• European CIOs embrace cloud repatriation, digital sovereignty
• Amdocs posts $4.53bn revenues, strikes new deals
• LEO operator AST SpaceMobile is feeling confident

In today’s industry news roundup: Europe’s cloud and digital service providers get welcome news from Gartner; Amdocs is still the telecom software sector’s big hitter; low-earth orbit satellite hopeful AST SpaceMobile boasts deals worth more than $1bn; and much more!

This should get the juices flowing at European cloud, datacentre and telco business development teams… Research house Gartner is reporting that, according to the results of a recent survey (with 241 respondents), some 61% of CIOs and IT leaders in western Europe plan to “increase their reliance on local or regional cloud providers” because of geopolitical factors. “Amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, organisations in western Europe are increasingly worried about their digital sovereignty – having their data, operations and technology hosted by foreign cloud providers and relying on foreign cloud infrastructure. Gartner predicts that by 2030, more than 75% of all enterprises outside of the US will have a digital sovereignty strategy, supported by a sovereign cloud strategy,” noted the research firm. The survey also found that 53% of the respondents agreed that geopolitics will restrict their organisation’s future use of global cloud providers, while 44% said geopolitics is already restricting their organisation’s future use of global cloud providers. Regulation is one of the catalysts driving this trend. Rene Buest, a senior director analyst at Gartner, noted: “Many western European organisations can’t run all of their workloads or core systems in a non-European cloud environment. This is either because they are subject to specific regulations, their customers demand it, or they are considered part of a country’s critical infrastructure.” What opportunities does this create for European digital service providers? That’s one of the topics that TelecomTV and guests will be discussing at the inaugural Digital Sovereignty Forum in London on 3 December – that’s going to be a day of interactive, face-to-face discussion not to be missed! 

In related news… Microsoft president Brad Smith has told attendees at the Web Summit in Lisbon that the hyperscaler plans to invest more than $10bn in its AI datacentre infrastructure in Portugal in the coming years and that Microsoft intends to double its datacentre capacity in 16 European countries by 2027. And in a related move, Google announced plans to invest $6.3bn in datacentre infrastructure and associated green energy and training initiatives in Germany, including a new facility in Dietzenbach, over the next four years. For more on the Google announcement, see this press release. 

Telecom software and professional services giant Amdocs has reported revenues of just over $4.53bn for the full fiscal year that ended 30 September, up by 3.1% on a like-for-like basis and at constant currency exchange rates. (Revenues on a reported basis were down 9.4% compared with the previous fiscal year though that decline was due to the “phase out of certain business activities”.) Net profit for the year was almost $568m, up by about 14%. For the current fiscal year that ends next September, Amdocs expects revenues at constant currency exchange rates to increase by between 1% and 5%. As ever, Amdocs accompanies its financial results announcement with a slew of customer contract and engagement announcements, including: A deal to modernise the OSS systems at Vivo, which is Telefónica’s operation in Brazil; an “expanded collaboration” with Telefónica Germany to “deploy new GenAI [generative AI] use cases and extend its billing platform for both consumer and enterprise services for an additional three years”; a multi-year strategic agreement with Telia Finland to “build its next-generation digital business support system (BSS)”; and a contract from US long-distance and metro network operator Lumen Technologies to support the operator’s “cloud transformation by migrating mission-critical BSS applications from on-premises infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP)”, a move that “represents a strategic step in Lumen’s cloud-first strategy, aimed at leveraging public cloud technologies to enhance agility, resiliency and operational efficiency, while establishing a scalable and consumption-based IT foundation for future transformation efforts”. Amdocs also announced extended and expanded deals with Asia-Pacific operators PLDT and Globe Telecom. 

Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator AST SpaceMobile has reported that it has now secured more than $1bn in aggregate contracted revenue commitments from partners, with its 10-year deal with Middle East powerhouse STC Group, under which the telco has committed to a prepayment of $175m, one of the most recent examples of such partner commitments. AST SpaceMobile also recently revealed additional details about its plan to deliver wholesale direct-to-device (D2D) services to telcos across Europe in partnership with Vodafone Group (one of its many investors) and an expanded relationship with Verizon for D2D service delivery in the US. Abel Avellan, founder, chairman and CEO of the satellite company, stated: “AST SpaceMobile continues to lead the direct-to-device, space-based cellular broadband industry” – a claim that would no doubt raise eyebrows at Starlink, broadly recognised as the market leader. “During the past few months, commercial activity has significantly accelerated, demonstrating the robust demand for our solution across the ecosystem. Our definitive commercial agreements with Verizon and STC Group are milestone achievements, representing transformational partnerships stemming from our commercial and network operator partner strategy as we continue to build long-term commercial relationships with industry leaders around the world, which includes agreements with over 50 MNO [mobile network operator] partners [that between them have] nearly 3 billion subscribers globally.”

– The staff, TelecomTV