What’s up with… Global equipment markets, GSMA, Orange

• Broadband and datacentre equipment sales on the up
• GSMA issues D2D satellite guidance
• Orange hits major fibre milestone 

In today’s industry news roundup: Good news for vendors as global broadband access equipment revenues edge up by 1% in Q2, datacentre physical infrastructure (DCPI) sales rise by 18%, and datacentre server and storage components revenues surge by 44%; GSMA releases guidance to governments on spectrum considerations for direct-to-device satellite services; Orange becomes the first operator in Europe to reach 10 million fibre customers; and much more!

The total revenues generated by the global broadband access equipment vendor community increased by 1% to $4.7bn in the second quarter of 2025, according to research firm Dell’Oro Group. “Despite the high level of macroeconomic uncertainty,” fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and fixed wireless access (FWA) operators “remained focused on expanding their subscriber numbers at the expense of cable operators,” noted the research firm. As a result, investment levels in cable broadband equipment are falling, noted Jeff Heynen, VP at Dell’Oro Group. “As a percentage of total broadband equipment spending worldwide, spending on DOCSIS infrastructure and CPE [customer premises equipment] has reached its lowest levels since Dell’Oro began tracking the segment in 1998,” noted the analyst. 

Growing at a much faster pace is the global datacentre physical infrastructure (DCPI) market, where vendor sales grew by 18% year on year in the second quarter to hit $8.9bn, according to Dell’Oro. The DCPI sector comprises unsexy but critical infrastructure elements, such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), thermal management, cabinet power distribution and busway, rack power distribution, IT racks and containment, and related software and services. “This marks the third consecutive quarter of high-teens growth, underscoring the durable demand created by the ongoing AI buildout,” noted the research firm. “Vendors across the spectrum benefitted from the AI surge, from large infrastructure powerhouses like Vertiv to specialised cooling players such as Munters,” added Dell’Oro. “Hyperscalers and colocation providers are scaling capacity at an unprecedented pace, and direct liquid cooling has consolidated as the technology of choice, moving quickly from early adoption to mainstream design,” noted Alex Cordovil, research director at Dell’Oro Group. In fact, investments in direct liquid cooling grew by 156% year on year as it emerged as the “de facto standard for large AI clusters,” the research firm pointed out. Cordovil added: “This is creating a structural uplift across power and cooling architectures that will shape the datacentre landscape for years to come. With AI viewed as existential to competitiveness, we expect datacentre infrastructure growth to remain exceptionally strong through 2026.” 

Faster still is the growth in spending on datacentre server and storage component technology, which grew in value by 44% year on year in the second quarter, driven by the ongoing AI expansion cycle, noted Dell’Oro in this announcement. “The surging demand for accelerators, HBM [high bandwidth memory], and NICs [network interface cards] underpins record expansion across the AI infrastructure stack,” stated the research firm. Baron Fung, senior research director at Dell’Oro Group, noted: “Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra GPUs, along with custom accelerators from Google and Amazon, drove the datacentre IT component market this quarter. This growth also supported higher revenues for HBM, back-end NICs, and Grace Arm CPUs for AI workloads. Custom accelerators are now shipping in volumes comparable to commercial GPUs, although their applications differ across AI and cloud workloads. While overall demand for these general-purpose server components such as CPUs, NICs, memory and storage drivers remains robust, near-term dynamics such as tariff-driven pull-ins and inventory normalisation are affecting revenue patterns,” added Fung.

The GSMA has released new guidance for governments on spectrum regulation to support the rollout of direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services, as the convergence of mobile and satellite industries accelerates – see Economics of D2D satellite lifecycles and replacement strategies. The policy paper outlines regulatory approaches to ensure D2D services can supplement terrestrial mobile networks without causing harmful interference. The GSMA notes that while 57% of the global population is connected to mobile broadband, D2D can help address both the 4% coverage gap and the 39% usage gap, the latter driven by affordability and digital literacy challenges. The paper identifies two spectrum paths for D2D: Using mobile spectrum, which allows standard handsets and requires commercial agreements between mobile network operators and satellite providers; and using mobile satellite service spectrum, which needs specialised chipsets and is currently limited to high-end devices. “Direct-to-device satellite connectivity has the potential to extend the reach of mobile, strengthen resilience and deliver real societal benefits,” said John Giusti, GSMA’s chief regulatory officer. “But without careful and balanced regulation, it risks disrupting the very mobile services that billions of people rely on every day.”

Wavelo – a subsidiary of Tucows, focused on cloud-based software for telecom operators – has launched a new solution called “Free Your Data” aimed at unlocking customer and network data trapped in legacy BSS/OSS systems. The service is designed to help telcos accelerate AI adoption by enabling real-time access to critical data. Legacy systems have long hindered telecom operators’ ability to leverage AI at scale. Wavelo says its solution addresses this problem by converting static application programming interface (API) calls into real-time event streams, allowing CSPs to immediately activate untapped data for AI-driven productivity, automation and service innovation. “AI initiatives are stalling because CSPs can’t feed large volumes of contextual data into AI platforms in real time,” said Justin Reilly, CEO of Wavelo. “With AI now central to productivity and innovation, Wavelo is laser-focused on solving this problem. This is crucial for the industry, as those who can harness their data for AI will gain a significant competitive edge in customer experience and operational efficiency.” The platform’s system-agnostic, event-driven architecture enables modernisation without costly system replacements or operational disruption. Industry analyst John Abraham of Appledore Research added: “Data extraction capabilities represent a critical enabler for operators who need to feed AI platforms with real-time data streams while minimising operational risk.” 

And finally this week, Orange has become the first operator in Europe to reach 10 million fibre customers. This major milestone, in its domestic French market, further solidifies the telco’s position as France’s leading fibre provider. “This is a great testament to the trust our customers place in us every day,” said Jérôme Hénique, CEO of Orange France. “It also highlights the constant efforts of our teams, who work tirelessly across the entire country to offer everyone the best very high-speed internet experience.” The French regulator ARCEP’s latest report on user satisfaction with mobile and internet operators (published in April 2025) ranks Orange number one for subscriber satisfaction regarding fibre network quality. To support its 10 million fibre customers, Orange says it offers specialised technicians and advisors to assist its users, intelligent Wi-Fi technology in its latest boxes and repeaters, and XGS-PON networking to enable fibre speeds of up to 8Gbit/s.

– The staff, TelecomTV