• AT&T offloads its Mexican unit for $2bn
• Orange forms European subsea joint venture
• Qualcomm and Arm both claim courtroom victory

In today’s industry news roundup: AT&T is selling its operations in Mexico as it doubles down on its domestic market; Orange is part of a new European subsea network joint venture that is partially funded by the EU; chip giants both claim the high ground after court ruling; and much more!

AT&T is selling its operations in Mexico to Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings for $2bn in cash as it continues to focus its efforts on developing AI-ready and AI-native networks and services in the US, where it has just announced the formation of a joint venture to expand its fibre broadband coverage. AT&T’s chairman and CEO, John Stankey, noted: “We have articulated a strong belief that the AI future will run on converged networks with dense fibre assets. This move positions AT&T Mexico to participate in that evolution and is consistent with our long-term strategy to focus our capital allocation on opportunities for growth in the vibrant US market.” AT&T Mexico has about 23.4 million mobile customers, making it the second-largest mobile operator in the country behind América Móvil’s Telcel, which has more than 84 million. “AT&T believes that Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings are well positioned to lead AT&T Mexico through its next phase of growth. Grupo Televisa has a strong operating presence in Mexico with its fixed-line broadband business, and Fintech Holdings brings fresh capital, local knowledge, and operational expertise in the Mexican wireless sector,” the telco noted. 

Orange has formed a joint venture with infrastructure investor Equitix and MDM, an Irish developer of subsea cable systems, to build Pisces, a new 3,125km subsea cable that will directly connect Ireland (a hotbed of datacentre activity) with France, Spain and Portugal – see image, below. The cable, which will comprise 16 fibre pairs and is due to be deployed during 2028, will have landing stations in Galway in Ireland, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez in France, Sopelana in Spain (a new facility that will be built by Orange) and Carcavelos in Portugal. It is being built to “address the lack of direct connectivity between Ireland and mainland Europe by providing a high-capacity, open-access and scalable dark fibre strategic link from Ireland’s west coast directly to France, Spain and Portugal,” noted Orange. “Ireland is a major European cloud and datacentre hub for many players, including hyperscalers and AI actors. Pisces will, therefore, enable direct traffic interconnection across datacentres and continental Europe. By increasing capacity and diversifying routes, Pisces will strengthen the resilience of Ireland’s digital infrastructure and its links with European and global networks. This cable will interconnect with existing transatlantic and international systems, enhancing integration of European networks with global partners,” added the telco. Carine Romanetti, a subsea networks veteran, has been appointed CEO of the Pisces Cable System Limited joint venture. The project has a reported total budget of €130.4m, of which €48.4m is coming from the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) pot of cash, according to Submarine Networks. Valérie Cussac, CEO of Orange Wholesale International, noted: “As Europe accelerates its AI ambitions, subsea infrastructure along the Atlantic coast becomes more critical than ever. At Orange, we are convinced that building trusted, high-capacity routes in partnership with like-minded stakeholders is the backbone of Europe’s AI-driven future. Pisces reflects this commitment, connecting Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal to reinforce trust across the continent while powering the AI highways that will support sustainable, inclusive growth for generations to come.” The move is part of a broader effort by Europe’s companies and policymakers to ensure the region’s digital infrastructure scale and security. 

A legal dispute between two of the chip world’s heavyweights, Qualcomm and Arm, has ended with both parties claiming victory after a jury in a Delaware court found that Arm had breached a licensing agreement with Qualcomm and intentionally interfered with Qualcomm’s business relationship with Meta, but awarded Qualcomm damages of just $2. The jury also ruled in favour of Arm on four other claims. Arm issued a statement saying that it is “pleased with the jury’s decision today, finding for Arm on four claims and awarding only one dollar in damages on each of Qualcomm’s other two claims. Despite Qualcomm’s pursuit of this case in an attempt to deprive Arm of billions of dollars under our license agreements, the jury’s verdict confirms that Arm operated in good faith under its technology licence agreement and its award of only two dollars confirms the merit of Arm’s arguments in the case.” Qualcomm, meanwhile, announced that it is “gratified that the jury found Arm breached its long-standing architectural licence agreement with Qualcomm, failed to honour its commitments, and intentionally acted to disrupt Qualcomm’s businesses. Together with Qualcomm’s prior court victory, this outcome further exposes Arm’s broader intentions to harm Qualcomm and its ecosystem. This outcome is a victory for innovation and competition.” The result is likely to lead to more friction between the two companies, rather than be an end to their battles, reckons seasoned tech sector analyst Richard Windsor in his latest Radio Free Mobile blog.  

BT Group’s overseas operation, BT International, which is set to be folded into a $4bn joint venture with US telco Verizon, has expanded its Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform “with a choice of security service edge (SSE) solutions to support multinational customers’ rapid deployment and scaling of AI agents, cloud applications and autonomous digital workflows,” the operator has announced. As organisations adopt AI at scale, traffic patterns across the network are dramatically changing, according to BT International, as “a growing number of users, AI agents, applications and devices are demanding more bandwidth, lower latency and access to multiple clouds from more locations”. As a result, “many CIOs now find that traditional network and security architectures lack the performance, scale, visibility and control needed to support these new demands. By providing optimised connectivity between Global Fabric and SSE solutions from leading vendors Cisco, Fortinet, Netskope and Zscaler, BT International enables customers to select more predictable, high-performance routes for their traffic, improving application responsiveness and delivering the best user experience,” it added. 

Apple has unveiled Apple HomeView, a $299 device for homes that has a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, which can recognise users by their faces and acts as a hub for entertainment, messaging and connectivity, and smart home management. HomeView features Siri AI, an “entirely new version of Siri that’s profoundly more capable and conversational, with broad world knowledge that powers richer music discovery and onscreen awareness. When paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled device, it can also draw on a user’s personal context, such as their calendar, messages, and relevant information across their apps, to provide more helpful, personalised responses,” noted Apple in this announcement. While customers in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the UK and the US can pre-order it from today (with product  availability beginning 13 November), and with other markets to follow, the Apple HomeView “is not available for sale in the European Union, as Siri AI is currently unavailable in iOS in the EU. Apple is working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward,” noted the device giant. Device reviewers, as you’d expect, have already given their verdicts, and it’s fair to say they are variable, from this one that suggests Amazon should be concerned about this new rival, to this one that believes the Apple HomeView has missed the mark and won’t appeal to consumers.  

– The staff, TelecomTV