What’s up with… Telefónica, ElevenLabs, Orange Business

• Telefónica’s job cuts plan in Spain now tops 6,000 roles
• Liberty Global Ventures invests in voice AI specialist ElevenLabs
• Orange Business adopts sovereign IT strategy

In today’s industry news roundup: Telefónica plans to axe almost a quarter of its entire Spanish workforce as part of its efficiency plans; Liberty Global joins the likes of Deutsche Telekom and KPN in partnering with, and investing in, voice AI developer ElevenLabs; Orange Business is transferring most of its IT estate to French cloud services platform Bleu, in which it is a stakeholder; and much more!

As expected, the proposed headcount reduction numbers at Telefónica, which is implementing a major cost-cutting programme to reduce its annual costs by €3bn per year, have increased from about 5,300 to almost 6,100. Earlier this week, news emerged that the telco had proposed job cuts to the trade unions that would impact the operator’s fixed line, mobile, IT services and pay-TV operations but that further proposals were yet to be unveiled. Now those extra cuts have materialised, with Global Solutions (140 positions to be cut), Telefónica Digital Innovation (233 positions) and Telefónica SA, the central operations of the telco (140 positions) now also affected. According to Catalan newspaper Diari Ara, the total number of jobs in line to be cut is 6,088, almost a quarter of the telco’s Spanish workforce. The news prompted an angry reaction from one of the country’s vice presidents, labour minister Yolanda Díaz, who stated that public money should not be used to lay off staff (a reference to the fact that the Spanish state is the telco’s largest single shareholder with a 10% stake), while her ministry labelled the plan as “indecent”.  

Still with Telefónica… The operator and its wholesale fibre broadband partner Vodafone Spain, now owned by Zegona Communications, have sold a 40% stake in their wholesale FTTP company, Fiberpass, to BNP Paribas-owned AXA IM (Investment Management) Alts. Financial terms were not disclosed but earlier reports had suggested that a 30% stake would be sold for about €600m. The telcos, which had always said they would seek a third-party investor in the joint venture, will see their respective stakes in Fiberpass drop to 55% for Telefónica and 5% for Vodafone Spain. Fiberpass started operations on 1 March this year: Its network reaches about 3.7 million Spanish properties and is currently used to provide commercial services to about 1.4 million end users. Mark Gilligan, head of infrastructure at AXA IM Alts, stated: “We have been growing our digital infrastructure portfolio since we began developing datacentres in Data4 in 2012. We first invested in fibre-to-the-home in 2018 to build XpFibre’s 7 million homes-passed network in France. Today, we are very pleased to add FiberPass to our digital portfolio in Spain, which already encompasses Lyntia Networks. Fibre-to-the-home is central to our digital infrastructure strategy. With increasing household connectivity demands being driven by streaming, remote work and internet of things (IoT) adoption, this is a rare opportunity to scale in one of Europe’s most advanced FTTH markets and within a sector that is estimated to nearly double to $110 billion globally by 2030.”

And yet more Telefónica… The operator reports that, according to a new telco IoT benchmarking report from Transforma Insights, it has “consolidated its position as one of the leading providers of global IoT connectivity”. The research firm states that: “Telefónica continues to occupy a prominent position among the leading communications service providers for another year, thanks in large part to its in-depth industry knowledge, the extensive capabilities of Telefónica Tech and the incorporation of interesting capabilities into its connectivity offering”. Telefónica, which offers its IoT connectivity services through Telefónica Tech, has been “recognised primarily for the robustness of its infrastructure, its Kite managed IoT connectivity platform and its range of advanced solutions for digitally transforming different sectors of activity,” it added. Telefónica ended September with more than 51 million active IoT connections across more than 190 countries worldwide. It says it is the “leader in the Spanish IoT market, exceeding 12 million lines at the end of the third quarter of 2025 after adding 7.6 million new lines in the last 12 months, representing year-on-year growth of 163%, largely due to new use cases linked to mobility, health and the digitalisation of infrastructure in sectors, such as water, gas and industry.”

