What’s up with… CityFibre, e&, Telefónica

• CityFibre reaches connectivity landmark
• Super app plan reversed by e&
• Telefónica’s CEO shares sovereignty insights

In today’s industry news roundup: UK wholesale fibre altnet now has 1 million live connections and passes 5 million UK premises; the plan to develop an ‘everything app’ is seemingly shelved by e&; Telefónica’s CEO bangs the sovereignty drum and calls again for regulatory leeway; and much more!

UK wholesale fibre broadband altnet CityFibre says the number of premises connected to its infrastructure has now topped 1 million, and that its network, which is used by internet service providers (ISPs), such as Sky and Vodafone, to provide high-speed fixed access services to consumers, enterprises, public bodies, mobile operators and other organisations, now passes 5 million UK premises. Its target is to pass 8 million premises within the next few years, a target that may be reached with the help of acquisitions. CityFibre ended 2025 with 848,000 connections, which means it has added another 152,000 during the first five months of this year. For 2025, the company reported a 27% year-on-year increase in full year revenues to £170m and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £29m compared with just £5m in 2024.

In a reversal of its digital lifestyle multi-vertical platform strategy, e& has reduced its stake in super app platform Careem Technologies from 50.03% to 37.53% following the sale of a 12.5% stake for $100m to global ride-hailing giant Uber. It was Uber that originally sold the 50.03% stake in Careem to the Middle East tech and telco giant for $400m in April 2023, when e& had aspirations to develop an “everything app” for its multiple markets in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. But in a corporate announcement issued this week, e& noted that the stake sale “reflects e&’s increased strategic focus on its core businesses and disciplined capital allocation priorities, while maintaining exposure to Careem Technologies and remaining aligned with its future growth trajectory”. However, as part of the deal, e& has the option to require Uber to buy its remaining stake in Careem in the future, while Uber also has a “reciprocal” option that would require e& to sell its stake to Uber.   

Telefónica’s chairman and CEO Marc Murtra has been banging the European digital sovereignty drum in Barcelona at the 2026 Cercle d’Economia meeting during a discussion focused on AI and European technological sovereignty. Murta stated that “no economy is completely independent, but Europe must strengthen its capabilities to reduce excessive dependencies in key technologies,” adding that the region’s telcos play a key role in Europe’s technological development. He reminded the audience that digital infrastructure is an essential element for the deployment of AI and for ensuring that Europe can develop its own technologies in strategic areas, before sharing the view that European strategic autonomy requires combining investment, industrial capacity, innovation, talent and a shared long-term vision. He argued that “building our own technology is the path to defending European values”, while stressing that “technological development not only strengthens the continent’s competitiveness and autonomy but also helps preserve very important values linked to democracy, human dignity and the ability to say what we think”. But, as ever, Murta stressed that regulatory shackles will need to be loosened if the region’s major telecom operators are to attain the muscle and clout to make a difference and act as regional leaders. “We are in an era of scale. If we want to develop technology in Europe, we need to build scale,” noted the CEO, who, like the other heads of Europe’s major telcos, wants the European Commission to relax M&A rules so that the likes of Telefónica can grow through acquisitions that would currently face intense regulatory resistance. He also stressed that “European sovereignty requires simplifying regulation, building our own technology and accepting the risk of failure”, adding that “generating technology not only gives us autonomy, it can also represent very important values linked to democracy, human dignity and freedom.”

Here’s a timely follow-up to our article yesterday about Drivenets and its scalable, disaggregated Ethernet-based networking solution for AI factory facilities/AI datacentres that is now supported by a new $410m round of funding. Research firm Dell’Oro Group notes in this press release that Ethernet switch sales in AI facility networks “more than doubled and accounted for about two-thirds of datacentre switch sales in AI clusters during the first quarter 2026.” Dell’Oro VP and analyst Sameh Boujelbene noted: “The rapid expansion of AI clusters continues to drive strong demand for high-performance back-end networks, with Ethernet maintaining a clear lead despite a rebound in InfiniBand,” which is the proprietary networking solution owned by Nvidia. “InfiniBand sales more than tripled during the quarter, supported by the ramp [up] of 800 Gbit/s switches shipping with Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra platform. However, while greenfield deployments may have contributed to some of this growth, we believe a significant portion of this demand was tied to upgrades of the installed base in brownfield deployments rather than greenfield expansion.” Boujelbene added: “The Ethernet vendor landscape in AI back-end networks remains highly dynamic. Celestica regained the leading position during the quarter, followed closely by Nvidia,” while Arista ranked third and Cisco fourth. “We expect ongoing customer diversification, vendor competition, and the transition to higher speeds to continue driving share shifts in this market,” the analyst added.

The UK has started using Starshield, a version of SpaceX’s Starlink low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications network that boasts enhanced features, including “high-assurance cryptography”, that is designed to “support national security efforts” and is already being used by the US Department of Defense (DoD), reports Reuters. According to the report, which cited sources familiar with the move, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) started running military comms traffic across the Starshield network earlier this year, though the MoD did not overtly confirm that to Reuters. 

Only days after unveiling a flexible Build-A-Plan option for its wireless customers, AT&T has streamlined its fibre broadband contract options and is offering discounts for those who take a converged mobile and broadband package, the US operator has announced. The move marks the latest skirmish in the ongoing marketing battle between the three main US operators – AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon – all of which are seeking to ensure they can get a return on their fibre broadband investments and all of which are facing increasing competitive pressure in the mobile services market from the cable operators and other MVNOs. Verizon CEO Dan Schulman recently came to the not-so-staggering conclusion that his company might have to lavish some love on its user base and “treat people like humans, not like accounts”. 

– The staff, TelecomTV