What’s up with… Amazon Leo, AT&T, Nvidia

• Amazon Leo plots D2D constellation
• AT&T to ramp use of quantum computing
• Nvidia forges Open Secure AI Alliance

In today’s industry news roundup: Low-earth orbit satellite operator Amazon Leo has applied to launch a dedicated direct-to-device constellation comprising more than 5,000 satellites; AT&T is to expand its use of D-Wave Quantum’s technology in order to improve its AI-enabled operational efficiency; Nvidia and dozens of other tech firms have formed an alliance to promote the development and use of open source AI; and much more!

Amazon Leo is accelerating its plans to offer satellite-enabled direct-to-device (D2D) services after filing a proposition with the US Federal Communications Commission to launch up to 5,105 new low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Should it be approved, the new constellation will leverage the spectrum Amazon recently bought as part of its $11.6bn acquisition of Globalstar to bring voice, data and messaging services direct to user devices. The deployment will begin in 2028 and see Amazon Leo partner with terrestrial telecom operators to deliver services to the customers of mobile operators: Amazon Leo has previously announced partnerships with the likes of Vodafone and Australia’s National Broadband Network for the services to be offered from its initial satellite constellation, which currently has more than 370 satellites in orbit. As it looks to compete with the likes of Starlink, Amazon Leo’s D2D system will operate alongside its first and second-generation broadband satellites, as well as Globalstar’s HIBLEO and C-3 satellite constellations. The tech giant said it will distribute its D2D satellites across five orbital shells, optimised to reach different parts of the Earth. Three mid-tier shells will provide dense coverage in populated regions, while higher inclination shells will extend to the polar regions. All will communicate with mobile devices using dedicated radio frequencies (L-band and S-band spectrum links).

AT&T is expanding the use of quantum computing technology developed by Palo Alto, California-based D-Wave Quantum, with the telco planning to use the technology “to address complex optimization challenges across its network operations,” the quantum specialist announced. The vendor noted: “AT&T's initial focus is on layering D-Wave's annealing quantum computing technology into the tools that are already powering AT&T’s agentic AI solutions. Agentic tools in AT&T’s network are improving network operations like outage detection and management, reducing customer downtime by 12 million hours in 2025. New quantum capabilities could help increase the benefits of agents in AT&T’s network operations.” D-Waver also noted that, in an early application of its technology, AT&T reduced the “processing time for a network optimization workload from approximately one hour to less than 15 seconds,” and as a result of that gain, the US telco “plans to explore using D-Wave’s quantum computing technology across a broader set of applications, such as outage detection and response, technician routing, network build planning, and traffic management.” Lucus Haugen, director, Data Science, for AT&T’s chief data office, stated: “D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology gives us a new way to approach optimization and high-intensity compute challenges across AT&T’s network operations. The speed we’re seeing with D-Wave challenges what’s currently possible. It has the potential to help us optimize faster, increase efficiency and scale more real-time operations, making quantum a practical tool for advancing how we run and modernize our network.” 

In an effort to counter concerns about the safety and security of AI, Nvidia and dozens of other technology firms and organisations, including Cisco Systems, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM, The Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Red Hat and SK Telecom, have formed the Open Secure AI Alliance, which aims to “develop and share open technologies, techniques and tools to safeguard software and agents in the age of AI.” Nvidia noted in this announcement that “cybersecurity is among the top three beneficiaries of open source software,” so the new alliance, “building on the leadership of the Linux Foundation’s Akrites initiative and OpenSSF community work, will work to remediate and disclose vulnerabilities using open technologies.” (The Linux Foundation shared its views on the formation of the alliance in this blog.) The founders noted that the recent Hugging Face security incident, which saw an OpenAI agent unexpectedly hack AI platform Hugging Face, “delivered a clear reminder: cyber defenders need open, frontier agentic systems for self-defense. When closed AI tools – unable to distinguish attackers from defenders – blocked essential forensic analysis, Hugging Face ran the open-weight GLM 5.2 model on its own infrastructure to analyze more than 17,000 actions and contain the intrusion.” It’s notable that OpenAI, along with other AI giants ANthropic and Google, are not amongst the founders. The move also comes only days after the 21 member countries of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) – including China and the US – signed an AI agreement in support of open source development but also at a time when AI tension is growing between the US and China over the alleged misuse of US models by Chinese developers.  

It’s been a big day for Orange. Not only has the French telco forged a new €3bn French datacentre joint venture, it has also announced encouraging second quarter financial results. Its group revenues for the three months to the end of June increased by 3.5% year on year on a comparable basis to €20.9bn, driven as usual by high growth in its Africa & Middle East operations though also supported by growth in France and the rest of Europe, while group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation after leases (EBITDAaL) increased by 5% to €6.1bn. For the full results and insights, see this Orange announcement.     

UK regulator Ofcom has proposed blocking an Openreach commercial offer and launched a consultation into whether it could harm the UK’s wholesale fibre market. It is the first time the regulator has intervened to block a commercial offer. Openreach, the quasi-autonomous wholesale fixed access network division of BT Group, had launched its "incremental new to Openreach Offer” which applies a monthly discount to ISPs for bringing new full-fibre customers onto its wholesale network. However, Ofcom believes the discount may not be fair and reasonable, as it could harm network competition in the UK’s burgeoning altnet sector. Due to its position as the UK incumbent, Openreach is required to give Ofcom advanced notice before introducing some commercial offers. Ofcom said: "We are concerned that this could undermine sustainable competition. In particular, matching these discounts may not allow competitors to recover their costs, given the low prices they are already offering to all of their customers." The regulator has launched a consultation into the offer – which is one of four submitted by Openreach – seeking industry feedback by 27 August, and plans to announce a final decision by the end of September.

The Angolan government has sold a 15% stake in state-controlled telco Unitel for $329m, with investor demand surpassing supply by over 20%. The IPO, which ran from July 6 to July 24 on the BODIVA stock exchange, saw 7.5 million shares sold for the top price across over 17,000 orders, Reuters reported. Unitel is the country’s largest telecom operator with more than 21 million subscribers. It came into full government ownership in October 2022 after the government seized the 25% stake owned by Vidatel, the company run by Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

– The staff, TelecomTV