• Orange, Iliad, Bouygues still in talks for Altice takeover
• Verizon completes $20bn acquisition
• Telefónica CEO talks cybersecurity at Davos

In today’s industry news roundup: France’s four main telcos are back at the M&A table; Verizon has boosted its fibre broadband network reach with the takeover of Frontier Communications; Telefónica Marc Murtra bangs the sovereignty drum by outlining the need for greater cybersecurity capacity and know-how in Europe; and much more!

The French telco trio of Bouygues Telecom, Iliad (Free) and Orange are back at the M&A negotiating table with Altice France, which operates under the brand SFR. In October last year, the trio made a joint bid worth €17bn to acquire Altice France with a view to splitting up the operator’s assets between them, but that bid was instantly rejected, as while Altice France’s owner, billionaire telecom tycoon Patrick Drahi, is keen to sell to reduce his empire’s heavy debt load (pegged at about $50bn), he wants to extract the maximum value from his asset. Now, following “press rumours”, the consortium has issued a joint statement to confirm “ongoing discussions with the Altice Group in connection with a potential transaction to acquire a large part of the telecommunications activities of the Altice Group in France”. The trio added: “Due diligence works have been initiated in early January 2026. The legal and financial terms of the transaction have not yet been agreed upon,” and there is “no certainty” that the current discussions will result in any agreement between the parties. What has been made clear by executives from the consortium in recent months, though, is that this is a process that has a limited window of opportunity if it is to make economic sense to the potential acquirers, so it’s reasonable to expect that a deal will either be struck, or the takeover talks abandoned for good, within the next couple of months. Earlier this month reports suggested that Drahi had reignited his efforts to sell his 50% stake in German fibre broadband network OXG Glasfaser, a move that could raise about €1bn. 

Verizon has completed its $20bn acquisition of fibre broadband access network operator Frontier Communications, a deal that was initially announced in September 2024. Adding Frontier’s network, which reaches 8.8 million premises with fibre infrastructure, expands the reach of Verizon’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to almost 30 million premises in 31 states. It also adds more than 3.3 million broadband subscribers to Verizon’s customer base and, of course, boosts the telco top line – in the nine months to the end of September 2025, Frontier reported sales of $4.6bn and an operating profit of $237m. Verizon marked the completion of the deal with a blog from CEO Dan Schulman, who noted: “We have a rare opportunity to create new value through this combination of extraordinary capabilities and talent. This journey requires dedication, focus and collaboration from every member of our team.” That talent, though, doesn’t include Frontier’s CEO Nick Jeffery, who joined the US operator from Vodafone UK in early 2021, when Frontier was in a parlous state. He clawed Frontier out of bankruptcy, helped it return to growth and helped broker the sale to Verizon – impressive stuff! Now, along with several other Frontier executives, he has stepped down from the company with the closing of the takeover. At the age of 57, he will be in demand, so it’ll be interesting to see where he turns up next.

Telefónica chairman Marc Murtra took to the floor at Davos this week to make an impassioned plea for Europe to boost its strategic sovereignty by developing its own technology solutions. Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum entitled ‘Cyber defenders in the age of AI’, Murtra said that for Europe to have autonomy it needed to start building cybersecurity capacity and know-how. Security is an “integral challenge” he explained. “What we telecom operators do is integrate third-part products and manage the security of our customers. If you don’t have technology, if you don’t have capacity, if you don’t have deep know-how, it is a big problem. If we want to have autonomy, and if we are going into an era of areas of influence, Europe must start building cybersecurity,” he said. While acknowledging that AI can create greater threats and more opportunities for cybercriminals, Murtra also stressed that it is a tool that can be used to combat these threats and to develop preventive defence. “Every vulnerability makes the system stronger,” he added. “In terms of security it is always dangerous to make predictions but if we look five or ten years ahead, I would say things are going to be safer.” Murtra was joined on the panel by: Former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who is now Executive Director for the MIT Media Lab; Check Point Software CEO Nadav Zafrir; and Darktrace CEO Jill Popelka. The call comes at a time when technology companies, telcos and governments worldwide are considering the benefits that might come from building sovereign systems and infrastructure that could protect valuable data. Find out more by watching the highlights from TelecomTV’s inaugural Digital Sovereignty Forum.  

The European Commission’s Digital Networks Act has come in for some stick from industry body the GSM Association (GSMA), which has made it clear, on behalf of its mobile network operator members, that the Act as presented this week is a real let-down. “What was promised as a bold piece of legislation will in its current form not do enough to alter the status quo and will mean Europe continues to fall behind global leaders,” the GSMA noted in this statement. “Aside from far-reaching proposals on radio spectrum policy, it is now clear that many of the reforms originally promised have unfortunately been left on the table, and that the DNA proposal represents regulatory evolution where revolution is required,” noted the GSMA, which added that the Act will add complexity to Europe’s digital sector rather than simplifying it. The body is also not happy that the EC has fudged the so-called ‘fair share’ fees situation, stating that the proposed voluntary conciliation and facilitation mechanism for the network operators and large traffic generators is “unclear” and “falls far short of addressing significant and persistent bargaining power asymmetries. The lack of a more binding conflict resolution mechanism and the missing shift from sector-specific to horizontal regulation perpetuates an unlevel playing field which is detrimental to the telecoms industry and the overall competitiveness of the EU.” 

The decision by the EC to not impose mandatory fair share payments on the big tech players has been welcomed by Simon Dumbleton, CTO for Europe at tech supplier and systems integrator World Wide Technology. “The idea that telcos should charge companies like Netflix or Google (YouTube) simply for delivering content to users always risked creating more problems than it solved. Crucially, mandatory contributions would have severely undermined net neutrality and the core principles of an open internet. Those costs wouldn’t have disappeared – they would almost certainly have been passed on to consumers, limiting access to information and services. Even more concerning, such a move would have raised barriers for startups and smaller players, whilst reinforcing the dominance of the largest platforms. There’s also a fundamental question of necessity as no clear market failure has been demonstrated that justifies this level of intervention. Encouraging innovation, competition and collaboration is a far healthier path forward.”  

Tata Communications has named former Airtel Business India chief Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as CEO and managing director. Lakshminarayanan will succeed AS Lakshminarayanan, the current MD and CEO of the company, who is retiring on 13 April, 2026. Lakshminarayanan brings more than 30 years of international management experience to the Indian firm, having most recently served as MD of ServiceNow India. Prior to this he spent five years at Airtel’s business units, overseeing its enterprise division then its India business unit (BU). Other past roles include a stint at Capillary Technologies and an advisor role at EY. During his time at Airtel, the enterprise BU received the Chairman’s Award for Best BU in FY23, achieving 50% growth over three years and increasing market share from 30% to 33%. Earlier in his career he spent more than 12 years in a variety of roles at Dell Technologies, including as President of Dell India. Lakshminarayanan said: “I thank the Board for its trust in me. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve an institution with such a strong legacy. Together with our leadership teams, I look forward to further building on our customer-centric culture, investing in our people, and executing our strategy with continued focus and discipline.” His appointment is subject to regulatory approvals and will see him follow the footsteps of the retiring AS Lakshminarayanan, who took the reins at Tata Comms in 2019, having previously held the role of CEO at Tata Consultancy Services in Japan. The long-term Tata vet had also spent time in senior roles in the UK and Europe. Tata Communications chairman N. G. Subramaniam noted: "Ganesh’s experience with global businesses, automation, AI, digital transformation, enterprise relationships and large deals will complement Tata Communications’ strategies and augurs well to the growth momentum demonstrated by the company."

– The staff, TelecomTV