What’s up with… D2D in Europe, Verizon & Corning, Mistral

• Euro telco giants mull joint D2D spectrum bid
• Verizon and Corning strike monster fibre supply deal
• French AI leader Mistral raises €3bn from Samsung et al

In today’s industry news roundup: Bloomberg reports that DT, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone are set to join forces to bid for European mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum; Verizon has struck a multibillion-dollar, multiyear fibre product supply deal with Corning; Samsung is among the investors that have pumped €3bn into French AI developer Mistral; and much more!

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone Group are considering a joint bid for European spectrum licences that can enable direct-to-device (D2D) services in the region, according to a report from Bloomberg (subscription required). As it announced in May this year, the European Commission is preparing to reallocate mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum in the 2 GHz band once the current licences (held by US companies Echostar and Viasat) expire in May 2027, with one third of the spectrum to be assigned for government use and be provided by a European operator that will work with Europe’s Iris2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security via Satellite) project, another third allocated to European Union-based new entrants for commercial services (including D2D), and the final third allocated to any operator (including those from outside the EU) for commercial services. The report suggests the four major European operators are considering forming a joint venture that could bid for European MSS licences, but notes that nothing has been agreed and that the telcos have not confirmed any such discussions. As TelecomTV has reported previously, the European operators already have D2D plans and partnerships – Vodafone, for example, is working very closely with AST Spacemobile through their Satellite Connect Europe joint venture and DT is preparing to offer next-generation D2D services in partnership with Starlink Mobile. But as we’ve seen in the US, where the three main telcos are collaborating as well as working with third-party suppliers, such as Starlink and AST Spacemobile, Europe’s operators will likely be keen to have their own licences and develop alternative D2D services to give themselves options and be able to meet any sovereign service demands that may specify such ownership or resource control.  

Verizon and fibre maker Corning have reached a multibillion-dollar agreement for 80+ million miles of high-density optical fibre and connectivity solutions for the period 2027 to 2032. “The multi-use fibre deployment will accelerate broadband expansion for homes and businesses while building the national long-haul backbone required by AI hyperscalers,” noted Verizon in this announcement. Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business, stated: “Securing this volume of fibre allows us to continue building the network of the future at an unprecedented scale. We are deploying a single, converged architecture that unites mobile connectivity and broadband into one seamless experience for millions of families and businesses, while simultaneously building the high-capacity, low-latency backbone AI hyperscalers demand. With Corning as our partner, we are securing the physical foundation of America’s AI economy.” Verizon stressed that the fibre assets serve as the “physical engine for the AI era” as well as supporting the telco’s fixed broadband and enterprise services needs. “Because heavy AI workloads demand near-zero latency and massive throughput, high-density fibre is essential to support the ever-growing scale of large language models (LLMs),” it stated. “Through Verizon’s AI Connect strategy, the company is deploying ultra-dense cables across major long-haul corridors to directly connect datacentres. By expanding this critical interconnectivity, Verizon cements its position as the premier infrastructure partner for the world’s leading AI hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Importantly, these fibre networks also help ensure that AI’s benefits can reach consumers, businesses, schools and communities. Verizon’s single, multi-use architecture addresses this need, seamlessly connecting customers, while advancing the national backbone of technology.” Verizon and Corning have struck many fibre supply deals before, but this is arguably the most important. 

French AI developer Mistral, one of the leading players in Europe’s sovereign AI movement, has raised €3bn in a Series D funding round – “the largest equity fundraising round ever completed by a European technology company” – that values the company at more than €21bn just three years after the company was launched. The funding round was led by Samsung Electronics, which was joined by co-leads Scaleup Europe Fund (managed by EQT) and existing investor PSG Equity. “The round will significantly expand Mistral’s frontier research, which is the foundation underpinning its infrastructure, products and sovereignty,” the company noted. “While allowing Mistral to scale its compute capacity for training powerful models, it will help Mistral expand infrastructure and accelerate its commercial growth and international footprint. The company now operates across 20 countries and supports 125+ global enterprises’ mission-critical AI transformation, including Airbus, ASML, and HSBC,” it added. 

Poste Italiane is clearly concerned that the shareholders of Telecom Italia (TIM) are not going to accept its takeover offer by the deadline of 11 September, as it has increased its offer to include more cash as part of the deal, according to Forbes Italy. We reported earlier this week that Telecom Italia’s CEO and his executive team had tendered their shares to support the acquisition, seemingly in an effort to encourage other shareholders to do so. But with only about 6.2% of the telco’s stock currently set to be tendered, Poste Italiane has increased its offer to comprise 0.218 of newly issued Poste Italiane ordinary shares plus €1.97 in cash (a 30 euro cents improvement from the original offer) for each Telecom Italia share: Currently that is equal to a stock and cash offer of €7.83 for each share, which would put Poste Italiane’s outlay at €11.3bn if it was to acquire all the shares it doesn’t currently own. The news sent Telecom Italia’s share price up by more than 3% to €7.72 on the Milan stock exchange during trading on Tuesday. Poste Italiane has now also pledged to buy any shares tendered – initially it had set a threshold of 66.67% of all shares to be tendered before it would buy any of the tendered stock – and will reopen its share acquisition offer for the week of 21-25 September. Will Poste Italiane be the majority shareholder of Telecom Italia by the end of this month? We’ll find out soon…

Liberty Global has struck a deal to sell the tower assets of its Dutch operation VodafoneZiggo to a consortium of investors comprising DigitalBridge, TD Greystone Infrastructure and L&G for €669m. “Proceeds from the transaction will be used to retire debt across Ziggo Group, the new Benelux telecommunications company that holds Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet,” noted Liberty Global, adding that further asset sale processes are “underway across Ziggo Group as part of Liberty Global’s targeted €1.2bn to €1.4bn of non-core asset disposals to support the intended listing of Ziggo Group in Amsterdam in the middle of 2027.” 

Telstra and Ciena are claiming a world record for a 1.6 Tbit/s data transmission over a single optical wavelength, with the partners boasting they provisioned four 400 gigabit Ethernet client services across 1,100km of the telco’s inter-city Aura transport network, without regeneration, between Sydney and Melbourne. According to the partners, the transmission, which made use of Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme technology and L-band (long band) spectrum on Telstra’s optical network, exceeded the previous record distance by about 50%. Telstra’s digital infrastructure executive, Sandy Cameron, stated: “This trial demonstrates how Telstra’s Aura Network can unlock significantly more capacity by extending beyond the traditional C-band [conventional band] into L-band spectrum. For customers, that means greater scalability and the ability to support growing demand from AI, cloud and data-intensive applications across Australia, both today and into the future.” Ciena has been hitting the headlines recently following its latest financial report and growth forecast. 

The wholesale division of New Zealand operator Spark has partnered with Ciena for the launch of its new dedicated datacentre interconnect (DCI) service that delivers 10G, 100G and 400G interconnect services between regional facilities around Auckland. Spark’s DCI service leverages Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme 1.6Tb/s coherent technology to optimise advanced DCI deployments across metro, regional and longer-distance networks. Spark is also utilising Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite for visibility and management of its network, enabling automated capacity planning, service fulfilment and troubleshooting. More than NZ$10bn (US$5.84bn) is expected to be invested into datacentres in New Zealand over the next decade, with more than 20 new facilities already in the pipeline, on top of the 56 already in operation in the country. Raj Singh, tribe lead at Spark Wholesale, said: “Together, Ciena and Spark Wholesale are creating the high-performance foundations that will help organisations harness AI, accelerate innovation and confidently scale for what’s next.”

– The staff, TelecomTV