• Smartphone sales dip by record 22% YOY
• Austria’s MNOs launch API initiative
• Jio IPO set to raise up to $3.2bn

In today’s industry news roundup: Smartphone sales dip by a record 22% compared to last year, marking the highest decline recorded in any quarter, according to IDC; A1, Magenta and Drei team up with the GSMA to launch identity APIs in Austria; Jio Platforms releases its IPO prospectus, with the Indian firm expected to raise up to $3.2bn from the issuance of new shares; and much more!

The number of smartphones shipped during the third quarter of this year dipped by a record 22% year on year to 255.3 million units, “marking the highest YoY decline to date of any quarter as the AI-led memory crisis continue [sic] to disrupt the smartphone market with rapidly escalating component costs to unprecedented levels and strained supply,” according to preliminary data from research firm IDC. “The sharp downturn the industry has been bracing for finally materialised in the third quarter this year, with shipments declining a record 22% YoY. However, the worst is yet to come,” noted IDC’s senior research director for worldwide devices, Nabila Popal. “Current indicators suggest that the market has not yet reached the bottom. Memory costs have surged approximately 350% since last year and are still rising, creating substantial pressure on vendor margins and shipments. While memory inflation is beginning to slow down, with a low double-digit sequential increase in Q3 compared to roughly 50% to 100% sequential growth in prior quarters, costs remain elevated across other critical components as well, compounding the crunch,” added Popal. IDC’s analysis placed Samsung as the market share leader in the third quarter, with 22.6%, just ahead of Apple, with 22.4%.  

Rival research firm Omdia published a similar analysis, estimating that the volume of smartphone shipments in the quarter dipped by 20%. It noted that “persistent memory and storage cost pressures have constrained pricing flexibility and prompted vendors to scale back shipments of low-margin devices”. That trend has “polarised the competitive landscape. Samsung and Apple together accounted for 45% of global shipments, up approximately 8 percentage points from a year earlier. Their relative resilience compared with sharper declines among mass-market-focused competitors indicate that the current downturn is reshaping competitive positions,” noted the Omdia team. 

The three major mobile network operators in Austria – A1, Magenta and Drei – have announced a collaboration with the GSMA Open Gateway project that will see a number of network API services made available in the country. Together, the three operators have launched Number Verification, Sim Swap and KYC Match application programmable interface (API) security services, all of which are based on Camara standards. The launch is aimed at helping banks, e-commerce platforms and other digital service providers in Austria tackle increasing levels of online fraud. The partnership will make it possible for enterprises to securely, quickly and easily verify users’ identities when logging in or carrying out transactions via mobile devices, regardless of their network operator. The services are delivered through partners, including API developers and communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) specialists, all supported by the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, which counts more than 80 mobile operator groups among its members. Henry Calvert, head of networks at the GSMA, said: “Digital scams and fraudulent attacks are a growing problem that, if left unchecked, can cause further harm to mobile users and erode their trust in digital commerce. This is an important collaborative initiative by the Austrian telecom industry, banks and online retailers, using the intelligence of mobile networks to help reduce cybercrime.” 

The long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms, the parent of India’s largest telco Reliance Jio, is set to raise up to 302bn rupees ($3.18bn) from the issuance of 270 million new shares later this month (21-23 October), according to the filing of a new investor prospectus and an announcement of the share price range by Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), of which Jio Platforms is a subsidiary. If the shares sell at the top of the range, Jio Platforms will be valued at $108.3bn, reported Reuters. Up to $2.89bn of the IPO’s proceeds will be used to pay off debts, while the rest will be used for general corporate purposes, including network investments. In July, Jio Platforms reported a 12% year-on-year increase in revenues and a 15.1% increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for its fiscal first quarter that ended 30 June. At the end of August, Reliance Jio had 508.4 million mobile users, giving it a 39.3% market share, just ahead of Bharti Airtel’s 38% market share, according to the latest stats from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Elon Musk has suggested the US government may be behind the restrictions placed on satellite communications services that Ukraine’s government claims impacted its ability to respond to a Russian attack earlier this week. Top Ukrainian officials had pointed the finger at Musk after limits were placed on Starlink’s services in the country on Tuesday, disrupting some of its battlefield missions. Kyiv has relied on the SpaceX-owned satellite service to guide drones, which protect its skies from Russian attacks, as well as carrying out counter operations. Starlink restricted service capabilities on Tuesday night, which meant that any weapons travelling at speeds of more than 100mph (160km/h) lost connectivity to the network, according to the BBC. In a post on X, the social media network he also owns, Musk said that Starshield, which is the military-grade sister network to Starlink, is controlled by the US government and “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military.” It comes amid a row over US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russia’s ability to sell diesel fuel. The row over Starlink is a reminder of why sovereignty has become a key talking point across telecoms in the past 18 months. Reports suggest the Starlink service has now been fully restored.

