What’s up with… Telefónica España, AI glasses, Airtel Money

• Telefónica creates new device division in Spain
• AI glasses shipments grow 127% in H1
• Airtel Money to IPO on London Stock Exchange

In today’s industry news roundup: With device sales on the rise, Telefónica España has created a new division to handle all aspects of the device value chain for the telco’s Spanish operations; Meta is still by far the largest vendor in the emerging AI glasses market, but there are plenty of new entrants, notes Omdia; Airtel Africa’s fintech unit, which has been reporting impressive sales and earnings growth, is to become a listed company in its own right; and much more!

Telefónica España, the domestic operation of telco giant Telefónica, has created a new Hardware and Devices Division within its consumer business. “The new unit will oversee the company’s entire devices, terminals and hardware portfolio under a single leadership structure,” noted the company, with Alberto Ruano, currently general manager of Lenovo for Spain and Portugal, set to join Telefónica on 1 October to head up the division. The new division will manage Telefónica España’s devices business across the entire value chain, including portfolio management, vendor relationships and negotiations, offer design, commercial strategy, logistics, procurement, supply chain operations and financial performance. And there are a lot of products: The operator currently offers more than 800 product references, including smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, televisions, audio and video equipment, gaming consoles, laptops, fitness trackers, and both small and large household appliances. The decision to create the new unit comes “at a time of strong momentum for the business,” noted Telefónica. Between January and August 2026, Telefónica España – which sells products and services using the Movistar brand – sold 900,000 devices, up 10% year on year. “Growth is increasingly being driven beyond smartphones: 42% of all devices sold so far this year belong to non-smartphone categories, six percentage points more than a year ago,” noted the operator. The fastest-growing categories by unit sales being smartwatches (+29%), small and large home appliances (+28%), tablets (+29%) and televisions (+26%). One of the recent initiatives to have helped drive that growth is Movistar Swap, launched in September 2025, which “allows customers to enjoy a device for a monthly fee and, from month 24 in the case of smartphones and month 36 for selected laptops and tablets, choose whether to upgrade to the latest model or continue using their current device. Movistar collects the existing device, delivers the new one and assesses the returned equipment for refurbishment or recycling,” noted the operator. 

With telcos such as Verizon not only keeping an eye on the impact that AI wearable devices will have on their network data traffic flows but also teaming with emerging vendors such as Snap, it’s interesting to note that sales of AI glasses are ramping up at a furious pace. Research firm Omdia notes in this press release that global shipments of AI glasses reached 4.2 million units during the first half of 2026, an increase of 127% compared with the same period a year earlier. Meta is the clear market leader, shipping 3.4 million devices for an 81.3% market share in the first half of 2026, though smaller competitors, such as Shenzhen-based Even Realities (2.4% market share) and other Chinese vendors, including Alibaba (2.1% market share), are starting to have an impact. Qiran Ju, senior analyst at Omdia, noted: “Growth in the AI glasses market in [first half 2026] was driven by Meta’s continued market momentum and a wave of new market entrants from China. Just as critically, vendors have made the value proposition immediately clear to buyers by focusing on hands-free photo and video capture, open-ear audio, and AI assistance within everyday frames.” The analyst added: “Even Realities takes a different frame design from most AI glasses. By removing both the camera and speakers and focusing instead on a slimmer design, a small monochrome display and productivity features, such as real-time transcription, it shows how vendors are exploring different ways to make AI glasses useful in everyday life.”

Airtel Money (aka Airtel Mobile Commerce), which is majority owned by Bharti Airtel subsidiary Airtel Africa, is to list its shares via an IPO process on the London Stock Exchange: The official announcement followed speculation earlier this year that such a move was on the cards. The stock to be floated comprises existing shares currently held by existing investors, so no new shares will be issued: Airtel Money expects about 10% of its total shares will be traded on the London exchange. No pricing details were given, but Reuters (citing the Financial Times) reported that the value of the shares to be listed was believed to be around $800m and that Airtel Money would be valued in the region of $8bn to $9bn. For the 12 months to the end of March 2026 (fiscal year 2026), Airtel Money, which has 53 million users across 13 African countries, generated revenues of $1.346bn, up by 36% year on year, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $676m, up 32%. In the company’s ‘intention to float’ document, Airtel Money CEO Ian Ferrao commented: “In just over a decade, we have grown into one of Africa’s largest fintech platforms, built upon a scalable technology stack and an agent network that delivers essential financial services to approximately 53 million users every month, translating into strong revenue growth and industry-leading margins, delivered by a highly experienced management team. A London listing will underpin our next wave of growth. The opportunity ahead of us is substantial and, importantly, there are many demographic and digital tailwinds within the markets that we serve. Digital transaction volumes across our footprint are forecast to grow around fivefold by 2031, and we can capture this opportunity by accelerating conversion of the growing Airtel Africa telco subscriber base [128.9 million], moving customers onto our app where they transact more often, and by broadening the range of products we offer them.”

SK Telecom has developed digital twin technology in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) to verify the performance and operational feasibility of a quantum cryptographic communication network prior to the network being built. SK Telecom noted in this announcement (in Korean) that once a quantum cryptography network is installed, it is difficult to adjust the deployed elements, such as optical cable length, or change parameters, such as optical loss. In addition, the equipment used for such deployments is expensive, so it is uneconomic to test various setups. But, according to SK Telecom, the digital twin it has created with KISTI has “virtually replicated this entire testing process”, enabling network operators to identify the optimum architecture and settings for the required quantum cryptographic communication network.

Finnish AI cloud developer Verda has raised €163m in its Series B round of funding from a range of investors, including Supermicro. The Helsinki-based company, which says the capital raise makes it Europe’s “latest unicorn”, says the funding will enable it to “accelerate product development across all layers of its AI cloud, from compute capacity to platform services for frontier AI teams in the agentic era” and that it will “invest in areas including inference” and “multiply its compute capacity over the next year”. The company, which recently reached an annualised revenue run rate of $165m, has just opened offices in London and San Francisco, and has plans for further expansion across Europe, the US and Asia. Ruben Bryon, Verda’s founder and CEO, stated: “AI is becoming critical infrastructure across industries, and the next few years are a pivotal window for Europe. Our North Star is to build the first true tech company in Europe, with AI infrastructure as the starting foundation, and to bring down the carbon footprint of compute worldwide. We’re proud of our progress but are a long way from being done.”

Bengaluru, India-based telecom software vendor Subex has landed a five-year, $5m deal to “modernise and future-proof” the Partner Ecosystem Management (PEM) operations of a “major” (but unidentified) mobile network operator in the Asia-Pacific region, the vendor noted in an announcement to investors. According to Subex, “the operator’s wholesale portfolio spans a broad mix of voice, messaging, data, next-generation 5G (SA/NSA) and IoT partnerships, across international, interconnect, MVNO [mobile virtual network operator], and wholesale buy/sell relationships. To bring these diverse lines of business onto a unified, future-ready mediation, billing, routing and settlement platform, the operator has selected Subex.”

Now that it is back under the full ownership of Orange, Spanish telco MásOrange – the name adopted following the merger in 2024 of Orange Spain with MásMovil – is changing its name back to Orange Spain, the operator has announced (in Spanish). “Orange Spain is one of the most recognised brands in our country, and clearly and simply explains the company we are today: The leading operator in the Spanish market in terms of number of customers and satisfaction, with a clear commitment to investment, innovation and the digital development of our country,” stated Meinrad Spenger, CEO of Orange Spain.

– The staff, TelecomTV