Liberty Global Ventures, the technology investment arm of Liberty Global, has made an unspecified investment in New York and London-based voice AI developer ElevenLabs, which has models that operate across 70 languages. “For the telecommunications sector, ElevenLabs’ platform creates new opportunities for more intuitive and intelligent customer interactions,” noted Liberty Global. “This includes natural-sounding AI support agents that deliver faster, more human assistance, as well as voice-first interfaces for connected devices and entertainment platforms that make it easier for customers to search and access content.” Existing investors in ElevenLabs, which raised a $180m Series C round of funding at the start of this year, include Sequoia, A16Z and ICONIQ, as well as KPN Ventures and T.Capital, the corporate investment arm of Deutsche Telekom. Rebecca Hunt, a partner at Liberty Global Ventures, stated: “Voice is becoming the next major interface for technology, and ElevenLabs is defining what’s possible in this space. The investment continues our track record of providing early backing for transformational tech infrastructure companies; we are honoured to be backing this category-defining team.” In its blog about the strategic investment, Elevenlabs noted: “Our work together will focus on how voice AI can make everyday interactions with technology feel more natural – especially across telecommunications and entertainment products. Liberty Global is looking at several applications of our technology – from AI-powered customer service agents that offer faster, more human support, to voice interfaces for connected TV and streaming products that make content discovery simple and intuitive. We’re also looking at new ways voice can shape customer communication and marketing.” You can find out more about voice AI developments in a new free-to-download Unthinkable report.  

Only days after the CEO of Orange said that Europe needed to do more to support its own sovereign digital platforms, the giant French telco’s enterprise services division, Orange Business, has announced it is migrating 70% of its IT systems to Bleu, the French cloud services platform that is jointly owned by Orange and Capgemini. The phrase manger à sa propre cuisine springs to mind… “After a thorough analysis of over 400 applications and considering the sensitivity of the data, we chose to adopt a hybrid-cloud strategy,” stated Orange Business in this announcement, noting that some of its more “sensitive” applications and data are migrating to Cloud Avenue, the operator’s private cloud solution, while others are moving to Bleu. “In a context where digitalisation and sovereignty are major strategic challenges, this project goes beyond a simple technical operation,” the telco noted. “It is part of a strategic vision aimed at modernising all our IT systems, integrating more innovation, simplicity and flexibility, while strengthening the security and sovereignty of our data. This migration to Bleu strengthens our expertise and our commitment to support our clients in their own transition to a sovereign cloud. With this unique experience, we will help our clients achieve a faster and smoother operational transition by applying the same level of rigour. We also encourage our partners, including software developers, to engage in this approach. Our goal is to create a trusted ecosystem, strengthening our digital sovereignty,” Orange Business added. Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO of Orange Business, commented: “Our migration to Bleu reflects our commitment to strengthening control over our critical applications while staying at the forefront of technological advancements in the market. We firmly believe that Bleu is today’s most suitable solution to combine performance, innovation and data protection. For our clients, this means a guarantee that their entrusted data will be rigorously protected, and that they will also benefit from our proven expertise in implementing hybrid-cloud projects that integrate Bleu, public cloud and private cloud – helping them optimise timelines and minimise risks.”

Amazon Leo, the new name for Amazon’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, has launched a “new preview program for select enterprise customers to begin testing Amazon Leo services ahead of a wider commercial rollout next year”, the operator has announced. “Amazon Leo represents a massive opportunity for businesses operating in challenging environments,” stated Chris Weber, VP of consumer and enterprise business for Amazon Leo. “From our satellite and network design to our portfolio of high-performance phased array antennas, we’ve designed Amazon Leo to meet the needs of some of the most complex business and government customers out there, and we’re excited to provide them with the tools they need to transform their operations, no matter where they are in the world."

– The staff, TelecomTV