Belgian cable operator Telenet Group has announced CEO John Porter is to step down after 13 years in the role, with Cable and Wireless Panama boss Rocio Lorenzo set to take the helm from 2 November. Porter first joined Telenet’s parent company, Liberty Global, in 1994 heading up Austar: He joined Telenet after the Australian pay-TV firm was sold to Foxtel in 2012. During his tenure, Telenet expanded from being a traditional Flemish cable operator into offering other telecom, media and entertainment services. Porter will remain with Telenet until the end of the year to enable a smooth transition for Spanish-born Lorenzo, who has been a senior vice president at Liberty Latin America since 2021, and has led the firm’s Panama outfit since 2024. In her new role, Lorenzo will report to Stephen van Rooyen who is CEO of the Ziggo Group, the Benelux holding company that Liberty formed earlier this year following the buyout of Vodafone’s 50% stake in Dutch operation VodafoneZiggo.

Vodafone Business has launched a new service with the aim of accelerating the provision of 100Gbit/s and 400Gbit/s data transport connections across Europe to enterprises seeking faster access to datacentre, AI and cloud services. Express Capacity aims to reduce the provisioning time for delivery of high-capacity optical fibre connections from “months” to within 15 days, subject to testing. It means business customers can connect new services much more dynamically, the UK-based operator claims. To achieve this, Vodafone Business is leveraging pre-lit routes linking key digital infrastructure hubs across its European backbone. Strategically pre-provisioned routes between London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Marseille and Milan will link major carrier-neutral datacentres in some of the continent’s most important connectivity corridors, allowing organisations to enter new markets, interconnect datacentres, support sovereign cloud environment and run AI workloads with less delay. Vodafone said it has plans to expand the reach of Express Capacity throughout this year and into 2027, supporting facilities outside of Europe’s traditional datacentre hubs. Oscar Monteagudo, carrier sales and subsea business director at Vodafone Business, said: “The challenge is no longer only capacity but capacity in the right place, available at the right time. Our customers are operating in an environment where infrastructure decisions need to happen faster. Express Capacity has been designed to remove barriers to growth by providing rapid access to scalable, high-capacity connectivity, backed by Vodafone’s extensive European network footprint and carrier expertise.”

Virgin Media O2 has issued a warning that calls and messages related to recruitment scams are on the up in the UK. As part of the operator’s latest quarterly Scam Index, VMO2 revealed that employment-related scams are now among the top 10 experienced by UK consumers – the first time this type of scam had entered the list. Delivery scams remained top, while account suspension scams, government-related scams, and telecom scams had all increased compared with the previous quarter. Texts identified on O2’s network show scammers posing as recruiters offering new roles and opportunities, notably targeting young people at a time when almost one million 16- to 24-year olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training, according to the Office of National Statistics. According to VMO2, nearly a third (29%) of young people say they have fallen for a recruitment scam. Another takeaway from the index is the rise of voice in scams. According to the operator, suspicious calls are overtaking emails as the most frequently used approach, rising from 55% to 61%, while emails fell from 57% to 52% of reported scams. Overall, VMO2 said it has blocked more than 1.4 billion scam messages to date and is using AI to flag more than 80 million nuisance calls to customers a month.

– The staff, TelecomTV