private research facility globally renowned for its work in quantum computing, graphene technologies and AI), and SWeGaN, a semiconductor manufacturer specialising in GaN-on-SiC (gallium nitride on silicon carbide) epitaxial wafers, to “revolutionise GaN-based power amplifier (PA) technology for next-generation 6G networks”, the partners have announced. Their joint efforts are focused on the 7-15 GHz frequency range vital to future 6G applications. Gallium nitride power amplifier devices will be crucial to 6G because GaN’s material properties (including its high power density, high breakdown voltage and high electron mobility), permit the construction of smaller and more energy-efficient components compared to traditional silicon. They enable the creation of powerful, high-capacity wireless systems necessary for the advanced applications of 6G, such as holographic communication and real-time AI. The project is backed (and partially funded) by Vinnova, the Swedish government’s “Agency for Innovation Systems.” Epitaxial wafers are semiconductors with an ultra-thin, highly ordered single-crystal layer grown on top of a base crystal substrate. The additional layer can accommodate specially tailored electrical properties and provides a perfect crystal structure for advanced semiconductor devices.

Iliad is no longer engaged in M&A talks with Telecom Italia (TIM), according to Iliad Group’s CEO, Thomas Reynaud. Reports emerged in February this year that Iliad had held talks with officials from the Italian government’s commerce ministry about the potential of telco consolidation in Italy, where a mobile service price war has been raging between the market’s four main players ever since Iliad entered the market in 2018. The potential of a merger between Iliad Italy and TIM was the particular focus of the discussions. The Italian government, it should be noted, is a stakeholder in Telecom Italia, as it holds a 9.8% stake via state lender CDP (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti). But Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quotes Reynaud as saying, “We have not had any talks with TIM since the beginning of April, and they will not resume,” adding that the prospect of in-country consolidation in Italy “belongs to the past”. Instead, Iliad will concentrate on growing its Italian unit as an independent operation, and it’s been doing pretty well by itself. Iliad has just reported its financial results for the first half of 2025, with Iliad Italy – which has 12.1 million mobile and 400,000 fixed broadband customers – reporting revenues of €603m for the first six months of this year, an increase of 9.2% compared with the same period in 2024. News that the M&A talks have ended disappointed investors and hammered Telecom Italia’s share price, which fell by 6.7% to €0.42 following the report, giving Telecom Italia a market value of just €9.2bn.    

Skylo Technologies, which has developed a cellular standards-based narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) non-terrestrial network (NB-NTN) technology stack to enable devices (smartphones, wearables, IoT modules, vehicles) to switch between terrestrial mobile networks and existing satellites, has completed its first voice calls over its NB-NTN platform. “This breakthrough is powered by the newly developed Skylo Voice Gateway, which utilises advanced, AI-native voice codecs to ensure a high-quality communication experience by optimally balancing data consumption with call quality,” stated Skylo in this announcement. “This milestone for the industry represents a greater than 10x improvement in data usage compared to existing cellular calling and paves the way for mobile network operators (MNOs) to monetise a whole new suite of NTN services as consumers and businesses embrace voice calling over Skylo’s network,” it added. Skylo, which claims to already have 8 million devices connected to its platform, says its “existing regulatory approvals in 36 countries worldwide utilising mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum will speed the way for the rapid roll out of this service.” Skylo partners with satellite operators including Viasat, Echostar, Inmarsat and Terrestar, as well as MNOs, including Deutsche Telekom, O2 Telefónica, KPN, Verizon and SoftBank Corp, which use Skylo to offer connectivity services to their customers, giving the telcos extended reach beyond their own cellular networks. Tarun Gupta, chief product officer and co-founder of Skylo, stated: This milestone is a major breakthrough, enabling MNOs to deliver an expansive set of revenue generating services that their subscribers need and will love. NTN Voice Calling is something no other network can deliver at global commercial scale. The convergence of 3GPP standards-based protocols, AI-powered codecs, deep chipset-level integration, and our commercially available network will unlock a new era of mobile connectivity. We are excited to put the ‘phone’ back in ‘smartphone’ wherever you go.” For more on Skylo, read TelecomTV’s recent article, Satellite comms pioneer Skylo expands its D2D ecosystem.

Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the site of the country’s first quantum secure communications testbed in a commercial setting. The “living lab” facility is provided under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which is the capital’s combined international financial centre and free economic zone that provides a common legal and regulatory ecosystem for global financial and non-financial institutions operating across the UAE. The testbed consists of a proprietary triple node quantum key distribution (QKD) network connecting three locations within the jurisdiction of the ADGM. Quantum devices are deployed at each site. The facility is a joint endeavour between the ADGM Academy, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) – which is the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) – Hub71, which is Abu Dhabi’s technology ecosystem, and ASPIRE, the technology programme management and business development division of the ATRC that concentrates on the creation of future transformative technologies and nurturing them through from original ideas to their eventual commercialisation. The intent is to develop highly secure, completely tamper-proof communications in an era of increasing cyber threats and data privacy incursions.

– The staff, TelecomTV