• Ciena reports 33% ramp in Q1 revenues
• NTT Docomo and SK Telecom offer AI-related updates
• Rakuten Symphony hooks up with Veon operator

In today’s industry news roundup: AI infrastructure investments are helping Ciena to become a $6bn-plus annual turnover vendor; NTT Docomo seeks trialists for its personal AI agent, while SK Telecom pledges support for hundreds of AI startups; Veon’s Beeline Uzbekistan eyes up more than just Open RAN gear from Rakuten Symphony; and much more!

Ciena continues to ride the AI infrastructure investment wave, reporting a 33% year-on-year increase in fiscal first-quarter revenues of $1.43bn and an 83% increase in non-GAAP EBITDA (accounting for one-time items) to $287.3m. It has also raised its full year revenue guidance for the current fiscal year to between $5.9bn and $6.3bn, which would reflect a 28% increase at the midpoint of that range. “We delivered a very strong fiscal first quarter, driven by focused execution and unprecedented, broad-based demand as we enable customers to monetise their AI investments,” stated Ciena’s president and CEO Gary Smith, who will soon celebrate 25 years in the role. “With industry‑leading technology and deep customer relationships, we are well positioned to meet multi‑year demand as AI‑driven networking continues to scale,” he added. But guess what? That full year guidance wasn’t as large as some had hoped and the vendor’s share price dipped by 15.2% to $292.62 in early trading on Thursday. To keep that in perspective though, it’s worth noting that Ciena’s stock has gained more than 350% (that’s not a typo!) compared to this time last year.

Japan’s mobile market leader NTT Docomo has begun recruiting pilot users for a personal AI agent called SyncMe that it plans to launch commercially in the summer, it announced this week (in Japanese) during MWC26. The operator, which has more than 91 million mobile customers, says SyncMe is a digital partner designed to understand each user’s individual values and sensibilities, enabling natural, everyday interactions ranging from casual conversation to personal consultations. 

SK Telecom’s CEO Jung Jai-hun met with 15 startups here at MWC25 this week and said the South Korean operator plans to revitalise the South-east Asian country’s startup ecosystem in the next few years by becoming an AI partner to fledgling companies. The CEO pledged to provide support through various unspecified “methods” for 500 startups over the next five years, starting with 80 this year. SKT has been banging the AI drum loudly in Barcelona this week, unveiling its ‘AI Native’ innovation strategy, a sovereign AI package and a partnership with Schneider Electric and Supermicro to jointly develop “total solutions” for AI datacentres.

Signs at last that Japan’s Rakuten is starting to export not just its networking and cloud software but also the systems that would enable companies to emulate the Rakuten model of combining connectivity with multiple digital apps and services. Rakuten Symphony is working with Beeline Uzbekistan, Veon’s digital operator in Uzbekistan, to establish a “framework to explore collaboration focused on areas including network deployment, optimisation and development, and digital services, leveraging Rakuten’s software stack and platform expertise – proven at scale with over 100 million members in Japan and over 10 million subscribers to Rakuten Mobile.” The collaboration aims to support “the development of Uzbekistan’s fast-growing digital economy, including on Open RAN development, AI-powered network intelligence and next-generation digital platforms,” noted Symphony in this announcement. The vendor is already working with Kyivstar, another Veon Group operator, on the potential deployment of Open RAN technology in Ukraine. 

Still with Rakuten Symphony… It has teamed up with New Delhi-based cloud connectivity specialist Lightstorm to offer integrated cloud and network automation solutions to enterprises, telecom operators and sovereign cloud providers. The partnership combines Lightstorm’s Polarin network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform with the vendor’s Rakuten Cloud-Native Platform and Rakuten Cloud-Native Orchestrator “to simplify cloud deployments and accelerate digital transformation,” noted Rakuten Symphony in this announcement. 

The GSMA has announced new pilot schemes for its Handset Affordability Coalition in six African countries. The industry body signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Africa Group of Six (G6) operators on Tuesday to introduce $40 entry-level 4G smartphones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda later this year. G6 operator members include Airtel Africa, Axian Telecom, Ethio Telecom, MTN, Orange and Vodacom. The GSMA Handset Affordability Coalition brings together mobile operators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), financing institutions and international organisations to lower the cost of entry-level smartphones and boost digital inclusivity.

Still on the topic of connecting the unconnected… United Nations body the ITU says it has received new pledges to its Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, which rallies “commitments from governments, the private sector and civil society for projects and investments that support connectivity and digital inclusion”, taking the total value of commitments to more than $82bn and putting it on course to hit its $100bn target by the end of this year. According to the ITU, 2.2 billion people remain offline around the world, “missing out on opportunities afforded by digital technologies, from education and healthcare to entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence”. New pledges announced during MWC26 in Barcelona include: A $1.715bn investment in datacentres, submarine cables, 5G and next-generation network infrastructure by Saudi operator Mobily (Etihad Etisalat) that “reaffirms its commitment to supporting inclusive global connectivity in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030 aspirations towards becoming a hub connecting east with west”; and a $500m investment in submarine and terrestrial optical fibre infrastructure, “aiming to expand high-capacity connectivity across the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region, strengthening regional and international digital links and supporting inclusive economic growth through resilient, future-ready network infrastructure.”

– The staff, TelecomTV