What’s up with… M&A in France, Jio’s IPO, AT&T and Ericsson

• Phoenix Towers to acquire 3,700 sites in France
• Rumours swirl of a $6bn IPO for Jio in 2026 
• AT&T and Ericsson boast RAN automation breakthrough

In today’s industry news roundup: Phoenix Towers to bolster its presence in France with acquisition of Bouygues/SFR joint venture; Reliance Industries reportedly aims for smaller than expected IPO for Jio; AT&T has deployed an rApp on its live network using the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform; and more!

Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has entered into exclusive negotiations with Bouygues Telecom and SFR for the potential acquisition of Infracos, a towers joint venture that manages about 3,700 sites “located in medium density areas in France,” PTI has announced. The sites set to be acquired are “underpinned by long-term contracts with Bouygues Telecom and SFR”. No financial details were provided. The acquisition would expand PTI’s portfolio in France, its largest single market, to almost 10,000 sites (including agreed ‘build-to-suit’ deployments). PTI previously acquired almost 2,000 sites in dense urban areas in France from the same two operators in 2023. “This transaction would be a natural and exciting next step in our growth trajectory with strong existing partners in a market where we already have an outstanding local team,” stated Dagan Kasavana, CEO of Phoenix Tower International. “We are extremely proud to strengthen our presence in France and strengthen our relationships with Bouygues Telecom and SFR whereby we are facilitating their 5G rollouts and maintaining best in class service to their customers.” Once this latest acquisition is completed, PTI will own and operate about 33,000 towers across Europe, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The already delayed IPO of India’s Jio Platforms, the fast-growing and profitable digital operations division of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) which boasts India’s leading mobile operator Reliance Jio as its crown jewel, looks set to be smaller than expected, according to Bloomberg. The news agency reports that RIL is trying to persuade the Securities and Exchange Board of India to allow it to float just 5% of Jio’s shares (the usual minimum requirement is 25%). RIL’s argument is that a 5% stake, which would be valued at $6bn, would be as much as investors in India could handle. The market had expected an IPO of Jio stock in 2025, but reports emerged recently that RIL wanted to wait for Jio Platforms to generate higher revenues, build an even bigger telecom subscriber base and further expand its other digital offerings so it can attract an even higher valuation.main operation. As TelecomTV reported recently, in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year (April to June), Jio Platforms generated revenues of 410.5bn Indian rupees ($4.75bn), up by 18.8% year on year, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 181.4bn rupees ($2.1bn), up by 23.9%, and profit after tax of 71.1bn rupees ($823m), up by 24.8%. It ended June with a total telecom services customer base of 498.1 million, including 477 million mobile customers (giving it a mobile market share of just over 40%). 

Ericsson and AT&T have announced that “for the first time, a third-party RAN automation application, an rApp, has successfully performed optimisation activity” on a mobile operator’s live production network. “Powered by the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), the rApp was deployed to optimize AT&T’s live network in July after extensive testing,” the vendor noted in this announcement. No further details about the rApp were provided and Ericsson declined to provide "further details about the rApp (its function or its creator) at this point in time". It’s worth noting, though, that groundbreaking rApp tests involving AT&T and Ericsson were reported in June by Aira Technologies. AT&T is deploying Ericsson’s EIAP, the vendor’s service management and orchestration (SMO) solution that enables the automated management of Open RAN networks and integration of multiple third-party rApps, as part of the $14bn, five-year deal awarded by the US operator to the Swedish vendor in late 2023. 

Like its fellow European telco giant Orange, which reported its second quarter financials earlier this week, Telefónica is running fast to pretty much stand still. The Spanish operator reported group revenues of €8.95bn for the three months from April to June, up by 1.5% year on year on an organic basis (discounting the impact of foreign currency exchange rate changes), while EBITDA came in at €2.92bn, up by 1.2% on an organic basis. The operator ended June with 348.6 million customer engagements, down slightly from a year earlier. Of that total, 117.9 million are post-paid mobile customers (down slightly year on year) and 16.1 million are fibre broadband customers, up 8.4% year on year. Telefónica is gearing up for major changes, though. The operator has been reducing its exposure to Latin American markets for some time already, and this year has struck deals to divest its operations in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay, while just this week reports emerged that Telefónica is in exclusive talks to sell its operations in Mexico to Beyond One, which already owns Virgin Mobile Mexico. Ultimately, the operator expects Brazil (its second largest single market after Spain by revenues) to be its only operation in the region. With that part of the portfolio transformation already underway, CEO Marc Murtra, who took over somewhat unexpectedly in January this year, is now formulating a new company strategy that could also shake things up for the telco in Europe. In April, Murtra announced he had initiated an “ambitious” review of the company, with a new strategy to be revealed later this year. Commenting on Telefónica’s progress during the first half of this year, Murtra noted: “We are progressing and executing on our strategy, with focus on customer, operational and technology excellence. All under a strict financial discipline and industrial rational, and with the aim to create value for all our stakeholders. Our performance in Q2 was in line with the company expectations. We continue to deliver a steady performance, showing resilience and consistency, despite mixed regional dynamics in an uncertain economic context… Looking ahead, we expect to see good momentum in Europe and Brazil. In Hispam, after the latest sales announcements of T. Uruguay and T.Ecuador this quarter, more steps will be taken to reduce our exposure in the region.” The CEO also confirmed that the current “strategic review” will be completed before the end of this year. 

The acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for $14bn may be done and dusted, but the fallout from the deal has resulted in the firing of two senior officials at the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which struck a conditional agreement with the vendors in late June that enabled the purchase to be completed. Reuters reports that two senior officials involved in concluding and signing off the agreement between the DoJ and HPE/Juniper Networks have been fired as a result of an ongoing power struggle between Trump administration factions. Reuters also reports that four Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have called on the federal judge who presided over the merger case to hold a hearing on whether the settlement is in the public interest and investigate whether the vendors hired consultants to lobby the White House in support of the deal and failed to disclose them during the proceedings.  

Wireless and video technology developer InterDigital has struck a new patent licence agreement with Samsung following the conclusion of a lengthy arbitration process. Julia Mattis, interim chief licensing officer at InterDigital, noted in this announcement: “Samsung is one of our longest licensees and I am delighted that we have been able to continue our long-term partnership.” Samsung’s previous license to InterDigital’s portfolio of cellular wireless and video technologies expired at the end of 2022: The two companies announced in January 2023 that they would enter into binding arbitration to determine the final terms of a new agreement.

– The staff, TelecomTV