• Ericsson expands its production line in India
• Verizon’s postpaid customer losses worse than expected
• SK Telecom suffers data breach

In today’s industry news roundup: Ericsson increases its antenna production in India to boost local supply, exports and global resilience; Verizon’s postpaid phone net losses hit 289,000 in Q1, more than double a year ago; SK Telecom reports malware data breach of SIM-related customer information; and much more!

With ongoing supply chain and tariff uncertainties influencing corporate strategies all over the world, Ericsson has bolstered its international manufacturing capabilities with an expansion of its production line capacity in India. The move will enable the vendor, by as soon as June 2025, to locally generate all of the antenna systems needed by India’s mobile operators and also increase Ericsson’s ability to export to other countries from India. The vendor says it is launching its Ericsson Antenna System production capabilities in the country, where it is a key supplier to all three main telcos (Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea) with local partner VVDN Technologies. The move “adds India to Ericsson’s global manufacturing footprint – which already includes facilities in Mexico, Romania, and China – further diversifying and future-proofing the company’s supply network,” the vendor noted. “Beyond meeting domestic needs, a significant portion of antennas manufactured in India will be exported, establishing the country as a strategic hub within Ericsson’s global supply chain. By bringing product development closer to regional customer realities, Ericsson is accelerating time-to-market and enabling deeper local technology collaboration,” the vendor noted in this announcement. Ericsson’s management team spent much of its recent first-quarter earnings conference call fielding questions from financial analysts about how well it is set up to deal with the global trade turmoil being caused by the current US president’s unpredictable tariff announcements – see Tariff turmoil clouds Ericsson’s outlook.

Verizon suffered a greater-than-expected postpaid mobile phone net loss during the first quarter as rivals extended their cut-price deals into the early months of 2025, resulting in unusually large churn numbers for the US telco. In its first-quarter earnings announcement, Verizon noted that its postpaid phone net losses hit 289,000 during the first three months of 2025, compared with a net loss of 114,000 during the same quarter of 2024. Verizon warned in mid-March that “recent pricing actions” by competitors would impact its first-quarter numbers, but this dip is worse than the financial analyst community had anticipated. The telco’s CEO, Hans Vestberg, attempted to paint a positive picture by noting in his prepared remarks that the operator’s “financial strength is notable considering the dynamic environment, marked by broad macro uncertainties, market volatility, and an evolving global trade landscape. We exited the quarter with positive sales momentum that has continued into April, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our 2025 financial guidance.” Vestberg also noted that Verizon is “monitoring the tariff developments and working closely with our strategic suppliers to effectively manage the potential impacts for our customers and shareholders, as we successfully did during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most importantly, our diverse portfolio of offerings serves all segments of the market and positions us for success in any economic environment.” Verizon reported first-quarter total operating revenues of $33.5bn, up by 1.5% year on year, with mobile services revenues hitting $20.8bn, up by 2.7% year on year. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up by 4% to $12.6bn. Verizon ended March with 115.1 million consumer mobile customers and 30.9 million enterprise mobile customers. In its broadband services line of business, Verizon ended the quarter with 7.3 consumer fixed broadband access customers and 2.9 million consumer fixed wireless access (FWA) customers, plus 459,000 enterprise fixed broadband access customers and just over 1.9 million enterprise FWA customers, giving it a total FWA customer base of more than 4.8 million subscribers: “The company is well positioned to achieve the next milestone of 8 to 9 million fixed wireless access subscribers by 2028,” noted Verizon. The sales and earnings growth and ongoing additions in its FWA customer base weren’t enough to appease investors, as the larger-than-expected postpaid mobile losses sent the telco’s share price down by more than 5.6% to $40.51, not much higher than where the stock began the calendar year.   

SK Telecom has suffered a data breach following a malware attack, the South Korean operator has announced. Late on 19 April, it discovered that “some SIM-related information of SK Telecom customers” had been stolen and reported the breach to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) on 20 April and to the Personal Information Protection Commission on 22 April. The telco says it “immediately deleted the malware after recognising the possibility of a leak, and also isolated the suspected hacking device”, is “investigating the exact cause, scale, and items of the leak” and has strengthened “the security system to prevent recurrence and established customer information protection measures”. For further details, see this announcement (in Korean). 

Vodafone Group, Austria’s A1 Group and Ericsson have established what they describe as “the first successful 5G standalone (5G SA) international roaming connection between two different operator groups”. The trial connection, between Vodafone in Germany and A1 Bulgaria, “aims to enhance the responsiveness and reliability of roaming services for customers, particularly businesses with operations in multiple markets,” noted Vodafone. The partners were able to seamlessly support the data connectivity of a mobile subscriber from A1 Bulgaria, roaming on Vodafone Germany’s 5G SA network using a standard device, and backed up by generally available core network software using the latest 3GPP industry standards. The companies believe this breakthrough is “an important step forward in being able to offer commercial 5G SA roaming, supporting high-quality voice calls and picture messaging, video streaming and fast data services. It also opens the door to new applications like dedicated network slices to control industrial robots and autonomous vehicles at factories and warehouses, as well as simultaneously connecting many AR/VR [augmented/virtual reality] headsets for use at major events, whether in-country or across multiple markets.” Alberto Ripepi, chief network officer at Vodafone Group, stated: “Vodafone Germany was the first operator to launch a commercial 5G SA network in Europe. Now, we are taking our expertise overseas with the world’s first 5G SA roaming demonstration. Ultimately, 5G SA roaming will enhance the customer experience at international events like football championships and provide the same consistent fast connectivity at a company’s warehouses and factories across many markets.” Todor Tashev, senior director of the Competence Delivery Center for the A1 Group at A1 Bulgaria, added: “The world’s first international 5G SA roaming connection between two operator groups is a key technological milestone and we are proud to partner with Vodafone and Ericsson to achieve this. A1 is investing resources and expertise in delivering the best experience to our customers across all A1 Group countries, and the completion of this initial connection is an important step toward providing European citizens and tourists’ [with] high-quality connectivity on the go. We are looking forward to working with our joint teams to bring this capability to subscribers in a live network environment.”

International network operator Colt Technology Services has sold eight datacentres in Europe that were added to its portfolio when it acquired Lumen’s EMEA business in 2023 for $1.8bn. It has sold six facilities (in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich) to NorthC, a datacentre operator that is majority owned by funds managed by DWS Group. Colt will also sell two of its datacentre facilities in London to a UK-based datacentre business that is also owned by funds managed by DWS Group. Financial details were not disclosed. The colocation business of approximately 400 customers will transfer from Colt as part of the deal: The majority of these customers also purchase network products from Colt and will remain Colt customers. Read more. 

– The staff, TelecomTV