• Gamma Communications agrees £1bn takeover deal
• SEBI gives Reliance clearance for Jio IPO
• Mobily signs automation and rApp MoUs with Ericsson

In today’s industry news roundup: Gamma Communications accepts a £1bn deal to be acquired by private equity firm Epiris; India securities regulator gives Reliance Industries clearance to list Jio Platforms; at Saudi Arabia’s LEAP event, Mobily signs several network automation memorandums of understanding with Ericsson; and much more!

UK-based B2B services specialist Gamma Communications has agreed to be acquired for £1.015bn (1,120 pence per share) by private equity firm Epiris, a price that gives the service provider an enterprise valuation of almost £1.08bn, the operator announced to the London Stock Exchange early on Tuesday morning. The news sent Gamma’s share price up by 0.8% to 1,149 pence, higher than the agreed takeover price. That’s because Epiris isn’t the only one interested in buying Gamma – the operator noted recently that it has also been involved in takeover talks with Dutch buy-out firm Waterland Private Equity Investments, which has until 18 September to table its offer: Clearly Gamma’s shareholders believe (or at least hope) a bigger and better offer is in the works. 

Giant conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has received clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the planned initial public offering (IPO) by its telecom and digital tech division, Jio Platforms, which is now set to list its shares on India’s stock exchanges before the end of this year. The IPO of Jio Platforms, in which RIL holds a 66.4% stake (having sold chunks of the business to tech giants such as Meta and Google a few years ago) is long-awaited and is expected to raise about 370bn rupees ($3.9bn) from the issue of new shares in the division, which boasts India’s leading telco, Reliance Jio, as its main asset. In July, Jio Platforms reported a 12% year-on-year increase in revenues to 459.6bn rupees ($4.84bn) and a 15.1% increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to almost 208.7bn rupees ($2.19bn) for its fiscal first quarter that ended 30 June.    

The LEAP 2026 tech conference is up and running in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and plenty of companies are using the event to provide updates. Saudi Arabian mobile operator Mobily has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ericsson to explore the use of AI technologies in its radio access network (RAN). The MoU focuses on AI-in-RAN software functionalities operating across RAN compute, radio and active antenna systems. The collaboration will also explore centralised AI use cases with enabled rApps running on Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP). Mobily will also sign up to the EIAP ecosystem, which includes more than 100 rApps from over 100 members. The MoU was signed at the LEAP 2026 event in Riyadh and is part of Mobily’s ambitions to deploy autonomous networks in Saudi Arabia. It isn’t the first partnership between the two companies, as they previously signed up to an AI-driven collaboration to support network operations, performance and customer experience during Hajj 2025, which included the trial of the AI-powered 5G Uplink Interference Optimiser rApp to manage network interference.

This was one of a number of announcements made between Mobily and Ericsson at LEAP, with the two companies signing a separate MoU to “advance network operations and optimisation” to support Mobily’s ambition to reach Level 4 network autonomy in some scenarios. Mobily said that making the network more intelligent, automated and responsive will help create a strong foundation for future AI-native apps and advanced digital experiences, including augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), autonomous vehicles and physical AI. The MoU creates a framework for the collaborators to jointly prepare and implement autonomous network use cases through the Ericsson Operations Engine. These will focus on functions including automating operations, self-healing networks, optimisation and energy management. For more on this topic, see TelecomTV’s recent free-to-download report, Network Automation for the AI-Native Telco. The two companies also pledge to explore new ways for Mobily to monetise its existing network. 

Ericsson has revealed that its waste management programme has enabled the collection and recycling of nearly 5,000 metric tonnes of end-of-life telecom equipment in Saudi Arabia. The Swedish vendor first launched its E-Waste Management Program in Saudi in 2008 (then called Product Take-Back). It supports the collection, decommissioning, transportation and recycling of network equipment when it reaches the end of its life. It is part of the Middle Eastern country’s Green Initiative and Vision 2030 and sees equipment collected through Ericsson-approved recyclers that hold the required licences. The scheme, which operates in 180 countries worldwide, is also part of Ericsson’s own ambition to achieve net zero across its value chain by 2040.

As one door shuts, another one opens, as my granny used to say… Having decided (reportedly) to beat a retreat from China, a move that is set to impact thousands of staff and leave the country’s three main telcos with one less international supplier that boasts domestic facilities, Nokia has announced the opening of a new R&D centre, “focused on developing AI-powered network automation software”, in Riyadh. “The centre will create software that enables communications networks to self-configure, self-heal, optimise performance, reduce energy consumption and operate with greater autonomy,” noted Nokia in this announcement. The facility will “specialise in service management and orchestration (SMO), self-organising networks (SON), autopilot and rApps for automation and energy efficiency,” stated Nokia, adding that “its teams will develop AI-driven capabilities for communications service providers and enterprises in Saudi Arabia, while exploring the development of AI-native 6G technologies, and contributing ‘Made in Saudi’ software innovations for Nokia customers worldwide.”

Staying with Nokia, the vendor has partnered with Finnish telco Elisa and Foundation PS to launch a new scheme aimed at strengthening AI skills among primary school children. The initiative, which aims to give pupils a concrete, age-appropriate way to understand AI, how it works and how it impacts the world around them, is aiming to reach approximately 19,000 sixth-grade pupils (aged 11 to 12 years old) in its first year. The programme will launch across four centres this month and leverages an AI learning robot called ‘Bella’, which was originally designed at Nokia Bell Labs and built by finnish company IchiZero. It combines robotics, digital tools and teacher-led activities and has been aligned with Finland’s national education goals through guidance from the Finnish National Agency for Education and Ministry of Education and Culture. It sees the telecoms companies working with non-profit AI research firm Foundation, whose stated aim is to build a strong AI ecosystem in the Nordic country.

DE-CIX has announced a new partnership with Microsoft that will see the German internet exchange offer new georedundant connectivity routes to Microsoft Azure cloud platforms in cities across North America, Europe and Asia. The Azure Express Route Metro connectivity solution offers high availability for sensitive AI workloads and resources in Azure, and is initially being made available at DE-CIX’s carrier and datacentre neutral exchanges in New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Singapore, it noted in a press release. DE-CIX now boasts 20 on-ramps to Azure in 24 cities across the globe, with remote access available through the firm’s global backbone. Azure ExpressRoute Metro enables private, dedicated connectivity between an enterprise’s infrastructure and Azure, meaning DE-CIX customers can establish dual-homed connectivity across separate Azure peering locations within the same city.

– The staff, TelecomTV